1/3 Grinding and Bankroll

Running good on my bday for a change! The extra exercise definitely helped. Got paid flush over flush in one pot. Gonna grab some high calorie food to keep the weight on from my exercising.

Happy Birthday!!! I hope you have a fantastic day. Glad it's started well 😀

I hate to say it, but almost all of my vacations are aimed toward places I can play poker 😉 Yes, I add in hiking (we often camp near casinos / poker rooms), snowboarding, sightseeing, and definitely good food/wine, but the most fun I have is playing poker. Then again, I don't play for a living -- I do play every day on my phone, though.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! Took a nap now off to visit family.

The birthday curse is alive and well! A bluff got called, and then I lost almost all my all ins and got bad run outs when well ahead. Didn’t see the board pair on the river once with the nut flush too. -$3,200.

I've been playing for serious money longer than you've been alive (mostly retired from that though). I can't recall having a good win on my birthday - must have happened at least once surely 😀

Had a nice family dinner, some special Greek "yemista" my mom makes (baked tomatoes and peppers filled with rice mix), and mango cake. I was exhausted from having a busted sleep schedule and wasn't able to fully enjoy it all, but it was nice to see everyone and appreciate the dogs' company.

Reviewed one hand I played yesterday after stepping away from the table and grabbing some food . . . slight food coma might be to blame:

Open KKJT2ds hhdd to king to $25, bad short stack jams $70, limper calls, I 4! $290, he calls. $1,600 eff. AsQh5h flop ($210 main pot, $440 side pot): I range bet $275, mind you side pot is only $440 so 2/3 sizing, A high flops good for our 4! range and we flopped quite well with wrap and 2nd nut flush draw, and he flats. could barrel flop bigger and just pot as well. Once he calls, he could have aces up or Axhh so I am not thrilled with the situation. Turn Qd. Probably need to barrel this card, but I checked to see what he did. He checks behind. River: 9s. Not winning here probably, hoping he folds something better like Ax, so I bet $650 into $1100 and he snap calls with A55xx. Upon review, turn barrel small is probably better, can jam river unless we improve, but also unfortunate he flopped well. He snapped river so it is questionable whether I was getting this through with a different line. Anyone else have thoughts on this one?

Raise AJT75ds, flop 789r both our bdfds and a pair, we x, btn pots, spr is 4 so we just crai almost...crumbs behind, and get the rest in on very nice Qd giving us nfd and has T876 for low straight and bottom two pair we block and fills up on river.

call raise with Q9865ds, flop 457hhd our gutter to sfd, we donk pot, pfr calls one other caller. Turn Kd bringing bdfd we lack, we pot, he's all in for less (other player folds), he calls for any red card and river 4c so we table. He says damn and tables...AAK42 for 4s full of Ks.

Raise QJ886ds otb, six ways, As8s7h our Q flush draw and mid set, sb pots, folds to us we re-pot he puts us in we just fold on a clean runout and scoop. This was the only pot we won almost all day and for some reason it was against a good player and not a fish.

Raise AA942ds hhcc, five ways, Q83hhd. x through. Turn Kh giving us nut flush, SB pots $100, we are scratching our head but hey it's live poker. We raise to $400, he tank calls. River: 8d, which to me looked like the 8h and I still had the nuts. He checks, I nearly pot, he tanks for over a minute and calls and we proudly show...and then suddenly realize the 8h was the 8d and paired the board. He has QQs full with no flush and decided to check when ahead and bet when behind and we totally own ourselves. I believe if we were bluffing naked A we would bet river as well though. We are losing energy and the sleep issues are catching up with us so we call it not long after to take a nap before bday dinner.

I lost but the month is going well enough, I am winning decently. Beats last month.

Just walked into poker room and was greeted with someone at plo seeing me walk by and say “let me talk about this guy, this guy is the best player this side of the Mississippi.” I gave him a fist bump and wait for my seat. (He happened to be winning a lot so he was probably in a good mood…!)

Going to resubscribe to plomm for a month to brush up and catch up on any recent developments in theory land.

Played at a deep 1/2 game for a few hours but was pretty card dead, ended up winning a couple hundo until I was too tired even with coffee to keep playing. Asked some friends what they thought my leaks were which was really helpful. Punted pre in one dead money spot setting up an iso but unfortunately no one folded and so I got dsTT964 in against stubborn QQ and didn't get there.

Really glad to be up during the day again, those couple upside down sleep cycles were brutal. Sitting on the couch with the sun shining on me with a latte and some tunes is really nice.

Had a great day for my mental health yesterday, date and walk outside on a beautiful day (will probably have a walk today as well). Was in a great mood to play, but ran really bad unfortunately with almost my AA all night including at 5/5/25 so I dropped several thousand, probably close to $7k. At least I am up during the day, a really nice change.

Made some at mix and hold 'em, lost some at plo, for around a $2k profit and a nice rebound from the other night. Got AA all in pre three ways and held was the biggest one. Lost AKQT7ds nut diamonds on QJ82dd to T9dd at plo and top set nfd to a wheel. Enjoying the sun and lattes now.

Played 10/10/50/100, didn't win any pots at all, AT987ds AKT82ds AKQJ3ds all losers in 3! pots (even flopped trips with the last one and lost to a flush), no one else even had AA, then lost with top set as well, didn't get dealt AA - although if I did, who knows what would have happened the way things have been going. Didn't win a single $300 waterfall either. Lost QQ to AKo at 2/5 all in pre as well. Dropped $4k or so. I busted at 1/2 plo and told the table I was going to get chips and they broke the game and combined tables while I was briefly gone and I was left without a plo game to play...that was extremely tilting.

Was feeling very down again and had my head on my arms at times, not even tired just mentally exhausted from the runbad. At least I am up with the sun enjoying lattes and music (Madonna, Ray of Light).

I have almost no Madonna on the iPod, but Ray of Light is one (of I think just three tunes, one being a cover).

GcluelessMadonnanoobG

Sounds rough. This was a 10/10 game that had some blind raise + straddle on?

She released a lot of good hits. Also she might be gay?

It is 10/10 with a double straddle $50 and $100 utg and utg1. I ran extremely well for most of the year so I should count my blessings. This too shall pass.

Random fact: microplastics are bad for our heart health. So don’t eat hot food out of plastic containers. Probably shouldn’t drink water out of plastic bottles that have been sitting in the sun either.

Laying on the couch in the sun drinking caramel flavored lattes with milk listening to music (U2, elevation)...what more can you ask for?

Got an outpouring of support from family today as I was down about poker and life, my friend reached out too. Very kind, nice to feel loved. I won $1,100 last night, probably sniffed out quads on 83332 in multiway 3! pot with AA (winner showed 66 and mucked the rest), lost AJJ93 on T85 versus whale...he actually had me in terrible shape with QQ977. Then won AJ876 nut flush draw on QT3ss versus his KK 2nd nfd and called it a night. My buddy advised me to lighten up at the tables and gamble more. I will consider the image part. I don't think I can bring myself to gamble any more than I already have lately.

Also random valuable advice:

Originally Posted by DumbosTrunk
I don't like flying. So I don't travel much. Also I don't get a huge thrill out of visiting new places. I think poker as a high / drug has made everything else in life a little less exciting.

Also, I am in my prime earning years, healthy with energy when I should be working hard so that when I am older and less capable / possibly in poorer health I don't have to. My mental health could always decline as I have shizophrenia...so far so good though as my meds are working but it's no guarantee.

Figure a few more years of hard labor / degeneracy and saving and I can consider spending more time on other things, perhaps law related as I am a lawyer too.

JimL:

The most valuable skill in the world is the ability to know thyself. Know what your strengths and weaknesses are and even better, know what they will be in the future.

It sounds like you have a grasp of what your strengths are and what potential pitfalls might be. Good for you.

Just don't lose sight of that. Success can sometimes blind people to how it came about.

I often wonder if I've fried my brain with all this poker, sports betting, drinking, partying, psychedelics(well maybe not those lol, they probably helped) over the years.

I used to love watching sports as a kid but now if I don't have action I get bored. Dropped a lot of hobbies too. Used to love software engineering but after being laid off I ****ing hate it lol.

The family thing is spot on though. Never get tired of them. Having friends/fam that love you is so important. Social connectedness is so crucial to happiness in life.

Glad poker is going a little better Dumbo and glad you have a support system!

Thank you. There are a lot of costs associated with playing high volume poker or high volume anything…traditional jobs included. Hopefully the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

I swear after sitting in some of these games tonight the MGMNH poker room has gone the way of Foxwoods casino…full of nits!

LOL. Aren’t you a super nit?

No.

Obviously he doesn't read your hand histories or he'd know you are not a nit 😉

I’m sure none of you guys know meaning of nit unless you play zoom online on GG nowadays 😃

Got good sleep, been a week now of a solid schedule which I am happy about. Last table last night was really fun and recreational, drinking, lots of jokes, "fk the kids" was the phrase of the night after someone started promoting his nonprofit for kids' physical exercise. Someone made a joke about coming and I said it was "je sui arrive" in French, literally "I have arrived." A couple regs arrived including colluding wife on my direct left and I quit as it was getting late anyway. I think I made a few hundo on the night. At 2/5 made a good hero with AKs in 3! l/rr pot and held against a jamming KQ on 862r.

Sorta meh session so far, even at 5/T lost AJo v. 22 blind on blind 24bb eff. Lost KQJ92ds on KJ34dd my fd on turn to JJ at plo as well.

Left for 20/40 mix where I am running well, won with AA in big o and was dealt a wheel at 2-7 triple draw and got paid off by an 85.