"The Pen:" Live NLHE Chat Thread

I have also thought of the 2p2 legend known as SABR recently. Sending good vibes.

Also sending good vibes to my bro RTP.

yeah thats the stone cold nuts. I have a buddy who's made 3 trips to play there.. he says i absolutely have to make a trip myself.

Speaking of abyss, I have recently quit live poker for good.

I have a few days left in the mountains here in Black Hawk and I'm staying away from cards.

I'm banned from MGM properties anyway 😃

Going to begin my new life as a Door Dash driver / freelance writer / investing guru in-training

I feel immensely less burdened without the drive to play every day!!!

😃

Good luck on your new journey without poker. If you don't mind me me asking, what was the significance of poker in your life post-COVID up until you quit poker for good recently?

I'm curious because my poker friends and I also have complicated relationships with live poker where we sometimes want to play a lot but also sometimes want to take a break from live poker

I also hope that SABR42 is doing OK so far during this holiday season.

I played intermittently, as much as I could. A little over 500 hours per year.

A constant question of, "Why am I doing this?" was asked internally. I always seem to have anxiety before sessions, always amplified walking through the casino feeling over stimulated. And I often felt a ton of presure on my shoulders while I was playing. It stopped being fun a while ago. I went on a small/normal downswing... I used to get excited to dig out of being buried, the game has become such a sloth's chore and an intellectual dead end for me (1/2 and 1/3 is not brain surgery) so much that I had to quit.

I'll probably take a break from online too when I get back home to legal michigan poker. Feeling consumed by hand histories is an awful way to use my brain.

Now that I've had my fill of you,
I'll give you up forever.

And here I go, far away, I know
You'll find another slave.

Best wishes to SABR and Tuma going forward.

Tuma, if you're passing through Denver on the way back, feel free to give me a shout if you'd like to go for a beer/coffee/meal/whatever.

I'll probably hit about ~460 hours of live 1/3 NL this year, which is about ~100 hours shy of what I was ~averaging pre Covid (at one session per week) but i think a much sweeter spot for me now (at two much shorter sessions per week as of 2024).

I'll hit 7000 hours of live 1/3 NL about a half way thru next year. The one thing I've become aware of (and will most likely be the main takeaway of that upcoming poast) is that I've pretty much never taken a break since I started playing 1/3 NL in 2010. Other than the two enforced Covid breaks, I've ~almost literally never missed a week of playing a session. I still very much enjoy the outings, even in this horrendous 2025 where I'll be shipping a solid 3rd worse year ever (not including Covid lol sample size years) and short of minimum wage. It helps that I haven't been on a downswing / Abyss ($1500+) since 2017.

GcluelessbalancedlifenoobG

That's mind-boggling to me. I play a pretty low variance style, and I recall the standard deviation on our results being pretty similar back when bip! was doing variance calcs. Nonetheless, I've been on downswings that big at 1/1, much less 1/3. Heck, that's my session stoploss when I play 2/5.

+1

endbosses gonna endboss

[email]BcoachingavailableatGGlimptrap.netB[/email]

I may play a few more times this year. Added up my 2025:
Time: -525
Poker: +1013 (-1200 the last 2 sessions)
Profit: +488
Hours: 45.5 ($10.73 hourly, wheeee!)

Should I go pro? Should I start an AMA?

It's honestly mind boggling to me too. I've come close to the $1500 threshold (my own definition of a "downswing" at 1/3 NL, lol @ me, ldo) a handful of times since 2017, but I've never actually crossed it. Only a matter of time tho. Although I really think my 0% raising in ~HJ- method is the key to low variance (and perhaps my mediocre winrate).

My guess is my SD is even lower now. I was a maniac back then compared to now. I think it was V who once commented that ~all of our profit is with like top 5% hands + the Button, and I kinda rolled my eyes at that @ the time, whereas now I kinda think V is a maniac (i.e. that's how nitty I'm playing now).

GcluelesslowvariancenoobG

If I still have my job in 2028, I'll be coming to your neck of the woods for a tradeshow, and I won't be leaving until I get in that LRR against you. 😀

GcluelessplayingpokerwithbobnoobG

riddle me this: how do you limp/reraise an always-limper?

Spoiler

Show

definitely lemme know if you make it to town!

played with an old man who was very nice and friendly and seemingly a decent player despite that he had a limping range

twice he limp 3! heavily with hands like QQ

if he weren't a reg i would have asked him if he were GG

You ever get up north of the border RR?

Was down in your neck of the woods earlier this year to catch a Kraken game.

GcluelessSeattlepokernoobG

Pretty proud of this one. 1/2, One Eyed Jack's in Sarasota.

Preflop: I straddle $5 UTG. Bluffy McBlufferton raises to $10. He's internalized the "always raise first in" piece of poker advice, but the concept of positional awareness is totally lost on him, which means that this raise could be anything we all might limp in with on the button in a family pot. He's shown down K2s and 96o in early position before. It gets a call from the BB and I defend my straddle with 9♣ 2♣ getting 5-1.

Flop: ($31) 9♥ J♦ 3♣

I check, Bluffy bets $25. The other player folds and I call.

Turn: ($81) 6♦

Check, check.

River: ($81) 3♥

I check, Bluffy bets $100, I tank-call. Bluffy shows T8o and MHIG.

yeah i def set mine when I see these 40% vpip+ at 200bbs +

also I have opened wide with my top 6-7% hands and also with KQs ive adjusted with what jack said earlier.

obv most flops are x/f if its 4+ players on flop for me sinceim not great post flop nd fact its whiff its whatever.

I really don’t want to get into much strategy, but having a limp range in some games is a perfectly acceptable strategy.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it tilted the f out of me because had he opened i would have just called with 77 and stacked him on a 772 flop where he got in his queens vs jacks (the jacks player would never raise pre unless aces) and the second time he did it i also had 77 and that time it didn't go to a flop so we'll never know

he was directly on my right so i was the biggest victim of it and he balanced it well once being the 3rd limper as well as normal limping so it wasn't so obvious what would transpire the way it is with others

Anyone have off forum contact info for SABR? Would like to check on how he's doing and let him know people are thinking of him.

I reached out to him via text on the number I have for him.

I’m on Facebook with him but he hasn’t been active on there for 6 months

I thought I had his number but i do not. We must’ve coordinated over private messages when we met up years ago.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, mang. Please pass my best.