Subbed. You're one of the funnest posters to read itf. GL

Vegas updates?!

Hey guys, I meant to update the thread a couple of days ago, sorry real life got in the way.

I decided to take a big portion of the money from my rungood and invest in a Product Development idea that I have had for quite some time. The idea should hopefully be ready for market in the next two - three months. It is a gaming related idea and I could definitely use the Support of 2+2 when I go to market. I'll release details after I get my patent stuff back from the USPTO.

As for providing updates, sorry guys, I didn't want this thread to turn into my personal blog and I want to limit my entries to shot taking and high buy-in MTTs that have a first place greater than $10k.

I had to take a little time off from poker after Vegas. I was getting burnt out and playing really bad which happens. During this time, I didn't play any high limit games and I stuck to my normal 2/5nl and 2/5nl deep stacked. My last three sessions after I got back from Vegas were losing sessions and I just needed to take a few days off to get reset and centered. This also included me just unplugging from poker for a while to include minimal 2+2 postings. I have to do this about one week out of every 5 weeks of grinding. So now I'm recharged and ready to get back to the grind.

Bay 101 is having a tournament series this week called, "Summer Madness" and it starts tomorrow.

It runs Tuesday through Saturday and Saturday is the main event w $550 buy-in.

I vow to place top 3 in at least one of these events. In fact, I'm hoping to do something epic and place top 3 in each event. That would be sick!!! First event is tomorrow so I have to win that one first, wish me luck. I'll provide updates during the tourney.

Lastly, I plan to head back to Vegas end of June to do another WSOP event and also satty my way to the Main Event.

So, next update will be tomorrow, $345 buy-in first place is projected to be over $10k.

thanks for following this thread and I hope to do something sick for all the LLSNL grinders out there working their way up in limit.

stay tuned. Same bat time, same Bat Channel...

As much as I appreciate your strategy posts, I am more impressed with the way you approach the game from the business end.
Not playing above your BR. Taking calculated risks at bigger games. Investing part of your winnings into other endeavors in hope of bettering your future standard of living. I can't help but think this is the wisdom of age for all future "grinders" to take to heart.
That said, I gotta ask just for fun, were there any hard lessons outside of poker learned along the way? Any moments where you look back and think, $2k bottle service, $1k diner bill, what the hell was I thinking? Or was it always a recognized opportunity to better your situation? ( I'd search it but dude, 8,500+ posts. Come on, throw me a bone here.)

Subbed...

What a great thread this is! Your insight and analysis is second to none. Well, maybe Kydd's thread was on par but unfortunately he no longer posts. Either way, this is one of the most coherent and thoughtful threads on 2+2.

Gl with the Bay 101 MTT's and I look forward to continuing this journey

Would you use an MTT score to shot-take higher stakes?

God I hope so...

DCI sitting with Matt Moore at 10/20/40NL... Yes please.

Prison Raping vs. PH sauna... uh oh!

Well, I'm playing the $345 MTT and Man, off to a horrid start. I'm at a great table but am catching a cold deck. Got TT three times and each time hit a A Q x flop and someone shoves into me or c/r shoves.

Just hit first break at 6k chips blinds are 150/300 so I have enough chips to get back into this.

Hope to turn this around.

Man, when the deck is cold the deck is cold. Got bled down to ten big blinds went all in 66 on the button and got called by 99 and that was that. Yuck. Will grind cash today then try again w tomorrow's tourney.

I will do a super long download of all my highs and lows at my 9000th post. I've had an interesting and difficult struggle overcoming lots of demons but don't want to bog down this thread. I could literally write a book.


Yeah, my criteria for shot taking is highlighted in my first post. I plan to do one or two more prior to heading back to Vegas.

how many people in todays tourney?

[QUOTE=Avaritia;38705148]OMG Soooooooo THIS.

I have left on my button b4. When I rack up I leave. Never played out of the rack. Never play "one last hand." My last hand is determined by my time limit or my preemptive decision to cut a session short.


Funny story about this! I was playing in the 2/5 game at Fire Lake Casino a few weeks Ago. We were 6 handed and I decided to leave at 11:30 with a $1200 stack. Dealer changed at 11:30 and I started to rack up. Told the new dealer not to deal me in. Matthew Fox(may have name wrong) who writes for one of the poker mags opened for $30 under the gun. The new dealer hadn't heard me and dealt me in. Looked down to see 77 and decided better of calling since I had mentally decided to leave. One other caller and the flop came 779 with two:hearts. They ended up getting it all in and Matt's QQ held up vs a flush draw. Had trouble sleeping that night.

Wow how did I miss this ?!?
Subbed obv;
Will read all tonight. Got super excited on your first shot 3b shipping the 6-7 hand ....
Love the way you post and your thought process!!
Lol at the hand written date on the chips... Don't think many are doubting you..
I'm pumped to get to the end and follow intensely.
Gl sir. Gl

Ha shouldn't have looked. Seriously this happens all the time and I just don't look. Also fwiw when asked I say I'm superstitious about last hands, I don't say the truth, that playing out of a rack is asking to get raped.

As to your funny self beat, I was in the bb at an insanely aggro table. I'm short stack with $700. UTG makes it $30, 5 calls to me, I have 33. I lift my hand to grab chips, somehow the card sticks/knocks over exposing a 3. Dealer makes that the flop burn and deals me what would have been the burn (so flop doesn't change) I get a Q and fold. Flop K33. Bet $80 and one call. Turn K raise/reraise they get it in and chop.

So yea I exposed a hand that what would have been quads/triple up. Didn't sleep for a week.

DGI, on this theme, what's the sickest "self beat" you've given yourself? (Like mucking a winner, etc.)

About 4 or 5 months ago I was at the end of grinding 14 hrs straight, I could barely keep my eyes open.

I had decided to leave after a couple of more hands and I get dealt 97 on the BTN. UTG raises something like $25 , MP calls, LP calls, CO calls, I call, SB and BB call. Eff stacks are $1k and I cover.

Flop (175) T Q Q
chks to me and I mentally check out of the hand since I'm not a big fan of drawing to inferior baby flushes on paired broadway boards in 7-way pots. So I'm in auto check/fold mode...

Turn(175) 8
action again checks to me and I'm so mentally gone out of the hand I just check back as I'm watching TV and I now mentally decide this is my last hand, I'm exhausted, can't focus, can barely keep my eyes open.

River(175) J
UTG bets $100, folds to CO who raises to $200, I auto-fold, folds to UTG who raises to $400, CO ships all in for $1k and UTG snap calls.

UTG shows QJ boat, CO shows QT boat,

I rack up and leave. As I'm driving home this hand flashes in my mind's eye and then I slam my fist on the dash and mentally throw up as it occurs to me that I mucked a straight flush .

FML

I decided against playing the tourney tomorrow. Tomorrow's (Wednesday's) tourney is a "knock out" tourney. Buy-in is $345 and for every person you knock out, you get $100. So basically, that is 1/3rd of the prize pool taken out of the tournament. So, I'm not a big fan of knockout tournaments so I'm just going to grind cash tomorrow.

However, to make up for it, I will take notes on my normal 2/5nl cash game session tomorrow and post a complete session write up win or lose

Would have been a sick fold though if one guy had AKhh

I thought I would start answering all PM questions in this thread since the questions are sometimes redundant...

Well, I think there are multiple components to not viewing chips as money.

#1 is to be well rolled. Its a lot easier to play with $2k on the table when you got $20k, $30k, $40k etc under your mattress.

#2 is to just tell yourself, "I don't care about the money, I only care about the +EV correct play." Tell yourself this every time you wake up, every time you look in the mirror, everytime you brush your teeth, every time you open your refridgerator, every time you start your car, every time you are on the toilet, everytime you log onto 2+2, everytime you are with your girl and bust a nut... after about 1,000 times you will discover that you will actually believe and internalize it.

#3 Experience. The more you play deep, the more you have "X" amount on the table, the more comfortable you will be playing with X amount and greater.

#4 Viewing the game as a job/bank vs a slot machine. When you are truly comfortable and confident in your winrate, then you will view the game as a bank in which you are going to make a withdrawal and/or as a job in which you work X hours and get paid Y/hr. Recreational players tend to view poker as a slot machine. They are waiting for that big bonus hand and once they get it, they now feel their chips are at risk and they get antsy and they want to cash out "before they lose it all..." Think about that mindset vs the mindset of a confident consistent winning player.

I believe (whether right or wrong) that my winning and losing is more a function of my skill (playing, table selection, knowing when to quit, etc). When I'm playing my A or B game, I almost never lose. My winrate for my A game is about 4 out of 5 sessions. My winrate for my B game is about 3 out of 4 sessions...

Give you an example. Yesterday I was on my B game and finished my session up $2.5k. When I arrived I got seated at a HORRIBLE table. THere were 2 pros at the table that were props for the casino, and then there were 2 very good players that I consider almost equivalent in skill to myself. And worst, there were no obvious donks or marks at the table. The rest of the villains were ABC/TAG competent. So, after about 5 minutes I head over to the floor, slip her $10 and say, "get me on THAT table". The table I identified had only 1 pro, 1 decent TAG, and 2 obvious aggro marks and 3 rec fish. I get to that table, and I crush.

My point is simply that when you view the game in terms of your winrate and are confident in your skill a lot of the apprehension about playing with money will start to go away. WHen I recognize I'm at a super juicy profitable table, I have no qualms about being 200bb, 400bb, even 800bb deep because I view that money as a means to win more money. So the deeper I am and the deeper my villains are, the more I believe I can win.

Lastly, I think the biggest component to all this is confidence. And confidence is just a by product of the work you've put in and experience. In regards to me, if you notice with my shot taking, I'm starting to get antsy around the $13k mark and cashing out. But every time I play, I'm getting more and more comfortable and confident. I'm hopeful that every time I play, my ceiling will rise so that next time its $16k, then $18k, then $20k....

Its not so much that I subscribe to it, but moreso that is just what my data says. In the Bay Area, the best days to play are Wednesday - Sunday. Often times, games will run 24/7 Wednesday - Sunday so you can't beat that. Mondays are usually the worst days to play here which is why I usually take Mondays off.

^ Excellent, Ty.

can you share your win rate for each stake if you dont mind?

^^^^
also, how's the 5-5-10 game looked this week with the tournament series going on? Just one game going w/ same players, or have they ever gotten 2 going that you've seen? And wrt to the tournaments, do you know what it's been averaging around to 1st place? I tried looking up results online, but couldn't find. Thanks!

Well, last night was an interesting session, I decided to record every single hand that I played. So it will take me a while to download that. I'll try to post it by tomorrow.

Well, today the tourney is going, $345 buy in, first place will be around $12k so good luck to me. Got a super fish at the table, just got to get some rungood.

Finally getting some run good. just hit first break, i got $40 k in chips and am probably top five in chips, blinds are at 150/300 w 25 antes. First place now projected at $13k, they will post prizepool in next 30 minutes. 160-ish players, alternates will be streaming in over next 30minutes.



I'm seat #3 w the two stacks of blue.

Blues are $1k, yellows are $500, bllacks are $100, greens are $25. I'm at a dream donk infested table.

Will update next break

So here is the structure



Here is my stack, just won a pot after I took this pic,

I'm seat #3




I'm now at $63k so almost triple the average.