Yes, that. Thought that since I was living in Canada, I might as well go full Canadian.

Speaking of Canada...

I first started this thread/flicking MTTs when I was living in Thailand. Between November and March I went full bore; played intense peak sessions for arguably too long, with too many tables, and too deep into the early mornings. I approached MTTs with a SNG grinder's mentality, which had its pros and cons. Was able to mash volume and my EV BB was decent but results-wise, I struggled. Playing in the SE Asia time zone was difficult, as my peak sessions took place during the graveyard hours. People say that your body will naturally adjust. They're lying. I was flat-out exhausted. On most nights, I'd guess I fell asleep within 30 minutes of busting my last table. That meant on days where I'd make deep runs, my highest equity spots took place when I had the least amount of focus left. Don't need to tell you that's certainly not a GTO approach.

I figured a more accommodating time zone would make a difference, and that was one of many reasons I was excited to move back to Vancouver. On March 18th, 2018 -- one year ago -- I loaded my first tournament from the Pacific Northwest. Could immediately notice a difference in my overall energy levels, and I just felt better, happier, etc. The back half of March went alright, then I started picking up steam in April, and haven't looked back.



Total is like $225k+ once I add in the random stuff (bonuses, untracked games, etc). Big chunk of that has come in the past couple of months and I'm hopeful that it's not just random binks, but the the product of improvement/study. Definitely glad to hit some heat recently, equally glad that the EV has shot up, and I've got a decent looking graph. Admittedly, things didn't look amazing at first. The initial downswing/breakeven stretch was incredibly disheartening, partly because

a) I'm not used to a period of prolonged losing, and
b) I thought that until I started crushing, people would doubt my ability

Even amongst my own stable, I had the feeling that until my results improved, my advice was easier to brush off. Sure, he beat SNGs/Spins, but these are MTTs! These are different!



Was able to use all of that insecurity/angst as fuel to keep studying, keep working, even when the results weren't going as I hoped. Now, I can look back of what I accomplished and feel even better about the process itself. Of course, that doesn't mean the hard work is over -- I'm still going to continue to look for future adjustments/tweaks I can make to my game in hopes of finding more edges.

Day off today, back at it mañana.

Inspiring inspiring stuff, it seems you really got this poker thing worked out

Solid results and nice post, gg

Was surprised to read that your confidence took such a dive for something so minor, but I guess it worked out for you in the end

Wouldn't say I lost confidence in myself, was more that I thought others (both in and out of poker) did, and only way I'd prove them wrong is through results.

Although, as I've written on here before, during each downswing I certainly hear the little voice in my head that wonders if the game has passed me by. Most of the regs I battled against in various formats have quit, and I'd speculate the majority of those guys didn't go out on top. Certainly need to keep in mind that while I've enjoyed a modicum of success, I'm not immune to suffering the same fate. And to help avoid that, I can't rest on my laurels. Gotta keep working. Past graphs aren't proof of future success. I know it might seem pessimistic to some, but it's more of a mind trick I play on myself to stay hungry.

beastly graph man good work

Woke up early, only to get repeatedly stomped. Usually there's at least a couple of tournaments where I've got stacks/hope, but it was few and far between today. I think the closest I got to anything was AK < TT for the chiplead of the $109 6-Max PKO with ~25 or so left. Other than that, was a whole lot of brick city.

Dropped about $3000 which is impressive given I had less than $3500 worth of buy-ins.



Might grind tomorrow. We've had/postponed reservations to this restaurant 4-5 times now and we're supposed to go tomorrow at 5:45 PM. That'd be far too early for me to fit in a proper session and I told my GF it was her call; she said she'd decide tonight after work.

Don't want to clog the thread with daily updates, but I figured on the heels of a bad day yesterday, I should post about a good one today.

Slept really well last night. GF and I had a long talk recently about the importance of getting adequate rest, not overexerting yourself, and focusing more on quality of life rather than maximum productivity. To that end, I popped two of these CBD edibles around 6 PM. Chilled on the couch for a few hours, then got into bed at 9:30 PM and slept for about 11 hours.

Woke up, grabbed coffee, ran a productive group coaching session and started the grind.



GF decided to keep our dinner reservation to Kissatanto so I had to to remove a few games from my schedule to ensure I'd be done by 5:30. Despite my best efforts, I almost messed up and made us late. Thankfully, a few moments before the deadline, I shipped the $215 8-Max on 888.



Then we went to dinner. And it was glorious.

Wagyu Beef Tartar


Squash Blossom Tempura


Pork Katsu Croquette


Duck Agnolotti


Beef with Enoki Mushroom and Sukiyaki Broth


Yuzu Cream with Olive Oil, Pistachio, Blood Orange/Cranberry, and Shortbread Crumble


It's a shame that the Wagyu Beef Tartar isn't more photogenic, as it was the best bite of food I've had in a long, long time: Melt in your mouth wagyu beef mixed with peal onion petals, charred scallions, fresh herbs, diced Japanese pears, and covered in Parmesan. Still in awe of how tasty that dish was. As for the Yuzu Cream dessert, it wasn't my first choice -- I wanted the Tiramisu -- but GF had heard good things about the Yuzu Cream so we went with it. And it did not disappoint. Reminded me of a Pannacotta. The cream itself had a bit more firmness to it, the addition of Olive Oil added a fatty/richness element, and the strong fruit flavors provided a nice sweetness/tartness to cut through it.

We'll definitely go back.

Nom

Came for the food, didnt get disappointed
More food pics <3

Just wait til mid May or so, I'll have tons of pics from Japan/Korea.

We're in a new month now, so let's take a look back at March.



Games: 857
Profit: ~$44,000



Most profitable month as a MTTer, and like 3rd or 4th most profitable all-time. Had some epic months as a $100s Spin reg back when rakeback was a thing and one month I made $90k simply by swapping 50% with the right player. Oh, those were the days. Where was I? Right, talking about MTTs.

The idea of being reliant on 'binks' makes me really uncomfortable, so I'm glad I had a lot of smaller scores that help with consistency. That mindset surely comes from my past life as a SNG grinder. Part of that mentality included an obsession with red line/EV, and I've carried it over to MTTs via the EV BB stat. I've been touting the EV BB as a wildly underrated tool, and using it to console myself when results weren't going how I hoped. But this past month, results were solid and yet EV BB (on Stars) was somewhat disappointing.

Stars: 7.51 EV BB/100 ($70 ABI)
Non Stars: 14.70 EV BB/100 ($90 ABI)

I mean, it's not bad. But it's not where I want it to be, either. Would like the number to be double digits and I'm not quite there yet. Will do some digging within PT4/HHs and see which areas I want to focus on. Already have a few spots in mind that could use some refinement. Doing that tomorrow + coaching/individual HH review for the group.

aren't you the guy who bought bencb789 tournament masterclass and shared it with his ponies even tho TOC said its forbidden?
i remember some emails sent from raise your edge regarding this situation.

Close. Was accused of colluding with another stable to share the content. The other stable had somehow received access to my account and put videos up on Youtube.

That other stable went 'dark' on social media, but I continued to post/be active. Had a long back and forth with RYE about the issue and at some point the communications abruptly stopped. Coincidentally, that was around the time when the stable in question resumed its social media presence. Probably not best for me to speculate on what happened, but I certainly have some theories. Won't be expanding on that, however, as it only will only lead to more drama and I'm just not interested in that sort of thing.

I mentioned this before on here, possibly in this thread but having my name dragged through the mud was frustrating, especially since I've always tried to do things the right way. I've purposefully avoided 'grey area' cheating, refused to be a part of Skype registration queues/cartels, turned down profitable horses who wanted to be ghosted, etc -- things that other individuals/groups felt was necessary to be successful. Just going to do my best to keep operating that way, move on from this ordeal, and hope my track record speaks for itself.

'The other stable had somehow received access to my account' very mysterious indeed.

it's ok, personally I have nothing against you, as long as you feel good about yourself it's ok, I was just curious because your name reminded me the email.

btw. is this course actually worth its price?

No worries man.

I'm of the mindset that almost all courses/paid coaching are worth the value, as it provides players with the opportunity to learn and/or improve a skill they can use it to print money for a period of time. It's probably more worth it for players who play higher, as it only costs me 5-6 buy-ins where it'll cost a microstakes grinder significantly more. Still tho, almost assuredly worth it.

Congrats on the results so far! It's Impressive
Keep up the good work mate

In for the speculation.

Thanks! Your life/travel pics look incredible!

So I'm gonna rant here a bit about something that isn't exactly a novel concept, but nonetheless is worthy of discussion IMO.

When it comes to having success in poker, as Eric Thomas would say, most people don't want it bad enough.



Recently, someone sent me a hand on Skype and asked for my analysis. I honestly had no idea who the person was, as our chat history was completely blank and the Skype ID didn't ring any bells. Turns out it was a former student, someone I hadn't spoken to in three years. We had only done coaching sessions no more than a handful of times, but here he was, three years later, sending me a hand to ask for advice.

Which in itself, is fine. Not enough people ask for input. But it was a bit odd that he came to me, given our lack of interaction. Most likely, he spammed the hand to a bunch of players he thought were decent and waited for the replies to roll in.

The hand itself is unimportant; the gist is that it's a ~20 BB spot where hero has raised, faces a shove for stacks, and needs to decide if he should call with AQ. Was grinding at the time and couldn't open ICMizer, but gave a fairly long winded response about the importance of his range determining ours, reads on villain, how to go about gathering them, etc and after all of that he said,

Sigh.

Sometimes I wonder, what's the motivation here: Improvement or validation? Is the goal to actually learn? Or is it to be told you made the correct decision in that specific instance? This isn't exactly a hot take, but I'd contend the better players prefer depth analysis, and the worse ones would rather be consoled (ul, nh, nothing we can do, blah blah blah).

Not that this spot requires such in depth analysis. It's ****ing easy. That is, it's easy if you're willing to spare a few seconds and open up any equity calculator. Copy/paste the hand, estimate a few possible ranges, and you're one click away from finding the answer. Instead, many would rather be spoonfed the answer by a colleague or coach. It's not only the lazier approach, but vastly -EV as well; the player is never taking the time to understand the math behind the spot and is therefore less likely to learn the lesson and/or apply it correctly in the future.

If the idea of double clicking on ICMizer/HRC and plugging in the information sounds like too much work, here's some advice:

Quit.

As effective rake increases, player pools shrink, and other players outwork you, it's only getting tougher to win. Oh but you won in 2015/2016?



Unless you've got a time machine, that's largely irrelevant. In 2019 and beyond, your edge is bound to get smaller if you're unwilling to put in the extra effort to stay one step ahead of the field. And honestly, the 'extra' effort I'm referring to isn't even that hard. In the example above, it only took a couple of extra clicks. The question is, do you want it bad enough? If so, stop looking to be coddled and get to ****ing work.

That is all true and nice and all, but...

epic run, epic food. lots of <3

Thanks!

Behind pace for another epic month, but still up ~$10k ish so far and two weeks left to add to the totals.



Regarding my last post, one of my horses thought it came across a bit too harsh. I def didn't meant to put any individual person on blast but I do think the post underscores my feelings about the community at large -- People keep talking about the games being dead, how they wish they could go back to a previous year, etc but there's still a ton of money to be made in online poker. Most people won't see any of it tho, most will fail because they're too lazy to put in the effort and too quick to blame negative variance for bad results. Unlike in sports, this isn't about talent or athletic ability holding people back, it's about a subpar work ethic. My overall point is/was the following, which I wrote to my group:

amen

Amen

Got 2nd in the $44 Builder today to salvage a pretty nasty day. Before that, I FT Bubbled two of my highest buy-ins (AA vs AK, AK vs AQ) within 30 seconds of each other. It happened immediately before the break so I spent the first minute or so with my head in my hands.





Time to get away from the laptop for a bit, going to park myself in front of the TV and watch some basketball.

Had one of my horses 'reload' me yesterday, made him a promise, and then...

Lololol wp