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

Hang in there TJ. You're still the ****in' man, and everyone knows it!

Played a good session last night, where I got back to basics, which I needed.

Decided to play at O for the first time in several months. It was good to play with some unknown opponents, to work on optimizing my player reading skills, and adapting counter strategies.

In many of the HH’s where I won, I was in position, and playing aggressively. This game is simple. No need to make it more complicated. I just need to be better about passing up playing marginal hands when out of position, when I can wait for better spots in position.

The game was 1/3 ROE, or round of each. That means 1 orbit hold’em, 1 orbit PLO.

The first big hand, I flop the nut straight with a player leading into me. I flatted the flop bet, to wait for a safe turn, which I raised when it didn’t change the nuts. Got the rest in on the river, and got paid because he didn’t put me on the nuts from my deceptive flop flat.

And one mildly interesting 2-card hand. I straddle $10 from button, call a $40 open with 55, and we take a heads up flop of J-J-4. He continues for $40, and I raise to $100. He had been opening wide, as we were short-handed, and I just didn’t think he had a J or a pair often enough to stand up to much heat. He thinks and calls, then check/folds to my $160 continuation on the 3 turn. Position and aggression wins… but I almost certainly had the best hand anyway.

The biggest hand of the night was a PLO spot from the button. I have 9765, and catch just about the dreamiest flop for that hand, 8-4-3r. A player leads, and I raise in position. I make the nuts with a 6 on the turn, PLUS a redraw, and get a pot-sized bet in. I improve further on the T river, but he doesn’t call the $675 on the end.

Kept it a shorter, 2.5 hour session, and won a little over $600. It wasn’t a bigger game, so that result was fine with me. Drove home feeling content, and confident in my decision-making.

love to read it

Happy Easter, everybody!

I had a lovely Easter dinner with my family at my sister’s, then went to a card game at G. The game was 1/3 ROE again, and now I’m thinking maybe I should play in ROE games more often.

I get a little bored by the hold’em round, (though I still know how), but the real draw is the PLO round playing with opponents that are primarily hold’em players… who love action, and are still learning the game. The pots are naturally much bigger, with more gamble, during the PLO round.

You see way more fundamental mistakes than you’d see in a pure PLO game. People overvaluing any made flush, not the nut flush, and still paying off anyway. Plus not considering freerolls with redraws. Stuff like that.

The big hand of the night was seeing a $40 six-way flop with A542, and it came A-4-3 two spades. The PFR checks, a weak player pots to $240, and I just flat, with the nuts made, and top two pair. Then the PFR check/shoves for 600 total, and the bettor calls, completely disregarding me. I backraise the rest of it, about 1300 total, and get it in.

I say out loud, “I’m thinking of the king of hearts, and the 9 of diamonds.” The check/shover says “well now I like my hand even more,” and he rolls over top set plus nut spades. The poor guy in the middle had 9765, all of which were spades, bless his heart, which heartened me to see so many dead outs.

Run it once, always once, and I basically get my wish: red J, red 8, and I scoop a ~3.5k pot.

Lost a bit from there, but still made a good quit, picking up at almost +1.7k.

I’m feeling better about my game than I was at the start of this week.

But not overconfident. The money comes from people making mistakes. I’d do well not to make my own out of impatience, while I observe and wait for profitable opportunities.

Sounds like you have some juicy games there. I wish they'd spread more of those round of each games in casinos. Hold'em players playing PLO. yum yum.

Glad you are back in the winner's circle and building momentum for summer binkaments.

Had some thoughts on this hand...

Obviously this hand worked out great in isolation, but generally I think I like a flat more than a raise here since we're likely to be either very far ahead or very far behind with 55 on this type of flop. If he has Jx or 66+, we're almost dead. If he has something like KQ or AK, there aren't very many bad turn cards for us. Are we raising for value here? To deny equity? Raising puts us in a weird spot of potentially playing a huge pot with medium showdown value.

In this case, it looks like he peeled with something of the AQ variety and gave up on the turn, so it worked out great for you. However, if we get action on our turn bet here, we're hating life. I like to be more polar in these situations with my raises, either premium value or air. That makes the decisions very easy if we get jammed on. Not saying one way is 100% right or wrong, but just offering these comments for consideration. This might be a spot to play pot control instead of building a big pot.

"Don't bloat the pot with medium showdown value" is not something that always applies 100% in every situation, but often a wise approach.

ROE > PLO for sure.

Let’s go TJ !!! I always believed in you!

great stuff df

Had a good week at work. It was busy, but very productive. However, our staffing situation is getting more tenuous, so that means everybody that’s left will have to step up and work more. On the job front, I’m anticipating being more busy, in the near- and medium-term. I DO already have my time blocked off, for Cherokee, and then Vegas, thankfully.

But I have some time to myself this weekend, so I’m driven to crush it in the gym, and play some cards. Like a line from one of my favorite movies, Layer Cake, “Until the Prohibition ends, make hay while the sun shines.”

Played and ran pretty well for a Friday night at G, playing button straddle PLO. Picked some good spots, and ran my first bullet up to about +1300 or so, then played the following interesting hand:

I straddle button for $15, and look down on AQJ4 double suited. There are no less than 6 limps to my button, so I decide to full pot my option, for $120. There are five calls… okay then, let’s play a huge pot, while I have ultimate position. It comes 7-5-2, with two of my nut club draw suit. There’s one pot bet, which is basically an all in, to me.

I decide with SPR this low, and the nut flush draw, I can’t fold, so I get it in. My wheel gutshot might be live, too, after all. I was pleased to see a third player check/call off his stack, so I felt reassured that I’m getting the right price.

Unfortunately, the runout doesn’t cooperate, as it comes 8, A, with no more clubs, and I lose to the bettor’s set of 5’s. All that good work undone, and I’m starting over, back to about even.

I’m fine with the flop decision to get it in. It’s one of those spots that come up in PLO, where you flop real nut equity, in a huge pot, and you have to protect that equity with your whole stack… and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I guess the question is, was it good to pot my option from the button preflop with AQJ4ds? That decision is what lost me pot control… but I had a coordinated hand, AND the button. With my stack, and that lineup of opponents, I’m okay with it.

Shortly thereafter, I played an interesting bomb pot. I hold a good starting hand, with QJT9 and one suit, and the top is Ts-8-2s, and the bottom was J-8-4. I’m third to act.

Could consider check/potting, but I decide not to get cute, and just lead pot. I was a little surprised to see 4 calls, maybe I SHOULD have gone for the check/pot.

It was lovely to catch nut/nut on the turn, Ts-8-2s-9, and J-8-4-7. SPR is getting low now, so I don’t get cute, commit to the hand, and lead pot again. One opponent (Mr. Set of 5’s guy, incidentally) gets it in with me.

I river the non-nut flush on the top, and hold on the bottom. My opponent also had QJ on the top, so I was getting three quarters, but my flush made it good for the scoop, and better than a full double up.

Picked up another nice boost flopping top set in a raised pot, flatting a pot bet and a call on a straightening flop, and rivering top full.

As it got later, the game got drunker, and more rowdy. It was a less pleasant playing experience, with lathered-up players messing up the action, and violating etiquette. There were definitely action players, with big stacks.

But I was relieved to have made my profit back. I would have been very angry with myself if I found another crazy deepstack spot, and busted it.

So I passed up the chance, in a great game, for a huge win, and just picked up, at +1.9k.

And I’m fine with it.

I hope the drunkest guy there won ALL the monies after I left… and he comes back, next time I’m there.

Personally I would check my option here. You have a hand that needs to connect with the flop, and if you're in a good game, which it sounds like you are, the chances of folding multiple players out with the raise are slim at best.

So you're just bloating the pot for whoever hits the flop, which is fine if it's you, but it's a very high variance option imo.

What sorts of hands should I be raising in a spot like that?

Strong pairs, suited 4 broadways, I guess not so much rundowns?

I love it when the game gets drunk and rowdy -- that seems to be where the big money is made. However, I totally understand wanting to lock up a profit. Plenty of times I've stayed and regretted it. So nice for you to have games like that regularly.

Against 6 limpers I’d be inclined to check my entire range, but raising good Aces or Kings probably isn’t bad.

discipline
often sot with subtly gentlle mental states found following continuous application of questionable amounts of emphasis toward something special as if somehow anyone else cared about the result any more than you do
love the recent mindset

I played last night at O, and it was a frustrating session, for most of the many hours I was there.

The game was 1/3 ROE, and it was not a particularly great game. Several short stacks buying in for only 100 or 200, getting it in bad, and reloading, until they’d had enough.

I mean, I’m fine with hopeless short stacks buying in, and inevitably punting. But when there are multiple shorties all around the table, it changes what your preflop ranges should be, and affects flop sizing and continuation decisions. It wasn’t exactly stressful, but a bit exhausting trying to decide who I wanted to play against, and for how much.

Then, of course, there was a drunk guy who knocked over his stack of red chips, and 4 of them fell into his vodka neat. The dealer points it out, the guy says “It’s okay, I’ll finish it anyway,” and kills his drink, then dries off the chips with a paper towel. Alcohol’s a disinfectant, right?

…Stay classy.

Anyway, I got down early, and was chasing even all night. It was a slog.

It got later in the night, to the point where I wasn’t going to go any deeper. I got the last of my stack, the stop loss, in bad on a flop, but got bailed out by a fortunate runout. I had QT99, my opponent had KQQx, and the flop was J-T-3. Got very lucky to catch a king on the river.

I was able to ride that momentum all the way back to unstuck, which was a redeeming feeling. It was an over 9 hour session, which I’m pleased to report went in my book at +145.

I wasn’t feeling particularly great, nor playing great, for just about all the back half of that session. Around hour numbers 5, 6, and 7, I asked myself if it would be okay to pick up, down a few hundred, and just book the loss… because I wasn’t enjoying myself playing poker. That’s reason enough to quit. At NO point did that game have multi-thousand dollar winning upside.

So I was relieved and redeemed that I did make it back to plus territory. But I think next time I’m in a bad game, after long hours… I’m just going to pick up. Regardless of where I’m at.

Well done - I assume you are playing the Cherokee main next month. Hope to see you there.

Well-earned cheat-day calories don't count.

What kind of rake are those places taking? I'm dreading the day Tx goes back to the UG rooms and raking whatever they can get away with.

It’s steep.

In most of the places I play, the cap per pot is $20, or $25.

Ouch!

ouch is right!

really digging the mindset
never too high, never too low

Yeah it’s preposterous, compared to a casino.

Instead of a cap at like $7 or $8, it easily gets up to 20-25 almost every hand. Hundreds of dollars an hour.

At least they do spend on the food, and it’s really good. Players that drink can have almost whatever they want.

Don’t come to Australia - Sydney’s cap is $20. It’s made 2/3 unbeatable and 2/5-10 almost so. Most action is now 5/10 and 10/20

Montana 1/2 NLHE rake is 10% capped at $5, at least in the two games I've found in the Flathead Lake area. No promos, so no promo drop. I haven't seen any other games offered.