My poker story

I played a really long session today. I think the longest one I've remember playing in the last 10 years...maybe the longest live session I've ever played. I sat back in a game at 10am. Just drivign home now and it's 2:40AM. I made $900 today in a combination of $1/$3 & $2/$5. I didn't touch a casino game. I didn't touch a craps game. I went outside for a walk after eating a salad. I drank water today at the tables. I didn't order a beer. I got a haircut today. I ate a multivitamin. I'm eating an apple on the way back that I packed in advance so I wouldn't be tempted by fried cold chicken at Kwik Trip or gas station sushi. I'm not a dirtbag poker player, I am a professional & I'm going to start acting like it. This weekend altogether made $600 after having lost about $300 Friday. Time & pressure, consistency, stay the course. Bring the best version of myself in all paths of life. Trust the process. Commit to the journey. Believe in myself. Called down a chest breather on my right who looked nervous. Called down an ear scratcher across the table......and folded a set of 22's on a 2 6 9 two tone flop to a nice young man across the table who had a set of 99's. Yes....folding flopped sets in NLHE cash. Don't do it often but I've done it before & Ill do it again. Let's get it.

Just got seated in a $5/$10 NLHE game $500 - $5000 game in Milwaukee. Biggest stack is $8k. Have $5k on me, playing with $2k stack. Taking a quick wiz & slamming some street taco's & some coffee. Was low on energy hadn't eaten much today. Played for about 15 minutes already. First impressions of table is they are exploitable. Playing too tight pre table seems scared. Might be bad idea to try and run over a 5/10 table but may be the move. Haven't played in a 5/10 game iin a very long time. If i lose $2k might rebuy might walk...let's get it

I'm seat 9 have $1500ish after 3 betting in position twice and shutting down on the turn after getting called on flop with dust. Also called a raise MP and then folded. Have that image. I get 9h10h in SB. $40 raise MP. Button calls. I make it $200. MP calls and button folds. Flop 9 9h Q rainbow. I bet $250 and get a call. Turn 7h. I check call $520 turn bet. Jam blank river get a call by AQ and double. Lose back a few hundred next hand with 10's after 3 betting and shutting down on a J K 7 flop into 2 player. Have about $2800ish. Table seems a bit soft except 2 players across from me...

Just doubled up through big stack. $5,000+ stack. We are cooking. Chugged another coffee I’m getting tired but table is too juicy a guy who is heated after getting sucked out on by table fish…..drunk belligerent guy who is about 4 beers in and counting. Going to crash at casino hotel may be a long night few players hopping on wait list

Played late into the AM. Table action continued with loose action and a drunk guy who eventually donked it off. Table died shortly after. Didn’t get much going after the double. Was sitting with $5300 stack at one point biggest amount I’ve ever played with live at once. Also won biggest live cash game pot with the dounle. But tightened up quite a bit after that waiting for premium hands that didn’t happen. Went to the cage with $4870 for $2870 win. Didn’t fall asleep until about 4am and have to check out in a few. Gonna hop in shower grab a bite go for a walk and find a poker game to play in.

Hey man,

Its been a long time since I've read a 2+2 thread in one sitting. Only took me about few hours, but definetely no complains haha. Great stuff, wishing you all the best.

Greetings from Lithuania!

I appreciate that! All the way from Lithuania…hell yeah.

Right now it's mid 80's in Wisconsin....and I feel fantastic. Amazing what healthy habits, a bit of exercise, and sunshine can do for us. By the time I got back to the casino around 1130ish only $1/$3 games were running. I sat down in one...played for about 3 hours. Bought in for $305. Was playing too aggressive got down to about $130. Then built that up to $400 after snap calling a guy with AKos on a 7 8 4 board with 89os as pf aggressive and getting check raised all in on flop...not sure what he was thinking I bet enough on the flop where I'd have to call. Maybe he read my weakness...not sure. Anyways, hand immediately after getting back up to $400ish I get aces. I raise $15 and get 3bet to $60. Smallish stack jams for $120. I rejam all in. Get called and am covered. We get it into aces vs kings vs queens. I say no King please and sure enough on flop K in the iwndow and I don't improve. Get stacked. I say nice hand even though he slowrolls me & just leave. Was thinking about rebuying but was kind of just annoyed at that spot. I don't tilt as much in game but do get frustrated in those ugly spots....but it's whatever that's math.

Decdied to just drive back home & hang out the rest of the night. Going to ride my bike over to the gas station a mile down the road to get a snack or something. Just got back. Going to enjoy the rest of the night & then watching football tomorrow in bed. I'll be back soon enough.

Sounds like a good weekend - and no mention of hitting the craps tables or sports betting.

Have you tried going full time pro in your younger days?

When I was about age 16 - 25 definitely had the pipedream of being a poker pro. But I’ve always had bills over my head and hadn’t started making decent money until lately. I’ve played pretty consistently though for side income or to get out of the house. Every time I was close to breaking out when I was making **** for money I would catch a bad run of the deck.

Black Friday also killed a lot of my options. There were times my freshmen year in college I’d play the entire weekend straight not sleep at all turn $50 into $5k sit $5k heads up $25/$50 flop a king high flush ship it and lose it to an ace high flush. Couldn’t even afford a bag of chips was paying for tuition with student loans but there I was playing $25/$50 heads up on full tilt poker. I have run so badly in so many big spots in my life there was a time I thought I was the unluckiest player ever. Granted bankroll management is a critical component of being a pro…never was good at that I am hyper aggro. Always want to try and get $50k cash before I take things too serious. I was a loser for many years I thought I was good but I wasn’t. Not sure I had the skills even bankroll management aside to be pro. Eventually I learned what worked and what doesn’t through losing.

All that was available to me local after Black Friday were $2/$100 spread games in Minnesota since they can’t play NLHE there. I fell in love with Vegas when I went there in my younger 20s during a road trip….that was the Golden Age of poker I could have stayed there had I had even $10k to my name. But I was broke still in college and went back to Wisconsin. Glad I did.

Green Bay & Milwaukee have best NLHE rooms in Wisconsin, and hadn’t been around that area until I graduated. Not sure I’d want to go pro though. I like having a guaranteed income full benefits retirement and the freedom to play when I want. I’m unsure if I could make $100k a year playing cash games, or if I’d even want to try. I saw pretty quickly into that reality of what being pro would look and feel like, and decided to put my energy into something else. I don’t think playing poker professionally as sole income is very smart, and I definitely wouldn’t try to do it in 2025. If I did I’d move to an Asian country or outside US to try it. Poker is definitely different now then when I had first started playing. I was a Chris Moneymaker inspired product before bots and solvers existed, when people had “playing styles” and when you could rail Durrrrrrrrr in the nosebleeds, and go to your bookstore and buy Super System and learn enough theory to crush the average player. These days poker is not that. It’s far from it. But I do see a younger generation of kids coming to the tables more and it’s interesting to see. I think online poker is gone forever with the AI and bots and solvers, but live poker is still very much alive. It’s more of my style anyways

Appreciate your response and honesty.

How about jumping into live MTT scene and chasing that huge score? You have great fundamentals and feel for live reads (as you mentioned), so pretty sure you would do better than most donkies in the live donkaments scene.

You know - I may do that. There's definitely some fundamental differences between cash & mtt's. When it's deep it seems to play pretty similar but once you get down to the final table and blinds start to go up I'd probably do some guessing. I think I have a good natural sense of push shove range but some of the tournament edge is pure math. But tournaments are fun. One of the only tournaments I played last 5 years I made the final table on. It was that $60 one at Island last Spring. Should have won that one too but I think I made a mistake at the final table. I like the idea of a big score. I dislike the idea of having to grind for hours at a time if I don't want to play. I think my biggest edge is live reads, but another big part of my edge in poker is knowing & recognizing when something in me is off, and being able to step away from the table when I need to. I've gotten very good at just walking away from a game very shortly after I recognize I'm not playing well or I take a bad run of the deck. Sometimes I'll push through it if I'm feeling it, but most of the time if I'm running poorly or the game isn't right I'll just leave. In tournaments you have to fight through & persevere, you don't have the privilege of being able to choose the players or the game...that combined with some of the guessing I'd be doing I don't think I'd have as great of an edge. Sure likely greater an edge than most casuals who'd show up, but far from the human bulldozer I've become at a NLHE cash game. But this year I do want to play more tournaments. I'll play in some soon! I'll give away from free small sweats to those who have posted in my thread too when I decide to play a few for the shits & giggles ...you included. Another thing is I'd probably have to go to Rivers, Chicago or Canterbury Park, MN to play in anything bigg-ish as GB & Milwaukee are more cash game rec rooms than tournament rooms. They have some here and there but rarely. MSPT comes through Milwaukee though. Vegas is a short & cheap flight too for a weekend....hmmmm.

Variance in MTTs sucks, but having a deep run or making FT is where all the fun begins (well, dopamine and $$ as well). On the other hand, grinding for multiple hours and chipping up just to lose a 60/40 or 50/50 flip is what makes tournies such a pain in the ass sometimes.

Based on your overall insights and HHs, I do believe your natural agro tendencies should work just fine in MTTs world. Applying max pressure in early stages, light 3b/4betting, squeezing, knowing when to fold, when to nit up, whom to target, etc. You know what I mean.

Regarding some spots, positions, stack sizes, its a bit different, yeah. I'd recommend to try some drills in GTOwizard (lets say, for 20-30bb push fold ) or play some lower field MTT just to get a better understanding and tendencies.

It still amazes me how this thread is not getting more recognition. I guess people nowadays are too invested for bullshit ass reads haha. Well, keep us updated sir!

I love this comment. This type of comment gets me juiced up. But I couldn't have chosen a worse name for a thread than "my poker story", so that doesn't help...another reason could be Youtube content is more entertaining in 2025 than reading for most people. Regardless, doesn't matter much to me. While it would be cool to get some recognition or finding a seat into a televised cash game at some point like Hustler Casino Live, at the end of the day, I just like sharing my story for the sake of it & love of the game. I remember I was inspired by Matt Moore's legendary two plus two thread "Another Kid Another Dream" (https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/108/l...). I read that bitch in one day. I read a few others as well, but Matt was one of the few that really motivated me to start playing more live poker....and he'd planted a seed in the back of my head of maybe having something like his one day. But, I'm going to give some MTTs a try very soon. That's a great idea & could serve as the fuel I need to launch myself into high stakes. Let's get it.

I guess its better to find your target audience (me) than some random freerollers haha. Sadly, nowadays 2+2 is not what it used to be back in the day.

Man, now you got me hooked with Matt Moore's thread as well, lol. What a read!

That being said, have you checked any MTTs already?

Yeah, Matt Moore had been my poker idol. A good portion of whatever success I've had or will have can be credited to him for the inspiration.

As far as MTT's, **** it yes let's try a few...looks like Canterbury Park, in Minnesota, my old card room where I played when I lived in that area, has a Fall Poker Classic and upcoming tournaments. There's an $1,100 $300k GTD main on Saturday 10/18, then into Sunday 10/19 if you cash. Im gonna play that one. I'll get a cheap room in Shakopee for $70 or whatever bucks at the Super 8 (where I've literally seen a crackhead climb out of the window before). I'm going to give 5 people that have already posted in my thread 1% of my action, and up that to 2% if I make the final table. There's a few people who have encouraged me along the way or shown a nice gesture, so it'll be those 5 guys, you being one. I'll post those names on the way up there that weekend. Not much but if I win it would be fun. That'll actually be the next time I play since this weekend I'm going to visit Parents & do some fishing. Be back then...let's get it.

Going to play that one. That was last year's 2024 champion & prize pool. It would be cool to get a trophy of some type. I took a tournament down from there once. Nothing big it was like $600 or something with 90 players. Made a final table that afternoon in another tournament the same day..it was like a $120 with $25 bounty or something. Haven't played many live tournaments but the few I've played I've done decently well in.

I'm going to free roll 1% action (with 2% if final tabled) to these guys:

(1) amatola
(2) ThaHero
(3) WPNdonk
(4) swerbs22
(5) BalticGuy

Not even sure if some of those guys are still following or not but if they get a piece worth $ I'll PM message them and it'll be good forever. If anyone else wants to buy a piece let me know.

That 1k main looks well structured and juicy (100+ x for such tourney is always decent). GL and may the run good be with you, sir!

Please share some interesting HHs/spots so we could discuss. I' been playing low-mid MTTs online for quite some time so might be able to give you some advices if needed!

Thanks for the action! Yeah I'm still following your thread, one of my favorites in PBG!

Planning to head to Vegas with family on the 25th so any little bit will help my bankroll. GL in the tourney!

I've been reading/lurking in here still, just posting less as I've been trying hard to grind up my roll again and do more studying. Going well so far. Maybe I should start a thread, been thinking about it... ��

Agree with Baltic too, thread deserves more recognition haha. But to each their own.

Hell yeah! Start one. It’s fun. I don’t remember half the **** that happened in my poker journey so being able to look back is personally beneficial and has helped me identify life patterns or poor habits. Everyone you play against at a poker table wants to take your money, so it’s nice to share the wins and the ups and downs with two plus twoers. Dreams and goals are what makes life tolerable….

I got a good feeling about this one though. Variance is an inevitable thing, but maybe this one is destiny. Let’s get it

I’ve started running some short stack sims in GTO Wizard to get sharper with late stage spots. It’s been helpful for reinforcing some of the push/fold intuition I already had, but also exposing a few leaks…and putting more thought into some of the 12 bb -20 bb stuff. Gonna head over Friday after work takes about 5 hours to get there. Might even risk herpes by using the hotel hot tub. The reality of tournament poker is I’ll probably bust, but I could use a short trip away for a weekend. I think it’s important to convince yourself you’ll win before hopping into these things and then worry about the fallout after. Looking forward to the work week ending…will grab a grape Kickstart, turn on some Free Bird, and head to Canterbury Park to take this trophy down.

Hey, very kind of you. Cashing and not catching herpes sounds like the go to play ��. Plenty up top there, yikes. Good luck.

Not gonna play the tourney. Something bad happened that’s personal and don’t really wanna talk about. It’s GG for a while though. Not gambling or job related, something with family. I know when to push and when to pull, and it’s time I shut the door.. if I ever run up a 6 figure roll I’ll come back until then would appreciate no replies just let the thread sink into the graveyard

Good luck