When we left off in Part 2 of this miniseries, my maiden journey as a semipro mixed game player still felt “pristine”. What I mean by that is that overall everything was going well; smoothly and steadily in the right direction. I had settled into a rhythm, logged a healthy number of hours at the tables, and felt that I had proven to myself that I could hang in the Las Vegas mixed game ecosystem. My results were okay, but more importantly, my process was working and decision-making felt sound.
What followed next, however, was a reminder of how fragile momentum can be in poker. One day you’re stacking everyone else’s chips; the next day you’re the one getting stacked. Over the next few days, my bankroll took a rollercoaster ride that caused me to go on some sharp emotional swings. Thankfully, the waters calmed some after that, as I managed to begin the rebuilding process during Mixed Game Festival XII. This was not the prettiest stretch of poker I played. But it may have been the most important.
Day 7 | November 11: A Brutal Reality Check
The poker session started exactly the way you want one to begin. Sitting in the $20/40 mixed game at Wynn, I found myself coasting and up $600 within the first hour. Decisions were simple, the cards were cooperating, and everything felt easy and straightforward.
Then, suddenly, everything unraveled — and I mean everything. For the next 3.5 hours, nothing went right. Strong draws bricked repeatedly, my opponents consistently hit their draws, and I made a couple of avoidable (and costly) mistakes in Badacey and Badeucey. Here’s a free poker strategy tip: aim to make a good “dugi” first; the low ought to be secondary in priority. 🤦♂️
A small bet plus a big bet or two per hand adds up, and when you’re just not winning and have to keep on putting those chips in to try and make your draws, you’ll start running low on chips pretty quickly, even in a fixed limit mixed game. By the time I knew what had hit me, not only was the $600 profit gone, but so was my entire $1,000 buy-in. Thankfully, I at least had the wherewithal to get up and cut the session short rather than chase the loss.
I took a break to try and mentally reset from the whopper of a losing session. I went to visit Eli, who was playing in his big mixed game. We broke down a few key hands, and I did my best to learn from his analysis. I would have kept sitting on his rail, but then I got a text message from my friend Ruth Sun.
Ruth had been trying to get an $8/16 game together for that evening, but her efforts had not borne any fruit. She asked me if I’d be interested in playing her heads-up. Eager to get back to playing, I happily accepted the invite. While I always enjoy spending time with Ruth, poker-wise it turned out to be a catastrophic error on my part.
We played a triple draw mix (A-5, 2-7, and Badugi). Each of those is a single winner game, and of course hands play out faster when heads up. Ruth is a good, aggressive poker player. Unfortunately (for me), Ruth also happened to go on a sun run. She literally could not lose, no matter what I did, no matter what she did… the poker gods were definitively on her side. Frankly speaking, I got my ass handed to me. I had bought in for three racks, and I got thoroughly dismantled by Ruth’s unstoppable heater. It happens; that’s poker sometimes.
To compound my error further, however, when I very clearly should’ve waved the white flag and accepted the loss, I proceeded to buy in again for the last $370 I had in my wallet. Surely fortunes would turn back in my favor at least a bit, right?
I ended up losing that, too. My entire $970 profit accrued from the trip to that point got wiped out in one fell swoop.
Thus, after having played more than 36 hours of poker on my trip, I found myself right back where I started (breakeven), with nothing tangible to show for all the time and effort invested. On top of that, I was now also significantly down on Eli’s stake in the $20/40 sessions.
Emotionally, it was a difficult spot to be in. I can’t lie: it was really hard to pick myself up after those two poker sessions. I had gone to Vegas to try and make money playing mixed game poker. It’s tough to invest so much time and effort into an endeavor and have a big fat $0 staring back at you in the “results” column.
Even so, I tried to summon up some resilience. While driving out of Resorts World, I clung to the fact that even after the bottom had fallen out from under me, I still wasn’t down for the trip. I just had to start over. If I had built a profit once already, surely I could do it again. The real danger was letting frustration push me into bad habits, whether at the table or away from it.
Sticking to my routine of getting a good night’s sleep, decent nutrition, exercise walks, getting my regular work done and learning my daily page of Talmud all mattered that much more. Those fundamentals are what allow me to play my A-game. So, I leaned hard on that structure and focused on being grateful that I had both Miriam and Eli with whom to talk things through.
I also made what felt like a GTO decision: the following day I would shift gears and play in a tournament.
Day 8 | November 12: Tournament Mode as a Mental Reset
I woke up feeling genuinely pleased with my decision to play the $600 TORSE tournament (it was an event on Allen Kessler‘s “Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker” schedule at Planet Hollywood). If I busted, the cash games would still be there. Perhaps this was my chance to make a deep run and a nice score. Maybe I’d be the last player standing? Eli went 50/50 with me on the buy in, and his continued faith in me was a confidence booster.
Tournament poker, however, brings its own emotional challenges. I noticed my mood fluctuating more than it should have as the swings came and went, something I need to work on managing better. Still, it was encouraging to feel completely unintimidated despite a tough table that included accomplished mixed game winners like Nicholas Milgrim and Quinghi Pak. Even in a relatively modest buy-in event, the field can be very strong when you’re playing mixed game poker.
Sounds like it’ll be a fun one…
Let’s give it a go 😉 https://t.co/SBnzAm6HtI pic.twitter.com/TCJEEkIwup
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) November 12, 2025
Unfortunately, I busted after four hours.
When considering what to do next that day, I felt that the smart decision would be to remain in tournament mode, so I then headed to Orleans where a $150 O/E event (half Omaha 8, half Stud 8) was underway. Unfortunately the cards remained uncooperative, and I exited significantly earlier than I would have liked.
On the plus side, participating in both tournaments was “good for business”, as I handed out plenty of flyers and did my best to spread the word about Mixed Game Festival XII, which was set to kick off a few days later. I was quite literally surrounded by my target audience. 🙂
Anyhow, at 7:30pm I found myself at another decision point. This time, I chose discipline over “degeneracy”. Rather than find a cash game to jump into, I went out for a nice dinner, and used the rest of the evening to catch up on work before going to sleep early.
The day’s results were disappointing, but I went to sleep truly upbeat and in a good mood, for I had made optimal decisions all day long. The cards are out of my control. Decision-making is not. So long as I kept making good decisions, eventually the rungood was bound to arrive, and I’d be primed to make the most of it.
Day 9 | November 13: A Long Grind, a Near Collapse, and a Short-Handed Save
I woke up ready to get to work at the felt. Day 9 brought an 8.5-hour $20/40 session at Wynn that, well… was pretty brutal. Cooler after cooler. Boats losing to bigger boats. Missed draws in Stud 8, Badugi, and Badacey. Folding correctly only to watch what would’ve been my miracle cards arrive on later streets. Even when I bluffed, I got hero-called by hands that had no business continuing. If you’ve played any poker for long enough, you know what that feels like.
Have you ever gone through an entire orbit of Badugi and not have been dealt/drawn even a single spade?
Asking for a friend 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/GRyf4FxVyI
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) November 13, 2025
I wasn’t playing poorly though, so I added on to my stack for a third rack of chips. My patience eventually paid off. A massive Badugi pot and a timely Stud hand brought me back to $1,350 and for a moment it felt like good momentum had returned. Then it disappeared again just as quickly. An hours-long rough stretch dropped me almost all the way down to the felt. I nearly busted, but somehow managed to stay afloat. Then the game went short-handed, and that thankfully saved my session.
Over the next two hours, I managed to spin my stack all the way back up to roughly $1,200 before the game finally broke. It was not a pretty 8.5 hours, but it was a reminder that adaptability, steely nerves, and staying cool under pressure matters just as much as the cards you’re dealt.
Later that night, I played a short $8/16 session and once again nearly gave it all away (including an additional $150 on top of my $400 initial buy-in) before recovering as the table thinned. I ended the day tired, still slightly down, but oddly energized. Managing to “only” lose $300 in the big game and a little over $100 in my game practically felt like a win. On the other hand, I knew I wouldn’t be playing any higher-stakes sessions for another 1.5 weeks (until after the conclusion of Mixed Game Festival XII), so I was starting to feel some pressure to record better results.
In any event, after about 50 hours of poker for the week and being down a few hundred dollars, the looming Shabbat break felt not just welcome, but necessary.
Days 10–11 | November 14–15: Stepping Away for Shabbat to Reset
I used the short Friday (Shabbat started at about 4:20pm) to finish up all my publishing, editing, regular work obligations, and festival preparation that had inevitably slipped during the grind-heavy first week of the trip. After barely sleeping Thursday night, I crashed hard and enjoyed a deeply restorative Shabbat that helped clear both my mental and physical fatigue.
With Mixed Game Festival XII about to begin, I felt obligated to switch into “host mode”. Even so, knowing I’d have dozens of hours of poker ahead of me, I set a goal of ending up at least slightly profitable each day. I knew a string of wins would do wonders for my confidence and serve well to replenish what had been lost from my bankroll to (hopefully) bring me back into the black for the trip.
Days 12–16 | November 16–20: Rebuilding at Mixed Game Festival XII
In a sense, every Mixed Game Festival kind of feels like “one long day”, so that’s how I’ll be treating it as part of this write-up. Over the five-day stretch, I played 60 hours of $4/8 and four hours of $8/16 mix. That’s a LOT of poker!
Moving into Resorts World on Sunday felt like stepping into my natural habitat. Hosting, playing, greeting players, answering questions, and managing giveaway and table seating logistics all day long is demanding, but it is also energizing. Being in “host mode” presents a unique challenge from the poker playing perspective though. It’s so easy to let my focus slip or be distracted when actually playing. This has happened to me numerous times across past festivals. This time, I wasn’t about to let it happen again. I reminded myself that even during a low-stakes mixed game festival, every chip matters!
Thankfully, I played well right from the get-go, stayed disciplined, and ended the first day with over three racks of profit ($320); a great start!
Each day followed a similar rhythm. I prioritized self-care where possible, including a short morning Jacuzzi session, relatively healthy eating, and pacing myself.
The Resorts World Jacuzzi stays open in the winter! On the one festival morning that it wasn’t cold and rainy, I managed to get in a delightful hour there.
On Day 2 of the festival, I managed to win just over five racks ($535), which felt incredible! Some more modest wins on Days 4 and 5 of the festival allowed me to rebuild my confidence and reinforce good habits. This proved true even though the profits came slowly and I kept having to jump from table to table so as to ensure I got play time in with all festival participants.
There were naturally some frustrating stretches of treading water and tougher spots I found myself in when I played in the $8/16 game against stronger opponents, but I adjusted well and kept losses to a minimum, down about a rack and a half on Day 3.
Everyone in this picture is here at @PokerRoomRWLV because of Mixed Game Festival XII ❤️
Two “beginners” $1/2 ladies A-5/2-7 tables going plus two $4/8 mixes and one $8/16 mix.
And we haven’t even started today’s giveaways yet 😉
Come join us for all the fun! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/JJeQH478u1
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) November 19, 2025
By the end of the five-day festival, I had rebuilt steadily. No white hot heater. No miracle run. Just solid play, good decisions, and incremental profit; exactly what I needed. The approximately $1,200 I managed to win overall felt like a million bucks. I was riding high.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one other very special moment that occurred on Day 3 of the festival: a player approached me, thanked me for running the festival, said “you’re doing a great job,” and handed me a $20 tip. My jaw dropped. That had never happened before. Honestly, that $20 was the most meaningful money I held in my hands throughout the entire trip.
Leaving Las Vegas on Solid Ground
Mixed Game Festival XII was thankfully not just a business success. It was exactly the kind of poker week I needed at that point during my month as a semipro mixed game player. It stopped the bleeding, rebuilt my confidence, and was when I proved to myself that I could grind patiently through a myriad of “distractions” without abandoning my discipline as a player.
With the festival behind me, I packed up, said my goodbyes, and headed to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. The timing felt right. Poker-wise, I was back on track, my mindset was healthy, and was happy to have a break for some “real life” before heading back to Vegas for the second half of my poker-playing trip.
You can read all about that in the penultimate installment of this miniseries, coming soon.
Robbie Tracker: 120.5 hours of poker played | $720 overall profit
