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

It occurs to me that I never set goals for December.

I got into the gym for the first time since Thanksgiving Day. I was able to do all the parts of my workout, at the weights I was up to, but it was definitely tougher, having missed two whole weeks.

This month is tricky, because I’m working full time, and then taking a family trip to Virginia over Christmas.

Without having specific numbers in mind, I’ll try to play some poker, win some money, and hit the gym every sometimes.

I’m still tracking everything, so we’ll see what the recap looks like at the end of the month.

once again forever and always
while not intending to add nausea to the high stakes you play at

my read on your sharing healthy slices of tj after work poker party mandibular life results is quickly classified under funking enjoyable beats you do not heckle bro

unofficially speaking for the rest
we got yo back

I'm not sure I understand what RED just said, but I know that I liked it!

RED is like a cross between Yoda and Mr Miyagi dispensing wisdom.

The less it makes sense, the deeper its meaning, if you noodle on it for a while.

every post of his i read gives me a headache lol

lets go TJ !

When you do begin to understand, seek help. Preferably a psychiatrist so he/she can write you a prescription for your condition.

I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

I read Red, it's a language I can't quite grasp yet it's the mystical, fantastical language of life and of poker
Feels like an LSD trip, was it really trips for TJ or did I somehow land in one of TonySoprano's mixed game trips?

Red deals out advice on the vice that is the variance ridden game of unpredictable poker
His wisdom is like Mr. Miyagi, wax on wax off, seeing a flop on the cheap with 8-9 off

Whatever Red is saying we can't quite comprehend, there's an open, a raise, can he tell us how to play AJ?
But one thing is certain, he unequivocably, definitively, and overwhelmingly supports Las Vegas Lifestyle's TJ

Whether it is finding a good game in the cash game streets, or a tournament filled with potholes and bad beats
Either can result in words coming from out of the mist, words from the lips of Red with his own unique twist

appears time opportune to play my one and only third middle derail card across tracks that train of previous user posts took

dude do not intend to be duopolis plus please buy these two more simple trick examples at sports variance success over 50 while implying your family fun run around sketchy comical attempts at portraying ghetto pickleball courts pace rhythm and wordplay poetry voluntairly conserving excess characters

Back home in town, back to the grind, back to the local live poker scene.

Had a nice night at G last night, +2500. There were several interesting spots, both winning and losing.

First big hand I play, I open AA54 with one suit in early position, 4 calls, and we get a broadway flop of A-Q-J rainbow, with the backdoor flush draw. I’m first to act, and the PFR, so I pot, two calls. Turn is a 3, which also picks up a wheel draw for me, if that’s worth anything. Being first to act again on the turn, I decide to try to realize my equity, and bet again. This time I get shipped on, and then THAT gets cold-flatted.

Well, in a three way all in scenario, with not that much more behind, and already pot committed, I call it off. River makes my wheel, a deuce, but BOTH my opponents had KT for broadway. After thinking about it, I think I like check/call turn, check/fold river unimproved as a better plan than bet/call shove on turn. One of those spots where it’s extra tough, being OOP. Unfortunate I couldn’t get the board pair.

Reload 1k, then I flop bottom set for a 5-way raised flop, and triple up. It was a little scary going to war with bottom set after all that multiway action, but it was best the whole way, and held up.

The next interesting hand, I take a flop with JJ55 and make top set on J-3-2 rainbow. Lead pot, two calls, lead pot again on the 9 turn, just one call this time.

The river is a very loud ace. I check, my opponent thinks a moment, and bets 1100 at 1200. Hmmmm.

Well, 54 just came in, and that could absolutely be in his calling range. However, I have TWO fives in my hand already. But, but, but… BLOCKERS. Would he value bet a worse set? Does he have any busted draws turned into bluffs here?

I think on it a while, and decide I’m calling… and he had it, the monstrous T754 for the nuts. Just the open ended the whole way, though he turned four more outs with the gutshot to the 8, also.

PLO players know… blockers aren’t real.

The next interesting spot, there’s the max straddle 25 on, EP raises to 75, and I’m the only caller in the cutoff, with KQJT badugi. Heads up to the Q-6-3 two heart flop, he continues for 125, and I call in position, looking to improve on the turn.

I do get a nice turn, an offsuit T for top two, plus open ended to the nuts both ways. He checks to me, so I lead out 300, but now he check/shoves, for 1030 more. Hmmmmm.

I think my top two is probably ahead on this texture, most of the time. AND I have the open ended to go with it. If he has a set, that would be most unfortunate. However, I’ve played with this opponent before, and I think he would have stayed in the lead with a set. For the trusty ol’ stack-a-donk line (bet flop, check/shove turn), I get the feeling that’s the sort of thing he’d do with a draw that’s too strong to fold, but too weak to get value from. Play it for stacks, and leave it up to variance to see if the equity comes in.

So I call. The river makes me the nuts, another Q for top full, so that was pretty cool. He mucks without showing, but I assume it was hearts plus some broadway straightening cards.

The last big spot was a pretty crazy bomb pot. $25 bomb pot 9 ways, 225 in the middle, and I have Q765 with Q-high spades. The top is Q-9s-8s, and the bottom is J-4-3 two clubs. I kinda want to see a turn, with the wrap on the bottom, but betting and getting raised would be catastrophic, so I check, to see what develops.

It checks to the button, who bets 200, then FOUR people call, to me. I say out loud wtf is going on, and call. One more call behind me, and 7 of us go to the turns. On top is a brick, Q-9s-8s-2, and I make the nuts on the bottom, with an offsuit 7. A short stack first to act gets his remaining 270 in, one call, to me.

It’s possible I’m getting quartered, but I have the nuts, and a draw to beat the nuts on the top. I shove, for about 2400 effective. One fold behind me, and the button, who started this party, has me covered, but makes a pained fold.

The short stack has a devil-may-care attitude, as it’s a huge pot and he’s already all in, so no more decisions. The guy in the middle, however, who’s already called 270, has about 1500 behind, facing my shove. He’s played with me before, and knows I must have something good to be doing this.

He’s going crazy over the spot. He says he’s trying to decide. He turns up his hand (last to act with no further action pending), and shows QQJ with two clubs. Top set on the top, and a non-nut club draw on the bottom. He agonizes, but eventually folds, as the table goes ballistic.

The river on the top is another deuce that doesn’t make my flush, and on the bottom a complete brick, nuts still good for me. The opponent that folded would have made top full on the top, and chopped with me.

My shortstack all in opponent had all 4 pairs on the bottom, J743, so my pair of queens was enough on top to scoop.

That hand generated LOTS of discussion at the table afterwards. One opponent behind me says he folded JT and nothing else, for the nuts on the top, to my turn shove. If I had held the top set plus clubs, with a pot getting so huge, I think I would have just shoved the turn myself… but I’m glad he folded.

So it was a very thought provoking hand. Curious if any of y’all have thoughts on any of these spots.

my opinion currently located somewhere north of the care a lot about it line

hey i think it might be so kind you expended this stranger sort of effort toward a brief online interaction
appreciate you

another example of which more than happy to experiment with being a poker caddie

Good shove in the DBBP -- can't believe they folded top set and nut straight, but they are smart to fold for a chop (at best). I wish the guys I played against would fold for a chop 😉

Rough night tonight at T. Dropped a pretty big number for me, -3.5k.

I definitely didn’t run well, but I also didn’t play particularly well, either. Too loose, and impatient.

Don’t feel like writing up the spots. Bullet number two busted getting it in with a 12 outer and missing, stop loss bullet number three busted when I couldn’t fade a 10 outer.

These things happen.

I heard there was a CRAZY game at K earlier this week. Up to 100k pots. One (weaker) reg I know took a shot, and dropped 20k. Don’t think we’ll be seeing him around as much for a while.

I didn’t play in that game (obviously), but I have serious misgivings about the sustainability of that ecosystem, doing numbers like that. Someone’s going to lose or owe more than they’re solvent, and it’ll all collapse under its own weight. That’s inevitably how these things go when they get that big. Or worse.

Anyway, I’m gonna sleep on it, get a good breakfast, and put in my gym time on my day off tomorrow. ONLY if my mind’s right, and I feel like I can make better decisions, I’ll head back to G, for what should be a pretty good Friday night.

Sorry for the bad night. I've been getting crushed at my pathetic little game lately. One example from last night: gii pre for a guy's last $100 w/ AcQs vs his Qc8c and having him hit a flush.

I had a friend win $60k at a crazy game like K -- he never got paid :( I guess the guy who lost was some type of hoodlum, and the host was too scared to try to get the money. Of course, the host should have never covered a player for more than he's willing to cover. Idiot.

In general, playing private games for a lot of money sounds like a very bad idea. Although I can, with my background from Norway (where poker is practically illegal), understand that in some cases players have no other good options nearby.

I would still in a heartbeat drive 2-3 hours to the nearest casino if that was my situation, instead of having to deal with all the private game issues (change for robberies, not a guarantee to get paid etc.).

I quit playing in the big, crazy game. Not worth it. I do play in small, "local" home games with good old boys. I feel safe, and, good or bad, there is not enough money on the table to not get paid 😉

I fly to Vegas for this exact reason. No casinos near me do cash unless you play 4 card, which I do not. I can't play private games as if I get caught in them I lose my job, so if I want to play cash I have to fly overseas from Ireland.

Priced up a trip to England for a weekend and then compared it to Vegas for 8 nights. Vegas was cheaper, the joys of comps.

ETA. I should probably expand on this as I expect a few will be like "nah, you're chatting bollox". I'm lucky in that I have an extensive Vegas history, so I pay resort fees only at MGM and nothing at CET. I'm also lucky in that I can quickly get PTO at work. So, as an example...it would cost me £380 ($510) to fly to Vegas RT in Basic Economy through ORD between Oct 2 & Oct 10. 4 nights at Excalibur and 4 nights at Horseshoe costs me $210 in resort fees at Excal and fully comp at Horseshoe. So that's $720 total outlay.

Assume food etc costs the same no matter where I stay as I'm not at home so living on restaurant/fast food.

If I wanted to fly to London (only decent place in the UK to play cash) for the same dates it would cost me £101 for the flights and £900 for a hotel. That's $1,338. Vegas easily wins, and thats before you realise that Vegas is so much softer compared to London.

Don't mean to hijack TJ's thread but would you consider Florida as a spot to go to?
There are many rooms and the hotels/Air BnBs are pretty cheap now that the economy is going to **** - LOL

I think that Vegas is nice but Florida rooms are action packed as well which if you couple with a beach day or two is pretty enticing. Would tickets to there be cheaper than Vegas?

(Mods, feel free to spin this off if needed, and apologies for the derail)

Using the dates above (and using Poker Pilgrims for room details as I have no idea of where rooms are in Florida):

Miami is more expensive for flights (£450/$600) plus would have to hire a car as none of the 9 rooms in the Miami area are within walking distance of each other.

Orlando is pretty much the same price as Vegas for flights but there's no rooms other than the 2 on the outskirts so again extra costs for car rental etc and poor choice of games.

I have considered LA/Texas/Florida in the past but LA has very weird structures and I just dont like the city, Texas is too crazy for me and Florida has always seemed more expensive. At least with Vegas I only need to make 3 buyins at 1/3 to cover, with the others I probably need to make 6 buyins just to cover costs before food etc.

Clawed some of it back at G tonight, +1075. The game wasn’t as great as I’d hoped. Lots of people are out of town for the holiday, and there’s a big multi flight tournament going on at another venue, so the game broke after just 2.5 hours.

I made a straight flush to crack quads in a bomb pot, which was cool. I didn’t see I had it, and misdeclared my hand, but that’s why I always turn up all 4. Only got half, though.

There was one pretty interesting hand. I limp to the $20 straddle with 8755 with one suit (not hearts), four of us see a flop of Q-6-5 two hearts. I’m first to act, so I lead pot for 80, then a solid, aggro player pots me to 320. We’re almost 3k effective.

I’ve played lots with this player before, and his range for doing this is only bigger sets, or monster draws. This is never just Q6, unless he has other stuff to go with it. I call.

Turn is a black 3, I check, and he pots again, to 720. I’m trying to decide how good I am if the board pairs. Obviously my nut straight outs are all good, except maybe the hearts. Maybe it’s a mistake, but I call.

River is a black J, and I check, and fold to the shove. I fold and show, and he does show the QQ for top set. A five river would have been pretty cool.

Ah well.

Anyway. Nice to put one back in the win column.

Often, the best sessions, in either PLO or Hold 'em, result from making huge, player-dependent, laydowns, and being right. Well done, sir!

fwiw, 8755 is too speculative for my tastes in PLO.

You want to be in there strong. Tight but aggressive, and I do mean aggressive. That's your style professor.