I'm volunteering B as a well topic. We are all interested in you continual progress towards SNE. I hope you don't mind this Well thought out questions will get well thought out responses. I hope.

How long have you been playing online?

Mostly PLO8?

I know you travel to play tourneys in Europe, ever do well?

Do you practice ANY table selection or do you go wherever the action is?

Are you getting burnt out at all?

And my #1 question for you is: Do you think that your goal of SNE makes you play in less EV situations rather than focusing on your BEST game, whatever that may be?

Holla

I would also like to know-do you feel like you ever do not have an edge over a specific opponent? Who are some of the toughest players that you would either avoid or wouldn't be +ev to play. Thanks!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ has to be a gimmick account. Every time I read one of your questions I now burst out in laughter.

When you first started playing poker what was the first game you played?

If it was not plo08, then why did you start playing it?

Whats the most you've won/lost in a day?

And my #1 question for you is: Do you think that your goal of SNE makes you play in less EV situations rather than focusing on your BEST game, whatever that may be?


i would assume that is someone is focusing on plo08 to get nova elite they are playing lots of games, which prolly makes them play -ev to what they could. my one friend plays 24 NLFR tables. now the question is- he is up mor than me this year total, due to points (if he hit elite) however. im up more profit table wise in less hours. i think that the one question i always wondered is would u rather go net more but it be more swingy, or net alittle less and have no variance at all. i like the second personally.

poker with swings can be a very uncomfortable place if ur head is into it/ and ur not rolled.

How many hours have you put in trying to achieve your goal?

How does this compare to the number of hours you played before setting the goal?

What sacrifices have you made with regards to your life to attempt to achieve the goal?

Great idea for a thread.

I noticed in some of Borys' posts that he tends to play a mix of NLHE and O8, as well as a mix of ring and SNG.

My questions:

What proportion of your VPP comes from each game?

How many hours per day do you play?

Do you play a mix of games simultaneously, or do you stick to one game type when multitabling?

Thanks!

I'm decent at holdem but I strictly play O8, what is the biggest adjustment you have to make to be good at holdem?

do Polish people deserve all of the jokes made about them?

New map of the world has been made.
North pole at the top.
South pole at the bottom.
And every other pole is in the U.K.

I know that you used to (or still do) play the highest limit AND pot limit o8 games on Stars.

What do you think is the biggest adjustment you have to make while moving back and forth between the two games?

damn it where the hell is borys!

1&2. I started by playing the infamous Absolute Poker back in 2005, they had great freerols awarding real money for non-depositors. I used to be a play-money&freeroll player for the first few months occasionaly playing some fixed-limit 0.02-0.04 with the money I luckboxed from freerolls. At some point I came to the conclusion that low-limit real money donks arent any better then those play money ones so I deposited 50$ into Pokerstars which was by far the best choice back then as all fixed limits games up to 0.1-0.25 were rake-free!!! Not sure if anyone renembers those times but it felt real great to play something that was actually a 0 sum game. Late 2005 fixed-limit holdem was only game.

3. I lost around 25K$ on 2 March 2008 playing a mix of 10/20 PLO high and 75/150 LO8. At some point I had 6-8 of those games going and started running badly in all of them, I think I lost 18K$ in less then one hour that day.

My best days were never that impressive, whenever I started running good I was moving up rapidly in stakes and eventually the trainwreck was coming when I played bigger then ever before. Probably the best run I had was late February 2008 when I won close to 50K$ in one week.

Just by looking at those dates its easy to tell my worst day came shortly after having a really hot streak.

There are quite a few even in short-handed PLO8 which I consider my best game, some are just generally better then me and some play a style that I find really hard to play against or they read me very well. Probably everyone that played alot of heads-up poker could name one opponent who is beating them badly despite being considered only mediocre by others. No reason to list the best players out there, but avoiding the regulars is just a no-brainer even if you have an edge against them there is always a softer game out there against someone who is literally dieng to donate.

If I could play my best game for lets say 4-hours a day in 2 session I would stick to it and never even consider being a volume player. But at some point the action started to dry up for me and I couldnt get much short-handed PLO8 action anymore from anyone that wasnt a 20BB short-stacker or a very tough regular. Siting and waiting a few hours for someone to come and play 3 hands against me can be very frustrating and isnt that much profitable.


I would definitly be willing to give up some profit to have a stable winrate that would allow me to go the whole year without having a losing month. Running bad can have a huge impact on your personal life when poker is your only source of income, I dont have to win every month to make a living but when you are losing you just feel like you are wasting your time. Thinking how many other things you could have done with your time instead of siting in front of your computer and blowing your bankroll is just depressing.

Of course they do, all those jokes have to be true. I mean cmon you dont seriously believe someone could make them all up just like that, do you

But those so called polish jokes are known mostly in US. In Europe everyone prefers just to make fun of their neighbours, so the English will tell you jokes about the Welsh or Scotish, the French about the Germans and so on. In Poland you will hear mostly jokes about the Russians, we have lots of them, and ridiculing the Czech because of their language is just a classic.

Most memorable hand?

Biggest weakness/Strength?

What keeps you motivated to play as much as you do? just your goals, or are there other things you keep in mind while playing endless hours.

What was the biggest revelation you made in poker?

do your family/friends support your poker, if not, what do you do about it?

what percentage of time did you dedicate to school/poker while you were doing both?

i could do more but don't want to make you waste too much time from your elite time.

1. What do you think makes you a successful PLO8 player in terms of strategy?

2. What range of hands do you play shorthanded/HU when you are OOP/in pos?

3. What are some hands/types of hands that you played early on, but learned were a big mistake/leak to play later in your career?

4. What are some of the biggest mistakes you see good, but not great, PLO8 players make? At the lower stakes? At the higher stakes?

Thanks a lot for doing this!!!

1. A few basic things like good starting hand selection and knowing the odds but thats something everyone would agree on.

But there is alot more to it. I learned alot just by observing what other succesfull players do and by trying to figure out what they have in common. All of them and I mean every single one plays they good hands very strong in position, you will never see someone really good to limp a decent hand when he is in CO or BTN. Aplying pressure in position and forcing others to make mistake is the way to go.

2. When it comes to short-handed play (5-6 players) I dont vary my starting hand selection that much I just play them all stronger both preflp and postflop by raising and re-raising. In the original Super System Bobby Baldwin wrote something along this lines "You dont have to play more hands 6-max just play them stronger, any hand that was worth limping preflop full ring is now worth raising". He was refering to limit holdem but that statement ideally reflects my aproach to 6-max games.

Heads up it depends on opponent if he is passive I am willing to raise >80% from the button if he plays back then I will usually cut down on this number. OOP I like to make sure I have the best hand so I am going to defend only those that I am sure will do well against villians raising range, you dont give up anything by folding trash OOP even if you think you are the superior player.

3. The first example that springs to my mind are A2xx hands with 2 other cards uncoordinated especially against a raise, something like A29K is is in fact not playable against a raise from a decent player. Basicly the only flop you can play with any confidence is K with two low cards which will be rare. You cannot take a hand that will flop reasonable <10% against an agressor, because it will bleed you to death. Not to mention all those times when the flop came AK4 and I ended up drawing dead against AAxx.

4. At mid-higher stakes its more about what they dont do. There are some players that are very straight-forward and generally wont try to pull moves on you, sure they are winning players but its not someone who will stack me consistently becuase I will outguess myself trying to figure them out.

Wow awesome thanks for the response!!

It seems like there is a fine line between applying pressure in position and getting yourself in situations where you get quartered or are in a tough spot with a bare nut low. Can you talk about those type of situations?

What are some ways you have had to change the lines you take when moving up and playing better opponents? An example would be check calling OOP with a high hand on a two card low board so it looks like you are drawing low with a pair. Or over calling with a strong high hand in position so it looks like you are drawing low with 3-4 people in the pot.

Overall what are some of the changes you have had to make in your game when you were moving up?

Also how long are you willing to let me pick your brain?

There may be nothing left of it if we continue.

what's ur name on PS and FTP?

lol level? its borys313 on both

I find that AA** hands are usually a losing proposition unless you have a good quardinated AA** hand and are in pos. If there are 4 limpers and you are in the SB w AA4* or even AA3* and you raise it is very difficult to play. You almost always get callers and you give your hand away. Unless the flop comes perfect it is very hard to play profitably.

What types of AA** hands do you play in pos/OOP? And what's your standard line with these types of hands on various flops?

Thanks for the reply...