Left Apple to drop the "semi" from "semi-pro" poker player. Let's see if I regret this decision
11-01-2014
, 05:31 PM
Mega Update/Necro bump/Return from the dead post!
So, I randomly fell off the face of the earth for two reasons:
1.) Went on a $14k downswing on Bovada, which made me reconsider advertising what a goldmine the site is (since I didn't want to make the games any tougher)
2.) My best friend irl and his new family (wife and newborn babygirl) fell on some hard times, which were very expensive for me to fix. I didn't blink though, because I owed them one. This guy let me crash rent/expenses free for almost a year and a half when my folks passed, so this was just me being fortunate to be in a position to return the favor when life dealt them some run bad.
As a result, I've gone from having a nice apartment in downtown Tampa, to getting a house with them to help them get on their feet. The combined huge hits to my BR + desire to want to get better to crush those 10/20 PLO bastards (lol) led to me wanting to do something I've never done before.... seek a coach/backer.
The combination there is important. Coach and backer. I hate being a horse. I know i'm a profitable player at 2/5 NLHE and live 5/5 PLO (which is like the equivalent of .25/.50 online). I've also never sought out any backing agreements for MTTs, mainly out of the fear that I'd finally spike a 6-figure score and have to chop it lol.
That said, no man is an island. Regardless of the venture, I've always been a believer that multiple heads are better than one, and a group will always perform better than an individual. Grinding 2/5 solo isn't the endgame for me. I want to travel, be more active, experience life, crush pokers with friends and become the alpha that some of the more popular PG&C guys on here have become. You don't do that by bumhunting. You do that by hunting the bumhunters.
Enter TMcKendry.
It took all of two skype conversations and one hookah bar meetup for me to know Tyler would be a good coach/backer. He's a very smart, yet humble person that always seems to try and maximize the value of any situation, whether it's poker or trying to hook up with random women in any location he happens to be in lol. He's not even where he wants to be in life, yet he's miles further than I am in where we both want to go.
That's where the value comes in for me. I feel as though Tyler has a lot to offer both as a friend/mentor as well as a poker coach, and feel like the longterm value of lessons learned will be worth way more than the monies I make chopping up my immediate profits with him. We have an agreement for the next 3 months (and probably up until SCOOP at least), where he gets all of my online and live action at 50/50 + makeup in exchange for being 100% backed and having him coach me.
Going forward, I won't be posting any BR numbers or day to day results, but I WILL keep this thread active with trip reports/hand histories/funny THR stories/personal goals/**** I need to vent about. Vamo, GTFI, sorry I left you peoples, etc etc
lol.
Having an awesome weekend so far, will post some hh's later. This post has been long enough
So, I randomly fell off the face of the earth for two reasons:
1.) Went on a $14k downswing on Bovada, which made me reconsider advertising what a goldmine the site is (since I didn't want to make the games any tougher)
2.) My best friend irl and his new family (wife and newborn babygirl) fell on some hard times, which were very expensive for me to fix. I didn't blink though, because I owed them one. This guy let me crash rent/expenses free for almost a year and a half when my folks passed, so this was just me being fortunate to be in a position to return the favor when life dealt them some run bad.
As a result, I've gone from having a nice apartment in downtown Tampa, to getting a house with them to help them get on their feet. The combined huge hits to my BR + desire to want to get better to crush those 10/20 PLO bastards (lol) led to me wanting to do something I've never done before.... seek a coach/backer.
The combination there is important. Coach and backer. I hate being a horse. I know i'm a profitable player at 2/5 NLHE and live 5/5 PLO (which is like the equivalent of .25/.50 online). I've also never sought out any backing agreements for MTTs, mainly out of the fear that I'd finally spike a 6-figure score and have to chop it lol.
That said, no man is an island. Regardless of the venture, I've always been a believer that multiple heads are better than one, and a group will always perform better than an individual. Grinding 2/5 solo isn't the endgame for me. I want to travel, be more active, experience life, crush pokers with friends and become the alpha that some of the more popular PG&C guys on here have become. You don't do that by bumhunting. You do that by hunting the bumhunters.
Enter TMcKendry.
It took all of two skype conversations and one hookah bar meetup for me to know Tyler would be a good coach/backer. He's a very smart, yet humble person that always seems to try and maximize the value of any situation, whether it's poker or trying to hook up with random women in any location he happens to be in lol. He's not even where he wants to be in life, yet he's miles further than I am in where we both want to go.
That's where the value comes in for me. I feel as though Tyler has a lot to offer both as a friend/mentor as well as a poker coach, and feel like the longterm value of lessons learned will be worth way more than the monies I make chopping up my immediate profits with him. We have an agreement for the next 3 months (and probably up until SCOOP at least), where he gets all of my online and live action at 50/50 + makeup in exchange for being 100% backed and having him coach me.
Going forward, I won't be posting any BR numbers or day to day results, but I WILL keep this thread active with trip reports/hand histories/funny THR stories/personal goals/**** I need to vent about. Vamo, GTFI, sorry I left you peoples, etc etc
lol. Having an awesome weekend so far, will post some hh's later. This post has been long enough
11-02-2014
, 01:02 PM
You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your ****in' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy."
I love Scarface, and my mindset is very similar to his in the movie right now. First you get the money, then you get the power. The above quote is also super relevant to my image at the Hard Rock, which is a curse and a blessing at the same time lol. I hadn't been for a couple months until this weekend, but as soon as I came back, it's like I'd never left.
Being a very large, unshaven, hoodie-wearing guy makes people automatically assume I'm the table bully. It's true that I tend to be super aggressive in MTTs when antes are in play and I know most people are just trying to enjoy their day/get their money back, but people seem to think that they way to counter that is to try and out spewtard me, with often hilarious results.
Case in point, my bustout hand in bullet #1 of last night's $125 survivor MTT: (Side note... I usually never play these, but the cash games were dead-ish at the time and I figured it'd be a fun way to kill some time until people started showing up).
Blinds 100/200, 25 ante. Effective stacks = 13k.
Typical loose passive UTG rec fish limps, UTG+1 calls, folds to chatty OMC in the CO who raises to 600. I pounce on obvious weakness and raise to 1600 in the button with K
J. Older asian guy in the sb that's played exactly two hands (AKs and KK) flats my 1600. Everyone else folds.
Flop = 2
3
7
SB checks, I bet 3600, SB calls. It's important to note that in the two hands he played previously, he wasted no time getting it all in when he had something. Him being on my immediate left, it was almost painfully obvious to me that he was weak with the way he tank called.
Turn = 9
SB checks, I shove. SB tanks and says "you must have an overpair huh?" two or 3 times before having an "ah **** it" moment and shoving his chips in. His 24 () holds. WP sir, ya got the bad guy.
There's a few other hands that similarly show how people view me here, but I think that's the best one lol. Definitely going to be looking to exploit my image vs. people that recognize me going forward.
I love Scarface, and my mindset is very similar to his in the movie right now. First you get the money, then you get the power. The above quote is also super relevant to my image at the Hard Rock, which is a curse and a blessing at the same time lol. I hadn't been for a couple months until this weekend, but as soon as I came back, it's like I'd never left.
Being a very large, unshaven, hoodie-wearing guy makes people automatically assume I'm the table bully. It's true that I tend to be super aggressive in MTTs when antes are in play and I know most people are just trying to enjoy their day/get their money back, but people seem to think that they way to counter that is to try and out spewtard me, with often hilarious results.
Case in point, my bustout hand in bullet #1 of last night's $125 survivor MTT: (Side note... I usually never play these, but the cash games were dead-ish at the time and I figured it'd be a fun way to kill some time until people started showing up).
Blinds 100/200, 25 ante. Effective stacks = 13k.
Typical loose passive UTG rec fish limps, UTG+1 calls, folds to chatty OMC in the CO who raises to 600. I pounce on obvious weakness and raise to 1600 in the button with K
J. Older asian guy in the sb that's played exactly two hands (AKs and KK) flats my 1600. Everyone else folds. Flop = 2
37SB checks, I bet 3600, SB calls. It's important to note that in the two hands he played previously, he wasted no time getting it all in when he had something. Him being on my immediate left, it was almost painfully obvious to me that he was weak with the way he tank called.
Turn = 9
SB checks, I shove. SB tanks and says "you must have an overpair huh?" two or 3 times before having an "ah **** it" moment and shoving his chips in. His 2
4 () holds. WP sir, ya got the bad guy. There's a few other hands that similarly show how people view me here, but I think that's the best one lol. Definitely going to be looking to exploit my image vs. people that recognize me going forward.
11-04-2014
, 03:15 AM
"Sometimes makin' the right move isn't enough, but there's always another hand..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJJ6s-_ah_E
Part of staying cool is understanding that sometimes, you can make all the right moves and still get the short end of the stick. Have to concentrate on the actions and let the results play themselves out.
I thoroughly dominated the $50+5 30k GTD on Bovada tonight, even while sick as hell (thanks THR patrons) and barely able to speak lol. Doubled up in the first level calling down a bluffy triple barrel on a 467dd22 board with 79, and then proceeded to run over the tournament. I was chip leader or top 3 in chips from 200 to go down to 27 left. Then this beauty happened.
Average stack = ~55k, I'm sitting at 130k, blinds 3/6k.
Minraise UTG with JJ
Folds to SB who calls with 80k behind.
Flop 246 (Pot 35k)
SB checks, I lead out 10k. I'd been owning the tourney minraising/3betting small pretty aggressively and cbetting somewhere between 15-30% pot, so I wanted to make it look like every other hand and maybe induce a shove with random gutshots/smaller pairs.
SB calls.
Turn 8 (Pot 55k)
SB checks.
I was honestly a little worried about the 8, since I put him on a middle pair or flush draw, but I'm obviously not going anywhere at this point. I fire 30k. SB shoves. I snapcall.
He shows 99
River 9.
GG massive chip lead (almost 20% of the chips in play with 20 to go), GG 6500 up top, hello crippled stack that got busted shoving 8c9c from the SB into a BB's JJ 2 hands later.
It's a bad beat story, but it also shows I've come a long way already in my thinking and how I feel playing poker in general lately. I literally cannot think of a single hand I played badly the entire tournament. Just from talking to Tyler, reading Let There Be Range, talking to a few other local geniuses, studying lots of video content, and overall just deciding I'm going to start crushing, I have a renewed sense of confidence and urgency at the tables.... and I like it. The results will come eventually, as long as I keep putting in the work.
Despite the beat, I've posted 4 straight winning days as a horse. There's an opt-out clause set for $20k in profits (after the split), and I'm going to push to hit that and renegotiate lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJJ6s-_ah_E
Part of staying cool is understanding that sometimes, you can make all the right moves and still get the short end of the stick. Have to concentrate on the actions and let the results play themselves out.
I thoroughly dominated the $50+5 30k GTD on Bovada tonight, even while sick as hell (thanks THR patrons) and barely able to speak lol. Doubled up in the first level calling down a bluffy triple barrel on a 467dd22 board with 79, and then proceeded to run over the tournament. I was chip leader or top 3 in chips from 200 to go down to 27 left. Then this beauty happened.
Average stack = ~55k, I'm sitting at 130k, blinds 3/6k.
Minraise UTG with J
JFolds to SB who calls with 80k behind.
Flop 2
46 (Pot 35k)SB checks, I lead out 10k. I'd been owning the tourney minraising/3betting small pretty aggressively and cbetting somewhere between 15-30% pot, so I wanted to make it look like every other hand and maybe induce a shove with random gutshots/smaller pairs.
SB calls.
Turn 8
(Pot 55k)SB checks.
I was honestly a little worried about the 8, since I put him on a middle pair or flush draw, but I'm obviously not going anywhere at this point. I fire 30k. SB shoves. I snapcall.
He shows 9
9River 9
.GG massive chip lead (almost 20% of the chips in play with 20 to go), GG 6500 up top, hello crippled stack that got busted shoving 8c9c from the SB into a BB's JJ 2 hands later.
It's a bad beat story, but it also shows I've come a long way already in my thinking and how I feel playing poker in general lately. I literally cannot think of a single hand I played badly the entire tournament. Just from talking to Tyler, reading Let There Be Range, talking to a few other local geniuses, studying lots of video content, and overall just deciding I'm going to start crushing, I have a renewed sense of confidence and urgency at the tables.... and I like it. The results will come eventually, as long as I keep putting in the work.
Despite the beat, I've posted 4 straight winning days as a horse. There's an opt-out clause set for $20k in profits (after the split), and I'm going to push to hit that and renegotiate lol.
Last edited by TClermont; 11-04-2014 at 03:30 AM.
11-04-2014
, 03:43 AM
Tough beat man 
Been there a few times myself in these bovada/american site tournaments before finally breaking through last night. Seems like you got a strong hold on your mental game atm though and that makes all the difference. MTT variance is nuts but like any game of poker all we can control is playing well and eventually the money does come. glgl
Been there a few times myself in these bovada/american site tournaments before finally breaking through last night. Seems like you got a strong hold on your mental game atm though and that makes all the difference. MTT variance is nuts but like any game of poker all we can control is playing well and eventually the money does come. glgl
11-05-2014
, 05:58 PM
Don't be afraid to give your best at what are seemingly small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you stronger. If you do the little ones well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. - Dale Carnegie
I hate playing small stakes, and it showed yesterday. I forget who said it in a post on here, but someone was talking about tilt and how if you step away from yourself and notice it, you can smile at it and acknowledge it as it dissolves away. I took a couple bad beats in the $55 30k and lost a huge 3-way with AKs vs. AQ and JJ in the $55 15k, but definitely made some questionable calls/shoves in the $11 turbos/10ks I was in to either chip up quickly or be done with the event.
Part of this could be attributed to me not really being in the mood to grind 4-6 mtts at the time, due to still being sick and being more interested in ghosting Tyler, but there's no excuse for it while I'm in the learning phase of my career. Thankfully, I feel a lot better today, and feel it's time to set some personal goals for as well as poker goals for future playing sessions.
Personal Goals:
- Exercise in some form for at least 30 minutes a day prior to playing. The endorphins/boost in energy should be a great help at the tables.
- Go full paleo diet. I just went grocery shopping, so now's as good a time as any to cut out grains/dairy/processed foods from my diet. I'm going to be asking around for supplements/additional things to take on the side as well. I'm giving myself 1 cheat day and thanksgiving this month to fail. Any other bad day = 3 strikes and I lose this challenge.
- Get into yoga. Yoga has always seemed cool to me, as it's both a form of slow-burn exercise as well as meditative relaxation. If it works for pro wrestlers, it'll work for me lol. Goal here is to own a mat and have tried at least 5 sessions by the end of the month.
Professional Goals:
- Mentally or physically record at least 3 hands that I think are interesting. This doesn't include bad beat hands. I'll be posting them in future updates for my own review and for group discussion.
- Work on converting all games in my head into BBs, ignore the dollar amount, and focus on playing optimally. This is the hardest one of all imo, especially for people that are used to playing higher stakes. It's easy to be confident/cocky knowing your C- game can beat your average fish at lower levels, but I'm going to start embracing this as an opportunity to learn and return to higher stakes with a new toolset/playbook of sorts.
- Buy a new phone. I've had the same LG Motion for almost 4 years now, and while it still does everything it did originally (amazing durability imo), TMobile/MetroPCS' service is nonexistent in THR and I'd like to be able to run the latest android OS and the variety of apps available for it. Think I'm going to make the switch to a verizon phone sometime later this month to resolve this. Setting this as a goal so I don't forget.
I think this is a good starting point for now. Headed off to THR to play a $225 10k GTD and grind some 2/5. GL all in your own journeys
.
I hate playing small stakes, and it showed yesterday. I forget who said it in a post on here, but someone was talking about tilt and how if you step away from yourself and notice it, you can smile at it and acknowledge it as it dissolves away. I took a couple bad beats in the $55 30k and lost a huge 3-way with AKs vs. AQ and JJ in the $55 15k, but definitely made some questionable calls/shoves in the $11 turbos/10ks I was in to either chip up quickly or be done with the event.
Part of this could be attributed to me not really being in the mood to grind 4-6 mtts at the time, due to still being sick and being more interested in ghosting Tyler, but there's no excuse for it while I'm in the learning phase of my career. Thankfully, I feel a lot better today, and feel it's time to set some personal goals for as well as poker goals for future playing sessions.
Personal Goals:
- Exercise in some form for at least 30 minutes a day prior to playing. The endorphins/boost in energy should be a great help at the tables.
- Go full paleo diet. I just went grocery shopping, so now's as good a time as any to cut out grains/dairy/processed foods from my diet. I'm going to be asking around for supplements/additional things to take on the side as well. I'm giving myself 1 cheat day and thanksgiving this month to fail. Any other bad day = 3 strikes and I lose this challenge.
- Get into yoga. Yoga has always seemed cool to me, as it's both a form of slow-burn exercise as well as meditative relaxation. If it works for pro wrestlers, it'll work for me lol. Goal here is to own a mat and have tried at least 5 sessions by the end of the month.
Professional Goals:
- Mentally or physically record at least 3 hands that I think are interesting. This doesn't include bad beat hands. I'll be posting them in future updates for my own review and for group discussion.
- Work on converting all games in my head into BBs, ignore the dollar amount, and focus on playing optimally. This is the hardest one of all imo, especially for people that are used to playing higher stakes. It's easy to be confident/cocky knowing your C- game can beat your average fish at lower levels, but I'm going to start embracing this as an opportunity to learn and return to higher stakes with a new toolset/playbook of sorts.
- Buy a new phone. I've had the same LG Motion for almost 4 years now, and while it still does everything it did originally (amazing durability imo), TMobile/MetroPCS' service is nonexistent in THR and I'd like to be able to run the latest android OS and the variety of apps available for it. Think I'm going to make the switch to a verizon phone sometime later this month to resolve this. Setting this as a goal so I don't forget.
I think this is a good starting point for now. Headed off to THR to play a $225 10k GTD and grind some 2/5. GL all in your own journeys
.
11-05-2014
, 09:33 PM
Paleo is the nuts
Good luck with that and everything else.
Here is my fav paleo breakfast - banana pancakes - by a slightly annoying but cute girl
banana pancakes
Good luck with that and everything else.
Here is my fav paleo breakfast - banana pancakes - by a slightly annoying but cute girl
banana pancakes
11-30-2014
, 06:41 PM
So I haven't updated in 3 weeks, mainly because I've gone through probably the worst stretch of run bad I've ever experienced. Now while some of you seasoned vets might look at a month-long stretch of run bad and go "lol noob", it really has been a bit of an eye opener for me in terms of just how cruel a mistress variance can be.
I've played almost 120 hours this month, am averaging a loss of $37 an hour, and have won exactly one pot over 1k. Doing the math, it seems like a 5 buyin downswing live is nothing, but considering I started the month up 3k, it's really more like a 10 buyin downswing. I haven't played at all since the 21st, mainly due to the holiday and because I wanted to kind of decompress and take a look at the process a bit.
Away from the table, things are good. The time off/hanging out with the family has me in a very positive state going into a decent tourney series coming up next week. One of the things that was mentioned in my discussions with Tyler was making goals that are more trackable/quantitative. I'm going to try that out for this month and see if I can't get myself into a routine.
As for my goals for November, I'd definitely say I've been a more active person lately, although I completely failed on the yoga part as I do not own a mat yet lol. The downswing sort of had me completely focusing on poker, and with the holiday happening, most of my free time went to family/friends. My goals for December are going to be daily, rather than monthly, and therefore easier for readers to follow up with. You and I will both know whether or not I'm staying the course, or slipping and need to be kicked back on track lol. I'm gonna skip all the bad beat stories and just get right into "righting the ship" so to speak.
Daily goals for December:
1.) Post in this thread every day, even on my off days. If I don't post, I automatically fail.
2.) Limit processed foods. I'm going to list my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks every day for December. Feel free to get on me if I cheat lol.
3.) Post 2-3 meaningful hands from each session on days I play, and discuss something I'm studying/thinking on off days. This is a poker thread after all lol.
4.) 30 minutes of some sort of exercise every day. I'll post what I did for exercise each day, or fail myself if I slipped on a day.
5.) 30 minutes of poker study every day. Sort of similar to 3, only emphasizing that I should be studying on "work" days too.
Monthly Goals:
1.) Win $10k. I could play it safe and say "get even", but screw that. I'm not about to start folding to cash next week. Real mission of the month = bink a MTT or have a $5k day at cash. One of the two is going to happen.
2.) Log more hours sleeping than playing, while meeting the requirements of my staking agreement. Lately I've only been getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night, which still makes me functional, but obviously isn't optimal. I'd like to get closer to 7-8 and feel refreshed and alert at the tables without the help of a sugar free red bull.
Think that's a good place to start for now. Feel free to include any suggestions/tips/book recommendations/etc.
I've played almost 120 hours this month, am averaging a loss of $37 an hour, and have won exactly one pot over 1k. Doing the math, it seems like a 5 buyin downswing live is nothing, but considering I started the month up 3k, it's really more like a 10 buyin downswing. I haven't played at all since the 21st, mainly due to the holiday and because I wanted to kind of decompress and take a look at the process a bit.
Away from the table, things are good. The time off/hanging out with the family has me in a very positive state going into a decent tourney series coming up next week. One of the things that was mentioned in my discussions with Tyler was making goals that are more trackable/quantitative. I'm going to try that out for this month and see if I can't get myself into a routine.
As for my goals for November, I'd definitely say I've been a more active person lately, although I completely failed on the yoga part as I do not own a mat yet lol. The downswing sort of had me completely focusing on poker, and with the holiday happening, most of my free time went to family/friends. My goals for December are going to be daily, rather than monthly, and therefore easier for readers to follow up with. You and I will both know whether or not I'm staying the course, or slipping and need to be kicked back on track lol. I'm gonna skip all the bad beat stories and just get right into "righting the ship" so to speak.
Daily goals for December:
1.) Post in this thread every day, even on my off days. If I don't post, I automatically fail.
2.) Limit processed foods. I'm going to list my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks every day for December. Feel free to get on me if I cheat lol.
3.) Post 2-3 meaningful hands from each session on days I play, and discuss something I'm studying/thinking on off days. This is a poker thread after all lol.
4.) 30 minutes of some sort of exercise every day. I'll post what I did for exercise each day, or fail myself if I slipped on a day.
5.) 30 minutes of poker study every day. Sort of similar to 3, only emphasizing that I should be studying on "work" days too.
Monthly Goals:
1.) Win $10k. I could play it safe and say "get even", but screw that. I'm not about to start folding to cash next week. Real mission of the month = bink a MTT or have a $5k day at cash. One of the two is going to happen.
2.) Log more hours sleeping than playing, while meeting the requirements of my staking agreement. Lately I've only been getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night, which still makes me functional, but obviously isn't optimal. I'd like to get closer to 7-8 and feel refreshed and alert at the tables without the help of a sugar free red bull.
Think that's a good place to start for now
. Feel free to include any suggestions/tips/book recommendations/etc.
12-01-2014
, 09:32 PM
Thanks for the well wishes
As for the goals, I pretty much crushed today (an off day for me).
Meals were oatmeal and a protein shake for breakfast, a handful of almonds for a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, and two baked tilapia filets and some green beans for lunch. Haven't had dinner yet, but I'm not really hungry and kinda tired so I'm probably just going to crash without it.
Exercise today was walking a little over two miles. Not much, but enough to get the job done.
As for study, I watched two Run it Once videos, namely Seth Davies' full review of his recent Big $109 win. It was a nice series because early on he got into a situation I tend to get in alot. He lost a couple pots early and got down to half of his starting stack in the first two levels, but didn't get discouraged and always kept track of his stack in terms of BBs.
I tend to be very aggressive in MTTs, but hate when I don't have a lot of chips, especially in rebuy events. In freezeouts, mistakes when you're short stacked are exponentially bad. Tightening up and going from 1500 to 3k to 6k is much better than splashing around and going from 1050 to 2100, back to 1800, then up to 3600. This is common sense on paper, but requires discipline to adhere to in the moment, and it was nice to see patience early on eventually get rewarded. Obviously, being a full tourney recap, there were many more topics discussed. The patience early on when things were bad initially was just the biggest takeaway for me.
I'll be playing almost the entire tourney series at the Tampa Hard Rock from the 4th-21st, so the next couple days are just me getting my mind right and my body into this routine and hoping it pays off come grind time.
As for the goals, I pretty much crushed today (an off day for me).
Meals were oatmeal and a protein shake for breakfast, a handful of almonds for a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, and two baked tilapia filets and some green beans for lunch. Haven't had dinner yet, but I'm not really hungry and kinda tired so I'm probably just going to crash without it.
Exercise today was walking a little over two miles. Not much, but enough to get the job done.
As for study, I watched two Run it Once videos, namely Seth Davies' full review of his recent Big $109 win. It was a nice series because early on he got into a situation I tend to get in alot. He lost a couple pots early and got down to half of his starting stack in the first two levels, but didn't get discouraged and always kept track of his stack in terms of BBs.
I tend to be very aggressive in MTTs, but hate when I don't have a lot of chips, especially in rebuy events. In freezeouts, mistakes when you're short stacked are exponentially bad. Tightening up and going from 1500 to 3k to 6k is much better than splashing around and going from 1050 to 2100, back to 1800, then up to 3600. This is common sense on paper, but requires discipline to adhere to in the moment, and it was nice to see patience early on eventually get rewarded. Obviously, being a full tourney recap, there were many more topics discussed. The patience early on when things were bad initially was just the biggest takeaway for me.
I'll be playing almost the entire tourney series at the Tampa Hard Rock from the 4th-21st, so the next couple days are just me getting my mind right and my body into this routine and hoping it pays off come grind time
.
12-02-2014
, 03:55 AM
12-02-2014
, 09:41 PM
12-03-2014
, 01:09 AM
Today was a reminder not to skip meals. I slept like a baby, but woke up feeling like I could eat everything in my kitchen lol. Breakfast was a huge bowl of plain oatmeal, which sucked but was filling. Definitely going grocery shopping tomorrow for produce. Lunch was a ghetto salad with turkey slices being the added protein of choice lol. Dinner was london broil right off of the grill with some asparagus.
It's nice having a veteran roommate that spent his G.I. money on Le Cordon Bleu lol. I definitely would need a recipe to cook it myself, and it'd probably taste half as good.
As for the exercise, rain and a generally muggy day kept me at home, but I did go out my boathouse thats been converted into a gym you'd see in a boxing movie (no electricity..... just free weights and a heavy bag for kickboxing). It was pretty cool beating up the bag while listening to/smelling the rain just a few feet away.
As for poker study, I talked over a few hands from the $109 video with Tyler and messed around with shoving ranges on Holdem Resources to try and get a better innate grasp of what is and isn't possible. One of the things that was mentioned in the video was that people are typically tighter raisers than Nash would suggest. I discovered I was one of those people after seeing hands like T8 suited are able to be shoved profitably from HJ-Button with 15 bbs.
I typically don't like to go that low, as I prefer to have blockers to other strong hands. Prior to messing around with the calculator, I'd say my shoving range vs. unknown people to act behind me would be something like J9s, Q9+, 44+, with some random suited kings. Tyler suggested the range was fine as marginal spots should be avoided in live MTTs when the field is soft (vs. a $109 on stars where you need to relentlessly attack the smallest edge vs. other sickos to be profitable), but it was still interesting to see how many more hands could be included theoretically.
Back on the grind tomorrow. Playing a small $225, weekly 10k GTD before the tourney series starts. I'll be sure to post a couple questionable hands for review/give a recap of how it goes.
It's nice having a veteran roommate that spent his G.I. money on Le Cordon Bleu lol. I definitely would need a recipe to cook it myself, and it'd probably taste half as good.
As for the exercise, rain and a generally muggy day kept me at home, but I did go out my boathouse thats been converted into a gym you'd see in a boxing movie (no electricity..... just free weights and a heavy bag for kickboxing). It was pretty cool beating up the bag while listening to/smelling the rain just a few feet away.
As for poker study, I talked over a few hands from the $109 video with Tyler and messed around with shoving ranges on Holdem Resources to try and get a better innate grasp of what is and isn't possible. One of the things that was mentioned in the video was that people are typically tighter raisers than Nash would suggest. I discovered I was one of those people after seeing hands like T8 suited are able to be shoved profitably from HJ-Button with 15 bbs.
I typically don't like to go that low, as I prefer to have blockers to other strong hands. Prior to messing around with the calculator, I'd say my shoving range vs. unknown people to act behind me would be something like J9s, Q9+, 44+, with some random suited kings. Tyler suggested the range was fine as marginal spots should be avoided in live MTTs when the field is soft (vs. a $109 on stars where you need to relentlessly attack the smallest edge vs. other sickos to be profitable), but it was still interesting to see how many more hands could be included theoretically.
Back on the grind tomorrow. Playing a small $225, weekly 10k GTD before the tourney series starts. I'll be sure to post a couple questionable hands for review/give a recap of how it goes
.
12-03-2014
, 01:27 AM
12-04-2014
, 12:21 AM
The run bad continues...
Today pretty much sucked on all fronts. My left knee was bothering me all day from the workout yesterday, so I didn't really feel like doing much on it. I slept a solid 7 hours, and ate pretty well up until I left for the Hard Rock. Breakfast was a protein shake. I had some almonds to fill me up as a snack, followed by a salad topped with tuna (no dressing) for lunch. Completely wrecked it all with a rushed visit to the food court during the first break for dinner, but meh.
As for the tourney itself, I'm just going to post an early hand, and my bustout hand. I've got a few other hands noted as well that i'll include tomorrow, but right now I'm just feeling bleh. I'm not going to format them too much, since it would make me want to post less hands if I had to make them all pretty.
Tonight's tourney was a weekly $225, 10k GTD that had 53 runners and typically offers plenty of play (15k chips, 25/50 starting blinds, 30 minute levels).
Hand #1
Blinds 25/50, effective stacks 15k. Tight/passive UTG limps, HJ calls, CO (tricky older lady, tourney reg) calls, Hero makes it 250 from the SB with AA. BB (loose/splashy slightly skinnier Darwin Moon lookalike) calls, UTG and HJ folds, CO calls.
Flop (850) 22J
Hero leads 400, BB calls, CO folds.
Turn (1650) 2
Hero bets 700, BB almost snap calls.
River (3050) 3
Hero checks, fully expecting Darwin Moon Jr to barrel. I've got some history with him, and the last time we were SB vs. BB I raised pre, barreled flop, and he potted turn on a relatively dry 2397 board.
He thinks, checks, flips over J8 and I know I cost myself at LEAST 2k in chips, probably more if earlier streets were bigger. I was thinking back to the $109 video I just saw, where it was mentioned that on polarized flops like that (22J), you aren't getting more than two streets of value from most hands, so you have to sorta pick which 2 streets you want. That changes in live MTTs when you give a fish a boat. I should have punished him the whole way, and made a concerted effort to do so vs. the right villains for the rest of the tourney.
Bustout Hand
I spent the rest of the tourney staying between 70-80% pot when I knew they had a range full of second best hands. Despite being involved, I've played pretty nitty for the most part and shown exactly 1 bluff attempt vs. 12-13 TP/Good Kicker or better types of hands.
I shoot up to almost 44k before the first break, despite losing a 30k flip (will tell the story of crazy lady tomorrow), but then get pretty card dead and don't really see any good 3bet spots to stay above average, so I wind up blinding down to average with 20 to go when this happens....
Blinds 300/600 50 ante, I've got 25k.
Folds to me on the button with AQ.
I was just recently moved to this table, so people haven't seen how nitty i've been tonight. The BB is someone I like to call the bridge troll. He's an older man that looks grumpy even when he's happy, and he goes from chatty to pretty pissed off when you raise his blinds lol. Knowing this, I make it 2000 expecting him to defend with a very wide range.
The SB in the hand just won 100k pot by cold calling a 3bet pre with Ad3d, spiking bottom pair and a flush draw on the flop, and getting there vs. AQ and TT. I fully expect any action from him to be exactly what it looks like, since he's distracted by his mountain of chips.
SB snap folds, BB huffs and puffs and says outloud (at a somewhat low volume) "2000 eh? hmmph. Pretty aggressive." Then tanks for a bit and makes it 6600 total, practically splashing the pot with his chips. The whole act smells like bull**** to me, but I know he's gonna snap me off lightly if I shove and I really don't want to flip for stacks.
I decide to take advantage of my position and call. He instantly says "5000 in the dark" before the flop is dealt, further adding to the likelihood that he's weak pre. Standard fish tell, strong = weak and weak = strong etc.
Flop comes 9J2c
His verbal is binding, and I decide to just shove here. He's not calling with all of the pairs in his range, and I didn't see a flop with this hand to fold the nut flush draw lol. I shove, and he calls before the "in" in all in comes out of my mouth with TJ. 2 bricks later and the bridge troll busted me, GG. I just decide to call it a night there since the room was pretty dead (since the series starts tomorrow) and I'm a bit steamed/dumbfounded.
I'll post a couple more interesting hands tomorrow. Just going to rest/study/get back on track for this weekend.
Today pretty much sucked on all fronts. My left knee was bothering me all day from the workout yesterday, so I didn't really feel like doing much on it. I slept a solid 7 hours, and ate pretty well up until I left for the Hard Rock. Breakfast was a protein shake. I had some almonds to fill me up as a snack, followed by a salad topped with tuna (no dressing) for lunch. Completely wrecked it all with a rushed visit to the food court during the first break for dinner, but meh.
As for the tourney itself, I'm just going to post an early hand, and my bustout hand. I've got a few other hands noted as well that i'll include tomorrow, but right now I'm just feeling bleh. I'm not going to format them too much, since it would make me want to post less hands if I had to make them all pretty.
Tonight's tourney was a weekly $225, 10k GTD that had 53 runners and typically offers plenty of play (15k chips, 25/50 starting blinds, 30 minute levels).
Hand #1
Blinds 25/50, effective stacks 15k. Tight/passive UTG limps, HJ calls, CO (tricky older lady, tourney reg) calls, Hero makes it 250 from the SB with A
A. BB (loose/splashy slightly skinnier Darwin Moon lookalike) calls, UTG and HJ folds, CO calls.Flop (850) 2
2JHero leads 400, BB calls, CO folds.
Turn (1650) 2
Hero bets 700, BB almost snap calls.
River (3050) 3
Hero checks, fully expecting Darwin Moon Jr to barrel. I've got some history with him, and the last time we were SB vs. BB I raised pre, barreled flop, and he potted turn on a relatively dry 2397 board.
He thinks, checks, flips over J
8 and I know I cost myself at LEAST 2k in chips, probably more if earlier streets were bigger. I was thinking back to the $109 video I just saw, where it was mentioned that on polarized flops like that (22J), you aren't getting more than two streets of value from most hands, so you have to sorta pick which 2 streets you want. That changes in live MTTs when you give a fish a boat. I should have punished him the whole way, and made a concerted effort to do so vs. the right villains for the rest of the tourney. Bustout Hand
I spent the rest of the tourney staying between 70-80% pot when I knew they had a range full of second best hands. Despite being involved, I've played pretty nitty for the most part and shown exactly 1 bluff attempt vs. 12-13 TP/Good Kicker or better types of hands.
I shoot up to almost 44k before the first break, despite losing a 30k flip (will tell the story of crazy lady tomorrow), but then get pretty card dead and don't really see any good 3bet spots to stay above average, so I wind up blinding down to average with 20 to go when this happens....
Blinds 300/600 50 ante, I've got 25k.
Folds to me on the button with A
Q. I was just recently moved to this table, so people haven't seen how nitty i've been tonight. The BB is someone I like to call the bridge troll. He's an older man that looks grumpy even when he's happy, and he goes from chatty to pretty pissed off when you raise his blinds lol. Knowing this, I make it 2000 expecting him to defend with a very wide range.
The SB in the hand just won 100k pot by cold calling a 3bet pre with Ad3d, spiking bottom pair and a flush draw on the flop, and getting there vs. AQ and TT. I fully expect any action from him to be exactly what it looks like, since he's distracted by his mountain of chips.
SB snap folds, BB huffs and puffs and says outloud (at a somewhat low volume) "2000 eh? hmmph. Pretty aggressive." Then tanks for a bit and makes it 6600 total, practically splashing the pot with his chips. The whole act smells like bull**** to me, but I know he's gonna snap me off lightly if I shove and I really don't want to flip for stacks.
I decide to take advantage of my position and call. He instantly says "5000 in the dark" before the flop is dealt, further adding to the likelihood that he's weak pre. Standard fish tell, strong = weak and weak = strong etc.
Flop comes 9
J2cHis verbal is binding, and I decide to just shove here. He's not calling with all of the pairs in his range, and I didn't see a flop with this hand to fold the nut flush draw lol. I shove, and he calls before the "in" in all in comes out of my mouth with T
J. 2 bricks later and the bridge troll busted me, GG. I just decide to call it a night there since the room was pretty dead (since the series starts tomorrow) and I'm a bit steamed/dumbfounded. I'll post a couple more interesting hands tomorrow. Just going to rest/study/get back on track for this weekend.
12-04-2014
, 12:37 AM
12-04-2014
, 12:52 AM
If I had a wife and child, I'd probably agree with your thinking. It's harder to take risks, even calculated ones, when there's more than your own neck on the line. My uncle likes to say that there's two types of people in the world, the ones that are happy grinding away at the "American Dream" (wife/2.5 kids/pets/fenced in house/etc), and those that just aren't satisfied until they're either rich or destitute.
The irony of him saying something like that is although he's in good shape now, he spent 25 years grinding away as a grunt electrician/cable guy before getting into upper management and eventually being able to do some investing/business creation of his own.
Everything in life has an opportunity cost. You only live once (I won't say the abbreviation lol). How many people slave away in a cubicle/small office wondering "what if?". While there may be nothing wrong with milking a desk job and grinding the ol' 9-5, it just feels like settling to me. I've decided to take a shot while I'm still young-ish and have no outside obligations holding me down. If I fail, the world is always going to be full of stupid people that need help with technology lol.
Thanks for your input either way. I didn't take it as being negative at all. It's the thoughts of a married father.
The irony of him saying something like that is although he's in good shape now, he spent 25 years grinding away as a grunt electrician/cable guy before getting into upper management and eventually being able to do some investing/business creation of his own.
Everything in life has an opportunity cost. You only live once (I won't say the abbreviation lol). How many people slave away in a cubicle/small office wondering "what if?". While there may be nothing wrong with milking a desk job and grinding the ol' 9-5, it just feels like settling to me. I've decided to take a shot while I'm still young-ish and have no outside obligations holding me down. If I fail, the world is always going to be full of stupid people that need help with technology lol.
Thanks for your input either way. I didn't take it as being negative at all. It's the thoughts of a married father
.
12-04-2014
, 12:56 AM
12-04-2014
, 01:19 AM
Quote:
If I had a wife and child, I'd probably agree with your thinking. It's harder to take risks, even calculated ones, when there's more than your own neck on the line. My uncle likes to say that there's two types of people in the world, the ones that are happy grinding away at the "American Dream" (wife/2.5 kids/pets/fenced in house/etc), and those that just aren't satisfied until they're either rich or destitute.
The irony of him saying something like that is although he's in good shape now, he spent 25 years grinding away as a grunt electrician/cable guy before getting into upper management and eventually being able to do some investing/business creation of his own.
Everything in life has an opportunity cost. You only live once (I won't say the abbreviation lol). How many people slave away in a cubicle/small office wondering "what if?". While there may be nothing wrong with milking a desk job and grinding the ol' 9-5, it just feels like settling to me. I've decided to take a shot while I'm still young-ish and have no outside obligations holding me down. If I fail, the world is always going to be full of stupid people that need help with technology lol.
Thanks for your input either way. I didn't take it as being negative at all. It's the thoughts of a married father.
The irony of him saying something like that is although he's in good shape now, he spent 25 years grinding away as a grunt electrician/cable guy before getting into upper management and eventually being able to do some investing/business creation of his own.
Everything in life has an opportunity cost. You only live once (I won't say the abbreviation lol). How many people slave away in a cubicle/small office wondering "what if?". While there may be nothing wrong with milking a desk job and grinding the ol' 9-5, it just feels like settling to me. I've decided to take a shot while I'm still young-ish and have no outside obligations holding me down. If I fail, the world is always going to be full of stupid people that need help with technology lol.
Thanks for your input either way. I didn't take it as being negative at all. It's the thoughts of a married father
.
12-05-2014
, 08:51 PM
http://shrtpoker.com/
Finally, some run good. I was totally in the zone all day and only got chips in behind once, which I'd still do 100/100 times vs. the villain in question. Been a long day, so I'll post some hands and updates tomorrow. Feels good to play all day with a 500k winner, a 2m GTD winner, and a multiple HPT tournament winner and come out on top. Going into day 2 Sunday with over triple the average and probably 150 people to go...
Hoping they take down that picture and post one of me with the calendar girls though lol. I totally look surprised there.
Finally, some run good. I was totally in the zone all day and only got chips in behind once, which I'd still do 100/100 times vs. the villain in question. Been a long day, so I'll post some hands and updates tomorrow. Feels good to play all day with a 500k winner, a 2m GTD winner, and a multiple HPT tournament winner and come out on top. Going into day 2 Sunday with over triple the average and probably 150 people to go...
Hoping they take down that picture and post one of me with the calendar girls though lol. I totally look surprised there
.
03-16-2015
, 01:29 PM
