Nobody would miss you if you never posted again aep.

this ^

*shrug*

posting is a pleasant (sometimes) diversion for someone that spends most of his time at the computer all day, but i don't do it to get fans who are going to miss if i stop.

A quick look at your post histoy (either one) tells me that neither one of you would make much of a big splash if you stopped posting either.

Not true. I would miss him if be never posted again. It is nice to see an opinion that doesn't jive with the vast majority of posters - in any thread.

He clearly isn't being a troll and saying things just to get attention. He's posting his thoughts, opinions, and observations and that's what forums -those on 2+2, in particular - are all about.

I just registered on this forum to reply this post. Have been following this post for a long time. I almost check this post every day to see if there is any new post. Hope OP can update his poker life soon.

leave Aeppoker alone!!!

Finding Truth on fantasy Island

The K3 hand hit me hard. Hard like an unsuspecting pigeon taking a Randy Johnson fastball to the abdomen. Hard enough that the force carried my 175 pound frame back down the High Limit stairs straight to 5/10. It's okay though, they say even Doyle went broke more times then he could count. And I know Ivey spent many cashless nights sleeping under the boardwalk; Back when he was still Jerome. I could take the experience as a failure, or I could learn like those two legends, and come back stronger the next time.

But for now it was back to the grind. Like going back to an old girlfriend, my return to the 5/10 was filled with shame and regret, but there was also a sense of comfort. The poker community is filled with gossip whisperers. Everyone knows whose been winning, whose been losing, and whose been taking shots. But it's also composed of intelligent and respectful acquaintances. So after a few head nods and half-smiles what happened last week was understood. There was no need for bad beat stories or tales of failed triumph. Whether the cards betrayed me or I simply wasn't ready was unimportant. I was back and my old coworkers did their best to make me feel comfortable, without overemphasizing the deed.

Returning to my bread and butter, I picked up as if I'd never left. The 10/20 taught me a lot about the power of the 3bet, and the difficulty in playing average holdings out of position. I did my best to take these lessons straight to the felt and apply them to my 5/10 opponents.

In one particular instance, I had an aggressive dynamic going with an old foe. The James Van Der Beek look a like from my first trip was in town, as he often is, and it didn't take long for us to tangle when he was moved to my right. My stack was deep as I'd been bullying the table, but he didn't know that. So after the board paired on a 5676 turn and I raised his 180 blocker bet to 600, I had to show the A4 as he folded to get his juices flowing a bit.

A couple 3bets followed and eventually I found my time for the aggression to pay off. He opened in MP and I again raised it up to 120. This time he went to his stack in stride and made it 340. Problem for Dawson is his timing was a little off. I woke up with AA and decided to flat call for deception and to allow his weaker holdings to catch up a bit. The flop came 234 and he led into me for 400 with 850 behind. Enough is enough, so I shoved in my entire stack and got called. The turn was a 4 and the river an offsuit 7. His mid pair was good, but not good enough. My aggressive image got me paid off in the form of a $3300 pot.

That was the closing session of an 11k upswing. The 8k I'd lost taking a shot was fully recovered, plus an extra 3k to add to the bankroll. We celebrated that night at the Rhino. Not just the upswing, but my 23rd birthday. With every naked dime thrown on my lap, I was reminded of how messed up this town really is. Nothing is real; But everything is attainable. Entertainment, compassion, sex; they can all be bought and fictitiously performed to emulate the real thing. It's why I can't enjoy myself at the strip club. I spend all my paid time talking off the strippers ear, searching for conversation, flirtation, something familiar; That I end up with a half assed dance and personal insight halted by the shallow depths of the typical tequila-flooded, cocaine-laced stripper brain.

The reason why every tourist wants to come here is the same reason why every local has a plan to leave. Vegas is not real. It's a fantasy. But living here isn't like the fairy tales you read about in books. It's more like the E True Hollywood story version. After the drapes are closed and the costumes removed, all the actors are exposed and it's just a culmination of characters trying to find their place in this world, with the same insecurities and fears that brought them out to this town in the first place. Mine were a job and a girl. A job I didn't want and a relationship that needed closure. But my god sometimes this town comes close to driving me back to the things that pushed me out here.

With rampant thoughts and paid conversation clouding my sense of reality, I took a look at the money I'd won, excuse me, the chips I'd attained, and realized it was time for another shot. After all, they're just clay circles, on loan from the Bellagio. Losing them really has no bearing on my happiness, and if I'm going to be out here sacrificing everything that's normal to chase my dream, then god damnit I'm going to take every reasonable opportunity to fulfill it.

So after a weekend trip to San Francisco, seats at the Charlie Sheen show, and 10th row tickets behind the Mavs bench for game 1 of their series with the Lakers, it was back to Las Vegas for high stakes shot number 2. The game seemed okay on the tuesday evening I planned my return so I jumped in with a 4k stack and an eagerness at a 2nd shot.

My first opportunity at some profit came against the table fish. The straddle was on and I found myself in the Sb with QT. 4 limpers to me and I joined in with my medium strength hand, hoping the straddle wouldn't get frisky. He didn't and we saw a flop of T52. I led into the field for 160 and the fish was my only caller in the CO. The turn brought a pretty safe 9 and I threw out 380, hoping for value from worse T's and flush draws. Instantaneously, my opponent went all in for 1900. It made no sense for him to do this with a better T if he wasn't going to raise the flop, so he either caught two pair with the 9, or it gave him some sort of combo draw with his diamonds. His timing pushed me towards believing the ladder. So even though my hand strength was fairly mediocre, I put in the extra 1500 expecting to be ahead. The river brought the 6. I shook my head as the fish flipped up Q8 for the rivered flush and $4,000 pot.

Shortly later my KK got check raised by a good player in a 3bet pot on a 246Q turn. I was lost, ended up folding my hand and racked up for the night a 4k loser. It was 430am and Joe, my closest friend in town, and fellow 10/20 shot taker, and I were at an empty table discussing our losing nights, wondering about our next move. Mid conversation, in walked an acquaintance, Asian Sam. "Sam what is your deal. You're always just getting in this place in the middle of the night." Joe asked him, half jokingly, half curiously. "I'm just an early riser" responded Sam, "plus I help get the 10/20 started in the morning". "Is the game any good" I interrupted selfishly. All of a sudden Sam's demeanor changed from joking to serious. "No it's not very good at all. You two aren't missing anything," he replied. Joe and I shot each other a look. Something wasn't right. I've had close friends go so far as to call the floor to keep me out of good games. It's a shark eat shark world at 10/20 NL. Good games are few and far between and when they come some guys wouldn't tell their wives or even their own mothers if they thought there was a chance word would get out. So at no point did I put it past funny man Sam, a veteran grinder, to lie to us rookies about the value of the game.

We stuck around that morning, and checked out the lineup of the game as they came in to play. All old guys, all nits. While this may have seemed like a horrible lineup for a 5/10 game, when trying to adjust to a higher stake, a nitty game is the perfect way to get acclimated without the added aggression. So, just like we do constantly at the table, Joe and I decided our lives needed adjustments.Starting Thursday we would wake up at 9am every day and grind out the morning games, one nit at a time.

There was no rebuttal. No mention of how we were going to pull this off. It wouldn't be easy. After all, our current lives included waking up at 2pm and playing until 3 in the morning. This was no subtle adjustment. Our internal clocks weren't in for redecorating. They were in for an Extreme Home Makeover. Cause when god gives you internet poker players. Hundreds of technically sound, uber aggressive, internet poker players, you attack their achilles heal, mornings. We will make the adjustment that the other players aren't capable of making because in this game you look for any edge you can find. Sometimes it's at the table, sometimes it's in your alarm clock.

That thursday I woke up at 10:15, an hour after my alarm clock went off, but hey this **** isn't easy. I drove to Bellagio, walked down to Palio for a cup of coffee and took my seat in the oldest, nittiest high stakes game I'd ever witnessed. I was relieved when the other players opened with limps and generally shut down to any form of aggression.

A couple hours into the experiment I was up $500 and had the 89 in the CO. I opened to $120 at 10/20/40 and the Btn, sb, and bb all called. The flop came KT7 and I Cbet 320 when the action got to me. Only the sb, an older Asian gentleman called as we headed to the turn. 4th street brought the J, bingo. He checked and I bet $860, to which he painlessly called. The river was the 6, turning my straight into a backdoor flush. I thought about my plan, before deciding on a big bet, hoping my aggressive reputation would get me paid off. "1960" I announced while pushing the appropriate chips in. My opponent wasn't happy, but it didn't look like he was going anywhere. "Ooookay, nice hand," he said while tossing two yellow chips into the pot. My straight was good as my stack rose to $8,000.

With the evening rapidly approaching my stack stayed close to 8k, while slowly but surely the empty seats were being filled by young aggressive players. It was almost time to go. But not before I could attempt one last bluff. With A9 I opened to 120 utg, getting called in two spots, the CO and Sb. The flop came KJ3 and typically I would give up on this board, but I knew I could barrel these nits to death and put them in unfamiliar spots with marginal hands. So i bet $300. Call, Call. Uh oh. The turn was a 2, a complete blank. While this may seem like another bad bluffing spot, if they see me betting strong, two streets into multiple players, my hand becomes tough to beat. I gathered a yellow, a black, and an orange, making a bet of 1120 and threw it into the pot. The first fellow immediately folded as the action reached the sb. He looked at his chips, looked at mine, then asked me how much I was playing. My palms were sweating while I played it cool and counted my chips as unsuspiciously as possible. "About 6k more" I told him, hoping that was the answer he wasn't looking for. Still his eyes kept darting from my stack to his. Was this old nit on crack? I played it cool with my head buried in my hands, and let out a gigantic sigh of relief as the old man tossed his cards into the middle.

As I raked in my chips PeachyKean took the spot to my left. The final straw, it was time to go. I racked up a $5,100 winner and with some restored confidence that had been lost the night before. The win put me back up to 77k profit for the year. Hopefully this shot goes better than last time, but if not I know they'll be waiting for me at the 5/10, nodding and smiling.

MM

IMO -- your lines make a lot more sense in here than they did in either of the high-stakes-shot posts gj getting back to a less passive style.

still dont like showing the bluff though, esp if youre doing a lot of it./

Very good read. I am glad you bounced back very well from the last bad beat. Hopefully, before the end of 2011, we can see you on some HSP or PAD.

FYP

Another awesome update and wow up $77,000 on the year...shazam!!!!

Hey Matt, sweet update.

Now that you've been grinding a lot and essentially playing the biggest poker game there, have you been getting some pretty sweet additional comps? (or are you still just treated as a guy that isn't playing table games )

Also this might be a sticky situation that you don't want to talk about, but how do taxes work when most of your money is just clay discs.

Thanks for the update, always a great read

I think he's a big boy. Besides if he is going to be an ass for no discernable reason, and criticize the product we enjoy (there seems to be little purpose to it), he could at least provide us with a superior one. He says this stuff is no good...so give us something better. Give us some of the non-standard tough situations from his superior perspective. I'm just a commoner so I might not be able to relate, but I'd give his tales of the tables a try. I like to read.

Win rate of 9 BBs per hour? that is running well.

I saw your tweet about concentrating on not making mistakes, and thought to myself, "Self, yeah we don't want to make mistakes but we have to try to induce mistakes from others".

Good to see you back in top form.

Also loved the quote "sorry jungle, I don't remember". I lol'd at that, next time you'll be ready with the line.

How many internet guys do you get in a typical evening game of 5/10 or 10/20 as opposed to before black friday? Is it like 1 more at each table or is half the table internet pros?

You're a very good writer. You should write a book someday or a screen play, imo.

Have You seen this?
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...ker-tournament

When someone posts something on an internet forum, they should expect discussion of it. Im discussing.

The two posts i was discussing (the ones prior to this recent post) indicate (at least a temporary) failure to grasp basic concepts of game play and game preservation. In fact the first is so bad that, had he posted it on any other forum here on 2p2 other then the very loosely moderated LVL, it would have been edited for him, and he would have been infracted or warned.

No, i didn't. As a matter of fact, ive said several times itt that i enjoy matts posts. There is a difference between enjoying something and being a mindless fanboy. I can enjoy matts posts and still think he makes a few terrible poker decisions along the way. The responses itt to any criticism or analysis are so over the top its actually funny.

As for providing you with something superior, i think your criticism would be a lot more valid if i never did anything but come here and criticize matt... i actually post quite a bit and only occasionally here.

Regardless though, wish granted. Next time i hit vegas ill post a detailed report (probably not till the wsop)


i think you misconstrued what i was trying to say... my point wasnt that matt was only describing standard situations.... my point was that most of the situations he was describing lately were badly played (except for the standard situations) and he was describing them in a way harmful to the game.

He clearly would never be able to compete with Matt's writing style. Its gotten to the point where I cringe everytime I see AEP post

sorry if my posts arent literary enough for you... you know you can ignore posters, right (i think its in the user CP)

That's the first helpful and constructive thing you've ever posted. Thanks AEP, ill no longer need to see your negative attitude towards a better writing and poker player then yourself.

Sort of odd that you purport to know how good a poker player I am without actually playing against me.

of course, a successful pro like you would be a good judge
You obviously think MM is better than me, which is fine. Youre entitled to your opinion and It might even be true (though i doubt it because im pretty fantastic). Its a difficult hypothesis to test, since we specialize in different games.

However, the fact that you hold that opinion without knowing anything about me, what I play, or my results shows that youre really not thinking at all -- youre just indulging in empty-minded idolatry.

As for writing style, your logic is pretty absurd. "hes a better writer than you, so you shouldnt criticize his play" its pretty ridiculous.

Also, i have to wonder what you think this "negative" attitude is... is just saying a hand was played poorly negative?

AE, I think you read my sarcasm, and intpret what I say as 100% sarcastic. That would be a mistake. I am completely serious about being interested in your trip report. I can't say whether you are a better poker player/writer than Matt or vice versa, but I can say that you are both much greater than myself. So I'm interested even if I was pretty bitchy while making my request.

If you truly do not realize or intend to come across as dismissive and insulting to Matt and the fans of his thread...ok. I find it hard to believe at times, but...ok. Every time you go into depth and explain why you have a critique, I'm intrigued. Every time you just spout some negative comments without really explaining where you are coming from...well, I just don't see how it's productive. Looking forward to reading your future TR.

Fair enough. looking back on the post i made, I suppose it was fairly critical without substantiation.... Mojo PMed me and apparently wants to play HU for rollz (well, his roll anyway).... I had to demur because of BF but told him to look me up in vegas at the wsop if hes there, so there will at least potentially be something interesting to read when i do write one.

That said, reading the Taking my Shot and the subsequent post, i really see a big difference in the lines he's taking in 5/10 versus 10/20 and the 10/20 lines seem a lot worse and sprinkled with meta-game leaks as well. I had hoped the post would spur discussion, because i think the challenges faced by a talented midstakes pro moving up to high stakes are worthy of discussion.

Serious question for matt -- Most ppl i have known who made the transition from mid to HS starting at the B 5-10 game play the uncapped 5-10 at the wynn or the V as a transitional level. Have you considered this as an option? IMO, it really feels like youre trying to "skip a grade" and doing so at the worst possible time (when the 10/20 game is infested with online refugees).

lol just quit posting itt thx