Las Vegas cash game journey

[NeverTooLate]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post in this forum. I am at Las Vegas right now to play mainly Ash games, and possibly some wsop events.

I am a full time player from Europe, but right now things are looking really dark in my poker career (in terms of bankroll and risk of ruin).

So, I thought that maybe I will starts small diary to write about my journey from the lowest stakes hopefully to a healthy bankroll again.

I will head out to the strip now to play some 1/2 or 1/3, and possibly write some more details as after I sit down.

GL all and thanks if you read!

 

[NeverTooLate]

When I posted the first message, I got an automated message saying something like "you forgot to indicate thatyou ate not a robot".

I fpund it funny almost chuckled thinking this is promosing good for my game if i get rid of punting and go to robor mode in 1/2.

A little bit about me, I am31 years old, I havw played pokee for living for 8 years al.pst now.

I had ny run at a point of my poker career, but series of bad decisions, and some bad luck as well, has lead me to the following situation right now.

I have about 1.1kusd here with me, and.I have to pay 1.5k rent fpr the next month soon, maybe in a day or two.

On top of that I have ~3k usd in my electronic accounts, but I also have avoit the same naount in debt in my credit card.

So I am kind of between a rock and a hatd place (I applogize if my lingo sounds fetarded at points, I just go with what I got, not really being sure if it sounds good or silly to a native).

Anyway the idea right now is to try and play very defensive strategy at the tables and with brm, cashing put when ever downside is too grewat versus the upside.

I am now sitting in a 1/2 game and bought in for 100.

I bought a bicycle maybe 10 days ago from craigslist, and at first when I saw the bike I thought to myself that maybe it wasn't the best idea to buy it, it was a very dmall frame and I am a tall guy.

Anyway now after 10 days I can day it has been a great investment, i aave bunch of money and get some exercise too.

So I biked to the atrip today as well. I do have to know the route well in order to navigate amongst the cars but after that its fine.

I'm not going to set any goals in regards of money won or hours played, because I feel like that is just affecting my play poorly. What I will later focus on instead are some goals that will keep me feeling fresh, like diet and sleep related things.

However, cause every aspect of my life is a mess now I will try to take small steps to slowly regain momentum rather that try to fix everything at once.

The good thing is it only has taken me 2 weeks to **** up all my routines, so to get my life somewhat back in order it shouldn't take too long, as long as I can avoid the pitfalls along the way to not give away the progress I make.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Hola

Testing if I can get an image through

 

[NeverTooLate]

Challenge: 100 Days of online grind


So, I came back home from the US, with the worst results that I have ever had playing live cash.

Now I am back home, and I made a rental contract for a small apartment for 3 months, until the end of april. I started this "challenge" on 21st of jan, so 2 days ago. My lease will end exactly after 100 days from 21st.

So my goal is to focus on poker for this period, after thatm, the spring will also be starting, golf courses are opening and there is more fun things to do in general.

I was planning to start with a 5k bankroll, but I had ~~7.4€k euros in my poker accounts at start, so I started with that amount instead, didn't feel like cashing out since I didnt have the need to do so, I just wanted to know where I am starting to keep track.

I will write more about details later, now it's time to prepare for the sunday grind!

Also I will recap my US trip and last year a bit later on.

 

[pokerace_1]

GL!!!I hope you can do it

 

[GORA1979]

trip to Las Vegas

Yes, it's never too late to travel to Las Vegas for a cash game, but it's not always possible for many reasons besides financial ones))

 

[NeverTooLate]

Yes, I agree with it not always being possible to travel to Vegas. When I decided to go to the US, I had mixed feelings about it, partially I felt guilt for doing such an irresponsble thing during these times, just to travel around to play poker and potentially spread a virus.

Well, I was very certain that I don't have the virus once I went to the US based on the way I lived my life before it, and actually I ended up catching covid like after 4 days of being in the US.

Anyway, those decisions are behind now and in the future I will need to rethink if it's worth it for my own health, or for the contribution of the others involved.

I was actually very close to Cancun (in Play del carmen) when I decided to go, so it didn't feel like such a big commitment, to fly only for like 90 minutes to Miami, compared to flying all the way from Europe.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Ok I wrote a post but before posting I tried to attach a picture and ended up wiping the whole post away, so I will just write this and maybe there is a screenshot attached if it works.

Anyway January games are most likely done now, I played 45k hands with evBB of ~~6,5, not satisfied with it after having a great first half of the month, then I started playing a bit too high and it made my mental game worse.

So I started this "challenge" 10 days ago on 21.1 with a bankroll of 7437,12€.

At the moment the Br is 11946,04€, with 45 hours of play in 9 days.

I made some major punts right after posting here the first time of the challenge, final tabled BB16,50 and I had a massive lead (like 100bb/50bb,20bb/20bb etc) only to punt it away vs a spazzy aggrofish with a very stupid hand.

I had similar deep runs throughout the 9 days where I would end up losing my nerve and doing a suboptimal play only to find myself placed between 10-15.

However today I won a PKO for 6k€ that saved the results.

I was decently up before friday, call it the "black friday" for me, because I ended up losing my cool, playing 1k and 530d tourneys, after punting both retardedly, I went on to lose 3k in 5 card plo in GGpoker. (i got it in 50/50 every time though, but straddling 16bb pre is not +EV for sure).

Anyway, I hope that I will be able to find more stability and good brm for the next 10 day stretch, because that way I can play more solid poker as well since I know that I only have to play close to my best and I will surely keep getting decent results.

 

[marvinsytan]

wow good results, keep it up

 

[NeverTooLate]

Some goals for the next 10 day stretch starting tomorrow:

Play maximum of 6+1 tables at all times

Take at least 2 complete poker free days off, no studying, aim to do some fun activity


That's it, no volume goal or result goal, goals in general don't work too well for me, they make me focus on the wrong things, however these too seem good.

I have been trying to take a lower table count test for a long time now, but the temptation to fire more tables always takes me over and then I end up autopiloting 12 tables, with more stress and less focus.

6+1 is like the lottery structure we have here, 6 numbers to win the jackpot but if you feel lucky you can buy an extra number to like increase your chances of hitting the jackpot. So for me: 6 tables at all times, but, if there is for some reason some very good tourney that I really wanna play I can break this rule and take a 7th table.



Life of a insomniac MTT grinder in EU timezones:

I went to bed around 6am, I have a flu, and my nostrils are reaaally stuffed, like all i could do was breaqth through my mouth. After like 3 hours of trying to fall sleep and breathing through my mouth I went outside, walked to a pharmacy and bouth some nostril ointments and sparys, also went to a electronics store and bought an air humidifier.

Then back to bed ---> again nose stuffed, but somehow at some point I was able to fall asleep, and I woke up around 5pm

Had a very f*cked up anxious dream as well, I have had that 2 nights in a row now and I am convinced that Breathing and anxiety during sleep and also during the day time go hand in hand, ----> difficulty breathing freely during the night ----> more likely to see f*cked up dreams.

Anyway, a day off today, will go to my parents place to relax in a sauna (the best thin ever) and maybe write down some goals for the month of february, or focus points.

 

[skavenger]

cool you share your experience here, thank you and be very welcome!

 

[NeverTooLate]

Thanks for the supportive messages guys, definately encourages to write more.

Yesterday ended up being a kind of a disaster poker wise. Even though all my preparations were better than before any other session in a while.

I went to the gym to do a yoga session, I cleaned my apt and work station, I did a 20 minute meditation.

Then I registered some 22-109 usd tourneys, kept my table # under 7 at all times, but for whatever reason I was steaming hard, yet again.

Eventually I ended up telling myself there is no point in regging if I punt like this (after the tilt the play always was bad) so instead I launched 2 PLO5 tables 2ith 25 dollar buy-in.

It didn't take too long when PLO25 turned into PLO 1-2, then 5-10, then evetually 10-20.

I reloaded from skrill only to lose a bunch and then went to winamax to play 10-20, and I had 400bb, over 8k€ in my stack from one 2k buy-in!!

And what do I do when I have that stack? I sit out, to cook some late dinner, only to keep going to win more?!

Any rational non degenerate would hit and run with 8k€ but hey lets come back and maybe we run it up to 15k, well, we all know what happened after the dinner, I ended up busting that 8k (some bad run involved which is obviously part of PLO5 so not some random gambling).

So, the 2nd 10day stretch definately started with a big setback since I lost quite a chunk of my bankroll. I think I will actually cash out now and "reset" my mind by going down in MTT buy-ins, try to find the solid play where I can feel emotaionally stable. Usually starting from the ground and building up has workded well for me. My "ground" has almost alway been 5,5usd / 5€, I don't remember when I played lower than that really.

But now I think 11d/10€ is the bottom, like going below that for me is just waste of EV too much.

But yeah this resetting has worked quite well in the past, actually I started with 1k bankroll after I came back from the US (networth not just poker BR) and was able to convert super fast cause there was no option to degen the money away --> must play solid.

Also the fresh start feel kinda like when you mess up a start for example in a console game, you just reaload and spawn back tho the beginning, and feel motivated to push your limits rather than continue the already messed up situation.

Obviously the accounting stays and the end result of this 100days will take a hit, but it's a marathon and now I just have to regroup.

Another day off today, went to hit some valls in the golf simulator, will yet again exploit my parents and go there for sauna and some relaxing and probably back in the mix tomorrow with some loooow stakes acion LFG.

 

[NeverTooLate]

So when I cash out, the idea is to save money to buy an apartment. I used to peak in a decent networth figure in my poker career, but with my nature investing the money into something as stable as possible is the way to go. Instead what I did back when I was sunrunning, mainly, everyone was bad at poker so I think I was ok vs field back then, when I wasn't spewing, So instead I invested in other poker players, basically random guys pingin me in skype for a stake ---> -100k to some degen rat who is full of manipulative lies. Oh well, only can blame myself.

Anyway, the goal now is to buy a house. It is much harder to go to the bank and say "hello, I want to sell my house ASAP top play this 10k HR on sunday". Or play PLO5 cause im tilting.

So, I called my bank, and they hid my savings account, so that it's invisible in my online banking view. I can deposit normally, but to withdraw, I must call the bank, and ask for them to make the withdrawal. I think this call will reduce the risk of punting greatly, also the customer service line is closed during the nights.

If my degening wont stop, I might even transfer almost my entire roll there, and have like 3 days worth of buy-ins in my account. But this can be mentally annoying since then I'm always "almost broke" in the accounts. And maybe have to make several calls.

Also the idea is to only have money pouring in on a frequent basis so when I go to negotiate a loan the can see that this dude can systematically save money instead of going back and forth.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Ok so I forced myself to count my bankrolls after the carnage. I made a 5k€ cash-out from one site, and now I have 3069,48€ left on the poker sites.

So, not horrible. I think that will be my strict bankroll from now on. So that means once I put that 5k into my apt savings, its not in the "reserve". Because if my approach is "I have 3k but I can always reload" I will just keep playing in the same limbo of tilt with no real reset, and same too big buy-ins for 3k as well.

So, with 3k, I think tomorrow I will cap my buy ins to 25d / 20€. Super hard to drop the EU 55d series games but I think it will be good for me now. This way my ABI will be less than 20€ and if I play max 7 tables my winrate should definately be enough to handle 200 ABI bankroll.

One more goal for the rest of the week: No cash games at all until next week!

 

[NeverTooLate]

I also have an option for the extra security bankroll wise. I could give my skrill password to my friend, so that I don't know it, and always ask him before I make deposit, to do it with me.

We had this arrangement with my Pinnacle account at one point, after I cashed out from the Trump-Biden bets (obv I had 50%+ of my networth at the time in the bets).

After some time I asked the password back, and before long I bet 10k into the NHL season opener, WPG - Edmonton.

It looked good for me when Edmonton led with 2 goals, but, like a little curse it had to be Patrik Laine who made the deciding goal for WPG.

Pinnacle had a rule that yoiu can't cash out before you wager the winnings like once around or something, so if you win 10k you must bet 10k in the bets before you can cash out, so f*cking stupid.

Well anyway that is an option and might be the way to go for me!

 

[NeverTooLate]

1 more thing to add, I will take 1 50€ tournament to my schedule 2x per day for now, it is a multiday 250k GTD event that runs on most days and has day 2 think later this month, it's a very good tourney and won't increase my ABI too much so on top of that 25usd and 20€ CAP.

 

[NeverTooLate]

2 days of grind since last post, the direction is better in terms of habits and mental state while playing.

Went XC skiing yesterday and swim today before session, so much better state after some sports.

No scores so far, think I'm down a bit but generating deep runs and it's only a matter of time when I get some results.

Think like 2 days ago was a major turning point in my habits, i had a somewhat tilty end to my session where I didn't play very well, and I felt annoyed frustrated etc.

After a little tank what to do, (I was very tempted to go to the store and buy some -EV food) I opted to do a 30cminute meditation, and after that I felt so good, like something changed in my mindset about how to deal with the negative emotions.

 

[Evan Jarvis]

2 days of grind since last post, the direction is better in terms of habits and mental state while playing.

Went XC skiing yesterday and swim today before session, so much better state after some sports.

No scores so far, think I'm down a bit but generating deep runs and it's only a matter of time when I get some results.

Think like 2 days ago was a major turning point in my habits, i had a somewhat tilty end to my session where I didn't play very well, and I felt annoyed frustrated etc.

After a little tank what to do, (I was very tempted to go to the store and buy some -EV food) I opted to do a 30cminute meditation, and after that I felt so good, like something changed in my mindset about how to deal with the negative emotions.

Good luck @NeverTooLate

I hope that the journey will work out for you and you'll find the success you're hoping for!

It sounds like you are doing the right things rather than giving in to bad habits and natural temptations.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Ok so a lot has happened since last post and not only in the good side. the weekend after the last post I won a 1k trophy from 888 that took me to marginal profit from the 3k br.

After that I played one of my best sunday grinds all time, best this year. I did a 2 minute meditation every break lying on my bed to calm myself down, overall played very very calm and focused poker.

I won a 11usd PKO on party for 4k and took my br to 6.6k or so.

After that on monday I had a day 2 for 33PKO on party with 1st prize of ~~20k. The plan was to maybe 1 table that, because if i remember correctly I wasn’t feeling 100% with energy and also a very soft lategame with no hud seemed like it would be good to 1 table.

However I did take winamax 50€ day 1 on the side. I was hesitating wether or not to play it cause I knew that on wednesday I had agreed to go to a cabin with my father for 3 days. (the day 2 of the wina would be on wednesday).

I had like 5 bigs at one point quite close to the end of the day and it seemed like a done deal at that point, no day 2 for me. However I caught a sunrun and finished in top30 stacks for the day 2, 200k € up top.

I immediately had 2nd thoughts of going to the cabin, everything had been going so smoothly here in the new apartment, good setup etc.

I just wasn’t able to say no to my father cause he would feel “disappointed”. Like he would care we spend time together enough already as it is.

So, I decided to make the mistake of going to the cabin, even though a run like this for a 10k bankroll guy is super rare, especially with the winamax field filled with donkeys.

I played the tourney with a laptop from the cabin, setup was good preparation was good, I meditated, had been out for hobbies before, took a nap felt good.

But, after like 1 hour of play I just completely punted my stack to some 10d abi 20% roi nit in a 3b pot where he never ever in a million years even finds a 3b bluff.

So i bust, and feel super tilted. however, there is always the dear friend PLO5 to save the day!!

I jump in to 2-4 plo5, run my buy-in to 1k profit roughly, life is good. Fast forward 4-6 hours, it’s 6 am and I have bustoed my winamax account and I am playing with my last party roll hu hyper 1k and after that plo500 HU against a guy who is holding the lobby.

so I bustoed 2 sites and woke up 5pm next day on our holiday, fun for everyone, my dad too, waiting for his degen son to wake up.

After the trip I have been in the PLO abyss where I run my stack(s) to like 2k profit every single time, and every single time I end up going busto.
So, now I have like 600€ left from the original 3.x k€ I left myself, after the last degen moment.

Now my schedule is messed up too, I have woken 11pm 2 days in a row, and my goal is to go forward with my schedule to wake up early in the morning for a week or 2, to see how I feel.

I am also mad enough to try PLO5 exclusively. I know I absolutely crush even the higher stake games when I play my best. Or at least I am a very steady winner, the higher stakes regs I feel like all of the are trash but I guess I could be wrong.

So plan now is to not deposit and run this 600 back up.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Also thanks Evan for the message, yeah things go from good to bad really fast for me, luckily in the past they go from bad to good fast as well.

Als oI haven't mentioned but I have been seeing a therapist for almost a year now, and I contacted some accountability/life coaches online during the weekend.

My idea is that I would keep the therapy as therapy, and have a separate person to go through life structure, and sticking with plans and consistency etc.

I probably don't want to mix this with the therapy sessions so that I can focus on 1 thing there rather than a mixture of scattered focus.

We will see how thsi works out for me.


Also played my first full round of trackman golf, scored 95 from blue tees in jackson CC. Pretty horrible but I have a 1 year break and I wasn't a good reg before the break either so time will tell if I have a shot at making the club champs during the summer. (They take players in HCP order probably need like HCP8 or lower to enter, I was a 20 HCP last year).

 

[NeverTooLate]

How would you play if you possessed golden brain here?


Would you call ~~70bigs to see a flop to SPR 0.4 with shitty FDs and shitty straight draws getting it always in OTF being dominated?

Yes of course why not let's scooop (pre limp, Braindude pot, bu pot, SB called 16bb AI, HERO limp pot AATJ5.

TBH I misplayed myself I should just call the BU pot pre and see a flop probably, could easily be agains another AAxxx and having a pretty bad equity.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Part of me is really second guessing if I should just focus on mtt's where I have a proven track record that I can get very solid results. The pics have my all time 0-50 last 15 months and since coming back from the US.

So, if I can reach +10€ per game profit playing low stakes MTTs with almost no variance why would I start to ramble with another tilting game where life and tilt control are far more important than in MTTs.

Think I need to reflect on this a bit more.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Think I came to my senses after thinking about things, and decided that I should stick with MTTs for now at least. I think I can make more money with the BR I have with MTTs, maybe if I can play higher PLO5 it starts to get more interesting where the EV is better.

I have been waking up now early in the morning, and played my first morning session today, biggest buy-in was 5€

So, I am definately over qualified for these games and expect to get back up to higher abi soon. Meanwhile I will play morning schedule and focus on having the best possible sleep schedule I can. Also I try to spoend my time after games as well as I can with hobbies and social activities.

After I get my abi higher it will be interesting to see what is the trade off, are possible health benefits worth sacrificing the night grind?

At least there are 2 tourneys I really want to play, sunday anniversary and gg masters 5 million edition. My best placement in sunday anniversary is 22nd, cashed for 22k or something. I decided to call a 4bet with 87s MP v EP, without that hand I might be retired by now. Though I think I was kind of destined to go broke at some point with my mental imbalances that I had back then, who knows.

Things are much better now than a week ago, bankroll still stays the same. I waited for 888poker cashout to come to skrill, and wasn't abke to play for cpl days. It was kinda good cause I was changing the sleep schedule and fixing my routines. I din't want to and still don't want to deposit more, I will rather try to learn my lesson and gain momentum by building back up.

With the quality of villains, and the smaller fields during mornings I doubt I will get too big swings down, we will see.

 

[NeverTooLate]

Ok, the weather vane keeps spinning in my mind, and the intention changes quite fast.

I didn't stick with micro MTT's for too long till I was again entering the dark side, and that saying is a damn good one, because after you play plo5, NLHE feels like watching paint drying.

Of course this paint issue can be fixed by playing loads of tables, and yeah MTT's don't feel quite like paint, but NLHE cash for sure.

Honestly I don't even remember what happened with my bankroll in the first days after I switched back from MTT's, but I think I was taking some reckless shots, and what I do remember is that the last couple days have been a rollercoaster where I sometimes play good, sometimes I am super steamed, and all the mixtures of run good & bad, happiness and sadness have been present.

I still feel like I have a better general understanding of human tendencies, exploiting, and recognizing leaks than my opponents in PLO5. For example, today had a spot where I called a 3b w 88xxx, flop came A8x. I said outloud "yeah I know this story, this guy is a badreg, so he is going to fakeytank halfpot w AA". He did exactly that, but I spitecalled cause I was steaming hard. And on the turn, he instaripped in lest than 0.5 seconds
, like bro, I already know you have never found a bluff in your life, let alone OOP in 0.5secs in a 3 bet pot . Needless to say I spitecalled again vs AA and was drawing to 1 out.


But, the weakest mindset of all the regs in the table is a huuuge leak that is just long term crucial.

I have no filled the hole that I dug when I last bustoed my bankrolls. I try not to look at the results, like countr totals too much, since it's not too good for my psyche. What I do count all the time though is my bankroills when I am playing cash games. It really is weird how losing a stack in cashgame feels like 3x worse than busting a tourney.

Somehow it feels like that lost stack is harder to get back in cash, and then I start to chase.

I also qualified to day 2 for a 50€ multiday for sunday, which is a super juicy tournament, I have a good stack, hopefully can run deep in that one.

I have plenty of healt issues that are limiting my grinding, and actually that is the reason why I converterd to cash, kind of.

My eyesight is kinda messed up and it has been hard for the last week to focus on playing, especially with more tables. So it made sense to play shorter sessions with small table count.

Anyway, right now my mid term vision is kind of uncertain. I know that next week I have family holiday stuff that require early wake ups, so I will only probably grind a very light sunday session. Probably.

That was my plan last sunday as well, when I operated with 500€ bankroll, to play 3-10d tourneys and not play super late. I ended up playing sunday Million and mini BB HR, which lasts like 6 am here. well I busted early so I did end up quitting very early too, and milly I satellited in so it was a super punt reg.

Anyway I will write once I have some news to direction or another.

Oh good thing to mention is that last 3-4 days I have been meditating like crazy and it has been very helpful. Actually, today I didn't meditate and monkey tilt was knocking on the door from very early in my session.
I did 45 minutes and 30 minutes yesterday and 3x 30 minutes the day before that.

30-45 minute meditations really are tough to focus though, I find my self checking my phone at least 1-2 times to see if the meditation audio is still ruinning (sometimes it pauses without me knowing and techically if you are super zen you could sit there for 2 hours thinking the tape is running). I use waking up which is super good, but that tape pausing without me knowing is kinda annoying.

Anyway only one goal for the future, to keep up the good meditation volume.

 

[x patrice x]

Interesting insight from your experiences you give us. I like it!
You always ask yourself how others approach playing poker and your entries seem very authentic.

All the best on your further way...