My Journey As A Professional Poker Player (26 Viewers)

[Anthony Martino]

The equities on my bustout hand

After I raised to 50k I had 80k behind and the pot was 130k going to the flop

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

Just curious, and this is a sincere question and not a troll.... you seem to chop an awful lot in these late tournament situations. Given that you're a pro, and most of the guys you're playing against are relatively inexperience, don't you think you're losing equity when you decide to chop? I know there's a ton of variance when you get shorter stacked, but over the long haul over multiple tournaments I think you're doing yourself a disservice.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Just curious, and this is a sincere question and not a troll.... you seem to chop an awful lot in these late tournament situations. Given that you're a pro, and most of the guys you're playing against are relatively inexperience, don't you think you're losing equity when you decide to chop? I know there's a ton of variance when you get shorter stacked, but over the long haul over multiple tournaments I think you're doing yourself a disservice.

I had a very short stack and it was likely given stack sizes, variance and blind levels I wouldn't cash

The final table had two absolute droolers (one who was 2nd or 3rd in chips 9 handed and busted 7th, the other who was chip leader and busted me in the end) but the other players were all pretty solid

I'm generally a fan of flatter payouts and paying more than 10% of the field, so given the current structures making deals fits more with my preferred payouts

5 handed we reached a point where we were all even in chips and a chop would've been about $1500 each, but a couple guys don't chop

 

[Machine]

5 handed we reached a point where we were all even in chips and a chop would've been about $1500 each, but a couple guys don't chop

Once in the money, I want to lock up my buy in, after that I'm not chopping until there is an advantage to do so, which is typically 3 handed or less.

I had a very short stack

That is advantageous and I would chop 5 handed

I mean you more than tripled your money anyway, got it in good, overall great night for Team Martino!

 

[Legend5555]

Just curious, and this is a sincere question and not a troll.... you seem to chop an awful lot in these late tournament situations. Given that you're a pro, and most of the guys you're playing against are relatively inexperience, don't you think you're losing equity when you decide to chop? I know there's a ton of variance when you get shorter stacked, but over the long haul over multiple tournaments I think you're doing yourself a disservice.

In these fast structures, you don't have as much room to use skill. This is especially true in PLO as equities run so close that short stacked PLO play makes skill even less of a factor than it might be in short stacked NLHE. Thus, the amount of equity being given up by chopping is probably not that large.

 

[Anthony Martino]

In these fast structures, you don't have as much room to use skill. This is especially true in PLO as equities run so close that short stacked PLO play makes skill even less of a factor than it might be in short stacked NLHE. Thus, the amount of equity being given up by chopping is probably not that large.

Correct. The blinds were 5/10k and we all had fairly equal stacks at one point, amounting to 18bb each

 

[Anthony Martino]

We're back in the mean streets

 

[tabletalker7]

We're back in the mean streets

View attachment 744741

 

[Anthony Martino]

Game is so-so at the moment but we're chipping up steadily

 

[Anthony Martino]

Lol, game out of the muck. Guy just raised button to $20 with and flopped , bet 120 on flop, got raised to 400, just called for half his stack, called turn shove when hit

Gyys only go once, river and he wins a big pot against the guy going nuts with 6652

 

[toothpic]

Lol, game out of the muck. Guy just raised button to $20 with and flopped , bet 120 on flop, got raised to 400, just called for half his stack, called turn shove when hit

Gyys only go once, river and he wins a big pot against the guy going nuts with 6652

 

[Anthony Martino]

View attachment 744814

Welcome to live PLO sir!

 

[Kain8]

Lol, game out of the muck. Guy just raised button to $20 with and flopped , bet 120 on flop, got raised to 400, just called for half his stack, called turn shove when hit

Gyys only go once, river and he wins a big pot against the guy going nuts with 6652

And these people DROVE THEMSELVES to the casino! If that doesn't scare you silly while on the road, I don't know what will.

Matter of fact, anytime I see a jagoff driver from now on, I'll just think of some garbage hole cards and think to myself that they'd stack off with it!

 

[Anthony Martino]

And these people DROVE THEMSELVES to the casino! If that doesn't scare you silly while on the road, I don't know what will.

Matter of fact, anytime I see a jagoff driver from now on, I'll just think of some garbage hole cards and think to myself that they'd stack off with it!

Auto insurance rates are through the roof in FL, lots of bad and/or uninsured drivers, high litigation rates

 

[moose]

And these people DROVE THEMSELVES to the casino! If that doesn't scare you silly while on the road, I don't know what will.

Matter of fact, anytime I see a jagoff driver from now on, I'll just think of some garbage hole cards and think to myself that they'd stack off with it!

I tend to think they are more like these guys:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/04/16/driver-jumps-drawbridge-florida-mh-orig.cnn

I can get there!

Auto insurance rates are through the roof in FL, lots of bad and/or uninsured drivers, high litigation rates

Edit: Flor-a-duh!

 

[raynmanas]

Welcome to live PLO sir!

I've been playing a lot of $0.50/$1.00 PLO on Ignition lately trying to learn the game better; roughly the same.

 

[Anthony Martino]

and call a raise to 25, see a flop of

Checked to me, I pot for 150, one caller in LP

Turn

We both check

River

We are good against QJ98

 

[Anthony Martino]

Just had to lay down on a flop facing a pot and repot (the repot had top 2 pair lol)

But still chipping up

 

[Kain8]

and call a raise to 25, see a flop of

Checked to me, I pot for 150, one caller in LP

Turn

We both check

River

We are good against QJ98

View attachment 744838

No river value bet? Seems like the 4 is about as safe as can be. Teach me your ways o mighty dwarf of PLO!

 

[Anthony Martino]

No river value bet? Seems like the 4 is about as safe as can be. Teach me your ways o mighty dwarf of PLO!

I was OOP. If I bet and get raised I want to puke. But figured I could check-call and get the guy to valuebet a worse Q there (played with him before)

 

[navels]

Lol, game out of the muck. Guy just raised button to $20 with and flopped , bet 120 on flop, got raised to 400, just called for half his stack, called turn shove when hit

Gyys only go once, river and he wins a big pot against the guy going nuts with 6652

on my way

 

[Anthony Martino]

on my way

 

[JustDogbert]

If what you are saying is the way the law is written, and you are sure of that, then that's completely different. Still wrong, and a bad law that ought to be lobbied to be changed, but different from what I was responding to.

You said above, that:

The problem here is everyone could then scam the casino if they were forced to "make it right"

You and a buddy go in and plunk down 30k each. Get it in, one of you walks, refusing to pay and now the casino has to "make it right"

That scam would happen all over

So my reply to that was - if they can stop the blackjack player, then they can stop the poker player. They just choose not to, because they don't feel that he is stealing from them.

The blackjack player is stealing from the Casino. The poker player in todays situation was not honoring a debt to another player, the casino in that instance is a middle man with no legal ability to enforce the debt.

In the situation you quoted, what I'm saying is that IF the Casino were required to "make it right" in the situation that happened today, it would open the Casino up to being scammed.

A team of two guys shows up to play poker. They both buyin for huge stacks and then get their money in. One of them walks and you're advocating the Casino would be forced to "make it right" which I believe you mean to "make the player whole" by reimbursing them the money they didn't get paid by the player who bolted (since again, the Casino still doesn't have the legal rights to stop the bolting player and forcefully take the money from them to settle the debt)

IF that were the case, and the Casino had a duty to "make it right" by making the ripped off player "whole" and pay them the missing money, then teams of players would travel around from poker room to poker room running that scam, and the rooms would get screwed because they'd be getting ripped off left and right.

No poker room is going to lobby for that or agree to it, and most casinos look at poker rooms as the "black sheep" of the property, a necessary evil that they'd rather have filled with banks of slots making them their core revenue stream.

Sorry this is old, I don't read every page and I don't keep up...

I don't admit to knowing the law but I can provide a scenario that happened to me in college (over twenty years ago)...

I was splitting time between playing 7-stud and pai-gow (being the bank every other hand) at Foxwoods for most of the weekend. I don't recall what stakes I was playing but I do recall I had a few thousand in chips in front of me. There were these two guys (around my age) that were in and out of the card room and attached pit area over the weekend. On the second day (maybe third, who knows, it's a casino) I was leaving the casino floor, I think to get something to eat. As I left the floor, these two come up to me and long and short wanted me to give them money to put one of them into action. I laughed in their face, told them to f' off, turned and walked away. At this point one of them (big fat slob) sucker punches me in the side of my head and tells me to give him my chips. I turn around ready to beat this guys ass (fat boy hit like a bitch) and the two clowns scurry away.

I go find casino security to report the incident, they catch the two of them before they get off the property (for those who don't know, Foxwoods is pretty big, lots of entertainment and food in addition to gaming). They take statements from both sides (we were separated with different interviewers) and the long and short of it was everyone was banned from Foxwoods. I asked my interviewer how was it that I was assaulted and almost robbed but I'm getting banned and why was there no legal consequences for Abbot and Costello (other guy was skinny). He flat told me your on an Indian reservation, we make the laws here and I don't know that three of you aren't working together to run some liability scam.

Oh, and they kept all my comp points - The casino ain't your friend.

 

[Kain8]

The casino ain't your friend.

Play home games with extremely trustworthy people only, got it.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Sorry this is old, I don't read every page and I don't keep up...

I don't admit to knowing the law but I can provide a scenario that happened to me in college (over twenty years ago)...

I was splitting time between playing 7-stud and pai-gow (being the bank every other hand) at Foxwoods for most of the weekend. I don't recall what stakes I was playing but I do recall I had a few thousand in chips in front of me. There were these two guys (around my age) that were in and out of the card room and attached pit area over the weekend. On the second day (maybe third, who knows, it's a casino) I was leaving the casino floor, I think to get something to eat. As I left the floor, these two come up to me and long and short wanted me to give them money to put one of them into action. I laughed in their face, told them to f' off, turned and walked away. At this point one of them (big fat slob) sucker punches me in the side of my head and tells me to give him my chips. I turn around ready to beat this guys ass (fat boy hit like a bitch) and the two clowns scurry away.

I go find casino security to report the incident, they catch the two of them before they get off the property (for those who don't know, Foxwoods is pretty big, lots of entertainment and food in addition to gaming). They take statements from both sides (we were separated with different interviewers) and the long and short of it was everyone was banned from Foxwoods. I asked my interviewer how was it that I was assaulted and almost robbed but I'm getting banned and why was there no legal consequences for Abbot and Costello (other guy was skinny). He flat told me your on an Indian reservation, we make the laws here and I don't know that three of you aren't working together to run some liability scam.

Oh, and they kept all my comp points - The casino ain't your friend.

Wow, I'm a former Masshole, used to play at Foxwoods and Mohegan

But yes, tribal lands so tribal courts come into play, and they hold all the cards

 

[JustDogbert]

Play home games with extremely trustworthy people only, got it.

Seeing your Canada flag reminded me of another one...

Me and a few friends are in Montreal having a good time - a couple of us had just made some money in a pool tournament in Plattsburgh (NY) so we decided to head to the casino (I don't know if there was more than one casino or not, it's the one the people at the pool hall directed us too). We get there, get inside and aren't there 10 minutes before casino security throws us out.

Why you might ask? We were wearing boots!

It was winter and it was snowing out and we had the audacity to wear boots into the casino. Damn Americans!

F'them, they didn't have a crap table anyway.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Seeing your Canada flag reminded me of another one...

Me and a few friends are in Montreal having a good time - a couple of us had just made some money in a pool tournament in Plattsburgh (NY) so we decided to head to the casino (I don't know if there was more than one casino or not, it's the one the people at the pool hall directed us too). We get there, get inside and aren't there 10 minutes before casino security throws us out.

Why you might ask? We were wearing boots!

It was winter and it was snowing out and we had the audacity to wear boots into the casino. Damn Americans!

F'them, they didn't have a crap table anyway.

You don't want any of those worseless canadian mooseknuckles (actual canadian currency) anyway!

USA USA USA!

 

[JustDogbert]

Wow, I'm a former Masshole, used to play at Foxwoods and Mohegan

But yes, tribal lands so tribal courts come into play, and they hold all the cards

This was before Mohegan sun opened, I haven't been back to Foxwoods since. I'm probably still banned.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Colored up to the pumpkin

 

[raynmanas]

I'm a former Masshole

Wrong - once a Masshole, always a Masshole.