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.
Ahhhhhh, just what I've been waiting forby RiKD, March 21
It's been awhile. I'm slowly sipping on some Gatorade because I have been getting over a gnarly stomach bug. I have no energy. I slept all day. I didn't go to work. Kind of a shitty day.
It's been same ole same ole here for the most part. I've got the job that doesn't pay enough money. I try to get up to some stuff when I'm not working but it's mostly the tried and true walking the dog, reading, music. I try to sneak some novelty in there where I can. I try to sneak some human connection in there where I can. The job seems to be a constant struggle with burnout. Some days I'm in the danger zone of burnout while others if I'm making music life feels ok.
Writing out the mundane existence that is my life isn't as fun as it used to be. Maybe my expectations were too high.
I was going to get a MacBook Pro and Logic Pro because Ableton Live 11 Intro is too limited but instead I made a great maneuver and got Reaper. Reaper is not limited for me whatsoever. From my point of view it appears to be limitless and nicer to use than Ableton. Just my opinion. I've been plugging in my guitar directly into the interface and I have so many amps and pedals to choose from it's great. There is even a digital Drop pedal which I haven't tried yet but it's $5. I've been mostly playing my 6 string electric. I got burnt out on my bass practicing Hal Leonard's Method Book and my sister came into town and I had to pack away the guitars and amps and I've just been picking up the 6 string electric. I am not sure if this is the way to go about learning the bass and 6 string electric. It's just what happened.
I've been reading a lot. Lately, it's been Hermann Hesse. Never read him before recently. I read Steppenwolf and Siddhartha and now I am readng Narcissus and Goldmund.
I guess it wouldn't be a RiKD blog if I didn't post some music:
Ok. That felt ok. Kind of like I was just coloring in the numbers but ok. I felt like I had to give it a go but honestly there are better things I could do with my time even if I am getting over a stomach bug.
LP was down for over a month. I randomly checked again and it was back up.
As for me, work has been going well, but MMA betting in 2026 hasn't been treating me well (seems to be the case for many MMA bettors for some reason...).
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.
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.
Well thats what I hope. Just been chilling and enjoying life as much as possible. Nye I was asleep by 12 cause wasn't feeling the best n I guess I am getting old now or at least older. I haven't played much poker cause I don't see a point of stressing about it when I aint making money from it anymore. Watch some football cuz Seahawks gonna win the SB, have a few bets lock in. One with Ryan he got the rams n I got the seahawks. Be nice if the seahawks wins the SB this year . Nothing big or anything just a couple of nice meals equivalent. . Been playing some Starcraft ums, pretty chill and a bit of melee for fun. Walk around the seawall in the rain yesterday with a buddy so that was nice n relaxing. Thats how I spent the last week or so, nothing crazy or super interesting but was okay. Peace is nice
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 $40/hr winrate over a 146 hour sample this season.
Im back after making my 5$ an hour poker binge lol, won a few tournaments smaller stakes 11-33$ then played higher buy in 100s n down swing lol. time for a break and enjoy the cold outdoors for a bit with my winnings lol. 5x100 hours got me 500$ to spend lol fml -_-; . I guess I can do a lot with 500$ these days since im efficient with my money now. LP is a snooze fest now but man how close were the blue jays was fun I must say.
Just randomly decided to hop on lp while watching the Jays/Dodgers game, and read this
On October 09 2025 04:59 PuertoRican wrote:
If you have been playing poker for over 10 years and you still don't have much to show for it, I would recommend giving it up and transitioning into a new job/career while you still can.
Poker will always be there, but your youth won't.
This is pretty remarkably close to some thoughts I've been having about where my life is and what my (few) options are moving forward. Future in poker is uncertain with advancement of AI and RTAs and increased computing power, and never ending supply of 20 year olds who will work harder and my own decline in intelligence, and yada yada yada.
Just had a really unusual week, not sure I've had one anywhere to this extent, but ran something like 3500bb below ev (plolol), but ended up net positive because multiple stakes.
Having said all that, I do feel like I've had another mini breakthrough in terms of some aspects of the game that was previously... I guess murky at best? So I guess we'll see where things go from here.
The other problem with my current grinding situation is, with the PVI system on gg poker, there is a clear incentive to finish top 3 in the leaderboards (preferably first) to maximize your effective rakeback %. Which means grinding these outrageous 10+ hour days where my play at the end is not as sharp and my results suffer at the tables. Not sure how to optimize, maybe I need to re-think this strategy of, more tables-higher hands/hr-lower winrate-but net higher hourly plan and focus on the nuances that'll allow me to move up.
But yeah, hell of a baseball game so far. Hope the whos whos of whats left of LP is doing well!
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.
We have drifted into a new season: Fall. I have employment. I feel like Bojack running up the hill.
I ate a bunch of food when I got home tonight. The only thing I want to do these days is read Roberto Boloña. I have to let that food settle for a bit. I have to let my thoughts settle for a bit. I didn't eat so much food that it was straight up terrible emotional eating I was just hungry but regardless I have to let it all settle. Working a late shift is always a bit awkward with sleep and eating. At least I have tomorrow off. The job was really killing me. My body couldn't handle all the bending, twisting, turning, and reaching. I was taking Tylenol and doing my best to rest up. THERE IS NO REST ONLY REST FOR WORKING! I think I just need to continue taking it day by day. Tonight was honestly pretty slow it wasn't too bad. I didn't need to take Tylenol or lie down.
I am grateful to still be alive but I do not know if I would rather have not been born. There is something in life. A human soul. A human spirit. It would be a tragedy to extinguish that. That is where my mind wanders. There is not really much pleasure in this job. It's not some project that seems worthwhile. The fact that I am an essential worker doesn't really make it any better. The problem with suicide is it is so god damn violent. Even going up Canada to sit in one of those machines that gasses me to death in 30 seconds is terrifying to me. I wouldn't want my parents to walk in on me dead: Slit wrists or hanging or shotgun blast or whatever. Sometimes in my mind it's inevitable. Especially from these years from 40-55 or so.
At least I have Roberto Boloña and my dog and my cat and my family. The Solitude never happened because I was working. Trapped in an establishment dealing with customers all day is the opposite of a Solitude. I wrote 0 words. I did read a lot though. White Noise by Don Delillo and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen were pretty great. Roberto Boloña is better.
I'm just navigating through this early Autumn. The weather gets very pleasant down here at this time. I have a lot of things to be grateful for. It just never feels that way for me. At least I have a day off tomorrow. That is what I am living for. The fleeting days off. Which so far were so anxiety ridden and frazzled and fragmented. I am just hoping I will adapt to the job. It's such a big part of my life now it's kind of jolting and revolting. I am used to lying in bed reading all day, taking the dog for walks, and generally being pretty idle. It is difficult to let go of frantic speed for hours upon hours. I am hoping I will adapt to the job. I wish there was an andante lightswitch I could hit when I'm not on the clock. It's still rest for work no matter how one slices it. There is no escape, there is no avoidance. Unfortunately, it has to be done. Which it is the adult thing to do. Even though it is embarrassing I'm surrounded by kids. It's not like I dropped out of high school to play poker. I have a degree. I'm not a dummy or maybe I am. It probably wouldn't even bother me if I had some sort of progress in the arts. 2 unpublished novellas in 2 years seems like the opposite of productive although I try not to look at it in the light of production. Production is for factories. I just want to live. I just want to live.
edit: How does this apply to poker? The solution is surprisingly simple. We don't need statistics and should know the answer anyway. Later we will look at some properties of Markov Chains and Martingale difference sequences before concluding that actions made in the moment are made regardless of statistical updates.
In short, we want to reduce a panel data to time series--eliminate time series altogether--and then simply evaluate the properties of our argument. Now there is only cross-sectional data and the time series element is gone altogether. Eventually, we could dispense with statistics itself by simply considering what econometricians call the corner solution and elasticity.
Years ago I got help on this math problem from DrThundza. For those interested, it's time for me to tackle the problem using modern computer technology.
The first and most obvious solution is to use an annihilation matrix to eliminate one aspect of the data (which I already have). Then by using a simple intersection algorithm a polygon can be fit to the object.
I uploaded a covert description of everything ever. Based on the well known transformation, an orthodox transformation of reality onto the R1 plane (0,1) a complete description of everything ever is here.
We're including some random values as a backdrop for "this is everything there is." Amazingly, everything there is changes dramatically as we bootstrap more data into our work.
What seems to be fun here is we are using a sort of arbitrary covariance determinant to evaluate the y-axis for compression.
time to chill a lot at home when it rains. just jamming to music now. I also realize I aint a winning poker player anymore so ill just set aside some weekly budget for my poker expense. losing like 2$ an hour now lol cuz im playing low stakes if I play higher I would lose faster. 10$ mystery bounty on ggpoker is beatable still for me but just playing the 3$ mystery bounty for fun now to kill time. sports betting im like -ev now too so I just do it for fun and not expect to win. this is gonna be a nice cozy fall for me. ive been investing in the metals accumulating nice and slow. as much as I can every month which isn't a lot but it still something. I also dont think I will be travelling anytime soon if ever again but its okay vancouver is such a nice city anyways I dont mind being here for the rest of my life.
also selling pokemon cards now since it rocket so much lately I think we gonna have a correction so im selling some of my graded cards. hope to get a nice roi on them if they sell. I don't enjoy the hobby as much but was fun while it lasted. my list of hobbies keeps dwindling so I gotta find some new hobbies or what the heck is a neet life with benefits but barely learning gonna do. what the heck am I gonna do to keep myself entertain for the rest of my life lol.
My friend Daniel Arfin who is a live pro in Las Vegas has been getting a podcast off the ground and was nice enough to have me on. He's had some good guests on in previous episodes too such as Mike Zulker who is currently on a tear in tournaments this year. If you guys want to know what's going on in online high stakes and get some value from some hand analysis then check it out and give a like to his channel.
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)
Contact Users: 1069 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 09:40
. Nothing big or anything just a couple of nice meals equivalent. . Been playing some Starcraft ums, pretty chill and a bit of melee for fun. Walk around the seawall in the rain yesterday with a buddy so that was nice n relaxing. Thats how I spent the last week or so, nothing crazy or super interesting but was okay. Peace is nice
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