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

These days, you can just login to your IRS account and make a payment. The estimated tax form is 1040-ES. There are equivalent state forms, too.

Some drama in the local live poker scene.

My 2nd-favorite venue, T, might be no more. Or at least is on hiatus.

They texted everybody for a game last Tuesday. Then for the Thursday game, they announced that they’re “leveling up the venue,” and looking for a new location. They hosted the game at F temporarily.

I haven’t heard the story from the guys that run it. But it sounds like the venue unplanned and rather abruptly became nonviable.

It was at a 3 bedroom apartment, in a pretty busy, well-to-do luxury apartment community. I’d ALWAYS had misgivings about that. From security, to neighbors, to a leasing office that might wonder why there’s 4 poker tables and no beds in their apartment.

So I guess we’ll see. They have a healthy mix of tournament players, cash players, and dealers… which is the most important factor contributing to sustainability.

Guess we’ll see what comes next.

You can write calls on index funds too, if they are etf's. Not on mutual funds though. If you're in the S&P 500, it's tough to sell a covered call, because you need a hundred. The etf equivalent is SPY, which trades in the high 600's. But say you have a stock that trades at 100. To sell a call you need an expiration date and a strike price. Say you you have 1000 shares of your stock, and say you decide to sell 10 calls (contracts) that expire in 2 weeks. Also say that the 120 calls sell for $2. If you sell 10 contracts at $2 each, you get 2 grand, because 100 shares per contract.

You have 2 possible outcomes:
1) The stock closes below $120 at the end of the expiration date. You keep all your stock, keep the 2 grand, pay ordinary income tax on the 2 g's next year, and pay your taxes due for last year.

2) The stock closes higher than $120. You have to sell your stock, pay capital gains tax on it next year, keep the 2 grand from the calls, and pay ordinary income tax on it next year. This is the risk part. You only get $120 even if it went up to $130. But in practice you don't let the calls expire. You "roll" them to a later date and higher price. But because the original calls you sold are expired, the 2 grand is yours to pay your tax bill with. Unless it's an extreme situation, you'll be able to roll the calls so that they expire worthless and you keep all the money from the call sales. There's no limit to how far you can roll. Meanwhile, your stock is still yours, you get all the dividends, etc.

A friend of mine is a market maker, with a partner. As you know, he's arse-deep in cash. You have to be to be a MM.

I almost never sell calls for speculation, I sell them for the income. My delta is usually under 10.

I’m pretty annoyed with how last night ended at G. A floor ruling went against me, and I immediately picked up, in protest.

I was heads up to the river, and checked back and tabled my hand. My opponent, who was drunk, then slid his cards face down to the dealer. The dealer took the cards, and moved them to the muck. Then the guy says no wait, show my hand.

The cards never touched the muck, but the dealer had taken them. The floor came over, ruled that since the cards never touched the muck, they were retrievable. The dealer turned the hand up, and I lost.

It wasn’t a huge pot, but it wasn’t a small pot either. Once that happened, I was pretty steamed, so I immediately picked up, at almost +900. I had been playing over 7 hours, so knowing how tilted I would have been, it was a fine time to pick up.

I am a bit confused to why this would tilt you, considering it sounds like the correct ruling. In PLO there will sometimes be guys who have issues reading their hand, and especially if drunk I assume (I have never been drunk, so just guessing).

If this is a private game and a a guy is choosing to play it in drunk, it obviously makes the most sense to keep him a happy customer and not argue about technicalities. I assume he will be a spot in the game.

That said, well done for recognizing that you are better off leaving when your mental state is not right. I struggle with this if I am having a bad session and start making slightly emotional decisions.

A dealer at my local room loves to say "Technically right is the best kind of right." I'm conflicted on this one...I think the floor made the proper call, as the cards were identifiable and retrievable. Two strikes against the dealer...1) for not insta-burying the cards in the muck once the V released them and before the V had a chance to request that they be tabled; and 2) for being the person to table the cards. Only the V should be able to table the cards, as the dealer tabling them "technically" violates the "one player to a hand" rule.

Agree with both TJ and Whale that it was likely smart to leave rather than continue to play with a tilted attitude.

It is time to leave when you are on tilt because you didn't win holding the second best hand.

Thought I’d mix up venues, so I went to play uncapped 1/3 NLH at F last night.

I thought I played generally pretty well. Grinded solidly for about 3 hours, all on one $800 bullet up to about 2k or so. I stacked a player 4betting KK from SB, then bet/calling the shove on the J-4-4 flop.

Then I played a very interesting deepstacked spot.

Two limps for $3, and I raise to $30 from SB with 7s6s. My image is LAG, and I’d been doing this sort of thing to attack limpers from all positions. Wasn’t part of the plan, when BB 3bets to $110. Limpers fold, and being over 2k effective, I call.

Flop is 9-5-4 with one spade. I check, my opponent bets $200. I considered check/raising… but I didn’t want to stack off, if he actually had an overpair, or strong holding that would go with it. So I just call.

Turn picks me up a flush draw, the Ts. I check again, and he sizes up, to $675. I have about another $750 behind.

I have 15 outs to a 5-card hand, but with only one card to come, I don’t think I want to shove, because I don’t have any fold equity. I make the plan to just call, and fold and save the rest of my stack if I miss.

Unfortunately, I DO miss, as the river is a red jack. I check, and he actually checks back, with a set of 9’s, and wins.

I’m okay with each of those decisions independently. We were deep, which changes things, and with the strength of my hand being disguised, I thought I could count the rest of my stack for implied odds if I could hit.

But looking back on the HH, I’m flatting a 3bet OOP, then check/calling twice OOP… which is not generally what I want to be doing.

So I dunno. I lost, but I’m happy with most of my decisions… even in retrospect.

Just gotta work on “not missing” for next time.

Think every decision sounds good fwiw !
Ty for sharing , like the reasoning for not shoving turn and were proven right !

I guess only argument is if opp would run it multiple times if they do call then turn check shove as could end up lower variance than check calling turn to shove river when we get there

When you figure out how to unlock the answer to that mystery, please share.

Idk, whatever your image, both pre flop decisions are questionable at best in the 76 hand, particularly the call of the 110. That’s pretty icky IMO

I agree with feely that
1. fold pre initially
2. definitely fold pre to the 3!

Also, I'd want a tight image, and not a LAG one, to attempt a raise pre in that situation initially.

Guys come on - raising out of the SB with 67s is perfectly fine over limpers regardless of image. You folks wait on JJ+ to raise PF and youll fit in great in Vegas 1/3 games.

Calling the 110 however is thumbs down.

More juicy drama in the local live poker scene.

Remember when I said the venue at T ended abruptly, and they were looking for a new location?

They peeled off a couple of the business partners at G, and combined forces to the new location, which I’ll continue to refer to as T.

Initially these business partners went in with the guys at G, to dedicate a couple nights that they weren’t running, to spread PLO. They brought with them their own lists of players, including guys from out of town.

I got a text from the owner at G, saying he was blindsided by this decision, that they didn’t even consult him, or try to work with them, until they were ready to end the relationship. But he assured everyone that he’s still committed to running a fair, and safe, game, even on nights that the partners were running.

I want to reiterate that this live poker scene is a very small world. Everybody knows everybody, and shares players, for the most part.

As a higher volume player in this world, I’m just looking for the best action. I hope my reputation as an honest player keeps me in good standing with as many venues as possible.

So I went to check out the game at the new T for the first time tonight.

It’s a nice place… and there were definitely some deep-pocketed action players there.

The game was no blinds PLO, with a mandatory button straddle for $10-25. But it played MUCH bigger than that, with the lineup we had. There were probably 25-30 purple chips in play on the table by the end of the night.

I ran my first 1k into about 6k, then busted it on two hands.

Hand 1 was a 3way all in on the flop, with me holding AKQ5 on a board of J-T-7r. It came 9 (!!!), T ( :( ), and jacks full took it down. Would have put me over 10k, sigh.

Next, I’m in the CO and limp for 25 after a field, when the button pots it to 200 preflop. 6 callers, I call, and flop a set of 5’s on 6-5-3 two clubs. It checks to the raiser, who pots it, everyone folds, and I decide to get it in.

With that texture, and the fact that he was PFR, I didn’t think it could hit him very hard. I was expecting an overpair and clubs at best. That’s what he had, but his side cards were 4-2, so he couldn’t get away from it. The clubs came anyway, and I didn’t get the board pair.

The 2nd 1k didn’t even have a chance. I don’t even remember how I busted it.

In for 3k, my stop loss. Grind patiently for a few more hours, make it all back, and turn it into +1200 on the session, when the game broke at midnight. The big hand was getting top two aces up plus some backdoors in for a 3way all in on the flop, and somehow fading the runout.

So I’m happy with my play. Nice place, great game, and I’ll be back. Definitely need to be rolled for it, though.

Sounds like a great game. I so wish we had decent PLO (any PLO only) around here :( Sorry for the run-bad on those two hands, but glad you made a comeback!

digging the current electrostatic mindset tj
your card intelligence is attractive enough to draw the painted chip colors toward you

It’s the end of the month, so let’s recap March!

Starting with fitness. The goal was 13 workouts in March, and I’m a little disappointed to report I only logged 10. I didn’t take any trips, so I wanted no excuses why I couldn’t really grind in March, and I can’t help but feeling that I came up short. But 10 is 10 more than zero, so that’s objectively a good thing.

I have zero motivation to go to the gym on days I ALSO work 12+ hours. That’s just too long a day. When I’m working consecutive 12’s, I really don’t have time to do anything other than eat and sleep once I get home. I use that as motivation to get in there on my days off.

I’ve found the ideal day off is sleeping with no alarm clock until I wake up (which is an unfathomable LUXURY when I have to be up at 3:30 a.m. on work days). Then I go downstairs, make coffee (black, no sweetener), turn on the news (local and national), make moves in my multiple ongoing chess games, and browse for a bit. Once the caffeine does its thing, and I feel caught up in the world, then I make breakfast.

The key to a great day off is walking to the gym right after that. I love walking to the gym now that the weather is nice, to get steps in. I wave at all the cars passing by in my subdivision. My community has over 800 homes and townhomes, so I have no hope of recognizing anybody. But I feel a real sense of community and belonging by doing this.

Then I CRUSH it at the gym, (free weights, core, AND 30 minutes of cardio), and walk home. I would never check my mailbox, if I didn’t walk past it on my way to the gym. More motivation to go consistently.

I wish EVERY day off could start like that. I strive for that. But sometimes I have appointments, or stuff comes up, and that’s what happened here.

I increased my tirzepatide dose, and it’s unlocking gains. I’m tolerating side effects well, and seeing real progress in my weight loss journey.

YTD weight loss: -11.6 lbs

April Fitness Goal: 11+ workouts

And, I played a good bit of poker.

I like that I’ve shifted my volume mindset to logging focused, high-quality SESSIONS, not necessarily hours. The March poker goal was 10 sessions, and I played 10 sessions (44.6 hours). Wasn’t a crazily swingy month, as I was never more than plus or minus 3k of even the whole month. The bottom line number was +800, which is whatever. I place an unnecessarily (and likely unhealthy) high degree of emotional significance on that number being positive. Especially relative to the swings involved in the stakes I play. I need to work past that, and focus on thinking critically about improving the decisions I make on the felt.

I could have made some better quits, if I’d walked away right at what was the top (though I couldn’t have known that). It’s hard to leave good games, even when I’m up. Gotta let “good,” or even what is objectively “great,” not be the enemy of “perfect” … in this case, doing game-breaking damage.

Now I’m looking at the calendar, and making plans for the future. There’s a Circuit event at Cherokee in early May, then of course the WSOP in June/July. I asked for and already got the time off approved for a great 2.5 weeks in June for WSOP. I’m in a wait-and-see mode before booking anything.

After stroking a particularly painful check to the tax man, then the financial markets throwing up on themselves, thanks to our thoughtful and measured current political leadership… My bankroll has less of a cushion than I’d like.

I ran pretty bad in January, it can definitely happen. If I run bad again in April, it would jeopardize my ability to take the trips I truly enjoy.

For now, I’m still in action. I’m playing in good games, games I’m confident that I can beat. No trips in April, so I have renewed focus and drive to make great decisions.

April Poker Goal: 10+ sessions.

a simplistic free piece of advice: keep being accountable to yourself, it can only lead to improvement

I think it's wise to take the measured approach and play in a way that's sustainable. If that means a smaller summer schedule or no summer tournaments at all, so be it. That's smarter than stretching yourself when the circumstances aren't favorable. There's always the next tournament, next series, next summer. Poker isn't going anywhere.

If that sounds patronizing or condescending, I'm speaking from a similar place, as I'm likely to be working with a reduced poker budget this summer compared to 2022-2025. I believe the correct response is to target games we can play comfortably and confidently instead of putting ourselves in a precarious situation. The pressure to play certain games or stakes is a pressure that we primarily put on ourselves, as by and large nobody else cares. Nobody is keeping score. Play in the way that works for you.

I’m pretty tilted.

First session of the new month is a loser at T, -2.5k.

I didn’t play well. Got my first bullet in bad.

For my last hand, I mis-read what I had, and mucked the winner in an all in. Absolutely inexcusable. I didn’t even realize I had the winner until I was in the car on the way home.

Gonna sweat it out at the gym tomorrow, as pennance.