Poker Forum

That's a hell of story. Fucking ayyy. Congrats.

Thanks Mo, Frost, and Ron!

I got a yellow 2006 Mustang GT with about 56k miles on it. I wanted something that would be fun and fairly reasonably priced so I would still have plenty to set aside for living expenses till I graduate, pay off some student loans, and put a little back into my poker bankroll.

Barry Greenstein said somewhere that in most casinos the toughest game in the room is the second biggest game and the softest is the biggest. My casino definitely fits this description. The 30/60 LHE game plays ridiculously bad. Its basically full of a bunch of asian people who love to gamble with all kinds of garbage. I'd speculate that the only reason is doesn't completely dry up is because there are only a handful of really good players. The majority have huge fundamental leaks that create a situation where pots are just being pushed back and forth between bad players with very few people killing the game. Unfortunately I've only got about half a bankroll for this game. I've taken a couple of shots at it, but gotten coolered pretty bad in a couple 1k-$1500 pots and am losing a little bit in the game. Hopefully I run good for a while playing 1/2 and 2/5 which I am rolled for and can play 30/60 more often. Its a really juicy game at my casino, but I've got to be prepared to go on lots of 5-10k swings if I'm going to play it regularly.

I also haven't put in nearly the amount of study time that I did when online poker was around. People just play so bad live that its kind of discouraging to really work to get better. It also feels a lot more like gambling because everything is so slow that over the course of a year variance is going to play a much much bigger role than it does online. Playing full ring on 12-18 tables I would regularly get about 1000 hands per hour compared to the 30 or so with a good dealer in a live setting. That equates an hour of playing online with 33 hours live! Not to mention the hour and a half spent driving there and back and the elimination of 30 minute sessions here and there that drastically increased the total time I could actually spend playing online opposed to live.

Welp, hopefully my next post is about how much I made playing 30/60 the previous night! I've heard stories of several people winning 5k up to 17k in one long session. Would definitely allow me to play the game consistently if I could have one break through night like that

Also kind of nice that I have everything set aside now and don't have to worry about winning or putting in hours to pay for rent and food! Hopefully I find a good job in the next month or two and will have a steady income by about June so if I somehow wind up busting my poker bankroll it's no big deal. Would also be nice if some of that legislation goes through to make online poker legal again! I miss playing heads up

cheers,
Chad

Nice!

That's why it makes me nuts when people compare online to live. (Plus you can't play live in your jammies and there's no micro stakes.)

I heard Cheez moved to Canada so he could still play.

Good job managing ur $$ Chad.
Come by PFO and post from time to time, I'll be reading.

It's been a fun Christmas break so far! Made $1000 playing 30/60 here in Colorado! My buddy his girlfriend and sister were at my house drinking with me and some other friends and they were headed to Vegas two days from then. I was talking about some fun stuff they should do in Vegas and they said I should go, so I booked a flight kinda drunk at 3 am that night Had a lot of fun and wound up playing a decent bit of poker at Aria and the Southpoint hotel we were staying at off the strip. Almost took a shot at 5/10 nl at Aria but decided to stick with mostly playing 2/5 nl and ended up running pretty hot and making $3600 on the trip! Had about $5500 in my pocket going home and felt like a baller for sure. Got back in yesterday and hangin out with the family and all now.

Vegas is a blast! I love that town in 3 or 4 day doses, but definitely glad to be back now. There's something in the air there that apparently makes sleeping unnecessary. I think I got 10.5 hours in 3 nights there. I can only drink and not sleep for so long before it's time to head back to sanity. You always meet some interesting characters there too! But yeah good trip, definitely gonna try and make it back out there again around march I think!

Plus $4600 since break has started! Pretty excited, but have been playing a little too much poker lately and ready for a break. Probably won't play but maybe once till the new year.

cheers,
Chad

Is the Aria your room of choice in Vegas? I spent a bit of time there at the 1/3 tables when I was there this past June. I spent three days playing there on a recommendation from someone at the OFC Live events.

I hope to get to The Venetian and The Bellagio Rooms next time.

Keep rolling good Chad!

Who says you can't? Could you just imagine someone playing live poker with a snuggie on? Wouldn't you just be so intimidated? Hahah.

Anyways, loving your blog lately. Keep us informed on your latest poker status. Definitely been a good read. Gl at those tables!

I like Venetian and Aria the best, but it's kind of a toss up between those two. I'll pretty much just play wherever is more convenient. If you're playing 1/2 or 1/3 I'd recommend Aria though. Venetian spreads 1/2 and aria 1/3, so the 1/3 game tends to play a little bigger with no increase in skill level. I've always found the dealers and floor at Bellagio to be kind of rude and uninviting, maybe other people have had different experiences. I've only played there maybe 4 or 5 times but I've felt the same way every time.



Haha, I actually saw someone play in a snuggie looking outfit over the summer. Apparently he was part owner of a company that manufactured them so he figured he'd wear his bright purple onezie to play some poker.

cheers,
Chad

Been running pretty hot over Christmas break, up $7900 in about 3 weeks and haven't played even close to everyday or a bunch of hours.

Went to lunch with a couple friends on Dec. 30th and we were talking about what to do for New Years. Going to Vegas was mentioned and we had a hotel booked within 2 hours! The 6 of us drove out the next morning and had an absolute blast! The strip is crazy. I'd imagine it would be absolutely miserable if you were sober though. Everyone is trashed, yelling, and thinks everyone on the strip is their best friend, which creates a good atmosphere if you're in the same boat though. I'd recommend everybody go to Vegas for New Years once, but I'd be kinda surprised if you wanted to do it again after that. haha.

Didn't play much poker on the second go around in Vegas, but did play a little bit of 5/10 at Aria. That felt like a really big game for me. The max buy in is 4k and nobody but me had much less than that on the table. I'd guess there was 50k in play and would make a large bet that there was no less than 40k. I played bad, ended up missing a couple largeish value bets, but still made about $260 before I decided I was too tired and hungry to be sitting with that kind of money in that game.

Been running really well at 30/60 LHE here in colorado! It's kinda lookin like this shot I took might stick! (keeping my fingers crossed) I figure that if I'm winning at about 3BB/100 which seems pretty reasonable as good as the game generally is that'd be $60/hr. Certainly wouldn't be a bad wage for something I'm just planning to do on the side!

cheers,
Chad

You do not have to be in the same condition to enjoy it! It was a hoot to watch all of the happy drunks. Now, if you were one of the spilling your drink all over stupid drunks, I didn't appreciate you.

That shot took at 30/60 really stuck! Up about $16500 since I took that original shot. Heading back up today. have really enjoyed relearning the game I got my bankroll moving with.

Cheers,
Chad

I hadn't been by here for years as I'm sure nobody else has, so I guess this post is for me with an off chance that someone else that was feeling nostalgic stops by and reads it.

I graduated college and got a job for about two years with poker taking a back seat the majority of the time, but in June 2014 I decided that I was bored with my job and I'd regret not giving poker a serious try when I'm old and gray, so I put in my 2 weeks, which turned into a month, but in July 2014 I officially left the security of a steady pay check to pursue poker full time.

It's been difficult at times adjusting to the emotional roller coaster of gambling for a living and the responsibility for yourself that goes along with having no set schedule or obligations, but overall I love it. I still play 30/60 LHE as my main game at the local casino, but have been to Florida twice, Las Vegas twice, Arizona, California, and the Bahamas within the last 6 months to play poker. I've started to play some live tournaments and am planning on playing several at the WSOP this year. All in all I've made over 100k playing poker since I quit my job.

It's crazy to look back at where I started, where I'm at now, and where I hope to be in the future. One of my first blog posts here mentioned getting upset over 6 or 7 dollar swings, within the last 2 months I've had days where I won as much as 8k and lost as much as 5k. Crazy to think that all of it started with a 20 dollar cash in a free roll on this site and a ten dollar deposit that I've never busted.

Poker can take you a lot of places and its such a complex and interesting puzzle to solve. I just hope my passion for poker never dies and the road from here is as fun as the road leading to this point has been.

cheers,
Chad

Wow nice living your making there man. Yea I had to give it up for the grown up life to. Reading this though, might have to give it another try. congratz

It's nice coming back here, especially when I'm feeling frustrated with my lack of progress recently. I still have some tilt demons, but I've started meditating every day and listening to some instrumental music that's somewhat calming and helps with focus while I'm playing, so I'm at least trying to find ways to improve and I've definitely come a long way in that regard.

I'm still grinding mid stakes LHE to make most of my living, but I've been trying to branch out to online PLO as well. Bankroll wise I'm in about the same place I was a year ago, which is a comfortable spot to be in but a lack of progress is still frustrating. I feel like I've gotten a lot better at poker, just haven't had the best results. I'm currently trying to grind up a bankroll on Bovada. With the current state of the game, I can definitely make a living grinding live LHE at my local casino, but there's nowhere to go from there, I'll always just make enough money to get by without really getting better at poker, so I'm stuck in a spot where I can make a decent living but I'll never really acquire a bankroll for bigger games or the necessary skills to beat them. Thus my recent Bovada grind.

I had a point just before the series last year where I ran 200 into 34k on Bovada in a relatively short period of time, withdrew about half of it and then busted the rest. I thought I was a lot better than I was, I didn't practice good bankroll management because I had the mentality that if I'm rolled for it live then it's fine to just play that on Bovada, but the reality of it is that I'm not going to replace that money if it's gone so I need to protect my online roll separately. Hopefully I can move up the stakes there and get better at poker.