My poker story

Friday night craps

I’m looking forward to following your journey. How did you get into poker? I’m a newbie. Interested in the best way to begin learning.

message me your PP

Sent

It was one of those weeks where everything lined up for an adventurous weekend, but of course, I decided to switch things up last minute. Thursday night, after work, I was feeling productive, so I cleaned up the place, washed the car, tackled laundry, and packed a bag, all set to head to Milwaukee the next day. But the road to Milwaukee didn't seem so appealing when Friday afternoon hit. So, instead of driving south, I found myself on the road to Oneida to hit the craps tables. I got in the game for about $900 & was down to last $80. But the two guys next to me went on a heater & they brought everyone back. That $80 turned into $2,200, and I cashed out around midnight. Drove home and crashed.

Saturday came with a fresh start. Showered, took care of some HR stuff for the new job, and got the place looking fresh again. By 1pm, I was back on the road to Oneida. The craps table was full, so I waited for a seat for what felt like forever....about 30 minutes. While I was waiting, I wandered over to the roulette table and spewed off $100. I got into the craps game, but the cold streak hit again. I was in for $1,000. Right when I was about to throw in the towel, the table turned again. A few lucky rolls & t was business. Ended up cashing out at $1,003 for a mere $3 profit. Not a huge win, but it was a grind.

Ate some Asian food, & sat down in a $1/$3 game. $2/$5 PLO always is running there and usually 3-4 $1/$3 NLHE games. Sometimes the occasional $2/$5 NLHE will run but will usually have to go to Milwaukee to play that and then Rivers for anything higher. I've played $2/$5 PLO there a few times but definitely outside my comfort zone, and NLHE is my game. I turned $300 into about $950 in like 2 - 3 hours or so. The table had 3 Asians across from me, each with their own quirks: one was a sticky player, another a calling station, and the third was a nit. They were all easy to read, and I played my game accordingly. And the one guy on my left, I'd played against before, so I knew his style. A few check-raises and tricky leads, and I was stealing some of his money too. I didn't even have to show a hand, aside with AKos against a guy who tilted off his last $90 with J8os. Went back to craps lost a chunk. Was playing super aggressive on my roll trying to launch. Went $100's across but hit 7 out on a bad roll over the back wall. Came out wrong, hit too hard... and wasn't surprised to see a 7. Overall was up about $870 across everything. So $178 to 20% and $87 to 10%.

Spring break is next week, so looking forward to it. Have to take care of some medical screening HR stuff next Monday but hopefully I can get to high stakes in Chicago then.

When Chris Moneymaker won WSOP in 2003, that sort of kicked off a poker boom. My friends & I would play NLHE in our Parent's basements for $10 buy-ins in Middle School & High School here and there. I thought one my friends was cheating because he'd win almost all the tournaments. That's when I bought Super System. I had a desktop computer in my room I had saved up to buy from working on a Farm in 8th grade. Downloaded party poker & played play chips there for fun, and freerolls. Just sort of got hooked. Got pretty good at it & started winning some of the tournaments with my friends. By the time I got into college, I was totally obsessed with poker and would play all day. I'd watch poker videos like High Stakes w/ Gabe Kaplan & go down to my college dorm lobby to watch Poker After Dark at 2am. I looked up to guys like Tom Dwan. I would play all the time, thousands and thousands and thousands of hands. I was in the military at the time I was going to college and would bring my laptop when I had duty on the weekends and stay up all night and grind 50nlhe 6 tabing. Would practice 0 bankroll management and sometimes play 100% of my roll in high stakes $25/$50 heads up on Full Tilt Poker win but eventually lose, and repeat, which as a college kid is ****ing stupid don't do that. By the time I had even sat in my first live poker game which interestingly was Bellagio $1/$2 around 2009, I thought I was already a pro (I wasn't....I was probably slightly above average if that). Started playing more live poker after that in Minneapolis area $2/$100 spread. Would play tournaments, on and off, cash games, etc. Well, once I got a job and had a steadier income & Black Friday Hit, I started playing quite a bit. Already had good fundamentals from playing so much but had to make some adjustments for live poker. Now I feel much stronger playing live than online and haven't even touched an online poker game in years. I feel I may be one of the best live poker cash game players in the Midwest at the moment (humble I know).

Best way to get into poker imo? Just play hands...lots of them, watch other people play hands, get experience with flop textures and figure out a nice raising range. That sort of thing. Become aware of your own tendencies and try to find those in others & learn how to exploit them. Learn live poker because to me in 2025 that's where the edge is & will always be. Learn to lose, play super tight until you are more comfortable playing looser. Don't do what everyone else does because everyone else sucks. Online poker is a different monster, but it does give you a good opportunity to get in volume and get experience with the game. Gl on your journey as well bro

Btw this was my first chip I had ever won in a live poker game

Nice posts again, definitely a writer lurking within you. Nice you kept your first chip, will try do that when I try play live for the first time.

you are a star

This is a picture of me from that Bellagio game in 2009. Went there with an Asian girlfriend I had at the time, and asked her to take this picture. I'm the guy in the Lakers shirt that I had bought from LA China Town for $2 a few days prior. That takes me back. Getting older sucks, but I'm thankful for everything I have in my life...and there's a lot more to life than poker my friends. That's why I decided to work in schools with disabled kids. As corny as it sounds - at the end of our day, what we do for others is what actually matters

+1

Booked a cheap room in Milwaukee this Friday night - Sunday morning. Going to try my best to get down there after work Friday and put in some solid volume in some poker games. This upcoming week I'm off so am going to try and play serious hours...but we'll see where that takes me lol anytime I say I'm going to play volume it ends up being a hit and run and then a sports bet or craps, but I'd like to test myself with poker a bit more. I went to Oneida after work to shoot some dice this afternoon made a quick $150. Played just for an hour, had to go to Green Bay to pick up something after work so swung by there. Was thinking about taking a trip to Tampa Bay for a few days for some warmer weather and beaches....if I can get a cheap flight out of Chicago & don't get my ass handed to me in poker between now and then may be there exploring sometime next week.

Vote one for the sun. Live in the UK but flew to South Africa a few days ago for a couple of weeks visiting family. Sun has been great.

You know…Sun does sound good🤔

Made a slight adjustment. Going to stay overnight in GreenBay Friday night then head to Milwaukee Saturday night. Oneida has a poker tournament going on just a $150 buy in but they hardly ever run tournaments and this one is Saturday at 6pm so just seems like a fun time. I got my **** packed and am bringing $8k in cash with me. Have off all next week for Spring Break so am gonna see what I can do. Maybe going to Tampa would like to play high stakes Chicago guess we will see where it goes.

Next commenter gets 5% of my action all profit Friday (PayPal Only)

I know mtts are not your usual thing so will be nice to see how you translate you cash knowledge and how you going to manage your stack.

I got in on the last giveaway, so this post doesn't count. Good luck, start of the road to WSOP fame...

Yes, MTTs not my thing usually. I find them boring but something about playing one at my local room on a Saturday night seems fun. Prior to COVID like 5 years back Oneida would host $80 tournaments every Saturday morning. They got around 50 runners. I played in 3, didn’t cash 2 and the other I got 3rd in. It’s more of a turbo format so not so much playability lots of shoving…I prefer the super stack tournaments because those play closer to cash game….but we will see I got some tricks in the hat. Friday today after work I plan on playing some $1/$3 and maybe craps. Some variance to the downside is overdue but hopefully I don’t have to reload before I get my ass down to Chicago or Tampa.

5% to you for today. Haha I figured it’d be you.

Checked into the room around 5pm. Not a bad room. Sat in the hot tub and took a shower, brought me all the way back work day was a long one. Got into a poker game around 6pm $1/$3 Oneida. Played craps during wait list lost $150. Poker has been a tough game…battling. Timing has been a bit off but nothing horrible just mediocre play. Gonna tighten up a bit. In for about $750 have about $630 stack. Got down to about $200 grinded it back up. Got it in bad all in 3 ways with AJos as preflop aggressor on an A Q K board with 2 diamond on board vs an AQ and J10 then tried triple barreling air vs a guy who flopped 2 pair. Head space is good had like 4 cups of coffee so am looking at a long one. Taking a break eating some tendies.

After I got done eating dinner I headed back into the game. I was only gone for about 15 mins but they had called me over the intercom to come back to the table. Usually they give you like 25 mins or so before they pull that **** but I think seat 9 had asked them to call me lol and he was happy when I got back to the table. I was bringing some action thats for sure. He had a giant stack of about like $2kish in front of him. When I got back I was playing my aggressive style of attacking limpers/isolating but couldnt get much going. Ended up in the game for about $1250 but I was reloading for $200 at a time trying to stay above $800 or so because the table was playing deep and my image was a maniac so was trying to keep a deep stack so i could get max value when I made a hand. The guy on my left was playing like me and attacking weakness and was also 3betting me light which made it hard. I tried trapping him a with kings with a call of $15 pre trying to induce a raise but he folded and the original raiser flopped a set of 88s. Then this hand happened which brought me back close to even.

Im on button with about $750. 4 limpers to CO in seat 9 who makes it $30. He has me covered. I 3 bet to $75 in seat 1. Folds around to one of the limpers…an older raggedy looking guy with $80 behind and he sticks it in. Another limper a semi drunk 40 year old lady who has been talking wild **** for the last 2 hours & who is talking about how she's about to leave and has to find where she parked her car says **** it I was about to go might as well gamble and sticks in $210. CO thinks about it and glances over at me and asks me if I have any blacks behind my stack. I say no he eventually folds. I call. No action on flop 3 way all in.

Flop A K 4
Turn 9
River 8

Shortly after that I took my stack to the cage, went to craps, bought in for $300, and ran it to $1130. Only played for about 45 mins. Played a decent amount of time in poker. So up about $830 altogether Friday ($41.50 to 5% …sent). It’s 2am checkout is 11am and they say I’ll have to register for the 6pm tourney by like noon if I want a spot, so sleep then free breakfast hot tub shower and cash game until tournament, then Milwaukee.

Cheers man, will add it to the stake, and who knows, but that will only be when I get back to the UK.

Good luck on the mtt today ��

Slept like dog **** woke up 6am to slamming hotel doors couldn’t get back to sleep ��. Took a shower at the sports book the guy next to me at the Kiosk didn’t have anything juicy. Waiting for a $1:$3 game to open in about 20 mins may be a long day that 6pm MTT may be a quick one may go to Milwaukee early today we’ll see how the coffee does

Lunch, long nap, mtt ��

Got in a $1/$3 around 10am played until about 1230. Made $26. Had $450 then spewed it off built it back spewed it back off just couldnt hit hands at right time so just break even session. But went to craps caught some hot shooters made $1200 from $300. The heater continues dog tired but tournament starts in 4 hours got on the wait list for a poker game gonna grab a bite to eat and see if I can take this bitch down. If I final table I’m going to be so wrecked but may stay in GB tonight if I get done too late.

5% to next commenter (PayPal Only) and doesn’t matter who it is. All action rest of night gotta keep the karma in the favor. Plus it’s fun keeps me motivated.

Actually I have a massive headache heading back home to rest for a few days bbl up around $2.3k since Friday night but can’t play tournament this tired lol bbl