I'm up to date sir

I like the room share miscalculation part. Definitely something I would do.

My wifey loves it when I make the loud declarations that are wrong. But, she also is impressed when I am right, so there is balance. Good wifey.

There's a direct correlation between how many times I repeat myself and how full of **** I am.

You cant be that much a life nit taking on pro poker rather than staying in your office job in NE. That latter is what life nits do

Very well read sir!

It's a battle between disposition and will. Can I fight to become something other than what I am, or can I at least find a conjunction between what I am and what I want for myself?

Have you fully adjusted to the new life now?

What's your gut feel? Are you enjoying it? Can you see it lasting?

In general I like it; at its worst I hate it a lot less than the office job on an average day. There are some pros and cons in comparison, all of which are big enough to be detailed in their own dedicated posts, so I'll save them up for when I need content later (aaaand I'm getting meta again .)

I'll go over one quick feature, though. I can level up at this job. I will level up at this job, once I study and play enough.

The office job was for a small firm, and after 12 years of solid work and helping the business grow, I realized that I was never going to be made partner, and that the the owners were going to absorb the extra work that came with the increased business, instead of hiring more people and putting me in a management position.

I did not want to retire in the same spot in which I entered back in my mid-thirties. Likely I could have made a lateral move to another company where advancement was a probability, but in the end, I really didn't like the work that I was doing, so why struggle and jockey for something that you don't really want?

Last night I finished up the challenge for this week at the Orleans. The $1/$3 locals there have some gamble in them, and that's refreshing after so many weeks of Bally's/Harrahs/Flamingo promo grinders.

I've decided to dispense with Harrahs entirely. The freeroll there is great but it's not worth the consistently bad games. My most recent weekend overnights at Harrahs--undertaken at those ungodly hours to avoid regs--were reg infested. I'm sure now that the others had come to the same conclusion that I had earlier, and they had made the same adjustment of playing later, thus finally ruining the game there 24/7.

I'm going to dial it back to second shift on the weekends, skipping the grueling overnights, and move some of the hours to the Orleans, where it's $1/$3, the rake is $2 less, and the players have some gamble going on.

Flamingo and Orleans: 6 hours (Flamingo freeroll (-$5)):
+$254

Challenge:$1/$3 Level:

Link to Challenge Rules

Starting bankroll: $600
Last bankroll: $1056
Challenge day progress: +$259
Current bankroll: $1315
Bankroll needed for $2/$5: $1875

One question about this:

Does that mean that you lost $94 playing cash, or is the BBJ not counted in the results?

Happy Sheepday sir! We celebrate with the super sounds of the 70's and the bittersweet plaintive tones of the early 90's.

To add to that, I'll post a hand from a wily Dutch player in a few minutes.

Yes, I lost $94 that night in the cash game, then added in the BBJ.

Here's a interesting hand from yesterday. I wasn't the hero or the villain in this one. Hero was a standard middle aged $1/$2 player. Villain was a tricky and aggro Dutch man in his early 30's. Hero had $260 behind and villain covered.

Folds to Hero on the BTN (again, not me), who picks up KK and opens for $12. Villain calls from the SB. BB folds.

(Pot $26) Two players.

Flop AJJ

SB checks. Hero bets $15. SB calls.

(Pot $56) Two players.

Turn A

SB checks. Hero bets $25. SB calls.

(Pot $106) Two Players.

River A

SB shoves for $208 effective.

(Pot $314) Two players. One player is all in.

Just a lovely play from villain imo. Nice hand sir. So...

(1) What do if hero?

(2) Can we back it up and play it any better as hero?

Bally's: 6 hours:
+$54

Don't polarize ourselves?

You're on to something, but how do we depolarize on this most polarized of boards?

I think we've found a rare spot where the oop player always has the advantage on the river, being the first to have the option to bust all in.

I can't picture Hero pulling that stunt on the turn, as it takes that last card on the river to smash the old board into a million pieces.

Two more things to think about when facing this shove on the river: If villain had a jack, it just got counterfeited down to a chop. Also, I think villain is 3-betting a lot of his higher case Ax combos pre vs a button open, so they're all out of his range when we get to the river.

All this, though, and we're still only calling for a chop, never for the pot. It's just about the worst spot that I've seen since I started playing cash.

KK is calling for the pot though isn't he?

Good Lord, you're right. AAAKK>AAAJJ. Can't believe I missed that. That's a call, then. And not a particularly hard one.



That was pretty dumb. Nothing to see here. Move along.



Hero calls.

(Pot $522)

Moving right along here:

Yesterday I spent 6 hours at the same table, not because it was a particularly juicy game; more because it was a lot of fun. Two Irish guys started at the table with me, and they spent the whole time drinking and laughing and joshing with the other players. They brought a set of lucky wayfarer sunglasses that made the rounds, with just about everyone winning a good hand while wearing them.

It only takes one or two fun players at a table to change the complexion completely, and to get everyone else to open up and participate. Sitting at one of these tables is one of the high points of the job, and it makes the hours fly by. Of course, it didn't hurt that I won that day, in spite of my demonstrated inability to read holdem hands.

I don't have the disposition to be one of the fun players who gets things started at the table, but I do what I can to play along and help when one or more of them show up.

Flamingo: 6 hours:
+$177

It's time to snap off my throughline of bull**** here and to admit that--okay, I'm a good tournament player--and even to this day I've been more effective in that medium than I've been at the cash game.

I've only played a few handfuls of tourneys since I've moved out here in July, yet I've made more cumulative money at the tournaments than I have from grinding the cash game. Most of that, of course, has to do with the huge overlays given by the various freerolls. But not every tourney has been a freeroll, and my experience and knack for this variant has likely been a factor in my bringing home the extra money.

What I'm attempting here with the cash grinding is the equivalent of a good actor passing up on lucrative roles because he really wants to be a rock star, or a director. There's more to it than that, of course. Cash games reduce variance and thus allow for a nittier bankroll and a reduced risk of ruin.

I don't have the bankroll to be a professional tourney player; most players don't.

Today was supposed to be a day off.

Caesars $150, $2k gtd: 5 hours
+$538

Maybe the tourneys should not just be on the days off, but selected tourneys can become an enjoyable and profitable part of the weekly grind.

That is a good plan, sir. On weeks where I'm egregiously short of making my hours, which is most weeks lately, I'll hit a tourney on my day off, and maybe add one or two more into the week.

The problem with this is, I could easily whiff on 25 in a row in a bad downswing. At $100 a pop, that's a lot of swong. So it needs to be potentially contained over time. So probably no more than 2 a week.

You could but unlikely I think with your style and how bad the average daily mtt player in Vegas is

I'd love to agree with that, Nate, but there's a part of me that feels that that sort of thinking is what makes good players go broke.

Good BRM and game selection is what keeps good players in business. Just spin that BR up to 50k and dedicate it strictly to $100 dailies and you'll be set for the grind

That’s wise to be aware of but I have faith in your ability to work this out and pick your spots and also ability to take advantage of ICM ignorance too.