So, I know I say it every time, but I'm eternally grateful for the posts/support. As many of you know, playing poker for a living is an incredibly isolating experience and a few replies from random strangers somehow are able to make it seem less so. Thank you.

It's a week into 2019 and I'm break-even ish for the year.



*Shrug*

Despite the lack of profit, it appears the changes I made in regards to better game selection/lower table count are paying dividends. Don't want to overreact to a small sample, but I'm at ~11 EV BB/100 in 20k hands.

Have also been mixing in low/midstakes Spins as well, and plan to do continue doing so. When PS changed their play-through requirements, it made it harder for most backers to send money. At the time I was still grinding Spins so I was mostly unaffected. Now I've got MTTs as my main game and am playing a light Stars schedule, so it can get problematic unless if both myself/the group isn't running well. The best solution is that I bink all the MTT money and horses don't need reloads, but the most realistic solution is less fun -- I need to play more Spins to clear liquidity. That should add another 40-50 hours to this month's grind, bringing the total to 250 ish.

Re: Spins, I'm only loading $30s so far. Not sure what the current $100s+ ecosystem looks like but I'm not about to go HAM after a year+ hiatus. Can't imagine the games are softer than they were previously, so I'll stick to lower stakes for now and see how that goes.

Non Poker Stuff

1) Fitness

Arrived in Mexico ~5 weeks ago at 199 pounds. Now I'm 186. Not doing anything revolutionary; a combination of intermittent fasting and hitting the gym consistently does the trick quite nicely. Even have been "cheating" a bit and consuming far too many hostess snack cakes. Hoping to get to sub 180 by the end of the month.

2) Headed to Vegas on Thursday



Trip is less about poker, more about hanging out with old friends, eating good food, and watching playoff football in a fun atmosphere. I'm super excited.

Have two days left before my trip, tomorrow is my "off day." Will head to the gym early in the morning, run a coaching session, and then take a nice long stroll on the beach. Down at the other end of the boardwalk, I discovered a small nondescript tienda that serves succulent shredded lamb inside freshly made tortillas. The first time I ate them, I was in awe and kept muttering "unreal" to myself.



Will eat at least four of these bad boys and then walk back home, to get on the grind.

how many hours did u play in 2018 ? or what hourly EV did u have? anyway cngrats for the year.

Are you offering hourly coaching beside stable/stacking ?

No stable posts at all then? See your staking thread is closed...

Can't answer either of those, actually. Bought a new computer in mid June, PT4 tracked ~900 hours since then. By that measure, I could guess that I played ~1800 hours which makes my actual hourly $85 or so. Meh. Don't know how to measure the EV hourly in MTTs, if anyone has an idea I'd love to get more info.

I do! Feel free to PM me.

Stable had a medium downer towards the end of the year. Interestingly enough, had a similar downer around this time last year, I imagine it has something to do with higher variance of several series? Or we're like a football team that plays its home games in a dome, and can't deal with bad weather.

But I closed the 2+2 thread because I'm not:

1) Actively looking to add players at the moment
2) Convinced that this is the best place to advertise for new horses

Just seems that I get an overwhelmingly high number of messages from under-qualified applicants, or people that simply didn't read the thread. For the longest time I did my best to answer every single PM but in the past couple of months I let them pile up, felt bad about it, and decided that I should probably close the thread until I'm excited again about adding new people. Still would snap up the right player, but I think that can be done through word-of-mouth/recommendations.

Caught a severe man flu once I got back from Vegas, and was out of it for a good 4-5 days. Couldn't even open up my computer screen because the brightness gave me a headache. Still had cough/cold symptoms for a week after, but at least I was able to live a semi normal life and feel like a human being again. Since then I've been grinding/enjoying my last month in Mexico.

It's actually my 2nd to last day today so I'm going to stop here and write the rest of this update in the next few days. But for now?

Tacos
Tequila
Beach
Churros
Jacuzzi
Sunsets

Cheers Aaron, great to see you are crushing mtts after spins.. how would you compare it to them on a day to day basis? I guess more room to multitable and put longer days since the action isn't so fast paced and full of decisions to make all the time right? I guess it can be stressful because of the way payouts work and not as linear of a grind-reward as sng or spins tho?
Anyway will be following, gl this year!

Damn! Do you take vitamin D and C daily suplements? I haven't got a cold ever since I started taking daily (18 months). So that could help ��

Hey there.

Recently, I told myself I'd write a proper update on my next off-day. But I've said that before, and when the off-day comes, I find myself avoiding the computer as much as possible; I know that even though I've committed to not working (i.e. grinding), once I sit down I'll get sucked in to doing all other sorts of work.

Probably doesn't help that I've been stressed out lately. I think I touched on this before, but the past two months in Mexico were tough for me because I spent a significantly higher % of the time working than I would have if I had been living in Vancouver. Reason being, I have a much smaller social network in Mexico, and I filled that time in the most responsible way I could -- By grinding, studying, coaching, and ancillary stable work. In theory, that's a fantastic choice, but I ran poorly/the group hit a downer, and I didn't have enough outlets to relax, decompress, and "live life." Instead, I felt this increased pressure to grind more, coach harder, and get it all back. Definitely wasn't healthy, and I've realized I'm much more of a socially dependent creature than I used to be. Could rant on that for a bit, but this is already quite lengthy so I'll leave that alone for now.

Now that I'm back in Vancouver, things are far better and my stress level is considerably lower. Obviously, it also helps to hit the biggest score of your career.



Finished 3rd in the $530 BB for $31k. Getting third actually stung a bit, I was initially quite sour about not shipping it because of several reasons:

• I had CL 3-handed
• Felt I had a decent edge
• Was annoyed with opponent's poor decisions working out for him

Had myself a little pity party about how bad I ran, etc and then when I replayed the tournament in my mind, I had to confront the fact that the narrative simply wasn't true. Not only did I come back from 5 BBs twice, but I won more than my fair share of flips, got in QQ vs AA with 15 left for all the chips and board ran out xxxxQ. Could have easily busted with 80-100 left and won 3 BI, or in the QQ/AA spot for 10 BI, but I got lucky and instead had my biggest score to date.

Don't think anyone would disagree that the average regular is much better in Spins, so playing against worse opponents is much more fun/less mentally taxing, which makes for a better experience. The variance of late game/high equity spots in MTTs is similar to 'binking' a high multiplier and then having to play it out, the major differences being:

1) In 100x Spins, 2nd and 3rd get very little in comparison to the winner whereas in MTTs, the payouts are closer together
2) Getting to the high equity spots takes much longer in MTTs than in Spins, so it can add to the frustration if you had to spend an entire day to find that good spot, only to lose a flip/get coolered/etc

There are clearly pros/cons for each, for me the biggest annoyance is the time commitment required to play MTTs, but I felt that it was best for my overall development/future in the game to move away from Spins and play a more 'sustainable' format.

Hola! Saw you on my table recently, and that + the post reminded me I hadn't updated the thread, so everyone feel free to thank R for his contributions.

Also rarely get sick, I think in the past 4-5 years I've been sick only a handful of times, and if we don't count food poisoning, I can only distinctly remember three instances. Was getting an ample amount of Vitamin D from the sun, but it's been SNOWING here so I should probably look into some supplements. As for this past cold/flu thing, I am fairly certain it had to do with a combination of traveling/air pressure changes annnnnnd that I played live poker/didn't wash my hands before eating. Just touched all those filthy chips and put that bacteria in my mouth.

Obviously that's super gross, and I normally am extremely diligent about that sort of thing, but in my defense I ate a ton of marijuana edibles and wasn't exactly in the right mindset.

Side note, playing live low-stakes LHE while stoned was an incredible experience. Might not want to play NLHE because it requires more brainpower (Optimal bet sizing), but in Limit all I have to worry about it whether to bet/check/call/fold and each street is a fixed amount. Certainly makes the game more fun/less boring, I'd say it's the poker equivalent to agreeing to a fight someone with one hand tied behind my back. But it's still live poker vs randoms, so I'm super confident in my edge and in between hands, I get to giggle like a schoolgirl.



Will try to post more frequently now that I'm on a good life/work balance, but no promises.

gg boss. Consistent as usual
Did the person that made "bad decisions" shiped ?

Haven't checked to see who shipped, after I busted they snap agreed to chop/look at numbers and I was too annoyed to keep the table open. I will say that if I had reached HU, I'd have considered chopping it vs one of the two opponents.

Hoping for the best in 2019 Aaron, nice score!

Hey Aaron,

Sorry to hear you have been getting stressed out lately, but it is certainly understandable. I'm always impressed how you can always stand back and look at the bigger picture with all things you do.

With regards to your bink, again the sting is real and normal to us peasants, but looking back at it how you did with the comments above is one reason why you continue to do so well at whatever format you choose to play.

WP mate, hope you feel better about stuff in general soon. <3

Thanks!

Given what we do, stress is natural/expected and I do my best to prepare for it. Most times I think I handle it rather well. On Sunday, after busting the $530 BB, I was hot. After a brief expletive-laden rant, I sat down on the couch, looked outside the living room window of my condo, and admired the snow falling down onto the streets below. We don't get snow often in Vancouver and while I'm not a fan of the temperature, I was reminded of how gorgeous it is to see the streets turn from black to white. Less than five minutes after being eliminated, I had calmed down and was able to appreciate the score.

When it comes to general stuff, I've already gone down the worst-case scenario rabbit holes and thought about things like "What happens if I somehow lose every dollar I've ever made in poker?" In fact, I've done it a lot -- After every downswing, the idea crosses my mind. And while that line of thinking doesn't start on positive footing, I can still see the value in the journey itself, how I've been able to travel the world, meet all sorts of people, and grown so much as a person -- all because I discovered a silly card game and was able to click buttons in an order that was slightly better than my opponents.

So often it seems poker players only bond over negativity (i.e. bad beat stories, how others run better, etc) and that sort of thing only makes the half empty glass feel even emptier. Just trying to focus on the positives, looking for silver linings in times of dark clouds, does wonders for my mindset.

I won't be a professional poker player forever; I've already hung on a lot longer than most of my peers and realize that edges are only getting thinner. However, one could argue that the lessons I've learned from this game are arguably more important then the money I've made from it. My decision making skills are certainly better, and my ability to deal with the fallout from those decisions are vastly improved. Most people struggle when the results go awry, falling into one of two categories:

1) Believing the decision was incorrect because of the outcome
2) Failing to admit that decision was incorrect because they attribute that individual decision to their overall decision making abilities, instead blaming the outcome on "bad luck"

The first camp is classic ROT, the second is ego getting in the way of growth. Playing poker for nearly a decade has helped me realize that:

a) Sometimes the right decision leads to an undesired outcome
b) Even if I do make the wrong decision, it's not reflective of every decision I've ever made and furthermore,
c) It doesn't mean I'm a terrible, worthless, stupid person. It only means I made a mistake, which I can learn from, and grow

If/when I do retire, it's lessons like those that are surely going to stick with me and help me succeed in the next chapter. Hopefully I'll continue to do well/run decently and have a nice little nest egg in addition.

Oh, also

Pretty fascinating glimpse into the psyche of acbarone. Was curious about a few things.

1) bad decisions- How much leeway do you give to players for poor decisions? Do you try to view every person as a snowflake with unique proclivities and desires in a hand or are you pretty quick with the labeling? Can you give an examples of a poor decision you saw from him without any strategy content? I'm just curious what chain of events would lead you to decide this.

2) What's the rant come out like? What's the expletive-distribution? And are you speaking to someone in particular? Like a cat or something? To the heavens? With your girl on the phone like babe hear me out!

Be careful, it gets weird in there.

Well, we're all human and even the best players are going to make mistakes. And by 'mistakes' I mean a wide range of errors, including but not limited to: theoretical errors, misclicks, forgetting the action, etc. My notes on players usually involve specific instances and then inferences about that hand/spot that might allow me to draw more general conclusions. I won't label a guy "**** reg" or something, if that's what you're asking.

Okay, umm, without divulging too much strat, he acted very quickly in certain spots where I thought deliberation was needed. So quickly that it gave me some sort of insight into how I should approach future hands against him, and whether or not I should use a more value heavy or bluff heavy betting strategy.

It's not directed at anyone, really. It's mostly self pity, same old stuff about not able to win a flip in this big spot, lamenting that it's likely the biggest equity flip I've ever lost (so far, hopefully there will be bigger ones!), a lot of four letter words, blah blah chow meow.

bump

Congrats on the score!
Being a follower for many years/subs, I'm happy for you! You're my favourite online player to follow/cheer (it's silly/fanboy thing to do, but I'm 27 - and I finally don't mind for posting things like that )
Keep on posting, gl crushing this year!

While these memories never go away (see below my perfect recollections of my three biggest equity spots in my poker career), as you wrote earlier we have to put these things into perspective, count our blessings and think of all the good memories we have from poker (I no longer play for a living, like I did 2007-2009, but it's still a major passion for me and an important part of my life and happiness).

So is it cathartic or damaging to perfectly recall:

3-handed in the Stars Sunday Warm-Up in March 2008, getting re-jammed by IWearGoggles, correctly calling off for my tourney life with A9o, and losing to his A8o to earn $40k for 3rd?

11-left in WPT Montreal 2016 calling a jam with AKo and losing to AJo to earn $35k for 11th?

3-left in CPPT Montreal 2017, opening AA OTB and losing to SB jam with 95s for 2/3 of the chips in play to earn $40k for 3rd?

I've never topped a $50k score I got at Bellagio in summer 2006 in over 12 more years of playing poker, got so close with these three spots (and one more from last summer, which was just a flip), but should I be upset with my outrageous misfortune or thankful for the opportunities that I had?

It has to be the latter, since I'm still doing well in life compared to most, get to travel to lots of nice places, eat great meals, and continue to play relatively big live poker tourneys where I could make that one big breakthrough score (which now, as a non-professional, will simply allow me to enjoy more nice things in life).

As such, keep up the good work, embrace the positives, and the big one is coming, I promise!

Right, food porn. Can do that.

GF and I are headed to Japan in May, so we decided to try and eat more often at home until then. She's a fantastic cook, but sadly that means fewer restaurant pics. I do have a handful of low quality shots from the times we did go out, one of my favorite days in recent memory was Valentine's Day.

We rarely get to spend an entire day together and it's even rarer that neither one of us is dealing from stress/fallout from work, so it was really nice to just hang out and avoid all other distractions. Plus, we had some amazing food.

Had brunch at Cafe Medina, a well-known spot in Vancouver that always has a line -- except that day. Score! She had the Cassoulet (Sunny Side-Up Eggs, Smoked Bacon, Andouille Sausage, White Beans, Red Wine, Roma Tomatoes, Grilled Focaccia) and I had the Les Boulettes (Poached Eggs, Spicy Moroccan Lamb Meatballs, Roasted Peppers, Black Olive & Tomato Stew, Raita, Grilled Focaccia).



Then, as our "dessert" we each ordered one of the Liege style Belgian waffles with dipping sauces. I chose salted caramel, she had chocolate lavender.



Afterward, we headed to the Granville Island Market for a selection of artisan meats and cheeses. Picked up some high quality prosciutto, spicy Hungarian salami, and two types of cheese we'd never had before: Piave (Almost like a slightly softer, more chewable Parmesan) and Marachel (Savory swiss, somewhat pungent but nowhere near the level of Bleu). Both were incredible. We had planned to go out to dinner that night, but were still stuffed from Brucnh so I made us a little cheese board.



Spent the rest of the night at home, playing video games/watching movies, and that was fine by me.

Thanks!

Never can be sure if I'm being trolled, but I'm blushing. Hope to have more scores soon that you can root for.

Both? I think the answer is both. It's cathartic *and* damaging, like any bad memory.

Sad thing is, we tend to remember that bad beats more vividly than the successes. I shipped two of the 200x $100 Spins, can't recall what the final hand was of either. But I do remember the 200x where I lost. Still hurts a bit.

As you noted, the important thing is doing your best to maintain some perspective, and appreciate what you do have instead of lamenting what you don't. I think that's a solid mantra for not only people playing poker, but off the felt in life. Be thankful that you've got a car, not upset that the car is less new/shiny than your neighbors, etc.

nomnomnomnom

lamb meat might be the best thing that ever crossed my paths in my life. has to be the oriental part of me. sooo sad i cant seem to find it here lately.

No troll I ended up having kind of the same path as you - was playing sng (9mans) and had to switch to spins too (but at a much lower stake hahaha). Watching your blogs/reviews with moshman/etc were always motivational.

def keep posting food porn

Yes. More. Food. !

Luckily I just had dinner before checking those food porn pics. Love it!