A few people have asked for this, so I figure why not? Ask away, I'll answer anything.

whats your poker story to date?

When are you releasing number 3 in you're series?

What's the best way to get rid of tilt?

I first found online poker when I first got to college in fall 2005. A couple people in my dorm were playing freerolls on Titan Poker at 4am, so I ****ed up my sleep schedule and started playing them. I met a girl that had a friend that played SNGs and he told me about www.flopturnriver.com and I made my first deposit and busted that quickly. I ended up depositing a BUNCH of money, I definitely didn’t win at first and I had a gambling addiction. I’d say I blew through $1k of my student loan money trying to score big. So after I decided to not be so dumb, and learned bankroll management through 2+2 and got a bit better at the game. I stopped going to classes and ended up moving back home.

I was playing $16 turbos and taking shots in the $22 180s when I got 4th in a 180 for something like $230. I was hooked. I wasted almost all of my bankroll on those trying to hit big, I didn’t. I got a job delivering pizzas at a ghetto store and hated it. My boss dicked me around and made me work as a cook at a store that was 20 minutes away from my normal store and didn’t comp me for gas or anything, so I told her she was a bitch and I got fired in June 2006. I had probably $300 to my name, and I deposited it all on Party. I grinded nl25 FR and made what I think was like $1k that month. This was the point that I started dating Alyssa I believe, somewhere in this area, July 2006. I moved up to nl50 and made $2k, and I moved my $3300 roll to Stars to grind nl100 6-max. Probably my dumbest move but I thought Stars was fishier or something. I made probably $2k in August and I decided that since I was living at home, I could afford to cash out for a community college education. Then I broke even for 3 months… and was forced to grind nl25 in post-UIGEA.

I decided yet again that I hated school. I had to drive 20 minutes there and back 4 times a week and I hated that, so after that semester I quit again. I kept grinding nl25 and I realized how bad I sucked at poker. I got an hour of coaching from Nolan from Cardrunners when they had their guest coaching stuff and learned how to beat uNL, at least nl25. I moved up to nl50, this was around February of 2007. In March or sometime in that area I moved back up to nl100 and finally got settled in there. I ended up getting a job at Kohl’s Distribution to fund mine and Alyssa’s moving-out and in May 2007 we moved into our new place. I quit Kohl’s a few weeks after that and got a job delivering pizza again because I wanted less hours and a less demanding job so I could grind SSNL for mad cash (lol).

So I spent the next few months grinding nl100 and taking shots at nl200 and cashing out $1k per month and I just really hated life. It sucked grinding to make bills, and so I got a stake in October to move up, and that went really well, as referenced here. So December hits and that started the first of my 4 month breakeven. Nothing went right; I’d win at nl200 and lose it all to nl400. I ended up losing $5k at nl400 in 5k hands... pretty sickening. I ended the stake in I think January and was back on my own. So I grinded nl200 for a while and in April, I got 2 hrs of coaching from Terp. It went really well and I booked my best month ever with the help of finishing 17th in the Sunday Million, results here.

Alyssa and I were supposed to be moving to Columbus in the beginning of June, and after that, I was going to get coaching from mynameizgreg of Leggopoker, but on May 7th, Alyssa and I decided it was best to end things because we were both going our separate ways and neither of us were as happy as we could be. With my newfound freedom, I booked lessons with Greg, and have had 4 hours so far and I ended May with my second consecutive 5-figure month. I’m currently grinding nl400 on Stars and taking shots at good nl600 games, but mostly playing nl400. I hope to be at nl1000 by the end of the summer, so hopefully I can attain that.


And pretty graphs and stuff, I only have stuff from after October when I bought HM, hopefully that's cool:

Poker story, ldo.

How is it being a mod, how much work?

do you really love your puppy?

I'm not really sure on the video, I haven't really thought of a good topic... I might just make a video of me playing though because I ran out of ideas after two videos.

The best way I've found to get rid of tilt is to just quit and go outside. Fresh air and sunlight usually helps me to relax and forget about everything, but definitely the best way is to get away from the computer and anything poker-related. There are people that say to play through it and eventually you'll stop tilting but I just find it's much more +Life EV if I go outside and take a 30 minute walk or go drive around.

It's actually not too bad. It's just a bunch of reading and browsing forums, which I do anyways so I may as well lock topics while I'm at it. It's basically like the "busy work" from high school in that it's not hard it's just takes time to do, but I really like it.

I did, yeah, but I don't have him anymore due to the break-up.

Your favorite 2p2 posters?
What soft are you using and why (PT3 vs PT2+hud vs HM, maybe something for mining / game selection)?
What do you think about PLO?

This is not a question but i just saw how my graph looks a lot like you'res, on a mini format. Like, crush for 10K hands, 40K breakeven stretch. I don't have an upswong on the end though. Think ima get some coaching from terp too, even though i can't really afford it.

Thanks for doing this well mate! Thumbs up!

what do you think a typical uNL 2+2er does well?
what do they (_we_) do badly?
What is needed beyond bankroll to be able to win at higher levels?

I always hear people complaining about how games at all levels are so much tougher than they used to be. Do you think this is true? If yes, why? And what adjustments should players make to adapt?

My favorite 2+2 posters:
ikestoys and unknown soldier from SSNL because their advice has helped me out a ton and they're just really good at the game, arturiusx and cbboy from MSNL for the same reasons as above and durrrr in HSNL mostly because he gives really cryptic advice that makes me think a lot rather than someone saying "do this because x" because it's hard to learn when people spoon-feed you advice.

I'm using HM for my database and I love it. It's becoming so streamlined and it's just the best tracker out right now I think. For datamining, I used Spadeeye when I played on FTP, but since I'm on Stars now I don't use anything for table selection or datamining (the spadeeye equivalent on Stars has to use image recognition and it's just too slow for me).

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WHATS A THAC.

add him on facebook and youll figure it out

How much harder were nl100/nl200 when you moved up then nl50? And what do you think are the biggest adjustments you have to make between them?

Thanks thac

Where do you hope to be in ten years?
What do you charge for coaching?
What's the best hand you ever played?

do you like me, and what do you think of me as a 2p2er?

I think most uNL 2+2ers have preflop down pretty well, and are good at exploiting fish. And they can generally get value on their big hands, mostly due to the lack of FPS and just bet, bet, betting.

Stuff that uNLers do poorly that will get them crushed at higher stakes:

1. Paying off too lightly with tptk or tpgk. People generally don't raise too lightly, so when they raise you especially without history, it's probably a good spot to dump your top pair if they're anywhere close to solid.

2. Not getting thin value from tptk or tpgk. "But you just said that we pay off too lightly with these!" -- yeah, yeah.. it's different when someone is calling as opposed to raising. People in uNL call way too much (see #1), so if someone is check/calling, you need to be betting until they raise you. Say you have AQ on a Q95r board and you cbet your normal amount and an average reg calls you. Bet the 7 turn, and bet the 6 river. If he raises you, you can fold, but he's just not raising without a set or straight, and he DOESN'T have an 8 often so even if the board gets scary, you can still get value.

3. Mostly stuff like tilt control and playing too many tables to try and increase their hourly. Playing 6 tables with your A game is going to yield you more money than 15 tabling your B game because you'll have more time to think about your game and you'll be less prone to tilt because you won't be so rushed to make decisions.


More skills than just bankroll to beat higher stakes: Selected aggression, the ability to exploit regulars and good game selection.

Games are definitely tougher after UIGEA because a lot of the bad Americans can't deposit anymore and so the supply of fish is smaller. Games are still really good, but you just have to be able to adjust to playing with more regs and less fish and learn how to exploit those regulars. Go through your database and figure out where regulars are losing their money and write that down in their notes and exploit the hell out of it. If someone calls too much on the river, there's no reason not to bet your TPGK when he checks to you on the end.

where do you see yourself in 5 years, as a poker player?


edit: also say, 2 years

what was the top 3 things that helped most your poker game?? (ex. cr, 2p2..).

whats your favorite coaching site (cr, stox, dc..)?? and for unl noobs, what do you think its the best?

Do you think/feel uNL and 2+2 was different when we where noob what feels like ages ago, but really isn't ?

My real name is Trevor Hackworth.

The games are more aggressive preflop at SSNL than uNL, but it's usually in poor spots and with poor hands. Figure out who is good at preflop and who's not (hint: if you raise and get two callers including a fish and someone squeezes with 87s, they're not good). Mostly though, it's still the same game. There's 6 people, there's 100bb, and there's two cards. Just because it's double the stakes doesn't mean you have to double your stats. Play the same game and adapt due to game conditions, not game stakes.

In 10 years I plan on being out west with a degree in accounting (I swear I'm going back to school), but if that doesn't work out, I wouldn't mind being around the poker scene in LA or Vegas.

I'd rather not discuss coaching stuff in here if that's cool, I don't want to make this seem like I'm "pimping my services" or whatever.

Oh god, I can't even remember the best hand I've ever played but there's one hand that sticks out in my mind right after I got my first coaching lesson where I raised in the CO and got called by BTN. The flop came Jxy and I bet and he called. Turn was a J and I checked to rep a TT or QQ type hand that was scared of trips and he bet pretty like half-pot and I called, river was x that paired the 2nd card and I bet like 1/4 pot and he jammed with AK high =)

Of course I like you and you contribute well to uNL and 2+2 in general from what I've seen. Keep up the good work =)

Asssume you are playing Stars NL25 6max. What would your optimal stats look like at this level? VPIP/PFR/AF

I just hope to be beating 5/10 and 10/20 pretty easily, earning a steady income. I don't have any plans for poker because it changes so rapidly and there's nothing saying that it'll be around in 2 years, or if it'll be as difficult as it is at the moment (plzzz Asian market one time).

The top 3 things that helped my game were probably this, and in this order:
1. Getting a solid core group of friends on AIM to discuss hands with daily, because they always keep you thinking about the game and you always learn new things.
2. Doing poker stuff away from the tables. PT review, datamining if you can, working on your mental stamina and tilt control. If you can review your game objectively and work on non-poker stuff you'll be able to play longer, better sessions.
3. Game selection. Sitting with the same 5 TAGs on 3 of your 6 tables is dumb when there are tables with 2 regulars and 2 fish if you'd just be more motivated to look rather than to be happy with the tables you have now.

Well, uNL wasn't around when we were noob, but I do feel like the questions are better and the discussion is better, mostly because poker as a whole is evolving at such a rate where you almost HAVE to have deeper discussions. I also think the flaming has subsided which is good, every uNLer used to have a huge ego but that seems to not be the case anymore.