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

Cobbled together a decent win this week all things considered. Continuing to struggle with getting enough sleep as well as some discomfort from last week’s procedure.

I played a single session of 25NL online this week and lost small. I think I played reasonably well but got stacked in a cooler spot with AJo vs JJ on AJ75X after defending BB in a SRP. I got a $25 bonus from BetOnline but unfortunately I wasn’t able to clear the whole thing with my paltry volume. I had meant to play more this weekend but life got in the way. I do think my recent runbad influenced me not to play as much too which is unfortunate. I am happy to be playing a bit online again though. My total loss with the bonus money I got was about $13.

I had a good win on the online casinos this week thanks to one of Mohegan Sun’s classic deposit bonus promotions. I ran below EV still but won a total of $175, including a couple additional opportunities I found to play.

Finally, I took a longer trip up to the casino with my brother on the holiday Monday. This was basically my first time leaving the house since I had my vasectomy, so I was looking forward to the trip more than usual. I was still feeling some discomfort, particularly when walking around the casino checking slots, but it was manageable.

I played 3.5 hours of poker in total, 1 hour of $1/$2 (-$130) and 2.5 hours of $2/$5 (+$372). I started out at the lower limit at a brand new table. It was a good game with some deeper stacks and action younger players. I ran poorly and felt tilted at one point but I think I executed pretty well overall. This was the most significant hand that I played:

QhQd - UTG limp I raise to $12 UTG1 CO call BTN call limper call. Flop Th9h5s ($48) checks to BTN who bets $15 limper fold I raise to $75 CO fold BTN call. Turn Tc ($198) I check BTN quickly bets $125 I tank fold off of about $215 stack. After the hand BTN told me he had a Ten which makes sense.

Basically the worst turn card in the deck and one of the only ones I would consider check/folding. These spots are always difficult to play. I’m probably supposed to call down with some overpairs here but it seemed like QQ with the Qh would be the worst one to do it with. I also don’t think players bluff here enough in position and the size and speed of Villain’s bet read as strong to me. Happy I found the correct decision in this instance.

After I worked through my feelings of tilt, I moved up to a solid $2/$5 must-move table and then eventually a good main game. I continued to suffer from some bad runouts before I won two big pots (turned flush with 76s in HU SRP; overplayed 99 on low wet board in bloated MW SRP) that saved my session. Both of these hands were against a splashy younger whale type player. He was straddling a lot and giving infinite action. I reciprocated a little bit even though I hate straddling at $2/$5. Eventually one of the other fish got up and was replaced by a solid reg so I made my exit.

I also took two long laps around the casino checking slot machines, one before my session and one after. There was a “Triple Status Points” promotion running which usually means the machines are pretty picked over but I actually found a lot to play. This resulted in me earning a ton of status points and some accompanying free play, which is always nice. I was grinding out a modest win before I ran bad on a really nice $5 play on Buffalo Link. After that loss, I was down about $250 on slots but had $50 in free play to use. I staged a pretty nice comeback playing through the credits on leftover Ultimate X multipliers and another old-school AP slot called Golden Egypt. Golden Egypt is not a machine that I check very often but I found a ton of plays on one bank of machines and had one really nice hit. I played slots for over 3 hours and lost $80. Honestly I probably could have spent another couple hours checking slots on this night, but I definitely left the casino at the right time.

—

I am hoping to increase my volume this week as my schedule is pretty open and I am finally feeling healthy after weeks of illness and then this recent recovery period. We’ll see though, I can’t promise anything. 2026 has been off to a slow and steady start so far. Always nice to be winning though.

We got about 14” of snow the other day so I haven’t been able to leave my house for days. Fortunately I still managed to book a decent win this week across two trips to the casino.

My first trip was on Wednesday. Getting up to Mohegan Sun on weeknights is pretty difficult for me. It’s an hour each way and I have a lot of responsibilities at home and with my kids that need to be taken care of in the evenings. Then I have to get up early in the morning to do it all again. I am committed to trying to get up there one weeknight every week for the next couple months though. This trip, I was in the building for about 4 hours total, which is really short for me. I spent 2.5 hours of the 4 playing poker. I started out at an awful $2/$5 table filled with nitty regulars. The two best players at the table had direct position on me as well. I moved down to $1/$2 without VPIPing a hand after about two orbits. I had my choice of tables at the lower stake so I ended up at a really good one with lots of action. I didn’t get too many interesting spots at this table but I did play a big pot with AA that allowed me to book a small win (+$78). I played some slots too, although the games were very picked over. I had a nice hit on a new-to-me game that led to a come-from-behind victory of $26.

Was this trip “worth it” for $104? Probably not. Is my average EV in the casino higher than $26/hour? I would like to think it is, but I’m not sure. Either way, this wasn’t a bad trip and I’m happy to have had the chance to play.

On Saturday, I took a much longer trip up to the casino. This time, I was at Mohegan Sun for about 8 hours. I played 3.5 hours of poker: 1 hour of $1/$2 (-$43) and 2.5 hours of $2/$5 (+$629). I was happy that I played longer at the larger stake this day. I got to spend a solid hour playing at an exceptionally good must-move table with several huge fish. This is where I did the majority of my damage. I made a flush in a multi-way SRP against two of the fish and got paid off. Then it was smooth sailing from there. I also spent some time at a really nitty 2/5 table where I also managed to scratch and claw out a small profit. Earlier in the day, the $1/$2 table I played at was exceptionally good. The only significant pot I played was a 4-way 3bet pot where I squeezed AKs IP to $50 and got 3 callers (lol). Last year I might have stayed at the good $1/$2 game but this year I am trying to play as much 2/5 as possible.

Besides the poker, I took 3 full laps around the casino on Saturday looking for AP slot opportunities. I found a ton of good stuff to play. I found a nice play on a game I just learned that ended up being my biggest win of the day. I also continue to find tons of plays on a brand new game that my fellow slot hustlers don’t yet know. I imagine my experience with this game is similar to what it was like everywhere before there was tons of competition in the AP slots game. I think I am a small net loser on this game overall (have run poorly on the biggest spins I’ve done, including on Saturday) but I am confident this will turn around soon. Unfortunately I finished this session down $112 on slots, but I got a ton of points with the casino at least.

I wasn’t able to get much volume in playing online this week. I won $40 playing online casino promotions and didn’t play a single hand of online poker. Hopefully I can get those numbers up next week.

It’s been a couple weeks since I updated this thread. I had a brutal day the Sunday before last where I lost at everything. I made a couple mistakes playing poker and felt depressed afterwards. I thought about taking an extended break from gambling but instead I kept going. Ended up winning it all back and then some this weekend. Big swings!

I can’t get into every detail of my live poker sessions over this period. The first week, I lost $1000 in one hour of $2/$5 and lost $300 in 1.5 hours of $1/$2. My 2/5 session that day was particularly disastrous. I got coolered in a big way with AJcc vs KQdd on KcQcTxQx2x. In that hand, I opened pre and then went bet bet bet. My opponent just called my river bet of $175 even though I only had $215 behind, which is obviously a grievous error that spared me from a disgusting spot against an opponent that I knew was a nit. After that, I probably should have quit the session because I wasn’t in a good state to play (semi-tilted, very hungry, and sleep-deprived per usual). Instead, I kept going and ended up running a potentially spewy All-in bluff that got hero-called. At least I quit the session after that hand, but the damage was done. The rest of the day I spent grinding slots pretty hard. I actually took a trip over to Foxwoods too, which I almost never do. I played a quick 1/2 session at their new room (my first session there) that also resulted in a big loss. Then I explored the vast slot floor there and learned some new games. Foxwoods has a much wider variety of beatable slot machines. It was a bit overwhelming, but a good experience overall despite the fact that I lost $170.

My session this week was on Super Bowl Sunday. The casino was a lot quieter than I expected, and the poker room especially so. The games were great though, with very few regulars. I started at 2/5 again and ran like God. I won a big pot with a flush in a limper, got a huge river bet paid off in a 3bet pot with AA on JJ29J, and made the nut straight as the PFR with 78s. My table ended up breaking but I ran it up a bit playing 3-handed as well which I really enjoyed. After that, I played some 1/2 at a decent table and continued my sunrun. I flopped a set against an aggressive reg with 77 and doubled up. Then I turned the nut flush against an unknown with A4s and stacked her. By the end of my time playing poker, I won $1250 in 2 hours at $2/$5 and $700 in 1.5 hours at $1/$2. Both of these were among my best ever results at each stake and the combined total is my best ever single day poker result.

Besides the poker, I also won $294 on slots. I had a 4x status point multiplier on Sunday because I predicted the Super Bowl matchup accurately weeks before. I put this to use by playing a bit looser and more aggressively on slots than I might typically. I got in decent volume and ran hot overall. I earned $25 of free play and made good progress towards my status point goal.

Outside the casino, I won $120 playing promotions on the online casinos. I came back from down $200 which was really nice. The promotions are picking up in quantity lately too which is great. I also played a single session of online poker: another round of 25NL on BetOnline where I continue to run poorly. I ran top two pair into a flopped flush in a 4bet pot this time around. I would like to play more online, but I’ve been distracted. I spent a lot of time this week re-reading and re-watching the Lord of the Rings which has been a joy, although very time-consuming. My job has also been very busy. I was able to play alot on ClubWPT Gold from work when things were slow, but that is not possible these days.

Overall, things have been good. I am trying to study poker more which I feel good about. I know I need to work on my mental game more too. My session two weeks ago was a mental game failure, and the fact that I didn’t update this thread afterwards is evidence of my weakness as well. Still, I feel good overall and I am looking forward to playing again soon.

Very swingy week but I was able to take two trips to the casino and booked a nice win overall.

My week started out with grinding online casino promotions. Things went really poorly and I was down $500 at one point. Fortunately, most of those losses were playing with 40% lossback or higher, so I recouped a lot of the losses later in the week. Additionally, Mohegan Sun Online’s monthly deposit bonus was this week and I did well on that. In total, I lost $98 playing online casino games this week. I haven’t had a big win yet in this category in 2026, but I know it will come eventually.

The first of my two casino trips was on Friday. I had the day off from work (my University was closed for President’s Day weekend) and didn’t have too much going on at home. I started off at $2/$5 straight away this session. My table was above-average and Mohegan Sun was running a high hand promotion. The promotions have become more frequent but they are now funded by a permanent $2 promo drop which kinda sucks. With a $7 rake cap and a $2 promo drop, playing $1/$2 (particularly when no promo is running) seems tough. So far this year I have played a majority of my hours at $2/$5 and I hope to keep that up.

I suffered from some bad luck early in my session when I got it in for about $600 pre-flop with AA against the JJ of a loose fish-y unknown. He flopped a set and held. I felt good enough to re-buy and keep playing but obviously these losses are always disappointing. I picked off a sad bluff against the same player and then won a really nice pot:

TT - two limps I raise BTN to $30, SB (Villain from JJ hand) calls, both limpers call. Flop: T63r ($120) xxx I bet $30 SB calls EP folds CO (unknown younger guy) raises to $130. I call and SB calls. Turn 2dd ($510) SB checks, CO bets $225, I jam for $270 more, SB folds, CO tank calls. I fast-rolled my hand and he said he was dead. So I guess he had the case Ten for a pretty big overplay.

I coasted to a $715 win after this. I continued to play for a while but did leave a bit early to play slots. I ended up losing $162 on machines, mostly thanks to some outsized losses on a new game. I have found a lot of high denomination plays on this particular machine and have experienced a lot of variance. Things did not go well this day, but I was able to grind some of the money back on smaller plays.

My next trip was on Sunday. The casino was packed on this day and Mohegan Sun was running a triple status promotion. I found a ton of slot plays on this day, so that was the focus for me. Right away I had a really big hit on a high denom play on the aforementioned new machine. Unfortunately, soon after I experienced one of the worst runs of my AP slots journey and I suffered a big loss on a high variance machine with an “uncapped progressive” feature. The end result was that I lost $82 on slots this trip. I did earn a ton of points though, and $50 of free play which helped me claw some back after the big loss.

I did still manage to have a nice $2/$5 session as well. After sitting at a mediocre $1/$2 table for a half hour (-$5), I won $539 in 2 hours at the bigger game. I didn’t win very many noteworthy hands but rather just a stream of small to medium sized pots with no big losses. It was a smooth session at a good table.

Unfortunately I did not play any online poker this week. I don’t know that I will have the time or the motivation to play next week either, but we’ll see. I do expect to get a live session in though, and I will keep busy enough with everything else I have going on.

I had a nice week gambling-wise. I got solid volume in, relatively speaking, and won at basically everything. I am on a huge upswing since the start of February when I had a big loss.

Here are the results:

Live $2/$5: +$25 (1 hour)
Live $1/$2: -$37 (2 hours)
Live 25c/50c: +$147 (2.5 hours)

Online Poker: +$43

Online Casino: +$17

AP Slots: +$617

Total: +$812

For live poker, I took one trip up to Mohegan Sun and also played at a low stakes home game. This home game hasn’t been running as regularly lately, so it was nice to get back to playing. This was by far my biggest win in the game too, despite some big losses. It was a good group of players with 3 other regs and 4 fish. I knew in advance that I had to leave the game early but it felt bad racking up when I was the big winner. I did not play particularly well this session, just got lucky to make hands against the biggest spot at the table. At one point I had KQ on AJ8T7 and I failed to realize that any 9X hand was a straight. I overbet the river small and my opponent snap called J9o. I think I could have stacked this player in this spot if I had thought about it more. I also played more of a loose passive game than I usually would, to give action to the fish (and because no rake).

My casino session was a total snooze. I tried to play $2/$5 on this day but the game was awful and filled with tight live regs. Maybe I still have some edge at this sort of table, but it is small and the variance is pretty high. Instead, I ended up at an incredibly passive $1/$2 table where I went card dead for a long time before racking up a small loser.

Fortunately, I was able to find a good amount of slot machine action on this trip. I ran hot on one of the biggest gambles I’ve taken recently: an ultra high variance machine with a marginal set-up at a high denomination. I definitely could have passed on this spot, but I think it was a fine play overall and I know that I am prepared mentally and financially for taking swings like this. This particular machine has been responsible for several of my biggest losses so it felt good to finally get a big win on it.

I missed several opportunities to grind the online casinos this week, but I booked a small win playing with double lossback on one evening. Mohegan Sun’s current promo schedule includes a 25% lossback “happy hour” that runs 4pm - 6pm Tuesday through Thursday. This is basically the nut low time for me to gamble on a weekday so I often miss it. It adds up to a solid amount of EV each week though, so I would like to play more.

Finally, I got some free money to play on BetOnline so I fired up a session of online poker. I ended up playing both 25NL and 50NL. I’ve run so bad this year on this site, but things were easy this session and I booked a small win.

This week it was announced that PokerStars is shifting all of its US operations over to FanDuel. FanDuel is one of two online casinos that can legally operate in CT, so I am hopeful that this could pave the way for legal online poker here in the near future. Technically, online poker is legal here, but there are no operators currently. With sweepstakes casinos banned here, that means I am restricted to sketchy gray market online poker sites like ACR and BOL. If FanDuel does start offering online poker in CT, expect to see me returning to an almost daily online poker grind.

That’s it for now. Looking forward to playing more later this week. Hopefully I keep running hot.

Another solid win this week. Feels good to be stringing these together.

Live $1/$2: +$535 in 3 hours

Online Casino: +$471

AP Slots: - $333

Total: +$673

This week I finally had a breakthrough winning session on the online casino bonus grind. I’ve been playing a lot of online roulette this year, as playing a single number on single-zero roulette is the highest EV strategy for playing a lossback promotion. Last year I ran above EV on this strategy but this year I hadn’t hit a single number. That finally changed this week. I also had a couple solid bonuses on an online slot promo.

I took one trip up to Mohegan Sun that went pretty well. I didn’t play any $2/$5 (my twin brother was at the must move table and I am trying to avoid playing with him in the bigger game), but I got a nice session in at an extremely soft $1/$2 table. The table had some deeper stacks and frequent straddlers so it was a high EV table for me. I ended up winning one of my biggest $1/$2 pots ever:

AKs - UTG Straddle. I open to $15 off $370. Tilted Whale calls off $300. High VPIP fish calls SB. STR (fishy young kid) raises to $60 covering all. I 4bet jam. Whale calls quickly and is obviously gambling. SB tank folds. STR says “I wasn’t expecting that to happen” but then calls right away. I table my hand. Whale says “you’re ahead” and shows AJo. STR says “you’re both ahead” and shows ATo. King in the window and they are both dead OTT on AK96X.

I can’t recall the last time I was this surprised by a showdown. It felt unbelievable to hold in this spot too. SB revealed he folded 88 too, so just an incredible result pre-flop.

After this hand I felt a little overwhelmed thinking about the variance of live poker. How many times in my life am I going to get into a spot like this? Straddle on, deep stacks, loose squeeze, and then two ridiculously loose pre-flop calls. And then I’m only 56% to win!? The result of this hand will have a gigantic swing on my yearly $1/$2 result. Even on my lifetime results! If I lose this pot, I’m looking at a $500 loss for the session. The difference in a $1k swing on my all-time $1/$2 winrate over 850 hours is over $1 per hour!

So obviously a very fortunate spot for me. After this hand, AJo Whale reloaded for a full buy-in and ATo Kid still had $200, so I had no plans on leaving the table. I actually got into an interesting spot against the AJo Whale a little while later.

AcAd - I open $10 from UTG, Whale calls MP off $500, folds around. Flop KT7hh ($20) I bet $15 Whale raises $45 I call. Turn 9 ($110) I check Whale bets $100 I fold.

I think this is a good fold overall. This player had been very passive in general. He had recently doubled up so I don’t think he was particularly tilted, and I had a tight winning image. Feel like the raise IP here is pretty nutted and then sizing way up on a turn that completes QJ is also strong. Maybe he was just spewing with KQ here but I don’t think so.

I left the table about a half hour after the above whale busted for a final time. I felt good about this session. I did return to the poker room to play a bit more $1/$2 while watching the NCAA selection show, but that session was relatively uneventful.

My slot session was action-packed but things did not go my way. I did some of my biggest spins ever ($75/pull) on a short-run machine and it went poorly, which drastically impacted my results. I’m happy with the volume I got in though. I also finally moved up to the third tier of the Mohegan Sun player’s club for the first time. This will unlock some valuable new benefits for me. I was able to cash in on $65 of free play this visit which was great.

–

Good week overall. Really looking forward to the NCAA tournament next week. My UConn Huskies have been up & down recently, but I think they should be able to win next week. I might go see them play in Philly if I can which would cut into my gambling time. We’ll see!

Small loss this time around, essentially a breakeven week.

Live $1/$2: -$65 in 0.5 hours

Live $2/$5: $295 in 2 hours

Online Casino: -$227

AP Slots: - $51

Total: -$48

I also lost $15 or something like that betting the NCAA tournament using some small profit boosts. I am not going to keep track of my sportsbetting results since I do it so infrequently and for such small money.

I was disappointed to have a significant loss on the online casino promo grind after finally having a good week last time around. Playing these lossback promotions is so high variance and the edge is not that big. At one point I was debating giving them up, especially given the changes in the US tax laws. I still feel like they are worth my time for now.

My live casino trip this weekend resulted in a modest win which was nice. I was happy to play mostly $2/$5. I got to play at a couple of very soft tables and had enough good spots to win. I wrapped up my session a little early after I got called to transfer to a main game for the second time. Having to go from the “must- must-move” to the “must-move” to the main game is pretty brutal. Most of the time I am happy to just book a small win at this point in the session.

I had an eventful AP slots session. The casino was crowded and there was a status point multiplier promotion going on, so I was able to earn some free play. Unfortunately I ran bad on one long play which caused me to lose money overall, but I think it was a productive session for me.

I left the casino earlier than usual to catch the UConn NCAA tournament game. We won both games this weekend to advance to the Sweet 16 which is super exciting. My brother was in Philly for the games but I stayed home due to some family stuff. Next up: Michigan State in Washington DC. I will be watching from home again. Really looking forward to it. Go Huskies!

I am currently in the process of putting together my 2025 tax return. After last year, I am considered to be self-employed as a professional gambler (I do have a desk job too, but it’s part-time). Because of this, I make quarterly advance tax payments to the IRS. I made significantly more money gambling last year though, so I will definitely owe money for my taxes. I also have to file returns in NJ and PA because of my big online slot play last year. I am glad to have the help of a CPA to deal with this stuff, but it is still a lot of work for me and I am not totally confident I am doing everything correctly.

That’s it for now. Looking forward to playing more this week.

It’s been a while since I updated this thread but I am still going! Actually have been on quite the tear recently. I’ve been on a huge upswing on the online casinos and I haven’t lost a $2/$5 session since February 1st (lol @ my volume though).

I haven’t had the time or motivation to write in this thread unfortunately. It may be for the best though. Not sharing my results week-to-week has helped my mental game a bit. Wanting to report positive results ITT was affecting me on some level, stupid though that may be.

For the last month or so I’ve been involved in a high variance online play. I made the tough decision to step away from it today though. The play exposed me to a next level of variance that I hadn’t previously encountered. It also demanded more time than I could give it. I ended up booking a modest win, which I’m happy about. I do think I made the responsible choice too. On some level I’m sure I will wonder about what could have been though.

Beyond that, May is the busiest month of the year for me personally. I’m still finding some good opportunities to play though. I should have more time in the summer too. I feel like I am juggling a few too many things right now, but I’m managing to keep all the balls in the air. It would be nice to have more time to commit to being a professional gambler, but it feels like that would require some significant sacrifice elsewhere in my life. For now, what I’m doing will have to suffice.

Checking back into this thread for an update. June has been my best month of the year so far. This is mostly because I took a trip down to Atlantic City for a team play that I can't share much info about. It was a really successful trip though, which saw me making some of the biggest bets of my life and notching my biggest individual win. The net result for the trip was +$7.5k which included some smaller solo endeavors, good for my biggest score of the year. It was nice to gamble as part of a team too, since I am by myself more often than not. Hoping to take some more trips later this year.

Things have gone well outside of that trip too. I played my longest $2/$5 session in a while recently and it got me feeling a bit more excited about poker. My brother and I were together at the table for this session and I forgot how nice that can be. We discussed hands from the table for a while afterwards which I think is really beneficial. The table was really good and Mohegan Sun was running a huge high hand promotion at the time, so it was a high EV spot.

The AP slots grind has felt a bit stagnant recently, but I continue to devote quite a bit of time to it. My results have been OK but it feels like I have been running pretty poorly overall. Hopefully this will flip soon. Earlier in May, I took an eventful trip to Resorts World in Queens to play some slots. Resorts World was previously open as a "racino" with only Bingo-based fake slot machines and electronic table games but is now a legitimate casino. While I was there, I found a couple of huge slot plays on a notoriously high variance machine. Both plays were outside of my bankroll, so I tried to find a partner to play them with. I ended up having to leave the plays behind, which was a bit disappointing. Even worse, I managed to lose a $200 ticket in the process. That is the first ticket I've ever lost in a casino and I hope it will be the last. Still, I booked a nice win for the trip and am looking forward to returning to Queens at some point soon.

Finally, I've continued my nice run playing promotions on the online casinos in CT. There have been some interesting new promotions available that I have done well on. I am also finally getting some nice offers from DraftKings through their VIP program. I don't think these offers will last as it should become clear to them soon that I am not actually a VIP, but we'll see. I have been trying to give them some action, but I think I am probably too much of a nit. I've been betting sports more in the last month through these offers (as well as some general World Cup related promotions). I've done well, but I haven't been enjoying it very much.

That's all for now. I will continue to update this thread periodically. Once a month might be a good schedule. I hope I can get some extra volume in for July, but it seems unlikely right now.