1/3 Grinding and Bankroll

Last two days on my current training assignment and I’m really proud of myself for getting through the past couple months. It was a real slog with the short time to prepare and interview clients and the learning curve. I handled it well enough in addition to a competitive colleague recently out of law school and I think I made a good impression. My early wins didn’t hurt either.

Now I’m off to do state psychiatric hospital work where clients are in for arguably more serious reasons. I like the intersection of criminal law and mental health so this will be a good fit. I’m also looking forward to not being the only guy on the team anymore. There was nothing overtly said in terms of gender bias but I did sometimes feel like a third wheel.

Happy Easter! I got my blood work and heart checked on Friday just to be sure there were no side effects from the meds which was overdue and everything came back normal which is great. Played a long session yesterday a little later than normal because the game was really good and I was stuck and ended up a decent $2,000 or so. Big hands towards the end of the night were AQJ83 Q43hh my nfd versus manic’s QQ and KK against his QQ too on 992 in low spr 3! spot and finally JJ+fd against two turned straights for $1,500 each and I rivered the flush to scoop. Left after losing AA top set nfd nut gutter to wrap lower fd all in ott which was annoying but I’ll happily take the win. Didn’t sleep in too late, similar to last weekend.

Had weird memories out of the blue of being under local anesthesia and my mom peeking under the surgical sheet to say hi after I busted my head falling onto the edge of a playground concrete cylinder in kindergarten. Maybe a reason my brain doesn’t work completely normally, who knows.

Dude was trash talking to me with his girl sitting behind him the other night saying “reaching into your bag again?” After I got stacked and breaking a pumpkin $1k chip. Anyway he is terrible at plo so I let it slide. He gets down to his last pumpkin and red chip so I raise to $10 to force him to break my pumpkin which I know he was happy to have, lol. He really didn’t want to break it. He ended up losing it all and coming off like a douchebag to his girl in the process. He made her wait with him for several hours while he played and lost all his money and talked sht with no game to back it up.

Start to the work week, got good sleep thankfully, enjoying lattes and protein powder and Sarah barellis songs. Looking forward to a hopefully lower stress existence no longer on the rocket court docket.

$5,647 left on the $100,000 br challenge. Took a while!

Now that we have Chris Moneymaker & his posse in town for the week there should be enough action at MGM for you to finish your bankroll challenge

Played a short session after work, made a few hundo, had nice Italian dinner with my friend on her comps and saw her room afterwards, had a nice view of the harbor:

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Had a free cookie in the hotel lobby after. Was exhausted already at dinner and a bowl of risotto knocked me out so I went to bed early and got ten hours of sleep. Nice! Your 30s are not your 20s.

Had a good day, watched a hearing and it’s surprisingly like the compassionate release cases I used to handle, a lot of focus on reentry planning. It should be a much easier transition than the civil commitment hearings I was doing before. Also worked on an appeal in that one flew over the cookoo’s nest case.

On the poker side, lost KK665ds hhdd three ways in a 5! pot again ATs AKT98 and QQJJ8 on AT7hh my nfd. QQ just decided to jam flop into a dry side pot into two players first to act with a double gutter with no fd blockers or pair blocker. And he scooped…. :/ I also lost the smaller side pot to AT. Ended up coolering a nut with a flopped straight flush against his nut flush, easy to raise for value here against a strong leading range. Closed out the session in the green $90 even after losing that $4.5k pot earlier. Got tacos with my friend and called it an early night.

$5,243 left.

Got a little ool preflop and lost, once figured I had the low covered but to my surprise I was not the only one. Wrong table to make that assumption I guess! Someone cold 4! KQT53, lol. Also got a nonnut fd and double gutter in on the flop and was very good to do so because it knocked out someone with the nfd and cleaned up my equity. Unfortunately I still lost to the set. Then lost set nfd to straight ott and left for home. I accidentally took the wrong exit and ended up at mgm so I decided to play a little, I heard Chris moneymaker was playing the 20/40 limit mix so I jumped in. I lost a hand of big o and 2-7, neither that crazy, one I had AT554 on 27Qcc my nfd turn 8, giving me more outs in the high side, but I got scoped by a set of 2s and the nut low. By the turn the spr was .1 since I potted the flop in this capped game so yolo.

2-7 triple draw I opened 832 in co and moneymaker 3! sb and we drew 2. He bet and as I improved to 86432 I raises and he 3! and I called. We were both pat and he drew 2 to 85432. Womp womp. I played a little plo where I won QJT76ds three ways all in but lost with two pair to top pair nfd open ender but correctly folded river, then bluffed into quads and called it a night stuck a couple grand. At least during big o I got to hear CM say “I like going both ways” after someone asked if a wheel counted for high and another player said it counted both ways.

Ran well at plo, scooped KK644ds in 4! pot on T84r versus AA and a straight draw, lost nfd nut gutter to top set, earlier lost with three aces in a 4! pot as well, then ordered my dinner but the wait was long so I played 2/5 hold em again for a while where I had T3dd in straddle over a raise and four callers and I could not resist squeezing with all the dead money, we went heads up against the raiser 875r. X/x. Turn 2d giving me fd. I bet 3/4 trying to get him to fold better high card hands and he calls. River 7d giving me a flush. I jam 3/4 pot and he snaps with 22s full. An expensive dinner break!

Also played some 5/T/25 earlier where I did well, so a nice $2k profit or so on the day despite the T3s debacle at the end of the night.

The 10/10/50 looked super juicy and it was a little tilting not to be playing. Unfortunately the game starts at 7pm which is a little late for my schedule these days.

I was assigned to cover an attorney’s docket this week on my own so I guess everyone thinks I am ready which is cool.

The good news is it is Friday already again and my only client interview in the morning was cancelled for next Monday’s docket so I just have afternoon interviews now and then it’s the weekend, yippie!

I’m making $170/hr. across all games and stakes since I started working at a much reduced volume which is awesome. Seems the work/poker balance is good for my play quality too.

Feel free to hop in and say hi here or ask any questions, new or old posters welcomed.

Glad things are going so well!

Played at live after work, they have a hotel suite with poker tables now and I jumped in to the “exclusive” 10/25 game. To my chagrin it was filled with the same faces I see at 2/5, lots of grinders. I lost all the while sitting right next to a juicy 10/10 plo game next to me that was full.

I went back downstairs to play plo and ran pretty well despite the gambol I partook in from time to time. Ended down $1,200 or so which is not terrible given at my low I was down over $3k. Trying to organize a 10/10 plo in the hotel suite at some point so I collected phone numbers.

Had a swingy session, at 1/2 plo made a couple grand at a good game, was doing well at 5/5/25/50 but action player all blinged out in gold who said he ran the biggest home game in the country called my check raise with JJ842cc on 935cc against my AJ643 nut clubs and I lost a $7k pot. He didn’t play much longer after that sadly.

Game broke and I was now even and annoyed and I hopped into a 5/T/25 where I correctly called with 54s on AT354 to a triple barrel jam against AJ. Then scooped JJ > AQs for $1,000. Ended up winnning in the end around 2,500.

Br challenge: 4,627 left.

Had another up and down session, did well at 5/T/25 was up $4k then tried a big bluff but got called, and also lost 66 to AKo against a short stack, left played plo made some money and ended up $1,708. Could have been a $6k day and ended the challenge. Technically I did end the challenge at least for 10 minutes. Oh well.

The bluff was KK on the button versus sb and straddle, QJT flop, I went ape on the river with a raise and the straddle tank called with 98. Oh well.

BR challenge: $2,919.

Did well again yesterday, ran good and almost completed the challenge, made $2,578. $341 left on the challenge (even though I technically made it the other night at 5/T albeit briefly!).

I felt like the challenge was making me force the action last night so I’m just going to say I completed it the other day at 5/T hehe. Lost a little yesterday was pushing it a little too much. At least I’ve been handling the court docket at work on my own well this week and feel comfortable in the role now that I’m no longer training. Have a loser of a hearing today but it might be for the best since the client is still so sick.

On the plus side I have a line up for my game in the penthouse at md live with a lot of cool people so that should be fun.

Congrats on completing the challenge! I guessed 7/15/25 so I might have been the closest? The prize was a book right

Please PM me your email address.

Lost the last day of the month, bluff did not get through even though I made a straight, they made a backdoor flush, lost a 55/45 at plo as well and 33

I’m glad I’m being entrusted with so much responsibility but seeds of doubt were creeping in last night before bed about whether I am cut out for this work.

I ended the month up around $15-16k which is more than I set out for myself this year with the job, I was aiming for $10k a month. I splash around so much and still do really well consistently, I wonder if I would be making more if I wasn’t as loose at plo. I have certainly changed my style to more LAG than TAG by now.

I would like to start a new challenge: $150,000 from now until the end of the year.

Made a little money to start the month and the challenge. AAQQTds got it five ways in a 3! pot and I flopped top set nfd and trapped and got called in two spots on the river with top boat. I guess my image is getting me paid more now.

Won tonight again, despite some runbad. Nice thing at work is I am covering for another attorney next week and the new attorneys are shadowing me which is really cool to know they already feel comfortable letting me help train people.

Now to catch up on rest!

My right hip hurts from my work commute which is annoying. $1,813 made this month so far. I have a little belly from all the high calorie food I’ve been eating lately which is fine because I’ve needed to gain weight for a while now. Someone in the poker room nicknamed me bones for a reason.

Nice to sleep in today and recharge. A little anxiety looming about how the Monday morning wake up will feel though that detracts from enjoying the rest fully today.

Will enjoy my vanilla lattes and protein powder for now maybe on the balcony then exercise and play pokeee.

Someone was nice enough to call me the best player at mgm at 5/5 plo. I would like to be a top plo5 player worldwide but it’s not possible to prove that now with work.

Got plenty of sleep, probably too much lol. Needed it!

Had a choppy session until towards the end when I won at plo with nfd nut gutter to top set and trapped an action player with the nuts in multiple hands, also ran well at 10/25/50 hold ‘em and made a couple grand or so on the day.

AJ>KQ AQ3 and QQ got a squeeze through at 10/25. Also got to 4! AK co v btn to $1,400 and V folded his $400. $4,357 of the way towards the challenge so far. I also realized today I enjoy playing bigger games as they are engaging compared to lower stakes which donÂ’t really keep my attention as well and lead to boredom pretty quickly.

Today I need to do laundry Â…my pants really need a washÂ… some work then seeing the family and doggos and a little playing later in the day. I have a big week ahead of me covering a large docket for my training attorney and being shadowed by the newer attorneys.

I don’t know much about it, what exactly is going on? Maybe I can shed some light. If he’s having an acute mental health issue it just goes to show it can happen to anyone and to have respect and compassion for the person going through a tough time.

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Did ok yesterday, lost with top set and gutter to a blocked wrap to the action player but otherwise ran fine. Called it an early night to be up early for a very busy start of the week as I am covering a hot docket for my superior.