You sound mad bro.

Who cares its good to miserable. I just farted and it smells like hard boiled eggs and white castle burger farts

So I was gonna give hellofaplaya a response when I read his first few posts but the more I see here and the other posts I've seen of his in other threads makes it pretty clear he is just a troll looking for attention. That being said, I would like to address my opinions on buying and selling action since I'm sure there are people out there who are hesitant to buy, and I don't want anyone reading this thread to get turned off by it because of anything this guy said here.

My Opinions on Buying and Selling Action

Let me start by saying I have never been backed full time in my entire life. I played freerolls to get my bankroll started when I was young, and also got $1 stakes to play 45 man sngs on Stars. Eventually I won a tournament for $350, busted that roll, and spun it up and busted it again several times. Finally when I was a freshman in college, the day after my girlfriend of a year and a half broke up with me, I took 2nd out of over 6000 entrants in a $5 turbo on Stars for $3500. My bankroll built from that and ever since then I've been freerolling poker; I've never deposited money that I didn't initially win from poker.

I've always been proud of the fact that I've never really needed anyone's help to get to where I am. I know a lot of great players who were backed for a long time. It worked very well for some and poorly for others. I just always wanted to be getting the maximum amount of money for myself as I could, so I never saw why I should be splitting it with anyone else. That was one of the points the guy on here made before he went off on the weird tangent about sniffing farts. He said something about the whole pie vs a piece of it. I've always wanted the whole pie. But for the first time ever I've been seriously considering an offer a very good player made me a few months ago. I don't even know if it still stands but for a piece of my profit he offered to back and coach me for 6 months or so. When I feel myself getting stagnant as far as my development as a player, I start to wonder if giving up that money in the short term will be worth it in the long term for the knowledge and experience I'd get. The answer is probably yes.

Now when it comes to playing bigger tournaments like the Borgata Main tomorrow, lets make one thing clear. The two options I have for a tournament like this are: 1) Don't play it and 2) Sell action. Buying in for $2700 of my own money is not an option. Let's explore the reasons why.

1) I am a professional and must be much more careful with my money because of this. One of the things the guy tried to argue earlier was along the lines of "I have to sweat out my $2700 of my cold hard earned cash while these pros don't have much of themselves to worry about." My response to that is that I do not have any other means of making said cold hard cash. If I put up $2700 of my own money and lose, the only way I get that $2700 back is by winning it back in another poker arena. I don't get to go back to work the next day with the knowledge that the money will eventually come back to me. So that comparison was ridiculous. I have the $2700 to put up, but I would be an undisciplined professional to just rip it in. The idea that you can just will yourself to a win if you want it bad enough is one that a lot of amateurs like to buy into, but it simply isn't realistic. The variance of tournament poker would make it insane for me to put up more than 1% of my bankroll on any given tournament on a consistent basis.

2) I do not yet have experience at this buy in level. I am quite confident I will be profitable in this tournament, which is why I'm playing it in the first place. If I thought I was a losing player then I'd simply quit the game, get a job, and just play recreationally. So when you combine the facts that I think I am profitable in this MTT and I cannot exercise proper BRM by buying directly into the MTT, the best course of action is to sell action in order to play.

I found it a little bit rude to come into my thread and bring up these broad ideas against selling action when I have very rarely sold action in the past to begin with. It seemed like it belonged somewhere else but as long as it was going to stay civil I didn't mind it. But then when you randomly take personal shots at me like saying I'll be busto in a few years I think you cross a line. I'd really like that to stay out of here in the future. I don't know who you are so I'm not sure why you felt the need to go after me, but if you want to discuss any of this with me further just send me a PM.

I already apologized on 7/22 but it was pokerish comment which set me off after the fact and that earl guy talking about gf sleeping with horses. It was at that point i said the hell with it and reverted back to childlike fart comments because i felt as though i was wasting my time trying to reason with special ed students. Young man i have a masters degree graduating from John Hopkins Univ in MD.
If you think i come off as a troll that is your opinion. After investigating and researching the power of staking , i have come to the conclusion it might be a more resourceful and profitable investment than going all in with your bankroll or most of it. It is a win win because even if you lose most of your buy in was covered by backers and if you cash or win everyone wins. I guess i was venting because i have made very little in the game playing a total of 15 months. After 15 months i feel i should have at least 5 figures in the bank instead i am in the red and i doubt there is room for improvement. I refuse to spend thousands of dollars on coaching and trust me there have been a few well know pros who tried to sucker me into it asking for outrageous fees upward of $2500 for 6 hrs worth of coaching with no discount . I am in the process of taking the cheaper route reading books from the likes of Jonathan Little and Dan Harrington . Maybe it will help I wish you the best Dan. Poker can be a ton of fun if you win . It can be infuriating if you lose

Well Dan are you psyched for tomorrow ? I just cut an onion and egg fart which proves i am more excited for you than you are

you're an odd fellow

I am anti staking for the most part, so take this for what its worth.

There are a few inherent flaws in your logic:
1. You could be a winning player and yet not be profitable in this tournament and that doesn't mean you should quit and get a job(doubt thats the case though, but the decision isnt binary).
2. From the investors side, you could be profitable but not profitable enough to overcome markup.
3. You might be better off at home playing MTT's online or playing cash than by entering in this tournament where you have a smaller piece of yourself in a tougher field than in a 1k or 500 where you have all of yourself in a weaker field. No, there won't be as big a pile of money at the end or a lot of glory if you run well(which may be worth something to you aside from $$).
4. Obviously the travel cost and expense of going to Borgata instead of playing home eats into your ROI.

All that said, you are good and are probably +EV from the limited times we have played online, so good luck and run well!

Are people who are anti staking also anti business loans, anti investing in the stock market, etc? For points 1+2, sure that's true, but that's where you need to look at what you know and then make a decision after analyzing that info. Just like any other investment. No investment is a sure thing and the sharper someone is in determining edges the more money they will make. Point 3+4 is definitely true. OP should of course be looking at his expected edge in this tournament, what % he has, and what his extra costs are and then comparing it to his expected hourly online and making a decision. That has nothing to do with being pro staking or anti staking though, it's just a matter of making the best business decision for yourself.

I've just never seen anyone express good reasons for why staking or selling pieces is inherently bad. Both player and investor need to look at the numbers and the situation and determine what makes sense for them. It can make a ton of sense for both the player and the person buying pieces.

First of all, just want to thank you for being respectful with this post. I have no problem with people who disagree with me or who flat out think I'm wrong, as long as they portray their views respectfully. That being said, I don't think any of what you said is off base at all here. I'll address each point though.

1) I realized it as I was typing it that I didn't really portray what I actually meant. I was sort of alluding to the fact that if I didn't think I was a winning player overall then I wouldn't play professionally anymore, but in the thread I stated it like I'd quit if I wasn't a winner in this $2700.

2) From a purely selfish perspective, I shouldn't care about whether or not it's profitable to buy from the investors' standpoint. That being said, I feel like it's unethical to sell wildly higher than what I think I am worth. I know a lot of pros disagree with me on this one ("you're worth whatever you can sell") but I don't feel right selling something that I think is not worth it.

3 and 4) I think in the back of my mind the thing that always has been incredibly appealing to me about poker is the high ceiling of it all. Are you likely to become rich from it? Hell no. Is it possible? Yes. So then, why am I selling such a big % of myself here rather than just finding the smaller buy ins where I'd have just as much money invested but a bigger piece? Well I feel I need to start experiencing playing these tournaments. I don't want my first try in these things to be incredibly stressful where I have a ton of money on it myself and feel uncomfortable. Competition will undoubtedly be tougher but I think it's something I need to experience. I also don't think it's fair for me to just write myself off as not being profitable in these things. I think I understand a lot of dynamics that many of my peers grinding online do not and it's just going to take the experience of seeing stuff people do live to get used to it.

The reasons I've heard that staking can be bad is when people are essentially living off mark up. They play break even or slightly losing poker but charge very high mark up (which they clearly aren't worth since they're playing break even poker) and are able to stay in action because of it. Then all they need to do is have some decent scores from time to time and since tracking sites show cashes and not profit they get to boast about their 500K in earnings despite not being a winner.

That being said, if you're not great at poker but you're trying to make it in the game, I guess you need to do whatever you can to remain in action. I don't really know how I feel about all of that. I just know that I'll generally sell as high as I feel is ethical and realistic in my mind, and clearly the ultimate goal is to someday be able to take all of my own action in these live tourneys. But until I have a $270K bankroll I'm not own diming this tournament.

Yeah I agree about that part being bad, but people then using that as a reason to knock anyone who sells is silly. In every industry, especially those with a lot of money in it, there will be people who will try to take advantage.

Borgata $2700 Summer Poker Open Main Event

So today I played my biggest buy in by quite some margin. After selling a lot of myself I was withing my rules for bankroll management so from a money perspective, I didn't feel too stressed. I did sort of laugh for a second at how absurd it is to hand over $2700 in cash to play a poker tournament but then got ready to go. I registered around 1PM so level 2 was winding down, only about 7 minutes left on the clock when I sat down. Starting stack is 30K and blinds were 75/150. I got my favorite seat (the 5) and looked to see if I recognized anyone at my table. There were 3 older guys to my left and 3 younger guys to my right which seemed very fortunate. I recognized one of the older guys as Paul Spitzberg on my direct left, and one of the younger guys with Eric Rappoport 2 my right. Overall it seemed like a pretty good table draw.

I folded my first hand and then was dealt TT in middle position my 2nd hand. Kid on my right opens to 400, I flat, Paul flats, SB flats, BB folds. Flop is T65ss. SB leads 200 for whatever reason, opener folds, I raise 1200, Paul calls, SB folds. Turn is Kx and I bet 2500, Paul calls. River is 8x and I check. Talking to people after I should just bet. Reasoning for check is that lots of draws missed and I can't think of many hands that pay me, but people better than me correctly are telling me to let them decide whether or not they want to pay off. He instantly turns over K3ss and I feel even worse that I'm probably getting paid by a king. But, I fold the next hand and I have 35K on break after being dealt 3 hands. Very nice was to start the day and get settled in.

The rest of the day I played very tight and was dealt a lot of strong starting hands. Most of them held and I didn't lose much on the ones that didn't I had about 60K when it was announced that we would play 3 more hands and then bag. I open AQhh from EP to 1300 at 300/600 and get 2 calls. Flop comes JT7 with one heart. I check, Paul checks, active button bets 1500 into 5400, I call as does Paul. Turn is an offsuit king. I donk 5300, Paul folds, button calls. River is 5x so I still have the nuts, I bet 9500 he calls quickly and flashes KT after I show. Again, guy I'm staying with (Joe McKeehen) said he prefers bigger sizing there (and obviously when villain has KT we want to go bigger). But I ended up throwing 78,300 in the bag coming back tomorrow to 400/800/100.

We played 8 levels at 1 hour each today and tomorrow will be 8 levels of 75 minutes each. 359 entrants and 195 bagged so average is about 55K. Registration is open until the end of 500/1000 tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about how the day went and how relaxed I felt. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't facing any pressure from those on my left. Tomorrow there is a good chance that will change but I'm ready to go!

Quick note, I'm now starting to think 359 entrants and 195 advancing was only from today. So we'll add yesterday's 47 of 95 bagging for about 240 advancing of 450 or so. Would make more sense why my table 19 never broke.

gl

Unless my income is 200k and beyond i would be sh--- bricks with every hand i play if i had to invest $2700 in a tournament. Since my gross income per year (not net) is in 1/4 of that give or take a few K , i would need to be staked 90% in order for me to not only feel comfortable at the table but to play my optimum game. I notice Dan has not responded to my latest comment probably because he thinks im some sort of nut or not worth responding back to after the farts comments To each his own

You could play low buyin turbo's then

I believe they run these at Parx in Pennsylvania with some regularity!

GL!

The low buy in turbos at Parx are $80. They are the worst . Bad players bad structure. The only shot you have at winning is consistent coin flips and hope it falls your way. Aside from that with the ante's and blinds constantly raised you be better off taking that $80 and playing $1 $2 cash. You have better odds of turning $80 into $300 in 30 minutes than you have min cashing in a parx turbo after 6hrs

Good luck!

I am not anti business loans or anti stock market. Just think that generally, the person selling action is making a mistake(though perhaps not in this case) and that the idea of being able to play a bigger buyin event and win a lot of theoretical money and glory is what drives people rather than actual EV. Also, its nearly impossible to know what someones ROI is within a decent range and there are trust issues(again, not with RedsoxNets specifically), that I am sure people don't account for an eat into ROI. There is generally delusion from both the player and investor as to what that ROI realistically is (players are skewed because everyone thinks they are awesome and investors from one big score, from lifetime earnings, or what they might win).

However people are consenting adults and are free to do as they please, but I generally think as an investment by the staker, its -EV and as the stakee doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

2)I appreciate your honesty and not grabbing at it with both hands. As I said above, I think people are deluded(not necessarily you) about what they are worth and when that intersects with what investors think they can make, it takes the end product in to a negative investment.

Why do I care? I dont care if people make -EV investments, feel free to invest in all the racehorses you like, but that people perceive it as an investment, which it most likely isnt bugs me for two reasons. Firstly, it looks bad to have a bunch of people who are essential grifting their investors in someway or another(by exaggerating their ROI, stealing money etc) when the image of poker players is so poor to begin with,. Secondly, its both sides job to make +EV decisions all the time in poker, and to whiff on what I perceive to be a pretty big one(how much of yourself you have in the tournament) can dwarf all the other ones and seems like a gigantic leak.

3/4) Your reasoning seems very good.

Good luck!

That's fair. I don't disagree with you, I don't think most people are actually sitting there and thinking about whether their hourly is likely to be higher playing X live event with 30% of their action or playing online with 100% of it or whatever their normal game is. I skip most live mtt even if I'd enjoy playing mainly because of this reason of my hourly being much higher and with less variance just grinding my normal games online or grinding live cash. I still think there are plenty of situations where it does make sense for both parties though. There are just also a lot of unprofitable situations born from people not analyzing things properly.

Borgata Main Day 2

Came back to day 2 of Borgata Main with 78K at 400/800. Started day with Dave Stefanski on direct right, Orson Young to his right, and Alex Queen to his right. Aggressive guy 2 to my left who won a Wynn tourney this summer for 250K, and everyone else was whatever. Didn't win a hand the first 75 minute level and had under 60K returning to 1Kbb. I managed to win first hand by opening the Fillmaff (KJ not suited never lets me down) and winning blinds. New player Jesse Cohen sits down, opens CO to 2200 at 1Kbb, and I decide to shove his 21K eff w AJo in BB. Maybe could peel. He had QQ and held. Down to 33K. Next hand active guy 2 to left opens UTG. I 3b AK from BB and he peels. Flop comes KK7hh, I down bet, he raises to most of my stack, I shove, he calls with AThh and I hold. Back to 70K no problem.

I got it slightly over 100K when my table broke and I moved into the main poker room (was playing in high limit area up to that point). Not a ton of resistance at new table, only recognize Jason Paster. He busts along with a few others and Kyle Bowker (now famous for folding quads at WSOP Main but very solid player before and after all that nonsense), takes a seat, as does Chris Csik, and eventually Joe Black. I found a few big starting hands and won a big one with AA>KK. By the time we hit dinner break I had chipped up to 275K coming back to 1500/3000.

After dinner I won a few pots quickly and was over 300K. Eventually got guy with 57K all in with my AQs vs JJ and lost flip. Fortunately still had 275K due to earlier pots. By the time our table broke I had pretty much exactly what I started the level with, and we were going to 2K/4K when I sat down at next table.

Next table I look around and see everyone has heaps. Average is around 200K and lots of good players have more than that at this table. Mark Herm is on direct left opening or 3 betting every hand, Dan Buzgon on direct right with decent stack, and a short Christian Harder is on his right. Eventually Nick Palma also moved to table and the table talk between the 4 of them was hilarious. I laid quite low the last level with Herm on left. I probably played 2 or 3 pots max and won one, defending 98hh, making a flush and not getting any extra bets.

I ended the day with 252K coming back to day 3 tomorrow at 2500/5000. I feel unusually comfortable, even when sitting with players who have inf more experience and in all likelihood more skill. The structure is incredible and for the most part I've done my best to simply avoid punting. A light 3b here and a double barrel there but never trying to play for stacks without it. Tomorrow will be the shortest I've been for this entire tournament when I come back with 50BBs. The clock said 67 players remain but I have a feeling there's slightly less. 54 pay with the mincash at $5403. Top prize is $336K. To be completely honest, I think getting my name out there means almost as much to the cash to me at this point. If I had all of myself the cash would clearly be it but when I have as little as I do, the cash of course is great and I'd play ICM properly and all that if I final tabled but having a big result would feel validating. I feel much less pressured to make it happen though then in the past so whatever happens happens and I'll hold my head high either way. There are a TON of very good players left so if nothing else this will be a great experience. Day 3 tomorrow let's go!!!

Trying to post pics of stack but imgur not letting me for some reason, @RedsoxNets5 on twitter if you'd like to check those out.

Coming into day 3 in 28th of 66 with 54 paying. I have 252K at 2500/5000 (50BBs); average is 253K. My table draw is good with one major exception that makes it not so great: chip leader and top boss Paul Volpe is on my direct left. Aside from him only 1 other player covers me and he is on my direct right. We have 5 stacks of 162K, 142K, 99K, 83K, and 64K, so I imagine there will be less post flop play at our table to start than at others. We are at table 4 so most likely will not break until 27 remain.

I'm excited and I feel confident. I hope to at least cash but there is a decent chance Volpe puts me in spots that lead to me getting lots of chips in and I'm not going to back away from those just to avoid bubbling. Time to shower and get some food, let's go!!

Edit: Just looked up everyone's Hendon Mobs and I have more live earning than more than 1 person at my table lolol. Michael Lech is 64K guy and he came 2nd in the crazy 8s WSOP tourney this year (Lost to Hung Le on that crazy last hand where Le calls it off with 2s2c on AT8dd4d or whatever and beat QJ, then said "They call me fish but now fish got this" while holding up bracelet lolol). Also Nick Palma at table. Aside from that not many results to speak of. If I can find a way to not get smacked by Volpe I like my chances.

Gl shipit

Pumped for you man, definitely enjoy the moment! They didn't do you any favors putting Volpe on your left though haha

. I stopped by to check out the action . Those guys are true pros and huge stacks to back them up. Elias looked bored to death i can tell from his expression he wasn't getting cards. Mike Dentale is the man . They need more characters like him in Poker to add drama and relieve boredom . Saw him argue about K6 to another player he went all in with while the rest of the players went on break .