hi guru,

agree with you re: nl and some of those characteristics.

other than session reviews in micros back in the day, or having other 2p2ers look at my hands, that's it. i've never paid for coaching in any way and couldn't do a lot of recommending on that front - sorry . other than myself now, lol.

non-poker books that help with poker, hmm. i know you have some motivational type ones you're thinking of , and i generally agree. i'll get back to you on this one because nothing comes to mind atm! why don't you post a few that you enjoy? i trust your judgment.

for multitabling, that's all the software i've ever used

pre, i try to get in the right frame of mind, saying okay, i'm gonna value bet, i'm not gonna tilt, if it arises i'm gonna do x thing vs x regular that i have a read on from last session, etc.

post, i think okay, did i tilt? did i miss easy valuebets? was i exploitable? was i lost in any particular hand? if so, post it or talk to someone about it. i go thru pt and check all the big pots won and lost to see if i played them okay.

hehe, ty on the networking thing. soon hopefully i will come sleep on all your couches and you'll be my partners in many business ventures of dollar procurement. i just try to always add ppl's AIMs, chat w/them when I see em, make sure they know it's okay to IM me about poker whenever, and i try to comment in a lot of different threads and i guess people know me that way. doing things like HULA and multiple foxwoods trips and also I post a lot in several forums, are also all conducive to knowing lots of people

is my anatomy compatible with the fish-bottom-half? if so i vote for that one.

ty for the kind words

and i mean no, don't go sit in front of the computer for 6 months nonstop, lol. you'll burn out! i always took breaks each day, went to the gym several times a week, ran, played sports, did stuff with friends, did non poker stuff on the computer, etc, to keep it from being a grind. i find being in good physical and mental shape (ie happy with social life) makes me play better and happier.

when i'm grinding fulltime, i'll do anywhere from one to four sessions each day of one-two hours. it depends on how i feel, how i run, what my schedule is that day, etc. i always make room for my other things first and then put poker around them. if i can't hang out with my friends or go get in shape at the gym and feel good or go to a restaurant with my family then what's the point of making the money?

now that i play higher limits and nl, clearing bonus is less important than the winrate, so sometimes i'll have a hit n run day where i do really well in the beginning and just take the rest of the day off to relax

for newer players, don't play so much that you get burnt out or find yourself dreading playing. if that happens, take a week off poker right away.

hey Dave, ty and same to you. it's good to have good poker buddies. hope to see you at foxwoods again some day.

hey kit,

1) this is a good one. i don't think a lot of people realize how solid xhad is. bravos is someone else who's very solid. both of these guys are well known though. for newer players, hmm. riku and jjack are both very strong up-and-comers who play lots of hands, post good ones, and have good discussions. i'll vote for both of them.

2) i have several, and probably shouldn't name them because it would set off the eternal flamewar to end all flamewars (well not really but it'd be mean and unnecessary)

for kit vs babar, i think if we tangled in poker it'd be a good matchup. i think we both respect each other's games. as far as baloo vs babar, while bears are nice, i think elephants would stomp all over em without too much trouble, even though "the bare (bear?) necessities of life" is one of the all-time great songs.

..details removed upon BBBs request..

yes, i try to mix it up, take breaks, do other activities, but boredom/burnout are always omnipresent things to deal with. sports, puzzles, games, social stuff with friends, reading, other computer games, languages, politics (i feel like i'm doing facebook again!) are some of my hobbies.

in 5 years, wow. not a pro, definitely. i'll go back to school soon and at some point take a regular-ish job down the road and have poker as more of a hobby. with a regular steady job i could set aside a dedicated roll and take shots at higher games without worrying about going broke. in the short term i do see myself still playing online and down the road as well. i would like to coach poker but i don't know if that can be a full-time or lifelong thing. i'm definitely accepting new folks right now if anyone is interested in coaching or talking about it!

ugh@living at foxwoods live poker drives me crazy and depresses me at the same time. i can't imagine doing that the same number of hours i play online

and bella, keep posting, we value your contributions here.

posting the angry babar pic is always an option in my arsenal imo

also the barbar pic

ty for the kind words sir!

i'm going to do a separate stats post as i've gotten some questions about that. if i don't do it within a day please remind me by PM. as a general answer, i think small pocket pairs and unsuited broadways are very interesting to look at, as well as opening range in co or btn.

hm, i like em both for different reasons. fr is easier to grind, but 6m is more exciting with more decisions per hand and more hands per hour. the variance and heartburn are gross though.

the majority of my hands played are at limit. i am doing well in no limit in my recent shot so far (knock on wood ) so i'll have to get back to you in a few months! they are different games obv but with some carryover. being good at lhe first is helping me a lot in nl.

online > live if we're talking about long periods of time. live is fun for short times but slow and boring with a lot of mean hopeless people and degens and there's smoke and drunk people and blah.

biggest limits i've played regularly are 5/10 online. live incidentally, i'm not really rolled for the biggest games because of what i do with my money/rolls so i don't think i've played higher than 10/20 at foxwoods. i hope to move up to the 20/40 soon. for nl the highest i've played online regularly is 200nl.

biggest cash days? my biggest online loss day was about $700 in my worst day ever of -200 BB, and i've had so many of 2-3-400 that i don't remember em all. for winnings i think i've won about 500 several times. live, i won 700 in one day and i've lost 5 or 600 as well.

i assume if i keep moving up in nl that soon i'll be having +/- 1k days sometimes

Not to be a fanboi, but I just want to 2nd this. Xhad is probably the best active poster in this forum.

what glamour? hehe. it's not all that sexy of a job once you treat it like a job (which i have to or else the swings drive me crazy). it's nice to come back from foxwoods with a lot of money in my pocket and feel like a badass, or to cash out several K from online and be like wow look @ my badass cheque. i'm joking somewhat - i try to keep a low profile and not talk about the money aspect much with anyone as i think that's the wise approach.

gosh, HU on the river is a huge question. as you say B/F is very useful against a certain passive/readable villain or if my hand is not that strong and a big draw came in.

I like B/C and C/C against lags and tags in big pots where i know there is some chance they're raising the river as a bluff or with a worse or chopping hand, but that i feel my hand has some value still. for example i open QQ, lag 3bets i cap and bet down a 4458 board. River comes ace and sometimes if i have a read that he'll bluff if checked to i'll check call, or if i have a read that he always raises scare cards, i'll bet call. C/C can be useful a lot in blind battles where you know the guy will keep firing (and a lot of tags keep doing that often in hopeless situations. Say tag opens otb and i call in bb with A8. flop 982 and i'm probably checkcalling down some of the time.

C/F is fine if it's a small pot, or multiway and a gross board with draws coming in and your hand is not strong anymore against their ranges, or if a really passive guy has been calling down calling down and the draw comes in. I don't like to c/f in big pots though really.

C/R is useful when the guy has a hand and you get there on the river, ie a flush draw or straight draw and the guy is a good enough player to be valuebetting the river with his made hand, ie i have kq on jt2 and am checkcalling down to his suspected overpair or set and the river is a nine. he's almost never checking this but if i donk into him he's unlikely to raise AA or KK. i never wait til the river with my big hands like sets or flushes so this comes up less with me than with those who love to slowplay.

B/3B doesn't come up super often as far as i can tell. the times i most get to do this are a byproduct of my fastplaying style. i raise pf, flop the monster and keep leading out, then when their draw gets there on the river i get to 3b over their raise. sometimes when you have a disguised boat like if you hit a river 2 outer you can do this, or if you're drawing at one thing and runner yourself into another and lead the river, they'll put you on 2pair or bs and if they can beat that they'll raise and you can 3b.

so basically main factors: read on villain, what my estimation of his hand or range are, board texture, what he thinks my hand/range is, etc.

for coaching yea i could come over, or we could do online over AIM, or send stuff thru email, or do sweat sessions either way, or other stuff as well. I'm pretty flexible with my schedule obviously. let me know.

You said you don't want to be a pro five years from now...is this because you aren't enjoying the game as much anymore, or is it more to do with semi-burnout?

Good stuff, BBB, and please go back to playing limit so I don't have to deal with having you at my tables.

Haha <3