THE BABAR STORY
This, my 5k post, is going to be about many things: my poker story, some lessons learned, some graphs and stats, and an ensuing Well in which I will answer questions that you ask and we can have a discussion and hopefully I can impart some wisdom and poker knowledge and we can have a good time!
I started playing poker my senior year of college just in home games (spring 2004). One day a buddy told me about Paradise Poker. I played play money tables as procrastination instead of doing my thesis during those months… One day they had a promo where if you signed up for real money they gave you 2 dollars free without you having to deposit anything. I started with that 2 dollars and from that has stemmed my entire poker career as I’ve made well into five figures – thanks Paradise!
For several months I ground up on Paradise starting with the .02/.04 lhe and moving up until I had about $750 at .25/50. I remember playing all night one time and making like seven bucks at the 5/10 cent games and feeling like king of the world. The games were obviously indescribably soft and just by being tighter pf I was crushing. I had a full time job at this point so poker was just a fun hobby. I somehow online found out about bonus whoring and started doing that; my first new site was Party (August 05) and soon I was bonus whoring it and its skins, as well as lots of Pokerroom skins. I don’t think I signed up for 2p2 until a few months later (Dec 05?). I chose the name Babar because TPK, my roommate at the time, had sent me a link to some old Babar video or something, plus I was a fan of alliteration at the time. Now people call me Babar in real life!
I soon moved up to .5/1 and then 1/2 and beyond and for the next really year and a half or two years I’ve just been bonus whoring at poker sites all over the internet; grinding limit games from 1/2 up to 5/10 on dozens of sites and skins. Up until fall of 06 I had a full time job so poker was just fun money on the side. I was doing 8, 10, 12, or more tables just pounding out bonuses.
It’s funny, but I’ve never had a “bankroll.” I’ve always been different from most poker players that way. I would deposit into a site, clear the bonus, and cash out, and just repeat that over and over. I sometimes wonder how high (playing-wise) I could have gotten if I’d created a dedicated bankroll and devoted myself to moving up back when the games were crazy soft. I bet I could have done okay back when Party was a fishtank since even now I can hold my own at 5/10 and the games are so much harder today.
Another interesting thing is that I’m basically self-taught. I played maybe 75k hands online at least before I ever found 2p2 or read SSHE. I still haven’t read a lot of the books that people quote all the time (I mean I’ve read the basic ones but not the new stuff). I strongly feel that my experience and just the number of times I’ve been in situations is what has helped me to become a strong player, and so many times I’ve dealt with situations (hands, posts, discussions, etc) based on that “feel” and experience that I can’t put into words or math or odds. Perhaps that’s why sometimes I come into a thread or discussion with a slightly different argument than a lot of other guys.
In fall 06 I left my full time job after two years and without any really clear prospects of what to do next I decided I’d take a year off to plan my future, and during that time I supported myself through online poker. Bonuses and rakeback were pretty key since my winrate was not always stellar with the number of tables I was doing, but the volume of hands I was going through was pretty good. Sometime in 07 I started going down to Foxwoods with TehPokarKing and some other 2p2ers and went from 2/4 limit up to 5/10 and am taking shots at higher games today, still without a bankroll, lol. I also got mildly famous for my trip reports
Online I learned 6max as well and played that for a while, and lately (for the last 3 months) I’ve switched over to no limit to see what the prospects are there. Mid-high online fullring games like 3/6 and up are pretty much dead/don’t often run and the 6max games lhe have a very high variance that can be very frustrating at times. I still play limit when I see good games, obviously, and I still post a lot in micros to try and help out upcoming players and to share some of what I’ve learned. Since fall of 06 I’ve had poker as my primary source of income and have paid all my bills with it and am slowly increasing my bank account at the same time, doing a lot less than 40 hours a week of work and having more fun and a more flexible schedule!
A couple of observations over the years:
Online poker has gotten a lot harder, even at limits like .5/1 and 1/2 that used to be joke soft. Some sites even now are rock gardens at those levels as I’m sure you guys are aware. I’ve heard it said the old Party 15/30 plays like a 2/4 today and I believe it. On a related note, the number of sites where Americans can play is tiny in scope today and all of those sites tend to be harder as a result. Perhaps in the future things will open up again!
Variance is unreal and almost unknowable and sample size is king. I don’t know how many times people post on 2p2 asking about 800 hands, or 4000 hands, or 20000 hands. They’re not enough to determine anything. I’ve had two breakeven stretches of around 100k hands in a sample only seven times that and I know I’m a solid winning player. So I tend to mock, berate, and belittle people who don’t really know what the variance beast is like, or who have tiny sample sizes and think they’re the best or worst player ever as a result. When I played 6m limit I’d regularly lose or win over 100 BB in a day. I’m not really sorry about the 2 outer you just took in a 14 BB pot, or the 37 BB “downwing” you’re on today. Keep some perspective
The best way to improve your online poker game is to play online poker and discuss it with others who do (preferably those whose games you respect). This is obviously really, well, obvious, but there’s really no substitute for putting in the hands, seeing what spots cause you trouble, and posting about them on 2p2 and talking about them with respected players in the forums or on IM. People who quote SSHE mindlessly or people who don’t play online and then try to talk about poker online are often the recipients of my gentle or not so gentle derision.
The micros forum is a solid forum and even today although many have moved on, there are still many solid players here, both noobs and veterans, who can really help your game if you let them help you. Be humble, ask polite questions, and maintain a sense of humor. Although the internet is serious business that doesn’t mean people are always right or that their word is always gospel. Ask around, compare opinions, and use the search function to see how thoughts have changed over time. I obviously consider myself a good poster and good poker player with good insights and opinions but I’m sure some people disagree with me or think I’m annoying or trollish sometimes, and that’s fine. The same goes for all of us. The good thing about micros is we often tend to reach a consensus and usually that consensus is correct or close to it. Take advantage of that.
Use common sense with your money. Don’t gamble with money you can’t afford to lose. If poker is a hobby for you then build a separate bankroll that IF YOU LOST IT ALL IT WOULDN’T AFFECT YOUR NORMAL LIFE’S FINANCES, and try not to put yourself in a situation where a lot of your roll is at risk at any one time. Don’t leave large sums sitting online if you’re not using them. I had $3k trapped in Neteller for months during that whole fiasco and I know guys who had way more in limbo. If you go pro, keep a large bankroll and be cautious with it.
I’m sure more observations will come up in the thread.
Some numbers:
I’ve played about 750,000 hands of limited hold them, 500,000 of which are in my graph below. The rest is on sites without PT compatibility or were lost in my old laptop’s database when I spilled soup on it. I have about 100k hands of NL as well as maybe 50k of other games I dabble in like O/8.
Lifetime I’ve cleared 104 bonuses (signups, reloads, etc) on over a dozen networks with countless skins, most of which aren’t legal for Americans any more and some of which don’t even exist as sites any more! I kept (and still have) very detailed records of every site and bonus I ever played on and the results of each one. Ask if you want more details.
My lifetime winrate at all levels combined is 1.6/100 with the majority of these hands coming at 1/2 and 2/4. Ask if you want more details.
My biggest downswing is about 850 bets, most of which is in the downswing in my graph and the other 250-300 of it happened concurrently on a site that doesn’t have PT. It was also on that site that I had my biggest loss ever in one day (210 BB iirc) and I selfbanned myself from 2p2 for a week as a result! My biggest BB win ever in one day is 173 BB. I’ve had plenty of downswings of 200-300 bets so I don’t really consider those to be out of the ordinary nor are you the first person ever going through one.
I’m sure more numbers will come up in the thread.
I’d like to make it clear that if anyone has any kind of questions about anything in this, or any other questions for me or poker questions, please ask me and I’ll do my best to respond! It took me a whole day and night to compile all my aliases in PT and merge the data and the graph, so you better ask, lol. With this large of a sample size perhaps someone might be interested in some statistics/winrates that I can check? What hands win at what rate? If anyone has any questions about bonus whoring, I consider myself an expert. If anyone wants to talk about variance, swings, money management, etc, same thing. If anyone wants to talk about being pro, I can do that.
I’d been putting this off for a while and it’s nice to do it. I sometimes feel like one of only a few micros vets who actually played and plays a lot of hands online, so sometimes as a result I post brusquely or with a chip on my shoulder in response to certain posters or points of view in the forum. However, if you can get past that, I’m a nice guy who loves poker and I still post here because I like helping out. Hopefully you find my story interesting and useful and I hope we can get a Q and A session going and some useful things can come out of that as well. Thanks micros and to all the guys who got and kept me going along the way (Wookie, TPK, Xhad, BBBushu, and others – no offense if I forget you for the time being). To all the people I’ve helped, you’re welcome, stay in touch, and keep asking. I'm now testing the market - offering coaching - to see if anyone is interested. I guess PM me since that should be a private thing.
Okay I’m sleepy now. More later.
Yours in gogogo,
BigBadBabar.
PS. Oh and by the way, I’m switching back to BigBadBabar now as my main account. I’ll still check my PM box on BadBig for a while until we all get used to this one again.
PPS. Okay now I’m hopping into the well.
A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Thursday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer".
The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on Thursday? and the voice from in the well shouts back: Because on Thursday, it’s your day in the well.
Two Plus Two
5K POST: THE BABAR STORY + WELL
you, dude, and congrats on finally doing this post. Oh, and I LOL'ed at the fact that you were enticed to play online by the prospect of two free dollars. Ship the fruit & grain, please!
Although, of course, table and seat selection may be among the skills.)
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