thnx for the reply, great story. And goodluck to you sir!

Hello, Tony!

I would like to ask you, if you want to help me with furter development of my application, which it is primarily aimed to help a player with headsup situations in 6-max fixed limit games. I realize that cooperating would be of no use to you, if you decide to retire completely, however if you think you will be perhaps coming back i think you might benefit from it.

What the software basically does, is that you can review with a few clicks any headsup situation for chosen player. Then, if there was a showdown, it shows what the player actually held and then sorts the holdings by equity. The tricky part here of course is how to modify the ranges so that equity calculation is reliable enough. Granted, here it is still work left to be done.

What I would like to do, but where I perhaps lack the ability to do so, is to be able to do a report on any player, that would point out leaks in their games. Ideally it would be all automated. I would like very much extend functionality to multiway hands too, but that again is quite over my head.

My goal is not to make the application commercially available, but use it instead to help myself and potential collaborators while playing.

Good luck to you in your further career. That blackjack story really touched me, I experienced something similar and it isn't pretty at all.

Folded to you on the button, would you rather raise Q7o or 54s? And reasons why?

Hey Coman,

Everyone asks me about the breaks I used to take. There wasn't any big strategy behind this, I always was doing something. It could of been smoking a cigarette, answering an email, making a sports bet, eating lunch, answering the phone, getting new batteries for my mouse, going to the bathroom, letting someone in the apartment, etc. etc. etc.

I was typically in front of my computer for four to six hours at a time so a lot would come up during the course of that time. My wife was always bringing me meals while I was playing so I'd often take a break for that. I also didn't like to Skype, answer emails, or do anything really distracting when I was playing so I'd usually sit out and try to do that if something important came up.

I also found taking a lot of breaks helped with the stress of the game and to keep my mind a little more refreshed. I've read in a few different places that you should take at least 5 minutes of every hour and relax your mind. This wasn't my rationale behind the breaks but I believe there's merit to this.

The timing of my actions was more calculated. Initially I was doing this to prevent giving off timing tells. As time went on, I was also doing it as a reminder to myself to think through every decision no matter how trivial (preflop was the only exception I made to this). I was trying to force myself into always thinking through repetition. I wanted to avoid going on auto-pilot which I had a bad habit of doing during long sessions.

I wasn't using a clock or any other mechanism. It was strictly done with my brain.

I'm surprised to hear this because it's become a top priority for the mid/high regs in games today.

It makes a big difference. I do have clear evidence of this. A friend wrote a SQL query that queried my database for win rate based on number of positions relative to the recreational player where we fed the query the names of a whole bunch of well known rec players.

I promised him at the time I wouldn't share the results so I can't post them here but it's an noticeable difference that's magnified every seat closer you get to the rec player.

This really depends on who has the initiative preflop. The player with initiative is going to realize a higher % of the equity due to getting more postflop folds. They're nearly always going to be c-betting the flop which means they have the ability to get folds there where their opponent doesn't.

I've never really thought about it equity terms so I wouldn't be able to give you any kind of exact answer even if I knew who had initiative.

I think the best way to get the answer to a question like this though is to look at the SB v BB dynamic where it's unopened to the SB. You can look at it from both perspectives using HEM or PT and because their ranges are so wide, you should be able to get a very good idea.

Hi, first of really top notch well, being both very entertaining an useful. And best of luck with your future in DFS.

Would like to know how you used to work on your game away from the table. You mentioned looking in your database for profitable preflop spots. Looking at better players and seeing where your game is different and why it is. Anything else you think could be useful?

What about software like CardrunnersEV ever used anything like that? And if so how important do you think “offtable software” is to improve ones game?

Wish you all the best TP.
No doubt in my mind you will be successful at anything you put your mind and work ethic into.

I saw one of your videos once and it made me feel bad about myself for not working nearly as hard and extremely impressed and how far you had taken the pursuit of perfection (whether or not you had found it, I wouldn't know). It certainly was scary tho. <hat tip>

Hey guys, have a super busy next 3-4 days coming up. Really the next few weeks are going to be really busy with NBA starting and a lot of stuff going on at home.

Like I've said a few times though, I'll get to all the questions in time - may just be a while.

Hey thanks a lot for doing this. Has been a great informative read. I play a different game format than you (MTT) but I think my questions are pretty general to all poker hopefully:

1) Had you not played poker for the last 10 years, what would be the alternative?

2) Would you recommend it to someone starting out now?

3) Do you think the professional poker player lifestyle is sometimes overrated or misrepresented?

Thanks for your time and best of luck with whatever you do

I think the answer to both these questions is RotoGrinders. It's basically 2+2 and a training site rolled into one. I'd recommend buying one of the incentive packages and reading through some of the GrindersU articles. Once you get into it a little more, start watching the GrindersLive shows. Those are a bunch of the top pros in the industry basically telling you exactly who they're playing every week. They have a lot of valuable insight.

Hey TPirahna

I've just read the well, a bunch of interesting things and useful information, thanks!

Two quesitons from me:

1. There was a question about "best friends/worst enemies", but I think no one asked this one yet: who do you consider as top5 (order doesn't matter, can be even top10 if that's easier) LHE 6max players (purely in terms of skill, cause money may depend on stake-variance or other abilities, like getting good seats etc..)? By pokerstars screen names.

2. What do you think about auto-sit scripts that have become so common recently at high stake games? Is the advantage of using one worth the price? Do you think they have any negative effect on the games? Do you think it's fair that those who pay for certain program get better seats, or should everyone get the same chance and should it be banned by poker rooms?

Thanks!

Oh, and one more:

3. Second question about seating, now rather about strategy. Of course the ideal sit is to have a direct position on the player we expect to lose the most money, but very often you can't get the best sit coz someone else takes it.
In this case, how do you seat-select, is 2 seats to the left always the 2nd best option? What if both are taken, the 3rd seat to the left is 3rd best or you'd rather sit OOP but next to the fish? How about fullring tables where there are many positions, do you ever choose a sit OOP, or 2 seats OOP or always take the first available seat to the left?
In general, how would you rate positions from the best to the worst at 6max and 10max table if there's one fish only at the table? Does it matter who the regs are and does it affect your decision on seat selection?

It is/was very rare that I'd tell anyone I gambled online when I was in a foreign country. Most people either wouldn't understand or would probably look at me funny if I said that. I'd just tell people I played poker for a living. Normally their response would be, "Oh you play at such and such casino". And I'd say no I play online. And then I'd usually get a funny look like they didn't understand.

In some countries I think you need to be careful about saying it. Onlline gambling can be in a grey area depending on where you are. Also I never wanted to draw unnecessary attention to myself. It's a longshot but if someone did know what I was doing, it probably wouldn't be too hard to install something on the building internet that would reveal my holecards.

As far as old friends or people in the US, I almost always just tell them exactly what I do - that I'm a professional gambler. I'm not ashamed of it, in fact I'm proud. If they look down upon it, that's their problem.

I actually remember that hand. I had an OESD or a flush draw (I can't remember which), called the flop, called the turn, and c/r the river with air. I actually thought the river c/r was pretty close to EV neutral and the deciding factor was "advertising". I often will try to make a statement early in a live game to let people know I'm capable of making any play. I have a bad tendency to play kind of ABC poker, particularly in a live setting, so I'll sometimes go out of my way to make a less standard play.

Who are your top 5 lhe players on Stars these days and in what order?

Hey another question.

What kind of music you hearing while playing, or u didnt hear music? You have an special opinion about how music has an influence about your play?

1) Hmm, I've only played with him a few times and he's pretty solid. That said I'm sure his opening/defending ranges are going to be a little out of whack. I wouldn't expect him to be making any egregious mistakes anywhere though. That's really a tough one. I don't underestimate his ability to hand read and pick up on opponent tendencies quickly. I also think he is capable of adjusting his own game very quickly.

Geez I don't know, I think it's very close. If you forced me to bet, I'd probably say yes that'd he be a small winner under the assumption his game would get progressively better over the course of the 50K hands.

2) It definitely makes a difference. I think you can add a hand or two to your opening/defending/3-betting ranges preflop. So basically all your borderline hands would become opens, 3-bets, and defends. I wouldn't go overboard though. Let's say your cutoff is opening K7o from the button, I'd open K6o and K5o would become borderline.

As I was about to submit this I see that you said "NLH" on question one. I'm not sure if this is what you meant. My comments were in reference to limit. I wouldn't have any idea on NL - it's been a long time since I've played those games and I have even less idea of Daniel's skill level.

meant for limit though, just wanted to see how you think a challenge in limit would play out

thanks for the replies

Just wanted to drop in and wish you the best of luck in anything you do. Have always admired your ability and consistency throughout your career.
I have been straying away from poker more and more and have also been getting more involved with DFS... Besides rotogrinders, are there any other tools our websites you could recommend for someone starting out and looking to take DFS seriously..... Thanks! Cheers....

No problem DJ, it's too bad we didn't get the opportunity to play more. I'm sure we would have given each other regular headaches

I am coaching one person right now and actually under that format where I'm taking a percentage of his winnings. I don't really have any intention of coaching anyone else, at least right now. I'm just so overwhelmed with Fantasy Sports and trying to absorb/learn as much as possible that I have so little time for anything else.

It's possible this could change at some point but for now I'm just going to focus on one thing.

Hey Umumba,

You're a blast from the past. Not that long ago I guess but seems like a while since we played.

Thanks for the kind words. I actually had forgotten all about posting the last blind for a month. I actually did that for the entire month and it was one of the best months I've ever had. Maybe there's something to be said for karma

1) I'm embarrassed to say, yes it was just a misspelling. My name on UltimateBet was also misspelled "Pirahna".

2) From time to time, yes I've had feelings of guilt about taking money from people. The feelings are usually fleeting though and I remind myself that nothing would make my opponent happier than taking my money.

I've been around gamblers of all sorts my entire life. A couple quick stories on the level of degeneracy I've been around:

I was at the casino one night with a guy named Bob in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was someone I knew from a local bar there and who would routinely bet every game on a college football card. He would literally take the newspaper and circle a team from every single game being played that day. He was essentially a bookie's dream.

He was playing slots the night we were out and hit the jackpot on the slot 4 times in the span of a few hours. He had 6 buckets full of $1 coins in front of him. I remember saying to my other friends that were there, take a picture because there's a 99% chance by the time we leave he'll have lost everything. Sure enough, maybe 12 hours later and he was completely broke.

In Framingham, MA in a pool room I grew up near they used to offer pull-tabs. Pull-tabs are a form of lottery where you buy a tab for $1 and can win all sorts of prizes usually up to $500 or $1000. The catch with pull-tabs is they tell you ahead of time how many prizes are in each box. So there might be 5000 pull-tabs and 4 $500 prizes, 10 $200 prizes, etc. The owner of the establishment that sells them is required to cross out the prizes as they're being won.

I watched this guy named Jon win every $500 prize, every $200 prize, every $100 prize so all that was left in the pull-tab box were thousands of worthless tickets since all the big prizes were hit. Any sane person would stop playing at this point. Not Jon. He just continued to play for hour after hour knowing there were no big prizes to be won until he lost all his money and couldn't afford another one. Jon wasn't a dumb guy by any stretch, he held a 6 figure engineering job.

What I'm getting at here is that degenerate gamblers are going to be degenerate gamblers regardless of what you do. The problem isn't gambling itself, there are much larger problems that gambling is a symptom of. So there's nothing I can say or do that's going to stop this person. And if I'm not willing to take this person's money, he's only going to give it to someone else.

Thanks Ryan. You definitely played a part in my poker career. I appreciate the thoughts and questions we threw at each other for a period there. I learned a lot from our discussions.

Thanks for the tip! I actually gave up on NHL at least for now. I've got my hands full with NBA and NFL so just focusing on those.