Day 2

Day 2

I wake up at 1pm to my roommates Kevin and Paul talking about Kevin missing $7k in cash. After a couple of mins of tracing back his steps, Kevin realizes he stuffed it in his wallet and forgot about it. Glad I'm not the only poker player that forgets where I place some of my roll from time to time. Also gonna admit, super relieved he found it, because Kevin doesn't know me that well, and even though I could just be assuming this, it's very likely I would be a suspect of stealing that cash, because how else could it be missing? Remember, this blog is aptly titled, "JK's thoughts".

I spend way too much time trying to figure out how to upload pics to this blog.

My views from the room.

Verse of the day

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Pretty sure Janett and Justine thinks I need to make the verse of the day my life verse.

As I finish chapter 4 of Swipe Right, and the according section in the YouVersion plan, Levi Lusko the author presents this question...

• Do you follow your feelings and emotions or put them through an objective filter?

He talks about how our feelings and emotions can lead to rewarding experiences but also can lead to disasters, and we need an objective filter to keep us on the right path, and the best objective filter is God. There is also so much application of this question to poker as well because while the public tends to think we base our decisions on feelings (thanks Hollywood), we always strive to base our decisions on what is factual, and only resort to feelings as a last resort or tiebreaker, and even then it's rare.

Walk along Canal St through Riverwalk and parts of the French Market.

Lunch: crawfish etouffee. I love crawfish and I'm excited to try a big platter of them somewhere soon. One of my favorite restaurants in Vegas is Hot n Juicy Crawfish. My roommates don't want to, so I'll have to go solo or find somebody. Maybe $7k will be enough to bribe somebody famous to go with me.

I sit in a $2/$5 game waiting for the $5/$10 to start. The $5/$10 starts but is populated by guys that are competent and not one looking fish or whale so I elect to stay in my 2/5 game which is decent. Off to a better start today, up $500. My ego could definitely push me to go play 5/10, but ego is a career killer, and it's no different in poker. I can see Janett and Justine rolling their eyes, "what are you talking about JK! You have the biggest one!" lol. I know they kid, I think. If you lack confidence in poker, it'll kill you, and if you have too much, it'll kill you. 

This kid I played with last night comes up to me and asks how long I played his friend heads up. I say not long because the floor moved us into the main game. He says his friend didn't know you're an online OG. Yep. Backstory: I did ok playing online poker for years, and got recognition and wrote articles and made videos and stuff in the poker world. I'm totally listening to "Nothing but a G thang" by Dre and Snoop Dog the rest of the night.

Poker: 2 limp, I go $30 w AQcc, btn old guy calls, bb 3b to $110, I call, btn calls to J93ccx bb cbet $225, I call, btn shoves $625, he reshoves $800 total, I call and turn is a sweet looking 5c and I win.

Warning: nerdy explanation upcoming...To the uneducated, this looks like pure gambling, but let me explain how pros make money in poker using this hand...preflop is standard, my hand is pretty strong. On the flop, calling 225 is standard as I'm getting the right mathematical price to call ($225 to win $555, so getting 2.5 to 1, and with 2 cards to come, I have 9-12 cards to win with, 9 clubs and possibly 3 aces, because his range is very likely QQ, KK, or AA, but because I have an A and a Q, he's a lot more likely to have KK (just simple combinatorics), turns out he did have KK, so my chances of winning, or equity, is 46% w 12 outs, 35% w/ 9 outs, we can avg that to around 40% so clearly getting 2.5 to 1 on my money at 40% is profitable (will spare details on math here). When btn shoves, bb reshoves, now I gotta call $575 to win $2k, and it's the same concept except now I'm getting an even better price on my call getting almost 4 to 1 at still around 40% equity, although I can maybe drop it a few %'s to account for btn's range of hands...even so, it's a profitable call (let's say we simulate 10 runs, so 4 of 10 times we win $2k and 6 times we lose $575, so after 10 trials, we are 4x$2k - 6x$575 = $8k-$3450, or $4550 ahead, and we divide that by 10 and we come out on avg +$455 by making the call. Even if we have 30% equity, it's still profitable, just slightly less) and that's the heart of poker success (or any business model), positive return on investments. Pros strive to be in these spots over and over and try to avoid negative return spots, and in the long run, that equates to profits. 

A side story to the hand...the guy with KK starts berating me for calling it off with "only a flush draw". As I pointed out, he's a little lacking in poker prowess (and manners). Trying to mostly calm him a little (with a hint of wittiness and maybe spur on a conversation about faith) I reply, "It's ok, Jesus loves you." Maybe it wasn't the most appropriate time, I'm not sure, but he did calm down instantly. 😇

Sign of a whale...stack chips going away from you, not up, so you don't know how much you have in front of you

Poker: Big hand...Ep raises to $20, call, I call with 66, btn calls, bb reg 3b to $110, Ep calls, I call, btn calls to 862ccc bb cbet $325, ep shoves $875 total, I call, bb calls, turn 5x bb chks, I shove $2k, he calls w AAcx, riv 2. Ep w 54cc. I win the $7k pot. BB was the kid that said I was an online OG. One, two, three and to the four...

Snoop Doggy Dogg and JK is at the door
Ready to make an entrance, so back on up
(‘Cause you know we're about to rip stuff up)
Give me the microphone first, so I can bust like a bubble
Compton and Long Beach together
Now you know you're in trouble
Ain't nothin' but a G thang, baby

The spoils of battles. Take a hard look Keanu and Jeff, because that's what a $7k pot at 2/5 looks like. We just need to get out of Vegas to find them!

Colored up to make it neat and tidy, or else I'd be a whale

Recap: Yesterday I said results don't matter, but I meant to say short term results don't matter. If you're losing after x amount of time, it's probably time to evaluate why and if you need to give up poker. X depends. After a 9hr session today, I won a little over $5700. While winning always feels good, I'm at a point where wins (and losses) don't affect my emotions much, and if you do this for a living, you need to be like this. That's not to say I didn't have a skip to my step on the way back to my room, because I did, and I almost tripped crossing the street because of it,  but I'm not thinking of buying something nice for myself tomorrow or anything like that. I'm going to sleep just the same tonight as I did this morning after a loss. I'm just $5700 richer. Looking forward to going to a church in downtown Nola tomorrow morning, and putting that down payment on the Tesla I've always wanted.

Finally, since this will be published Sunday, Happy Mother's Day! Looking at you Suzy and Abby! Everybody else, don't forget to call your mom today!