On parole and on my grind
I was released about a month ago after serving seven years in prison for a violent crime. Prior to my incarceration I was an average slightly winning poker player, with most of my money coming from various businesses. In the near future I'll be residing in Northern California (bay area), and I'm here to keep myself accountable to getting my life on track.
I will be starting some part-time work soon to satisfy terms of my parole, but in the meantime I've deposited 500 on clubwptgold (poutmouth). And have about 2000 more I have access to play in live games or to deposit online. I have no expenses, the money for poker is for poker and money I earn from part-time work can be added to my bankroll.
My Goal: Have 25k by the time I come off parole in February 2026.
Poker has evolved quite a bit since I went away in terms of solvers, however, my fundamentals are there and I'll begin studying asap. During my incarceration I played some online poker on my cell phone, ended up getting banned when they wanted me to take a selfie with my ID and I did using my prison ID (I also got my cell searched a few days later and lost said cell phone). I played a lot of poker in prison, and that's a whole story in itself, but I know I am a bit rusty.
I'll be single tabling on Clubwptgold and playing 2/3/5 in the bay area when the timing is right. I went with Club wpt gold and signed up using Doug Polk's promo code to get a piece of his 100k challenge, and mostly because Doug Polk was my favorite player my entire poker life, and he was super friendly this one time I met him IRL. I understand I have a high risk of ruin by poker standards, but from my point of view as long as I don't violate parole and stay out of prison, I am winning. Feel free to ask me any questions.
Wish me luck!
Just finished playing heads up. Went up 5-6 buy ins on my opponent. The person called me down light a lot because I bluffed with over pot sized bets in small pots but always having it in big pots. Opponent didn't adjust and just believed every over bet was a bluff when it wasn't. Of course I'm sure I'm running well too, but it feels good all the same.
Account starting: 500
-200 pending test withdraw
Currently at: 5082 so +5282 overall.
Had to adjust for the rake which felt kind of high by using a 3x open otb when 100bb+. When under 100bb I went to a 2x open and open folded a lot more on the button. My opponent open folded his button a lot and went with a 3x open no matter what his stack was so I defended tighter than usual range when under 100bb but widened my 3bet range just a bit. I limped the button when he got under 40bb a lot more than I usually would but 3 betting even wider.
Also I cbet this session with a smaller sizing, went with 25-30% pot a lot because villain was overfolding imo. Then I would 60-85% the turn if called and my range was ahead of my opponent. Also noticed villain seemed to autofold all flops that had an ace (unless he had one). I think my opponent should've 3bet me more often in the bb vs calling my opens.
Back to 200nl 8max with my stats showing 52% vpip. Hopefully a standard tag style will be profitable.
This 200nl 8max is .50/1/2 (.50 ante) so it really plays bigger than a regular 200nl. Being from bay area every casino plays a 3 blind game and I'm finding a lot of people are playing too tight not accounting for the extra blind and antes. They're playing like 15%/20% too nitty imo.
I've put in 3000 hands playing fr/hu so far which is enough for me to see how much I underappreciated playing in position. I played online a little bit before my incarceration and while in prison, but this is the first time I put in any sort of volume online.
One thing I have to say is I like how the site only allows one tabling. You can change tables when the game is bad and not have to see the same 7 people at another table, like at other sites.
