Mix games fail / poker doldrumsby hiems, December 27
I just played 9/18 mix and I got crushed really hard. Played a really long session and am stuck 50 Bbs. Been trying to learn bit by bit but also jumped into it against regulars. Really torturous, experience. I got owned and have no idea what happened.
Mix was badugi, baducy, badacey, holdem, pineapple razz, pineapple stud8, 5 card o8, triple draw, two flop Omaha, pineapple stud Hilo standard.
I'm not sure how to feel about the session. I've been playing some o8, limit holdem,, and mix somewhat often like this to learn and mix up my routine. Overall I am down not insanely down but down a decent amount in my limit/mix sessions. I had a bad 20/40 limit holdem session and this mix session both really bad. I have read a bit but for the most part have not studied these games a ton and I guess I could do things but I'm not sure how worth it it'll be.
I have been doing ok at 2/5NL the past few months I think averaging 4-5k a month with ok volume. But I ventured into limit/mix because I feel like just grinding 2/5 is really not an end game sort of thing. I am not sure how I will fare being a regular at 5/10 nl, and I guess the 40/80 mix game/playing mix games&o8 on pokerstars kind of was this exotic backup type of idea that would make me feel better about myself and my options to move up in the food chain, but right now I feel naive about the whole thing and somehow feel like I am the lemon type that will never be able to beat the big (5/10nl and 40/80 as "big" ) games at all, never get the courage, talent etc.
Long term i know i need something outside of poker, but right now I could use the money. If i can manage to increase my earnings it would help me immensely. Sustaining current winning is also important. So, Not really sure where to go from here. It would be nice to be a winner in the 5/10 games at Bellagio as a start, but it's hard to muster up the courage to change something that has been working ok. I took a shot a few months ago but was playing short and won a half buyin in 2 sessions and then got nervous and lost a full buyin the third. I've ben playing the softest 2/5 in town which is the Bellagio and it is a big jump from a 500cap to 1500cap and i would be curious about the difference in play. I could move up to the deeper 2/5s in town at aria/Wynn. I could also just stick with where I'm "winning" right now, swallow my pride/ego and just try my best to be a lame 2/5 grinder guy.
>be me
>go play live poker
>act socially awkward
>this puts people on massive tilt
>especially when i win
>be one of ten players
>the other nine are playing to specifically stack me
>mfw i steamroll the SHIT out of them
Hi guys, I'm selling action for the PCA and LAPT Main Events. It'll be a 10.3k and a 3k+r events (playing a sat for the 25k w/ the rebuy if I don't use it) at 1.2:1 markup
Thought about doing an update on the latter part of the year but I played very little volume, some MTTs on sundays basically, most of my time these days goes into coaching and taking care of my new team that I started around the end of July. It's going pretty well though, first 5 months: + Show Spoiler +
>10 day forecast
>temps no lower than 50
>could get as high as 80 for a couple of days
other than that, i saved myself quite a bit of money at the tables tonight, jesus. omaha 1/3 - button, 5 limps i have qqjj double suited, i pot. 7 callers. flop comes out kxx two hearts, 4th to act pots, i end up folding cause no draws. him and another get it in. aaqq double suited v aakk double suited. still up a couple of buyins for the month with the low volume i have. next year, i want to hit up the wsop circuits in the south, though, i'd try to sell some action to some regs around town.
About a month ago I got back into poker after playing a live game at a friends house (20$ buy in, 10$ rebuy). Didn't do as good as previous games and lost out at 6th out of 16. That game though made me realize how much I missed poker (fuck you black friday) but after searching found bovada.
I don't care for the anonymous tables because I never used that software and I had a lot of learning to do. Before black friday I was never really good, but I would play the poker stars 2.20 180 man sit n go's a lot and place top 3 about half the time (I see a lot of people think I am doing a subtle brag, I didn't play this very much lol 10-15 times at the most, placed top 3 in 6 of them iirc correctly). Looking back at it though I always knew I was bad, but with what I know now my god I was super terrible and I have no idea how I won those 180 man sng's at all.
I'm still bad and I know it. I am not playing Poker for a living just a mix of fun and maybe a little bit of a side income. I am watching streams (jcarver mainly), reading and all that fun stuff. I have invested 60$ into it and on Saturday I played a 2.20 1k guaranteed tournament and placed 2nd taking a nice 240$. The most I had ever won previous to this in 1 tournament/sng was 108$ for first on the 180 mans. The ending hand I had QC9S and he had K7o. Flop came with Q, 9, 2. We both had about the same amount of chips I had 1.3 million chips and he had 1.45 or something like that. I check, he shoves and I call. Looks great and I thought I had it won easy. Turn is a 7. Ok whatever odds of him hitting another 7 or K on the river is unlikely. Well he flops another 7 and takes me out.
I was sort of annoyed, but was more happy at my progress in poker lately in both cash and tournament poker. I am making a lot more deep runs and I played a 1$/50cent cash game and ended up going from 30$ to 90$ in about 30 minutes (Got AA, KK back to back and won each one for most of my profit).
Bankroll wise I shouldn't be playing that kind of cash game, but I don't care I do what I want . I don't have as much time to play poker during the week due to work, play for maybe 2 hours or more depending how I do in a tournament or if I am playing cash that. In general fun stuff and keep learning a lot and hoping to keep going up instead of down, but only time will tell .
Also going to be playing my first live poker tournament next month as I am going to Florida for a vacation with family. I googled and saw there are some poker places that run 55$ tournaments and my brother and I are going to play it just for fun. Going to try my best, but not expecting much considering I have never played live poker like that, but going to try and be as prepared as possible!
I have been meaning to write some things about the voids of existence that emerge. The pain. The realization that comes and goes and comes back again that we are but tiny specks of consciousness in an infinite universe of nothingness and chaos.
"Champagne for the pain"
The first time I heard this was Jay Z or Kanye West? Perhaps earlier but most prominently in a song that does not immediately pop into my head from their Watch the Throne album (which I am a huge fan). Jay Z: "Champagne for the pain... High for the low."
I lived by those words for a long time. With what I know now they have the potential to be a bit damaging and misleading at least for me. Basically, just writing a disclaimer on that advice that there are usually better, more healthy, more sustainable ways to heal "the pain" than drugs and alcohol.
Fastforward:
I actually went back and found the song:
"Welcome to the Jungle"
...
[Jay-Z]
"My uncle died, my daddy did too
Paralyzed by the pain, I can barely move
My nephew gone, my heart is torn
Sometimes I look to the sky, ask why I was born
My faith in God, every day is hard
Every night is worse, that's why I pray so hard
[Kanye West]
Why I pray so hard, this is crazy God
Just when I thought I had everything, I lost it all
So que sera', get a case of Syrah
Let it chase the pain, before it goes too far
[Jay-Z]
My dreams is big, reality set in
Let off a clip from an automatic weapon
Through shots in the door, it died in Vegas
Though it fought so hard, I knew it wouldn't make it
I'm a tortured soul, I live in disguise
Rest in peace to the leader of the Jackson 5
I dided in my sleep, I'm still Big Pimpin'
I ball at the mall, beginning of the ending
Where the fuck is the sun? It's been a while
Momma, look at ya son, what happened to my smile?
My tears is tatted, my rag in my pocket
I'm just looking for love, I know somebody got it
[bold]Champagne for the pain, weed for the low[/bold]
Goddamn I'm so high, where the fuck did I go
etc.
I found it interesting on going back and listening to it my perception now is that Jay is actually speaking his truth on the fact that drugs and alcohol do not actually fill any voids or actually heal any pain and was just plainly speaking on where he was at at some lower points.
Putting my own spin on it that is where I am at. Champagne for the pain, weed for the low are occupations. They are a way to fill time and avoid pain but a lot of the time it is just delaying healing and development. Drugs and alcohol are simply occupations, drugs, medications with positives and negatives that should be used with personal best discretion. Buyer beware. etc.
Going back to Jay for a second though I am just a really huge fan. He talks about how his music is a Rorschach test. My original interpretation of the line in times where I abused alcohol and drugs it is easy to get caught up in the boastful, bravado, glamourous nature of the Watch the Throne album and glorify the champagne for the pain, weed for the low, YOLO nature of that album and pop culture in general but of course, Jay laces it with entendres and 2, 3, 4 sides to the story.
I would put his Reasonable Doubt and Blueprint Album up there with any existential poetry, literature, philosophy works in existence.
Earlier in that album on the first track Kanye finishes the song with:
When we die the money we can't keep
But we probably spend it all cause the pain ain't cheap: preach
I would take it a step further in saying time and freedom is a more important asset than money but money is certainly up there and can buy time and freedom.
So, how do we spend our time, freedom, and money?
How do we fill the void and heal the pains of the world?
People have been asking these questions and searching for answers for years. I will just say that for me being part of a group, a community, a tribe and sharing my thoughts and learning from other people and engaging in discussion seems to work for me so that is one of the reasons I continue to post on LP. Thank You.
ps.
I will leave everyone with some quotes that I recently came across and found thought provoking and inspiring.
"All neurosis stems from mans' attempt to escape life's legitimate sufferings." - Carl Jung
"(one lost everything in the death camps except) the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances" - Viktor Frankl (Austrian Holocaust survivor and psychologist)
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) games at all, never get the courage, talent etc. 
Happy Holidays all!! 
. I don't have as much time to play poker during the week due to work, play for maybe 2 hours or more depending how I do in a tournament or if I am playing cash that. In general fun stuff and keep learning a lot and hoping to keep going up instead of down, but only time will tell 
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