Thanks Bobo. Sorry to bring the mood of the thread down a bit guys. I'll share a story that slightly relates to this situation from a tournament I played at Borgata about a year ago (I might have shared it then on here but I'll just do it again anyway).

$400 Saturday Series at Borgata, last event of the package I sold. I just mincashed the 1K 6 max earlier that morning so it was a weird sensation feeling like $400 was low stakes or something; I remember that being the first time I really saw one of those tourneys as lower stakes. A player in early position raises. Dealer says raise, it folds to guy on my direct left who completes the big blind. The dealer informs him there's been a raise, so the guy takes his bet back, puts the SB out, and folds. The dealer informs him the full amount of the big blind must stay out there since he has already put those chips in the middle.

This is where the guy starts getting crazy. Background: When he sat down at the table he seemed like one of those guys who is really excited to be playing a poker tournament. A little bit annoying, but he's not hurting anybody so I'm nice to him. He's probably in his mid 50s, wearing a button down collared shirt, and looks nerdy, like the kind of guy who just might still be living with his parents. He's a bit overly talkative, one of those guys who is hard to have a conversation with because he doesn't listen to your response to whatever he's been saying.

So he starts flipping out. He blames the dealer for not announcing raise; when the dealer says that he did announce it (which he did) the guy is angry about the volume of which it was announced. The dealer explains that regardless of what he said, it's the players' jobs to follow the action. For what it's worth, this was a good dealer and everything he said was correct. I'm getting uncomfortable with how much this guy is berating him but I'm assuming he'll settle down and we'll move on soon.

The next hand the action folds to this guy's button and after some obviously fake tanking, he mucks his hand to the side. Like, way to the side. He's in the 8 seat, I'm in the 7 seat, and he throws it pretty much directly in front of me. So I've had enough of this guy, so I take his hand and toss it to the dealer; it's a dead hand and I'm not looking at it so seems fine to me. "Don't you dare touch my cards!!" This guy is screaming at me. "Do you have ANY idea how wrong it is to touch another player's hand??" So I respond. "Well first of all, it's not your hand anymore, you folded. Secondly, you CLEARLY threw your hand over here in order to make the dealer's life hard for a mistake that YOU made. This guy cannot defend himself because being rude to a player might lead to him facing some sort of punishment. So I'm going to defend him in his place!"

I could tell this guy did not expect me to come back at him like this, but he landed on his feet quickly and came back at me like most idiots do, by being louder and repeating himself. "Don't you EVER touch my cards again! It is so out of line to do so! Hasn't anyone ever taught you poker etiquette?"

"Actually they have, and 'don't berate the dealers' is rule #1! I don't care if you berate me but when you go after someone who can't do anything about it, I'm not gonna sit here and just let you!"

This went back and forth for a little while, eventually with me quieting down and the other guy still muttering things under his breath, with some of these things sounding like physical threats. Eventually a floor person got involved.

After a while a floor came over, ready to break up this fight between what I assume looked like a brash young overconfident kid and a flustered middle aged man. When he started talking to us though, I looked at him and said, "Look, I don't want to fight with this guy anymore. He was berating the dealer, who was doing a good job, and I tried to stand up for the dealer. I want to just drop it now but he's continuing on. I don't want to make your job any harder than it has to be and I know you see fights all the time so I'm just letting you know I have no interest in getting into it with this guy as long as he's respectful to the staff."

The floorman looked at me with a puzzled look for a solid 4-5 seconds before saying, "oh. Well uh, thank you!" I could tell this was the last thing he expected the kid to say. But the other guy continued, "Hasn't anyone ever taught you to respect your elders? Don't you understand respect?" That's when Mike Linster, who I'd been friendly with throughout the 6 max and was now seated at my table in this one, chimed in, "Look buddy this kid's probably half your age and is CLEARLY acting more respectful than you. You're starting to piss me off now too so lay off." It settled down a little and then the guy stood up and started walking behind me. I half expected to get whacked in the head but decided to stare right in front of me anyway because that's how they'd do it in the movies. He walked around a bit and then sat back down. A few minutes later we went on break.

When we got back from break me and him were 2 of the first back at the table. He looked at me and said, "Hey I thought about it on break and decided that maybe I was being rude. I was hoping we could make up," and stuck out his hand. Half of me wanted to tell him to **** off but I shook it anyway. When the tourney resumed he started trying to make his weird jokes with me again, like before the whole incident happened. I ignored him. A little while later I busted the tournament and walked away realizing how close I'd come to getting into it with a middle aged man.

Anyway, point of the story is that hellofaplaya reminded me of this guy. The "I'm older than you so I can say and do whatever I want and you have to take it or you're rude" attitude. And that idea that if they EVER admit that they were wrong about something that you should welcome them back with open arms. When I was in elementary school I used to get bullied and I would just take it. When I was in high school I would immediately get confrontational with anyone who even said something rude to me. Since then I've worked on finding that middle ground, of not getting ran over but also not overreacting when someone comes at me. I tried to be reasonable with this guy but apparently he just wanted someone to pay attention to him. What can ya do. I'm over it though and don't really want to give him any more of that attention he craves.

Tonight I played $1064 in buy ins over 16 MTTs and 2 re-entries (18 MTTs effectively). I've cashed for $870 so far and have the $10r $5K on WSOP remaining where I am currently 2/9. $120 locked and $1350 up top. I lost a big flip as I was typing this so I'm now under 15BBs. I stone bubbled 2 tourneys tonight, 1 being the $100 WSOP MTT with $1200 up top where I got a lot of chips in with A6 on K866 before getting the rest in on the J river vs JJ. He was the only one who covered. Any time I get a glimmer of hope I get smacked right back down. I've also had 2 different screen names (I say names cuz it's different sites so maybe the same guy) wish me death tonight unprovoked. This sure is an easy peasy job with no stress that doesn't require any sort of hard work! Only way out of it is to go through it though so regardless of outcome of this tourney the grind will continue tomorrow.

First off, read through most of this thread and wanted to say I've enjoyed it so far...keep the stories coming


OP: I agree with coinflipper here. This could be solely based on me feeling comfortable with it, but I feel like from what I'm seeing you could definitely increase your bottom line by increasing your number of tables, especially at the lower levels. It's a pain in the ass to "play down" but so much of your money can be won (or at least decrease variance) by playing in every $10 MTT you can get your hands on. I'm sure you have gone through the numbers and know what's best for you, but I could see how increasing volume could (should?) be +$EV.

Also, are you involved at all in some type of study group online? The best thing I've had for me is a couple of poker friends that I can bull**** with. I'm sure this thread helps, but having people you can trust can go a long way in getting over the most difficult times on the felt.

cool thread. I wouldn't suggest doing more selling than a few packages a year but Borgata series Mains seem like good ones to do. Agree with the sentiment that turbo structure small buyins live with >20% effective rake(remember to include money withheld for tip and dealer addon) are pretty gross. MTT variance is sick in general. gl rebounding from the downswing.

For sure, agree with both of you and thanks for the input. xnbomb, I actually have been 12 tabling this week and feel pretty comfortable doing so. It's what I was doing in January when I was having success and I've been playing a variety of buy ins. On Sundays I just can't really fit any $10s on the screen. On weekdays I do play them, and I actually won a $10r last night for $500 which was a big part of finally having a winning day. I know if I played ROW Stars I'd be playing way more $10-$30s, but unfortunately this market leads to $10s rarely getting over 100 people, and when they do they are rebuys which lead to the true price being around $30. All that being said, I won a $10r for $500 as I said and got 2nd in the biggest $10r for $800 last night, making up most of my earnings. Definitely something to keep in mind for myself going forward. I used to be a part of an NJ online group on Skype but it quickly devolved to being the equivalent of 2p2's bbv; just nonsense and nothing really involving strategy. Just gossip and negativity. So I left it some time ago. This morning though I actually had a nice HH review with a friend from England who's been doing quite well on ROW Stars (shoutout to max aka 1mtm91). We took a look at a $100 6 max he took 12th in over the weekend. There were only a few spots where we had different takes, which is great for both of us to hear differing opinions on, but even in the spots where we agreed it was really nice to talk them over and reaffirm why certain decisions are correct. I need to get more discussions like that going on while I'm not actually playing.

bobboufl11, I typically don't play live very often, but with the amount of free time that has opened up for me it seems that this is the time to try to bink off the big live score. The biggest online score that you can really come by in NJ is about 15K, and weekly it realistically is normally about 10K. Binking a $500 opening event with 50% of myself for 200K (so I'd get 100K) just seems so juicy, and after playing this most recent opening event and I can confidently say the fields are very soft. The experience I get there is valuable as well. But you guys are definitely accurate when you say the rake is hard to beat at those low stakes tourneys. $500+$50 is pretty reasonable from Borgata though and with the value that tourney is a must play imo.

-$800 today. Feel pretty miserable. Hands don't hold, hands don't get there. The one time I did get there was 66>AA with 5 left in my last MTT where a win would get me to -$600 on the day. 3 handed I then lost AA<66. It's like poetry. Have decided grinding through is the only way. Have to leave for a wedding early Friday and prob can't play Thursday night since I need to return home. Bad timing. Should be fun but I have to stop doing things that take me away from playing. Obviously this is an important exception but I've gotta stop being lazy and find my work ethic again.

I know in the past you were grinding sng's as well to reduce variance. If you aren't still doing that it could be a good idea to start doing that again.

Just finished reading entire thread and am definitely subbed for more. Your journey has definitely been very interesting to follow and reading this has helped me mainly with my mindset and dealing with bad beats and downswings.
I believe that you have what it takes to be really succesful in poker and in life too. Just keep up the hard work and don't get downswings get to you (obviously easier said than done).
Also, lolled hard at hellofaplaya... what an idiot...

GL at the tables Dan!

Yeah I mean if they ran more frequently in NJ it'd certainly be something for me to consider but unfortunately they just don't go off very often. I'll definitely keep an eye out on the lobbies though to make sure they're not running more regularly than I think.

Thanks man! When I'm going through a hard time it makes it much easier with the knowledge that it might be helping somebody else out. GL at the tables!

It's amazingly easy to find the tables when you are winning. Stick with it you'll turn this around in no time just variance. Study more, review more see if you are making minor adjustments in your game that could affect the outcome.

Short but alive with 7 left in Stars 10K. JCarver has a lot and is streaming so check out his stream if you'd like to watch! I am monkeyman067.

Glgl

Won a flip vs JCarver then AA>33 vs other guy HU to win it for $2300. Much much needed. Ran very good at final table. Made $1700 today, first step in bouncing back from these last 2 months.

#upswing let's go man

Best feeling in the world is an upswing in poker because u generally tend to be more productive in all parts of ur life as well as poker when things are going ur way (well imo at least)

That's how I feel and I'm trying to break out of that lol. I've been doing better of just getting on with things when I'm downswinging but a weight is definitely lifted off your shoulders when things start going well again in poker. That being said, a little weight has been lifted since I'm running a bit low in the real life money department and my BR is not where I want it to be to withdraw anything right now. Another couple binks would really help but this is definitely a great start.

go destroy live 2/5 and mix in the occasional live MTT for the rest of the year. youll be making consistent cash and a lot less stressed about your poker/life roll, GL

congrats on the win

Congrats on the win! Railed most of it on jcarvers stream. Definitely some interesting hands, well played!



The words of all great champions

Congrats man! was fun watching the final table last night

It would definitely be a lot of fun to do that but given I'm over 90 minutes away from the nearest poker room it's just tough to get out there and do that. I'll certainly be mixing it in though.

Thanks!

Lmao I made 2 very bad river checks against JCarver. Checking back the J8 was extra painful because 90% of the time I bluff there, but I really felt like I was getting called by like every pair and I actually thought to myself before checking "You know what...let's be disciplined here. Even though you know you lose if you check I think it's just giving money away to bluff so even though it sucks we gotta be smart and give up." And then he has a better missed straight draw and I just feel sick. I also checked back top pair no kicker for fear of being c/r'ed near the FT bubble, and once again his exact hand made it clear I should be betting. Live and learn.

Thanks! I can't help myself but banter with him. He's a lot of fun to talk to and having his stream open is such a huge advantage that I like at least giving him a little bit of info back. I got to see which hands he was opening short handed, what he was 3 betting me with, and that really helped in me calling with 33 pre, calling a c-bet on A high flop, and then checking back the turn. I probably play each street differently if I don't have that information. I also flat the ATs against some players in the bust hand but decided vs him I needed to 3b/call off; that one I probably coulda figured out without the stream since he was opening SO often down the stretch but the stream definitely helped to confirm what I was thinking. For the most part I don't think streaming hurts him much in NJ; the regs that could use the info aren't watching and the people watching while playing are often recreational who are just happy to be at the same table as him. But I think I did gain a significant edge last night. That being said, I ran hotter than the sun and got it in bad and got there a few times so I'm not trying to pretend like me watching the stream is the only reason I won.

Yeah I wasn't a fan of the j4 check back. Well played overall though, congrats on the win, keep chugging along upwards.

Yeah def wasn't great, thanks for the congrats though!



Another brutal day, I believe I was 2 outted on the river at least once every hour of this 5 hour session. Mincashed the Stars 100, KK<AA to bust the Party 10K 10 from the money, lost a flip for a lot of chips in Stars $50, 66<44 on KK874 runout 2 from the money in new Stars $100 mtt (I literally was asking for a chop on the turn, for perspective on how I perceive my chances in runouts recently), A9<65 for a bunch of chips with 10 left in WSOP $100 paying 6 lost on river, AA<JJ for a TON of chips in Party $55 outside of money (J on flop not river in that one though), lost flip vs spaz in Party $215 turbo and have yet to get off the ground in that one this week, mincashed the 1 $100 sng I played then lost QQ<A8 HU on xx8x8 run out for $200 difference between 1st and 2nd. OBVIOUSLY none of the run outs and hands really matter but it's pretty tough to sit there and try to stay positive when it's happening SO frequently. That Stars $100 last night was literally the only relief I've had in 90 tournaments this week. Down over $600 today and it's really ****ing annoying; so many people are just PUNTING off stacks, including regs, and they just keep getting my chips. Eventually I will start holding again I suppose.

Red, focus less on money you will be better, good luck


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+1. I watched the stream from 7-handed and thought you played solid and really picked your spots well, especially against jcarver

You are certainly right, I just really want to get back on track and going in the right direction. I've noticed that when I'm winning I feel validated in making the decision to go pro, but when I'm losing I question myself. When I've been winning and then hit a losing streak it's easy to say "oh well just keep playing well it's all part of the game," but when it's just been consistent losing I start feeling panicky and itchy to get winning again. Of course I should not be paying attention to the money though and just focusing on playing well.

Thanks I appreciate that. I certainly made a couple mistakes but I think I did a good job of balancing 3 betting strong hands and weak hands since he was opening so wide, and also raising strong hands and weak hands when he open limped his SB. I also liked my sizings since he is so inclined to peel raises preflop very wide. Gotta go bigger vs those players to make sure you at least have SOME fold equity. Hopefully we go deep again in something together in the near future, it's a lot of fun to play with him on stream.

Online MTT variance could be high, some time mix with some live cash game will not hurt you, if you watch daniel N documentary, in his early date he actually using side cash game to support his tournament, that's why he keep going back and forth Canada and Vegas, you can move closer to casino like parx or AC and keep playing their 1/2 or even 2/5, I believe with your skill you will have no problem to crush those game


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