Behind Every Poker Player Is A Story That Gave Them No Choy

Enjoy following along the journey, no sweat if you prefer not sharing moving forward but likely there are others are interested if you do continue to share. Personally find myself in the somewhat silent focused category at the live tables but happy to engage with people that strike me as decent people that are looking to interact with me.

Congrats on the recent disciplined run-good, and also glad to hear regarding the upcoming loan shark payoff. Let the run-good continue!

Long story short, I ran up $40k into $950k playing baccarat in less than 4 months. This was in 2022. Winning that money was probably the worst thing that had happened to me. It made me delusional, it made me think I could win it back after I eventually lost it all. I had a few small spurts of winning 200k+ just to eventually get cleaned out. Now 2 years later, I’ve decided to just go cold turkey, I surrender and give up on baccarat. I’ve always known stories about Chau Giang, Archie Karas, who have built and lost fortunes. I’m gonna do this the right way this time through poker.

Don’t give up on seeking employment. If anything, keep a job and put in extra effort to play in your spare time, if poker as a supplement income can eventually outweigh your primary, then perhaps consider going full time. Being a professional gambler is not what it makes it to be.

Just turned $1,000 FP into $1,000 cash, will take it. I also wonder how long before they start to cut me off on these offers. Gonna eat dinner and grab some to-go for the next few days, I’ll be headed back here Saturday.

Actually gonna head to Yaamava on my way back and see if I can get anything out of $350~.

Sitting at the Lemongrass bar, ordered a fresh coconut, Som Tum salad, and curry crab meat fried rice.

A cute girl comes and proceeds to sit next to me, she orders a coconut, orders a curry crab meat fried rice. I’m sitting there thinking “no way”. The waiters says to me “she’s reading off your order”. A few minutes later she asks “what’s a good salad?” and now I’m thinking “what are the chances”. She gets the Som Tum salad as well.

I told myself I’d never speak to a girl in a casino again (a story for next time).

You said you have a name we would recognize. Mikki?

Just joking because of the baccarat - good thread hope you keep it going I don't subscribe to many of these PGC threads but this is interesting.

I kid you not, the second I heard of Mikki, my downward spiral began.

The only thing he and I share in common would’ve been having this card, which in interviews he says is worth more than an AMEX black card. In someways it is.

Took multiple 20 min breaks on the way back I’m getting too old for these long drives.

Ended up getting $325 FP and successfully converted into cash. Used food vouchers on juices. Weekly gift is a sleeping bag, what is it tryna say lol.

Ran bad in NL and decided to grind PLO, turned out to be a good idea.

5 card PLO, one round of $10/10 PLO and another round of $25 double board bomb pots. So many sick coolers in this game, not sure why it’s so frequent, but the name of the game is to know how to value bet the nuts and when to make big folds.

Headed back to Vegas in the wee hours, not looking forward to driving.

A truck explodes on I-15N, making my 4+ hrs trip 6+ hrs. Not a good start to the trip. I’m contemplating flying to Vegas. There’s just no way I can drive 6-7 hours.
What a beat.

At this point, doesn’t seem like the freeway is going to clear up, so I’m gonna give up the $750k free roll tournament. Bummer, but I’ve also decided that I’m gonna go with my gut and trust that everything happens for a reason.

In other news, ain’t nothing like Hawaiian Gardens on a Friday night. Currently sitting $10/10 PLO and have Johnny Chan on the table.

When it rains, it pours.
Got into it with variance and was on the losing end. Took a few shots in $10/10 PLO and a $5/5/10 bounty game. Unreal action but like rocky says, you gotta be able to take the hits, unfortunately my bankroll isn’t there yet, so we’re gonna go right back down to $5/5.

Still trying to sell some stuff, I got one more week left in this house and then I become a nomad.

Got into a $8-9k pot with JJs in $25 double board bomb pots. In the moment, I thought that this is just variance, but after thinking about it, I could’ve gotten away from this. Double board bomb pot might be the sickest form of poker imo, folding the nuts on the second board knowing your opponent is free rolling you could justify this fold.

Again you do NOT want action you want profit. You need a much larger bankroll to play the bigger games and profit more there than in tables where you feel they are all playing ABC and you not only are confident in your reads you are correct in them. Even with a larger bankroll often the simpler games are more profitable over a few month or so timeframe as you have a higher percentage ev thus requiring more bad variance to go from winner to loser.

Thanks for being my Knish. You are absolutely right. You happen to be 69 years old?

I’ve been chasing ann elusive run for over 1.5-2 years now to no avail. I don’t really feel like playing tbh, it’s soul crushing and eventually you gotta just throw in the towel. I lost a lot along the way and honestly, money was the least of it. There’s more to this story, which is very very sad.

Close. Currently 70. From your results you appear so far to be a good player It also appears you are running above average in turning your free play into cash which is good. Hard to keep your eyes on the prize when you have had success being a degen and I will praise you again for being able to learn from your mistakes. Hopefully you will be able to visit your doggo during your road back to stability. Continue to focus on your game and goals and I think you have a decent chance of being a success story.

Any idea how many usually show up to the 750k tourney? Sucks you missed it.

That's a pretty rough cooler on the omaha bomb pot. Can't imagine you are wrong for getting it in on the flop, couldn't he have a hand like KQT9 with two spades? Not saying it's likely but feel like there might be a couple scenarios where you are ahead on both. Suppose it depends on the opponent for that to be possible.

Given your bankroll isn't huge I suppose playing it conservatively and avoiding the variance has some merit though too.

Love this thread so far looking forward to continuing reading

Couldn’t be more than like 500 people I’d imagine. They are hard to win because it’s a shove fest between high limit baccarat players with egos and usually you get the option to add in chips in the beginning if you pay $1000-$2000.

I should’ve folded the PLO hand knowing the guy who repot-ed has QQ minimum and I was basically calling to chop.

Poker in California is much more aggressive than poker in Vegas. I use to believe that even recs that go to Vegas want to go home and tell a good winning story, so by nature they play better/tigher.

California is just brutal. A $60 raise in a $5/10 game is NOT getting J-10 or better to fold no matter what. You can wait all day for AK just to be forced to fold after the flop. Here’s a real typical scenario: You’re in LP with AK and open $60 with AK, 3 callers to a flop of Q-3-5 rainbow. Someone donks $100 on the flop or calls 3 streets and shows Q-10 off. I love it, but can’t help but need Barry Greenstein every river.

I plan on short stacking the PLO game for 1-2 buy ins and just living with variance in the $5/10 games.

Vegas is coming soon, I have to either find a storage room to put my things or sell them all for cheap.

Don't think the fold is justifiable, assuming you get potted into you only need to win 33% of the whole pot to breakeven which by the math you presented you have. So just having 66% equity in one board you automatically need to call off even if you're drawing dead on the other.

Assuming that when you call that pot bet you are all in. Now do the math when there is another pot size bet on the turn and a pot size bet on the river. Assuming initial pot is $100 you are putting in $1300 to win $50 if you are indeed drawing dead on one board and it is heads up. SPR is critical in Omaha.

Haven’t wrapped my head around how bad the last two days have been on and off the felt. But as of right now, I’m felted.

-$700 in the bank (my negligence to not confirm a deferred payment).

Lost my entire roll, hands like this make me really question variance/bad luck. Got shoved on the turn, I obviously snapped thinking he had flopped a flush. When a queen spiked the l river, he jumped out his chair and shouted “nuts”, I assumed QQ/AA and I wanted to puke when he tabled AQ.

I’m broke now, have a week left before I have to move out. I’m listing as much of my personal property/assets on eBay and local buy/sell apps. I’ll be taking stuff to the pawn shop and boutiques as well to see if they’ll buy. Gonna scramble up my last bit of cash and see what’s next.

Caesar has $4k for me in FP in August.

God, why do you test me?

Also crashed into this and messed up my bumper.

Sorry to hear it.

On the bright side you did already pay the loan shark right?

With your FPs and some sales of items you certainly should have enough to grind the lower stakes?

I definitely know the feeling of it not being worth it when running bad though.

Hoping luck turns your way soon!