TTT

curious as to how it's going for you

Right, we want to know how is going

Please continue to update

Pls Update, did you chased losses and are broke know and in depth?

Big fan, p0krparty! I must have spent hours analysing some of your hands from back in the days (and indirectly, Phisherman's, a worthy and fearless opponent imo).

I have found it most insightful to read your approach to poker in general and plo in particular ITT. I am a little surprised to see you play nlh now. It must feel like watching paint dry, mustn't it? Imho, if you need a bigger bank roll, just start a plo coaching thread and you will have a queue of fans, including myself if I can afford your rate.

Anyway, I have little to contribute to someone of your talent so I will simply wish you well and remind you that in all endurance races, the greatest enemy is oneself.

update please, was fun to read, did you relapse?

I am sure Harry has his reasons for not posting. For what it's worth, my guess is that he wants to steadily and quietly grind in the background: he has gained 7 places so far in the Beast leader board compared to last month (currently at pos. 64):
https://rakerace.winningpokernetwork...eaderboard/ACR

Hey everybody, been a while! I'm very sorry for leaving you hanging for so long, and I really really appreciate your posts of concern, they're very sweet. It means a lot that ya'll worried about me relapsing and again I'm sorry for giving people that sweat. The truth is that being with Poker Detox sucked the life out of me and the joy from poker/engaging with the game and community like I did on this blog at the start. I simply had nothing good to say and felt like I was living under a dark cloud all the time.

But I'm back now and with big news....I got fired from Poker Detox!!! I AM SO FREAKIN' HAPPY. I had another 380k hands in my contract but they dropped me bc they said I wasn't good for the team culture, and I completely agree. My questions in Discord were always honest and thought provoking, fueled by genuine curiosity - not good if you're trying to run a cult and keep players on-program or "on-brand" as Nick loves to say. Feels like I can breathe for the first time in a year without the thought-police watching my every move, and I'm actually excited to play poker again! There's a lot more I could say about Detox as well as discuss what it was like grinding NL cash online for 220k hands in 2023 against Russian psycho-nits, but for now I just want to move on and get grinding for my own damn self while having some fun

Now that I can play any game I want, it'll be PLO and MTTs, often simultaneously. I had some nice tourney results playing on my own $ the last few months so I'll be able to start myself out with a $5k bankroll.


3x 2nd place money has to be some kind of record no?

I suspect my gameplan will change quite a bit over the next few weeks as I get to experience the variance of today's PLO and MTT streets, but here it is at the jump:

"Normal" stakes:

• Up to $55 MTTs, never more than 10% of total roll in any one session (will probably bump this to 12.5% for Sundays)

• .5/1 and 1/2 PLO (not always fullstack, never fullstack for 1/2)

• Shot take soft 109's like PLO PKOs

• Shot take shortstacking 2/4 when freerolling and feeling good

I'm not sure how aggressively I'll shot take, but will update my strategy here if/when it changes as well as document my general swings and MTT buyins. There are leaderboard incentives for playing lots of volume on ACR, but there are winrate incentives for just mashing PokerBros especially the 40% or 70% VPIP minimum tables which are insanely soft. Regardless of which site I focus on, the first milestone is at $10k roll where I'll get to bump my normal MTT stakes to $109s and shot take $215s, with more frequent 2/4plo sessions. Especially on Bros I could pop off for a 10-20bi cash session at any moment. SO EXCITING.

As pads and others have mentioned on podcasts, I don't believe in living a typically "balanced" life and really dig the rage to master concept. As long as I get my meditation, light workout, and stretching in then I'm good to go and it's all poker all day after that. My opinion on this or how I go about it may change over time of course.

It's time to see what I'm really capable of in today's poker world, without the Poker Detox leash around my neck. It's been 10 years since pokrparty and over a year since grinding PLO...do I still got it? We're gonna find out together cuz I honestly have no clue. First session tonight, here we go!

(me) (you)

I always love when my suspicions are confirmed. Nick Howard is the poker equivalent of Andrew Tate imo.

Anyways, you can't leave us hanging on the details of you being fired. Why didn't you like "the culture?"

What specific questions did you ask in the discord?

Why are you happy that you left?

If this really is supposed to be a blog about your journey there is no reason to be all politically correct and withhold details.

Oh, nothing new then. Just the usual pokrparty stuff, nothing to see here.

Forgive my ignorance but who's "pads"?

I agree with your last point and have wanted to say more but have held off bc whenever I read it back it sounds so whiney. My opinion is that the Detox approach to coaching/discussing hands is making most of the players on the team worse at poker, and in a way which is like an infection. My game feels infected from many months of giving their strategy and way of thinking a shot. They don't care if you played the hand better by deviating from their strategy, they don't care what strong points you make, they don't care about the principles behind a spot, they only care about what the data tells them to do. Also I should add, EVERYONE ELSE IS AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS THAT HINT AT DOUBTING THE STRATEGY. You can feel the thought police officers ready to pounce and redirect the discussion back to the simple narrative that keeps the machine running smoothly. This actually happened to me when I made some comments and asked questions regarding this article another player posted which is written by Patrick Howard who worked with all their data and designed every protocol in the machine.

https://www.mobiuspoker.com/blog/the...r-range-c-bets

They posted it with a quote that they really liked and at the time I was still desperately reaching for a sense of community (the entire reason I signed up for Detox) so I knew I had to read it and try to connect with some people over it. But as I read, it was just line after line of conclusions that made me say wtf. As with every time I tried to engage on Discord, I spent heaps of time and effort softening my words to make sure it was clear that where I was coming from was genuine curiosity. I didn't come in and say "lol this guy is FOS yea?" Just a series of questions GENUINELY HOPING for other players to clarify his points or explain them in a way that might even get me back on board with the Detox strat. No one would touch the questions and then a D2 coach came in with a "let's redirect this conversation back to (something data related)." The discussion was popping right before this. When I'd ask HH questions it was bc the spot was a threshold situation where I wanted to hear if others would deviate from the protocols and if they wouldn't, what were their reasons. But it's always something like "yea just shove data says they overfold" or "just call." Hand reading is even DISCOURAGED BY THE COACHES, but they'll turn you into a highstakes crusher? I call bs.

They claim to turn players into crushers but the vast majority get nowhere near that level and frankly the brainwashing that occurs during this process will significantly lower a player's long term ceiling in the game. Everything about the system including the culture is designed to make Detox the most money for the least headache possible. I've reached highstakes many many times and one of the most important skills required to accomplish that is ATTENTION TO DETAIL! The better player is the one who sees the most and has the skills to act on what they see. I.e the better player is the one with a more intimate knowledge of how the game works. That's where excellence comes from and you cannot SCALE excellence, but Nick is all about scale baby just ask his twitter account. He loves to call the CFP a "product" which only confirms what I've felt from his cheap marketing style tweets and overall approach to the stable. So in other words, Nick is selling a product called "become a highstakes crusher" for anywhere from $10k-$100k. It became more and more unsettling just being associated with these guys. Also, Idk how I feel about the mass data thing...it seems pretty iffy that some PhD stat grad with no understanding of poker can purchase 100s of millions of hands, analyze them for trends, and then create a system to attack those trends which can be scaled to other people who don't need any real understanding of the game. They've just found a way to legally bot by programming humans instead of a computer and the more I realized that the more icky it felt being associated with them.

To sum up and clarify, I have hoped I'd somehow get fired ever since the second month playing for them so that I wouldn't have to try and negotiate my way out of paying $20k for every 100k of unplayed hands (LOL) so this was truly a dream come true for me. Now I can play what I want and begin detoxing from poker detox.

LOL I love it, so absurd wtf am I doing. Tbh I think I'd have done better if I always capped myself at 9 tables. For the reduced volume I think higher winrate would compensate (and this is actually something I'm trying to figure out rn).

Pads116 Patrick Leonard MTT guy, I think he mentioned the rage to master concept on the Mechanics of Poker podcast.

He really was such a worthy opponent, I miss him (and Pokerstars) dearly. Maybe one day they'll let me back on there? One can dream.

Regarding PLO coaching - I couldn't take anyone's money for coaching these days. The game plays super weird these days. I do think I can win, but I'm not confident enough with my strategy to teach it to others and am not totally sure what my strategy is yet either. Will probably need a couple 100k hands before that happens.

And yes online NL cash is mostly like watching paint dry or even like highstakes colorbooking where you MJUST color inside the lines and if you mess up even a little then the whole page evaporates and you have to start over.

Thank you for the well wishes, I actually saw him tonight and he was being a dick. I don't love how I approached this Sunday I played too many tourneys and then did the same with cash afterwards. Gonna keep a closer eye on him moving forward.

Current bankroll: $6526.26

Just gonna keep the update as simple as possible. There are many thoughts I've been journaling about but instead of committing myself to writing the update + my thoughts I'm just going to update so that it actually gets posted.



Saturday was loads of fun, won big in cash on Pokerbros. Today I should've listened to a feeling I had at the start of the day and changed gears towards cash or studying or cash then latenight tourneys or something like that. When I get that feeling I have to start listening to it.

New rule - I have to either 1-table or study at least 1hr before I get into real session. I have to spend some time with the game in a way where I have plenty of space to think creatively about it and tap into the fun which that curiosity inspires. My bad days happen WITHOUT FAIL when I'm too eager and load up every open table I see without asking myself if I'm in that curious creative space or not. It's such a broken record at this point.

Goals for the week

• First 1hr+ of poker is dedicated to the spirit of the game in whatever SLOW way I feel inspired (1 tabling, studying, drilling, running sims, etc)
• Start waking up at 10am. I hate how isolating it feels to do this 6-8am bedtime thing and I can feel it being bad for my physical health. I will miss some good tournaments and cash games but the trade off will be well worth it (and there's plenty of action anyways).
• Meditating, sweating, and stretching must all happen before I play any poker. I've already been doing this and want to keep it up.

I could prob add more but you're only supposed to make one big change at a time, and the 10am wakeup is a BIG change. Next week I'll review how things went and make any adjustments.

6k roll is a bit low i guess x) you should play plo50 max x) glgl

by the way big hitting talent plays micros knowdays, games are death .. no money for losers like me haha

Also how is your addicion going? I am addicted to poker and sport betting it is a big desease. You were on heroin or cocaine must be awful and not curable without a lot of psychoherapy. You will need years to recover and relapses are just common ..

Thanks. I'll check out the podcast with pads this week.

Don't! the old PokerStars is dead and it is no poetical exaggeration: it started with the sale to Amaya (who can read spreadsheets very well but don't understand poker) in 2014. The second act was the SNE robbery of 2015/2016, which caused a big uproar and an exodus from the most loyal part of their customer base. The third act (and final nail in the coffin) was pronounced in 2019 when they announced the normal tables limit was moved from 24 to 4. Without the ability to mass tabling outside zoom, from a grinder's point of view, Pokerstars has lost their main competitive advantage. PokerStars, which used to be my home, is now where I am going to when I have no other choices (almost never at the moment).

That sense of belonging is important. It is unfortunate that the traffic has moved on from 2+2 over the years. Even just 5 years ago, you would have had a larger following on this blog. Nowadays, you have a lot of traffic on reddit but there is no sense of community there. A lot of the technical discussions have moved on to Discord too and if you want to join one, I advise posting in the PLO sub forum and make yourself known: even though boobySMILES has been known as a tough PLO reg for a long time, the one everyone remembers, for better or for worse, is pokrparty. You will get plenty of offers to join a discord if you make yourself known and willing to join one. Up to you...

It won't be long before you break that rule, mark my words. I think it was Ray Dalio who said he was avoiding "rules" and preferred "principles". Principles are fundamental truths while rules are inflexible prisons (I am grossly paraphrasing). Here, the rule is 1 hr of slowly get into a poker session but the principle is to get into a creative state of mind which, in practice could take 15 minutes on some day but 2 hours on others.

@Blubbb If you think the bankroll is too low to play any higher than PLO50, you most definitely should read
this
then
this!
Even though our friend Harry is now older and wiser than he was then, I don't believe he is going to play on a 100+ BI bankroll either...

hahaha I can't believe we never interacted on the detox discord. I was just cut while on my biggest month ever for being a bad culture fit! Hit me up on DM if you want to chat on discord.

Sad about Stars but maybe GG will become the new? I've played clubGG software and I LOVE IT, can't wait to get out of the country to play on the main GG site.

You're spot on about the principles >> rules but I think rules can be used effectively as the scaffolding for those principles to eventually become dominant in your decision making experience.

Bro these throwback mentions are a joy to read, you really know your lore much appreciated

100 buyins for a stake sounds like a warmup stake, which is what I do at 50plo rn. You can always change your style to accommodate different bankroll strategies and shot taking too, which is what I've always done but like I said I'm not sure if the same stuff will work in today's climate. Still feeling that all out.

But did you win with detox system?

While your MTT bankroll management seems very standard, I surely won't mind if you give some details about your PLO bankroll management. Based on your known history and the way you speak about it, you seem to have a loose approach: there appears to be a 'gambling' element to it (and I mean it without judgements), a la xblink, that makes me curious. Anyway, I (and, I am sure, others) would be very interested to hear about the principles behind it once you have figured them yourself.

Looking forward to the next update.

Had some tourney hopes but no luck tonight. Ended up playing 12-16 tables for around 6hrs at the end of the night while finishing up tourneys which felt very 2012 in the best way. ACR + pokerbros combined is heaps of action. Think I gotta take it easy on the MTT buyins though, second long day in a row where I put some great cash sessions together only to have a big chunk of it wiped by MTTs. Actually, it's not the variance that bothers me it's buying in for such a chunky % of my bankroll while missing can't-miss spots and not feeling as sharp as I know I'm capable of. Also staying up till 5am+ when I planned my whole day to correct my sleep schedule so I can start waking up at 10am. There's a sort of anxiety/scarcity mindset that kicks in when I feel that flow like the old days and I never want it to stop, so I throw everything else out the window to try and hold onto it. This is gonna be a tough habit to break but I'll figure it out. I have an appt w/ my therapist Kim tomorrow so at least my timing is pure there. Figure the poker gods are just saving my late stage MTT sun run for a future main event

Great synopsis.

It sounds like Nick Howard (and possibly his brother) are more business men than actual poker players. I saw his new borderline scam venture where you go to Brazil and workout + learn poker for 30 days. All for the cheap cost of only 10k!

What a deal!!!

Human botting describes it perfectly.

I will not disclose my source but I have been shown a sample of their strategy. It is heavily rule-based, occasionally slightly too detailed (like that double check raise rule on F/T. That happens too rarely to be worth memorising imho) but more often than not simplified to too few parameters, not taking enough account of board textures or even villain's type, from the sample I have seen.

That being said, If I were a beginner or a losing player, I would be thrilled to be given such a strategy: it is a limited but decent base to work from and could even be just right for mass-tabling.

I can't deny their strategy has some value, but the conditions they impose on leaving their cfp group are disproportionally high and disgracefully shocking. I am surprised you bore these working conditions for so long, LB. Somehow, I have the picture in my head of a joyless industrial farm full of grinders working in a dark basement...

This is a good analogy for most large-scale CFPs