Digging out of a downswing at live $1/$2

Had another big week where I won at everything. When will it end??

I played one short session of live poker this week. I played 3 hours of $1/$2 yesterday and won $298. I did have the option to play $2/$5 but passed as I have played zero poker for weeks and there were a couple tougher players in the game. There was a lot of turnover at my table but the game just kept getting bigger and better. At one point, we had a couple different whale-level players, including one who was regularly blind-raising to $12. I had an insane distribution of hands (Aces twice, Kings, Queens, Ace King suited) and got lucky in the biggest pot I played. Couple hand histories:

77 - I open from EP to $10, two loose fish call, BB (old guy with an accent) 3bets to $45 off about $350. I call but the fish both fold. Flop 982r ($110) he $25 I call. Turn Tss ($160) he checks I check back? River 3x ($160) he bets $100 I tank and ask him "you have Ace King?" he says "something like that." I fold and he tells me he had a big pair.

Honestly think every street in this hand is pretty close. His line strikes me as a bizarre way to play an overpair but I also don't believe this player type 3bets many unpaired hands closing the action in the BB. Turn I thought about betting small to navigate to showdown but I didn't want to get check-raised with my crappy open-ender.

AA - two fish limp I raise to $15 in CO and five players call (lol). Flop: K75r ($90) checks to me and I bet $40. SB (loose fish) calls and second limper (big whale) jams for $116. I just call, SB folds, and I fastroll my hand. He doesn't show but curses the 7 turn and I know I'm good on the 7 river. He rage mucks K5o and rebuys for the max.

Think I need to go bigger pre at this table but I got greedy. Not much to be done post-flop. If he showed me his hand, I would still call. I was more worried about the SB in this hand to be honest.

3 hours is my longest session since my son was born. Glad I got to play for a little while at a great table when I was running good and playing OK. Hopefully I can keep playing regularly but I think the next few weeks will be pretty busy for me.

I also spent about 90 minutes checking slot machines while I was at Mohegan Sun. I didn't find a ton of stuff, but I ran really hot on a newer machine and ended up winning $200 total. I have definitely been spending a lot more time on slots lately but I think it's OK. I think my hourly at poker is certainly higher, but I have just been feeling excited about slots recently and I've been learning a lot. All the success with the online slot grind really justifies the in-person AP stuff too.

Finally I had a giant week playing promotions on Mohegan Sun's online casino. I did well on the site's "Slot of the Week" promotion and then I ran as hot as I ever have playing through a $100 deposit bonus. My total win for the week on this site was $750.

Grinded out a small win this week. Happy to report that I haven't reached the point in my career where I am disappointed by a week where I win "only" $140.

I took a nice long trip to the casino yesterday. I was there for over 8 hours which is my longest session in forever. I spent a lot of that time walking around checking slots so it wasn’t all poker. I had a swingy session on the slots front, where I started out down a couple hundred. After about an hour, I had a huge hit for $550 which got me to up to +$350. Then I suffered a disaster play on a borderline machine. The end result was a $105 win on slots over big volume. Hard to complain overall. I'm happy I didn't lose, and I am very pleased with the amount of play I got on my card. I encountered a good amount of competition, particularly later in the night on an uneventful second trip around the casino. I had a chance to grab a big $10/spin play on an infamous "long run" slot but I saw a middle-aged Asian woman rapidly approaching the machine, and I let her take it instead. She called an Asian man on the phone who then waited for yet another Asian man to arrive. All 3 then played the machine together. I didn't wait around to see the result. This was the type of play that could easily result in a > $2k loss, which I wasn't really prepared to take. While these 3 vultures were occupied, I made sure to check as many of the other machines as possible.

I played poker for only 4 hours, but this was my longest session since my son was born. I probably should have played a bit longer, but whatever. I did return to $2/$5 for the first time in two months, which I was happy about. In total, I won $25 over 2 hours at $1/$2 and $88 over 2 hours at $2/$5.

The poker room was pretty full which was nice to see. There was a $500 "instant payout" high hand promotion running where the first player to make Aces Full or better each half hour gets $500. This promo seems silly and other players were complaining about it. My best hand of the session was a straight (see: QJss) so I had no chance at the promo. I started out at $1/$2 where my table was really soft but the stacks weren't deep at all. I didn't play any notable hands at this table before quitting to take a lap around the casino and get some food.

When I returned, a new $2/$5 game was called. With $5/$10 running, the new table was super soft and we started short handed. I had a rush of premium hands but steadily lost small over the course of my first 90 minutes. At some point I moved from the "must must move" table to the "must move" table (lol) but I was with a lot of the same guys as before, so still a good game. I had some nice conversations with the other players but ran pretty bad. My play was sloppy and lazy at times too. At the end of the session, I was starting to fade (at 9pm lol - this is life with an infant that doesn’t sleep) so I didn’t add on and started to plan my exit. Then, finally, in what was going to be my last orbit, I won a big one:

QJss - 3 limps (first limper is nitreg range-splitter, second two limpers are fish) I raise to $35 from CO. SB (big fish) cold calls, second limper (big fish) calls. Flop: Th9s3h ($110) checks to me I bet $50 SB calls EP calls. Turn 8c ($260) checks to me I jam for $285 off the short stack, SB snap calls with one chip, EP folds and shows AT. I fastroll my hand, SB says “heart, baby” and the river is the Ac. He shows A6hh.

Really nice pot at a time when I definitely needed it. Super lucky cause I think I was going to jam some blank turns and obviously this guy wasn’t planning on folding. The A6hh guy ended up busting an orbit or two later so I racked up and left shortly after. I think that was a good decision. Nice to end the session on a high note.

On the online front, I had a low volume week playing promotions on Mohegan Sun's online casino. This was the extent of my online gambling - no poker, no trips to other states. I lost small, -$71.83. This figure includes a couple tiny NBA bets using profit boosts too. I think FanDuel is finally starting to cut me off of their online casino promotions. This week, I was not given one of their standard promos, 20 free 25c slot spins given out every Friday. My wife's account still received the spins, so I guess this phenomenon is specific to my account. It makes sense though. At this point, I have won $17.5k on my FanDuel account, mostly via grinding out small promotions. How long can I reasonably expect to receive $5k in free EV annually when I almost never give anything back? Hopefully it doesn't all end at once, but I'm prepared for it.

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Expecting to not be able to put in much volume next week as I am pretty busy, but you never know. Still feel excited about gambling and I’ve been super motivated lately. Hopefully I can make something happen.

How would you describe the 2/5 game at MS compared to the 1/2 game? I plan on going down there in a few weeks and want to take a few shots at the 2/5 game.

I think the average 2/5 game is quite a bit more difficult than the average 1/2 table. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad or unbeatable games though. The games have a reputation for being pretty tight but I don’t think it’s that bad. There are a lot of nitty/ABC older regs in the 2/5 pool. Most of those guys can be ID’d pretty quickly. There are definitely still fish though, and the stacks are deeper with more raised and re-raised pots so there are good opportunities to make money.

Based on your posts on here, I would think you would be one of the better players on an average MS 2/5 table. Would just advise that your default is to assume that any unknown player is a nit until proven otherwise. I don’t think there are a lot of truly good players in the 2/5 games unless there are a bunch of people waiting around for 5/10.

Late update to the thread and my first losing week in a while!

This week was slow on the gambling front. I had less opportunities to play online and only managed a short trip to the casino. Additionally, the online slot machine that my friends and I have beaten up on recently has begun to get removed from online casinos. I knew this would happen eventually, but the timing was a surprise. It is hard not to be disappointed, but I am also very happy with how I did overall on the game. I did have some big plans to continue with it this Fall, but I guess that means I will have more time for poker instead!

On the poker front, I got one session of $2/$5 in this week at Mohegan Sun. I played for 2.5 hours and lost $221. My table was awesome, with one solid player and a bunch of fish/whales. I also had several premium starting hands but I was out-of-sorts and played sloppily. This was a day in which it probably made more sense for me to play $1/$2 but I am happy I got the volume in at the bigger game. Of course it would have been nice to play for a longer amount of time too.

In addition to the live poker loss, I also had a big loss on AP slots. I struggled to find anything on my first lap around the casino but finally ended up with a really nice play on a high variance machine. Unfortunately, I got super unlucky and suffered a $300 loss despite only betting $2.40/spin. I got nice coin-in on my card though, and I was happy I ended up with at least one good opportunity on the machines.

Finally, I won $101 playing promotions on the CT online casinos. There are less opportunities than ever in this category as well (a theme of the week) but I was disciplined and had one nice hit that allowed me to book a solid win. I am trying to increase my average bet size playing online which will result in bigger swings but higher EV as well.

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That's all for now, gonna keep it brief. Still hoping to have a productive end to the year but I can handle a slow month or two as well. I'm definitely not gonna run out of things to do around my house anytime soon.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming this week with another big win.

I took one trip up to Mohegan Sun this weekend. I had a little bit more time than usual, but I didn't get tons of volume in. I played 2 hours of $1/$2 (+$198) and 1 hour of $2/$5 (+$856). I was at the tail-end of a cold, so I went into the session feeling foggy. I decided I would start out at $1/$2 as a result, so I passed on an open 2/5 seat even though the table looked good. Fortunately, my brother took that seat so at least it went to good use.

My first 1/2 table was pretty bad. It was full of fish, but there wasn't a single stack above $200 and the majority of players had bought in for the minimum of $60. As a result, I left the table early to check slot machines. When I returned to the poker room, I played a bit more 1/2. My next table was better, with deeper stacks and a few action players. I made the nut straight in a big spot against a fish with top pair and won a nice pot.

78ss - UTG opens $10, three players call, I defend BB (lol fold pre). Flop A43ss ($50) checks UTG $20 MP call $20 I call (lol fold flop). Turn 5x I check UTG $45 MP fold I raise $90 UTG snap call. River 6 ($230) I jam $150 eff UTG tanks for a while and talks a bit and folds.

I have a bad feeling that I get stacked on a blank river here but maybe not. I think this player almost certainly had AK and I thought AK would fold versus this line. On the river, I maybe could have bet smaller to induce a call from one pair on a scary board. Not my best played hand overall.

After about an hour, I noticed that 2/5 looked great still and decided that I was feeling up to playing. The game I ended up playing in was one of the better 2/5 tables I've been at recently. For a little while, it was just me playing short-handed with 5 fish. I ran super hot at this table, making several big hands in great spots. Gradually, the fish busted or were moved to the main games. Regs started filling in, including one good player who sat to my direct left. Easy decision to book a win at that point, considering it was near the time I needed to go. Here are a few hand histories. The last one is one of the most ridiculous hands I've played in a while.

AA - I open EP $20 short stack fish calls IP. Flop Q85cc ($45) I bet $30 he calls. Turn K I bet $55 he calls. River 8 I jam for his $175 he calls. My hand is good and he shows the Tc.

KQo - I open EP $20 short-handed two calls. Flop KQ3css ($60) check I bet $25 fold BB calls. Turn 3c ($110) check I bet $75 he calls. River K ($260) he checks I jam for his $210 he snap calls. I show, expecting to have coolered KX but he shows Q9s lol.

AA - UTG fish opens to $45 (four red chips on top of a green chip). He immediately says "I'm gonna be honest, I thought that was a red chip." Two players call. I am in BB and squeeze to $200. UTG sighs and jams. The other players fold and I snap call. I fastroll my hand and he shows KK (lol @ obvious angle). Flop is 345r so in my head I am rooting for a 2. Turn is a 2, prompting me to realize my opponent now has 6 outs to chop. River is a 6 and we chop it up.

I also spent a good amount of time on the AP slot grind. On my first lap around the casino I found a bunch of good plays. The slot floor was really busy and it seemed like there weren't very many other hustlers out there. I played a new-to-me game for the first time which was fun. After hitting several machines, I was up about $25 when I found a big play on a Buffalo Link machine. I ran super hot on this play, and won about $400. I think I triggered 6 bonuses in total before reaching the free feature. The same Buffalo Link machine had a marginal play at $5/spin that I ended up passing on twice. I'm still not sure if I made the right decision here, but it was basically a breakeven play that was really high variance (easy to lose $1k or more). As I continued my lap around the casino, I ended up hitting another bonus on a favorite machine of mine after I linked up with my brother, which was fun.

I ended up taking one more lap around the casino after I finished up at 2/5. I found a number of small plays, including some Ultimate X, but I ran really cold on this lap and lost about $100. The end result of my slot play was +$500 which makes it my best live slots session ever. My results are improving with slots but I have been noticing the casino removing more and more games. I've heard that Mohegan Sun has kicked out some slot hustlers recently too, which would be really disappointing for me. I probably need to dial it back a little bit and try to be as careful as possible.

Outside of my trip to Mohegan Sun this week, I got a lot of volume in on the online casinos. I basically broke even playing promotions, but then I got a new opportunity with the online slot play that I've written about a lot lately. Last week, I wrote that I thought this game was basically done for, so it was especially nice to be able get more volume in. I ran super hot and won $1125 on that game, for a net result of +$1111 on the online casinos.

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Great week in general. I am hopeful that I will be able to put in some extra volume in the coming weeks. This has been an awesome year for me and I am optimistic that I will finish it out strong.

What makes you think MS is kicking out slot players? What grounds could the casino use to boot someone who imo not doing anything illegal/causing issues?

Also I just started playing on Club WPT Gold and I know you have had some success on the site prior to it being banned? Any tips? I have a decent track record live, but since I've started on the app I am stuck several BIs.

I don't have any concrete info about Mohegan Sun kicking out people that AP slots, just going off some stuff I read elsewhere. I've never seen a player get kicked out, but Mohegan is steadily removing machines and some of the slot hustlers I used to see regularly are no longer there. Mohegan Sun also uses this company that has software to track advantage slot play: https://www.tangamsystems.com/post/how-s...

I did pretty well on ClubWPT Gold, but I think the games were a lot softer when I was playing. The games got noticeably more reg-infested after multi-tabling was introduced and I'm sure it's gotten worse from there. Curious about the effects of the influx of Canadian players as well.

My advice would be to put in a lot of volume, game select as best you can, don't play too big, and focus on staying disciplined above all else. In the games I was playing (100NL mostly, with as many fish as possible per table) you could definitely be a winner just by playing tight and value-betting effectively, similar to live poker. Similar to live, I think it's really important to pay attention to what everyone is doing too, as you can probably get away with making some pretty big adjustments depending on who you are up against.

Don't get discouraged by the variance too. I only played 30k hands on that site and I had multiple 10+ buy-in downswings in that time. The games are insanely high variance and the swings I experienced were bigger than on any other site I've played on. The straddle + ante structure effectively makes everyone a short stack, and then every pot is multi-way like playing live.

I know of 3 confirmed people that have been permanently banned from Mohegan for AP

Got it, thanks for clearing that up. I overheard discussion about a poker reg who had been banned for slots at the 2/5 table the other day. Gonna make sure I’m more careful in the future (less conspicuous, taking more plays without using my player’s card, etc). I play really small and I’m only up there once a week so hopefully I can stay under the radar. Should be playing more poker than slots anyway.

Back down to Earth with a losing week. Disturbing lack of volume lately, need to try to pick it back up.

Online, I only played two short sessions on the online casino promotion grind. My opportunities on the CT online casinos continue to dry up, but it's OK. I ended up winning $79.50 which was my only winning category of the week. I had hoped to drive down to NJ this week to harvest some bonus money down there, but it didn't work out. It wasn't a great opportunity (fairly low EV for such a time commitment) and the family stuff has kept me busy.

I took one trip up to the casino this week. I was up there for longer than usual but didn't play as much poker as I wanted to. I played 1.5 hours of $1/$2 (+$79) and 1 hour $2/$5 (-$541). The session was pretty eventful though. I had a fun hand at 1/2 where I made quads against a fish and won a nice pot. Then I made the move up to 2/5. My table was pretty mediocre with a couple solid regs but enough fish to make it worthwhile. I ran hot to start and won about $500, running my stack up to over $1k (I am still buying in short for ~$500 typically). I made a straight with A5s against a fish and then won a SB vs BTN 3BP with KJ where I called down an unknown with second pair and won.

At that point, my table had gotten worse and I considered racking up. I decided to stay a little longer. In general, I think this was a good decision. I need more reps playing 200bb deep at 2/5 and there is no reason for me to shy away from an average 2/5 table. Still, I got soundly punished for not hitting and running with this painful cooler:

AA - MP posts $7, CO iso $20, I 3bet BTN $65, BB (unknown 40s WG, playing aggressively, on the list for 5/T) 4bet $150, folds, I call. Flop K73r ($320) he $100 I call. Turn 2hh ($520) he $300 I call. River T ($1120) he jam $450 I snap it off and he has top set.

Don't really think there is any meaningful decision in this hand outside of whether to 5bet or call pre-flop. I think calling is better because this player might have bluffs and is presumably good enough to fold marginal value hands to a 5bet. Post-flop plays itself.

I called the river and expected to win against AK. I felt way more shook by the result of the hand than I was expecting so I just booked the loss. I realized afterwards that this was the biggest hand I've ever lost. Kind of ridiculous that I've played almost 200 hours of 2/5 and this is my first time getting stacked for a max buy-in but it is what it is. I certainly can't complain about running bad in this game.

After leaving the table, I started checking slot machines. At this point, a 2/5 reg that I'm friendly with came up to me and warned that 5 of his friends had recently been banned from Mohegan Sun for AP slot play. We chatted for a bit and I got a little more info from him. This situation continues to concern me. At some point, I may have to consider no longer playing slots at Mohegan Sun. I really don't want to lose the ability to play poker here. For now, I think it's OK to continue as long as I'm cautious. I am up a relatively small amount of money from slots and I only play a couple hours a week, so I can't imagine I am a big target.

My slot session was interesting. I played for a long time because the casino was packed and I kept finding good stuff. I also didn't feel like playing any more poker. I ended up booking a $254 loss on slots. Mostly this was because I ran like death on a bigger play on a new game that I am still learning. This play may not even have been +EV which sucks, but I'm glad I took a shot as this was my first time actually playing the machine. I mounted a nice comeback on other smaller plays though and got a lot of volume in. My beloved UConn Huskies were playing a huge game which I watched on my phone for most of the session. This was not an ideal viewing experience but they won in dramatic fashion so I enjoyed myself.

At the end of my session I got up from a machine I had been playing and a janitor called out to me. I was worried she was going to give me grief for APing the machine but instead she pointed to the ground under the machine. Right where my feet had been was a significant amount of money. I picked the money up, thanked the employee, tipped her, and started walking away. I already knew the money wasn't mine, but I counted the bills in my wallet to confirm. I experienced a brief moral dilemma before googling whether or not you can get in trouble for taking money off the floor at the casino. Obviously you can (could result in ban or even arrest?!) so I decided to to do the right thing. I turned the money into security and was told that if no one claims it in 30 days, it's mine. I figured this would be the case, but it's a nice free-roll for being a good samaritan. I think it's pretty unlikely the money gets claimed.

Will definitely update this thread with the result of that situation. I am not including the amount of money for now, but it wasn't enough to get me unstuck for the day either way.

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Hoping I can get some more volume in next week. I think I will start playing online poker again soon so that I can get some more reps in. I also played pick-up basketball for the first time since my son was born today which was fun. I definitely need the exercise.

Are there allot of AP slot campers in Connecticut? I’ve recently been interested in AP slots and watched a couple of troopers videos and it seems like Vegas is hyper competitive with teams that just wait for plays. I was hoping it could just be something quick plus ev while taking a break from live poker or waiting for a game I didn’t realize ppl try to do this for a living.

There are teams of Asian hustlers that will aggressively camp for certain plays, but it’s not as bad as what I’ve heard happens in places like Vegas and AC. I think part of the reason is that Mohegan Sun removed the most aggressively camped games (Buffalo Ascension, Regal Riches, etc).

Personally I’ve never camped anything for more than a minute or two. If I see a good play and notice that the person playing it seems like a fish, I will usually just loop back around to check the machine a few minutes later. If I notice someone sitting behind the machine waiting, I will just forget about it and move on.

I do think AP slots can be exactly what you said, a fun and profitable thing to do on a break from the poker table. There are definitely a lot of people that do it for a living though.

Nice solid win this week with an improvement in volume too.

I took one trip up to Mohegan Sun this week. I didn’t play a ton of poker but it was a good session. I play 2 hours of $1/$2 (-$54) and 1 hour of $2/$5 (+$395). I also spent a good amount of time on the AP slot grind (-$139.76).

My 1/2 tables were both pretty average, with plenty of nitty regulars. I got stacked in an AIPF spot where I had JJ and my opponent had KK off of a $170 stack. I had posted in that hand and ISO’d to a large size over many limps. My opponent, who I thought was a decent player, 3bet from the BTN. I 4bet jammed because I thought he could be light in that spot but I guess not. This might have been a slight overplay. I also got a big bluff through against a loose younger opponent in a 3bet pot where I 3bet squeezed AQo and barrelled on a dry King-high board.

I moved to 2/5 once the must move table started looking better. For a while I played short-handed with a couple good regs and one big whale. I ran like God against the whale, flopping a set on a wet board and then eventually stacking him AIPF AA vs AKs for $600 effective. Unfortunately I made a pretty questionable river call with second pair in another spot which hurt the overall results of the session. Eventually I got called for the other must move table where my brother was playing with a couple other solid regs. I declined the seat and ended my poker session a little early.

Mohegan Sun was running its triple status points promotion on Saturday so the slot floor was packed, including a lot of other hustlers. I did find some good plays though. Unfortunately I ran poorly on the only big “long run” play I found, so I booked a loss for the session. I had fun though and had some nice hits including hitting a bonus on my first spin on two separate machines. Mohegan Sun continues to remove AP machines but new games are being installed too.

I got great volume in this week hustling on the online casinos. In CT, Mohegan Sun ran their best regular promotion, a $100 deposit bonus. I played through this promotion on both of my accounts and won $360, which was very lucky. Later in the week, that same site ran a couple other promotions that I was a small net loser on.

I also took a quick trip down to the New Jersey border, where I grinded online casinos for two hours from the same Mahwah, NJ strip mall plaza that I’ve played at previously. The main reason for the trip was $200 in deposit bonuses from Hard Rock Bet. Additionally, I had $120 each in free credits from BallyBet and Monopoly Casino. In total, I had just about $450 of bonuses with very favorable playthrough requirements. For that amount, it was definitely worth it for me to drive down from CT, given it is about a 3 hour roundtrip. I was proud of myself for deciding to take this trip. I went after putting my kids to bed on Friday and got back to CT late at night. This sort of mission isn’t particularly fun (I enjoy driving, but not that much) but it is worth a solid hourly, almost like a job. I am really proud to be able to help support my family through gambling and the way to do it is by grinding in spots like this.

Unfortunately, I ran horribly playing online blackjack to clear the promotions, so I only cashed out $250 in profit. Additionally, I had several new opportunities to play the online slot that I’ve had so much success APing. I ran poorly on that game too and lost about $280, making me a net loser for the NJ trip. Again, I am really happy with the decisions that I made though. This slot game is worth a lot of money to me and I need to take every opportunity to play it. I was a bit disappointed to leave NJ having lost, but I know that it was a good spot for me. Plus, I was rich in Sklansky bucks or whatever.

I had a few surprising new opportunities to play the same online slot in CT. I was a small loser on those opportunities too. As I’ve mentioned previously, the chances to profitably play this game are dwindling. Several versions of the game have been removed from every online casino in the US. The remaining versions have been limited to a $10 max bet (the previous max bet was $45 on this version and up to $150 on other versions). The EV of the game has been drastically reduced as a result. Fortunately, I already did my damage, having won a solid five figure amount on the game earlier this year.

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I expect to be able to put decent volume in again next week as well. This week I did play a tiny bit of online poker too. I won a spin & go on BetOnline using a free ticket and then used the winnings to short buy micro stakes PLO. Unfortunately I got stacked with AAXX in a 4BP at less than 1SPR but it was a fun little session. At some point I will have to dedicate some actual time to studying PLO. Not right now though.

I had a net loss of about $280 this week, which I am feeling weirdly disappointed about. I didn't make the highest EV decisions this week, although I did get a bit more poker volume in than usual. I don't feel like writing too much this week, so going to keep things brief.

This week I took two trips up to Mohegan Sun. I played a total of 6.5 hours of $1/$2 (-$76) and just a half hour of $2/$5 (-$47). I wish that I had played more 2/5 this week, that is my main regret. I passed up a couple opportunities to move up. I think there were legitimate reasons not to play, but it's time for me to be putting in hours at the bigger game regardless of line-ups. At the end of my first trip, I moved to a soft 2/5 must move table but it broke instantly (hence, the short session).

The highlight of the week came on my second trip to the casino. I put in a solid session at a really soft 1/2 table and I hit my first high hand promo in a while. Mohegan Sun was doing a $400 high hand every 20 minutes which is a great promotion. I hit Aces Full of Tens with ATo on AT5TA on the last hand of a high hand period where there were no high hands on the board. I also scooped a nice multi-way pot in that hand since none of my opponents had an Ace for the chop. Unfortunately, the rest of that session did not go particularly well, as I ran frustratingly cold in an action-packed game.

Over the course of the two trips, I also got a lot of volume in on the slots floor. I found a bunch of good plays but unfortunately ran poorly in the biggest spots and booked a small loss of $23 on machines. I did get to play a couple games that I've never found a play on before though, which was fun for me. I've been really enjoying learning slot machine advantage play, but it hasn't been particularly lucrative for me. It will only take a couple big hits for that to change though.

On the online casino front, this was a low volume week with limited promotions available to me. I was a small loser on the promotions I did play and then I spent some time experimenting with a new game. I think what I was doing was likely -EV and I spent a little bit more time on it than I would have liked. The end result was that I lost $133 playing online this week. Not the end of the world by any means, and I will be have a little bit of lossback money to play through next week.

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Hoping I can put more volume in next week. I am having a really good year results-wise and over the course of the winter I hope to be able to grind extra hard.

I had a chaotic week but put in above average volume and was rewarded with a big win.

Most of the week’s chaos was family stuff. My 3 year-old daughter fell and knocked her front tooth out which resulted in multiple trips to the dentist (god knows how much this cost). Then, I discovered that my dog has been going to town on a dead deer’s rotten carcass in an obscure wooded corner of my backyard. It seems as though this has been going on for weeks, because last month he randomly vomited up fur and raw meat on both of my couches. At the time, I assumed he had eaten a mouse or something else small, but this week I saw him chewing on a large bone in my yard and figured it out. Getting rid of the deer’s body was a unique and disgusting challenge and now I get to pay for my dog’s feces to be tested for parasites (god knows how much this will cost pt 2).

On the gambling side, I started the week off with brutal variance playing through a heavier-than-usual number of online casino promotions. At one point I was down over $500 but after playing through some lossback credits I finished the week down only $419. I am well-equipped to deal with online casino losses and I know that I have run above EV for much of this year. Still, losing over and over is never fun. I am happy to be getting regular promotions again though.

My gambling results turned around with a 3.5 hour session at a low stakes home game. This was my first time playing at this home game in six months. I won $19 playing 3.5 hours of $.25/$.50. Not a big win or anything, but this was one of my longer poker sessions recently (sad, right?) and it was a fun time. I also whaled it up pre-flop about as hard as I could bring myself to.

Finally, I got up to the casino on Sunday evening. Right away, I knew it was going to be a great trip. Mohegan Sun has installed a number of new beat-able slot machines which is a nice change of pace, as they had previously removed dozens of good games. I found a ton of nice plays on my first lap around the casino, including some premium stuff that I almost never find. Additionally, Mohegan Sun’s online casino was running a promotion in the casino’s shopping concourse. Anyone who wagered $25 on the MS online app was allowed to play a real-life mini-game for some generous prizes. After losing a $25 hand of online blackjack, I got my chance to play the promotion. Somehow I won both $100 of in-app credits and $250 of cash. This was an unbelievable result, especially since I won $300 on a similar promotion in February. I should probably start monitoring the schedule of this promotion.

I played a short session of live poker at Mohegan Sun and had a small win. I played a half hour of $1/$2 (+$16) and one hour of $2/$5 (+$125). Both tables were solid and I think I played well enough, but I was feeling really eager to get back to the slot floor. I quit my $2/$5 table after a couple fish left the game and immediately hit one of my biggest slot wins ever on a great play that I found. This particular play was a high-EV spot on a larger denomination bet. The couple playing the machine got up right as I was walking over, which is super lucky. There was a younger guy watching them play, but he did not make a move to take the machine after the couple left so I jumped on. He continued to watch me play as I instantly hit the bonus. Later, I saw him checking another AP machine, so I guess I may have accidentally snaked him on this play, though he didn’t say anything about it.

I hit several other improbably good slot bonuses (mixed in with some modest losses) to finish ahead a total of $1435 on slots. This is my biggest win since I started getting into AP slot play by a large margin. It was nice to finally run hot on machines. There is a ton of variance involved in this pursuit and it can be incredibly frustrating, but I am captivated by it for some reason. On this trip, I spent way more time playing slots than playing poker. This felt a bit disgusting to do, but I do think it was the highest EV decision. The slot floor was packed with fish and there weren’t very many high-level slot APs competing for plays. In the future, I do want to make sure I am playing more poker though.

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Despite the upcoming holidays, I think I should be able to continue to increase my volume over the course of the winter. I also started putting together my spreadsheet of year-end results. I’m excited about what I was able to do gambling this year. Looking forward to keeping it going.

I had a very small win this week, but I’m excited to be back playing online poker again.

On Thursday, I received a random free promotion from BetOnline which was revealed to be $100 in promo funds. I had already been planning on trying to play poker on this site again (I grinded some 10NL on there years ago) but this promo sealed it. Unfortunately, the money needed to be released by raking money in cash games. For every $5 raked, $5 of the promo money would be released. So basically 100% rakeback for a short period, which is generous enough. The money was set to expire at midnight on Monday, so releasing the whole $100 would be a challenge for me. Could I rake $100 at microstakes on an unfamiliar site in one weekend?

The answer turned out to be “No.” I ended up releasing $30 over the course of 7 or so hours of 25NL. I tried to play 3 tables at once but the unfamiliar software left me struggling. I accidentally timed out of a lot of hands pre-flop, so I ended up mostly 2-tabling. I got more used to the software eventually though and ended up enjoying the experience. The site has much tougher regulars than the Sweepstakes sites I’ve been playing on the past couple years but there are still a number of spewy fish. I think I am a winner in this pool and look forward to playing more in the future to prove that. In the short-term, I ran really bad this weekend and ended up finishing down $34 (including the $30 in promo money). If this hadn’t been such a busy weekend for me, I would have tried to release all of the promo funds. I could have also tried to play a bigger stake like 50- or 100NL. For now though, 25NL seems like a fine choice.

Depositing money on the site was a bit of a pain. The credit card deposit fee on BOL is prohibitively high (17%?!) so I needed to purchase crypto again. I ended up buying through PayPal (my Coinbase account had a 1 week “Hold” on any newly purchased crypto) and then I used a wallet as an intermediary. I lost a few dollars in fees over the whole exchange which was unfortunate.

Besides online poker, I got some more volume in playing promotions on Mohegan Sun’s online casino. It was a swingy week where I ran solidly below EV, but my net result was saved when I received the $100 of in-app credit that I won last week. After playing through that money, I ended the week ahead a total of $5.

Finally, I did manage to take one trip up to the real life casino. I did not play as much poker as I was hoping, but my results were pretty good. I played 2 hours of $1/$2 (+$16) and 1 hour of $2/$5 (+$397). I won one big pot at $2/$5 after doubling up AIPF with KK. I ended my session early as the table was reg-heavy. My focus at the tables has been pretty bad lately. When I am truly locked in playing live poker, I can enter something like a “flow state” where time will pass by very quickly. That has decidedly not been the case lately. I hope to get back here soon. It feels like I have a ton of distractions right now.

I got good volume in on the AP slots grind this week. My net result was -$210 but I think I made some good progress. I met up with a friend who is also exploring the world of AP slots and we took a quick lap around the casino together. My friend pointed out several games that I did not know and afterwards I spent some time familiarizing myself with them. It blows my mind how many beatable games are at Mohegan Sun that I did not know until very recently. I already feel a bit overwhelmed checking machines there so I will need to make sure I prioritize better in the future. This same friend has been a wealth of knowledge for me this year and has had a massive impact on my bottom line. It is incredibly hard to make it by yourself in gambling so I am very grateful for this relationship.

Another notable moment from this AP slots session was that I took my biggest ever slot play. It was a bit nerve-wracking, as I was playing bigger than usual on a very high variance machine. I lost a relatively small amount of money, but I was happy that I found the play and took the spot. Typically I am looking to play less than $10 per spin but this particular play was at $15 on a “long run” slot. I don’t normally even check the higher bet levels but in this case I had seen a fish on the machine earlier and knew there was likely to be a play left behind. The play was better than I expected (my numbers say it was a spot that should be above 120% return-to-player) so I took the shot. As my knowledge base and bankroll continue to grow, I hope to become more and more comfortable taking big swings like this.

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Should be another eventful week coming up. I am not sure that I will update this thread again before Christmas. I still have tons of stuff to do for the holidays, and I am still not getting enough sleep because of our baby. Things are going well though, and I am looking forward to the next couple weeks.

The Ap slot grind seems so interesting…I live near a couple good casinos for it I think but just learning when machines are in a plus ev state feels so overwhelming do you have any tips to learn?

It is overwhelming. I have access to some content that is behind a paywall now and there is so much information that it is difficult to keep everything straight. And that is coming from someone who has been learning about this stuff for over a year.

I would just focus on one game at a time. Find a couple games that are at your local casino and figure out the strategies. Once you have those down, learn a few more. It can be difficult and frustrating to find plays these days, but just the process of searching is often fun for me.

I've recommended Wizard of Odds as a good place to start before. Some of his info is dated/inaccurate but he has some very thorough information available about popular games that can be found in most casinos. Just scroll down a bit and look under "Slot Machines for Advanced Players" https://wizardofodds.com/games/slots/

The actual best free source of information right now comes from a YouTuber named Desolator Gaming. He is insufferable to listen to at times, but he is giving away extremely valuable information for free with his "How to Beat..." YouTube videos. He has a Patreon that is reasonably priced too but I don't know anything about what he posts there. I will say that some of his numbers seem too loose to me but it is still a great source of info. https://www.youtube.com/@DesolatorGaming...

It's been almost two weeks since I updated this thread! Wish I could say I have exciting stuff to share, but it's been a bit of a slog lately and my result over this stretch was a small loss.

I spent two nights at Mohegan Sun this week with my family. We went before Christmas which was probably a poor decision, as I still had tons of stuff to do before the holiday. This made the trip a bit stressful. Even worse, we were all in some stage of battling a respiratory illness while on our trip. I felt pretty bad my first night there which definitely impacted my ability to get volume in.

Over the two day stay, I played a total of 6 hours of poker: 3 hours of $1/$2 (net result: -$132) and 3 hours of $2/$5 (net result: -$216). I was happy that I played more $2/$5. My tables weren't always great but I did find some good line-ups. Overall I was pretty card dead for this trip. There were not very many interesting decisions. I also played a short $1/$2 session that was one of my worst-played sessions of the whole year.

My biggest win of the trip was that I was able to claim the $300 in cash that I found on the floor of the casino last month. This was money that I found below an Ultimate X machine while I was vulturing slots in November. I had turned it into security and was told that it was mine to keep if no one came looking for it. Pretty happy to get that money, and it helped turn around the net result of this trip. I also happened to find a much smaller amount of cash on the ground on this trip. I did not turn this money in to security since it didn't seem worth it. I guess I am running pretty hot with finding money on the floor though.

I also put in solid volume on the AP slots grind while at Mohegan Sun. I won $198 and booked a winning session on each of the three days that I played. I had $30 of free slot play for the trip which was nice, and I put this to good use. My room was also comped and we got a good amount of free food too.

Outside of that casino trip, I put a lot of volume in playing promotions on the CT online casinos. Unfortunately, I continue to run really bad in this category. The net result since my last update was -$585 which is pretty bad. Fortunately, this is just a drop in the bucket for my year-end results.

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Gonna keep it brief with this update. I expect to be able to put in a lot of volume over the course of the next couple weeks. This was a challenging week because my son has been having a lot of trouble sleeping through the night. Last night we finally had good sleep though, so I am feeling refreshed and optimistic. Next week I will be able to share my results for 2025 which I am excited about too.

I was up at 4am this morning to take care of my six month-old son so I took some time to write up a nice long year-end post with my 2025 results.

2025 Gambling Results

Live Poker:

Online Poker:

Online Casino: +$36,768.30

AP Slots: +$2,312.13 (50 sessions)

Misc.: +$287

Total Won: $56,758.73

2024 Total Gambling Results: +$32,665.37
2023 Total Gambling Results: +$11,019.89

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In total, I am really proud of how much I was able to win this year. In 2023 I was working full-time as a paralegal at a personal injury law firm. I hated that job and quit without having much of a back-up plan. Part of the reason I quit was that I knew I could make a significant amount of money gambling. This year, I won more money gambling than my annual salary at that job. For what it’s worth, I also have a part-time job that I really enjoy that pays a higher hourly wage than the paralegal job too.

By far, the biggest story of 2025 for me was the big online slot play that I’ve referred to throughout this thread. I won just about $31,000 on that play alone this year. This was a game that my friend discovered could be exploited to give the player a limited advantage. I ended up travelling to RI, NJ, and PA to play this game. I had the opportunity to continue travelling (the game also existed in MI, DE, and WV) but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it in time. This was mostly due to having a brand new infant to take care of. I regret not playing this game more, but it’s hard to be upset about how things went overall. Unfortunately, the game’s developers eventually caught on to what we were doing. Some other folks in our extended circle won way more money on this game than I did and at some point someone noticed. The online casinos have since removed the most valuable versions of the game. A few versions of the game still exist, but the developer made a significant change to these versions that dramatically limits their value.

Unfortunately, my success on this game is not something that I will be able to replicate in 2026. I do expect that I will be able to play the game a little bit here and there, especially if I am able to travel more in 2026.

Outside of that, I am happy to have been able to have continued success on the sweepstakes model poker sites. In 2024, I won a bunch of money on Stake US. I did not think there was any chance I would be able to win that much again in 2025 but I actually almost did! The opportunity to play on ClubWPT Gold wasn’t worth quite as much as Stake (WPT had infinitely worse software and significantly more regs than Stake) but it was still a great spot for me. I dealt with some extended runbad on ClubWPT Gold too, which was one of the bigger challenges I faced this year in gambling. I definitely think I could have won more playing online poker this year (playing bigger, putting in higher volume) but, again, I’m not going to complain too much.

Unfortunately, I no longer have access to any sweepstakes poker sites thanks to a new law passed by the CT government. Again, I do not see myself being able to replicate my online poker success in 2026. I have begun playing on BetOnline again, and may continue to explore other Rest-of-World crypto-based online poker sites. But playing on these sites is nowhere near as good of an opportunity for me at this time, so I do not know how much time I will devote to it.

So looking ahead to 2026, it seems natural to expect a slower year. I am cautiously optimistic though. Live poker has gone really well for me the past few years and I’ve enjoyed delving deeper into the world of advantage play slots. I expect that I will continue to make a modest amount of money hustling online casino promotions too. In order to have a big 2026, I am likely going to have to spend more time either travelling or at least inside of a physical casino. My schedule should allow for that though, and I enjoy doing both of those things anyway.

The biggest reason to feel optimistic about 2026 is that my bankroll is significantly bigger than it was in 2025. I should be able to play more $2/$5 (and buy in deeper) at the casino, I can look for some bigger slot plays, and I can accept more risk when doing the online casino thing. I also have a lot of trust and support from my family after stringing together so much success year-after-year in poker and gambling. And, on top of that, I’ve continued to learn new things and make new connections. We’ll see what happens. Should be a fun year and, at least for now, I remain committed to updating this thread on a regular basis.

Have enjoyed following, congrats on the year and good luck in 2026!

Back to my regular weekly updates to this thread. I had a nice win to end 2025 and then another one at the start of 2026. I did almost zero online gambling this week, so the entirety of this update will be two trips to Mohegan Sun.

Last weekend’s trip was pretty heavy on slots. I found several solid plays on my first lap around the casino and had a nice come-from-behind win. Later in the day I found a big play on a volatile game and ended up with a small win. In total, I won $127 on slots. I did get a lot of volume in though, which I’m happy about. My offers from the casino have been steadily getting better recently as my slot volume has increased.

I also got a short $2/$5 session in. I played for 2 hours and won $783. I started out stuck after losing some small pots. I played a weird spot with AKo in a giant multi-way 3bet pot that I posted in the strategy subforum. I got bluffed, but I think it was a prudent spot to fold. My table was really good though, so I was excited to continue playing. I made top pair against a fish to get unstuck for the session and then came this spot:

55 - UTG rec open $15, UTG1 call, I call from SB, BB (younger guy, unknown but seems decent) calls. Flop 542r ($60) I check, BB donks $65, UTG calls, UTG1 folds, I raise to $200, BB jams for my $750, UTG folds, I call. BB has A3o. Turn J River J.

I think this was a fine spot to get it in for 150bb but obviously doesn’t feel great being all-in against a straight here. Very happy to get the lucky run-out. I was pretty surprised that BB defended A3o here. That means he has a lot more straights than I might have expected. I do think he can still play 54, 44, or 22 like this though. If I didn’t have top set, I might have been a bit more hesitant to stack off in this spot.

I got moved to the main game, which was also very good, and I continued to play for about an hour. I should have played for longer as it was a great spot for me but the desire to book a big win won out. One day I will close this mental game leak.

My next trip to the casino came this weekend. Mohegan Sun was running its best status multiplier promo, so I was compelled to grind slots at the start of my session. My very first play of the day was a nice $6/spin spot on a machine I really enjoy. I ended up hitting a jackpot bonus that I had never gotten before and I was rewarded with a 2x “Major Jackpot” for just over $1k. This was my single biggest live slots hit to date, so I was pretty excited. Afterwards, I found a bunch of marginal plays that I gambled on because of the status multiplier. Unfortunately I got burned on these, but I did earn a ton of points. I also earned $50 in freeplay that I put to good use.

Later in the day I found a few more solid plays, including on some machines that were new to me. It is always exciting for me to be learning new things. I think this is part of what has been so exciting about AP slots for me lately. In total, I finished the slot session up $795 which is a great start to the year.

I was also really happy to put in a longer poker session on this trip. I played 4.5 hours of $1/$2 with a net result of -$69. I was in the hole for about $500 at one point though, so I enjoyed being able to grind back to near even. I was at an incredible table with multiple huge fish. The stacks were deeper than average and multiple players were straddling at every opportunity. This was the most I’ve enjoyed myself playing poker in a while, and I definitely would have continued to play if I didn’t have to leave.

I had a ton of big hands this session. I flopped four sets and won every time, including getting it in with top set against the flopped flush of a short stack (I rivered a boat). I did lose a really big pot after bet-bet-jamming AA on K8669 against a whale who hung on with 75 and got there. I also played this difficult hand:

AsQc - UTG (unknown, $250) open $12, Whale ($200) calls, Whale ($150) calls, BTN Fish ($600) calls, I squeeze BB to $80. Folds to BTN who calls. Flop: AhKc6c ($190) I bet $75 BTN calls. Turn Tc ($340) xx. River 9x ($340) I bet $100 BTN raises to $200. I tank folded and he showed the Th. Later he said he had KT which makes sense.

I was happy that I bet/folded this river. This player was a pretty big station, so I’m sure I would have gotten paid off by AJo or A5s. The minraise is pretty ugly as it is such a disaster to get bluffed here and I have a good blocker. That said, I don’t think players bluff like this ever and this guy was very much a loose passive.

Immediately after that hand, I doubled up after flopping a set with 99 in a 3BP to get all the money back and more. That was the last big hand of my session. Despite losing at poker, it was a nice trip to the casino. Looking forward to returning soon.

As I mentioned, I did not play very much online this week. I think I got one small session of 25NL in on BetOnline and then I had some free spins on the online casino (+$6). I also won a small amount betting sports on Kalshi using a small deposit bonus. All in all, a really nice winning week and a good start to the year.

Looking forward to getting more volume in this week. I was very busy over the holidays and I have been sick for over two weeks, so this has been a tough stretch. Should be getting back into the swing of things soon.

Late to update this thread but things have been pretty slow. I actually had a vasectomy this morning so I am expecting to be out of commission for this weekend as well. Maybe I can get a live session in on Monday though. I am going to try and play online too.

I played one session of online poker this week, some 25NL on BetOnline. It did not go well (-$43.50). I was doing relatively well but then I ran extremely poorly over a short period at the end of the session. I think I lost three buy-ins in about 5 minutes, getting it in as a big favorite in two of the spots and as a flip in the other. I have not been very motivated to play. I am hoping to find the time to grind some more this weekend as I recover.

I played some online casino promotions this week as well and was a small winner (+$31). I haven’t discussed the changes to the US’s gambling tax code much in this thread, but they are weighing on me a bit. Most of these online promotions are small edges with high variance. This is exactly the type of gambling that is hurt the most by the tax changes. And unlike live poker, there is an existing online record of all of my play. As a result, I will be playing these promotions a bit less and I will be changing up my strategy. I am making sure to take much better logs of my online sessions as well too.

Finally, I took a trip up to the casino last Saturday. I played an extremely short $1/$2 session (+$56 in 30 minutes) before moving up to $2/$5 (-$160 in 2 hours). My 2/5 session was really uneventful. I was pretty card dead and basically just had to make a lot of really disciplined pre-flop folds. Both of the tables I was at were good, although I did play with an extremely annoying player that succeeded in tilting me a bit.

I had an up & down session on AP slots. I got extremely lucky on a small play on a newer machine to start out up $100. I ended up finding 10+ plays on a brand new machine that I do not think many vultures know yet. I ran really poorly on some bigger spins on this game, and ended up finishing my session as a $3 loser. I also had $15 of free play that I lost on the aforementioned game.

This was a quicker trip to the casino, so I did not get in as much volume as I was hoping for. At some point this winter I do hope to be able to play some longer hours, but we’ll see.

For now, this week was a very small loss. Still up small for the year though which is nice.