love this thread and the chipstack pics.

im wondering whats the highest limit you played online? also what made you play more live than online?

do u think $2k is more than enough to build a roll starting at 1/2? or should i not under estimate variance and have a full 20bi's($4k)?

You will lol your face off at this.

The highest limit I played online was 25nl which I beat for about 4bb/100.

I feel like I have gotten so much better post black friday as live poker has made me a much better hand reader/more disciplined.


To answer your question -
1. How much are you buying in for? 200 or 300? Is your game capped?
2. How soft is the game? Do you know, not think, that you have a significant edge?
3. Do you play live alot? Are you prone to tilt/boredom. Do you like to drink while you play?


Assuming you are actually a winning player 2k is more then enough to start a roll. Shouldn't really have a 2k downswing buying in for 200 at 1/2.

I started with a little under 3k and had a huge downswing to start off my live poker journey where I ran terrible but also played nowhere near close to optimal.

If you are strictly coming from playing online then do not underestimate how boring/tilting live poker can be at first.

max buy-in is $200 at 1/2. the games play very soft, loose-passive. a lot of short stackers, and a lot of 300-400bb fishes that just ran hot lol. i think i do have a slight edge. the regs are mostly playing ABC face up. no one is making moves at pots, basically when they hit they bet, and if they miss they insta-check it down. lots of old people too lol.

don't play a lot of live, but after playing a couple of sessions, i can make waaaay more than i do grinding micro stakes online. id say i play 90 online/10 live.

i dont drink when i play, just water. i tilt more when i play online. i rarely tilt at live. (maybe because i dont want to make a fool out of myself in front of other players.)

there's a casino 10 minutes away from where i live, so the travel is not a problem. im just worried about my br. last time i played, i started the session down 2.5bi's. i was gonna quit but then miraculously i scooped a 600bb pot (my bottom set over top 2 pair facing an oesd all in on the flop. turn and river faded and i could finally breathe.) should i just wait until i have around $3.5k? i definitely play a bit weak/tight w/ a 10bi roll, and it affects my play at the table.

also this thread has made me want to play more live. love the chipstack pics!

Another challenge to live I forgot to mention is the actual money.

I obviously used to play micro stakes online and transitioning to live 1/2 which is literally 8x the stake I played online. Much bigger.

You need to eventually be able to detach yourself from money and not think of 500$ as 500$. Think of it as 250bbs.

Playing with a 10BI roll is more then enough live if your a winning player. I've played 1000 hours and my worst downswing was 4buyins (2k) which includes misreading the board in a 1k pot. This was at 2/5.

I also play deep all the time.

And yes, handling tons of chips/cash always makes me feel quite balla

I agree $2000 should be more than enough to start playing 1/2. It's not like 2k is that last of your money ever.

Where i play we the max buyin is $500 so if you buyin for 200 you are relativley shortstacked. jussayin

You are shortstacked compared to the rest of the table, but there is still some maneuverability to make some moves and stuff. It's not like necessarily you will always be all in on the flop.

What up Ben?
Pretty much on the heater of my life right now. I don't really mind posting an update cause I know it's not going to "jinx" me. I'm a math guy.


Pretty ridiculous winrate right now for 2/5. Hoping I can at least semi-maintain it. I am also not able to just take off for 3 days like I used to because I have to be home for baseball (which I love, most days ).

That's a 10BI+ upswing at 2/5. Almost got my down payment back lol.

Poker is pretty fun when you run good. I really can't remember too many hands I got sucked out on in huge pots. I actually dropped a hammer on somebody the other day.

I raise to 30 in MP after a limper with 1010. Button calls and BB calls.

BB is an old reg, Button is some 30 something unknown playing passively.

BB has under 400, button has about 400ish. I cover.

Flop J107
Yikes. I can already sense myself going broke.

I cbet 80 into 100, button calls and BB ships for 275 more.

I legitimately, legitimately, consider folding this to this guy here. The pot is laying me such a good price that if he ever has pocket sevens here I believe I should call. It seems live that this is always a flush though, but I talked myself into calling.

Other guy shoves behind for a few dollars more and I call.

No one turns up their hands (yeah buddy your so hard to read), and the turn is a
K

River is the beautiful J and I fastroll my boat as I can only lose to quads.

Button says he flopped a flush, I assume old guy had the nut flush as when I was looking at him while I was deciding what to do he was super confident and made eye contact with me with no issues (reliable live tell for me I guess). But I still called

Neither shows and old guy leaves the table (to go beat his wife I assume),

Clark Kent to Robfarha

Heres some sushi from shrine. Which I absolutely love for some reason. It's also the reason I have 600 points at Mohegan and 13 at Foxwoods.


Very proud of myself and my ability to turn into a poker player.

What I mean by this is that I was seriously bummed/pissed for a day or two as a parent of a kid on my team called my cell phone and pretty much bitched at me for a half hour. The guy is a rich dude from a rich town who is a typical snobby dude. He was complaining about all sorts of nonsense and explaining baseball philosophy to me (love that from know-it-all parents).

My typical line to this sort of stuff is to just agree and explain. I am about 6'0 240 lbs with a pretty awesome beard, but in real life I am very articulate and like to think of myself as a calm person. I very seldom let these type of things escalate into verbal-warfare. Agree and explain.

This particular scenario bothered me to the point where I was unsure if I wanted to drive to the casino and play for thousands of dollars with a burden on my head. The good thing in this case is that the casino is over an hour away, so I figured I could clear my mind of it

I drove (in my new ballin' whip btw) for an hour and got to Foxwoods. Not once did I think about this BS situation until I started driving home again.

The funny thing is I had my best single session ever, (+2k and change) with this going on. Was very proud of myself and my ability to differentiate my poker life with my real life.

Philosophizing
When I am at the casino playing I do not like distractions at all. I hate when my friends come cause then I have to go and walk around this God-forsaken place full of hopeless drunken degenerates. That sounds brutal, but it honestly makes me sad (and rich, I suppose) to see this people with no chance of winning. Gambling should be for fun, but just walking through the casino and seeing people who look all miserable bothers me. Distractions and poker do not mix. Not to mention I'm at the casino grinding for 20 hours a week, I do not want to come there for recreation. If you worked as a barback for 40 hours a week would you really want to go drinking there on Friday night with your buddies?


If I keep running this good I'll have the 20k live profit by next month.

I averaged how many hours I play per week since I turned 21 and it came out to like 10hrs a week. Not bad.

Wonder what I could do with 45 hours a week?

Oh well. Happy with my results, my progress as a player, and my overall attitude and outlook on things. Not to mention my new car.

As I told my assistant coaches today, not bad for a kid from Bridgeport with no job.

very sick heater. like u said, when everything is going ur way, u just feel like ur unbeatable.

im guessing this is ur only source of income? how did you manage to pay bills when u had that downswing in the beginning? are you ever afraid of going broke?

im kind of in the same situation as you. have been jobless since late 2009, and just been grinding micros for side money. still live with the rents, but i feel very guilty not doing anything. every one of my friends either has graduated or has a decent job. when people ask me what i do, i just say im currently unemployed and there is this akward moment untill one of us changes the subject. i have 1 semester of college under my belt, but have no plans of going back. like you said earlier in this thread, i am very worried about my future.

im gonna try this live poker thing. i have around $2k to my name, and also have a coach/staker staking me for nl10/nl25. been rough though, im on a 1.5 month breakeven stretch, (but he has definitely fixed my red line ). im gonna give myself a 5bi shot at live and if im down to my last $1k, i guess its time to get a job or man it up and go back to school.

That TT hand it sounds like you should call even if you know he has the nut flush with the pot odds you were getting.

I had no bills when I first started playing. 2k downswing hurt like crazy when I first started, but even then I just kept telling myself to play good and not worry about how the cards fall. Essentially I knew my opponents were playing so bad that it is impossible for me to not crush.

I also go through the awkward moments with the "what do you do?" questions. I hate it. Don't mention poker whatever you do. I just tell people who are friends of friends that I coach baseball, and people at the casino etc I tell I work at AT&T.

This is essentially my only source of income, the money I make from coaching baseball is close to breakeven after gas/hotel rooms etc, which I pay for myself.

I do not have a fear of going broke. I manage my money quite well as far as poker is concerned. I do not go on tilt rages, have no desire to gamble/bet sports or anything like that. My bankroll management skills are pretty solid too. Before I bought the car I had about 15k cash and wasn't going to play 5/10 till a bit more. Like I've said a million times, I think those traits are just as important as knowing when to valuebet and when to fold.

Good luck with your shot. If you exert maximum effort with no ego holding you back, I'm sure you can do well.

[ x ] confirmed fish on a heater


lol sick heater bro, hope it continues.

Also I think you're probs underestimating variance if you think 20BI for a stake is enough to play for a living, don't play much live tho so might be wrong.

20BI for a stake is not enough to play for a living.

If I pulled the trigger on playing fulltime I'de want 30 buyins + 6mo (at the minimum) of living expenses set aside

So that would be 30 buyins for 2/5 (15,000) + 6mo living expenses 1300 x 6 = (7800)

22.8k... My number would be about 25k in cash. Have heard this from 2 seperate guys who play 2/5 | 5/10 for a living.

Another thing I notice is that plenty of people use the term "Huge Downswing", when the reality is a little bad of negative variance followed by a ton of spew, due to the little runbad.

Heater Confirmed Still Burning Hot

I mean. Oh my God.

\

Literally can't get sucked out on lol. I am running so great (playing good too, I think?), as the pic shows I haven't had a losing session in May, which is great.

So sick. This also couldnt come at a better time as I just bought a car. Literally great timing to have a ~10k month playing (working?) 50 hours lol.

I still feel like my play causes the older guys to spew by trying to play back and stuff cause they hate folding to cbets (double barrel them).

Classic example is when they peel my flop bet they are assuming I will only fire again if I have a made hand (because that's what they do). They apply their thought process to me. Winning players do the same thing some time (and it is a huge leak). "Oh wow this is such a great card to represent he knows our SPR is 2 and the pot is laying xx-1 so he'll do this and that etc". In reality your playing against a level 0 fish who's waiting for the cocktail waitress.

Life

I really, really, really, really, wish I could play on Friday and Saturday as again, all my play comes against monday/tuesday regs where the games are a little nittier. Unfortunately baseball doesn't allow me to do that. Am really considering quitting next year and pursuing poker. I do not know what to do though because it would certainly break my heart to leave the kids, coaches and everyone else to go "gamble". I'm sure they all view me as a pretty smart kid, even though I didn't finish college and have no real job. I'm very professional in my eyes and try my best to not act 21.

Essentially I lead 3 lives.

1. Myself. 21 year old kid who likes to drink, hit on skanks and get drunk with my friends. I love baseball (all sports really), anything that involves strategy, xbox, smokeless tobacco and obviously poker. Last NFL season I made 3 100$ sports bets so I guess I enjoyed gambling before I made a bunch of money in poker.

2. Baseball Coach. Try my best to be courteous and lead America's youth both on a baseball field and in life. This is a very rewarding feeling as I love getting texts from current and former kids whom I coached that respect me and keep in contact. Espicially when they have success in high school or whatever, also parents who thank me and stuff feels pretty awesome.

Last week I had a parent who let me know her son was slacking in school so I sat him for 2 games after giving him a verbal beating and telling him to get his **** together. Today his mother told me he's doing much better and got all his stuff done and she kept thanking me and telling me that he really respects me and stuff. Probably because I'm 21, joke around a ton but fly off the handle a ton too. Kids don't want to hear the old "this is important because of blah blah blah". Feel like they listen to me more because I try my best not to talk down to anyone, I pretty much treat everyone as equals and teach in a stern manner. Good balance. Gotta be fun, but have to drop the hammer sometimes too.

3. Poker Player. Stone faced, quiet internet kid that doesn't like to talk too much and never does anything fun. I am almost a completely different person when at the casino as I have no desire to drink, talk to girls or do anything that even resembles fun. I drove over an hour here for a purpose, don't get sidetracked with BS you can do at home. Get that EV, baby.

I am a lot quieter in my personal life these days because of poker. When I was in high school and college I used to be pretty rambunctious and completely not give a damn about anything. Drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol and not give a damn. Especially in college, my roommate used to joke about my standards of women because I would hook up with hot girls, fat girls, asian girls, white girls and just not care. I would also be great at breaking ice with anyone cause I used to be nuts.

Now that I coach and play poker pretty much all day long I'm like a reserved little bitch. I never talk to anyone while I play poker. I keep a poker blog, how gay am I? Lol.

Just kidding, I like posting in here because it records my thought and development as a player and person, so that's cool.

Money Shot

Only thing that matters really. I make over 30$ an hour playing a card game. F U and your slaveryesque hours AT&T.





Edit: @Robbyrobbb on twitter

Thinking of investing 1kish in WSOP horses.

Bad BRM?

Def bad brm, but its so much fun especially if one of the horses makes a relatively deep run.

ever thought of relocating?

Relocating west or north towards foxwoods?

Yes I have

nice uptick...u buying in for 800 at MS im guessing? Ive only played 2-5 there once and it wasnt bad but I have never seen more than 2 tables going. U seem to play there a good amt, how is the game compared to FW? The deep buy in make up for the lack of table selection?

I actually buy in for 6 unless there's a reason for me to have 8. It's wierd.

As far as the games go, the action is better there some nights because the bigger buyin makes the game significantly bigger. The regs are just as bad and there are less of them. The room is much nicer too IMO.

You just need to pick your spots when your going there.

Monday afternoon - Foxwoods

Friday night - Mohegan

All IMO.


Writing this from my phone at Foxwoods now. Last week I got comped a suite, this week my room has tissues for toilet paper.

Will post big update tmo. +700 today

The End of May
What a great, great,great month for poker. Absolutely amazing.

I had one losing day and the rest were all positive. Ran so good. Was really contemplating playing this morning before driving home for practice just to try and get to 10k but decided against cause I woke up early and wasn't feeling too well.

9.5k in a month playing (working?) 75 hours isn't so bad though

Again, I can not begin to thank the 2p2 community enough, LLSNL is an absolute goldmine for people who actually have desire to really make money in this game. You don't really want it, you just kinda want it.

For those of you who haven't seen this I highly suggest watching it though, certainly motivates me to grind and it's perfect for just about anyone. Athletes, businessmen, students, poker players etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fsm-QbN9r8

Great video.

Chip Porn and Cannolis


Heres a 2.5k stack after I made a 500$ river call in a 2k pot with AK on KQ1069
Probably sickest tank call of my life, put him on busted clubs, was right. Took me like 3-4mins on river. Table was quiet whole time too which was nice (and rare).


Gotta love desert in Mohegan's lounge too


After this month I can't lie. I'm starting to feel a little bit too baller with too much confidence, which is a surefire was to go broke. Not spending outrageously or anything, but just having the mentality of a King, which I guess isn't too bad. Again, very tough for me to transition from mid stakes baller to 21 year old kid caring about my broke ass friends bitching about a 15$ meal.

Did do one good deed today though. My dad was reading a promo booklet Mohegan sent me in the mail and wants to go see Ringo Starr next month. My mother called and they said they were completely sold out. They informed me of this and I called and got 2 comped tickets for my mom and dad with a 90 second phone call. Felt very nice and he was excited.

Some Poker Stuff
c/c flop, c/r turn has your overpair/TPTK beat a ton of the time.
Cbetting into 3+ people with little equity is bad. Cbetting into a bloated pot with a low equity hand, where there is a stack capable of c/shoving is also very bad.

The second one is a mistake I make a fair amount. Raise 25, 3 callers pot 100. Q 5 6 with 2 hearts, cbet AJ for 65$ and end up losing my raise + cbet.

According to Bart Hanson (and I agree 100%) live poker is 95% valuebetting and 5% bluffing/heroing.

Can't write a book your opponents aren't capable of reading.


Goodbye, May. I love you.

Sick month sir. Very nice call there with the AK. Our hand is def a bluff catcher, but it's nice to be able to beat a pair turned into a bluff .

Very good poker advice. I would hope that most people here know that cbetting into multiple people with air-y hands is pretty bad. But the second point about being aware of stack sizes is excellent. Although your example kinda blends into the 1st one regarding cbetting into 3 people, I think 3 people is about the number of opponents in which whether to cbet or not begins to blur anyway. I have definitely cbet and then embarrassingly folded for a relatively small amount. Being aware of stack sizes is more difficult live than online, and just as, if not more important.

The 95/5 ratio seems right to me. A lot of times I'm just looking for a spot to bluff or hero and I realize that people look for any reason to call and aren't bluffing in good bluffing spots anyway. I actually made a rare big hero call with AT on 553Q4 with the heart draw bricking and ran into 74 who spaz shoved the river. Who knows what these people are thinking? Just value town them to death. Ez game.

That is nice what you doing for your parents. Nothing like a couple of tickets to a show they really want to see to make them appreciate what you do . I don't play enough to get comped tickets regularly, but once in a while I treat my parents to a casino buffet, which they really enjoy.

Hopefully, June goes just as well. Are you going take your talents out to Vegas? 2/5 is super juicy this time of the year.

He had busted clubs I assume. He just mucked and went home incredibly depress.

I reallyyyyyyyy want to go play 2/5 in Vegas but I don't have too many "poker friends", and my RL friends wouldn't want to go.

Am considering making a trip for a month or so by myself, I could do this type of thing at the Borgata though which would be cheaper. Nothing like Vegas though

Stack sizes live are so annoying sometimes. People hide it with their hands sometimes and don't keep big chips in the front and stuff like that. Really annoying when you make a misinformed bet.