Suitedjustice's Ongoing Mid-life Crisis

The flowers are real, and had been abandoned. I'd like to know the story behind them.

I would point out that there is a large subset of problem gamblers who think they only make EV+ bets.

To think one is following a rule is not the same as following a rule.

I would like to add that everyone has a small amount of gambling addiction to a certain level : it is not as if it is night and day binary equation, but more so distinctive levels. It becomes (very) obvious through the practice of meditation and while observing how one's body and mind reacts to the thought of or the act of gambling. This applies to multiple areas in life, meaning that we find ourselves on different parts of the spectrum as far as addictive levels to many activities (be it alcohol, different types of food (especially processed sugar and salt), substances, sleep etcetera and etc.).

I think it's helpful to look at the "high" of gambling, which comes when the big bet is placed for meaningful stakes and the card is about to be turned, the ball is about to drop, the dice are in the air. That's the feeling: the rush, the thrill, the sweet terror, when the gambler is about to be propelled into just one universe out of a set number, based upon the game and their fortune in that instance.

Gamblers live for that moment; I hate it. I always feel like the lash is about to strike me, and I'm not a masochist.

My favorite part of gambling is discovering a low-variance, high EV play and preparing to exploit it. Everything after that involves fighting off my misgivings until the play is over.

The Dry 2024-2025 Challenge Update

January: ✓
February: ✓
March: ✓
April: ✓
May: ✓
June: ✓
July: ✓
August: ✓
September: ✓
October: ✓
November: ✓
December: ✓
January: ✓
February: ✓
March: ✓
April: ✓
May: UNLOCKED

It's been another month. For an insight, I'll adapt a Buddhist saying about enlightenment: before I quit the booze, I chopped wood and carried water; after I quit the booze, I chopped wood and carried water. If you make it this far, don't expect a post-montage swell of emotional music with you triumphantly lifting up a loved one and spinning them through the air while you celebrate your final victory over addiction. Life goes on as normal; even if you have improved your lot—which I have—you'll still adjust your standards to where your improved lot seems to be merely normal. Take a moment to embrace that normalcy. It's great.

That being said, I did get high AF last night. But I'm not particularly worried about that drug, as my gummies have gotten so old (a year? more than a year?) that I'm starting to worry about them. They've gone slightly discolored, and they've gotten a bit hard. Nevertheless, I had one last night. I have 3 gummies left, which will probably last me another 2 months if they don't go bad and poison me. After that, I don't think that I'll buy any more.

On the exercise front: I'm at 17 pushups and 21 bicycle crunches, up from 6 and 10, respectively, from my start in early March.

As I've mentioned, I'm taking it easy. If I'd pushed it, I could be well up into the 20s with pushups and 30s with crunches by now, but I'd also be starting to dread having to do it, whereas I look forward to doing the smaller number every day. The goal, as stated, is to be doing these a year from now, as a few reps is always more than zero reps.

Congratulations on the continuing sobriety, and the exercise gearing up!

so ******' fantastic sj
never a doubt

MJ doesn't go bad easily, it's chemically quite stable. Same for most of the other 'hit out there, if you don't expose it to excessive heat or humidity, it lasts forever. Obv dere's no particular reason why I would know that. Except alcohol, that can turn bad quickly and easily.

👍

Very nice, Suited. Now get yo ass over to the casino and go check-raise some stupid tourists!

Thanks guys! You're the best!

It's not the pot; it's the candy. Typically, I'd trust American candy to be [strike]good[/strike] [strike]safe[/strike] bacteria and fungus resistant for decades, but the gummy manufacturers are likely stoners first and confectioners second, so I imagine a development meeting where "I don't wanna use any harsh preservatives, man." is said.

Thanks Sheep! My new night shift hours have been working out for the slots, but the sleep schedule is still a drag. Yesterday I went for a walk in the sunlight, as my skin has gotten so pale that it practically shines in the moonlight.

Today I'm doing a half day at the old office, then the casino on the weekend, then a full day at the office on Monday, then back to the casino.

+$400 on the slots; a nice night.

MGM Springfield added a new AP machine that one of our BBV mods might find to be nice and soft.

This one is not in a playable state. The play depends upon the sheep on the right. According to what I've seen online, you want to have at least 4 extra Hold and Spin rows (3 is marginal and can be a play if the other two sheep are pumped up, which in this picture they are not).

The Hold and Spin is an extra screen that fills up with bonuses until the player runs out of spins. Extra rows create a bigger screen which carries the capacity for more bonuses.

Filling in at the office today. These vanilla work days are always (1) an opportunity to make some guaranteed non-Sklansky bucks and (2) a reminder why I chose to gamble for a living, and an incentive to keep doing the same.

The corner office here has great Sun exposure, and I was hoping to soak that in as a counter to my current vampiric hours, but alas, it will be rainy and overcast all day.

Bottles and cans, just clap your hands
Just clap your hands
-Beck

Is that line an imperative directed at the bottles and cans, urging them to show their appreciation with figurative limbs, or is it aimed at us the listener(s)? If the lyrics were in a different language, we might be able to tell—if that language had a different declension of the verb clap for bottles and cans vs the generic unknown us.

But alas, in English, everyone and every thing and claps the same.

+$1200 for the month so far from the slots. I'll take today off and be back at it through the weekend.

I'm just now back from another swing shift at the probability farm. Those Rich Little Sheep sheared me of a hundo early on—perhaps as punishment for revealing their EV secrets here in this blog—and I made back only around $35 from the other machines. Fortunately, I played a good 90 minute session of poker and wound up +$347 on that, so it was a good work day overall.

Keep it up dude! you’re grinding out the living and good variance is forthcoming

Thanks, Natamus! Always good to hear from you. Hope you and the fam are well.

I haven't done a hand breakdown in a while.

$5 straddle UTG, who gets to act last pre under the Mississippi rules. I'm sitting in the CO with $260, down from my usual $400-$500 due to a short bankroll.

UTG +1 calls the straddle, MP calls, HJ calls, and I find A♥6♥ in the CO. #Teamneverlimp says that I should open here to 3x + 1x for every limper, which includes the UTG straddle, so $35. That's a pretty ambitious open at $1/$2 with a weak suited ace. I decide to make one of my rare limp alongs. Suited ace lows are good multiway candidates for their ability to overflush and stack. And A6 suffers compared to A2-A5 due to its lack of straight possibilities, so I don't hate a straddle limp here.

BTN folds, SB folds, BB calls and UTG checks his straddle.

Pot ($31) - 6 players

Flop: A♦T:♥5♥

BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP bets $21, HJ calls. Having position on everyone, I don't feel like I need to raise here. I'll see if anyone behind me wants to come along, and I'll have a good handle on the pot size on the turn and river. I call. BB folds, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds.

Pot ($94) - 3 players

Turn: 3♣

MP, who covers me, bets $140 pretty quickly.

MP is a local in his 30s. He plays 4-6 nights a week. He's very unpredictable. He'll play great for stretches, then he'll get completely out of line, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for it, other than maybe he gets bored and wants a laugh.

Given the size of his bet into two players who have both shown interest in the pot, this makes him extremely polarized. Either he has the nuts (42s in this case, which he can certainly have limped pre, though the flop bet would be ambitious, but not beyond him), or he's messing around and has some bs that he'll show for the lulz when everyone folds.

I can't fold. If I just call, I'm going to hate life when the river bricks and he shoves on me. I shove for my remaining $234, knowing that I have no fold equity if he has anything. He calls, but he doesn't snap call. Maybe he wasn't so polarized. He would have raised AT-AK pre, but that still leaves a lot of Ax hands that are currently beating me.

I turn over my hand and announce "pair and a draw." Villain does not reveal his hand.

(Pot $562) - heads up

Please dealer. One time.

River: 3♠

Villain takes forever to turn over his hand. He flashes it and mucks. It's JTo or some marginal nonsense. He'd tried to buy the pot and was caught and committed. If I'd shoved my standard $500 stack, he might have been able to fold, but in this case my shorter stack netted me more.

Declension? Your Latin is showing

I pretty much agree with this. I think it is wrong to be super strict about the rule to never limp. Raising is generally the preferred play, but as you said, playing a bloated pot with a low SPR holding A6s is far from ideal. And if the table is soft enough (which it probably is, considering the three limps in front of you), folding isn't great either. Your decision should also depend on how iso-happy the players behind you are.

I suppose raising to $25 could also be a decent option. Most players probably don't adjust their play to the $5 straddle correctly and will still view $25 as a big raise.

Typically, candy doesn't need any harsh or even any additional preservatives, the high sugar content is enough so that it's not digestible to bacteria or other microorganisms. If it's high in salt or citric acid that also helps. In the EU preservatives are forbidden in most candy, in the US prolly not cos Murica.
Congrats Sheep for the 7m poast, almost.

Nice hand, sir!

Years ago I bought a Latin for Complete Idiots book and a dictionary because I wanted to translate some of Edward Gibbon's dirtier footnotes in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I didn't learn much Latin before I gave up on it.

Thanks Sheep! Good note about gauging the players behind me. That should always be a consideration on ones preflop decisions.

Grats on the 7k post! May it bring you luck.

I did a search in the thread and I bought 40 gummies in January of last year. They've been in my fridge ever since.

I'm not too worried. I won't toss out the remaining 3, even though I got them on sale for like 60c ea.

Thanks TopGun in VA!

Last night I butted heads in a similar hand with a complete maniac, only he had the goods, so I lost $300. Late nights with the drunks and the maniacs are profitable, but highly variable.

As I was walking by this laughing Buddha slot, one of the nearby players unknowingly laughed in perfect synch with the animation.

It was a nice moment.