Good work WD staying classy to these trolls, Its a skill I def don't have keep up the good work

The troll himself doesn't bother me; I'm not at all concerned about the opinion of some dude with a $5 bankroll and no manners. It's more just being bothered while I'm working. I mean, it's def part of the game, especially as you gain recognition and particularly for the sponsored pros. But frankly, I hardly ever chat at the tables. Not because I don't like banter, but because it takes away from my focus on the game, which is my top priority.


Thanks Minty. I really try to never be rude to anyone at the tables - players or railers. Don't get me wrong - if someone says something rude to me, I'll defend myself and usually get a little smart with them. But I *never* disrespect other players or berate them for their play. First, I think reacting with anger is letting your emotions get the better of you, and I try to stay on as even a keel as I can. And second, poker is my profession so I do my best to conduct myself in a professional manner.


Anyways - FTOPS Event #18 starts in a little more than an hour. Wish me luck!

Fair enough, one of the more annoying things about having such a sweet picture is that I find myself having to chat about pink floyd w/ a lot of ppl that recognize it. I enjoy the chat but yea, it gets distracting while 25 tabling lol

Thread continues to deliver! Big thanks for taking the time to lay out your thought process on so many aspects of the game. I really appreciate the essay on note taking, it gave me a lot to think about. One thing that helped me particularly is the idea of putting a ? at the end of a note the first time, and only taking the ? off after you've seen him do the same thing another time or few times.

Please continue sharing your thoughts. I've never gotten really good at anything without learning from experts. In this poker world where a lot of top players charge for coaching or to see their videos, I'm hugely appreciative of a top player posting analysis and answering questions for free.

W.D., just stopping by to say hi and gl--I would have purchased FTOPS shares if I had seen the thread sooner

Thanks Corbalt - I'm stoked you're getting something out of it. I'll do my best to keep it going.

What up Zonk - nice to hear from you. No worries; I'm 0-fer-the-FTOPS so far


So, WD update:

I'm in the middle of one of the worst stretches of my career. Over the past month, I'm down. The logical part of me knows that this happens to all players, and that if I play well, it'll be just a memory soon. I've been running under EV, which is fine, but I'm also not playing my best. B- game for sure. And that's frustrating. My focus has been fluttering around my fingertips like a butterfly, and I just can't catch it.

So, I believe I need to make changes to life to get things back on track. In no particular order:

*I need to fix my sleep schedule. I'm rolling with a 3:00am - 11:00am schedule right now, on average. But it varies plenty. I need to normalize my sleep, both in terms of consistency and time. I think consistently sleeping from 1:30am-9:30am would be a lot better for me.

*I need to start working out again. For the 2nd part of last year, I was doing P90x consistently and feeling great. I felt strong and looked great. I haven't done this since New Year's, and even though I'm not out of shape all of a sudden, I don't feel as good at all, and I need to get back to that. I'm a big believer in strong of body, strong of mind.

*Eat better. I've been rolling with the typical poker player's diet - fast food and processed food. Ugh. Having a good diet makes you feel better, and improves energy level and ability to focus. I need to fix this.

My short-term goal is to have all of this in place by the end of the month, which is less than 2 weeks. I've also made a deal with myself and my housemates - I won't cut my hair until I make a 5-figure cash in a tournament. Wish me luck!

I'm a big believer in strong of body, strong of mind.


Try telling that to stephen hawking!!

what happen to you..??

can you post some updates how are you doing?
you know that highstakes poker has higher swings and when u are on downswing u can easily lost faith in your strategy and then more leaks pop up and put you in even bigger swing...

After a short hiatus, Dervish is back.

In February, I went through the worst stretch of my poker career and had my first losing month as a pro. I ran a good amount -EV, but more than that, I felt that I got away from the things that had made me successful.

I finished in the red by about $2K, and a quick look at my ITM%'s since I turned pro illustrates my drop in efficiency:

Sept: 37.8%
Oct: 42.4%
Nov: 41.5%
Dec: 40.5%
Jan: 41.6%

Feb: 34.7%


I was very discouraged and disappointed in myself. I stepped away from this thread, took several days off of playing to try and regroup, I even had some spiritual script henna tattooed on me to help change my midset.

Then during the last week of February, Starting Gun came through to visit and grind for a few days. It was really cool to grind and talk poker with him - he plays 24 tables at once, has lived in Vegas, has played in the WSOP Main Event - so he's got a really good perspective. And it was especially good for me because I don't have any friends that play poker anything more than as a hobby, so I never really have the opportunity to hang out with other pro grinders.

And while he was here, I had a bit of an epiphany: The reason I've gone through this stretch has to do with the fact that I'm playing almost exclusively turbos. Not only are turbos more streaky in general, but I'm not as good at them; my push-fold game is merely average imo, and my strengths in reads, deciphering patterns, and intuition are mitigated to a great degree. At the regular speeds, I feel that I'm one of the best players. At the turbos, I'm just another reg.

So I made the decision: I'm going back to regular speeds. And the moment I decided that, it was as though an anvil had been removed from each shoulder. A quick look at the differential in my stats (again, since Sept):


ITM%
Reg: 43.2%
Turbo: 37.2%

Finish 1st% (overall)
Reg: 15.1%
Turbo: 12.7%

HU Win %
Reg: 55.7%
Turbo: 55.9%

WWSF%
Reg: 48.5%
Turbo: 46.8%

ROI
Reg: 17.7%
Turbo: 2.2%


I'm still going to mix some turbos in to keep my volume up, but reg speeds are going to be my main game, and I couldn't be happier about that.

In accordance with this shift, I am changing my goal to be #1 on the Sharkscope regular profit leaderboard ($36-$100). I'm about $13K off the lead atm (a very good Lithuanian player named Begalybe is currently #1), but no one said it would be easy. I am currently ranked 13th, despite only playing 148 reg speed tourneys so far this year.

The most important thing is that I feel like I'm back to where I feel I should be, feeling positive about my game (had a +$1200 day yesterday), and feeling hopeful for the future.

GL out there to all of us.

Super Bowl Hangover obv.

weeeeee lets go!!!!!!!! March gonna be our month imo

Haha SB hangover ftl itt

Wow what a shark. That's good that you found that leak. I just seen this thread today and I'm very impressed. Question: How many tables do you play at a time....just curious?

PS I didn't read all the posts so I don't know if you answered this question b4.

Solid comeback post, GL in March.. I know you will crush. Don't forget to mark those hands!!

Just finished reading this thread and I'd have to say it's awesome. Good Luck this month and will follow!

Hell yeah imo

I usually play 3 to 6 at most concurrently

Thanks dude. Sent the tech email into PT support today so hopefully they get me an answer on how to make it not lag up my sh*t.



Update: Quick easy day today. +$735. Up to 11th on the leaderboard.

Thanks Matt. Or is it Mr. Beast?

Mr. Matt is fine.

Can we get a graph for the entirety of Jan, and one for Feb as well?

Are you playing more tables yet?

Just read this book-like thread, nice to see someone succeeding at this crazy *** game.
Keep it up homie!

Well done WD lets hope your back on track, look forward to following this and getting some tips and input

Yeah I'll put em graphs up in a few.

I'm playing up to 6 tables at times now, but I've definitely been playing more games overall. Put in 100 in 3 days when Starting Gun was here, which was cool. Obv not a lot of a lot of players, but a good step for me. March hasn't been big volume-wise so far, but have had a lot of IRL business to attend to, so no biggie. Gonna get it cranked up good tomorrow tho.


Thanks man. Doing my best.

Thanks! 1st-post cherry popped ITT

Jan/Feb/March thus far graphs (don't include RB):

lol like it.

Currently 9th on the Sharkscope reg speed profit leaderboard