Good call man, I felt better today but still played on ACR/WSOP instead of live. I just want to make sure I’m clear and wait until probably Sunday or late tomorrow night to play live again like you suggested

Everyone of my posts is an example of unclear writing.

I am alright with spreading the bacteria to other poker players because they have done unto me so many times.

Bless you, you are better men.

given the level of clarity in your prose, it is highly unlikely you are unaware of this essay on prose style.

but just in case, my favorite, from Orwell;

http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/...nglish/e_polit

My cold seems to have peaked this morning. I'm taking today off, but I should be back on the grind tomorrow.

I edit the **** out of my posts. It's best for people not to quote me for at least 30 minutes after my post pops up. They won't be quoting the final draft. Your mod powers allow you to see all my edits in BBV, correct? What a mess that must be. Can you see them in other forums?



When are you taking the Pharmacist Oath? I'm thinking the sooner, the better.

Good stuff. I haven't read it before today. It fits in with the other two pieces I've read: Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. You cut down on your adjectives and adverbs and Latin words and passive verbs and you cut out cliches.

UGH THAT PESKY OATH OF NON-MALEFICENCE

I may have murdered a hand today, only to have the poker gods let me off with a light sentence.

I'll break it down tomorrow, and we'll see how many Sklansky bucks I spilled.

Flamingo and Bally's: 6 hours:
+$30

Here is the victim hand from yesterday.

A weak-tight player UTG opens for $11. He's been at the table for an hour and I haven't seen him open a hand for a raise yet. I have AQ in UTG+1 and I don't feel that I'm ahead of his UTG open range, which is looking to be premium. Instead of 3-betting, I call.

BTN, an okay player, calls with $190 behind, and BB calls with only $18 behind. I cover everyone.

(Pot $45) 4 players.

Flop 5T4

BB checks, UTG checks, I bet $25, BTN raises to $80, BB calls all-in for her last $18, and UTG folds.

(Main Pot $99) (Side Pot $69) 3 players. 1 player is All-in.

JFC, what a headache. I simply cannot crunch numbers for multivariate spots in real time. I try to simplify it. I have as many as 15 outs. Even the most straightforward player will sometimes put in a cheeky raise on the flop; however, given the probability that he actually has the goods, along with the small chance that the two of us may still lose the main pot to the all-in BB, I discount my outs down to 9.

I'm not just calling here. I'm folding or I'm shoving. Shoving might get me some fold equity if BTN is just screwing around. Even if he only has a 5% chance of folding to my shove, that's 5% more than if I just call. Also, if I call and a heart hits the turn, he may shut down.

9 outs twice by the quick 4x estimate gives me 36% equity. I have to put in $50 to call. I take that to mean that I want to see at least $140 left in BTN's stack to make shoving and drawing worthwhile. Is that a sound analysis? It sounds disputable to me, but it's all that I have in the moment.

BTN has $110 left in his stack. I fold.

So let's look at this off the table. I'm not advanced enough to combine side pots and main pots in equilab, so let's ignore the main pot and analyze the side pot.

My original assumption was that BTN would call my shove with a nuttish range, so let's give him that for a start. I won't give him AA or KK on the assumption that he would 3-bet these pre from the BTN.

Let's look at my required equity using a different method. Reset the side pot at $69 and have BTN shove for $110 more. I would need to call $110 to win the side pot of $289 total. For that I would need 38% equity.

Let's see what I had.




44% equity, even vs a nuttish range.

It gets worse. I had the nut flush draw. There's no reason to believe that BTN would not call off with worse flush draws.




46% equity. Eh, that's not that much worse.

Finally, let's assume that I folded a decent equity share in the $99 main pot, and we can conclude that this hand was handslaughtered by my own negligent timidity.

Guilty.

Results:



In retrospect, I should have 3-bet pre. Even vs weak tight players, you don't always have to be ahead of their range to 3-bet, especially if you know how to fold to 4 bets and to navigate through low-SPR spots, which is one of my stronger points.

I may be getting carpal tunnel syndrome from folding so much. I have to change my folding motion, and it's hard to remember to do.

AF can probably give you solid advice on this.

I've seen him play. His s/n is ironic, like an NFL linebacker named Tiny.

Next you'll tell me WN doesn't like Whisky.

...or calling Sammy "Curly".

I have a feeling that Mr. sj is implying I never fold

Damn str8. I paid about $3.50 in rake on ACR for that read.

It's hard to fold when you're holding the nuts!

And AF is always holding nuts.

I'll be working today and tomorrow in order to make up for sick time lost earlier this week, as I'd like to qualify for the Flamingo and Bally's freerolls.

It will be the first Thanksgiving I've worked since my convenience store gig back when I was a youth. For the last few Thanksgivings, more and more retail folks have had to work on this holiday, in order to maximize shareholder value. When I was young, my store was the only store of any kind open in a 20 mile radius of densely populated suburbia.

We did one week's worth of business in a day. Four people stood at registers and rang up four never-shrinking lines of customers from the early morning to midnight, while two other workers furiously ran around restocking shelves and trying to dampen down the whirlwind of disorder. And everyone working there that day was thinking of their families, comfy back at home with bellies full of turkey and stuffing and wine or beer, content to fall asleep while watching the second half of the game where the Detroit Lions get shellacked again.

I'll be interested to see who's at the poker tables on Turkey Day. I can only speculate: maybe foreign travelers, maybe grinders in the same spot as me, maybe people who are so awful that they've been banned for life from every acquaintance's feast table? I'm going to find out and report back here if there's any notable demographic shift.

Tuesday Overnight: Bally's and Flamingo: 7 hours:
$+200

So, now you have had some time, give us a run down of the different casinos you visit regularly. Do you only use some for their free-rolls/bonuses? Which ones are the loosest, or are they all reg infested? Which ones have a good feel about them? Which one won't you go back to?

It's complicated, and there are a lot of moving parts involved. My three main places atm are Orleans, Bally's, and Flamingo. I'll break it down into categories and give you the highest ranked site in each.

Rake:
Orleans.

They have the only $1/$3 game that I play--the others being $1/$2. Orleans takes 10% up to $5. Bally's and the Flamingo take as much as $7.

Promos:
Bally's.

Ignoring the the WSOP credits offer, the freeroll pays $16,500 (before the $10 per runner buyin) for 10 hours of play and gets around 90 runners on average. That adds up to around +$17.33/hour in EV.

It's a bit more complicated than that, in that 10 hours of play gives you a starting stack of $T5500, but every 5 additional hours played gives you more chips in your starting stack. I can't remember how many extra chips you get, but I seriously doubt that each 5 hour chip increase is worth $17.33 x 5 in EV, so no. Not gonna do it.

Actually I'm going to allow myself to be a bit arrogant here and say that my 10 hour $T5500 starting stack probably puts me in the average EV column side by side with the larger average stacks, given my tournament experience over these cash game players.

Additionally, for 4 hours of play, you get a buffet at the Paris worth around $25, so add another $6/hour if you like buffets, which I do. They also pay a $50 high hand every hour. Given that they average around 20 cash players in the room over the course of the day, that adds $2.50/hour.

Number of Regs:
Orleans:

Locals rule the roost at the Orleans. In general they're better players than the average Strip tourists, but only just. Without the promo nits, the games are definitely wilder and splashier, but with fewer bona fide fish doing the splashing, you'll find yourself in more tough and high-variance spots.

Quality of Regs:
Flamingo:

Bad equals good here, and the Flamingo has the least talented regs. They're mostly nits and easy to play against, especially given that you're only going to get in non-limped pots with them two or three times per session.

Comfort:
Bally's:

Bally's seats 9 per table. Orleans and Flamingo cram 10 around. The Bally's tables are nicely spaced, with room for extra drink and meal carts. The Orleans and Flamingo are jammed together, with the latter being set up particularly close to the walls, to the point where three people sometimes have to get up from the table for you to get to your seat.

Bally's dealers and floor personnel are super friendly. The Flamingo staff are a close second. Orleans staff is much larger and more impersonal.

Bally's has the best cocktail waitresses of any of the two dozen or so rooms that I've visited over the last 6 months. They show up a lot; too much probably. People get super drunk there, which is good for everyone else's EV.

That's about all I can think of. I can rank the rooms on other details if you post them.

Now that you're back from Asia, will you jump back on the wagon?

Nice post SJ.

What other rooms have you played, and why didn't you go back to them?

My body is not ready...yet.

For what I'm doing at this early stage, I like the Caesar's properties. Their Total Rewards card will transfer to any Caesar's property, points don't expire, and comps and points from playing poker are indistinguishable from points made from slots and table games. In contrast, the MGM card fails on either some or all of these aspects.

Harrah's is a Caesar's property as well. They rank second in promos, but they have the most and the toughest regs playing, so I cut them loose. I would add them back into the mix for some overnight shifts, if only I could get myself to play more hours.

I liked the (non-Caesar's) Treasure Island $1/$3 game, but they shuttered the poker room earlier this year.

A good thread started recently in LVL on grinding the Caesar's properties for promos, and it has some solid analysis from other 2p2ers who are doing the same thing as me.

So I'm at Harrahs ofc, because I love to contradict myself. It's not reg infested ATM, but one dude is talking strat to the tourists

Time to raise every pot he joins