Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream

The Year in Review

The end of the calendar year is upon us. I see that TJ and TonySoprano9 have done recaps of their year playing poker, so I figure I’ll join in.

I started the year studying heavily on a poker training site. I think it was beneficial. I learned a lot. I wasn’t delusional enough to think this increased knowledge put me anywhere close to an even playing field with full-time pros, but it was still worth the effort. Throughout the year I played at the WSOP for two weeks, MSPT tournaments and WSOP Circuit events. I loved playing in the WSOP (my third WSOP), loved everything about it (especially the fact that I cashed in one event). The MSPT tournaments I made two deep runs before getting knocked out very, very near the money bubbles. The WSOP Circuit events were in two separate venues that I found to be absolutely dreary, the polar opposite of the bigger-than-life feel of the WSOP. I loved being at the WSOP for two straight weeks as this gave me a much better feel of the poker lifestyle than was the cases in non-WSOP, geographically friendly events where I was trying to squeeze a tournament or two in between my work and family life.

Halfway through the year I started playing online at Global Poker. I have very much enjoyed the fact that I can play poker every night from the comfort of my home at times that are convenient for me

I still have not played a single hand of cash play. I don’t intend to do so. For whatever reason, the concept just doesn’t appeal to me (yes, I realize I have not given it a chance). In a cash game, you judge your results on whether you make money. I make plenty of money running my business. Making money in a cash game doesn’t move the needle for me. I don’t say that to be critical of the cash game streets. I know plenty of people love playing in cash games, and I say good for them. Props to those who can make a living playing cash. It just isn’t for me. Plus, the idea of getting on a waiting list and sitting around for an hour waiting for my turn is something I just don’t have the patience for. I just saw a quote today from Terrance “TJ” Reid in an article on poker.org (https://www.poker.org/latest-news/the-in...) that speaks to me in terms of tournament poker versus cash game poker.

Reid said, “Tournaments definitely have my heart. I like the competition. I like the idea of a winner. I like that it's a level playing field where you never know who you'll be sitting with. It feels less predatory than cash games, where there is more handshaking and backdoor deals to get into the games, whereas tournaments are public entry. If you want to play, you put up your money, sit down, and battle with the best.”

Emphasis on the final sentence: “If you want to play, you put up your money, sit down, and battle with the best.”

When I started this journey, that is what it was all about for me. The opportunity to battle with the best. The competition. The willingness to be the man in the arena.

With this being an end-of-the-calendar-year recap, let’s look at things from that perspective in terms of, was 2025 a poker success for me?

Studying: I studied a lot and learned a lot the first half of the year. I think it definitely helped. But eventually the studying of increasingly technical, detailed and mundane charts became mind-numbingly boring. The whole point of this was to have fun. I never had any illusions of becoming a successful pro. All I wanted was to become knowledgeable enough to have a puncher’s chance. I decided to embrace my recreational poker playerness rather than aspire to be a poker pro. When I got introduced to online play six months ago, I stopped studying. Does putting in volume online at a poker playing site have the possibility of improving me as a player? Of course it does. But being completely honest I have stopped studying and started playing online for the simple reason that it is more fun. I have been tempted in recent months to cancel my subscription to my poker training site. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, so it’s possible I return to studying here and there, but the temptation to hit “Cancel” is growing stronger and stronger.

Live play: I cashed at the WSOP for the second year in a row. That alone makes the entire year a stunning success. I came in the top 1,000 players in a tournament with over 16,000 entrants. At the biggest poker series in the world. Given my still relative inexperience, this is a major outcome. Another Hendon Mob entry. For me, it’s all about playing in the bigger-than-life WSOP. And not only did I make the money, but I also bagged chips. And not only did I bag chips, but I lasted quite a while during Day 2. For me, cashing at the WSOP is the equivalent of a known pro winning a bracelet. As I keep repeating, I’m at the WSOP for the life experience, not the money. My year could have felt really big if I didn’t get knocked out of two MSPT events just short of the money bubbles. In one of those MSPT events I might have been able to fold into the money (maybe, not definitely), but my J-J ran into K-K and I went for it pre flop. I played at WSOP Circuit events at sterile, depressing venues. I won’t go back. I want the excitement of the WSOP in Las Vegas. There is a regional tournament series in a couple of months at a casino I haven’t played at that I might play if my schedule cooperates, but for the most part I think I just want to play live at the WSOP in Las Vegas. So no, I was not profitable money wise in live tournaments like TJ and TonySoprano9. That’s OK. As I wrote in the prior paragraph, I am embracing my recreational poker playerness. I’m playing for the sheer fun of it. That said, at no time during live play throughout the year did I feel overwhelmed, intimidated or out of my depth. I’m not saying I thought I was the best player at my tables. I am saying I felt like I could compete at all times. There were some players who gave me more trouble than others, but at no time did I feel like dead money.

Online play: I have been profitable at Global Poker. I started with $5 in Sweeps Coins (equal to $5) that I got for signing up to play. I have turned that into $108 at the moment. That’s not a lot of money from a cash perspective, but a 21.6x increase sounds pretty good. I’ve been going sideways lately due to extreme run bad. Specifically, K-K. I have lost something like the last 12 times I have been dealt K-K. Not 12 times. I’m talking 12 CONSECUTIVE times that I’ve been dealt K-K I have lost the hand. In my case K is short for Kryptonite. And it’s not like my K-K is running into A-A. It’s a baffling, mathematically improbable case of losing to some ridiculous holdings that keep getting there. Poker. The run bad notwithstanding, I’m still enjoying playing online. For now, this is the venue that I will be playing throughout the year outside of the WSOP.

2+2 Las Vegas Lifestyle: I’ve enjoyed writing this thread. That said, I feel like I’m running out of anything new to say. Plus, writing down every hand I play is kind of distracting, and after a big hand I am so busy writing down what happened (plus stacking chips in live play) that I miss out on what is happening at the table the next hand. I intend to write about WSOP 2026, but I think it will be more of an overview of the day’s happenings and less description of every hand I play. It’s just too difficult to write down all of the detail and still try to pay attention to the next hand right after. One of the best successes of 2025 for me was the fact that I met up with a bunch of LVL people at the 2025 WSOP. Having some meals and spending some breaks with LVL friends was a major success at this last WSOP and was a huge improvement over prior WSOPs when I didn’t know anyone. I hope to meet up with even more of you at WSOP 2026.

That pretty much sums up rppoker 2025.

Wishing all of you health, happiness and poker success in 2026!

I think you’re a FANTASTIC writer, and communicator.

I confess I don’t read all the long recaps of online tournaments. I like the AI art, I think it adds color to the story and makes it unique.

Love the Michigan football pics and stories! And Astro, of course. There’s a thread in Other Other topics called Pet Pictures. If you haven’t seen that, I think you’d like it, and of COURSE Astro is welcome there!

Putting in volume in online tournaments is EXCELLENT preparation for WSOP. I think that’s the better use of your time than grinding through poker training videos, though that has value, too.

All the best for whatever you decide to do with this thread in 2026! I’ll be reading.

Astro has made a previous appearance in Other Other Topics, Pet Pictures. Spurred on by your comment, I had him make an additional appearance today. I'm always happy to post pictures of Astro. Dogs are the best!

For those of you who live in warm weather climates, appreciate your lack of snow.

Please tell me Mrs. rppoker's name is Jane.

Sadly, no.

I have 96.26% equity after the flop ... and I lose

This will be brief.

Am I capable of writing brief? Not usually, but I will this time.

A handful of posts ago I wrote that the last 12 consecutive times that I've been dealt K-K, I have lost.

Apparently it's contagious, because now I can't win with A-A.

Tonight's example was worse than the typical cracking of Aces, which usually happens when villain has a lower pair and makes a set. That's not what happened. This was so absurd, that immediately afterward villain wrote in chat that this was "gross." Here is the hand:

https://play.globalpoker.com/hand/bb9acb...

Somehow, despite the fact that I have been running horrible for a lengthy period of time now, my online bankroll has not taken much of a hit. If my A-A and K-K hands would hold up, I would instead be on a massive heater. Under the circumstances, I feel like I am playing well. At some point the variance will take a positive turn.

The massive K-K losing streak is finally over

As I have written recently, I had lost 12 times in a row over more than a month when I was dealt K-K.

The streak has finally ended.

I was dealt K-K twice in the same tournament roughly five minutes apart. I won both hands.

I'd love to share the fact that this propelled me to a mountain of chips, but alas I only won small pots each time. The first time one player limped, I raised, everyone else folded and limper called. I flopped a set but got no more chips from limper despite the fact that I checked the flop and turn. The other time I was dealt K-K, I opened and everyone folded.

But at least the K-K losing streak is over.

The following just showed up on my Facebook feed. Not sure why given I do not follow the writer, who is BlackRain79. Nonetheless, while it is not rocket science, it is a good thought process when one is running bad. My big hands have overwhelmingly not been holding for a while (although I am nonetheless getting very close to my personal best for my online bankroll) so it's almost as if the universe decided this was something I needed to read.

In any event, wisdom from BlackRain79:

This is the part of poker nobody warns you about.
Early in my professional career, I went through a stretch that almost broke me.
Not because I was playing badly.
Not because I wasn't improving my game.
But because every time I got a big hand like A♠️K♦️ or Q♣️Q♥️, it seemed destined to lose at the worst possible moment.
Right before the Final table.
Deep in a big tournament.
$5,000 or $10,000 up top.
I would finally pick up the dream hand.
Pocket kings.
Pocket queens.
Ace king.
And somehow, some way, I would get stacked.
I still remember one night where I lost three buy ins in a row with premium hands. Each time I was all in ahead. Each time the river crushed me. Each time I sat there staring at the screen wondering how this game could be so brutal.
The worst part was not the money.
The worst part was the doubt.
I started questioning everything.
Was I really good enough to do this for a living.
Was I just running on luck before.
Was poker trying to tell me something.
It felt like every deep run ended the same way. I would fight for hours, play solid, build a stack, and then lose everything with the very hands that were supposed to carry me to the finish line.
For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me.
Then I finally understood the truth.
Poker only works because weaker players always have a chance to win.
Even when they are a 90% underdog.
Even when they play terribly.
Even when they make horrible decisions.
They still get to hit their 10% miracle draw sometimes.
And if they did not, the game would not exist.
Weak players would not sit down if they never won. They would not re-deposit if they never ran hot. They wouldn't keep playing if they never sucked out.
That is why poker is so profitable for disciplined players. The money comes from players who think they are good because they win sometimes. But over the long run, cold hard mathematics and odds always wins.
Once I understood that, everything changed.
I stopped taking losses personally.
I stopped attaching my confidence to short term results.
I stopped letting bad runs shake my belief in my game.
I focused on decision making. I focused on discipline. I focused on protecting my stack instead of blindly trusting my cards.
That is what separates real pros from everyone else.
Not how they play when things are going well.
But how they respond when everything is falling apart.
If you are going through this right now, I want you to know something...
You are not broken.
You are not cursed.
You are not failing.
You are just walking the same road every successful poker player has walked before you.
And if you stay disciplined, stay patient, and keep learning, this phase will pass too.

A quick update: same old, same old

Poker hates me.

Negative variance continues to absolutely kick my @ss.

I won't drone on with the massive litany of weeks and months of non-stop bad beat examples. The last two nights will make the point.

Two tournaments tonight. Here are my two bust out hands:

1) I get it all in against the tournament chip leader who is consistently playing any two cards. I have Ac-Qc. Villain has K-8o. If my hand holds, I will be 8th in chips (with the money bubble still not quite in sight). The flop has two kings.

2) Big blind special. I have 10-3 off suit and get to see three cards for free. The flop is 10-3-8 (suits aren't relevant). Lots and lots of betting between me and a loose cannon. The turn is a Q. Villain has Q-10 and her turned two pair is better than my flopped two pair.

Yesterday was worse. Three tournaments. On my bust out hands, every time I got it in massively ahead after the flop. Every time villains hit runner-runner cards to make a flush or a straight. In one of the tournaments I was playing great and had built a very large chip stack. Then in one orbit I got it all-in waaaaaay ahead three separate times (against shorter stacks the first two times), and each time villains experienced runner-runner miracles to beat me (on two of the occasions they rivered an inside straight).

This is my normal. Get it in great, get unlucky.

Someone earlier in this thread said that sometimes it is hard to believe how long run bad can last. I'm now a believer. My run bad has been going on for a really, really long time. It is constant and relentless. I'm playing well, so I have continued to play every night. If I were playing poorly I'd take a break, but I am consistently getting it in good. I'm picking good spots to bluff. I'm making big lay downs that turn out to be correct. So I continue to grind. Maybe this makes me a glutton for punishment, but I still love playing.

My hope is that I am getting all my run bad out of my system now, and run good will await me at the WSOP. When it really matters. I know, I know, it doesn't necessarily work that way.

Speaking of which, I think we are about a month away from when the full WSOP schedule was released last year. All of the negative variance I am enduring has not dimmed my breathless anticipation for the WSOP. I can't wait to see the schedule. I can't wait to plan my trip. I am still as excited as ever at the prospect of playing in WSOP 2026.

Another quick update.

The last time I reported, my online poker bankroll was about 20% off its high-water mark. Still very profitable, but I was in the midst of a run where my big hands just would not hold up.

Recently, I have started rebuilding my online bankroll with some good results. Finally, my big hands were holding.

I told myself when I got the bankroll back to the prior high-water mark I would take a step up in tournament stakes. I finally reached the target, so tonight I took a step up in stakes. There were 60 entrants. You had to make The Final Table to cash. I made The Final Table. I cashed. I finished in 5th place. I got knocked out on a coin flip (K-Q versus 9-9) for the chip lead. I am now well above my previous high-water mark.

The good results aside, the best part about tonight's tournament is the blinds went up much, much slower than what I have been playing online. It was really nice to play a deep structure. It allowed me to bluff more frequently than usual (but nothing crazy) because losing a single hand was not devastating. For the most part I picked my spots very well, but a bluff gone awry was not a game changer due to the slower, deeper structure. The money bubble was also very interesting in that it lasted a long time since all of the players had healthy chip stacks at the time. I think this much slower structure is very good for my game and my style.

Playing in the much faster structures I have been playing has been useful in that it is good experience for working on my short stack game. But I think the slower structure in the higher stakes tournaments is probably a good idea for my game since it will prepare me much better for the early and middle stages of Day 1 WSOP events, which have a very good amount of play. It was nice to play in (and thrive in) a higher stakes online tourney tonight in which there was more nuanced play than I have grown accustomed to.

I think moving forward I will play a combination of low stakes tourneys to work on my short stacked game as well as the higher stakes tourneys that allow for a more patient approach in the early and middle stages.

Bad beat compound interest

This is not a bad beat story. Well, OK, it is a bad beat story. But the bad beat is not the point of this post. It's the compound interest on the bad beat that makes it a story for me to tell.

Online tourney tonight, 85 players, top 15 get paid. I was card dead the entire tournament until the very last hand. I wasn't dealt a single premium hand. I wasn't dealt a single pair. A-4o was the best hand I saw. I stayed patient and picked my spots very well. Grinding a short stack. Grinding, grinding, grinding. It was like poker root canal. Painful and unpleasant. With 22 remaining I was somehow, someway, inexplicably 12th in chips.

I finally got dealt a premium: Q-Q. A short stack went all-in with 7-8o. A player I barely had covered called with 5-5. I went all-in. Pair of fives called. Giant pot. If my Queens held I would have been third in chips in the tourney. The flop was 7-5-2 rainbow. No one improved on the turn or river. Short stack was eliminated. I was left with crumbs. Set of fives had heaps. I was eliminated shortly thereafter.

As I wrote above, the bad beat is not the point of this post. My reaction in real time is not the point of this post. My reaction later on is the point of this post. Glutton for punishment that I am, I stuck around and watched the rest of the tournament. Naturally, the guy who cracked my Queens went on to win the whole tournament. Bad beat compound interest. It's not just that he delivered a bad beat to me. It's the fact that this catapulted him to the tournament victory.

With my chips.

OK, fine. The chips were never mine. Yes, there was the illusion that they were about to be mine before the flop. But ownership takes place only when the hand is over. Understanding this would have been very mature of me.

I can't claim that I was that mature.

Those were my damn chips he won the tournament with. I'm kidding. Sort of. Not really. My ... damn ... chips!

Thankfully, this only happened to me in an inconsequential online tournament for an inconsequential amount of money. I can't imagine the bitterness of this happening at the World Series of Poker and then having to watch the offending party go on to win the whole tournament. That would be really difficult to get over. I'm not sure I'd ever get over that. No, I am sure. I'd never get over that.

I am impressed that you have the patience and the mental fortitude to do this. As soon as I bust my last tournament in an online session, I am closing the client as soon as possible (preferably on the turn when I am usually drawing dead) and could care less about who wins. In fact, I wish death on all my opponents (apparently a viable strategy in due time) and don't want to know anything about the results.

I have the same mentality for live play as well, although if it's a big tournament it's obviously hard to avoid the results and winner photos etc. But I think it's a somewhat healthy mindset to have in tournament play - as soon as I am eliminated, the tournament doesn't exist anymore.

I like to stick around and watch if there are no new tourneys starting for a bit, or if it was the last tourney of the night worth playing. My reasons are as follows:

1) I genuinely enjoy watching how other people play.

2) I think I can learn a lot from watching how other people play.

3) I especially like watching players who have given me trouble to see how other players try to combat the tricky player's style.

4) It allows me to take notes on players that I have not played against much. This can prove invaluable in a future tournament when I come up against them.

In live play, I agree with you in that I have zero desire to stick around after I get knocked out. But online I find it enjoyable and useful.

Just be a good human!

Tonight’s post is an example of what I think is the right way to play and the wrong way to play (I was not involved in the hand).

Final table, nine-handed. Two of the bigger stacks (let’s call them “The Jerk” and “Nice Guy”😉 go to war on the turn, but both players have a decent amount of chips heading to the river. (FYI, The Jerk's actual screen name makes it clear that not only does he recognize he is a jerk, but he is proud of this fact)

Nice Guy is first to act, and he bets. The Jerk puts him all-in. Nice Guy thinks about it and folds.

OK, nothing bad so far. But then The Jerk shows the bluff. All he had was a busted flush draw and Jack high. Nice Guy folded the winning hand (in chat he later says A-J, but still only Ace high).

I realize showing a bluff breaks no rules. I still think doing so is bad form. It’s the poker equivalent of a defensive end towering menacingly over a quarterback he just sacked for several seconds and talking sh*t. In football that gets a yellow flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. In poker, it is allowed. I get that. I personally would not go on tilt if someone were to show me the bluff, but I get that this could tilt some opponents. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. It especially doesn’t mean I have to respect it.

But showing the bluff was not enough for The Jerk. He had to keep going. In the chat, he just had to stick in the needle. The Jerk then said that had Nice Guy just checked, he (The Jerk) would have simply checked back and the pot would have been Nice Guy’s.

Nice Guy took it all in stride, admitting, “Just had to get greedy.”

The Jerk responded, “Sorry.”

Nice Guy said, “No, that was nice, way to get it thru.”

Hence the name “Nice Guy.”

I know that there is rarely justice in poker, but there was this time around. Not long after the hand I just described, The Jerk played a monster hand against a different player. The Jerk’s A-10 got smoked by the other player’s quad 8s for heaps.

Karma. Poker justice. How do ya like them apples?!!

The run bad is dead!!!!! Long live the run good!!!!!

My run bad (among other things, non-stop losing with K-K if you have been reading along) reached its worst just after New Year’s Day. At that time, my online bank roll high water mark had been $117, but it had slipped down to just a tiny bit over $100. For symbolic reasons, I desperately did not want to dip below $100 into double-digit territory. I was running terrible. My big hands kept getting decimated by mathematically improbable bad beats. Poker hated me. The deck hated me.

Given how bad I was running, the dip in my online bank roll was not terrible. I was losing, but the bank roll hit was fairly nominal. In hindsight, I think I did quite well given how badly I was running.

Then the year 2026 arrived and I have been on absolute fire.

Over the last couple of weeks I have increased my online bank roll by 65%. It seems like every other day I reach a new bank roll high. The $5 that Global Poker gave me for signing up originally has now been increased to $165.97.

The dollar amount is insignificant. It represents well under even a low stakes tourney entry fee at the WSOP. And yet it is significant because of what it means in a non-monetary way. It means progress. It means I am improving. If I were to create a chart of my play the past six months it would show almost non-stop a 45-degree upward arrow with only some minor dips.

I have recently been splitting my time between low roller tournaments that are turbo-ey but are good practice for playing short-stack poker, and higher stakes tournaments (but still not that high) that have a deeper structure. I have been winning in both.

Tonight, I won my third tournament in the six or so months I have been playing online (fields are usually 80-100 players). I started out poorly as a few bluffs all got picked off. I tightened up and slowly rebuilt my chip stack. I picked my spots well. Then I got smashed by the deck. Every time I got to showdown, I had monsters. By the midpoint of the tournament, I was the chip leader. Given that I kept turning over massive hands at showdown coupled with my gigantic chip stack, I now had license to steal since opposing players seemed terrified when I opened pots. And steal I did.

Still short of the money, a new player joined the table two to my left. He was second in chips in the entire tourney. Well, that’s unfortunate. I’m chip leader and second in tourney chips is two to my left and aggressive. I decided to slow down and bide my time. Finally, my patience was rewarded. I had A-K on a A-K-K flop. Villain had A-J and he played for it all post flop and obviously lost everything. I was now the overwhelming chip leader at the start of The Final Table.

Unfortunately, I then went extremely card dead. Up until then I had an aggressive table image. Now I was folding non-stop. Opposing players must have been wondering what was going on. The one advantage of doing so much folding was when I picked spots to steal with rags, people figured I must have a big hand and my bluffs were getting through.

Once we got down to 4- and 3-handed I started opening up my play, which was working. I also started getting dealt some premiums. I had lost the chip lead, but once we got down to head’s up, I again had a slight chip lead and then I won the whole shooting match.

If I am being completely honest, there were a couple of key hands in the tournament where I got it in bad (the other player was all-in) and the deck bailed me out. But I also think I played well. Plus, my big hands all held up, no bad beats.

So, add it all up and you have the following formula for success ...

For the most part quite good cards + no bad beats + the deck was my friend + I think I played well = RUN GOOD!!!!!!

So, what have I learned?

Run good is a lot more fun than run bad (how is that for deep thinking?).

Just when I have a great poker blueprint, some marketing genius F*#ks it all up for me

Just when everything was working so well for me as an online poker player, forces beyond my control have lit my road map on fire.

I thought I had a great poker blueprint. I have been putting in more and more volume on the Global Poker site I have been playing. I have been running very profitably, yet the competition has been good for my level of play. A lot of regulars who play solid, challenging poker. I'm not saying it's The Final Table of the WSOP Main Event, but the players have been the perfect level of skill to push me to improve my game (there are a lot of them whose games I respect). I have been growing my online poker bank roll rapidly, moving up in stakes and getting much better as a player.

Three days ago I went ahead and canceled my poker training site membership since I haven't used it in months while I have focused all of my time playing on the Global Poker site.

Then some marketing genius at Global Poker comes up with the bright idea to allow two re-entries prior to the end of late reg in the tournaments I have been playing. Truth be told, it probably is marketing genius since the number of entrants in these tournaments has increased dramatically the last two nights since the concept went live. Great for the site, horrendous for people like me. It is terrible because the ability to rebuy twice has turned the games into complete sh$t shows. An example. I am in the small blind. Six players limp. I have A-K suited. I raise 6x figuring that should thin the herd. All six players call. Seven of us see a flop. Are you kidding me? The flop is J-8-6 rainbow. I have none of it. I fold while a couple of players go into a raising war. It turns out one player has J-8 off suit (two pairs) and another player has 6-6 (a set). This is not an aberration. Stuff like this happens with regularity. Just baffling decisions are being made and at times rewarded.

Now, you might say, just wait to get A-A if people are going that crazy and playing that wide. That doesn't work either. Aces keep getting cracked when four people see a flop. And I'm talking these Aces are getting cracked by nonsense hands.

Essentially you are playing Keno and just hoping to hit your numbers. And when players miss and go bust, they simply re-enter and re-enter again looking to get lucky. One player at one of my tables kept going all-in pre flop with the worst of it, and five times in a row he made a straight. The last time he did so he beat my set of Aces by hitting runner-runner cards to make the now expected straight. That put me out of the tournament, and one of the other players wrote in chat, "The rest of us have no chance."

It's unplayable. There is nothing to learn from these games. There is no opportunity to get better as a player competing in these games. It's the type of poker that is played in fake money tournaments.

Re-entries by definition don't have to be bad. I embraced the concept at last year's WSOP. But players at the WSOP were nowhere near as spewy as what I have seen at the Global Poker site when armed with the ability to re-enter. Yes, I saw some players at the WSOP re-enter, play crazy, build monster stacks and then set fire to those monster stacks, but it was just a player here or there. It wasn't anywhere the frequency of the table like I have been seeing at Global Poker these last two nights.

Now what do I do?

One possibility is move up in stakes a couple of levels at Global Poker where there do not appear to be re-entries allowed. I'm not thrilled at the prospect of playing at these stakes. To do so, I'll probably have to decrease my volume of play. Then there is the question of whether my game is ready to take on the players at these stakes. I have no idea what the quality of play is at these higher stakes. I'm not intimidated by the prospect of facing better players, so I guess I'm going to have to jump into the deep end of the pool and see if I can swim.

Another possibility is to change poker sites, but I don't have any idea what sites are good and what sites are bad. Plus, I don't want the hassle of getting set up on a new site (because I don't love the idea of playing on unregulated sites, not to mention I'm lazy and don't want the frustration of figuring out technology I'm unfamiliar with). I may have to consider this anyway.

One other possibility is to just stop playing online. I don't want to do that.

A pox on the Global Poker marketing genius who came up with the idea to allow multiple re-entries in the low to lowish stakes Sweeps Coins (real money) tournaments I have been playing. In so doing, he set fire to my carefully crafted poker blueprint.

Time to make a decision in my poker journey

I am at a fork in the road.

The left turn is I continue playing online at Global Poker. The right turn is I completely stop playing at Global Poker and simply show up to the WSOP a little rusty.

Why the all-or-nothing choice?

Global Poker’s brand new decision to allow multiple rebuys in tournaments has absolutely killed the quality of play. The tournaments I had previously been playing in had been freeze outs that were on the turbo-ey side. The blinds went up too quickly, but the tournaments were just deep enough that the play was reasonable. I was consistently making Final Tables, yet there were plenty of good players to challenge me. I felt like I was learning, evolving, improving.

Then Global Poker made the decision to allow two rebuys prior to the end of late registration in a huge percentage of their tournaments, and the quality of play has cratered. I no longer see as many regulars at my tables. Instead, I encounter tons of blasters. Suddenly, it feels like fake money tournaments.

Now, you are probably saying to yourself, if the table is spewy just wait for good cards. Of course that is what I have been doing. Here’s the problem with that. Let’s say I have A-A or K-K or A-K suited UTG. I open the betting. Instead of the raise getting even a modicum of respect, 4-to-5 players call. Against that many callers, even A-A is probably only a coin flip. Someone is going to flop the world and crack the Aces. And it’s not like the four callers have K-K, Q-Q, 10-10, and A-Q suited. There is a lot of nonsense making the pre-flop calls. Why? Because they are hoping to get lucky, and if they don’t and they eventually light this chips on fire, then they can simply re-enter. Let’s say I have A-A UTG, four callers and the flop is K-10-7 rainbow. That’s a pretty nice flop for A-A against only one or two opponents. But against four people playing Bingo not poker, some lunatic is going to have 10-7 for an unlikely two pair.

So, big hands don’t hold up. I’m certainly not going to start playing garbage hands like these players are doing. So, what does that leave?

Here’s the other problem. You can’t bluff during the rebuy period because people are calling absurdly light. Tonight, I had one hand where I was UTG with A-K suited. I opened and four people called. The flop was Q-10-3 rainbow. Everyone checked. I could have bet, but against this many opponents I wanted to see a turn card as cheaply as possible since any A, K or J was probably good for me. The turn was a 2. Given the post-flop passivity I bluffed and got one caller. The river was a 6. I bluffed at it again on a Q-10-6-3-2 board with no flush possible. Villain called and turned over 8-3. Fourth pair and a bad kicker. It was the winning hand, but it goes to show how some of these players would not fold if they had even a small piece of the board. They figure, no big deal calling with fourth pair since they can rebuy again and again if they are wrong.

I don’t have a problem with rebuying at the WSOP, WSOP Circuit or MSPT events. I’ve embraced it after initially being opposed to the concept. While players at these events will open up their games just before the rebuy period ends, they don’t go completely insane like I am seeing a lot of players do on Global Poker. I’m not saying every player on Global Poker is guilty of this, but an awful lot of them are.

Do I think I can beat this game? Yes, I do. While the variance will be higher than usual, when my big hands hold up, I have no doubt I can build a big chip stack against these sorts of spewy players. My online poker bank roll is still very close to my high-water mark, so that’s not the problem.

The problem is, what can I learn from playing in these games? Not much. Do they replicate the play at the WSOP? No. Can I get better playing in these games? No, I do not think I can. If anything, playing in these games is likely to lead to bad habits on my part.

I have stepped up in stakes a couple of levels but the rebuy insanity has been just as pronounced at these higher (but still not big) stakes.

I think what I will do is step up in stakes another level. There are certain tournaments at this level that do not allow rebuys. I’m hoping that will result in a better percentage of good, thinking opponents and a lesser percentage of Bingo players who are simply hoping to get lucky. I want to play in tournaments that can help me prepare for the WSOP. Playing at these higher online stakes will stress my online poker bankroll. I don’t really care about that. My bankroll has 15 entry fees at the stakes I am talking about moving up to. If I lose it all, no big deal. Not ideal bank roll management, but I’m playing with house money as it is. When I joined Global Poker they gave me 5 free Sweeps coins (value $5.00). I have run it up ever since and never had to load any of my own money into my account.

Am I good enough to play at the higher stakes I am contemplating? I think I will be fine, but only time will tell. I’m not looking for the softest games possible. I’m looking for games that can replicate the level of play at the WSOP’s lower buy-in events. I’m looking for games that are not so absurdly spewy. I’m looking for games with solid/quality players that can help me get better. And, if I get a bit beat up playing against better players? Good, that’s how you get better. I can live with that.

And if these higher stakes tournaments are still full of spewy Bingo players? Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that. I hope the absence of rebuys at certain higher stakes tournaments solves the problem. If not, I may have to stop playing on Global Poker. Which would be a shame since I think the volume I have put in on the site prior to this very recent rebuy madness has made me a better player. But I feel pretty certain that playing in the lower stakes tournaments as they are currently set up will only make me worse as a player. That I’m not willing to do.

No chance of getting in any live tournament practice between now and the WSOP ?

There is some live poker that I am trying to get to work with my work schedule. To be determined. If I can make it work, it will take me to a venue I have not played at before.

Unfortunately it looks like the decision to continue on Global will be made for you - the state sent a cease and desist order to the site a few days ago: https://igb.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi...

Access to the site will likely be cut off relatively soon, would recommend cashing out your balance when you can.

Mini trip report alert! Mini trip report alert!!! Mini trip report alert!!!!!!!!!

OK, fine. I didn’t actually leave my house, but this still feels trip report worthy.

As you know if you have been reading along in my thread, I have recently been unhappy with Global Poker and its decision to add multiple rebuys to the lower stakes tournaments I have been playing. The result of rebuy madness has been that the tournaments have become ridiculous shove fests with many players doing so with any two cards.

My solution was that I was going to start playing in higher (but hardly huge) stakes in which there weren’t rebuys in some of them. Specifically, I was going to target $11 tournament entry fees. But are the $11 tournaments that much better in caliber?

Leon has commented that I need more gamble in me, so what the heck, let's give it a whirl.

I went online and couldn’t find any $99 tournaments starting soon. But I did find a $55 tourney, so I signed up to play.

A new experience for me in my poker journey.

Ten thousand chips to start. Levels last longer than the lower stakes tourneys I've been playing. It’s all good.

I got off to a poor start. It’s all not so good. First hand of the tourney I was dealt K-10 suited. Not a monster, but it folded to me so I opened. I then got raised, and I called. I missed on the flop and folded to a bet. In fairly short order, I was down to 7,500 chips. The players at my table were aggressive (but not insane) and they weren’t respecting my opens. This was exactly what I wanted. Good opponents who made things tough on me, but they weren’t being crazy Bingo players going all-in with 2-7 off suit. This was a chance to test myself and to learn.

I decided to tighten up since the table was not respecting my opens. I was dealt A-A and doubled up to 15,000 when there was an Ace on the flop and my opponent had A-J. It’s all good.

Then I came back to starting stack when I had K-K and was good until the river when villain made his straight. It’s all not so good.

I then hit a stretch where I was getting premium cards, they were connecting with the board and I wasn’t suffering bad beats. Next thing I knew, I had over 30,000 chips.

This tournament was exactly what I wanted. Good opponents, a deep structure, good cards for me.

To show you how well I was running, I was dealt 5-5 on the button. UTG opened. UTG+1 raised huge. I decided the price to play the hand was too big for a set mining hand. I folded. The flop was 5-7-K. UTG+1 had 7-7. I surely would have gone bust set versus set had I seen the flop.

I made the money with a healthy stack. I made The Final Table (8-handed) fifth in chips.

I then proceeded to go completely card dead. We were still extremely deep. So, I simply was patient, stole occasionally and didn’t press. It took almost an hour before the first person at The Final Table was eliminated. The play was far superior to the tournaments I have been playing. With six players remaining, I was dealt A-A and I knocked out a player. I got a short burst of quality cards and I took over the chip lead by a pretty decent margin. Then I suffered a couple of second-best hands, and the best player at the table inched ahead of me for the chip lead.

Then came the hand that decided the tournament.

Blinds 1,250/5,000. Five-handed.

Small blind was the player who began the Final Table second in chips, was in sleep mode the entire time and folded into third place ($397.50). Started the hand with 57,729 chips.

Big Blind was the best player at the table. He had been pounding my big blind relentlessly. Started the hand with $185,349 chips.

Hijack was a pretty passive player of late. Was folding a ton. Started the hand with 66,304 chips.

Cutoff was also a passive player of late. Was folding a ton. Started the hand with 71,047 chips.

Button: Me (rppoker). Started the hand with 149,571 chips.

The Hijack and Cutoff both folded pre flop.

I had Ah-Js, and I opened the betting 7,500 chips.

SleepMode from the small blind obviously auto folded.

TheBestPlayerAtTheTable just called from the big blind. There were 17,825 chips in the middle.

The flop was 4s-5d-6s. No help to me but when I showed aggression, the table had been folding. Yes, this flop obviously hit villain’s range and completely missed mine, but I thought a bet could end the hand then and there. My opponent checked, I bet 10,000 chips and Villain called. There were 37,825 chips in the middle.

The turn was the Jh. I now had top pair, top kicker. My opponent checked, I bet 28,368 chips, villain called. There were now 94,561 chips in the middle. I still had 103,388 chips remaining, villain had 139,166.

The river was what seemed like a harmless 9c. The board now read 4s-6s-5d-Jh-9c. Villain instantly went all-in, which would put me all-in if I called.

Should I be concerned, I asked myself. On the one hand, villain had been targeting me for an extended period of time, and I had top pair, top kicker. If I call and I’m right, I am a massive, massive favorite to win the entire tournament (first place $861.25). If I call and I’m wrong I’m out in fifth place ($198.75). If I fold, I’d still have 50-100% more chips than the other players (second place is worth $556.50). Does ICM dictate I should fold? Yes, villain’s range connected with the flop much, much more than my range, but just how light could villain have called my pre flop bet?

Ultimately my thinking was I don’t see how I can ever hope to win tournaments if I am folding top pair, top kicker to a player who has been displaying relentless aggression against me. I called.

I was wrong.

Villain had 4c-9s for two pair.

I was out in fifth place ($198.75). Did I commit ICM suicide? I mean, I probably could have folded to second place ($556.50). But the goal is not second place. The goal is first place. The reality is, what was villain thinking calling my pre flop, post flop and turn bets when all he had was 4-9 for bottom pair? The river bailed him out.

I will leave it to the more learned members of LVL to chime in on whether I should have folded to or called the river all-in bet.

I don’t think I’m good enough to read villain as having 4-9 and getting there on the river. I’m interested to hear what others think I should have done.

You brought it up so I think you already sort of know the answer, but yes imo it was a bad ICM decision. You have 3 players with less than half of your chips.

If I'm being completely honest, in the moment I was thinking, "I'm going to win this tournament!" I did not consider ICM. That's a major leak of mine. I make decisions too quickly. It's something I need to work on. In my defense, online you don't have a ton of time to make a decision, but there is still more time than I actually take. Plus, when playing live I also act too quickly on significant decisions. It's something I need to work on.

This really, really, really sucks

Well, if the state of Illinois is taking the stance that SweepsCoin online tournaments are illegal via cease and desist orders to the SweepsCoin sites, then I'm done with Global Poker. I'm not going to wait to see how this plays out. I'm out. I've played my last online hand in the state of Illinois.

This sucks. I really feel like I have been improving thanks to playing five or more nights a week. Now that goes away. This sucks. I was moving up in stakes and was about to take a big jump up in stakes. Now that goes away. Volume is no longer available to me. This sucks.

I don't understand the government hate for online poker. Poker is legal in casinos, so why is it illegal online? I mean, online sports betting is legal, so why is poker illegal online? The distinction makes no sense.

The distinction, I guess, is that the government says so. Why? I have no earthly idea. Just because.

It's like online poker, and online poker alone, somehow has pissed off the lawmakers.

Why the government doesn't legalize online poker baffles me. Legalize it, regulate it, tax it.

Alcohol is legal. Cannabis is legal. A cancer-inducing cigarette is legal. Sports betting is legal. Poker in casinos is legal. But online poker is somehow the thing that is going to lead to the decay and ruination of society as we know it?

It's illogical. It's unfair. It's maddening.

This sucks.

Keeping me sane is the Michigan basketball team.

My Wolverines are an absolute killing machine. Ranked #2 in the nation. Only one loss all season so far.

They just dismantled hated rival Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.

My younger daughter who graduated from Kansas recently asked me if she and I can go to the national championship game together if either of our schools get that far. The answer of course was yes.