Fuck micro stakes

Gosh darnit I did it again, I let the big boys upstairs get the best of me. Decided to take my newfound PLO greatness to the 5/5 game after meeting the rooms biggest crusher at work recently. This guy is like "the guy" who just owns the entire PLO scene. He came by to look at a car I had for sale and told me he makes about 350k at this game. Said he'd love to help me improve but I just didnt have it in me to take advantage of his offer since I'm such a scrub. Anyway it's Saturday night so of course the room is BUMPING and I get sat immediately at the must move table, which is clearly the best game as a player whines that he's having to move. Guy on my right has 12k, guy on my left 7 or 8, and I'm just like "uhhhhhh". It's 5/5, how hard could it be? I buy in for $1000 thinking 200BB is plenty to get wet. Except it wasnt a 5/5, it was a 5/5/10/40 in disguise. They had the straddle and blind 40 on. I rejected the 40 because I'm lol poor, but I kept the 10 on so they could make it 40. So here I am playing essentially shortstack poker without really realizing it. The result? I dusted 4k in maybe an hour? Thing is if I had recognized this game for what it was I probably would have employed a proper SS strat, just limp raise allin or at least set the stage for an easy flop sidepot so the big stacks fold each other out letting me realize vs a bunch of dead money. But because it all happened so fast I just played "straight up" so I'd open, or 3bet like half my stack pre and just haaaarrrdddd whiff and fold donating $500 per hand. Then I'd sometimes just shrug jam my stack with AQJ2s pre because like fucking whatever man, it's already $300 to me in MP with 2 raises and 5 players left to act. Yeah, did not go well.

As I was walking out the door I realize I done fucked up. Oh well. I set aside that portion of my roll after having an outstanding last month in sales where I made 12k. Good news is I'm pulling out of the game for a minute because I met a girl and we're going to start something, so I need to get my shit together and stop living like an inmate in my unfurnished apartment.

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If you know anything about my eternal quest to loserdom you'll know I've tried my hand here and there at PLO without success. While I might be a failure, shockingly I truly enjoy the game. I've long considered the prospects of making the switch for that reason alone but always felt that NLHE was my bread & butter. Thing is I am still completely accepting of the fact that I may be a lifetime loser at NLHE who's profits are merely the result of sustained 'fish on heater' syndrome. I have to consider the possibility that because volume is so low it's entirely possible that I could have just been running good for a few years and it wasnt until now that equilibrium took it's hold. Am I even using that term correctly? Who knows.

The only thing I do know is how much I enjoy PLO, so much in fact that I must ALSO consider the possibility that I have some addictive tendencies towards the game. For the same reason every other whale/fish is turned on by the action, maybe thats all that's attracting me. However...

Despite the potential downfall of choosing all the wrong reasons to play, all I know is I simply do. not. tilt. Like ever. In fact I am so enthusiastic about the game I literally cheer and herald my opponents for giving me action. When they stack me I'm like "awww nice hand buddy! Sick 3bet! What a call!" And the thing is, this is exactly how you should behave towards live players. It's supposed to be fun. Only a bitch ass miserable reg whines about his AA getting cracked. But in PLO flopping top set + NFD and turning top straight only to lose to a backdoor flush draw is like no big deal to me. I literally laugh it off and even high five someone if they get there.

I started to understand why; from my observations PLO really feels like a game of transparency. My completely uneducated point of view is that the game is based upon constructing hands instead of constructing ranges like in NLHE, and I think that's where all my longterm NLHE struggles come from. I'm not really good at range analysis. Like I thought I was. I thought if I bet small to cap them then I had a pretty good idea where I'm at in terms of bluffing or value betting opportunities. Yet time and time again I either make absurd folds due to a total misread, or a terrible hero call just the same. I suck. I never know what anyone has. I only win when I flop well, which just turns my strategy in a rather mechanical game.

But in PLO, I feel like I'm doing a really good job of setting myself up to win big pots. 3betting double suited connectors HOPING that someone 4bets me so I can make a trivial call. Hitting board textures that I inherently understand I can work with and improve my hand whereas my opponent will usually never improve his. Even if they are outflopping me it's like I see how my hand will evolve and how I can control the pot to get there. Players are often stunned that I somehow outdrew them in what they think was an unlikely spot, or being able to just exert so much pressure with my backdoor draws on janky textures where they just cant compel themselves to call with much if all they have is TP.

But ultimately in the end the moral of the story is that I honestly feel I have all the ingredients to make a good PLO player. I give SO MUCH action at the table and I appreciate when they give it back to me. I've literally had regs tell me "thank you for actually raising" since it helps build a game from the typical limpfest that is most PLO games.

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Been sorting HH's by largest pots won on ClubWPT just to see the epic action (in case you didnt know you can open any existing table and just go back in time and see every hand played even if you werent there)

and feel like I've noticed a trend; people are making much bigger mistakes in NLHE than PLO. There seems to be this mantra that PLO is where aLL ThE AcTiOn iS, and while there does appears to be a higher frequency of action, many of the pots are just kinda average in size around 100BB's. Like even the worst players manage to have at least a shred of equity to bail them out by the river. Calling a 4bet with J852r doesnt seem like a good idea but then he's up against AA and KK and hits bottom pair and whaddya know. But in NLHE I'm seeing allins for 500BB pots with 88, A3s, JJ, etc. Many times even postflop! The board will be something like J92s and AA will x/r rip it and some fish snaps with AJ or TT and loses 4k at 5/10/20. I just saw a 12k pot go 3 ways aipf with KQs, AA, and KJo. You just dont see this at PLO.

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Ran into a bunch of red tape trying to get back into sales and ended up having someone pull a favor for me and got me selling motorcycles for a minute but there was literally no money in that at all. I finally got back into car sales after the GM gave everyone a 30% paycut and lost 4 guys as a result. He reached out to me personally to invite me back which I took to mean something. I start tomorrow. 2 of my friends who stuck it out made 13.4k and 9200 last month with the paycut. Thats fine by me, heck I'd be happy making even half of that. I feel pretty confident this time with some new strategies and a little Ai wizardry for some protips & basic scripts.

No particular plans to get back into poker. I chased a couple of micro deposit bonuses but nothing panned out. If I can normalize making 5k+ at sales then I think it's time to truly hang it up in poker and accept the grind of car sales. I chose not to pursue higher education and just fuck around all my life so for guys like me it's basically always going to be service industry minimum wage work. I should be happy I stumbled into this car sales thing and can crush it for a decent income. Sales really is the last bastion for high earners with no education.

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Long story short; took a shot at 5/5 PLO. Local whale sat to my left and wanted to make it a 5/5/10/25 double straddle game, I refused because I'm shortrolled so he made it his mission to try and break me. He did. Was in for 500 and ran it up to 4k, get it allin preflop with him for 9k pot with AAK3ss, he wins with T857r and ended my poker career. Havent played in 3 weeks. Got a job starting next week making minimum wage so back to the motel life for me. Put 200 on ClubWPT just to go back to my NLHE blueprint from years ago and was doing pretty well at 10/20/40cent, until I got stacked on all 4 tables at the same time holding KK/KK/QQ/55. 3 opponents had AA and I got set over set on 2 of them. Cant even get mad, best hands won. Even though these are just $40 buyin tables I snapped like all those years ago and trashed my monitor, nightstand and glass drinking bottle. Complete loss of control just watching myself go into sitout mode all over the screen. It didnt even break me, I still have 300 online. I'm such a fucking loser I know. Anyway I should be moving out of this apartment by the end of the week unless I get a job waiting tables. Someone told me thats surprisingly well paying work, never done it before though.

And the truly sick thing is this is precisely one of the reasons I started heavily gravitating towards PLO. I just dont tilt at the game, like at all. I dont know if it's because im just new to the game and dont understand variance & equities so I brush off the outcomes, or if I just respect the variance and recognize I cant get mad because it's just the nature of the game. Big hands are rare in NLHE so it just feels so crushing when you finally get one and lose anyway, whereas in PLO it feels like every orbit you pick up something nutworthy. I also notice I get sweaty and super stressed playing NLHE to the point I can only play 3 hours or so whereas PLO I can easily play 6-8. I cant even play NLHE more than 400BB deep without getting panicky but in PLO I have no winstop at all which I'm sure is how you should be approaching both games. Psychologically PLO seems to be healthier for me, if I only I knew the strat.

I ended my NLHE career at 2/5 with a $40/hr winrate over a 146 hour sample this season.

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Whoops, I completely forgot how to play for a month. I ran through most of my study content in August so come September I just stopped studying entirely and lost my way. My normal routine consisted of breakfast/study and then hitting the card room with poker on the brain. But last month I was just watching Broodwar matches while eating and chatting with my homies on the ride to the cardroom. Once seated I would be so checked out that I was operating on a very poor autopilot, never considering ranges and just playing by my gut. I'm rather astonished I let this happen. The result was an immediate $8500 self-induced downswing. I finally snapped out of it in the last week and brought my net to only -5000. I almost had to go back to my old job again. Luckily October has had a nice 3k upswing already and I'm totally dialed in studying again and keeping poker at the forefront of my brain on the commute & upon arrival to the card room.

I also completely disregarded any semblance of a poker schedule last month. I'd just wake up whenever and hit the card room whenever. But in August I was very disciplined about arriving early afternoon so I could catch the midday whales and the evening degens. I'm back on that schedule which I think is also already reflecting in my results.

Lastly I've decided to stop tracking results. I heard a fellow pro DGAF about results and just kinda keeps a mental tab on if he's winning month to month. At first I thought this sounded rather fishy but now I kinda like the idea, especially since I was beginning to obsess over every tiny detail about when/where/how long I play. Now I just bring chips, hope I have more than when I leave and watch my box grow with racks of chips. I think this will be much better for my mental health and will keep me focused on just playing well instead of maintaining some hourly figure or monthly goal that I cant control.

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Alright I done did it. Again. For the 3rd time I think. Quit the sales gig and went full-time at 2/5 once more. I definitely feel I have improved my game and look at poker through a new lens now. I find that if I just ask myself "what is his range?" at literally every single decision point in the hand things become a lot more clear. Thin value bets, bluffs, when to fold, and in particular what sizings to use. It's cute because I still struggle to ask this sometimes and just start rushing through the hand falling back on 'standard' lines like I have some sort of cheatsheet to poker.

I feel like up until now I have been brainwashed by "traditional" poker concepts, most notably any attempt to be "balanced". The biggest leak I currently have is repeated hero calling, but I notice after I make such blunders it was always because I forgot to ask those 4 magical words. It's always on the drive home that it becomes clear "of course he wasnt donking a missed flush draw on a bluff. He was donking the river because he wanted to make sure it didnt get checked through". Anyway, in the words of the great Mario Mario, "let's a goooo!!"

August results

10,000 (deleted screenshot since it was skewing page rendering)

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Your cert expired guys, please fix.

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I caught them bottom dealing cars from the bottom of the deck. We’re speaking in dealership terms of course. But we truly have run into a bit of a conundrum. I’ve learned you cant really make it entirely on your own, you need help. The top performers at the dealership have managers feeding them high-value prospects while the rest of us are more or less ‘relief pressure’ by gambling with the random customers who show up who may or may not buy anything. Current events have slaughtered our sales volume except for the top 3 salesmen who are ensured to hit their quoats to make 10k/month. The rest of us can get fucked.

Tried shottaking 2/5 again in my spare time but havent fared too well as of late. Also considering spending more time at 1/3 for convenience and comfort. Either way looking to make a move REAL SOON and get out of the rat race once again. Took off 5 days from work but couldnt make anything happen.

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So I finally solved sales. I have it all figured out. There is nothing left to learn. Women want me, men want to be me. In all seriousness, all I’m trying to say is that I’ve finally begun making some money at it. I’m up $ 27k this year, with my best month being $9200. No shadiness, all pure ethical sales. I found my niche: building value in the product. Just eloquently explaining what makes XYZ car a good car to the point my customers get excited. It’s their #1 compliment about me, saying things like “I’ve never had a salesman like you before, that was really different”.

I’ve also dipped my toes back into the poker scene again. We’re playing 1/3 this time, but I’m up $2800 or so with about a $50/hourly over a meaningless sample. I have a 17k liferoll, so needless to say, it definitely feels better to play overrolled than under. The hours at the dealership are long, and I keep fantasizing about the freedom poker would give me, but I’m also self-aware enough to realize I stand a good chance of being irresponsible with that freedom just like last time.

The last bit of good news is I’ve finally left the motel and have a legitimate apartment. Since I lost everything, furnishings are sparse, and I’m going to make a good faith effort not to blow it all on anything extravagant. For instance, I picked up a mattress from Walmart today to give you an example of my frugality. Everything else will be piecemealed together from Facebook Marketplace. The neighborhood I landed in is like something out of a storybook. The street is encapsulated under a giant canopy of trees, creating stunning vistas and sounds of nature. The whole area just smells so green. Walking around at night, you are surrounded by the hiss of dimly lit gas lanterns burning away, casting an orange glow from afar. It’s enchanting. I live in one of the most primier areas of town that is literally walking distance to everything. It’s insane being able to just casually stroll about the neighborhood and stumble upon hidden coffee shops and bistros.

And the women, my god. There is so much eye candy I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s almost depressing in an odd way because I am surrounded by that which I cannot have, or at least probably won’t have. Nonetheless, I’ll find someone eventually, but for now I’m strictly focused on getting my apartment furnished and life back on track.

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