Road back to HS PLO
ABOUT ME:
My screenname is portemilio. I've been playing Poker since I was 16. I started off playing poker on Runescape gambling sites where you'd buy coins ingame which had a $ value and deposit them on runescape poker sites. I found myself obsessed with the game since I was young. I specifically loved the HU format. At 16 i ran up 100$ to 20k when BTC was around 1.4k playing 6 max and 9max nlhe but ultimately got destroyed headsup because i lacked a lot of discipline and had major ego issues wanting to be the best. I always wanted to be the best and would get extremely angry when dealing with variance on top of the fact that I was an unstudied player. In college I transitioned to PLO. I got staked and coached but I wasn't winning no matter how hard I tried because of my serious BRM issues. I'd run up a couple of thousand dollars then instantly shot take 5/10 and lose it all and then go back to the lowest stakes to rebuild, rinse, and repeat. My senior year of college I decided I really wanted to give it my all. In class I'd bring my laptop and drill spots and this was the first form of studying I'd ever experienced (other than hundreds of hours of youtube videos and poker content that I consume). I significantly saw a change in my game. I've always been a highly intuitive player but with the baseline theory I developed I quickly skyrocketed though the ranks. I still had really poor mental game and not great BRM but I was able to run up my first 30k ish month in April of 2022. Unfortunately, I lost it all back shot taking 10/20 on ACR (very commend trend in my poker career). I had to take6 a fifth year of college because of a couple of other reasons but I always knew I was going to end up being a poker player. I dreaded school and felt it was the reason I wasn't succeeding because I still had to commit so many hours to school (studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Fluid Mechanics). I come from an Arab household and poker was not accepted at all but that didn't deter me. My fifth year I had the same routine where I'd study in class and play countless hours when I was back. I was also gaming a lot (League) so i decided to cut that out because I figured it was a waste of time if I really wanted to succeed. After I graduated (May 2022) I moved to Lebanon where my parents lived. I finally had no obligations, nothing holding me back and barely any expenses. I devoted all my time to poker (literally 15h days). After 6 months playing 1/2 - 10/20 on mainly bovada and BOL I made roughly 170k in profits. My mental health really suffered. I longed for social interaction; I had none of my friends in Lebanon and I started to not care about poker anymore. My health declined heavily and I felt despite the fact that I was winning that there was a constant judgement surrounding what I was doing. Once I showed my parents how much money I was making they couldn't complain about the journey I was decided to take ( as much anyways) but they were still greatly against it. My biggest mistake came when I decided to shot take 10/20 on Bovada. I was absolutely crushing Betonline and Bovada midstakes for atleast 8bb/100 over a sample of 400k+ hands, but when I played 10/20 nothing I did worked. I got absolutely crushed. My mental game was very strong at this point and I wasn't disheartened, I just figured it was variance. I ended up losing 45 ish buy ins (90k) running 70k below EV. This was almost 2/3 of my roll. I had heard rumors about collusion and cheating rings going on at 10/20 Bovada but I just figured that was bad regs crying about losing because the same was being said about every stake that I was consistently beating. I will never know if I actually got cheated as I have no definitive proof but I highly highly suspect that I did. At this point despite convincing myself that the loss of the money didn't affect me in reality my play began to change because nothing I did was working so I thought i had to deviate. I ended up going to EPT Barcelona in 2023 because I felt the need to prove to myself and everyone that what I was doing was a real job. I had around 50k to my name. I ended up losing 20k there playing 25/50 live (brm issues started coming back I really began to chase what I lost). Once I returned back to the US, started paying rent I prolonged into a 4 month period of break even/losing. I really thought at the time I was playing well I dont know maybe it was variance but looking back at it I had basically given up. I was playing 3h a day max and not putting in any volume at all (20k hands/month max). I'm using this 2+2 thread to hold myself accountable. I'm not going to give up on poker because I know I truly have a talent. I'm at a crossroads right now because im 24 and have little to no job experience so If I want to get a real 9-5 I'd really have to start looking now. I have a couple interviews with some investment banks just to appease my parents but it isn't something I'm taking seriously. On top of that it's really hard to explain to friends and family the journey I've been on because they don't understand variance at all. I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes I definetly did, but to lose that amount of money is definetly gut wrenching I finally made it and saw it gone at the blink of an eye. I have a lot of fuel in me now and I'm ready to play atleast 50k hands/month. I'm not going to let anyone pressure me or feel the need to prove to anyone (online or IRL) that what I'm doing is valid, I'm just going to do it. It may get lonely but this is truly what I love and I know i will get rewarded.
I'm going to attach this month's results. I had very little money to my name, I moved to my uncles house where I'm paying no rent and felt a lot less pressure on my bankroll. I started at .5/1 and 1/2 and slowly started to shot take 2/5 and very little 5/10 volume. I played almost 72k hands this month, which is the most volume I've ever put in in a month in my life. Attached is the graph. Eventually when I fix my old computer I'll export the DB to my new one and merge them. I will be posting interesting hands and lines I play here as well as weekly-monthly updates. I want to hold myself accountable no matter what and am interested to hear people's thoughts. I only have the last two months of my play tracked I'll post them shortly as I had to buy a new computer
GL ME!
I've unfortunately been going through a lot of health issues with my neck. It's The point where every morning I wake up with a stiff neck and I can't feel my pinky anymore because I compressed my ulnar nerve .
5 months ago I moved to my uncles and was working from his office. I bought a chair because the chair in his office didn't have neck support but he wouldn't let me switch it out because it wasn't professional enough even though he had no workers in his office. So from May to June when I wa
There are some things which could give slightly relive for now.
- Hot water bottle.
- Gentle massage with special oil. No Thai massage with fast movements at the neck. Never ever do this when your neck has a permanent problem. I do use some Ayurvedic Oils which I buy in Asia. I would guess you should find something similar in organic shops. I guess it should provide warmth and reduce infection, many calendula oil.
- Do not keep the same position for long time. Sitting is bad, standing to long isn't great either.
- Move you body but gentle no fast movements
- You might want to try a an exercise:
Stand and look straight and gently move your head to the left and the right for about 10 times each, the the same where you tough your chin on the chest and go back as far as possible.
- preferably sleep on the back without cushions, if you want to sleep in the side then buy a special cussion where the neck will be in a straight line with the spinal
I do also have permanent problems with my neck but it is only very settle most of the time. And since I do sports and or yoga I never had a stif neck since than.
also have a bad neck from a fall while bouldering. no sleep position or magic product makes it go away. gotta do a bunch of neck strengthening exercises like 3 times a week or it gets bad again and headaches creep it. imo none of this other **** works, only strength training like a boxer/F1 driver.
1) lie on your bed w on your back with your neck hanging down off the bed, tuck your chin in slightly, and do neck raises (like an ab crunch but for your neck) then do it on both sides and lying on your stomach. so all 4 directions, all same straight movement up and down starting from below 90 degrees. 2) from a lying position, lift your shoulders off the bed/floor and slowly rotate your chin to shoulder side to side. 3) from seated, do anti-rotation where you press your hand on the side of your head and try push your head in that direction. can do that while sitting in your work chair.
none of these have 360degree motions, only up-down and side-to-side.
go to a physio. the immediate pain relief will help kickstart recovery and they'll almost certainly show you how to do rehab exercises properly.
great results this year, but don't sacrifice your health for it. doesnt work out well long-term.
Impressive mate, what sites do you play sir? do you live in usa? Any travel plan?
Did the pain end up going away/ what exercises did you do? I ordered one of the neck traction devices though!
Dramatically better, should notice a difference in a week or so. Also add in some some simple neck stretches will help a ton. Just YouTube neck pain and stretches and do what they tell you. Chiropractor is cool but doesn’t fix the root problem, only keeps you feeling ok until you stop going to see them. These things I am recommending to you while start to help the root problem.
I've unfortunately been going through a lot of health issues with my neck. It's The point where every morning I wake up with a stiff neck and I can't feel my pinky anymore because I compressed my ulnar nerve .
5 months ago I moved to my uncles and was working from his office. I bought a chair because the chair in his office didn't have neck support but he wouldn't let me switch it out because it wasn't professional enough even though he had no workers in his office. So from May to June when I wa
I recommend training your back muscles (gym), this type of stuff is often caused by muscle imbalances that arise from a sedentary lifestyle (sitting at computer grinding). Been dealing with chronic pain for a few years now, it's not fun.
How come you are convinced that there is more cheating at $10/20 on ignition than $5/10? Does the RTA-stable you were a part of play those stakes only or is it based on experience / rumours?
I recommend training your back muscles (gym), this type of stuff is often caused by muscle imbalances that arise from a sedentary lifestyle (sitting at computer grinding). Been dealing with chronic pain for a few years now, it's not fun.
Nice to see you commenting something positive. Yeah ive been out of the gym for the past 6 months, my chiropractor said i had a dip in my left hip causing some imbalance. i also had a surgery for the tear on my left labrum due to a bunch of dislocations 2 years ago probably causing a lot of strain + not going to the gym leading to really bad posture so gotta get back in the mix. its tough after stopping for so long
pretty breakeven week literally made no money. EV slowly catching up to profit. basically just not making many hands and having to fold a lot. in these sprees i just focus on minimizing losses not much i can do when im not making hands and opponents are. just need to continue to play my game. not tilted by it or anything but definetly getting a little frustrated so i took the day off yday (it was my 25th birthday) which i feel like is a well deserved break! celebrated at a nice hot pot restaurant with a couple of friends.
My hours are also lowkey slowing down. I think i burnt myself out a bit this past month grinding too much so definetly just gonna try to listen to my body for the next couple of days, i dont wanna force it too much. also started going to the chiropractor + bought the neck traction device someone recommended in the forum which has been helping as well as additional stretches.
After a couple of xrays, it turns out my neck is displaced forwards 28mm (aprox 3 inches). and for every inch of displacement, theres a feeling of a 10 lbs load on my neck. So that's why its been extremely brutal for me, there has been 30 pounds on my neck that shouldn't be there. My actual spinal cord is overall fine it's mostly just the neck area I've also lost 150% of range of motion which is pretty bad for my age the chiropractor was a little worried about that but we move forward i'm going to go start doing tri-weekly sessions with him And really start taking my health into account Because this whole grind doesn't matter if I'm not healthy. I'm also looking to buy a new chair I have bought like three but they all suck if anyone has some good wrecks I wouldn't mind spending some good money on a really comfortable chair that gives me good support and promotes good posture. I've also decided that I'm just going to be postingweekly graphs starting dec 1st I think it's better that way and occasionally I'll just post an updated yearly graph
pretty breakeven week literally made no money. EV slowly catching up to profit. basically just not making many hands and having to fold a lot. in these sprees i just focus on minimizing losses not much i can do when im not making hands and opponents are. just need to continue to play my game. not tilted by it or anything but definetly getting a little frustrated so i took the day off yday (it was my 25th birthday) which i feel like is a well deserved break! celebrated at a nice hot pot restauran
Have you considered using a standing desk?
umm 3 inches seems like a lot
one hh today that im pretty pissed about
CO VS BTN VS BB single raised pot. im on the btn with KJtt ss
flop comes t84 2t, checks to me i b 1/2 CO calls.
turn A. Co tanks on it for like 3-4 seconds considering a lead but checks. this got me super sus because most people tend to just snap check turns oop in srp. anyways i bet and he jams and i call it off. i should just bet fold even though its a call in theory. He had aa53 with as no fd or bdfd, so pretty wide float. that one hurt a bit cuz i knew i couldve gotten away esp with his timing tell. even the way he jammed was so value heavy he tanked for like 20 seconds lol
Buy an aeron
28mm is like 1 inch, not 3.
one hh today that im pretty pissed about
CO VS BTN VS BB single raised pot. im on the btn with KJtt ss
flop comes t84 2t, checks to me i b 1/2 CO calls.
turn A. Co tanks on it for like 3-4 seconds considering a lead but checks. this got me super sus because most people tend to just snap check turns oop in srp. anyways i bet and he jams and i call it off. i should just bet fold even though its a call in theory. He had aa53 with as no fd or bdfd, so pretty wide float. that one hurt a bit cuz i knew
Players obviously hollywood tanking with value is extremely tilting. Especially when you’re forced to call it off.
yeah tf 28 mm is about 1 inch. not 3.
also this is the guy who has been embroiled in multiple cheating allegations.
Yeah that conversation has been had multiple times. I'm not even going to pretend to have enough information to pass judgment. All I know is that there are interesting hands and conversations that occur here. His past actions, no matter what they were, do not invalidate the substantive discussions that occur here. Your comments are noted. Please quit derailing the thead.
Yeah that conversation has been had multiple times. I'm not even going to pretend to have enough information to pass judgment. All I know is that there are interesting hands and conversations that occur here. His past actions, no matter what they were, do not invalidate the substantive discussions that occur here. Your comments are noted. Please quit derailing the thead.
Why do you say that?
It was a neutral statement designed to placate both sides. come on now
