Road back to HS PLO
ABOUT ME:
My screenname is portemilio. I've been playing Poker since I was 16. I started off playing poker on Runescape gambling sites where you'd buy coins ingame which had a $ value and deposit them on runescape poker sites. I found myself obsessed with the game since I was young. I specifically loved the HU format. At 16 i ran up 100$ to 20k when BTC was around 1.4k playing 6 max and 9max nlhe but ultimately got destroyed headsup because i lacked a lot of discipline and had major ego issues wanting to be the best. I always wanted to be the best and would get extremely angry when dealing with variance on top of the fact that I was an unstudied player. In college I transitioned to PLO. I got staked and coached but I wasn't winning no matter how hard I tried because of my serious BRM issues. I'd run up a couple of thousand dollars then instantly shot take 5/10 and lose it all and then go back to the lowest stakes to rebuild, rinse, and repeat. My senior year of college I decided I really wanted to give it my all. In class I'd bring my laptop and drill spots and this was the first form of studying I'd ever experienced (other than hundreds of hours of youtube videos and poker content that I consume). I significantly saw a change in my game. I've always been a highly intuitive player but with the baseline theory I developed I quickly skyrocketed though the ranks. I still had really poor mental game and not great BRM but I was able to run up my first 30k ish month in April of 2022. Unfortunately, I lost it all back shot taking 10/20 on ACR (very commend trend in my poker career). I had to take6 a fifth year of college because of a couple of other reasons but I always knew I was going to end up being a poker player. I dreaded school and felt it was the reason I wasn't succeeding because I still had to commit so many hours to school (studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Fluid Mechanics). I come from an Arab household and poker was not accepted at all but that didn't deter me. My fifth year I had the same routine where I'd study in class and play countless hours when I was back. I was also gaming a lot (League) so i decided to cut that out because I figured it was a waste of time if I really wanted to succeed. After I graduated (May 2022) I moved to Lebanon where my parents lived. I finally had no obligations, nothing holding me back and barely any expenses. I devoted all my time to poker (literally 15h days). After 6 months playing 1/2 - 10/20 on mainly bovada and BOL I made roughly 170k in profits. My mental health really suffered. I longed for social interaction; I had none of my friends in Lebanon and I started to not care about poker anymore. My health declined heavily and I felt despite the fact that I was winning that there was a constant judgement surrounding what I was doing. Once I showed my parents how much money I was making they couldn't complain about the journey I was decided to take ( as much anyways) but they were still greatly against it. My biggest mistake came when I decided to shot take 10/20 on Bovada. I was absolutely crushing Betonline and Bovada midstakes for atleast 8bb/100 over a sample of 400k+ hands, but when I played 10/20 nothing I did worked. I got absolutely crushed. My mental game was very strong at this point and I wasn't disheartened, I just figured it was variance. I ended up losing 45 ish buy ins (90k) running 70k below EV. This was almost 2/3 of my roll. I had heard rumors about collusion and cheating rings going on at 10/20 Bovada but I just figured that was bad regs crying about losing because the same was being said about every stake that I was consistently beating. I will never know if I actually got cheated as I have no definitive proof but I highly highly suspect that I did. At this point despite convincing myself that the loss of the money didn't affect me in reality my play began to change because nothing I did was working so I thought i had to deviate. I ended up going to EPT Barcelona in 2023 because I felt the need to prove to myself and everyone that what I was doing was a real job. I had around 50k to my name. I ended up losing 20k there playing 25/50 live (brm issues started coming back I really began to chase what I lost). Once I returned back to the US, started paying rent I prolonged into a 4 month period of break even/losing. I really thought at the time I was playing well I dont know maybe it was variance but looking back at it I had basically given up. I was playing 3h a day max and not putting in any volume at all (20k hands/month max). I'm using this 2+2 thread to hold myself accountable. I'm not going to give up on poker because I know I truly have a talent. I'm at a crossroads right now because im 24 and have little to no job experience so If I want to get a real 9-5 I'd really have to start looking now. I have a couple interviews with some investment banks just to appease my parents but it isn't something I'm taking seriously. On top of that it's really hard to explain to friends and family the journey I've been on because they don't understand variance at all. I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes I definetly did, but to lose that amount of money is definetly gut wrenching I finally made it and saw it gone at the blink of an eye. I have a lot of fuel in me now and I'm ready to play atleast 50k hands/month. I'm not going to let anyone pressure me or feel the need to prove to anyone (online or IRL) that what I'm doing is valid, I'm just going to do it. It may get lonely but this is truly what I love and I know i will get rewarded.
I'm going to attach this month's results. I had very little money to my name, I moved to my uncles house where I'm paying no rent and felt a lot less pressure on my bankroll. I started at .5/1 and 1/2 and slowly started to shot take 2/5 and very little 5/10 volume. I played almost 72k hands this month, which is the most volume I've ever put in in a month in my life. Attached is the graph. Eventually when I fix my old computer I'll export the DB to my new one and merge them. I will be posting interesting hands and lines I play here as well as weekly-monthly updates. I want to hold myself accountable no matter what and am interested to hear people's thoughts. I only have the last two months of my play tracked I'll post them shortly as I had to buy a new computer
GL ME!
booked my flight to vegas 14-24 gl us
GL to you
in 5 for out for 17 and change. An overdue live win. Happy with how i played and definetly got lucky to hold in a lot of spots
online is going well too! a lot less 2/5 this month and a lot more 5/10
I am not normally one to jump to conclusions of nefarious activity right after coming across a thread, but I just want to provide some background info to those that might not be in the know. I am also a winning mid-high stakes Global PLO reg, if that matters:
- Portemilio was presumably banned from playing on Global poker in 2021. He posted a thread to plea his innocence (filled with half-truths), which I will link below. He claims it was just a simple staking arrangement that resulted in his ban, but it later comes to light that his this stable was one that was known for utilizing RTA (Squid stable).
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/252/g...
- I remember playing with Portemilio a handful of times at PLO 500-1k on Global, and other regs were concerned about potential RTA use before the thread I linked above was even posted. Shortly after, he never made an appearance in the games again (presumably because of a permanent ban).
People are certainly capable of learning from their past mistakes and making the right decisions moving forward. However, in the case of Portemilio, I find that hard to believe. The peripheral evidence that other users posted (e.g. evidence of discord chat with the founder of a tool used to cheat AFTER he was banned from Global and claimed no further affiliation with this stable, never outing this stable for their wrongdoings, and just overall defensive and combative behavior in this thread) when viewed in conjunction with the facts above, all make me at the very least highly suspicious of the results posted.
I have no evidence of him cheating on Ignition. Sure, he could have cleaned up his act and is just one of the best legitimate PLO players online nowadays. However, this is a day and age where cheating on Ignition has all but been confirmed as widespread (and crushing regs went from winners to losing players in the matter of months). Couple that with the fact that Ignition's security has been absent in cleaning up the games, it sure seems like it is the perfect storm of opportunity for cheaters like Portemilio to hop in and make a killing in the games.
Sometimes when something looks like **** and smells like ****....it probably is ****.
I'm enjoying the thread port 😀 Keep it going <3
Flight to Vegas in a couple of hours! Packed out of my uncles apartment. Planning on getting my own spot when I’m back. I have Vegas from the 14-24th. I get back to NY the 25th in the morning then I’m going to Lebanon for 3 weeks! My girlfriend got a job in Chicago so it seems likely I move there, but I also really wanna move to Austin for poker. A lot to think about. Also there should be some really good games in Lebanon so excited for that. Today has been exhausting a lot of packing and planning. A guy I met at Parx is giving me a free comp for 10 days at the Wynn which is awesome. Will be playing the 5k PLO tourney on June 20th at Pokergo(still have 10% for sale, sold 20% already). And going to be grinding cash in the meantime!
Also. Side note.. I played a private game recently and won 15k. Haven’t been paid in almost a week which is kind of upsetting. Really trusted the game. Hope they pull through. It was referred through a friend of a friend . I went into it thinking they pay right out the gate because I had brought money to buy in with but at the end of the night after I won they said they’d Zelle or Venmo me the next day because they don’t hold cash for security reasons. The guy isn’t ghosting me but he keeps blowing me off saying he’ll pay the next day without ever following through. Really upset about that but already mentally have taken the hit that I’m not getting paid. Just sucks cuz I’ve run like **** live and finally booked a big win and I don’t even get to get paid
Flight got canceled cuz of the Ryan. Kms. Had to completely rebook my whole flight. Got a refund but have to stay in airport until 7 am (new flight time) unless I wanna Uber back home which is another 100$. So im just gonna stay here till then. Definitely a bummer
I am not normally one to jump to conclusions of nefarious activity right after coming across a thread, but I just want to provide some background info to those that might not be in the know. I am also a winning mid-high stakes Global PLO reg, if that matters:
- Portemilio was presumably banned from playing on Global poker in 2021. He posted a thread to plea his innocence (filled with half-truths), which I will link below. He claims it was ju
Interesting. So OP's a scumreg, basically.
in 5 for out for 17 and change. An overdue live win. Happy with how i played and definetly got lucky to hold in a lot of spots
online is going well too! a lot less 2/5 this month and a lot more 5/10
huge win, grats! does parx have 10/10 plo? GL in vegas when you end up making it out there
huge win, grats! does parx have 10/10 plo? GL in vegas when you end up making it out there
Yeah they have a 10/10 game thats basically a 20 mandatory straddle (even though its not mandatory). Thats how most live games are. It mostly runs on Tuesdays which is the big PLO day at Parx, i tend to only go there on that day.
Yep got to vegas, grinding some 25/25/50. met a lot of people ive played throughout the years online which is really funny. Some good and bag regs. Games are good dont wanna jinx anything because ts pretty high stakes but my stoploss for this trip is -30k. Taking a shot here but if things go well I can see myself making a lot in the next 8 days
I am not normally one to jump to conclusions of nefarious activity right after coming across a thread, but I just want to provide some background info to those that might not be in the know. I am also a winning mid-high stakes Global PLO reg, if that matters:
- Portemilio was presumably banned from playing on Global poker in 2021. He posted a thread to plea his innocence (filled with half-truths), which I will link below. He claims it was ju
Also a lot of smoke around him ghosting on Global under another high stakes reg's account.
It’s goin
in for 5k out for 33k what a fkn night. gg going to bed im exhausted
This thread is wild. After I congratulated you on some spectacular results the information that was posted made me reconsider how impressive it is. It led me to learning a lot about online PLO's unsavoury past and present. These are serious allegations with multiple people coming forward with some pretty damning evidence of your involvement and continued contact even after being caught.
Admittedly the evidence does show that you were being intensely pressured to become little more than a connection between Visions and a poker site. It also shows that you were reluctant and had a strong desire to prove yourself as a player in your own right.
I am a firm believer in second chances but I'm also not one of the many people who you had illegitimately won large sums off of. I'm sure that changes things a lot.
Your offline results are obviously very good but that doesn't prove anything about the legitimacy of your online results. I don't think anybody can deny that you have been involved in PLO for long enough to understand it very well. However, your online results are so far above the average win-rate that it is natural to be highly suspicious considering your past.
I've been following but not commenting because I truly have nothing to add and people far more qualified and closer to the situation have weighed in. Finally I have something to add to the conversation though...
Those Aria chips are ****ing nasty! What the actual ****? Is the cage just a shack in a swamp? Have they been up someone's ass? A few years back everyone had a plexiglass window and now we're all back to chip shuffling up some COVID-24? That's a $5000 chip and it looks like it is about to ask to clean my windscreen for a dollar. What a dump.
This thread is wild. After I congratulated you on some spectacular results the information that was posted made me reconsider how impressive it is. It led me to learning a lot about online PLO's unsavoury past and present. These are serious allegations with multiple people coming forward with some pretty damning evidence of your involvement and continued contact even after being caught.
Admittedly the evidence does show that you were being
Hey man. I’ve said my piece and I’m not gonna continue to address people that don’t really know what they’re talking about. Me not addressing anymore isn’t an admission of guilt. Half these things are conspiracy theories that aren’t worth my time or energy. Im crushing online and live and clearly that upsets people.
Lmfaoooo about the aria chips
This is what the rack looked like end of the night ��
in for 18k out for 5k feelsbadman. was up 15k on the day too just lost every all in today but its ok tomorrows a new day 😃
i was really debating between betting and checking flop i think in restrospect check is better bc i have playability with bdfd without it probably bet? given the action i like the bluff on the river. i dont think i have to jam tho its really hard for me to have a bluff here
I think solvers tend to bet more with the back doors, putting more $ in with better equity. Prob one of those spots u can def mix though
Last day of the trip. Lots of ups and downs. I think im running like 100k below ev. Played some huge pots that I either chopped or loss running or twice. Straight up lost two 40k pots with 60-70% in a 25/25/50 game. With that all being said, im still up 50k on the trip. Will be traveling for the next week and then maybe ill come back to Vegas we shall see.
Any updates OP?
updates? also you have any updates on how knox is doing? i recall him talking **** about everyone like you and jnandez, kaki, etc, and now you're all travelling the world playing high stakes both live and online cash/mtt while he's prob still being staked playing 100 PLO. i wish he didn't close his blog, it was hands down the most delusional yet entertaining PLO thread on 2p2.
updates? also you have any updates on how knox is doing? i recall him talking **** about everyone like you and jnandez, kaki, etc, and now you're all travelling the world playing high stakes both live and online cash/mtt while he's prob still being staked playing 100 PLO. i wish he didn't close his blog, it was hands down the most delusional yet entertaining PLO thread on 2p2.
I’m doing just fine.
updates? also you have any updates on how knox is doing? i recall him talking **** about everyone like you and jnandez, kaki, etc, and now you're all travelling the world playing high stakes both live and online cash/mtt while he's prob still being staked playing 100 PLO. i wish he didn't close his blog, it was hands down the most delusional yet entertaining PLO thread on 2p2.
I’ll be back in a week or so. I’m taking a well deserved vacation. My MacBook broke in Lebanon anyways so I don’t really have a way to play here. There’s a 25/25/50 PLO5 game that runs here weekly I played that once. Just enjoying life tbh Lebanon is absolutely beautiful. My gf visited for her first time and spent 10 days here she loved it, she just left yesterday.
I’ve been debating whether or not I wanna cut my trip early and head to Vegas before WSOP ends and then come back to Lebanon, some things to think about for sure. I played poker for 3 months straight with almost no days off so I just need a second to relax tbh. I will be back soon regardless I’m still thinking about the game a lot.
Not gonna give attention to the recreational who closed his blog. It definetly was a good source of entertainment but all good things must come to an end
some pics from Lebanon. I stayed at the Portemilio resort for two nights had to stay true to myself
