**** TJ’s Sundry Poker Adventures! 2025-26 ****

My homeowner joy of the day was spending 6+ hours burning downed limbs that have been piling up for a few months. What a PITA!

I wouldn't have it any other way! Enjoy your new home!

Excellent news TJ. Enjoy life while you can. Sometimes I have to remind myself that you can't take it with you.

congrats on being the proud owner of a bouncing baby new mortgage
all joshing aside, it is a major life milestone you just achieved
huzzah!

Congratulations. Great lifetime milestone. Wishing you health and happiness in the new home.

Good for you TJ; congrats! Guess that move to Vegas isn’t happening any time soon!

Fantastic! What a great feeling. I'm so happy for you 😀 Go September! (I need run-good this month, too, but there's enough for both of us!)

Apparently you don't have a fireplace.

You probably could have gotten rid of them in a minute if you waited a couple months.

some yards have kindiling, others lumber, especially on the first day of timber

TJ,
Congratulations on the purchase of your first home.
Racetrack

Thanks for the kind words, everyone 😀

We start September with a frustrating session at G, where I spent the drive home being angry with myself, and the decisions I made.

I was plus or minus 600 of even pretty much the entire 4 hour session, then got scooped in a bomb pot where I made a clear mistake, and got my stack in bad. I was about +400 at the time I went broke, and the game quality had deteriorated, to the point where I was thinking about picking up. Now I wish I had.

I had the button, with AT22 and nut diamonds. The top was A-J-6 with one diamond, and the bottom was A-Q-2 two spades. A looser, tilting player pots to $150, one call, and I call on the button. The top turn was another 6, A-J-6-6, and the turn on the bottom was ALSO a 6, A-Q-2-6. Villain pots again to 600, other guy folds, and I go into the tank.

I didn’t love that I had one of my own boat outs on the board I liked, my set of deuces on the bottom. There was an ace on each board, however, and one in my hand. Also only one 6 left in the deck.

I thought the fact that I had a pair of aces on the top meant I have scoop equity, if it goes wrong and a 3rd spade flushed away my set on the bottom.

I get it in, he calls, and my heart sinks to see he had me oversetted with QQ, AND the case 6. So I got about 1600 in dead to the case ace or the case deuce for quads, on both boards. Just another cautionary tale of making small sets in PLO.

It was a long drive home, (to my AWESOME new house!), cursing my stupid mistake. Really wish I would have just picked up at +400, as the game was circling the drain… instead of the -1200 I put in my book.

Something to think about for next time.

Ouch. Sorry about the bomb pot. I did the same thing recently if it makes you feel any better :(

Congrats on the sectional. I have to buy a bigger house to get one of those.

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly is a sectional? I’m guessing some sort of sofa?

Congrats on the house. Nothing like owning the roof over your head.

And we’ve all stacked off with bottom set in bomb pots. You have to do it once to remind you to tread more carefully next time.

Basically yes. The one I got has 6 separate pieces you can rearrange, with a chaise lounge on the end, power reclining, and USB charging ports.

And completely agree, bottom set in omaha variants is such a trap.

Bottom set in NL? Sure, I'll get 500bb in with confidence and a smile with that hand. But not in omaha.

Had a nice night at G to get September headed back in the right direction, +2450.

I ran decisively better in all in pots, which was the difference tonight… simple as that.

First big hand, I had KK82ds on the button, and saw a raised, 4-way flop of 9-8-2 rainbow, with both backdoor flush draws. It checked to me, and I decided with nobody taking the lead on the flop, I might be ahead, so I potted it, which was basically a shove.

I was a little surprised and dismayed to see not one, but two opponents check/call for it all… and here I am, going to war for stacks multi-way with just bottom two pair.

The runout is A, 4, and I table my hand. One guy flashes T76x, the other shows an ace and mucks, and I’m good for the triple up. Ahead the whole way, never in doubt I was definitely tiptoeing between the raindrops on that runout, though.

A little later, I’m in late position with KQT9 double suited, and it’s raised and 3bet to 150 by the time it gets to me. The effective stacks were about 800-1k, and here I cold-flat the 3bet, making the plan to call if I find myself facing an all in pre AND heads up, with all 4 cards working. Easier to embrace the gambooool with white meat.

Anyway, nobody 4bets, and 4 of us see a flop of A-Q-4r. Checks to the 3bettor, who checks, so I check back, and get a lovely J on the turn. Now the 3bettor shoves. I Hollywood a bit, obviously call, and the river is clean, no chop.

It wasn’t all perfect, though. I take another raised flop on my button straddle with QJT2 and one suit, it comes T-4-2r. First to act pots to 500, with only another 400 behind, folds to me.

I’ve played many sessions with this opponent, and he has a HUGE leak of frequently committing stacks with marginal holdings, particularly when he’s out of position. He could definitely have naked overpairs here, strong draws, or even very meh draws.

I decide to go with it, and get it in. It runs out 7, 7, which I didn’t want to see, and I sheepishly announce a pair of tens, queen kicker. He turns up AKT2, and wins. I guess that was a bit too light a stack off by me.

Next, there’s a raised, multi-way flop with me holding KJTT with the JT of hearts, and it comes K-T-3r. With the king blocking top set I check, PFR continues for pot, and I check/pot it to commit stacks. It runs out Ah, Qh, my eyes bug out of my head and I immediately fastroll my ROYAL FLUSH!

First royal of the year, AND I even got paid! No promos, though :( My opponent had AAKJ, and was bemoaning his luck, until he saw that I ALSO got it in with the set on the flop, so he was well behind when the money went in. He did turn top set of aces, but then I rivered one of my two remaining outs, to quads or the royal.

So that was pretty cool

Royal w/ Cheese !!!!

First royal of the YEAR??

Next time I get a royal, it'll be the first one of my life.

Decided to change things up, and try a different venue, so I played a couple sessions at T this week.

The first session on Tuesday went pretty bad, -2k. Ran kinda bad in one big spot, then got my stack in bad in another spot.

I continued as PFR with KQJx, and queen high diamonds, on a T-5-2 flop with two diamonds. I turned an offsuit king, and got it in, vs an opponent who had AT5x, with nut diamonds. So my diamonds were dead, but I still had lots of straight and better two pair+ outs, with a very dynamic texture, but didn’t improve on the river.

The other spot I found turned out to be bad, in hindsight. I had J997, and got it in on a T-8-2 flop with two hearts (I had none). My opponent had the top part of the same straight draw, AJ9x, with nut hearts. Even though I had a big wrap, I was in pretty bad shape vs my opponent’s actual draw.

The conclusion I’m coming to is perhaps I shouldn’t overvalue JUST big wraps, especially on two-tone flops. And it’s a key difference when you’re getting them in with fold equity, and the initiative.

The takeaway I’ll remember from this session, however, is that I didn’t make a good quit. I was in for 2k, sitting on about 600, and feeling tilted from running bad and also playing bad. The big stacks had left, so we were maybe 6-handed, with no obvious soft spots. Certainly not a game that had the upside to justify topping up and going deeper, so I didn’t.

I could have picked up, because the game was no longer great. Indubitably, -1400 isn’t a great result, but it’s better than -2k.

These distinctions matter, at the end of the month, and the end of the year, when I balance results. When you’re playing cash games, it’s all one looooooong session.

As it happened, I was bored, and impatient, and looking to get my stack in wide, to spin back up closer to even. I got it in pretty light, and went bust.

So next time I’m in a dying game, bored, and tilting from being stuck, I’m going to be better about picking up, instead of blasting off in a spot I don’t really like.

Good lesson to learn. I hope I follow it more often going forward!

For the second session at T, last night, I decided to activate my lucky cash games run PURE shirt. I can’t wear it every session, of course, because that would just use up all the rungood. But I’m not gonna lie, sometimes I feel like I’m the manager of a baseball team, calling on a trusted bullpen arm to put out a fire in a high leverage moment in the game.

The game Thursday was better, and deeper, than the game on Tuesday.

It started out bad for me. I went in for my entire stoploss for the evening, 2400, then was down to my last ~350, then turned it all the way back around to 4540, and picked up at +2140. It was a 7.5 hour session, and a great game all night.

There were lots of big hands, and big spots, so they all kinda blur together. There was one spot in particular, though, that I found very pedagogical, and wanted to write up. Another painful lesson about bomb pots.

I wake up to 8887, so mentally I grumbled, about getting a terrible starting hand. The dealer spreads it, one board was 9-8-4, and the other was 6-5-2. Middle set on one, open-ended to the nuts both ways on the other.

I lead pot, one call, then one re-pot, and we get it in three ways. As the dealer was counting stacks, I ask, “Does anybody have a set of nines?” The re-potter says yes. Well, dammit.

Before the dealer runs it, I start counting my outs. Well, I can’t make quads with the 8’s, because I have one of my own blockers. AND, it’s even worse than that, because I was playing my open-ender on the other board. But a 4 and a 9 were on the top board, AND my opponent had two more 9’s dead in his hand.

So my 8-out nut straight draw was really only 4 outs, in this worst case scenario. And completely dead on the board with my middle set, and quads blocker in my own hand.

This was all information that was available to me before I got it in. If I stopped to think about this possible scenario, maybe I would have come to the conclusion that the downside was far worse than the upside. But I didn’t, and got scooped for my stack.

I can strive for perfection, even though I’ll never realistically obtain perfection. It’s okay to make mistakes, as long as I learn from them.

It wasn’t all bad, though. I internalized that bomb pot lesson, and got it in later in another one with top set on one board, and an overpair plus gutshot on the other. Me and two deepstacked opponents got it in on the flop, and I got half of the main, chopped the side, when my top set held up. If I ran well enough to have spiked that gutshot, also, though, I would have scooped the whole thing. It was about 7k total.

This is why I insist bomb pots are absolutely worth playing.

The other two big winning hands that built my comeback were my opponents making gigantic mistakes in deepstacked spots. I had KK98 in a raised, 6way flop, that checked around on Q-7-5. The turn was a 6, when I potted it, and got shoved on for ~1200 by a player all in and drawing dead with 43xx. Bless her heart.

The other big spot was flopping a boat, check/calling flop, check/check turn, then leading pot on the third club river, and getting a crying call from a flush.

So once again, through lived experience I can confirm that winning $2140 in a night doesn’t feel NEARLY as good, as losing $2k in a night feels bad.

It’s my goal with this thread, and my writing, that I’ll internalize the lessons I learn from playing, always play my best, and improve every session.

appreciate the self-scouting, this is also something to look for in your opponents who may be in similar frames of mind

check you're not doing what you see in others while looking for signs of the bad actions you've identified in yourself

Crazy game at G. I thought I played well for the most part, could have run better in some key spots, but ultimately left unsatisfied.

Maybe the biggest whale who plays in these games sat in. He's known at all the other venues... deep pockets and loves action.

His first hand, he sits with 2k and opens pot, I 3bet AAT7 double suited, he gets it in, I call, and lose to his 8652 (with dominated spades).

Grit my teeth and reload.

Steadily chip back up, to a slight profit. Then I played a HUGE hand, that really played itself.

I limp to the $25 straddle with Ac3cKK, whale pots, aggro player 3bets to 275 (which is why I just limped), I call, whale calls.

Comes K-Jc-7c. So top set AND nut clubs.

No mystery or fooling around, I lead right out with 600. Call, call.

Turn offsuit 3. Okay, I guess I shove. Call... Call?!? PLEASE no broadway-completing cards on the river!

River 2c, and I scoop about an 8.5k pot. Biggest pot I've won at this venue, and now I'm sitting about +7k.

Whale reloads 4k.

In another raised, multiway pot, he leads out pot on T-7-2 rainbow, with me holding T876. I decide to go with it, we get 3k in, but he has a set of freaking deuces, which holds.

Little later, another huge, raised, multiway pot, with me holding QJ98. Flop comes A-T-7, two diamonds. I have one diamond. It's ship, re-ship to me.

DESPITE me writing about this VERY scenario the other day, having a wrap on a two tone flop, I decide I'm getting the right price, and get it in 3 ways. 5d turn, 4c river, and the whale wins with AdKdxx.

Game was really deep, really splashy, and really crazy. I wasn't keen on stacking something preflop 3 or 4 ways for a 10k pot, though a couple of them happened. I'm starting from the assumption that I'm a better, more patient player than these guys. I don't want to push small edges for huge money, when I can get it in better, postflop, with much bigger edges.

So I folded for a while, then just said I don't feel focused, definitely feel tilted, and picked up, at +1,010. In a night when I was almost +7k at one point. Would have set a new personal best for this venue.

So frustrating. Wish I could have walked away at the top. But I guess I'm glad I did eventually pick up, in profit. I would have been REALLY tilted if I'd busted it, which could have easily happened, with the stacks in that game.

Winning over a grand is a fantastic result for a night of cash games! I gotta stay focused on that.

But like I said, I drove home feeling very unsatisfied.

Til next time.

Posted a nice night at G to snap a 2-session slump, at +3230. …I wasn’t very motivated to write about the losing.

But tonight, I ran good enough in every big spot I found. Satisfyingly, they were straightforward decisions. I find I have better results when I flop something that’s unwaveringly strong enough to stack off, in position facing a pot lead, where I can easily decide to fold, or commit stacks.

I like that a lot more than flopping a medium strength draw, maybe nutted or not quite, trying to decide if I’m getting the right price, facing a flop bet of a couple hundred, with multiple opponents to act behind me.

First hand I play, I flop a set, get it in over a cbet, and hold vs two pair, to double my initial buyin. Little later, I flop the nut straight, open-ended to a bigger straight, plus a spade draw, get it in and hold vs just a pair plus nut spades.

One interesting hand that turned into something big. I sneak into a multi-way, single raised pot with K985 double suited, and the flop comes A-6-2 rainbow (both backdoor flush draws). Checks to me, so I check, and it checks through. Then I get the biggest possible turn, a 7, which ALSO gives me the nut K-high flush draw. One of those funny Omaha hands where I go from clicking the check/fold button, to “ready to get any amount in,” based on one specific new card. I pot, get one caller, and I’m looking for almost half the deck.

One of my many outs comes in, an offsuit 5. I shove, and get a crying call, and a muck, to my nuts.

The big whale was there, and he very much changes the dynamic of this game. The stacks play a lot deeper, and people have much more gamble, for bigger pots preflop.

To be clear though, this guy is not a drooler of a fish. He’s very loose, and very aggro, which pairs well with his deep stack play. He knows how and when to apply pressure, and juice pots BIG when most people are trying to see a flop, and scared of playing big pots for committing amounts pre.

He busted some people, and got them tilted and reloading. I had been treading water, and sitting on a comfy win, but the game was playing deep enough that if a big hand came, I could go bust.

I remembered what happened last time, when I punted away a solid session, chasing the game-ending monster win.

When I picked up, several stacks had me covered, a couple were tilting, and the whale was sitting on about 13k. It was a great, deep, splashy game.

But I wasn’t feeling focused, and I would have been REALLY angry with myself if I went bust in a big spot. So I tried my new move: the stop-win.

…And it was fine.

And now I’ll be back, later this weekend! Hopefully the games are just as good.