Digging out of a downswing at live $1/$2

Yeah I’m definitely happy to have established myself at 100NL on ClubWPT Gold. I will say that these games aren’t like normal 100NL online. I would say they are about as soft as 5NL on Ignition, maybe 10NL if you’re at a below average table.

I definitely should be posting more live hand histories. Sometimes I don’t because I am disappointed about how I played the hand (this was the case in last week’s $2/$5 hand) but you can’t get better at poker if you aren’t willing to share hands in which you’ve made a mistake.

As far as traveling goes, I am interested in getting back to Florida, Texas, and Vegas to play. I’ve played in Miami, Dallas, and Vegas once each and had a great time in all 3. I also really want to play in Los Angeles for the first time. It’s hard for me to travel though because I have a toddler at home and another baby coming soon.

Congrats Dan it sounds like an exciting time for your family.

Also, you are right about ClubWPTGold. I sat down today at the 0.10/0.20/0.40 game and I have never seen poker played this way. I got it all in pre in the first two orbits I played.

AKs vs. JTs

AKo vs. Q9s

Haha sounds about right. Welcome to the pool! Good luck in the games. Even with the huge edge you will have over the competition, the games are very high variance (single table, wild pre-flop play, 3 blinds/big ante). It's a good exercise in discipline and patience, kind of like live poker.

Unreal finish to that Houston / Duke game. I swear I looked away for a couple minutes when they were down and then heard everyone losing their mind in the poker room. I looked up and saw Houston had just taken the lead and was shocked. Their unlikely comebacks against Texas Tech and last night have been the story of the tournament at this point

Really interesting HH with the JJ hand. I like your thoughts there and am shocked that he folded after that action and getting the price he was

Great week for me where I won on everything.

Live Poker:

I played one session this week, at Mohegan Sun on Saturday. I played 3.5 hours of $1/$2 (+$354) and 1.5 hours of $2/$5 (+$170) for a total win of $524. I had a little extra time at the casino due to a change in my childcare responsibilities for the day which was nice.

I started out at a great $1/$2 table with my brother. There were multiple fish and then one big whale who was blind raising and giving tons of action. There was a tattoo convention at Mohegan Sun this weekend and this guy was apparently looking to gamble for an hour before his tattoo appointment. I ran hot, flopping top set in a 3bet pot against the whale and making the nut flush in a multi-way SRP against a guy who couldn't get away from a set. I also had this somewhat interesting spot.

AdQc - I open $10, four callers including whale. Flop Ac8c5c ($50) checks to BTN (tight passive older guy) who bets $15. I call and everyone else folds. Turn 8s ($80) I check, BTN bets $35 and I call. River 4c ($150) I donk $35 with 2nd nut flush and BTN sighs and calls with AhJc.

It feels like I missed value against this guy's exact hand. I like check/call on flop to keep the whale in. Check/raise on turn feels like an overplay. Maybe I should donk river for a larger size? This player limp/called AQ in another hand, so I believe there is a good chance he flats AKo in this spot, so I felt like it made sense to play a bit cautiously. He can definitely have flopped flushes and boats too.

After the whale left for his tattoo, I got called for a new $2/$5 game. This table was pretty good, but I got called for a dusty main game pretty quickly. I stuck it out in the main game for a bit and won a few pots before I decided to jump back into $1/$2. This was the biggest pot I played:

KQo - I open UTG $15 (bottom of range at a tight/passive table) and 4 players call. Flop Q64ss ($75) checks around. Turn Jc ($75). BB (younger unknown player) leads $65. I call and two more players overcall?? River 7h ($335) BB checks and it checks around. BB tables Q9cc and I win.

I like my flop and turn play here. Maybe I should be block betting river? It's a weird spot so multi-way when BB bets turn huge and everyone calls. BB can definitely be going for XR here though, and I don't expect to get called super light, so maybe it's best to just try and get to showdown.

I ended up at a great $1/$2 table. There were a bunch of really short stacks unfortunately, but the players were generally awful. I won a 3 way all-in with QQ in an automatic spot against shorter stacks. I also had my AA cracked in a bloated straddled pot against someone that flopped a set with not much money behind.

All in all, really easy and solid session. I was happy with most of my decisions on this day.

Online Poker:

I had a really nice week in this category, winning about $615 playing a combination of 100NL on ClubWPT and 50NL on Clubs Poker. In total this year I've played about 11k hands and I'm up $2.3k. I am extremely happy with those results. My winrate on ClubWPT is in excess of 25 bb/100 right now. I am definitely running pretty well lately, but the other players are horrible. This week I got a lot of action from players with VPIPs in the 70% range.

I also initiated my first withdrawal from ClubWPT. I had to fill out a W9 which I had heard about. The withdrawal still hasn't made it to my account which is annoying, but I am expecting it early next week. Will report back on this.

Other Gambling:

I did really well on Mohegan Sun's online promotions this week, winning about $150 or so.

At the casino yesterday I found several nice slot plays, including a Buffalo Link machine at 1600 buffalos, which is the highest I've ever found. Unfortunately, I still lost on the Buffalo play. I made up for it by hitting quads on a 2x multiplier at Ultimate X. In total, I lost $5.

I also ended up finishing 2nd in my March Madness pool for about a $50 win (small pool, small buy-in). Had Houston won on Monday, I would have won 1st. It made for a fun sweat though!

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Should have similar volume again next week. Hoping for similar results too!

My withdrawal cleared as of this morning, which was nice. Planning on withdrawing more money this week.

Yeah I had a similar experience watching that game! I wrote Houston off multiple times. It’s wild that they ended up being on the other side of a big comeback in the championship.

Losing week this time around, but not as bad as I originally thought. I had a pretty tough stretch at the end of the week, including a nasty cooler at $2/$5.

Live Poker:

I played one session this week: 4 hours of $2/$5 (-$869) and 2 hours of $1/$2 (+$10). I was bouncing around tables again and had to take one long break from playing after losing one of my biggest pots ever.

I started out a great $1/$2 table. I ran really hot, making two sets (including one in a multi-way 3BP) and winning a bunch of pots. I was playing against one big losing player I have played with a lot. I made a pretty big mistake against him unfortunately, where I bet/folded Q9cc against him on T98J8ddd. The river completed backdoor diamonds and paired the board. I block bet small and he jammed. I snap-folded but then he showed Q8hh. This is an example of a fish not understanding "absolute value" versus "relative value." To him, he has a straight, which is a strong absolute value hand. He doesn't realize that when the river completes a flush and pairs the board, a straight is not a strong value hand relative to the board, especially with 4 to a straight on board.

I got called for a new must move $2/$5 game which looked pretty good. Again, I started out running super hot. I flopped TPTK in a super multi-way spot and won a nice pot. Then, I made quads against a fish who donk-folded the river. At this point, I had built up a $875 stack (in for $500). Then I played this one:

KcKs - Folds to BTN (30s 5/T reg) who opens $15. I am in BB and 3bet to $65. He 4bet ~$180. I jam $875. He tanks for a while and then calls. I show my hand and he doesn't. Flop is Ace high and the runout bricks. He shows AKo and scoops.

Obviously it's a pretty big cooler and something of a bad beat for me. I'm happy with the way I played this hand. It's a pretty big 5bet jam but if he is calling AKo, it has to be the right play. I also don't want to mess around with calling the 4bet OOP to a good player or making some ridiculous clickback 5bet.

After this hand, I felt a little sad. I played another hand somewhat poorly and then took a long walk around the casino. I returned and played a bit more $2/$5 before racking up down $1k. Eventually I returned to play $1/$2. I ended up at a decent table. I had some pretty strange spots at this table before getting called for a new and very soft $2/$5 table. For the rest of the evening, I grinded pretty hard at a soft $2/$5 game. I felt good about how I played and I won a little bit of money back. I had one stretch where I won 3 or 4 pots in a row that felt very re-assuring.

Overall, I think I played OK on this day. I definitely made some mistakes but I think I played well enough to win. The result is unfortunate, but I'm happy to get in some volume at $2/$5 and weather some negative variance.

Online Poker

I had an interesting week playing online. It started out great. I won a few buy-ins at 100NL on ClubWPT Gold and ran super hot playing 50NL on Clubs Poker. I actually initiated another $1000 withdrawal on WPT and a $500 withdrawal on Clubs, which is my first withdrawal from that site. Both withdrawals cleared already, which is great.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse on ClubWPT, where I went on a 5 buy-in downswing. After the withdrawal and losing $500, my balance is actually uncomfortably low which is totally my fault. A lot of this stretch was runbad, but I made a couple pretty bad plays. On Thursday morning, I lost a giant pot to a 60VPIP/20PFR whale type player when he turned a full house with TT against my AA in a 3BP while we were super deep. This was clearly a cooler but I think it was also a spot where I needed to find a river fold. Paying off these spots is always super frustrating. I think I can find this fold if I am playing my best. When I am losing, I am far more likely to make calls like this. After this hand, I decided to take a break for a few days from playing online. I haven't played since. I will probably return to playing on Monday though.

Despite those losses, I still won overall playing online this week: +$233. Pretty happy about that and I'm looking forward to returning to the grind on Monday.

Other Gambling:

This was my biggest winning category of the week. I started out winning about $100 on a set of Mohegan Sun Online slot-based promotions. Then, on Friday, they offered a $100 deposit bonus, which is the best promo they have and hasn't been offered in a while. Unfortunately, I got wrecked playing through the deposit on Blackjack at $20/hand. I lost $300 (as well as the free $100) which is about as much as I've ever lost on this promotion. Fortunately, I won a total of $425 on my wife's account, for a net win of $125 on this promo. This is still below EV, but I'm very happy with the result overall.

At the actual casino, I found a few AP slot plays and won big. I hit for $240 on a single $5 spin on a bingo-based machine. This is one of my bigger wins playing slots at the casino. I also researched a few new games and found one play that seemed like it was a borderline spot. I took the play and hit a bonus right away to book a small win. I lost small on one other play. In total, I won about $250 on slots.

That means I won approximately $475 in this category.

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At one point, it felt like this week was a pretty big disaster results-wise, but the reality is that I only lost about $150 which is nothing. I'm reminded again that it is nice to be diversified with my gambling, especially since I can't get much volume in at live poker due to my family responsibilities.

Looking forward to playing more next week. I think maybe I will try to do some study tomorrow as I am still on my self-imposed break from online poker.

Bounced back from last week with a big win this time around.

Live Poker:

I played one shorter session this week and had a solid win. I played 2.5 hours of $2/$5 (+$630) and 1 hour of $1/$2 (-$60). I started out at a brand new $2/$5 game that was pretty good. I got into a weird spot right away against an unknown older guy who turned out to be a pretty big fish.

KhKd - UTG limp I raise $25 only limper calls $500 eff. Flop J73hh ($55). He check I $25 he xr $65 I call. Turn 8 ($185) he $125 I call. River Qh ($435) he $100 I call he says "just a Jack" and I win.

After the hand, I wondered if jamming the turn is better, since I was planning on calling off on a blank. This guy was playing really aggressively, but I didn't know that at the time. Ultimately, I think my play is fine. River sucks but I don't think I can fold for this price

After this hand, my table got a lot worse. Several fish left and were replaced by some of the better regs. The two best players at the table (incl. a regular 2p2 poster) were to my direct left as well. I decided to move back down to $1/$2 and return to 2/5 after $5/$10 started up.

At 1/2, I got dealt AA first hand and played this pot:

AsAc - UTG straddle I raise $15 and get two calls. Flop KKTccs ($45). Checks through. Turn Qss ($45) UTG check I $45. IP player jams $133. UTG folds. I call? He shows J9o and the river is a brick.

I think I can maybe fold this turn but I don't know. The IP short stack was an older guy with neck and hand tattoos. I figured there were enough draws and potential overplays that I can call for this price, but maybe he just always has a straight or a K that trapped flop. Probably should bet this flop too.

After that hand, I had another interesting spot at 1/2, again with AA:

AsAh - two limps I raise to $15, N2A (unknown 40s guy) calls and 1 limper calls. Flop: A89r ($45). Limper check, I check, N2A $20, fold I call. Turn 7ss ($85). I check. He $50 I call. River K ($185). I check, he checks back and shows ATo.

I think I played this hand poorly. My intention was to check/raise turn, but then JT completed. Still, I think I can always stack a set or a good two pair here. There are still other draws too. So I should stick to the plan and check/raise. There are a lot of action-killing rivers. I think this player would have called with AT after turning an open-ender.

I moved back up to $2/$5 shortly after this hand, again at a brand new table which was pretty good. I had one awesome spot at this table where I flopped a set with 66 on AK6 as the PFR. My opponent donked flop and I ended up stacking him. He was an old guy I didn't recognize, so I'm guessing he just had AK.

I quit my session a little earlier than I had intended to after I got called for the main game. I don't think I played great this session but I definitely ran well. Happy to book a win either way. I probably should have played a bit longer, but I did take a couple laps around the casino looking for slot plays which was fun.

Online Poker:

I had a really big week playing online. I won about $1200 total. I played bigger than usual this week. For one thing, ClubWPT briefly switched its buy-in structure up, allowing you to buy-in for $200 at 100NL. They have since gone back to the typical buy-in of $100, but I played quite a bit in the $200 buy-in games and won. I had several spots where I got incredibly lucky, namely getting it AIPF with an underpair against AA and hitting a set 3 times in one week. I probably stacked off too light in a couple of these spots, but it's hard not to stack off light when you see how some people on this site are playing.

I also played one session of 200NL on Clubs Poker. I saw an extremely soft table open in the early morning and decided to take a shot. One of the players in the game turned out to be a huge whale and I won about $200 off of him. I also got into a huge pot with him, getting AIPF for 150bb with my TT against his 97o (he iso BTN to 32bb over a couple limps and snap-called my cold 4bet jam from the SB). We ran it twice (thankfully, Clubs has this feature) and he made two pair on the first board. This was a $600 pot which is the biggest pot I've ever played online. I still ran quite a bit above my All-in EV this week though, considering how lucky I got on ClubWPT.

I am still mulling over whether or not to move up to playing 200NL on ClubWPT. This week felt like a nice building block towards that. I am confident I would have an edge in the games, it's just a question or whether or not I want to handle those kinds of swings right now. We'll see.

Other Gambling:

I started out this week getting wrecked for about $325 on Mohegan Sun Online, playing through a couple lossback promotions. Fortunately, I ended the week strong and clawed back $175 playing through a different promotion this weekend. I will also get some additional lossback credits on Monday which is always nice. In total, I lost about $150.

At the real casino, I found a couple small slot plays that I hit big on after I quit my poker session. I also played through $25 of free play. My plan was to do this by playing 5 $5 hands on a Game King Blackjack machine. Instead, I accidentally hit "Max Bet" and played 1 $25 hand, where I drew to a 5 card 18 and the dealer busted. Pretty lucky! To maximize EV, I should probably be using my freeplay on AP plays, but this is a bit more complicated. In total, I won $130 here, for a net loss of $20 in this category.

Nice to see you turn it around on WPT, hopefully you can run it up some more before they leave CT.

As far as some of these online casino promos, what do you look for in particular? I’m in PA and have access to a bunch of new players deposit bonuses, but they all have big rollovers. Just wondering if there are any opportunities in those

Thank you! Yeah I am really pleased about my results on ClubWPT so far. I just recently hit 10k hands played and I am up $2.8k total with about half the hands at 40NL and half at 100NL. I am happy that the site has lasted this long in Connecticut. I won't be surprised when they eventually stop operating here. Hopefully they introduce multi-tabling soon so that I can increase my volume before that happens.

The playthrough requirements on most online casino requirements are insane. I have taken a couple trips to NJ and played through a few bonuses while I was there. Even with a 20x playthrough requirement, most deposit bonuses will still be worth playing, but it becomes a total chore to do. For example, if you do a deposit bonus that is a 100% bonus up to $1000 but requires a 20x playthrough, you can play $20,000 of blackjack and have an EV loss of less than $100. That would mean the deposit bonus is still worth over $900, but it will require a couple hours of play to clear. Some sites don't let you play high RTP games like BJ or video poker to clear the bonuses too, so you have to double-check that.

I would imagine that there are a few online casinos in Pennsylvania that have smaller deposit bonuses that don't require as much playthrough. I would try to do some research on that and try to take advantage of the easier deposit bonuses first. At some point I will take a gambling trip to PA myself and will likely do some bonus hunting while I am there. I'll definitely update this thread if I do that.

I am fortunate that one of the two regulated online casinos in CT, Mohegan Sun Online, only requires a 1x playthrough on all of their bonuses. They have been consistently offering deposit bonuses and lossback promotions every week for years. I keep waiting for them to stop offering such easily beat-able promos, but it hasn't happened yet. I have won over $15k on this site alone.

Mohegan Sun has an online casino in PA and they offer some of the same promotions that the CT one does, but it seems like there is a big playthrough requirement on their deposit bonuses. I am curious if it is a state law in CT that makes it so that the bonuses here do not have this requirement.

Edit: Doing some research myself on PA online casinos. It looks like BetRivers has a 100% deposit match up to $250 with a 1x playthrough requirement. That is a great bonus. When I go to PA, that will be the first site I sign up at, since I know I don't have an account there yet.

Hey Dan, I agree that PA has a lot of opportunities for bonuses. The only one I have used was BetMGM and they have specifically a deposit bonus and poker tournament/sit n go tickets. I think with the amount I deposited I got 5 sit n go tickets and 2 for regular tournaments, basically with 1x play through requirement

Oh cool I’ll definitely look into that! I’ve never played on one of the legal, regulated online poker sites. Would be cool to do that and take advantage of the available promos at some point.

Sick WR on WPT. But yeah I’ll do some more research and see what I can find. It’s funny you mention BR as that is the only one I have used so far. Shame they all aren’t that straightforward

Busy week! Going to structure my post a little differently cause there is so much stuff I want to write about from all categories this week. First, the results:

Live Poker: +$378 in 3.5 hours of $1/$2
Online Poker: +$277 at mostly 100NL (some 50NL, some 200NL)
AP Slots: -$133
Online Casino Promo Hustling: -$15

Total: +$507

New Hampshire trip:

This weekend I took a trip up to Seacoast New Hampshire. The purpose of the trip was for my band to record a few songs with a friend we have up there who has a studio. This was a fun and rewarding way to spend an afternoon, and I am really happy with how the recordings came out. My brother, who also plays poker and posts a bit on this message board, is in the band with me. We had planned on trying to play some poker up there as there are a number of small casinos in the area. In total, I ended up playing two short sessions of $1/$2 at the Brook Casino in Seabrook, NH. In general, the games were incredibly good. I saw some truly awful play at both of the tables I was at, and I know my brother had a similar experience. I think this area of the country is pretty under-rated for poker. Every time I've played in NH I've been impressed by how good the games are. At some point I would like to take a longer trip up here and play some bigger games.

My first session of the weekend was on Saturday night. The Kentucky Derby was happening just as I sat down and the Brook was as packed as I have ever seen a casino. It was a little overwhelming at first, especially since the poker room is pretty hard to find. Fortunately, I got seated right away and found myself at a decent table. I lost a couple pots before a young kid sat down to my direct left. NH allows people under 21 to gamble, and this kid was clearly under 21, as signified by the X's marked on his hand. Right away, I saw this player open to $15 UTG with A5o so I knew he was action. He proceeded to raise almost every hand, 3- and 4-betting liberally. The rest of the table was adjusting really poorly, which made for an awesome game. I ended up getting this incredible spot:

JJ - UTG (loose passive fish) open $7, UTG1 (bad reg) call, I 3bet $30, Maniac Kid cold call $30, SB cold call $30, UTG call $30, UTG1 call $30. Flop: 522dd ($150) SB check, UTG donk $30, UTG1 call, I jam $250, everyone folds.

I think jamming flop here is clearly the best play given the size of the pot, although maybe raising to $100 has merit too. After the hand SB told me he folded K9dd and UTG1 said he folded a hand "that had a good chance of cracking Aces." Nice to be able to get both of these guys to fold their equity.

The next hand I played was a crazy one:

KTs - I open EP to $10, Maniac Kid 3bet to $25 with $160 behind. Folds around and I decided to jam for $185 total. He tanks and calls. The run-out is 766J2. I say "King High" and table my hand. He says "Damn, you have me out-kicked" and mucks face down before leaving the table.

At this point, Maniac Kid had been stacked already and had re-bought short. He was blasting off every hand. I think his range that 3bets to $25 includes loads of hands that KTs is ahead of. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a hand like 75o in his range. I figured I had tons of fold equity 4bet jamming here, especially since I have a tight image. I did think there was a chance he would call with a worse hand like QJ or something. In hindsight, he also probably calls almost every single hand that is ahead of KTs, so maybe it's a bad jam? If I don't jam, do I call? I don't really like folding pre in this spot. Unbelievable result either way.

I won a few small pots after this one but without the maniac, the action at the table dried up a bit. I took a break to walk around the casino. I had $10 in free play that I got from signing up for a new player's card. I found a Rich Little Piggies machine that was juiced up and used my free play to get a big bonus, resulting in a $90 win on a $0.75 bet. I continued scouring the casino and found two big AP slot plays: a Rich Little Piggies machine at 20 Free Games on a $6 bet and another one at 19 Free Games on a $4.50 bet. My understanding is both of these machines are in a +EV state at this number, but the bets are a little bigger than I am used to. I texted my brother and he was happy to split the plays with me, so we both racked up at poker and started spinning slots. The play on the $6 machine finished quickly but the bonus was a dud, resulting in a small loss. Unfortunately, the play on the $4.50 machine was a total nightmare. We ended up putting $1400 into the machine which is about twice as much as I've ever been into a slot machine for. We had been playing for an hour at this point and I was feeling physically sick, knowing there was virtually no chance of getting even and a high likelihood of losing huge. Fortunately, we hit a "Double Pop" bonus at this point. This bonus ended up being the largest bonus I've ever hit on a slot machine at $687.96, but unfortunately it only got us about halfway to even. Still, it was a massive relief. As I was getting ready to leave the casino, I found another Rich Little Piggies play: a $6 machine at 25 free games. I decided I couldn't stomach playing this game after the last experience and left it behind. As I was driving to my hotel, I was really regretting this decision, as I know that this machine is worth quite a bit of money. My brother ended up playing it himself and winning about $500. I was a little jealous, but also just happy that one of us had played it and won.

I had a pretty awful night of sleep in my hotel room (I think I can write this room off as a business expense since I am a professional gambler now?) but I had a nice morning hanging around Portsmouth, NH. Portsmouth is a beautiful place and I have a lot of fond memories there. On the way home, the plan was to play another quick session at the Brook. I got there early and there were only two tables running with a short list. I took this opportunity to return to the bank of Rich Little Piggies machines, where I found two more smaller AP plays. I ended up winning about $110 between the two plays. In total, I played 5 different Rich Little Piggies machines which resulted in a net loss of $133 which is pretty manageable. I was grateful to be able to split the larger plays with my brother, otherwise I would have gotten totally wrecked. Finding 5 plays on this game in one weekend is absurd. At Mohegan Sun, teams of Asian slot vultures hover around these machines waiting for opportunities to play. I find maybe one small play on this game every ~5 trips to MS typically. I guess no one in NH knows what to look for? These machines also had slightly different rules from the ones I am used to in CT which I need to research further.

Anyway, just as I was finishing up with slots, I got called for a new $1/$2 table. As the table filled in, it felt like a pretty good spot for me. I ran really hot to start, winning my first 3 hands, including this one:

QcJd - I open LJ $10, HJ CO BTN call. Flop: J83dd ($40) I check, HJ (loose unknown) $25, fold fold, I call. Turn: 4x ($90) I check he $45 I call. River: Qd ($180) I check he jam $100 I call. He says "Good call, I just have a 3" and I win.

I am not sure if I was calling on a blank river, but I suspect I might have. After the hand, the HJ rebought and confided to me that he "felt committed" to bluffing the river with his hand. I continued to play for a while until it was almost time for me to go home. I debated racking up a little early but ultimately got dealt in to the BB for this one:

AKo - UTG limp EP (unknown, talking about getting a $2/$5 game running) raise $15, folds to me in BB. I 3bet $65. UTG fold EP tank call. Flop: KJ7r ($130) I bet $50. EP tanks. His friend at the table says something I don't hear and then "you're gonna go all-in". The EP player thinks a bit and says "yeah, all-in" and jams $250. I sigh and say "Isn't it one player to a hand?" and then call. The dealer doesn't say anything and deals the 4c. EP: "I need a club." River Td. I look at him and he says "Two Pair" and shows KTcc.

Pretty sick spot. Obviously a huge EV spot for me, and it sucks to run bad. I felt a little tilted afterwards, mostly at the table talk from the third party. I finished the orbit and ended up racking up a $50 loss. Ultimately, I has happy with how I handled the situation, and I was happy that I only booked a small loss at poker, and a small win overall on the second casino trip. I finished the NH trip up $245. Overall it was a really nice trip. I am really looking forward to getting back up there. Hopefully the Brook will send me some offers since I went so hard on slot machines.

Shot-taking at Online Poker:

I played a lot of online poker this week. I played several sessions of four-tabling on Clubs Poker to take advantage of a promo they were running during Hustler's Million Dollar Game. As part of the promo, the site was randomly awarding cash game tables $250 to split amongst the players eight times per night. I'm not sure what the actual EV of this promo was for me, but I did hit it one time for a little over $30, which was nice. I also cleared an additional rakeback challenge on this site for an additional $15 of "free" money. It was fun to play four tables again, since I have typically been playing only two (one on ClubWPT, one on Clubs).

But really, this week was defined by a couple sessions I played at 200NL. I have not played much 200NL historically and it is the biggest stake I've ever played online. I decided to play a couple different sessions this week when I found particularly soft tables with available seating on both ClubWPT and Clubs. Overall, I don't think I played my best. I played 1 spewy hand in a 3bp with a low pocket pair and also ran one ill-advised bluff in a multi-way pot. I also ran poorly, as I lost a full buy-in losing AIPF JJ vs the A4s of a LAG whale on ClubWPT, who cold 4bet me and called off when I 5bet jammed. I think the total result of my adventures at 200NL this week was -$500. This is pretty unfortunate, but I am proud of myself for giving it a shot. I expect I will play some more 200NL this week.

I also put in a lot of volume at 100NL this week. I think I ran and played well at this stake. I am very comfortable in the 100NL pool on ClubWPT now, and I have found the 100NL games on Clubs to be good too. I won enough in these games to still book a win overall at online poker which is awesome.

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Should be back to the regularly scheduled programming for next week. May is a busy month for me but I'm excited about poker and committed to grinding.

Volume slightly down this week but I booked a solid win.

Live Poker:

I played one shorter session this week, on Friday evening back at good old Mohegan Sun. Normally I play afternoons on Saturday or Sunday, but it's a busy weekend for me and I got out of work early on Friday. I enjoyed being able to play at this time, although I felt exhausted by the time I got home around 11pm. I won $25 in 3 hours at $1/$2 and $484 in 1 hour at $2/$5.

I started off at a decent $1/$2 table. I didn't have any great spots but I got a little bluff through when a younger player hero-folded top pair to my double barrel bluff. I think lately I have had a bit of a tight image playing (which is fair, I don't really give much action especially against big pre-flop raise sizes at 1/2) but I'm OK with that because I think that I am bluffing enough in the right spots.

I got called for a below average $2/$5 game but I decided to give it a shot. The game gradually got better and better as some of the more skilled and/or tighter regulars got moved to the main game. Eventually I ended up doubling up in a big spot against a weaker player:

KQo - I open HJ $20 CO (MAWG reg, more loose passive) calls SB (rec gambler very familiar to me, playing tight post flop, just lost a big pot) calls. Flop KQ9ss ($30) SB check I bet $30 CO fold SB raise $80 I call. Turn Ks ($190) SB overbet jams for my remaining $380. I snap call and show. He shows JsTx and I fade the one outer.

Obviously an easy hand for me to play. I sized up a bit on the flop (halfpot multiway is big for me) since I was against two looser players. I immediately did not like the flop checkraise since this player seemed to be trying to lock up a win. I can beat value though and mega draws are possible so folding against the tiny checkraise would be absurd. When I bet the flop I reminded myself that both players can have all 16 combos of JT though. His play on the turn seems awful even though it is clearly a pretty unfortunate spot for him. After this hand, I regretted not buying in deeper. In reality, I do think that if we played this hand at $800 effective, it is really hard for me to get all the money in against this player.

The KQo villain left the table and I continued to play until I was about to get called for the main game (which was legitimately bad). After that, I took a break for dinner (the pre-made food at the new Sift Bakery impressed me) and then I dropped back down to $1/$2. I ended up at a decent table but, again, did not have any real great spots. At one point, a younger reg that I've played with many times sat down to my left. He was playing on ClubWPT Gold so we chatted about that site for a while which was fun. In the past I have not been able to log-in to ClubWPT Gold from Mohegan Sun (geolocation issue that I thought had to do with being on the reservation). I don't really know how I feel about live multi-tabling, but I might try it again sometime in the future if I am at a bad $1/$2 table.

Online Poker:

I had an up and down week playing online. My net result was a $61 win, which is basically breakeven. I continued shot-taking 200NL, mostly on Clubs Poker. I think I broke close to even overall at this stake. It did feel like the games I was playing in were really good though. I also played my usual 100NL on ClubWPT Gold where I lost small. I did win at 50NL and 100NL on Clubs, which brought me into the black for the week.

I struggled with tilt a bit this week. At two points I had to quit my session to calm down. Fortunately, in both cases, I was able to return to playing well shortly afterwards. I think my mental game has improved since I started this thread. A big part of this has been my sustained success the past 2 years. I just feel a lot more confident playing and I know that I have the bankroll and the results to get me through any swings.

This was a low volume week for me. I probably played online a total of 6 hours, mostly weekday mornings with one evening session. Sometimes I am able to play while I'm at work which helps get me more volume but I had a super busy week there. I don't really want playing online to eat into my family time and/or social life, so I don't really care about trying to get my volume up much higher than 10 hours a week. I also haven't been playing much or at all on the weekends. Partly this is because I have been busy and because I also play live on the weekends. But I am also usually happy to take a break from playing for a day or two.

Other Gambling:

I had a very low volume week playing through online casino promotions. This week the promos offered by Mohegan Sun were much worse than usual. Hopefully this won't be a trend moving forwards. I won $30 total playing promos.

I did find a few small slot plays at the casino on Friday, but I actually broke dead even. Breaking even playing slots is a win though since I got a free beer and some play on my player's card.

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Hoping to play more next week but either way will have an update for the thread then. I am coming up on 1000 lifetime hours played of live poker which is a nice milestone for me.

you definitely cannot play on WPT Gold at Mohegan, I wonder if it keeps working if you start playing off reservation and then enter the property

That is what I was thinking as well. He was in the middle of playing a tournament when he sat down at my table, so it’s very possible he started playing before he got to the casino.

This 1x play through is an absolute dream and the number 2 thing I like about Connecticut.

I have upped and improved my game based on our few chats. I was making some silly mistakes and your casual and sincere "So you think that's the best play?" has led me to do more research and maths 😃

My wife "let" me get her the easy $500 sign up bonus but has yet to consent to unlimited access to an account in her name. Despite my attempts to explain and justify, her opinion of my AP is best expressed by the image below:

Haha the truth is I don't really know what I'm doing on any of this! Just sort of flying by the seat of my pants, trying to figure it out. I have spent a good amount of time researching advantage gambling though and now I have a decent amount of trial & error with slot play and bonus hunting. I am genuinely interested in chatting about it though, I'm happy you are into it too. It's hard for me because I want to recommend some of my friends take advantage of the free money on Mohegan Sun's site but I also know that gambling online can be a pretty destructive thing for the uninitiated.

My wife is generally pretty skeptical about all forms of gambling as well. That said, it was pretty easy to sell her on letting me set up an account for her on the MS site because I had already been doing it for a year at that point with great results. I had been contributing most of the money won to household expenses too. I do still feel like a bit of a degenerate having to ask to do 2FA with her phone once a week to sign into her account though. I think she gets a lot of e-mails and online ads for casinos too, which is unfortunate.

I booked a tiny win this week, essentially breaking even. I am happy with the amount of volume I was able to get in though.

Live Poker:

I played one short session of live poker this week, earlier today at Mohegan Sun. I think I played very well overall, and had a couple nice spots. I won $420 in 1.5 hours of $2/$5 and lost $16 in 2.5 hours at $1/$2.

I started out at a decent $1/$2 table. I drove up with my brother and they called a new game right as we arrived, so we were seated together. I only had one hand of note at this table: when I 3bet KK against my brother, who called with JJ and folded to a small cbet on an Ace-high board. We don't really collude against each other when we play together, but I don't go out of my way to get involved in pots against him either. This is basically my strategy any time that I am playing against another winning reg though.

I decided to take an open seat at $2/$5 shortly after, partly to get away from my brother's table and partly because there appeared to be a couple fish in the game. The table was pretty good overall, with two good regulars and the rest fish (or close enough to fish). Right away I got into a nice spot against one of the regs:

A2cc - I open CO $20 BB calls. Flop As2h6d ($40). BB check I bet $20 BB call. Turn 7ss ($80) BB check I bet $100 BB call. River Qsss ($280). BB check I bet $200 BB tank call and I win.

After that, I played two interesting hands against a fish to my direct right:

9c9d - UTG (5/10 player) straddle $10. UTG1 limp $10. I raise UTG2 $50. UTGS call Limper call. Flop A24hh ($150) checks through. Turn 8 ($150) UTGS check Limper check I bet $65. UTGS fold Limper call. River Kh ($280) Limper donk $150 I fold he shows 5c5s.

I don't know that I like how I played this hand. I think he has a hand like 55 alot when he limp calls pre and check/calls turn. I do think I have some good hands to call with on this river when he donks relatively small and I don't know that I need to hero 99 without a heart. Credit to him for finding the creative bluff here.

AThh - I open UTG $15 folds to BB (same fish as above) who calls. Flop: J95r ($30) BB check I $15 he call. Turn: 3hh ($60) BB check I $80 BB call. River: 6hhh ($220) BB check I jam for $400 eff he fold quickly

I like how I played this hand. I think I was planning on giving up brick rivers here. I jammed because I think Villain has plenty of flushes in range (although he probably donks some) as well as two pairs and 87 which is a double gutshot. I think this player might call light too, given we have a dynamic after he shows the bluff a few hands prior.

I continued to play for a while. My table got better after $5/$10 started. My brother ended up moving over shortly after and I decided to rack up. This was a day where I definitely could have continued to play $2/$5, although I would have moved to the main game relatively quickly. I'm not upset about booking this win though.

Afterwards, I took a long and eventful break to play slots (more about that later) before getting called for a great new $1/$2 table. My table was great action with several big losing players. I had 4 noteworthy hands at this table, but I don't know that I want to type up that many hand histories. I only played here for 90 minutes total, since I had to leave the casino around 5:30pm per usual. I booked a $70 loss at this table, mostly thanks to this hand:

TcTs - Two limps, Loose Action Player ISO $12, I 3bet $35, folds, Second Limper calls, Loose Action Player calls. Flop: J85ss ($105) Limper donk $25 LAP calls $25 I call $25? Turn 8 ($180) Limper jam $91 LAP call $91 I fold. Limper has 55 and LAP has AJo.

I think I need to 3bet bigger here, but I don't think it's a huge mistake. The flop feels close, but I don't really like folding here. Turn is an easy spot, although I might have felt compelled to call if the LAP folded.

Online Poker:

I played a lot more online poker this week compared to the last few weeks. I played longer sessions during the morning (my preferred time to play) and also found time to play while at work as well. I found a few more great opportunities to shot-take 200NL this week with mixed results. The defining session of the week happened at 200NL on Clubs Poker. I was at a table with several whales and ran poorly, highlighted by getting it in pre-flop for about $160 with AKo vs 42s and losing. I ended up losing about $500 this session, which is one of my biggest losses online ever. I did have a few small winning sessions at 200NL later in the week, and continued to grind at 100NL and 50NL as well. In total, I lost about $200 playing online this week.

One thing that I forgot to write about last week is that it is possible to multi-table on ClubWPT now. Unfortunately, my MacBook is currently running an outdated OS which does not support ClubWPT's new downloadable client. Because you need the client to multi-table, I am not currently able to do it. I am still really enjoying playing on Clubs Poker though, so I am not too upset about being cut out of getting in extra volume on ClubWPT. I have heard that the client is horrible to play on as well, with many bugs and errors, so apparently I am not missing much. The games on ClubWPT have gotten a bit worse since multi-tabling has started up, but I have still been able to find great action tables at 100NL and 200NL.

Other Gambling:

Mohegan Sun's Online Casino returned to form this week with several great promotions, including its monthly $100 deposit bonus and a nightly 25% lossback promo (this one may have been running last week as well and I just didn't notice). I did not run well this week, but still booked a small win of $43 (well below EV). I ran poorly playing the nightly lossback promo (these are high variance since I usually do 1 or 2 large bets as opposed to many smaller bets) and ran well below EV clearing the deposit bonus. Fortunately I ran well playing the "Slot of the Week" promotion, and hit a huge 200x bonus to save my week.

At the casino earlier today, I had incredible luck finding AP slot opportunities but I bricked all but one of the plays. The most noteworthy spot came on my break between playing $2/$5 and $1/$2, where I found three really good plays on the same bank of Buffalo Link machines. The machine is +EV at around 1300 Buffalo Heads on the counter, and I found machines at 1525, 1590, and 1650. 1650 is definitely the most I've ever found. It is rare for me to find even one play on this machine, and I don't think I've ever found more than 1 on the same day. Unfortunately, I lost on all 3 plays. According to an online calculator my friend @Scientist shared with me, these plays should be worth between $50 and $60 in EV depending on the RTP of the machine (this does not include Mohegan Sun's generous rewards system). Between these 3 losses and a couple other small plays, I ended up losing $224 total on slots on this day. I did have fun playing though, and I got a ton of play on my player's card, which I'm happy about.

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I expect to put in similar volume again next week. I am feeling excited about poker these days. I am off to a really good start to the year, coming off of an awesome 2024. My life outside of gambling is going well too. Feels good, man.

the most important take for me is the last part. if you do poker well its about making life easier and better outside the game. it often does that but so many players (including myself) have lost sight of that at points along the way.

hustle hard.

Good point and I definitely agree with you. I have definitely lost sight at different times as well. I had some tough stretches last year where negative emotions from poker leached into my regular life (becoming more irritable around family when I was losing; feeling diminished self-worth after playing badly). Fortunately, I was able to recognize when this was happening and take a step back.

Right now, it feels like I have struck a good balance with poker and work and the rest of life and I am feeling very satisfied. I do wonder if this will change when I start running worse though. Need to make sure I continue to invest in my mental game now even when things are easy.

I'd recommend checking out Jason Su if you haven't already. He's got a new book out I haven't read and Poker WIth Presence was amazing. He's got a recent episdoe at Thinking Poker Podcast which is well worth a listen. He's great with the mental game stuff.

Yeah I actually just listened to him on the Poker Zoo podcast! I think I'll check out some of his written stuff at some point soon.