What does he have tho.. pretty much never any of the straights

Yeah logically you block alot of his value hands. The only thing that sort of makes sense is AA or 44. irl I probably call out of curiosity. Can he show up with AK here? He's ranging you on mostly a lone A I'm assuming, so that might make sense.

This looks like a call where you end up beating Ax. Obviously you are beat some of the time, but as played vs description you win more.

Shrugging off +/- 35k swings and having large amounts in non liquid assets means youre loaded and can do whatever the **** you want I guess I was saying it's really rare for a typical grinder/pro to be that well off financially.

The people who are rolled, take 100% of themselves and view mtts as an investment wouldn't change their day to day lives if they binked a 6 figure score (because they're rolled for it). I know of and I'm sure you and everyone else knows of countless 2/5 5/T pros who play 5 to 10+ large mtts a year and brick. They 100% are not rolled for $1500+ MTTS but they're out punting every single year.

Selling 70% @ 1.2 means you have a 30% share but paid 14% of the total buy in. At that price/ value point a typical 2/5 5/T grinder could play them every single year (more chance they actually bink before they go broke / stop playing them) at a very good investment.

Isn't poker just a vehicle/ opportunity for a chance to build wealth/ stability? I think (no proof really) that pros that don't lock up their money in non liquid assets keep playing higher and higher until they 1. Go broke 2. Open themselves to tilt or swings they wipe out very valuable investment opportunities outside of poker.

My goodness the reading comp lol. 35k in losing pots over a month is way diff than 35k swings. Large % doesn't mean large amounts lol. I'm waay waaay far from being well off but hey it's something to work towards

Cash pros can play those MTTs bc they have alternate income from cash. As much as I disrespect the avg tourney pro in terms of their poker skills, it's incredible to source a living from tournies alone over years and years.

I folded and realized it was probably a bad fold after, but I thought very few people bluff like that because I'm probably not leading light there w just Ax. Big Ax 3b pre and he's not gunna try to bluff me off 2p w one available raise. I could also be trying to go for the CR vs the whale.

Looks like a button click to me - cawl


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This is what I was thinking. But doubt it makes a big difference either way.

At first I thought call, blocking 44, but I dunno if anyone actually bluffs like this so don't mind a fold.

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Literally me. 11 of 11 consecutive bricks at $1ks LETTSZGOOOOOo

Outside of guys like Hellmuth, DN and others who have income through various other outlets, does a successful, pure tourney grinder even exist? I don't feel like it's possible to be a live avg tourney grinder with all the travelling and expenses that're required unless you're just living like a hobo. Even then given the variance it seems pretty thin. I don't think you can put in enough volume to actually make a consistent living like you can with cash. And the most volatility lies in the $1500 and below buy ins.

I figure the people you might see around generally only have half their action at most and are supplementing with online play and or cash.

lol tons of tournie "pros" exist, however the majority of them are broke and deep in makeup. It's kinda sad really. They're wasting their youth grinding $200-1k buy in tournies and hoping for that ONE big score (which will end up being way less anyway after their makeup/stake/taxes). I really don't see the appeal in it, but that's why I don't play tournaments

Yeah that's why I made sure to qualify my statement with "successful" haha.

Snowball we might just have different ideas about what a pro is, idk. The moment anyone steps out of their bankroll due to greed they go from professional to fish imo. Taking EV spots within your bankroll parameters is what makes a pro, many people don't follow the latter.

Are you only playing NL tournaments? Other poker variant tournaments are better for more consistent results. Smaller fields and less strat/general knowledge of the games compared to NL players. It also makes more sense for pro primarily grinding live tournaments. It enables them to sell less shares / take on more risk with no downside.

I never understood why people would choose a backer over selling shares. I would think moderate success from online tournament grinding is enough to sell shares easily. I also agree its impossible to be a live tournament pro traveling the circuit unless they were also great cash players on the side.

Ari Engel is a successful full-time live MTT pro. He's not backed, but does sell pieces to his FB friends for higher buy-in events. Afaik he doesn't play cash games at all. I'm sure there are others, but I think it is tough.

Doing it part-time and mixing cash/MTTs, I think, is better.

My part-time live poker goals this year are 1000 hours of 2/5 NL cash (or similar) and $100k tourney buy-ins (at around $800 - $1000 abi). I think it's doable for $50k+ side income on top of 1000 hours of consultancy work (my main gig), although at present I'm -$20k primarily due to negative variance at my highest buy-in tourneys (thanks PP Millions NA).

You don't choose the tourny pro life. The tourny pro life chooses you

Name one tourny pro who started their circuit traveling lifestyle without a significant cash

That's over live 100 tournies at 100k whichs a LOT for part time no?



Yeah pretty sickening if you think about it. Binking 1 ~100k score/year seems pretty good but how much are you taking home after all the expenses and makeup

Cash players otoh can spend like 5% of their roll each year to potentially double their roll or more

Tons of randoms driving around playing MTTs on a stake living a miserable existence

OK, but consider two things: most tourneys these days are re-entries, so 100 buy-ins doesn't mean 100 tourneys; average playing time before busting is ~4 hours (so far this year I've played 210 MTT hours with 52 entries@$852 abi).

That means around 400-500 hours for tourneys, plus 1000 hours cash, plus 1000 hours consultancy work = 2400-2500 hours = 46-48 hours per week, of which poker is 27-29 hours per week.

Yes, it's quite a commitment, but still "part-time", especially since 1000 hours of consultancy should bring-in >$100k, compared to $50k+ expectation for poker.

I cover everything I need financially with my consultancy work and the poker is just gravy (or can be financed to a reasonable degree during downswings, like my current -$20k this year).

Meanwhile, I always have the chance of a major bink with 3 near-misses in the past 3 years (11th WPT Montreal, 7th Wynn Summer Classic Main Event, 3rd CPPT Montreal).

I'm lucky that my consultancy work allows me the freedom to play so much poker (and, for example, spend 4-6 weeks in Las Vegas this summer), but my point is part-time poker income is >>> full-time grind if you are lucky enough to find the right mix.

And don't forget, the faster you bust the more you can enter and the more you can play! win-win.

Seems like a reasonable fold to me. When neither better hands nor bluffs seem super likely, I don't mind defaulting to MDF.

Truth

Your range is uncapped, his isn't, therefore I don't like to defend that wide here.

In theory should be a call but in reality ppl just don't have balanced bluffing ranges in these spots so they have like all value and no bluffs.