Sounds appropriate. The reason I thought of it - had this female intern at the firm I worked at years ago & she said she wasn't getting married until after she gets her doctorate. That way it would be Mr. & Dr..... guess she hadn't looked it up.

I can see two reasons why someone might grind tourney:

1. Lack of BR
2. Rec player who is looking to maximize time spent per investment

A pro would be the opposite on both.

Is it sensible to try and make 200BBs every session? Im thinking of going for 2/5 as a living, ive only been playing for 18 months. I know I have to become a little bit more consistent and manage my bankrool/spending habits, but I think as far as natural skill I am more than capable to play full time. Anyways I imagine making 200BBs/$1000 per session would not be so hard to manage for a winning player. Doing this 3-5 times a week would make for a great salary. Is this realistic? Is this how other pros try to reach there montly goals?

No. This is entirely unrealistic. Poker has lots of variance, and setting a profit goal on your sessions will lead to insane tilt. Also, read the Bankroll, Winrates and Finances thread. Unless you're playing 14 hour sessions, no way you are even averaging that big a win, much less aiming to get it every time, no matter how much "natural skill" you have.

Garick, Is "natural skill" the ability to look into someone's soul? I think 200BBs per session would not be so hard if you knew what your Villains were holding the majority of the time.

I don't know what slappy means by natural skill, but I know that even Phil Ivey isn't winning 200BBs every session.

what if he played 2/5?

By natural skill I just mean the ability to become as good as any other 2/5 - 5/10 full time player.
Is it really that unrealistic though? At 2/5 you can buy in for 200BBs/$1000, all you have to do is double your money.
Ive been playing for less than 2 years, and only as a hobby, and ive had +10 sessions playing 1/1-2/5 stakes where ive profited 200-550BBs.

It's LLSNL. You don't win money by making people fold.

this thread is the nuts. OSUTexan balla balla shot calla

Yah but isn't X% of your win rate achieved by your successful bluffs? I feel like knowing when your V is likely capped to a one pair hand and being able to exploit it can contribute a large percentage to your overall win rate.

Or are you saying it's just not relevant to achieve a certain BB/hr rate at LLSNL? And if so - at what level do you think it's necessary to start expanding your game to capitalize on +EV scenarios when your cards don't necessarily mesh with the play/story/move you are trying to convey?

What?

One could argue that 2/5 and other LLSNL games are merely an endless (hopefully) carousel of same bad players.

People simply don't like to fold cards in LLSNL, and percentage of times in which moon and stars line up to allow someone to "LAG it up" just don't happen often enough.

Could be too advance for your understanding.

18 months of play and you're not sure about these things?

LMAO @ today's discussion. How long of sessions are talking about? If we are talking about making $1000 over a 10 hour session that is $100/hr which is completely unsustainable.

People that are looking for a steady income should not consider poker as a career option. If you would get really upset having a losing month of poker (ie if you expect to make $5k/month but instead lost $5k in a month...aka a $10k difference between expectation and reality) then poker is probably not for you.

In that case, you definitely need to read the Bankroll Winrate and Finances (BR&F) thread. The general rule of thumb is that if your Winrate is 10BBs/hour, you are crushing the game. The example I gave above gave a huge winrate of 15BBs/hour, which only the very toppest players achieve long term, and even then you'd have to be playing marathon sessions to even average that big a win, and while some would be much bigger, there is no way you'd get there in all of them.

You seem to have no understanding of variance, and you need to. As I said in the thread I locked, please take this discussion to BR&F thread, and please read it first before you post.

You also need to keep accurate records of your poker results. I suspect that you are mentally "writing off" some sessions as bad luck or tilt, and thus not reflective of the way you "really" play. That's lying to yourself. Bad luck and tilt are part of the game. I tilted off 240BBs in my last session on an ill conceived bluff when a bad turn card came, and I've been doing this stuff seriously for years.

^ Ouch Garick @ 240 BB's. Wouldn't mind hearing the story on that one.

1/2 (only stakes running) at a Florida Dog Track about midnight on a weeknight. $485 effective. My table breaks and I get moved to the deep, loud, aggro, and gambooly table behind me. I've been listening to these guys 3 and 4 bet and talk smack to each other all night. I, OTOH, have an OMC-ish image.

As I'm stacking my chips the brush comes up and tells me he meant to move me to a different table to keep things balanced. I ask if I can play the hand I was dealt before moving. I'm a bit tilted, as I really wanted this table, which is very juicy. Button straddle to 5, and two callers. I look down at AcKd and make it $25. Button calls, BB calls, saying "man you really want to get the most out of your one hand at this table, don't you?"

Flop $75 (high rake)
AdJs8s. BB checks, I bet $65, BTN calls quickly, BB folds.

Turn $205
AdJs8s4s
I check, as any bet commits me and his quick call makes me suspect a lot of FDs in his range. V bets $110, and I convince myself that he has a lot of AsX in his range, and that my image may get folds from low flushes (lol me, like the loud gambooly guy calls flop to hit a flush and fold it). I shove.

V tanks deeep, muttering about how I have AsKs. Uncaps his cards a couple of times, etc. Finally calls though, and rolls QsTs.

I didn't intend to post this hand, as I know where I went wrong and don't really need advice on it, but the point is that even experienced players make decisions in the heat of the moment that they never would advise in this forum. It is part of the game, and though we need to work on it, pretending that "it's just an aberration, so it doesn't count" is BS.

You still in FL? if so, let's meet up if you're in Tampa!

No, I was up in Ft. Walton Beach for a week for training. Home in Kansas now.

I was born in Tampa, but haven't been there in many years.

always down for a pshyc lesson from the pros

nice story

Garick how would you have responded to a flop raise basically readless? Is 3rd nut flush + a gutter strong enough to raise to $200 here? Those are the kind of plays I want to start experimenting with more. The reason I haven't (yet) is because it still seems more profitable to bink first and worry about getting paid second.

I guess from V's perspective, your likeliest hand is something like AK here, so raising to $200 and shoving all turns I would think would show a profit as it's very hard to stack off nearly 240 BB's deep with just a pair.

Is there a good book/COTM on semi-bluffing? Seems like a powerful concept I don't think about enough

I'm gonna advise you not to play poker for a living.

I don't really want to get into the strat of this hand ITT, as it's kind of a derail, but given the table and the V, I i would likely shove over a flop raise. I wasn't readless. Readless, I'd likely go with stereotyping for the V, folding to OMC and shoving over working class guy with a drink.