The Well: Raptor517 - Page 2 - High Stakes Poker Pot Limit and No Limit

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WorldBoFree

Huge.

How important is it, to be a happy and well adjusted person, in terms of being a winning poker player?

Personally, I had some fairly horrible **** that happened to me in my childhood, that made me a pretty paranoid person. I've realized that when I play live, my life coping, people reading skills help me to believe people and not be paranoid around them in person. However, when I play online, I'm constantly thinking that everyone is bluffing and making a moves because they're just a blank face and unkown on my computer, so I think the worst.

So my basic base assumptions about humanity come out in a negative way, when I can't get to know or experience my opponents in a real life setting.

This got me to thinking that it might be almost a real necessity to be a well adjusted, all around solid person on this level to be a consistent winning poker player. When I look around at all the solid winning players, they all seem to have had relatively happy lives and solid upbringings.

Being a high stakes guy, and knowing a lot of these people, do you agree?

I think this is mostly true. I am sure there are a number of exceptions, but most people that have gotten very good at poker are those that had the freedom, money, and time to learn the game. Most of these people are young, well adjusted late teen/early 20s kids.

That being said, my answer to your initial question is slightly different. I think there are some pretty maladjusted people that have become very successful at poker. I don’t think you have to be happy or a good person to be successful at the game. It probably makes it easier though.

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ansky

Does Koda like New York?

Pretty sure Koda loves NY (Koda is my 110 pound 1.5 year old black Newfoundland dog). She gets to be inside all day and sleep/snuggle on the couch, and that is her element.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ansky

Do you see yourself at some point soon being completely removed from poker? Or will it always be a part of your life in some capacity? Will you play the main event in 30 years?

I think poker will always be a part of my life in some way. I doubt I will play the main event every year (I’m not even playing it this year), but I can definitely see myself later in life coming to Vegas for a week or two to try to win a big tourney or gamble it up with the young hotshots.

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shane Stewart

Hopefully not stepping out of line here but just let me know and I'll delete otherwise. I recall you mentioning in one of your blogs that you were adopted. How has that affected you as a person?

Not out of line for me, though some people are probably sensitive about it.

I can’t really say how it has affected me though. I was adopted when I was ~2 months old, so I don’t remember anything about my birth parents. It was a closed adoption so I got a 3 page file with some basic info on their blood type and interests, but that’s it. I look at my adoptive parents as my parents. They raised me from infancy, took all of my ****, and are still there loving me today. I’m sure it has some effect, but nothing I would be able to articulate. I think about my birth parents on occasion, but it is more like, ‘I wonder what my dad looks like and what he does,’ than ‘why the **** did they get rid of me’ or something along those lines.

Effneasy · 12-12-2011, 02:25 PM

Biggest "aha" moment in your development as a poker player?

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by friedfish

best adjustment heads up nl vrs opponent who 3 bets a polarized range? also how wo adjust vrs a guy who never folds pre or post flop i somehow have trouble against this type of opponent even tho it seems like they should be so easy to beat thanks!

There are a lot of answers to questions like these, my method may or may not be the best, but it worked for me. Against polarized range guys, I 4 bet a ton. Usually they will start tightening up, or 3 bet getting in 33 and stuff (yay for me). Against guys that never fold pre or post I ask them to play more tables. If I feel uncomfortable playing a ton of big pots, I will start limping buttons, calling more than 3 betting, and just being a little tighter overall. Some people just love getting into wars, and it is easy to get sucked into the madness. I’m a nit and tend to avoid ‘street poker’ though.

oscillator · 12-12-2011, 02:26 PM

I've been awake like 30+ hrs, and I've tried thinking of good questions, but I'm one long burp. Mostly I just want to tell you you're pretty great, and I want to hear a story...about........................

a surreal experience.

Not "woah that was awesome", but like, "WOAH what the FF**KKKKKKKK was THAT (ajshgdajshgdJHGASDJHSGD)"

thanks!

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effneasy

Biggest "aha" moment in your development as a poker player?

When I figured out that I could shove every small blind for 10x or less and have a 10% roi in sit and gos (2004).

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oscillator

I've been awake like 30+ hrs, and I've tried thinking of good questions, but I'm one long burp. Mostly I just want to tell you you're pretty great, and I want to hear a story...about........................

a surreal experience.

Not "woah that was awesome", but like, "WOAH what the FF**KKKKKKKK was THAT (ajshgdajshgdJHGASDJHSGD)"

thanks!

I don’t do any psychedelics, so I will have to rely on something I saw. I was with some friends in Fort Worth in probably 2006. We were on the way back from a movie some time around midnight, and traffic slowed down to a crawl on the highway. As we approached an overpass in single file, we saw lots of ambulances and police cars. As we got closer, we noticed some cones around something. It was a dead girl that must have jumped off of the overpass and been hit by a car. Her leg was all twisted up at a weird angle. I remember she had a black star tattoo on her wrist. I wondered how long she had been there and why no one had bothered to move her or cover her up or anything. I think what makes it surreal is that some days I think about it and wonder if it actually happened, but I know it did.

ralph cifaretto · 12-12-2011, 02:32 PM

Well, I'm not a HS pro (yet) but I'm jumping in.

On a scale of 1-100. How complex a game would you define:
a) NLHE
b) PLO
c) Stud Hi

Cheers Dave

ucfknights228 · 12-12-2011, 02:33 PM

RaptorCaptor, Can you really read peoples souls? Also have you ever got so tilted where you berated someone?

Name someone besides Durrr who you think has an edge on you in NLHE

**KRANTZ** · 12-12-2011, 02:34 PM

what are the best restaurants you have been to, your favorite TV shows, films, literature and video games? favorite music? what is the greatest dessert man has ever made?

what has been your ultimate greatest moment related to poker?

holla

SebastianHalf · 12-12-2011, 02:38 PM

have you ever been on a downswing where you stopped attributing losing to variance, and suspected that there was a huge leak in your game at that point? About how many buy-ins/hands does it take to start questioning if it is really variance that is losing for you?

What are you studying in school and what challenges you the most?

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralph cifaretto

Well, I'm not a HS pro (yet) but I'm jumping in.

On a scale of 1-100. How complex a game would you define:
a) NLHE
b) PLO
c) Stud Hi

Cheers Dave

NLHE: 70
PLO: 80
Stud Hi: 100 (I am horrible at this game)

oscillator · 12-12-2011, 02:42 PM

On that note, what is YOUR closest brush with death.

raptor517 · 12-12-2011, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ucfknights228

RaptorCaptor, Can you really read peoples souls? Also have you ever got so tilted where you berated someone?

I can’t read souls, but I get really curious when things don’t make sense. This results in me clicking call pretty much any time someone uses a weird line. I can’t remember berating anyone, but it has probably happened. I certainly remember some heckling.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ucfknights228

Name someone besides Durrr who you think has an edge on you in NLH

Hah, you imply I think durrrr has an edge on me in nlh. Phil Galfond knows how I think way too well to ever lose to me though.