Thanks golddog! So far, so good.

Thanks bob_124! One Day at a Time is a cliché (and also a decent early 80s sitcom), but clichés stand the test of time for a reason (unlike early 80's sitcoms).

As much as I advocate for supporting single mothers, I need to work lower on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and keep food, rent, bills and debt reduction unlocked.

Thanks Sheep! I found the live, singalong version.

My financial strategy in the months previous to this one was to set a weekly schedule based on the poker room promos, then I would procrastinate, One Day at a Time, and goof off until the end of the month loomed. At that point I would procrastinate some more, only adding an ever-growing amount of guilt and dread to the mix.

I need to turn this around. To wit: I'm going to the casino every day this month until I have the funds I need to pay the bills and cut down on my debt. Then I can think about procrastinating. If this works right, I'll be procrastinating on my procrastination, thereby turning weakness into strength.

Yesterday, I booked a win at the tables. It was a small one, but it was the first win in a long time. After that, the slots were kind to me for the first time in a while.



For December, MGM has downscaled the payouts on their NFL football promo to the point where it's hardly worth going; however, when they're not running the football games, they're running a mystery bounty type high hand with hourly prizes between $200 and $10000. So I'll be playing that, and hoping for a Big Score.

December 2024 ****'s Creek Navigation Update

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 5 hours
+$82.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 3 hours
+$664.28

Running Poker Total December: 5 hours, +$82.00
Running Slot Total December: 3 hours, +$664.28

Total December: 8 hours, +$746.28

boom nice

i think i've always been lucky in the sense that i don't really get much enjoyment out of watching tv or movies and my natural state is to be on the grind

autism can be pretty op at times - but it can also lead to burnout where i have to force myself to take some time off periodically just because it's otherwise a never ending shuffle


like i'll stop at a casino specifically because it's a place i can spend the night for free - but then i'll find myself naturally wanting to play poker until this good game breaks at 5 am which severely negates the entire purpose of driving 30 minutes off my planned route for the free hotel in the first place when i can only end up sleeping about 5-6 hours before checkout anyway

so then i obviously book a second night and push back all my plans by a day only to find myself at 2 am the next night saying to myself "but it's a really good game I should stay" and then talk myself into playing until 3 only play another orbit at 3 so i end up racking up at 3:30 to get some but not much sleep and again hating life because that's a pretty good game i'm leaving - very easy to lose sight of the big picture which is, i'm not even supposed to be there anyway - i'm trying to get somewhere else

Thanks fid!

I like that you're wandering the country, visiting casinos. If I build up enough of a bankroll, I might do the same, as it ought to make for some good blogging content.

As far as live cash poker goes: I don't love it, so I find excuses to leave the table rather than stay. I like playing poker, but I prefer tournaments, partly because I'm good at them, and partly because they're stories. They have a beginning, then often a middle section, and always an ending, more often than not in tears; however, the rare tournament triumphs are amazing, a real, natural high.

The live cash game is different. It begins the very first time that you sit down at a table, and then it runs for the rest of your life. I play cash because I don't have the bankroll to play live tournaments, and the online tourneys are getting swamped with real time assistance, and are therefore unsustainable for making a living wage.

Another good day. I played well, albeit a shade too conservatively, with my bankroll and liferoll being mixed and in danger for the moment.

If I'm lucky enough to have a few more good days like this, I'll be able to open up my game a bit more.

December 2024 ****'s Creek Navigation Update

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 5 hours
+$430.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 2 hours
+$14.75

Running Poker Total December: 10 hours, +$512.00
Running Slot Total December: 5 hours, +$679.03

Total December: 15 hours, +$1191.03

is the hunt included in the hours or just the button pushing hours?

My best poker years haven’t come from when I’ve played my “best” and most aggressive poker (and boy do I love a good LAG session).

My best/most profitable years have been when I can stay disciplined to the running the best exploitative lines vs my opponents. When I can stay disciplined and keep smashing the TAG button vs the casually regs who refuse to adjust, I’ve printed at 1/3.

I encourage you to stay disciplined and do what works over and over again until it’s no longer working. Go print some living wages buddy


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Out of my 5 slot hours booked so far this month, I've probably spent 15 minutes actively playing. As you know, some plays bog down, and the machine won't hit for many minutes, even with dedicated fast spin spazz tapping, but that hasn't happened yet this month.

Thanks Nāt! You've played a few hours with me, so you know that I'm pretty snug. According to the solvers, we're actually supposed to play super nitty when everyone's opening 5bb+ in a raked game, which is the case in $1/$2 and $1/$3; however, the solvers assume that the openers are playing perfectly, which is the opposite of how they're playing. So I have to remind myself from time to time that it's necessary to throw in chips in order to receive chips back.

Everything was going fine today (technically yesterday) until I looked out and saw that it was snowing, MGM Springfield being one of those rare casinos that allows views into the world outside.

It was the first snow of the year here after the previous winter's nearly snowless passing, and people tend to donk around the roads until they shake the rust off their snow driving skills—it's not like riding a bike, more like riding a bike with bald tires in the snow.

I signed up for this gig so I wouldn't be obligated to commute during snowstorms, so I cut the day short and drove home before it got bad. If we have more snowy days coming up, I will be staying home. Fair warning.

In any case, the green results continue. I got into a 3-way preflop all-in vs a $50 stack and a $160 stack while holding AKs. I bricked the entire runout, and I still won the full pot with A high. That was a nice slice of rungood.

December 2024 ****'s Creek Navigation Update

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 2 hours
+$190.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 2 hours
+$50.16

Running Poker Total December: 12 hours, +$702.00
Running Slot Total December: 7 hours, +$729.19

Total December: 19 hours, +$1431.19

Yeah you can forget about these solutions and playing more is right. Peeps open J7o UTG because they feel like it or it's their lucky hand or what have you

You’re generally a tight is right and observant player. I love solvers and like you’re sort of saying we gotta not let them get in our heads too much. Why? Because the average players are highly exploitable and we all found ways to make $$$ at this game before solvers. Gotta tap into that core skill set sometimes and just play the players while they play their hands


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I’ve been savagely playing K5 suited like it’s KK from all positions while limp/3-betting JJ-AA UTG. Why? Because I feel like getting out of pocket in a way I feel like Ivey would give a nod to


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Ok, you have kind of a wide range here. 95% of the time limp-3betting UTG is middle aged or older peeps and KK+. Occasionally AK or QQ. The most unbalanced spot in live low limit poker, so easy to fold. But suited knows that better than us, prolly.
JJ is kind of funny too. Some peeps open fold JJ cos "it's impossible to play".

There are all sorts of flavors of UTG shenanigans, including the following:

Fun player limps UTG with $160, I make it $12 from MP with AKs, BB makes it $25 from his $50 stack, fun UTG flats the $25, I 4bet to $100, BB calls all-in for less, and fun player says "Y'all tryin' to get me out of this", and 5bet shoves to $160 with Q7o.

That was the hand where my AKs held three ways unimproved. The standard runout would have the fun player hitting his 7 on the river, and he knew it. But the poker gods were merciful. BB had AQo.

A rare (but deserved) merciful runout from the gods! May this be the sign of the changing tides?!


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please teach me how to win with AKo vs Q7o

Step 1: bet big. Actual # is irrelevant just make it a lot of BBs relative to the pot size. Don’t over pot too big, that’s doing too much.
Step 2: run good
Step 3: ???? (Scoop and tip I assume)
Step 4: profit


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You forgot the step where the Vs have each others' outs

You obviously don't play much poker. The villains having each other's outs makes it MORE likely that they hit them. The Poker Gods must have been on break to have missed this opportunity.

My mini-streak ran out during yesterday's snow-forshortened session. I ran into a player who owned me. It happens sometimes. Villain doesn't have to be great, he or she just has to pull a big bluff whenever you feel like they have it—and then they'll show you; they always show—and then they'll take you to value town in big hands whenever you're feeling sticky. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The best policy is to move tables. You may have a tell that they've picked up on, or they may know your type and be a specialist in playing against it. My ego, however, convinced me that V was just sunrunning, which is a temporary condition, and whether that was true or not, I paid the price for it.

I did, however, get to witness the worst live poker player I've ever seen, who fortunately was not the V who owned my soul.

When I sat down, she was puzzling over the concept of the blinds and the order of play, but was quite proud of having mastered the colors and values of the chips. She had $175 behind when she got into a hand where V checked the flop, she bet $10, and V checkraised her to $25.

"Why are you doing that?" she asked, indignantly. "I have a good hand." Then she showed V her hand while it was still live. Then she called the raise.

She was advised by the table not to show her live hands, so she accused the dealer "You told me I could show my hand heads-up." Apparently, she had done the same thing multiway before I'd sat down.

The dealer told her that while she could show her hand, he did not recommend it.

After that, I gave her remaining stack five minutes to live. It lasted for nine. I got $50 of it, and the other guys got the rest.

December 2024 ****'s Creek Navigation Update

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 3 hours
(-$232.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 2 hours
+$34.45

Running Poker Total December: 15 hours, +$470.00
Running Slot Total December: 9 hours, +$763.64

Total December: 24 hours, +$1233.64

I took yesterday and today off, and I'll be back on the grind tomorrow.