Thank you Time. Really appreciate it. It's nice to see the silent majority coming out in full force!

A good poker player recognizes patterns. I took a quick look at all the posts to date and noticed a very telling pattern between the supporters and the haters. Does anyone see it? It's pretty obvious once you look at it......try to figure it out on your own and then look at the spoiler...don't cheat. It's not that hard to see.

Thank you Captain. I should have taken your earlier advice earlier. Ignoring the haters. You are a wise man.

Thank you alpine. Very true!

Thank you 7777777. Recently read a great article about a poker group living out there and living the dream. What a life.

Haha. Thanks Hurricane. Really appreciate it. With a name like hurricane, you'd think showers came included. Pressure's on to stay #1 on your list.

Below is a post of a recent hand I played in. But first, wanted to go over my last session. Early on, I flopped top set- I raised pre-flop and had 4 callers. By the time the betting was done post-flop, an unknown player went all in for $3,000 and I called. The unknown had an over pair. He didn't ask to run it twice so I didn't say anything (I would have said okay). Sure enough, he caught runner runner for a straight. I felt a split second of disappointment- but no anger, no cursing, nothing. Just moved on to the next hand. The unknown even shot me an "I'm sorry" look and then left the table a few hands later. I gave him the "it's okay, that's poker" look back. And that's how I felt. And that's how a winning player should feel and does act when hit with a bad beat.

But plenty of players don't react this way. I have seen players curse, throw stuff at the dealers, and say the rudest things toward the suck out villain. The first thought that goes thru my head when I see that, or for that matter, anyone that acts like a hater in general, is that the person is a losing player, or at a minimum, the player is going thru a bad losing streak. Losers get mad, winners move on.

Early on when I played poker, I used to feel that poker was so unfair because I was ALWAYS on the losing end of a lucky suckout (I probably sucked out at a ratio of 1 time for every 20 times that someone sucked out on me). But then I read a poker book that put it in perspective. It basically said that the reason for suffering a disproportionate amount of suckouts is because you are a good poker player. And a good poker player doesn't make bad calls, or bad bets. They know when they are beat and fold or they at least don't go all in when they're behind enough times to suckout.

Here's a recent hand I played. What would you do.

I have AcAh on button. Everyone folds around. I open for $80. SB folds, and BB (unknown) calls. Flop comes out 6s7c10s. BB checks. I bet $120. BB calls. Turn comes out 7h. BB comes out and bets $340. Hmmmm........I call. River comes out Qd. BB thinks for a bit, then fires $700. What do you do?

what is this i dont even

can someone cliff what is going on please

So here’s the story of how I got started playing poker. I’ll post this in three parts throughout this week. Here’s Part 1.

I’ve been playing poker for about 10 years now. I remember early on going to Hollywood Park to play 5/10 pot limit, or 10/20 NL at Commerce. I’d buy in for the minimum and occasionally win, but eventually I would give it all back. I probably lost several thousand dollars over all, but nothing major. I went about a dozen times over a two year period. I didn’t take it seriously at all. At some point, I remember watching the World Poker Tour or maybe it was the WSOP on tv and remember being shocked by the hole cards that these professionals were playing. It gave me a whole new perspective on poker. I went back to HP and Commerce maybe a dozen times more to test out my new understanding of the game, but.....I still lost. I continued to watch poker here and there but was too busy with my career and life to spend any real time on it.

I pretty much forgot about poker for a while, until one day when I remember going over to my brother’s place to hang out, and watching his girlfriend playing poker on her computer. I asked her what she was doing? She said playing poker. For real money? Yeah. No way. Is it safe? Yeah. Isn’t it rigged? No- it’s legit. And my brother was right next to her confirming that this was all true. Now if it was anyone else confirming this, I would have ignored him and thought he was crazy. But my brother is a tech genius who knows everything when it comes to computers and technology. So if he thought it was safe, then it must be true. I decided to try it out.

I downloaded Party Poker and bought in for a few hundred dollars. I started playing sit-n-go’s. I think I was playing the $50 levels. It didn’t take long before I lost my money. I bought in for more. And lost again. Rinse repeat.

I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually after losing all of my money again for the fourth time, I decided to quit for good and went so far to remove the software from my computer. I vowed to never play again. That would be the first of several times I’d go through this process. Eventually, I loaded up the software again, and bought in for more money…..and lost again. I probably lost about $3,000 over all during this phase of poker.

Then, one day, things changed. I don’t remember what the tipping point was, but I started to get better and I started to win. I was exclusively playing SNG’s- mostly on the weekends. Eventually, I built up my bankroll to about $2,000. I then decided to move up to the $200 sit n go’s- which I believe were the highest games going on at the time ($1,000 SNGs came later, I think). I had no concept of BR management. Around the same time, I remember watching the WPT when Antonio Esfandari won. And in his post-win interview, Antonio recommended to read Doyle Brunson’s book which he referred to as the “Bible” of poker. Before then, I had never even thought about reading a book about poker. I thought the only way to learn about poker is to play it. I went ahead and bought the book. I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. I was fascinated. Eventually, I would go on to read about 4-5 more books. Despite all the info I learned from the books, I still learned most of what I know about poker from playing- and especially from my mistakes. But the books definitely helped a lot.

I started off pretty hot in the $200 SNGs. I consistently made it into the money. But I noticed that I was coming in second or third disproportionately vs coming in first. And to keep increasing your BR, you really need to win first place a good amount of the time. The reason I had a low ratio of first place wins is that I had no clue on how to play heads up. And it took many losses to finally figure out how to play HU and win. But eventually I did. And then I won some more. I built up my BR to about $5,000 or maybe even $10,000 eventually. But then I hit a wall. I’d go up and down on a regular basis, but couldn’t break through to the next level, despite the fact that I was “winning.” My brother’s girlfriend told me that she looked me up on one of those software programs and that I was ranked a “shark” because I won 40%+ of my SNGs. She was very proud since I was her only friend that was winning. But I wasn’t really winning. It was more accurate to say that I wasn’t losing. That is, until I discovered MTTs……

Call>fold>raise

I feel like most 7s go for the check raise here but that also depends if this is a thinking player. Leading definitely conceals the hand strength vs a check-raise. The sizing seems a bit bluffy to me as well. Tough spot but I'd probably make a crying call

Part 2

I don’t remember when I started playing MTT’s. Because of work, I could only play on the weekends, and even then, I could only play on random weekends when I didn’t have plans. It was tough to set aside five or six hours. Sometimes I’d play knowing that I had plans, and then when it came time to go out, I’d simply donk off my chips. It made no sense to blow my money like that, but that’s exactly what I did. With my limited schedule, I only played in a few tournaments each month.

One night, I signed up for the $200 Saturday MTT that started at 6 p.m. I didn’t have plans that night and knew I could just relax in front of the t.v. and play. Slowly but surely, I started to accumulate chips and grow a big stack. Five or six hours later, I somehow made it to the final table. And miracle of all miracles- I won the tournament. For $50,000! I couldn’t believe it. It felt amazing. I will never forget that night.

The funny thing is, when I look back at my skill level back then, I really sucked. I had such a basic understanding of poker, I have no idea how I pulled it off. But I must have had something other than (pure) luck guiding me, since I would go on to final table many more tournaments. The only thing I can think of is that what I lacked in poker skills back then, I made up in basic pattern recognition and overall intuition. I just had a knack of reading situations correctly for reasons that I didn’t really fully understand. Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink comes to mind.

With my big win, my confidence skyrocketed. I started to think that I really could have a talent for the game. But my work was too demanding and my time was too limited to do anything about it. Not to mention my family’s overwhelming discouragement. So I continued to only play recreationally on occasion.

I started to play more SNG’s, and with my new BR, moved up to the $1,000 SNGs. But I couldn’t beat the game at that level. The skill level was much higher there than it was at the $200 level, and even though I won a fair amount, my bank roll was not enough to sustain a down swing. I probably lost about $10k before I gave up on it and went back down to the $200 SNGs.

I was back to winning playing the SNGs but not enough to grow my BR in a meaningful way. I mostly played the SNG’s as practice to get better at playing the MTTs. MTT's is where my real winnings came from. Over time, I made it to about a dozen more final tables, winning two more tournaments (never won more than $50k). I also played in a $300 MTT satellite and won a seat to the WSOP Main Event. I cashed in on my first try (will save that story for another post). Over time, my BR shot up to 6 figures.

But then the Party was over. PP shut down and I remember feeling so bummed. My techy brother told me there was a way he could set me up to keep playing, but it sounded very sketchy so I never did it. I took a decent break from poker and surprisingly didn’t miss it that much. I focused on my career which was taking off, and I barely had time for any distractions- PP shutting down was probably a blessing in disguise.

I never thought of my BR as real money that I could use on anything other than gambling- it was my gambling fund. I eventually blew it all on Vegas trips and sportsbook betting- to this day, my greatest downfall- particularly football. I was and still am a bookie’s wet dream. I would bet every single game, every quarter, every half, and non-stop parlays. Oh, when will I learn.

It was not until a few years later when I learned about Full Tilt and Poker Stars….and so began the next phase of my poker experience…….

Thanks Jaldwin. Really solid analysis. I'll wait for 2 more responses (or by end of this week) and will then reveal the hand. 1 vote = crying call.

.

+ paragraphs
+ excellent grammar
+ superb spelling
+ actual poker content

For a site that gets less and less interesting each day this thread is a breath of fresh air.

Is op maybe overestimating his skills? perhaps.
Does it come off as a little arrogant at times? a little.

But if those 2 things got you banned from 2+2 there'd be 10 posts a year. I think we can overlook them as many posters here have quite a history of the same sins.

Keep posting Dave, i'm enjoying the ride.

solid

Enjoying some actual 10/20 hand histories..

Don't listen to the haters, OP..

Keep up the good work

"Originally Posted by jaldwin
Call>fold>raise "


I like calling as well. If he has 2 pair its a " **** moment" .


Dave: Post some stack picks homie!

if he has two pair we win

if Had 2 pair on flop and boated up on turn ....*

Part 3

Upon hearing about FT and PS, I asked my brother again if it was safe to play on these sites since I was under the impression that online poker was now considered illegal. I was really in the dark on the whole thing. Initially, I thought that the PLAYERS could get busted for playing. I eventually read up on it and realized that this was not really the issue. So that solved my first concern. But there were others.

My brother was very much against me playing. He assured me that from a technology perspective, the sites were fine (he said players could still collude and cheat in other ways). But he warned me that these sites could be shut down at any time by the government. I figured the easy solution to that risk was to only buy in for a small amount so that I wouldn’t be risking much. And if I won any meaningful amount, I would simply withdraw the money asap and never keep more than a few thousand dollars online at a time. And that’s exactly what I did. When Black Friday hit, I only had $2,500 on FT.

Aside from his warnings about the potential for a government shut-down, my brother also warned me about bots and HUDs. He told me that the bots have gotten much better, and that eventually, the bots would get so good that they would be unbeatable. He also told me that the professional players were using HUDs to get a HUGE advantage over other players, and that if I wanted to keep winning, I had to keep up with it. I didn’t care about bots (Kasparov could still beat Big Blue in chess). As far as HUDs, I tried a free trial for one of them, and got dizzy just looking at the charts. I didn’t want to spend the time to learn how to use HUDs because I felt that doing so would mean that I was moving closer to becoming a serious poker player, and I really wanted to keep poker as just a hobby. So I never pursued HUDs.

When I started playing Full Tilt, the SNGs were nothing like they were on PP. The SNGs barely filled up, and even then, the highest buy-in was $100- so I didn't bother. I also tried Stars but just didn’t like the software so barely played there. So I basically only played MTT on FT for a long time.

I quickly realized that the skill level of the players on FT was about 100x better than PP. This made sense to me. The PP recreational players were gone. The FT site was for the pros. FT even marketed itself as the site where the pros played, with all of their commercials showcasing the pros. BTW, I thought this was such a terrible marketing strategy. Who wants to play against the pros? I want to make money and play against the fish. But I didn’t have any other options so I kept playing on FT. In retrospect, and perhaps this was the thinking behind the marketing, I got much better because the players were so much better. As a bonus, I won myself a closet full of t-shirts for each time I knocked out a pro.

It took a little time- not too much- to get used to the higher skill level and to start winning again, but eventually I did. And my skill level skyrocketed. I probably had one of the highest ratios of final tables vs actual MTTs played (and I rarely ever played any tourney below $100).

My absolute favorite thing about playing MTT on FT was getting moved over to the final table and watching the screen change over from my standard "beach" screen to the “final table crowd” screen. I had a routine that whenever I made it to the final table, I would switch off my laptop and move over from my bedroom to my living room to play on my pc. That feeling and routine is probably what I miss the most. There’s nothing like making it to a final table. On FT, I won one tournament for $25k, and cashed in dozens of other final tables, shooting my BR up to over six figures once again.

But, just like I did with my PP winnings, I eventually gave it all back. At some point, I tried to play in the cash games, and tried to multi-table, going to as high as 6 tables (or maybe even 8, can't remember) at 3/6. But I just couldn’t beat the game. The players were too good. In retro, it was a dumb idea to try. I gave back at least a third of my BR to online cash games (I often wonder how much of a disadvantage I had by not using HUDs). I lost the rest in Vegas and on sportsbook betting.

When BF hit, I stopped playing cold turkey. Once again, I got over playing and found other ways to spend my down time. What else could I do? There were no other options left.

That is, until this year, when I started to go play live. And as I mentioned in my first post, I came out strong out of the gate winning a substantial amount in my first six months, and haven’t looked back since......and that's my story.

Thank you Monty! Very cool of you to say. Haha re arrogance. Will work on it.

Thank you Otm.

Thanks HP. More to come later this week.

Sorry, what do you mean?

As Smell correctly pointed out (and you later clarified), yeah, if he has only 2 pairs, then AA wins. Will reveal the hand tomorrow and write about a new one with AA. Thanks for your feedback and also to Smell.

Guy beats live poker for 7 months and thinks that means he's a winning player.

Basically it's his own blog afaict.