#MillionClub - It ain't cheese if it's less than a mil'
07-05-2013
, 10:38 AM
07-09-2013
, 07:29 AM
07-10-2013
, 12:36 AM
I'm pretty sure I heard that Tom Dwan said if he ever had 100M+, he'd quit poker. Great thread, one of the few I've subscribed to as I'm new. Keep it up bro!
07-14-2013
, 10:41 AM
Bangkok, Thailand
July 14th, 2013
Since the last update, things got pretty depressed. Not only did I stop updating, I stopped eating right and gained back all the weight I lost. I had no desire to play poker. Games were also brutal: the swings, the fact that they didn't run half the time, and the other times they did run it was always 6 reg games.
Actually, the upswings were worse than the downswings. When I downswung I played and studied harder to prove I was a good player. When I won I often quit early and stopped caring. And I started becoming embarassed to update here because I just ran hot over and over and over ... except for a mini 50k downer. I didn't want to be the target of people complaining how I was sun running.
Huge swings are possible in these games, and I have had both kinds of stretches of below 400bi and above 400bi luck. Fortunately since those times in January where I ran something like 90k below ev playing $100s and $200s, I bounced back, in a big way. By the way, if you ask me why my 60s EV are an outlier. The answer is, low sample, but also basically I only have them when I am tabling real hard. Also rake is higher and I play a mostly unexploitable game (albeit with huge adjustments here and there)
EV graph by stake, since Feb. 2013
Graph with RB
Even with great results, I knew I tried so pathetically little over the last 5 months. So when July came, I knew I needed a fresh start. I decided to return to my roots and move to Bangkok. I am half thai and I had been to Thailand as a kid but never recently. Over a few years of non stop travelling, it seems like I pack lighter every trip. This trip, I packed 3 changes of clothes, a tablet with charger, and an electricity converter, and some cash. I planned to buy everything I need.
The weeks started off rocky. The first step was to figure out where to get a phone and a laptop. I settled on a galaxy S4 and a Vaio pro 11. The laptop's got an 11 inch screen but still packs a 1920x1080 resolution. I configured the settings very carefully and I am pretty sure I could > 30 table on it.
The next step was to figure out a place. I started looking, but as I kept looking, the scope of my search got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. What started out as a $500/mo livable low commitment place turned into $4k/mo penthouse and executive places. Actually, I posted in the Thailand forum of 2+2 but after hearing some comments about my price range I felt embarassed to pay that much. This is thailand after all, where money goes a lot farther in many respects.
After looking at thousands of places online and quite a few in person, I knew there was one building I *had* to live in: Le Raffiné. It's basically the only building with private infinity pools in the condo, and only a couple of units per floor. It also had a really huge jacuzzi in the bathroom and plenty of space. I snapped up the only place available, something unfurnished.
The entire time before closing, I could hardly sleep. Was I really going to sign a 1yr lease and pay a relatively ******ed amount of money for a place with no furniture? I felt sick that I might be making a big mistake -- not because of the cost necessarily, but because of value: maybe this place just has a lot of rake. Though, I'm pretty comfortable with paying rake nowadays.
The next step was to get furniture. I snapped up a sofa on craigslist. The owner had just bought it yesterday and was getting it delivered that day, but he saw something else he liked and wanted to get rid of it because it didn't match. He helped me move it and thanked me for taking it off his hands. It's a red L shaped sofa and he showed me the reciept. I'm so ****ing shrewd. It's not about the cost. I love value.
I needed more lounge stuff. I snapped a used bed on craigslist, a king size sealy posturpedic. It had been used a couple months before this guy moved in with his gf, (and I believe him.) The plan was to put a cover on it and put it in one of the nooks in my living room next to the pool along with some pillows so when people come over they can chill by the pool daybed style. Maybe it could double as a bed, so far I had been sleeping on the sofa. I very carefully inspected it because I am hella nervous about bad things. I also got some blankets and pillows.
Next, I needed a piano, because I hella love playing piano. At first I thought I was going to buy a digital, but then I thought that the living room is nice and big with high ceilings, so a grand piano would look and sound great here. I went to a few different stores but it seemed hard to find anything cool. Then, one store had a Yamaha G2, and the color was red! YES goddamn. It's yet to arrive but I think it will match the rest of the furniture and look really nice. I can't wait to take some photos of it and play it all day.
As for other playing stuff, I'm getting more settled in. I go swimming in my pool (img) like 4 times a day - when I wake up, any time after I come home from being outside (it's kind of hot in Thailand but you do get used to it), and just at random times. It's a great way to chill out, both physically and mentally. Actually I have a slight fear of heights (if anyone notices I am nervous crossing bridges even concrete ones, I think it's because when I was young I had to cross a bridge the size of a wooden plank in some remote area of Thailand), but the balcony pool has helped ameilorate that and I feel a bit more comfortable being close to the edge of balconies.
I'm also loving the food in thailand. Street food is cheap and it has the real tastes like my mom used to make. I also signed up for paleorobbie's (link) food delivery service, this guy brings the basically the best, no bull**** added, quality food to your door twice a day, and it is in the style that I like to eat and have been successful with at the start of the year for losing weight / feeling great. So I don't have to worry about calories or health or anything, I can just focus on work. If this service was offered in Canada I would easily pay double.
As for the game that I work on, that's starting to heat up. Some people on the team are about to quit school (on track to get their PhD in math or cs within a couple years) to work on it, so you know it's serious soon. I honestly think it will be the best game ever because so many talented people are working on it -- I'm basically the weakest member which I feel is saying a lot. I feel really lucky/blessed to work on it.
Finally, as for poker, I've noticed over this journey that I have really really tremendously improved my ability to multitable. I can literally zone out and 30 table for forever if I wanted to. The thing is, it's really boring. But I feel really pathetic when I don't do it, because it is far easier for me to do it than even it was a few months ago, and it is probably way easier for me than basically anyone in the world.
When I consider my playing ability, I could do better, but I am definitely still quite good in my opinion. But I feel my multitabling ability is completely unmatched, I don't think there is any reg out there that can play > 30 tables sustained and have good EV. That's why overall, I still think I am the best player, even though I've taken a lot of heat for that statement.
The above is why it pains me that I've played relatively little this year. I am capable to play twice as many tables per hour, yet I have equal or less number of games played as some of these guys. I need to play way more hours. What makes it worse is that it has become relatively effortless. I used to wear glasses and gloves and have a towel and really try hard to table. Now, its like I sit in my underwear and 30 table as if I were some stoner MTT pro 2 tabling their last two tables on a Thursday. I shouldn't throw away the skill that I've taken years to develop.
I used to have a really nice setup at home, but now I have mobile internet, an 11 inch laptop, a $2 mouse that was given to me when I bought this laptop, and a sofa. Which I thought should be a bigger disadvantage than it actually turned out to be.
Maybe I should take a video of me playing 35 tables or so... the best way to describe it is what those Minesweeper pros do. I was always terrible at minesweeper, but if you watch videos of pros, you will notice they basically never stop clicking: "click click click click click click click click click click", a couple clicks a second. It's like art. I literally never have to think about any decision, even complicated ones (such as: float a street, 3bet small or raise a street as a bluff, spots where I turn hands with showdown value into a bluff, etc.) Somehow the pressure just makes me snap act without thinking. I prefer tabling to not tabling because I find I overthink and sometimes get off my natural game when I have too few tables.
As for update schedule, I'm thinking weekly updates but I am open to suggestions. I realize that in order to get anything done I just have to offer freerolls all the time, so it looks like I'll be doing that guys. This blog will be helping me steer this ship in a big way. And I'm about to make it flood like new orleans bay bayyyyyyy. Just make sure this coast is all clear. STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM, NOW WE HERE.
That's all for now.
AW
July 14th, 2013
Since the last update, things got pretty depressed. Not only did I stop updating, I stopped eating right and gained back all the weight I lost. I had no desire to play poker. Games were also brutal: the swings, the fact that they didn't run half the time, and the other times they did run it was always 6 reg games.
Actually, the upswings were worse than the downswings. When I downswung I played and studied harder to prove I was a good player. When I won I often quit early and stopped caring. And I started becoming embarassed to update here because I just ran hot over and over and over ... except for a mini 50k downer. I didn't want to be the target of people complaining how I was sun running.
Huge swings are possible in these games, and I have had both kinds of stretches of below 400bi and above 400bi luck. Fortunately since those times in January where I ran something like 90k below ev playing $100s and $200s, I bounced back, in a big way. By the way, if you ask me why my 60s EV are an outlier. The answer is, low sample, but also basically I only have them when I am tabling real hard. Also rake is higher and I play a mostly unexploitable game (albeit with huge adjustments here and there)
EV graph by stake, since Feb. 2013
Graph with RB
Even with great results, I knew I tried so pathetically little over the last 5 months. So when July came, I knew I needed a fresh start. I decided to return to my roots and move to Bangkok. I am half thai and I had been to Thailand as a kid but never recently. Over a few years of non stop travelling, it seems like I pack lighter every trip. This trip, I packed 3 changes of clothes, a tablet with charger, and an electricity converter, and some cash. I planned to buy everything I need.
The weeks started off rocky. The first step was to figure out where to get a phone and a laptop. I settled on a galaxy S4 and a Vaio pro 11. The laptop's got an 11 inch screen but still packs a 1920x1080 resolution. I configured the settings very carefully and I am pretty sure I could > 30 table on it.
The next step was to figure out a place. I started looking, but as I kept looking, the scope of my search got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. What started out as a $500/mo livable low commitment place turned into $4k/mo penthouse and executive places. Actually, I posted in the Thailand forum of 2+2 but after hearing some comments about my price range I felt embarassed to pay that much. This is thailand after all, where money goes a lot farther in many respects.
After looking at thousands of places online and quite a few in person, I knew there was one building I *had* to live in: Le Raffiné. It's basically the only building with private infinity pools in the condo, and only a couple of units per floor. It also had a really huge jacuzzi in the bathroom and plenty of space. I snapped up the only place available, something unfurnished.
The entire time before closing, I could hardly sleep. Was I really going to sign a 1yr lease and pay a relatively ******ed amount of money for a place with no furniture? I felt sick that I might be making a big mistake -- not because of the cost necessarily, but because of value: maybe this place just has a lot of rake. Though, I'm pretty comfortable with paying rake nowadays.
The next step was to get furniture. I snapped up a sofa on craigslist. The owner had just bought it yesterday and was getting it delivered that day, but he saw something else he liked and wanted to get rid of it because it didn't match. He helped me move it and thanked me for taking it off his hands. It's a red L shaped sofa and he showed me the reciept. I'm so ****ing shrewd. It's not about the cost. I love value.
I needed more lounge stuff. I snapped a used bed on craigslist, a king size sealy posturpedic. It had been used a couple months before this guy moved in with his gf, (and I believe him.) The plan was to put a cover on it and put it in one of the nooks in my living room next to the pool along with some pillows so when people come over they can chill by the pool daybed style. Maybe it could double as a bed, so far I had been sleeping on the sofa. I very carefully inspected it because I am hella nervous about bad things. I also got some blankets and pillows.
Next, I needed a piano, because I hella love playing piano. At first I thought I was going to buy a digital, but then I thought that the living room is nice and big with high ceilings, so a grand piano would look and sound great here. I went to a few different stores but it seemed hard to find anything cool. Then, one store had a Yamaha G2, and the color was red! YES goddamn. It's yet to arrive but I think it will match the rest of the furniture and look really nice. I can't wait to take some photos of it and play it all day.
As for other playing stuff, I'm getting more settled in. I go swimming in my pool (img) like 4 times a day - when I wake up, any time after I come home from being outside (it's kind of hot in Thailand but you do get used to it), and just at random times. It's a great way to chill out, both physically and mentally. Actually I have a slight fear of heights (if anyone notices I am nervous crossing bridges even concrete ones, I think it's because when I was young I had to cross a bridge the size of a wooden plank in some remote area of Thailand), but the balcony pool has helped ameilorate that and I feel a bit more comfortable being close to the edge of balconies.
I'm also loving the food in thailand. Street food is cheap and it has the real tastes like my mom used to make. I also signed up for paleorobbie's (link) food delivery service, this guy brings the basically the best, no bull**** added, quality food to your door twice a day, and it is in the style that I like to eat and have been successful with at the start of the year for losing weight / feeling great. So I don't have to worry about calories or health or anything, I can just focus on work. If this service was offered in Canada I would easily pay double.
As for the game that I work on, that's starting to heat up. Some people on the team are about to quit school (on track to get their PhD in math or cs within a couple years) to work on it, so you know it's serious soon. I honestly think it will be the best game ever because so many talented people are working on it -- I'm basically the weakest member which I feel is saying a lot. I feel really lucky/blessed to work on it.
Finally, as for poker, I've noticed over this journey that I have really really tremendously improved my ability to multitable. I can literally zone out and 30 table for forever if I wanted to. The thing is, it's really boring. But I feel really pathetic when I don't do it, because it is far easier for me to do it than even it was a few months ago, and it is probably way easier for me than basically anyone in the world.
When I consider my playing ability, I could do better, but I am definitely still quite good in my opinion. But I feel my multitabling ability is completely unmatched, I don't think there is any reg out there that can play > 30 tables sustained and have good EV. That's why overall, I still think I am the best player, even though I've taken a lot of heat for that statement.
The above is why it pains me that I've played relatively little this year. I am capable to play twice as many tables per hour, yet I have equal or less number of games played as some of these guys. I need to play way more hours. What makes it worse is that it has become relatively effortless. I used to wear glasses and gloves and have a towel and really try hard to table. Now, its like I sit in my underwear and 30 table as if I were some stoner MTT pro 2 tabling their last two tables on a Thursday. I shouldn't throw away the skill that I've taken years to develop.
I used to have a really nice setup at home, but now I have mobile internet, an 11 inch laptop, a $2 mouse that was given to me when I bought this laptop, and a sofa. Which I thought should be a bigger disadvantage than it actually turned out to be.
Maybe I should take a video of me playing 35 tables or so... the best way to describe it is what those Minesweeper pros do. I was always terrible at minesweeper, but if you watch videos of pros, you will notice they basically never stop clicking: "click click click click click click click click click click", a couple clicks a second. It's like art. I literally never have to think about any decision, even complicated ones (such as: float a street, 3bet small or raise a street as a bluff, spots where I turn hands with showdown value into a bluff, etc.) Somehow the pressure just makes me snap act without thinking. I prefer tabling to not tabling because I find I overthink and sometimes get off my natural game when I have too few tables.
As for update schedule, I'm thinking weekly updates but I am open to suggestions. I realize that in order to get anything done I just have to offer freerolls all the time, so it looks like I'll be doing that guys. This blog will be helping me steer this ship in a big way. And I'm about to make it flood like new orleans bay bayyyyyyy. Just make sure this coast is all clear. STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM, NOW WE HERE.
That's all for now.
AW
Last edited by Alex Wice; 07-14-2013 at 10:48 AM.
07-14-2013
, 11:02 AM
07-14-2013
, 12:24 PM
