Mix game journey

Ye i recall and ye chino just has infinite bullets into everything. Dpeters stuff is certainly surprising - i feel Hayley is such a big rake, u know what i mean? Tourney poker is a diff industry. I got to know McKeehan kinda well lately and we text a bunch about this stuff too - my conclusion is - for me to win a milly, i'll grind 7 yrs of cash. if things go well maybe 5 yrs; if i overpit or get "overraked", maybe 10+ yrs. I don't dream of hitting a seven figure score in tournament. I had my fun w it - i made a measly 20k in two years and lost about 10k in backing ppl. but hey i do have a Wynn trophy!

With high roller scene, i think you've mentioned it - ive heard it elsewhere too that Ike just puts a ton of ppl in. But to ppl whos not involved its all hearsay and we'll never know whats up. When Jesse lonis outed the guy from i think chicago for owing him 70k, i talked briefly w him and thats when i found out that alex foxen was backed. Jesse mentioned the guy's name but i cant recall.

Remember Zamani talked about Bryn's stable situation back then; now looking back, to the ppl in the industry it's so normal but to me in college it was a shocking revelation. And obv now I personally know some Chinese stables for GG, wsop, etc. it's sickening and r3tard3d.

at the end end end end of the day theres a lot facade and mirage associated w gambling (not just tourney poker) - owing money is only the tip of the iceberg isnt it - just focus on yourself. I'm always going to be honest w myself and it wouldnt sit right w me if i owe any individual any money in any form (which is funny cuz the bitch from sacramento used in court the text message of me saying i owe her as proof without providing context that i texted those things under her threat and coercion).

I reread your post and murky is such a good word. Its such a sexy word, giving ppl the illusion of deriving whats behind the scenes while the truth could be miles away.

I think this is the part of academia i began to abhor as i get deeper n deeper into it. Open your brain tank Ted, heres some premium 91-octane knowledge: when einsteins general relativity was being tested experimentally there was an expedition led by a famous physicist whose name i forgot to test i wanna say the perihelion of mercury; or maybe its one of those angles from the Sun, whatever. Anyway, turned out the data was faked from the expedition but there were so many experiments that theirs were swept under the rug. I go on the archive sites for preprints of publications before they potentially go into journals - man, there are sooooo many trash research articles out there.

Here's the analogy i try to make by giving that example -

The public gets to see the "beauty" of science, how honorable and majestic certain subject is while in reality there's much darkness behind it.

The public gets to see the hendons and the 7, 8 even 9 figure "success stories" while truthfully it just aint so.

In politics, in sporting events, in gaming communities, in fashion industry, in journalism, oh my...

i have this skill, this know-how, to be a gambler, to be a poker player. I like to think it's my calling in a way haha since i grew up on mahjong and 5card stud in China. Be there when i play 50k ppc one of them years and i will have 100% of myself, ty!

Another great post. Pretty sure I played vs McKeehan in the online cash streets in PA years ago. It seems crystal clear that the viable path in poker for long term sustainability, both financially and emotionally/mentally, is through +EV cash games. You can just never owe or be backed, and always have at least some money, maybe even large amounts of money, if you go this route over pursuing the starlight of tournament poker. That’s what keeps me so intrigued by the live high roller tournament scene…the fact that seemingly a lot of smart people who are much more skilled than I am at NL Hold Em are choosing to spend their time largely battling against each other. Biggest argument in favor of doing this I can see is this opening up revenue opportunities for off the table, marketing yourself (coaching, sponsorship, etc). I can’t really see any other rational reason for choosing to do this over finding and playing in profitable cash games, maybe I’m missing something here.

Not surprised when I heard Ike backs everyone. He won heaps back in the pre Friday days online, I heard he banked most of Bonomo’s sun run 5 years ago also. Crazy world this poker world…

Bonomo is a great shout. Do you remember the video he put out two years ago saying he's battling for small evs against the best in the world responding to Jaffe. love it.

Last yr my buddy n i walked past the studio - we crept in during a pgt series and it was just a field of who's who. He is a very studied tourney player and he said exactly "why on earth would any of them come here and play against this field?" Then later, i played a handful of 5ks there myself unfortunately only cashed one - i do feel that the competition is at a different level, altho it doesnt hold much weight coming from me since i really dont have the experience. It would be sooo interesting to see a list of everyones track record there.
There might be higher ev grinding $600 dailies vs nonames!!!!

But obv higher roller aint just pgt. If we talk about triton, it is my belief that the edge could be enormous. asian whales yum yum. i see some of the rich chinese jap or korean players play - horrendously bad. but eh who'm i to say - their single hand in bacc in macau is my whole bankroll....i like the saying "there's levels to this ****", mostly refering to skills, but ye, also financially...duong!

once i take care of personal stuff and can play cards carefree, i be different then, i be more experienced then, bad, i been chopping trees done wrestle w an alligator tussle w whale handcuff lightning throw thunder in jail, imma show U how great i am!

I read this on primedope btw - "Tournament variance dwarfs cash game variance. A winning MTT player with a 30% ROI can easily go 200+ tournaments without a significant cash. The simulator above shows this isn’t bad luck — it’s expected math." Obv this is written towards to ppl who's capable of comprehend the meaning. But we glamorize and show the general public the highs of tourney poker and then you have people feed into this drug. It's fun to see how the industry develops until you become a victim of it yourself either through financial loss or having some sort of trust broken.

It’s like Joey Knish said “maybe this is a game can be beat, but you know you can beat the 10-20 at the chesterfield and the high low at that goulash joint”

Lotta wisdom there. You never advance without taking a shot once in awhile, but you also need to just win at the game you know you can beat.

i somewhat regret my decision moving outta sacramento while beating the 5-10(-20) plo there but tbh i only made the best decision imo w my limited experience back then and who's to say that my life would be better or worse if i had made a diff choice. The only thing is i wish i had done was just man up and dropped out of school and moved in w the host of the capitol casino games. She was very kind to me and I did live w her briefly which was amazing and when she comes to vegas we do hang out. But aside from her and my interaction w a few regs there, my experience had been negative, or, not as positive as i wished. But man, letting me buy-in for $200 in a $5-10 bigbet game is so yum!

roger bailey, the guy who ran the stones live stream, used to joke that my frequent trips to vegas is so i can play craps!
I can still shoot dice in norcal but they pull cards based on the color/points of the dice to get around the loophole! But shooting dice in vegas is much more fun!!!!!!

there's an opening for me to get back into academia.

so torn. so depressed.

but.... Positivity!

Go for it. Speaking from experience having done pokee full time and also having a legal career, poker eventually becomes an empty pursuit that does not lead to fulfillment. You won’t regret it. But you might regret spending your life just flipping coins.

What’s the opportunity?

its back in china so im not gon entertain it

my buddy was staying at RW the other day and I went over there to talk to him about coinpoker. Thinking of the tournament series that's coming up in May - I don't know the legality and the protocol of online poker so I had to ask him all the questions. Since you bypass the ID verification it is obviously easy to do. I'll probably have someonedeposit 5 to 10 K crypto for me on the site but I'm not 100% sure about playing online in general - there Are a lot of good value donkaments though.

I spent the night with him and the next morning while he was asleep, I came home
but I stopped by the pit before then - and i hit another martingale cap, so ridiculous.

I got home, ate, and forced myself to sleep

at like 4 AM I woke up laying in bed. I didn't even wanna play any video game. All I could think of is the fact that I'm stuck 83 dimes in the pit. my girlfriend isnt home because recently we had a fight over some money she took from me a couple months ago. She's indeed paying me back, but I wish she could pay me back sooner. anyway, this obsession with pit, this ridiculous need of trying to get even. You understand putting down 2 flags and have a near 50% chance and just making 10k and if u lose u can put down another two flags the very next second. And we are illogical beings.

So anyway, I was laying in the bed thinking taking my remaning 100 K bankroll and running it to 183 in the pit, after just having had a heartfelt convo with my parents a week prior about playing poker for a living.

patience is a virtual. I hit up my buddy in dallas. him and i have an off-felt relationship. We've gone out to do stuff while he's in Vegas and if I need anybody in a form of mentorship or guidance, it will be him, especially as I try to move to texas. so I told him what happened and how i don't wanna get broken by the pit. As someone who has lost seven figures playing baccarat and blackjack and craps, he told me to just get my ass over to Dallas and start making money off these PLO games.

so tentatively May 8th is when i move out, a mix player from tennessee is moving back to vegas beginning of May and he'll give me a ride to dallas. I will be apt hunting for the time being - and this is the location :

also, to welcome me to the state of texas, lodge decides to reopen altho im not going to austin

I tried to tell you.

"Just move to Dallas, you'll make so much money...anyway, off to go play 1/2nl" is a hilarious statement. I hope you are prepared for that guy to hit you up for money like the SECOND you get into the state.

ye the 1/2nl part is surprising - he was playing 25/50 the day before. im sure its innocent.

i spent the night w my buddy at LINQ. I went to settle a small figure with him yesterday. Went out for a walk through Harrahs and onto the boulevard. Lots of memories from last summer when I was living at Harrahs/LINQ/Flamingo. Breakfast was sushi, seafood salad, and I am about to dig in a plate of fruit platter, but I had a full bottle of coke and i am beat.

Leaving town in a week's time. My gf paying for the spot we have near the strip - I'll be back at the end of the month to collect some debts and arrange hotel for a wsop guy. My gf goes on about making a living in baccarat because she knows other Chinese who do it. I tell her they probably come to vegas as billionaires and now are millionaires. In addition I tell her that I am as obsessed w pit like she is and I don't feel bad about losing; what pisses me off is the 20k i donked to uc davis - but I only made the best decision at that time with my then knowledge; however I am very proud of being stuck 83 dimes in the pit and I try to tell her to see the fact that she has lost big six figures in baccarat as a great achievement. I know a hooker locally who's lost 2.5 million in slots, mostly at Dotty's - insane right? but that's such a beautiful fact.

I recently talked to a buddy i play pokemon with in illionis and he found a message i sent him a year or two ago. This is how heavily traumatized my brain is, but it's so self-fulfilling to keep going and I know that i have the baseline IQ/ability to make money from midstakes plo games and I am lucky in that aspect.

I think the pain in the head is natural; although i don't know much about neurobiology, but i'm guessing it's just part of the growth. At the same time, the world is filled w scums, just be careful. Time will tell. I remember a colleague of mine at uc davis telling me on the balcony regarding me sex harrassment case that "while we pursue justice, there bound to be victims, and that's you." like wtf, if you knew it's unjust, go to the department head and speak for me. I've said it before, if I burn in flames, so be it. One of my favorite books - A single tear (or according to wiki: A Single Tear: A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China) - I always think of a snippet from the book about a Russian litterateur living next to the author committing suicide during Chinese cultural revolution and these are the things that no one on the Earth will ever know; and I put myself in the shoes of that Russian family - such a minute part of the history of mankind. I come on the forum here rant a bit and type away some stuff; next day the site might be wiped from the interweb. Couple months ago I posted the josh arieh heads up in wsop lhe where in one hand the button didn't move and josh won a big pot because of it. no one cares, ppl's definitions of being impeccable or retaining so called perfection are different too. Money is a scorekeeper in this poker game of ours. can't agree more when limon says that poker is just tool to transfer money etc. etc.

One of my students from Davis called me asking for grad school advice and i told him my two cents on the best path in particle physics which is laboratory-sized experiment for beyond standard model dark matter search as you can avoid bureaucratic bs associated w large organizations after asking him about his roommate's exgf. He paused and told me that my opinion is one that he really respects. That's awesome. There's this part of whatever we are doing, no matter how niche it is, there are ppl there w you. I'd like to think that my friend whose name i have tattooed on me is still alive but even not, i am probably being protected by her from the heaven.

i understand the incoherency of this post is through the roof but you just gotta feel it. expect the future to be bright and believe in your choices.

i have been playing around on PLOGenius. I really don't agree with some of the preflop decisions from the solver. I think that is because intuitively i am used to exploit in plo. That is one thing i am unsure about texas. in sacramento if i limp 4bet with J732ds i can get kings to fold pre but i dont think texans are laying down kings pre. I'm looking forward to it.

mix game journey part II - Dallas PLO hahahahahah

i was at the wynn yesterday and i said hi to a couple ppl in the 20-40 mix. Apparently Man of the Library, or, Book of the Library - that guy played in the game. A japanese kid and a reg from LA were both in the game. Afterwards I went to the 5-5-10-20 plo table, Mark zajdner and taylor were beating up a couple asian whales. i caught up with mark and told him i'm moving. He said ye you told me in January ; i said well this time for sure im leaving in a week.

Then mark asked me why - taylor jumped in and said iirc "there's not enough games in vegas", and i replied - "there's not enough ev here". hahaha. then i told mark i lost a big number in the pit. Mark usually talks loud and this time he talks extra extra loud and a sea of 1-3nl players turned around and looked at us. Mark basically yelled in my face - "you can't do that. if you play cards everyday in the casino and it's your income source you can't touch that. Now that i come here sporadically i give a lot of action at uth and i am 0 for 30 this year." i was listening to him and just nodding. I know he's exaggerating cuz i was there when he binked off a 20 ball at encore Uth. But ye, absolutely. I think the logical decision for me right now undoubtedly is to go out there and find soft games and prove that i have this soft skill. i can't wait, honestly. I feel so alive.

A mix player said he would just give me a ride to dallas, but idk if he even knows its a 17 hour drive. I am online looking at living spots and making a list of games there.

my buddy is showing me a chart of tourney variance. watching ausmus's vlog - ak v jj and just spikes a barry greenstein; and mu buddy is playing on gg and lost two flips.

then i tell him what i heard or seen about variance - adi P losing 25k in 80 in a month; andrew yeh told me he lost 25k in a week once. My goto example is a dealer from aria who used to be a prop at bike or garden, who won for 7 years straight at 20 lhe and never touching his paycheck for poker roll, according to him, lost an ungodly amount of bets in his 8th year proping there and soon after him n his wife moved to vegas. i dont remember the number he told me but vaguely i recall it being 200k (5000 bets) or 2000 bets at 20/40. Either way, in a game where he probably is +1bet/hr, he all of a sudden avgs in a year -1bet/hr (full time = 2k hours), insane. I respect him a lot and we've had many discussions on the duration it takes to realize one's edge etc. in a limit game.

now, i say this, looking at the tourney variance, because i think how, in the entirety of my 3-4 yr career, i've never ran bad. Obv i am annoyed losing jj to kto vs toby lewis in that pokerstars mini final table but that's so standard. I remember one time in a nlh session i chopped aa v at on ajt and i lost 44 v kq on kq48 AIOT - that's probably the worst i ever experienced. Now, in the span of six months, i hit cap 3 times martingaling paigow; then in the span of a few weeks, i hit the cap 4 times. Here we go, variance. I am very likely still up ev given how much i have wagered in the pit.

i should still do well if im on the 25-50% bad side of variance in dallas. but let's hope i just stay on the 50-75% side.

tch dallas - 1/2/10 plo, $5 bp, 1/2 roe, 5/5/10 bigO

tch social las colinas - 2/2 plo, 2/5 plo, $10 bp, 5/10/25 plo, 25/25/50 plo, 75-150 mix

champions - opening soon

Palace & PH social - not much traffic it seems.

----------------------

tchdallas - 1 main and rest mustmove for the games

Good luck man in Texas

Palace has a Big O every Sunday that starts with 2 to 4 tables. I haven't been in a while because they were starting at 10am, but I think they recently changed the start time to 1pm. It's a pretty good game, or at least it was when I was going.

my buddy in dallas name is mark as well and is an OG (on 2+2); when you told me about setting the timezone last year i legit thought you are my Mark until he came to vegas while i was under the impression that he saw what i posted on the forum. The cowboy avi made me so sure you were him. funny.

so the real reason i gots to leave town is cuz i owe someone local 52k usd and i am trying to dodge and stiff him 😃

That's funny. I'm actually in Fort Worth. I usually play at Palace when I play nowadays. Let me know when you get here and maybe we can meet up or you can come lowroll at The Fort over by me. They run a 4/8 mix daily and a 10/20 mix with overs several times a week. I've never played in the 4/8 but the 10/20 is usually fun.

Lenovo laptop broke yesterday, emergencied a Mac, missed two tourneys. 1 for 6 yesterday.

Bluffed my gf and led to breakup I think? I don't want to honestly.

Doordashed a Chromebook laptop and charger, turns out Chromebook runs chromeOs doesn't run windows apps. have to go to bestbuy to return them this afternoon.

Went to EZ Pawn this morning to get a windows laptop for $300 but it doesn't work so gotta go there again before bestbuy after finishing all the tourneys today.

Already busted 2 bullets in $33 PLO5. maxed w 2 minutes to go and OF COURSE I play my first hand and not folding trips and straight on turn but bb flopped me dead on A335. The part "not folding" is exactly why I had to fire another bullet, fricking donkey.

7 more tourneys to play today for a total of hopefully, 9 bullets.

I got $3 in daily rakeback on coin poker. time for the gf rakeback soon I wish.

https://x.com/wsop/status/20524112428921...

surely u r joking, mr. wsop!

i use this reference cuz ppl like to assign positive meanings to things that arent really positive!

this is terrible terrible idea. wsop just isnt a good brand.