POT! 25K PLO Hands & Weed Detox, December '25

Got some more hands in. Ran pure. Again, played some AAxx AIPF Simulator today. Got them in vs. KKxx and held, got AATT in vs AAJJ and lost, then won another AAxx vs JTTx. Just a few more BIs until I move up stakes but I imagine the road there won't be a straight one.

Hands: 2,832 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $243

Between the success of the challenge, my current overall WPTGlobal win rate (a solid 18bb/100 through 11K hands) and the end of a busy work week, the urge to get stoned is definitely there. I’m going to allow myself a couple of beers at dinner tonight to unwind, but I refuse to just swap the weed habit for an alcohol one. I’m keeping the drinking to 1 day per week only which aligns with my usual routine.

At my mom's looking through old photos after lunch. My grandparents on my dad's side loved video poker and slots and my old man was a part of the Moneymaker Boom before he passed; we were at casinos 3-4 times a year at least. Here I am in Reno, NV with my grandfather. You can tell I am ready to grow up and pay rake & resort fees to do my part to support casinos everywhere.

Glad I stumbled upon this today. Good luck! Still playing any ping pong?
Congrats on the marriage!

First hand I think turn should only bet small b33 or even b20 is better. You will get overfold a lot and better price. Bombing turn w.o any blocker and you will get enough station that has a Axxx that loves to gamble. Second hand easy fold on turn. No blocker w Jx,Tx. You are hoping for the naked JJxx, TTxx but that like what less than 10% of combos. People just struggle to find bluffs there.

Thank you, bro! Ping pong has taken a backseat to pickleball for me - largely because it's more accessible than ping pong in Houston (seems like there are courts EVERYWHERE these days), and it's also something my wife is into. I do miss heading into downtown to the table tennis academy and training, though...

just wanted to say good for you for doing a weed detox. I was a heavy weed user for a lot of my life, and I find my life is much better without it. Plus it is an expensive habit, and
pretty bad for your health. You are on the right path.

About the KQ hand, that A is about the worst turn in the deck, as it completes the only real draw on the flop JT. Against a normal player we would have a pretty clear fold to a turn pot imo. That being said, I don't hate your line. Against the aggro whale stationing does make sense, since he will peel the flop with all sorts of holdings and might get randomly aggro vs your check. And he could be value cutting himself with a worse aces up. But I would still be tempted to fold since JT is such a reasonable holding (its hard to imagine what else can peel the flop) and we are in such bad shape against it.

Thank you! I'd say weed probably cost me around $200-$300/mo when I was at my highest usage rate, so I completely agree from that perspective as well. I'm excited to continue to reap the benefits of the renewed sense of self and mental clarity along with getting my dopamine back to a normal place.

I took DonJuan's advice from earlier ITT that I was fortunate to be reminded of: don't go crazy with the hero calls; keep them to a minimum. We're not building our win rate off of calldowns like that one.

Another session this morning to cross the 4K mark. Gonna take a break, make some food, and pass 5K hands before the evening.

Hands: 4,109 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $241

I have a leak where I play more loose near the last 20 hands of a session. Gotta cut that out right away. Just randomly giving away bbs preflop before I decide to quit. So stupid.

You really think Ax is calling large turn bets on QTT-A board in a 3way 3bpot when flop is checked? I think AJxx and even AKxx finds the muck to a large bet a lot of the time. Maybe if I'm supposed to B20 and B33 instead of B75, then I would agree that Axxx would stick around. Anyway, this isn't a play that I think is mandatory - OOP and multiway especially make it iffy. Against these two loose passives, I thought to go for it.

Passed 5K hands this month and again my roll is peaking both for my time on the site and in the challenge.

Hands: 5,122 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $357

Still just my one deposit...

Today at 10:30 PM marked 1 week without smoking weed. There have been about 4-5 times this week where I wanted to smoke, but there were no real moments where I was fighting to not get in my car and go buy some or anything like that. Can it be this easy? Will it stay this way? Hopefully so. I have picked back up running which I attribute to dropping weed. It's also much easier to remain focused on a given task.

I am really stoked on my results so far - damn near doubling my $1K deposit in 13,000 hands at 17bb/100 - but I've gotta stop patting myself on the back. The job isn't over. Even beyond this December challenge, I want to climb stakes and get better at PLO.

Roll continues to peak...

December Challenge Results:
Hands: 5,710 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $410

WPTGlobal Results:
Hands: 13,659
Total Win/Loss: $956

Gonna take a break and get back on it tonight to pass 6,000. Maybe I'll get to $2,000 and move up stakes tonight

Played a sick AAxx hand where I made a nice calldown but exited the table before I screenshot the hand history, and I couldn't find the table or hand once I left. It is really starting to suck not having access to hand history or be able to see my stats in a database. I honestly would just love to be able to show it to a stable for staking opps or have it available for a coach to review. What are other people on WPTGlobal doing in this regard? I can't imagine what aside from using the in-game hand counter, manually calculating profit/loss, and screenshotting hands you want to review later.

Also, question about win rate; tell me how you feel about this... so I am playing PLO10 and PLO20 but the tables allow you to buy in for 200bb and in some tables there is a 2bb straddle. So how would you calculate your win rate if you were grinding on these tables? I am just calling my big blind .4 as if I am only playing PLO40. Using this, I come up with a current win rate of 17bb/100. Does that seem right?

LFG, just doubled my original $1K thanks to these 4 sets within 100 hands of each other:

And I river quads in one of the 99xx hands and get shoved into by a boat. Feels gross even if I had the better set.

I read on here in an old post once "PLO will have you thinking about what sports car you're going to buy one month and thinking of quitting poker the next." Of course I am playing PLO micros so for me the sports car is more like a Nintendo Switch 2. But I think it is just important to acknowledge that I am running above EV and prepare myself for when that is inevitably not the case.

I have the Triton $250K on second monitor while 4-tabling and writing this. I am deeply in love with pot-limit omaha and have been for many years at this point, but NLHE tournaments hold a special place in my heart. My old man and I used to watch the WSOP pre-recorded broadcasts together on ESPN as well as Poker After Dark and HSP. I remember watching the PokerStars EPT YouTube live broadcasts and the ESPN WSOP broadcasts in my late teens and early 20s as I was discovering the game for the first time since childhood; I'm sure my story is not unique in that regard.

About 140 hands left until 6K and then I'll sleep... busy day at work tomorrow.

And while writing this I hit a straight flush and got led into on the river. Hah

Keeping it going with a solid session! Going to move up stakes next session now that I've reached a $2K total roll.

December Challenge
Hands: 6,545 / 25,000
Win/Loss: $522

Hi Wilfram! Enjoyed your previous live blog for a long time so subbed!

Can I ask your advice?
I'm trying to do almost the same as your challenge except only starting with $300. I've been playing alot of 5c plo5 & simply want to run up a roll of $2k to make 5c plo25 my main game. I wouldn't mind mixing in regular plo as well.

I've purchased RIO's From the Ground Up courses for both PLO & PLO5 and going through 1-2 videos per day; I'm also using the free preflop version of PLOMM trainer as I can't afford $200/month for the entire solver since that's my entire starting bankroll. Maybe it's better if I saved up $1k to start at 5c plo10, I'm not sure.

Is there anything else you would recommend to beat the micros to run up a few hundred into a playable $2k+ roll with my goal to simply become a slightly winning reg at plo25 (or 5c plo25)? I have unlimited time but very limited starting funds.

I've briefly played on ClubWPT Gold (extremely soft compared to everywhere else) but can't continue there due to the tax form stuff since I don't wanna deal with not taking the standard deduction every year & figuring out all the nonsense of the new law so I'm playing anywhere else like Coin, Global, Clubs, Iggy, etc.

GL on the grind & I wish you well!

RIO's PLO From The Ground Up with coach Thomas Emter may be the best available content on how to beat microstakes 6-max PLO. Thomas provides the GTO framework and then the necessary deviations and exploits specific to low/micro games. It has been the most influential course to me despite also having access to PLO MM's video library. Tons of AMAZING content on PLO MM but in terms of organized content for low stakes PLO 6-max, From The Ground Up takes the win for me.

I can only speak to the 4card version but I did see that Thomas is also teaching the newer 5card course, so I'm sure the material is just as good. So all of this said - definitely stick with those!

GLGLGL

Got asked to play in a pickleball league tonight at my gym - the same one I played in last week. This time, my partner is going to be a 58 year-old man. His temper is the absolute nut low; I'm competitive as hell, but it's an intermediate pickleball league for God's sake. He holds his own and then some against the younger guys, admittedly.

One of the best intangible things about having this gym membership is seeing plenty of guys his age that have put in the effort and are still incredibly fit. I also appreciate it from a networking perspective; in a group text recently with about 40 gym members, a guy posted that he lost his job and immediately got two interview opportunities just from the group alone.

All of that said, 455 hands until 7,000 which I'll grind out today at some point before or after the gym. It will be my first time moving up to PLO50. Checking the tables even earlier this morning, the stats and play from the PLO50 tables look largely the same as PLO20... and I reckon that the games will only be better later tonight. My plan to move back down if I lose 4 BIs.

Being busy at work, the vending machines, life after marriage, the holidays, and my gym schedule certainly make it easier to avoid opportunities to get high, let alone smoke.

Didn't play any hands last night, but going to try and play 1,445 this evening to get to at least 8,000 hands. This will put me on a good pace - a little under 1/3rd of both the challenge and the month will be complete.

I'm having a wedding party on Friday at a local brewery. Since we did not have any guests at our wedding, my wife and I are throwing a party with friends and family to celebrate together. I was asked by a few of my stoner buddies if I wanted any weed at the party, and I respectfully declined. I won't be able to grind Friday evening, but my plan is to hopefully be good to go by Saturday afternoon for another session.

Didn't get to 8K tonight but passed 7K hands. Gotta get to 8K tomorrow after work to not risk falling well behind. Did not end up playing PLO50; just stuck to the PLO20 and PLO10 tables for now. I think I have a mental block with moving up stakes which is odd considering I've played as high as $10/$20 live. No crazy hands... just AAxx dodging the entire deck a few times AIPF. Standard so far for the challenge. We keep playing hands and we keep winning. At the end of my sessions, I've been checking preflop opens and cold calls that seem questionable to me in PLO Trainer to refine my preflop.

December Challenge
Hands: 7,240 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $664
Marijuanas Smoked: 0

Definitely going to get to 8K hands tomorrow no matter what. Then the next day, I am off work, but I will be busy with wedding party stuff all day, so I need to wake up early that day to get some more volume in.

Went ahead and passed 9K hands tonight and still grinding. Another winning session. I finally decided to move up in stakes, and it made me realize I have a bad habit of keeping track of win/loss mid-session in my head. I've been subconsciously adding up my stacks on the tables and adding that total to my roll. Can't imagine how much bandwidth I'm spending doing that. Totally useless.

My drive to grind poker - to do anything - has increased tenfold this month so far. Nothing fulfills me like spending time running sims and grinding out EV. I love watching a video about the game from a master or read about a concept, see it applied in the sim, and then utilizing it in real time in a hand.

During live PLO downswings or cash game trips that weren't going well, sometimes I would tell myself this game isn't for me; that I wasn't cut out for poker for whatever reason. It would take awhile, sometimes a couple of months, but I would eventually snap out of it and return to my obsession. I'm telling myself I started the vending machine business for my future financial security and that may be true, but the real motivator was to try and create a system that would both supplement and free myself up for the poker grind. I love this game, and I love improving at it and seeing results.

December Challenge
Hands: 9,227 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $742

Every now and then I feel obligated to show that I still only have one deposit along with the hand count and roll total...

My wife is so anxious about this damn wedding party tonight. Along with saving money, the purpose of doing the wedding alone and then a party at a brewery was to alleviate the stress of a huge wedding plan, but she has managed to stress herself out with additional things she is wanting to add to the party. I'm helping where I can now, but not before I was able to get some hands in earlier this morning.

Tables were definitely tougher early AM than late at night (duh) but still managed to squeak out a small win.

December Challenge:
Hands: 9,572 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $753

After 18K hands total on WPTGold, I am confident that I'm one of the best PLO cash players on the site grinding these stakes. I'm excited to keep getting volume in and seeing how much I can move up.

The wedding party yesterday evening was beautiful. It was such a treat to be surrounded by those who are meaningful to my wife and I and celebrate.

Just played my 10,000th hand of the challenge, and it was a wild one... got max value by potting turn and river with top 2 pair vs a maniac on a 4 card straight board:

Villain had been going wild at the table for about 25 hands in a row to the extent that I thought I could get two streets of major value

I haven't played a live session in three months, and it sucks to see the local regulars on Facebook grinding away with their liferoll. I can't wait to have a roll to grind these live games again. Buying the house and investing in starting a business was a good move but it really drained my ****ing pockets like no other for the time being. I feel like you need at least $20,000 dedicated to the Omaha live grind to survive the swings. I could walk in occasionally with a thousand bucks or so but that's truly not my style and I think I'd play terribly. I'd only be interested in playing live if I was dedicating the next several months to getting in hundreds of live hours and I'd only be able to do that with a sizable roll. Fortunately, I'm starting to think building a roll using my job, WPTGold, and the vending business is a real possibility within the next year.

December Challenge
Hands: 10,123 / 25,000
Total Win/Loss: $799

Got another 1000 hands in tonight and crossed $1K profit this month. Since signing up to the site on 10/21/25 and depositing $1K, I've now made a little under $1600 in 19,000 hands playing PLO10, PLO20, and a few hundred hands of PLO50. Weed is a total afterthought at this point. It's all about getting these hands in and seeing how far I can get with PLO, dedication to work and my side business, and trying to be the best person I can for my family & the community around me.

December Challenge
Hands: 11,006 / 25,000
Win/Loss: $1022

Total WPTGold Stats
Hands: 18,955
Win/Loss: $1568

Glad the party went well. No smokey smokey?

How did you get the vending business going? Did you know someone already doing it? Ad in the back of a magazine, lol? I've recently "retired" and may start looking for some kind of low time investment business.