"The Pen:" Live NLHE Chat Thread
It's been about 9.5 years and 350K posts of epicness, but "It Lives, It Lives" can live no more. The OG LLSNL Chat Thre
“RoadToPro”, I currently work 3 jobs. How can AI help me with those?
Yes of course the better you brief it the better it does. My thing is that the language isn’t as rich and (duh) doesn’t have the empathy/humanity that can lead to better communication.
I’m in a creative business so that stuff is more important than for other areas, but even for my daughters with their high school essays etc - AIs couldn’t write essays as well as them but it was brilliant for summarising key points, themes etc, accessing quotations, supplementary arguments
Feel free to pm if you’re being earnest and genuinely want advice. I need to know what those jobs are to answer lol
we use cursor at work, it's incredible, a team of about a dozen use it daily and monthly cost is only like 2k for entire company but we can do the work of like 100 people so the roi is insane
Curious about Cursor specifically — how are you actually using it in practice?
Is it more coding/dev workflows, automation, or general productivity stuff?
What does it replace for you (or outperform), and where do you find it’s meaningfully better than standard AI tools?
Genuinely interested in real-world use cases, not marketing answers — would love to hear how you’ve integrated it into your day-to-day.
For general AI, I mainly use ChatGPT Plus — $20/month. I talk to it for several hours a day. I treat it like a high-level assistant / consultant rather than a novelty tool. I’ve tried other AI products, but for my use case I don’t need a huge stack.
This is not a holistic list, and prices are retail (I’ve gotten discounts on some of these). My usage is almost entirely sports-related and obviously varies by season, but since last summer:
•EV Analytics NFL – ~$120/mo
Projections driven by the Blitz model.
•EV Analytics NBA Premium – ~$90/mo
•EV Analytics MLB Premium – ~$90–120/mo
Projections driven by BatX.
•EV Analytics NCAAF Premium – ~$90/mo (I think)
•Optimal Bet – ~$10/mo
Mostly for quick sanity checks, price comparisons, and identifying obvious inefficiencies.
•Props.cash – ~$20/mo
Useful for market context and cross-book line visibility, not as a projection engine.
•DFS + trend analysis tool – ~$30/mo
Mostly for slate-level context and secondary signals.
The biggest piece for me, though, is a proprietary model that’s sharper than casino-grade stuff. It’s a few hundred a month and does a lot of the heavy lifting, and I’m not really at liberty to discuss details on that.
That said, I didn’t start with any of this. I started from scratch. The 80–90 hour weeks were real, and honestly most of the structure, experimentation, and workflow came from using AI to iterate.
How do I use A.I. to alert me when a particular item at a particular store is available for purchase?
Curious about Cursor specifically — how are you actually using it in practice?Is it more coding/dev workflows, automation, or general productivity stuff?What does it replace for you (or outperform), and where do you find it’s meaningfully better than standard AI tools?Genuinely interested in real-world use cases, not marketing answers — would love to hear how you’ve integrated
cursor knows how to code, how to read code, how to verify code, etc
you give it access to your cloned codebase and can either say "we found there's a bug where sometimes x doesn't display properly" and it'll go through it and find the issue, replicate it, and then fix it for you - all you need to do is question it critically to ensure it's staying on target
likewise, you can say "i want to build x" and it'll get it done - it'll take a while with iteration but it'll do it
i use it after hours for my own projects, predictive models that i previously built myself and due to those limitations were painstakingly difficult to use are things i've since converted into single click - where it used to take me about 4-5 hours to grab, clean, & format data to turn it into a useful form and then simulate outcomes it's now done at the push of a button
major reason why i pivoted heavily to top down after starting out as a full blown originator was it was just easier to look at the markets and spot inefficiencies
i see the stuff you use and worry about your risk of ruin with so much overhead - i am definitely in the minority but i've never paid for 3rd party software
and yeah, worst part about this is the 80 hour weeks, burnout was a big thing for me because i was staring at my laptop all day - was a lot better when i took it on the road and was less analytical and more boots on the ground hitting kiosks and interacting with the real world, but it's a grind and i'm very happy to be transitioning away from it
How do I use A.I. to alert me when a particular item at a particular store is available for purchase?
Use Free AI via Google Sheets + Store Feeds (More Powerful)
Best for: Monitoring multiple items across stores.
Setup
1.Create a Google Sheet
2.Use =IMPORTXML() or =IMPORTHTML() to pull:
•Availability text
•Price
3.Use:
•Google Apps Script (free)
Simple logic:
if (status === "In Stock") sendEmail();
Where AI comes in
•Use free ChatGPT to:
•Write the script
•Debug formulas
•Optimize checks
This gives you custom alerts at zero cost.
Appreciate it.
Threads like this are a big part of what makes 2p2 valuable. There’s a lot of real-world experience and perspective here, and when people take the time to share it thoughtfully, it helps more than they probably realize—especially in a space built around a game that doesn’t always bring out the best in everyone.
Appreciate it.
Threads like this are a big part of what makes 2p2 valuable. There’s a lot of real-world experience and perspective here, and when people take the time to share it thoughtfully, it helps more than they probably realize—especially in a space built around a game that doesn’t always bring out the best in everyone.
Thank you RTP.
That means a lot coming from someone who's clearly invested in the community. It's true, 2p2 shines brightest in these moments of genuine sharing, cutting through the noise of the game to offer real insights and support.
Threads like this remind me why I keep coming back. They turn a hobby into something more meaningful, fostering connections that go beyond the felt. I truly appreciate you highlighting that. It's the kind of positivity that keeps the spirit alive here.
Condolences to anyone who doesn’t maintain a healthy balance between pessimism and optimism! 😃
I'd like to welcome our own RoadtoPro and Javanewt to the thin green line. Congratulations.
Thank you RTP.That means a lot coming from someone who's clearly invested in the community. It's true, 2p2 shines brightest in these moments of genuine sharing, cutting through the noise of the game to offer real insights and support. Threads like this remind me why I keep coming back. They turn a hobby into something more meaningful, fostering connections that go beyond the fe
Seriously though, thank you all. I really appreciate it.
I’m very aware that moderating a poker subforum on a declining site isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme. What is a big deal to me is how valuable the advice I got here was — not generic platitudes, but insight tailored very specifically to where I was at at the time. That kind of context-aware guidance is rare, and it mattered.
If this role gives me even a small chance to help pass along and preserve that same kind of thoughtful, situational perspective to others, then it’s something I take seriously. Forums like this work best when people are willing to share real experience with nuance, not just results or bravado.
Appreciate everyone who’s contributed in that spirit.
Seriously though, thank you all. I really appreciate it.I’m very aware that moderating a poker subforum on a declining site isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme. What is a big deal to me is how valuable the advice I got here was — not generic platitudes, but insight tailored very specifically to where I was at at the time. That kind of context-aware guidance is rare, and it mat
That's a classy way to put it. Acknowledging the real value in those tailored insights while keeping the focus on giving back. In an era where so much online chatter feels algorithmically polished, it's cool to see someone emphasizing the human nuance. Props for stepping up; forums thrive on that kind of commitment.
All BigSkip needs to be worried about is Mike McCarthy
thanks a lot, this means a lot to me. I really appreciate it!Curious question for you four but any of the older guys here:Before social media—and before kids—what did life actually look like day to day?If you had a small blog and small online presence like pman back then, what do you think you would’ve posted about?What filled your weeks? What mattered more than you realized at
It was boring. You drove 2.5 hours to get to one of the legal poker rooms. You waited an hour or two to get into a game. Then you sat at live loose poker for a few hours awaiting a hand that you could show down. It took a few mintues to determine tight-passive vs loose-passive. Then you had an issue of Poker magazines or muted ESPN to watch for the remainder of the X hours. The highlight of the evening was @3am the grave shift floor liked me enought to change the channel to a muted original Star Trek.
Oh and most poker rooms were 'non-smoking' meaning they would step maybe 6 feet away from the table and flood the area with smoke.
