My Journey As A Professional Poker Player (18 Viewers)

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Anthony, how sucky is it to get 3 of a kind in your hole cards? Last night playing PL-5, I got 3 Ks. Seems almost no upside to the hand, so when the blinds were raised, I just folded. Is that the right move?

 

[Anthony Martino]

Anthony, how sucky is it to get 3 of a kind in your hole cards? Last night playing PL-5, I got 3 Ks. Seems almost no upside to the hand, so when the blinds were raised, I just folded. Is that the right move?

It generally sucks, but depending on position, the side card and the table makeup you may be able to play some hands with trips because you will have blockers and can run a bluff, or the side card works well for you to make nutted hands

But generally speaking its ok to fold too and stay out of trouble

But I may play a hand like AKKK suited or KKKQ suited, TTT9 JTTT or JJJT style holdings in rare instances

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Thanks! I've only been playing Omaha for a couple of months, but I really enjoy the differences between it and NLHE.

 

[Mojo1312]

I won a sizeable pot in our home game a couple of years ago with K,K,K,x. Hit the case king on the flop that turned into a boat over boat. Bet $50 on the river and got a call.

Nothing says "I am a tight player" like calling a small raise pre-flop with three of a kind in Omaha.

 

[Anthony Martino]

I won a sizeable pot in our home game a couple of years ago with K,K,K,x. Hit the case king on the flop that turned into a boat over boat. Bet $50 on the river and got a call.

Nothing says "I am a tight player" like calling a small raise pre-flop with three of a kind in Omaha.

I'm generally pretty nitty, but opted for the pot bet on the Q546 board because we had the 88 blockers, into multiple opponents

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

I won a sizeable pot in our home game a couple of years ago with K,K,K,x. Hit the case king on the flop that turned into a boat over boat. Bet $50 on the river and got a call.

Nothing says "I am a tight player" like calling a small raise pre-flop with three of a kind in Omaha.

Yup, when everything falls right, it's really nice. In my case it was PLO-5, so I just couldn't see that many avenues to the nuts. Wanted to get a confirmation that I wasn't missing something. My other two cards were 3-5 or something like that, and only one of the Ks was suited.

 

[stavman]

I enjoyed all the shit taking you get on Kash poker. So many haters.

 

[Anthony Martino]

I enjoyed all the shit taking you get on Kash poker. So many haters.

Some people are just jealous, some just miserable. Maybe they're suffering in their attempts at poker so their outlet is to shit on someone else who is succeeding.

You deal with the miserable types at the tables too, but they won't extinguish my sunshine. Last night working 7 hours I made almost as much as I would working a full week for "the man" so I'm happy I can enjoy life off the felt and not slave my life away making someone else rich.

 

[Anthony Martino]

The other day had a guy in my local area reach out to me on Facebook. He's an attorney but is tired of his job and sees me playing poker for a living and wants to do the same, but with NL hold em cash games.

His thought process was that if he could bring in $500, play M-F and leave when he hits $800 then he'd make $300/day x 5 days a week and that would allow him to live comfortably.

So I had to explain that:

1. There's no guarantee you'll hit that $800 every session. You may lose some or all of that $500. Now on the next day you're behind and have to win more than $300 that session to keep up with your overall goal. And if you always leave once you make that $300 profit then you may be slitting your own throat because that day you were supposed to win $1,200 which would make up for the losses on another session in your near future. Hell, I played the month of Feb 2020 and paid to do so, taking a loss of $1,800. So I put in the hours and still came out behind.

2. You may not want to play full time, I know I certainly don't. I play anywhere from 25-40 hrs/week most of the time. I don't enjoy poker as much because it's no longer an escape from my job, it IS my job.

3. You won't want to play 52 weeks/year, you're going to want time off, take a vacation, etc. So again you have to adjust your income expectations

4. I don't really play NL Hold Em cash games, and while I'm sure there's still profit to be made, I've also heard and read for awhile now that the Hold Em games are much tougher than they used to be.

I think a big problem with people is that they're trying to run FROM something, rather than run TOWARDS something. I recommended maybe he reduces his work hours and try playing part-time and see how it goes. But to temper his expectations because he may be killing it but his results are from the weekend, and he shouldn't expect the same results on a Tuesday, for instance.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Ooch, down 1k so far at 1/2 PLO

Table pretty good, but made aces up twice and same guy had three aces

Guys calling raises with 6443 getting there, etc

Sticking it out

 

[Anthony Martino]

Doubled up, only down $600 now lol

 

[Anthony Martino]

Only down $450 now

 

[Anthony Martino]

Getting closer to unstuck. Limped AA88 one suit, fish in blinds pots it, I limp repot, he calls OOP for half his chips

Flop 977 he check-calls it off. Turn 8, river 7, I'm good

 

[Anthony Martino]

So a buddy of mine Austin from Oxford Downs showed up drunk

Sits at my table and tells everyone I'm his boy and if anyone has a problem with me he'll fight them and he loves to fight

So then my buddy Dave at the next table over (who's also been drinking) starts jawing at him saying "you serious, you got a problem, you want a piece of me?"

I try to calm them down but they're too drunk to see anything but each other

Floor comes over and tosses them both. Never had two dudes fight over me before, quite the experience lol

 

[tabletalker7]

Never had two dudes fight over me before, quite the experience lol

Welcome to your first day of being a high priced call girl buddy

 

[Anthony Martino]

 

[Anthony Martino]

 

[Saoliver]

View attachment 598127

 

[Anthony Martino]

Got myself within $150 of being unstuck, but then lost a pot to a young aggro asian kid on my right who was straddling and raising more than his fair share.

Wound up in a multiway pot where it was checked around on the J63 rainbow flop, the turn paired the 3 and I had K3xx and he bet, I called from the button figuring I was finally going to catch his ass speeding. River paired the 6 and he bet again, I made the crying call, he looked dejected and said "I just have a 3" and only showed a 3.

I figured my kicker had to be good here, but asked him what his kicker was and he said "An Ace" and turned that over and scooped a decent sized pot.

Had to settle for a $500 loss on the session. Still having a good month though

 

[Anthony Martino]

Getting ready for Monday morning PLO

 

[Anthony Martino]

Starting it off right

 

[Anthony Martino]

So the reason I stacked up early

We are 5 handed. Nit of nits in the CO raises to 15. I am on button with



I pot to 55

He repots to 175 but puts his whole stack in and says "let's get it in, we'll go twice" so I figure him for Aces

He has about 350-400 behind his reraise

I opt to just call and we see a beautiful flop of



He shoves, I call, we go twice. I make straight on 1st board and flush on 2nd

 

[Anthony Martino]

Down a little now. LAG on my right running pure against me

I flop top 2 pr, straight draw and 4th flush draw

I pot, three ways to turn, I have position. Suited Ace hits giving me 3rd nuts

We check, brick river, he bets half pot has K3 suited for nuts

Then on a QQ9 flop I have AQ87 and he has KQJ6 and hits the river K

 

[Anthony Martino]

Down about $700 and we limp repot with and run it twice vs Aces, win both boards

Cuban mode activated!

 

[JMC9389]

Down about $700 and we limp repot with and run it twice vs Aces, win both boards

Cuban mode activated!

I bet you even flopped the Cuban wrap draws!

 

[tabletalker7]

Down about $700 and we limp repot with and run it twice vs Aces, win both boards

Cuban mode activated!

Is your phone on your lap at the table?

 

[Geremie]

Is it Martino or Martinez?!?

 

[Anthony Martino]

Is it Martino or Martinez?!?

Si, Conando!

 

[Anthony Martino]

Had to take another loss today, -$300. Not too terrible. Had a few crazies making it $20 or $40 preflop and just couldn't get much going

 

[Anthony Martino]

Tonight will be my last session before the holidays. Going to be playing a 6/12 limit mixed game at TGT that was organized by a dealer from the Hard Rock. 9 games available to be picked:

Omaha 8
7-Card Stud
Razz
Stud 8
2-7 Triple Draw
A-5 Triple Draw
Badugi
Badeucy
Badacey

Been forever since I've played any limit mixed games, so should be a nice wind down. Going to be taking Wednesday - Friday off from poker, back at it Saturday at the Hard Rock, off Sunday. Back at TGT Monday and then Tuesday night Silks is running that rescheduled $7,500 guaranteed PLO tourney so will be playing that.