The Final Frontier
07-10-2018
, 01:56 PM
You probably look on 26 from 32 (or however old you are) as I look from 26 on 20, or 15 or w/e. It sucks looking back on time and wishing you could rewind the clock but all we can do is focus on the present moment and do our best going forward...I'll use my 1 time for the time machine though
Cheers for the young comment though haha. I like the feeling of having some good years ahead
--------------------------------------------------------
Apparently the drinking grind got rewarded the other night for me guys. I irresponsibly went drinking/stayed out late the night before my live tourney. Ended up getting 2nd place and dealing Heads up for ~5.5k off 300$ buy in. The guy had a 3:1 CL on me hu but offered me 600$ more than ICM so I snapped it up for the chop. I gotta say my volume in 2018 has been pretty slow in poker but I just seem to be running good in the poker I do play (maybe playing pretty good too with all the time off).
There wasn't too much interesting in the tournament and basically just found lots of good resteal spots off guys opening like 2.5x-5x opens with ridiculously wide ranges off ~15bbs etc. which just printed me so many chips when they kept folding. There was also a hand where I looked down @ J4o in the BB and decided to get frisky with a 3 bet etc but luckily my c bet on the bad for my range board worked when half my stack was invested on the flop.
I'll outline 2 somewhat interesting hands though:
Hand 1:
BB 200. UTG blaster limps, MP limps, MP limps, BTN limps, I check BB with 73o. FLOP: 753r. UTG bets 600, MP calls, MP folds, BTN raises to 2600. I have ~10k stack and elect to call, MP jams 10k, BTN jams 10k, I fold. MP has 88, BTN has 55. River 8 lol.
What should our play be on the flop? I ALMOST jammed, then I ALMOST folded. Decided I could call and decide on certain turn cards. There is a lot of turn cards where villain will probably just want to showdown a bunch I think which helps us realize equity a bit better. Also sucks to call and have 2+ more guys call and then have to fold so many turns. I think jamming here would be ok if these players are overplaying over pairs etc but it also does suck that we're multiple ways in a limped pot when 46ss/75 etc are all reaistic possibilities which is a huge disaster for us to get in equity wise for 50bbs....soooo maybe just fold?
Hand 2: We're 3 handed on FT @ BB 8k. Hand starts with me opening off 200k stack to 16k w/ QThh. SB folds, old man blaster defends BB.
FLOP: JJ9hxx. Check check.
TURN: 5. He leads 30k, I call.
RIVER: 6. He leads 80k. I tank fold.
My friend was on the rail asking me why I didn't c bet flop. First, some important reads on the villain: he was an older guy who really didn't seem to care about ICM and was opening massive/using huge sizings and was very loose. It's also important to note that SB was shorter and maybe had 11BBs.
Back to the hand: On the flop I think c betting small would be quite fine here and possibly standard. This being said I do think that checking was the more profitable line against this specific player for a few reasons:
1) I could see this guy check raising 9x/Jx here and floating some of his draws/A highs and bluffing them later streets/or possibly just moving all in with draws/pairs (as he had been doing on FT). This obviously burns any equity that we have in the hand if he did choose to move all in. If he raised at all I think jamming would really be our only option, so I elected to check/realise equity/bluff later streets.
2) When I check flop I basically guarantee that I will see a river if I want to and realize equity.
3) On flop I think c betting generates folds from 2 under cards always/some K high folds/some A high folds and gets called by Jx/9x T8, QT, and maybe raised by some of those hands as well. My POV is that we can generate folds from most of the hands that were going to fold anyways on turn and river (and maybe even gain more FE on many turn cards)
4) When we check flop we can call all turn bets/bluff turn ourselves/pot control/protect our equity. When we hit our virtual nut outs we're obviously in a good spot to stack Jx anyways.
5) Because of ICM dynamics we're a little more incentivized to not play for stacks here. If we c bet flop I think at least a second or 3rd barrel is mandatory, and we don't really have the stack depth for that to not risk our whole stack.
That's sort of my general thoughts on why I checked.
Why did I tank river? Well I guess calling briefly crossed my mind. Calling with a hand that severely blocks his bluffs is pretty bad imo. Also calling with a hand that does not beat some of his bluffs is also quite bad. I started thinking about jamming to rep Jx and boats but I only woudl have had ~100k on top of his 80k river bet. Essentially, this would probably just fold out his bluffs and doubtfully 9x. This probably wasn't the right guy to jam on beacause 1) he wouldn't fold any of his value range 2) he probably wasn't bluffing enough in the first place 3) I'll have way better hands to call/bluff with that are not Q high which blocks his bluffing range severely.
What if this hand was against a good thinking reg? Well my response would change to this completely and would be more about range protection etc.
Anyways, what do y'all think?
Time to go watch Belgium beat France and then BIG game tomorrow for Englandddd leggo!
07-15-2018
, 11:44 PM
or maybe i misunderstood?
07-16-2018
, 12:34 AM
Hey everyone, I'm pretty fkn tired atm but as promised to myself I need to get my weekly post in.
Took another week off of poker for the most part as planned. Vacation has gone really well and I've got a lot of life loving time in. Last night was pretty fun went out bowling/drinking with some friends. Like the idiot I am stayed up til 4 am drinking with my friend and racked up a 127$ bar tab just at the one bar we visited with him lol. Woke up hungover and in a haze so couldn't put in a full session. Loaded some MTTs later in the day and played/ran like ****. This is my last week on vacation and then it's gonna be full steam ahead with: ~6 weeks of heavy online grind, ~2 weeks of Barcelona, and then finishing with WCOOP. Oh yeah, I got a pretty sweet trip planned somewhere along the road which I'll talk more about anotehr time
------------------------------
Anyways, what shall we randomly spew about this week? Let's talk about...
Three Massive Problems Modern Society is Facing/Will Face (and some uninformed/uneducated suggestions how to fix them)
1. Loss of Jobs: Recently the Ontario government raised the minimum wage by something like 25% (from ~12$/hour to ~15$/hour). "Coincidentally" Big Box retail stores implemented "self-checkout systems" throughout their stores. So now customers can scan their own items and pay for them without the assistance of a cashier. My first thought was "sweet, I don't even have to wait in line or talk to an associate anymore." My second thought was: "no more of that awkward moment of buying a box of condoms and other uncomfortable to purchase items."
All joking aside, this is the direction that society is trending. As computers and robots become much more advanced the need for human labour will shrink drastically, moreover, the cost of labour will outweigh that of a robot. It won't be long until heaps of jobs are snatched up by robots and unemployment rates will skyrocket.
There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the USA. What happens to them when self-driven trucks take over and they are no longer needed? If you look down the food chain you can really see how few jobs will exist. I mean, can you really blame the corporations? They don't need to pay wages, worry about over working their employees, workers rights, or sexual harassment claims on the robots.
When jobs disappear that means income disappears, which means spending disappears. This whole vicious cycle could possibly tank the economy completely.
My Uninformed Solution:
-Corporations and firms using robots or machines to replace a humans job will need to be taxed heavily.
-The tax $ would need to be re-distributed to the people who are unemployed.
-All people would gain a basic living salary that could allow them to live/eat/etc.
-Any people with jobs would need to be getting tax breaks etc to incentivize people to work and find jobs.
2. Anti-Socialization: We're more connected than we've ever been before yet so disconnected. I've made somewhat of a self experiment when I go on my walks/hikes and have noticed older people are far more likely to say hello/make eye contact/make conversation than a younger person. I think it's partly because younger generations grew up with social media and doing a lot of conversation through their computers. Instead of going out and playing street hockey with friends after school kids are confined to their computer screens and maybe playing with their friends in an online game. Hell, here I am talking about being anti-social when I was just talking about the benefits of self-checkouts
Anyways, it seems like younger generations are much less social than generations prior. Seeing as we're highly social creatures and relationships lie at the foundation of our happiness and self-worth...the skill to create meaningful ones is vital. Studies show that people everywhere feel lonely and it might just be because they are fulfilling one of their most fundamental needs through a computer screen.
My Uninformed Solution:
-Force younger kids in school to leave their comfort zones with socialization
-Educate society further
-To be honest this is just a really difficult issue and I don't see things getting better anytime soon.
The Food System: This is in my opinion the biggest blunder of modern times and so many of us (I probably lead the pack lol) are getting it all wrong. A big mystery that scientists study is how they human brain doubled in size in a relatively small amount of years. They hypothesize that the reason for this is the immense amount of fats humans ate over the years. Fats/meats/vegetables were the core of our diets for millions of years and the American government puts out statements saying "fat is bad" and provides a BS food guide that recommends grains, dairy, and carbohydrates?
It's sad that some of the most lucrative companies in the world have a foundation of pumping out trash food (basically poison), for cheap prices, and quickly. The food is often high in salt, sugar, carbs, very unhealthy processed fats and this combination happens to taste pretty good to humans.
There was a scene in Austin Powers where fat Bastard says something like "I'm sad because I eat and I eat because I'm sad." As comical as this scene was it is really quite sad when you think how it really does apply to so many people.
When you look at parents how they discipline/reward their kids it's often with treats or food. If they want to reward their kids maybe they give them some candy or if they want to punish them they take it away. This practise is breeding "emotional eaters". So when a guy takes it in the ass from Amaya all day maybe going through the Wendy's drive-thru makes him feel better. This behaviour pattern is very common and can be lethal in the long run.
Ok, so what if you are eating healthy and eating meat/eggs/veggies etc...what about the factory farms and how they pump chickens full of steroids and hormones? What about how they pack them in so close they can't even walk. You think this is good quality meat that is healthy to eat?
Anything else? Well there's just so much wrong with the food system and often the roots of the problems lie in big corporations making unethical choices for monetary reasons. Perhaps the biggest issue is the miseducation (and lack thereof) about nutrition in North America. People don't realize or understand (or have control of) what they are eating. They may think they are eating healthy but when you map out their diet it is 80% carbohydrates. No wonder everyone is fat, sick and stupid. Do you think a high performance race car operates it's best off of bottom grade fuel? Maybe it will run at lower performance in the short run and maybe in the long run the poor fuel will cause engine issues and malfunctions. Our bodies aren't much different than.
It's weird how I've learned all this stuff and still have a LOT of trouble making good decisions.
Uneducated Solution:
-It's vital to teach nutrition habits from a young age
-Schools should not allow certain foods in lunches
-Schools should not sell soda or junk food
-Crack down on factory farming or unethical harvesting
-Make calories and nutrition facts/display laws much more clear and not just in fine print
-Cigarette boxes have messages on them here or graphic pictures (for example of a lung that is cancer ridden), food is poisoning people too and they get away scott free.
That's all I got for now. What do you guys got?
I'm gonna be away for another 3-5 days to wrap up my vacation guys. Wish you all the best of luck.
Took another week off of poker for the most part as planned. Vacation has gone really well and I've got a lot of life loving time in. Last night was pretty fun went out bowling/drinking with some friends. Like the idiot I am stayed up til 4 am drinking with my friend and racked up a 127$ bar tab just at the one bar we visited with him lol. Woke up hungover and in a haze so couldn't put in a full session. Loaded some MTTs later in the day and played/ran like ****. This is my last week on vacation and then it's gonna be full steam ahead with: ~6 weeks of heavy online grind, ~2 weeks of Barcelona, and then finishing with WCOOP. Oh yeah, I got a pretty sweet trip planned somewhere along the road which I'll talk more about anotehr time
------------------------------
Anyways, what shall we randomly spew about this week? Let's talk about...
Three Massive Problems Modern Society is Facing/Will Face (and some uninformed/uneducated suggestions how to fix them)
1. Loss of Jobs: Recently the Ontario government raised the minimum wage by something like 25% (from ~12$/hour to ~15$/hour). "Coincidentally" Big Box retail stores implemented "self-checkout systems" throughout their stores. So now customers can scan their own items and pay for them without the assistance of a cashier. My first thought was "sweet, I don't even have to wait in line or talk to an associate anymore." My second thought was: "no more of that awkward moment of buying a box of condoms and other uncomfortable to purchase items."
All joking aside, this is the direction that society is trending. As computers and robots become much more advanced the need for human labour will shrink drastically, moreover, the cost of labour will outweigh that of a robot. It won't be long until heaps of jobs are snatched up by robots and unemployment rates will skyrocket.
There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the USA. What happens to them when self-driven trucks take over and they are no longer needed? If you look down the food chain you can really see how few jobs will exist. I mean, can you really blame the corporations? They don't need to pay wages, worry about over working their employees, workers rights, or sexual harassment claims on the robots.
When jobs disappear that means income disappears, which means spending disappears. This whole vicious cycle could possibly tank the economy completely.
My Uninformed Solution:
-Corporations and firms using robots or machines to replace a humans job will need to be taxed heavily.
-The tax $ would need to be re-distributed to the people who are unemployed.
-All people would gain a basic living salary that could allow them to live/eat/etc.
-Any people with jobs would need to be getting tax breaks etc to incentivize people to work and find jobs.
2. Anti-Socialization: We're more connected than we've ever been before yet so disconnected. I've made somewhat of a self experiment when I go on my walks/hikes and have noticed older people are far more likely to say hello/make eye contact/make conversation than a younger person. I think it's partly because younger generations grew up with social media and doing a lot of conversation through their computers. Instead of going out and playing street hockey with friends after school kids are confined to their computer screens and maybe playing with their friends in an online game. Hell, here I am talking about being anti-social when I was just talking about the benefits of self-checkouts
Anyways, it seems like younger generations are much less social than generations prior. Seeing as we're highly social creatures and relationships lie at the foundation of our happiness and self-worth...the skill to create meaningful ones is vital. Studies show that people everywhere feel lonely and it might just be because they are fulfilling one of their most fundamental needs through a computer screen.
My Uninformed Solution:
-Force younger kids in school to leave their comfort zones with socialization
-Educate society further
-To be honest this is just a really difficult issue and I don't see things getting better anytime soon.
The Food System: This is in my opinion the biggest blunder of modern times and so many of us (I probably lead the pack lol) are getting it all wrong. A big mystery that scientists study is how they human brain doubled in size in a relatively small amount of years. They hypothesize that the reason for this is the immense amount of fats humans ate over the years. Fats/meats/vegetables were the core of our diets for millions of years and the American government puts out statements saying "fat is bad" and provides a BS food guide that recommends grains, dairy, and carbohydrates?
It's sad that some of the most lucrative companies in the world have a foundation of pumping out trash food (basically poison), for cheap prices, and quickly. The food is often high in salt, sugar, carbs, very unhealthy processed fats and this combination happens to taste pretty good to humans.
There was a scene in Austin Powers where fat Bastard says something like "I'm sad because I eat and I eat because I'm sad." As comical as this scene was it is really quite sad when you think how it really does apply to so many people.
When you look at parents how they discipline/reward their kids it's often with treats or food. If they want to reward their kids maybe they give them some candy or if they want to punish them they take it away. This practise is breeding "emotional eaters". So when a guy takes it in the ass from Amaya all day maybe going through the Wendy's drive-thru makes him feel better. This behaviour pattern is very common and can be lethal in the long run.
Ok, so what if you are eating healthy and eating meat/eggs/veggies etc...what about the factory farms and how they pump chickens full of steroids and hormones? What about how they pack them in so close they can't even walk. You think this is good quality meat that is healthy to eat?
Anything else? Well there's just so much wrong with the food system and often the roots of the problems lie in big corporations making unethical choices for monetary reasons. Perhaps the biggest issue is the miseducation (and lack thereof) about nutrition in North America. People don't realize or understand (or have control of) what they are eating. They may think they are eating healthy but when you map out their diet it is 80% carbohydrates. No wonder everyone is fat, sick and stupid. Do you think a high performance race car operates it's best off of bottom grade fuel? Maybe it will run at lower performance in the short run and maybe in the long run the poor fuel will cause engine issues and malfunctions. Our bodies aren't much different than.
It's weird how I've learned all this stuff and still have a LOT of trouble making good decisions.
Uneducated Solution:
-It's vital to teach nutrition habits from a young age
-Schools should not allow certain foods in lunches
-Schools should not sell soda or junk food
-Crack down on factory farming or unethical harvesting
-Make calories and nutrition facts/display laws much more clear and not just in fine print
-Cigarette boxes have messages on them here or graphic pictures (for example of a lung that is cancer ridden), food is poisoning people too and they get away scott free.
That's all I got for now. What do you guys got?
I'm gonna be away for another 3-5 days to wrap up my vacation guys. Wish you all the best of luck.
07-25-2018
, 02:36 AM
Hey guys it's been a while since my last update in here. This thread is about being honest with myself and you guys (as much as I can) and I'll be honest in saying that I've been an outright degen the last few weeks.
The only real positive thing that I could say about the last few weeks is that I put a lot of hours into social interactions and taking a break from poker and fixing stuff irl. During the time off the diet was piss poor, workouts were non-existant, the very few poker sessions I did play on Sundays I was really hungover and tired. So yeah I need to be honest and say that the challenge did not go as planned and really just didn't even get off the ground. It's not really gonna do any good for any of us if I just ship out a bunch of random 25$ donos for all my flaws lately. I'm sorry guys I just fell off the wagon and lost the ****ing plot.
What's best for me right now is:
-Get to the grocery store tomorrow morning and restock my fridge/cupboards with healthy stuff
-Back on the slow-carb diet and maintain it for minimum 3 months.
-Get back into the gym ASAP, either tomorrow or Thursday
-Get back on the grind 4 days a week and balance it with life.
Very easy to write it down. Much harder to execute. I will execute it starting tomorrow and no more excuses. I know this stuff is necessary for me and it makes me really sad to not progress in the right direction everyday....whine over/rant over/tomorrow will be better.
-------------------------------
I was listening to a podcast the other day that brought a really interesting perspective to my mind:
When you ask someone what would make them happy they often say "I would be happy if I had x". Maybe it could mean "if I had wealth" "if I had a 6 pack" "If I lived on a beach drinking margaritas". The common belief is that happiness comes with the acquisition of something that one currently does not have.
Ok, now you're relaxing on the beach in paradise and you're sipping back on a nice margarita...now what? Are you going to do this for the rest of your life?
Now you've acquired a big sum of money and can buy the things you want...but you find yourself miserable again. Now what?
You've got that big MTT score that you've always wanted. Eventually the glory wears off and people forget you. After one downswing you're right back to the title of "average reg". Now you want that feeling again and just chase bigger scores because the current ones don't make you happy anymore.
The problem with this societal idea of "happiness comes when you acquire something" leads to generally unhappy people. People are training their brains off of this system and it is completely hollow. You can gain all of the materialistic items or experiences you want but if you don't address the issues at your deepest core and learn to live in the present moment it's almost impossible to be genuinely happy.
I've been thinking/studying this so much lately because I really wanted to improve my happiness. I found I was a negative and often miserable person in past times...I just didn't want to be that guy anymore. That's how I got on this whole journey. Here's my opinion on some things that bring happiness:
1. Have good relationships with people and focus on contributing to them. Try to make every conversation you have with people have a positive impact on them and their day. It goes a long way just to ask a cashier "how is your day going?" Take a genuine interest in others. Working on having good fulfilling relationships with close friends and family brings a lot of happiness for me.
2. Be present to the moment. Learn to stop living in the past or the future and just learn to enjoy/appreciate and be in the present. (If you really pay attention to your thoughts there's a good chance you'll notice 90% of the time you're dwelling on the future or path.
3. Be on a mission/purpose. Take pride in your mission and it feels really good when you do stuff that helps your mission. A sense of accomplishment occurs. Conversely, if you do stuff that halts or impairs your mission a sense of remorse/guilt occurs....cue the feeling I've had for the last 2 months.
4. Train yourself to have a positive perspective and constantly be looking for the positive. I used to always try to pick out the negative things in people/experiences or whatever. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the way we experience the world is often how we want to experience it.
If you want to think there is crime/danger everywhere and everyone is out to get you just like on CNN...guess what, there are HEAPS of people out there who are bad people and would stick a knife in your back without blinking or steal from you/bring you down.
There are also HEAPS of great people out there and so many amazing experiences the world has to offer...it's all in your perception and what you look for...what you look for you will find.
5. Just try to be happy without needing something. Eventually you will become really good at this, and being happy is way better than not being happy
6. Focus on mental and physical health. Eat well/sleep well/exercise/meditate/take walks in nature etc. This just naturally boosts happiness in so many ways.
----------------------------------
Felt like I had to write that partially because I think its simple/valuable pointers that I think can help almost anyone who is struggling. I've also been noticing myself in a big rut the past few weeks and had to remind myself of this journey that I'm on.
I've let myself down big time lately guys and here I am holding myself accountable for it. Tomorrow I jump back on the horse and get back on this trail. Hopefully you guys are on a similar trail or maybe the same one. See ya 'round
The only real positive thing that I could say about the last few weeks is that I put a lot of hours into social interactions and taking a break from poker and fixing stuff irl. During the time off the diet was piss poor, workouts were non-existant, the very few poker sessions I did play on Sundays I was really hungover and tired. So yeah I need to be honest and say that the challenge did not go as planned and really just didn't even get off the ground. It's not really gonna do any good for any of us if I just ship out a bunch of random 25$ donos for all my flaws lately. I'm sorry guys I just fell off the wagon and lost the ****ing plot.
What's best for me right now is:
-Get to the grocery store tomorrow morning and restock my fridge/cupboards with healthy stuff
-Back on the slow-carb diet and maintain it for minimum 3 months.
-Get back into the gym ASAP, either tomorrow or Thursday
-Get back on the grind 4 days a week and balance it with life.
Very easy to write it down. Much harder to execute. I will execute it starting tomorrow and no more excuses. I know this stuff is necessary for me and it makes me really sad to not progress in the right direction everyday....whine over/rant over/tomorrow will be better.
-------------------------------
I was listening to a podcast the other day that brought a really interesting perspective to my mind:
When you ask someone what would make them happy they often say "I would be happy if I had x". Maybe it could mean "if I had wealth" "if I had a 6 pack" "If I lived on a beach drinking margaritas". The common belief is that happiness comes with the acquisition of something that one currently does not have.
Ok, now you're relaxing on the beach in paradise and you're sipping back on a nice margarita...now what? Are you going to do this for the rest of your life?
Now you've acquired a big sum of money and can buy the things you want...but you find yourself miserable again. Now what?
You've got that big MTT score that you've always wanted. Eventually the glory wears off and people forget you. After one downswing you're right back to the title of "average reg". Now you want that feeling again and just chase bigger scores because the current ones don't make you happy anymore.
The problem with this societal idea of "happiness comes when you acquire something" leads to generally unhappy people. People are training their brains off of this system and it is completely hollow. You can gain all of the materialistic items or experiences you want but if you don't address the issues at your deepest core and learn to live in the present moment it's almost impossible to be genuinely happy.
I've been thinking/studying this so much lately because I really wanted to improve my happiness. I found I was a negative and often miserable person in past times...I just didn't want to be that guy anymore. That's how I got on this whole journey. Here's my opinion on some things that bring happiness:
1. Have good relationships with people and focus on contributing to them. Try to make every conversation you have with people have a positive impact on them and their day. It goes a long way just to ask a cashier "how is your day going?" Take a genuine interest in others. Working on having good fulfilling relationships with close friends and family brings a lot of happiness for me.
2. Be present to the moment. Learn to stop living in the past or the future and just learn to enjoy/appreciate and be in the present. (If you really pay attention to your thoughts there's a good chance you'll notice 90% of the time you're dwelling on the future or path.
3. Be on a mission/purpose. Take pride in your mission and it feels really good when you do stuff that helps your mission. A sense of accomplishment occurs. Conversely, if you do stuff that halts or impairs your mission a sense of remorse/guilt occurs....cue the feeling I've had for the last 2 months.
4. Train yourself to have a positive perspective and constantly be looking for the positive. I used to always try to pick out the negative things in people/experiences or whatever. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the way we experience the world is often how we want to experience it.
If you want to think there is crime/danger everywhere and everyone is out to get you just like on CNN...guess what, there are HEAPS of people out there who are bad people and would stick a knife in your back without blinking or steal from you/bring you down.
There are also HEAPS of great people out there and so many amazing experiences the world has to offer...it's all in your perception and what you look for...what you look for you will find.
5. Just try to be happy without needing something. Eventually you will become really good at this, and being happy is way better than not being happy
6. Focus on mental and physical health. Eat well/sleep well/exercise/meditate/take walks in nature etc. This just naturally boosts happiness in so many ways.
----------------------------------
Felt like I had to write that partially because I think its simple/valuable pointers that I think can help almost anyone who is struggling. I've also been noticing myself in a big rut the past few weeks and had to remind myself of this journey that I'm on.
I've let myself down big time lately guys and here I am holding myself accountable for it. Tomorrow I jump back on the horse and get back on this trail. Hopefully you guys are on a similar trail or maybe the same one. See ya 'round
07-25-2018
, 03:49 AM
Great blog, Walmart, keep it up, man. Subbed.
True, would like to add some words to that point:
The one thing, that helped with my year and a half long deppresion after a horrible breakup, was to stay productive at all costs. Getting up in the morning, making a plan for the whole day and just doing something all the time.
Instead of lying in bed, thinking about nonsense which has no solution and no effect on my future, I got up and started doing stuff. This way, I kept concentrated on the things I was doing and I was pushing myself to be a better person every minute of a day. Plus, when you're active, you have no time to think of unimportant and negative stuff. Furthermore, after such a productive day, you have a great feeling about yourself and it motivates you to do even more and more.
As I've noticed here in your PGC, you like reading and I would like to reccomend a book which absolutely blew my mind - Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
It's a book about human's mind, how our consciousness works, how two people can do the absolutely same work and one is happy and the other is miserable. It's about our deep motivations and what makes us happy and why.
One quotation to the topic:
The one thing, that helped with my year and a half long deppresion after a horrible breakup, was to stay productive at all costs. Getting up in the morning, making a plan for the whole day and just doing something all the time.
Instead of lying in bed, thinking about nonsense which has no solution and no effect on my future, I got up and started doing stuff. This way, I kept concentrated on the things I was doing and I was pushing myself to be a better person every minute of a day. Plus, when you're active, you have no time to think of unimportant and negative stuff. Furthermore, after such a productive day, you have a great feeling about yourself and it motivates you to do even more and more.
As I've noticed here in your PGC, you like reading and I would like to reccomend a book which absolutely blew my mind - Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
It's a book about human's mind, how our consciousness works, how two people can do the absolutely same work and one is happy and the other is miserable. It's about our deep motivations and what makes us happy and why.
One quotation to the topic:
07-27-2018
, 12:47 AM
@Minimalfunkd:cheers man happiness is so simple yet so complex
@fateCZ: thanks for the post and the book recommendating m8 will check that book out. that little passage you posted there seems quite GTO. it's amazing how the mind literally can control how you live your life and all of the decisions you make (and sometimes you don't even really realize it)
like literally EVERYTHING is experienced how you perceive it. Reminds me of when I was a little kid I distinctly remember my father forcing me to go to hockey for the first time and shoving me on the ice I was crying my eyes out because I was so scared of it for some reason. I hated going to hockey but then when I got out there it was my favourite sport ever and nobody could get me off the ice. So many things exist like that in life too but everyone gives themselves every reason not to leave their comfort zone.
happiness is so simple yet so complex@fateCZ: thanks for the post and the book recommendating m8 will check that book out. that little passage you posted there seems quite GTO. it's amazing how the mind literally can control how you live your life and all of the decisions you make (and sometimes you don't even really realize it)
like literally EVERYTHING is experienced how you perceive it. Reminds me of when I was a little kid I distinctly remember my father forcing me to go to hockey for the first time and shoving me on the ice I was crying my eyes out because I was so scared of it for some reason. I hated going to hockey but then when I got out there it was my favourite sport ever and nobody could get me off the ice. So many things exist like that in life too but everyone gives themselves every reason not to leave their comfort zone.
07-27-2018
, 01:04 AM
07-30-2018
, 12:23 AM
YOYOYO
Just got back from my cottage and feeling pretty relaxed and ready to grind my little heart out until I leave on my trip in ~11 days. I'm gonna wear a go pro for it and maybe make a little youtube video/vlog to show in here afterwards just for fun. After that there's now about a 50% chance that I'm going to Barcelona and if not that Montreal for the 2m gtd 1k event.
I know a few things really haven't gone my way lately and was pretty bummed out about it. I worked on getting things better and just started making a conscious effort to worry less and enjoy myself more. It's just a way better perspective Not gonna let it be an excuse to not work hard though.
Poker front I've been grinding hard/running deep everywhere. Started conversing with some beasts lately about poker/strategy and had some time to reconsider some stuff+add some stuff to my repetoire.
----------------------------------------------------------
The rants lately and my overall PGC have been pretty lacklustre and I find get a bit repetitive at times. Gonna change things up a little bit this week:
I've always considered myself to be relatively humble in poker and I know I'm a long way from being the best tournament player in the world. However, I do think I've produced consistent winning results over the last ~5 years in tourneys and there's other guys like me who have done the same. In other words, if it was easy, everyone would do it. So many regs have come and gone over the years but the guys who seem to always be near the top of the heap every year appear to have a few similarities I want to highlight. The tendencies aren't in any particular order, just in the order of which they came to mind:
1. Self-Awareness: This is one of the most important traits in poker because to win at poker means to be constantly putting yourself in +EV situations. If you assess yourself to have a 20% ROI in a tournament but in reality your ROI is -20% you will obviously lose in the long run. Some players genuinely think they are winning in fields but do themselves a huge disservice by not having a reality check. (Just sharkscope a player group of regs in the hot 215 or another dickswing and you will see the evidence of this). That same group of guys might be winning @ 100% ROI in the Big 22 and negative 2% in the Hot 215 but they need to feed their egos/gambling addiction. It's so important to be making self-assessments in this game whether it be in or out of game. Not EVERY guy in the hot 215 can be making EV by playing, but probably 90% of the regs in that field will tell you they are +EV...someone has to be losing, in fact with rake, most people have to be losing.
2. Have a Relentless Work Ethic: Back in 2012 it was possible to just know the basic strategy and print heaps of $ because everyone SUCKED. Unfortunately, the nature of a strategy game for $ involves constant refinery/study/improvement of the player pool and eventually the pie becomes smaller. The cream always seems to rise to the top in poker and the guys who were here in 2012 and are still here crushing today have probably grinded thousands of hours, studied hundreds of hours, and just worked their asses off in this game. This is a survival of the fittest game and talent/luck can only get you so far. Hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard. Raw intuition won't beat the guys who have spent hours upon hours finding equilibriums for every scenario.
3. Money Management Skills: A lot of guys ruin their poker careers because they just make -EV decisions repeatedly with money. They might win EV of 50k/year playing poker, but their spending might be 75k/year. Not to mention they might end up backed their whole careers and that 50k only becomes 25k. Then they might have to live off loans and credit their whole careers which adds a bunch of expenses. Back in the day you would go to a tourney circuit and see so many regs in the "pits" chasing losses. It's rare and almost a social stigma in poker to be seen gambling in the pits. Long story short: spending beyond their means, making losing investments, and dooming themselves to perpetual debt.
4. Understanding the degree of profitability/variance associated with a game and selecting it accordingly. It's vital to be +EV in the game as well as having the bankroll to sustain it.
5. Lack understanding of how to treat it like a business/job. Sounds easy on paper but a lot of guys really suck at prioritizing/balancing their activities. If Sunday is the most important and +EV day of the week for you, it's probably unwise to go out and get blackout drunk the night before and be hungover all of Sunday. So many guys try to fly by the seat of their pants and without a plan.
6. Social Suave/Networking Skills: You can be a trash poker player and still print money, as long as you are less trash than the players you play against. Some guys are wizards at networking and getting invited to private games where players are literally salivating to hand over the big bag of cash. On another note, a lot of the crushers have often worked/got themselves into a network of other crushers. Ever notice when you go to a live stop all the sickos hang out with each other? The power of putting multiple sharp minds together will almost always overpower one lone wolf. Not to mention, it's great for the soul to talk with a like minded player once in a while.
7. Persistence: This game will drag you through hell. I don't care who you are it will burn you over and over and test the wits/mental fortitude of even the toughest players. It is so tough to deal with the swings and inconsistency of income. Running bad can happen for tens of thousands of hands or thousands of tournaments. A lot of players just can't deal with it (and I don't blame them for it!)
8. Balance: Notice how so many guys at the top of the game seem to be in peak physical condition? I was at a tournament stop a few months ago and looked in the gym every morning. I saw Brian Altman, Bebaimis77, and a few other top regs working out every day before their sessions. A lot of people might say "ah yeah well if I had all the money in teh world then I'd travel a bunch and focus on my health too". Well, the top regs got where they are by gaining every edge they could on their opponents.
9. Intelligence: Not saying IQ is crucial in poker but I think it really is a massive aid in rising to the top. It's rare to see a guy crushing nowadays who doesn't at least appear to be intelligent. Then again, lot's of intelligent guys have failed at poker, and lots of average dudes have excelled. Street smarts obviously count towards intelligence too and are very important in poker as well.
10. THE ABILITY TO ENJOY THE PROCESS. If you are sitting there hating poker ever day and only focusing on the money aspect you will flame out. Eventually, the money loses it's appeal and when in a downswing you need to find intrinsic motivations for the game. Almost always the guys at the top have an obsession with the game and would still play if there wasn't a dime at stake.
-------------------------------------------
Anyways, that's all I got for now. I'm going to try to emulate as much of the above as I can in the next few weeks where I put nose to grind stone. Thanks so much for reading everyone and hopefully that post could provide some type of value.
PS: This one's for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPcgIgVy1Dg
Just got back from my cottage and feeling pretty relaxed and ready to grind my little heart out until I leave on my trip in ~11 days. I'm gonna wear a go pro for it and maybe make a little youtube video/vlog to show in here afterwards just for fun. After that there's now about a 50% chance that I'm going to Barcelona and if not that Montreal for the 2m gtd 1k event.
I know a few things really haven't gone my way lately and was pretty bummed out about it. I worked on getting things better and just started making a conscious effort to worry less and enjoy myself more. It's just a way better perspective
Not gonna let it be an excuse to not work hard though. Poker front I've been grinding hard/running deep everywhere. Started conversing with some beasts lately about poker/strategy and had some time to reconsider some stuff+add some stuff to my repetoire.
----------------------------------------------------------
The rants lately and my overall PGC have been pretty lacklustre and I find get a bit repetitive at times. Gonna change things up a little bit this week:
I've always considered myself to be relatively humble in poker and I know I'm a long way from being the best tournament player in the world. However, I do think I've produced consistent winning results over the last ~5 years in tourneys and there's other guys like me who have done the same. In other words, if it was easy, everyone would do it. So many regs have come and gone over the years but the guys who seem to always be near the top of the heap every year appear to have a few similarities I want to highlight. The tendencies aren't in any particular order, just in the order of which they came to mind:
1. Self-Awareness: This is one of the most important traits in poker because to win at poker means to be constantly putting yourself in +EV situations. If you assess yourself to have a 20% ROI in a tournament but in reality your ROI is -20% you will obviously lose in the long run. Some players genuinely think they are winning in fields but do themselves a huge disservice by not having a reality check. (Just sharkscope a player group of regs in the hot 215 or another dickswing and you will see the evidence of this). That same group of guys might be winning @ 100% ROI in the Big 22 and negative 2% in the Hot 215 but they need to feed their egos/gambling addiction. It's so important to be making self-assessments in this game whether it be in or out of game. Not EVERY guy in the hot 215 can be making EV by playing, but probably 90% of the regs in that field will tell you they are +EV...someone has to be losing, in fact with rake, most people have to be losing.
2. Have a Relentless Work Ethic: Back in 2012 it was possible to just know the basic strategy and print heaps of $ because everyone SUCKED. Unfortunately, the nature of a strategy game for $ involves constant refinery/study/improvement of the player pool and eventually the pie becomes smaller. The cream always seems to rise to the top in poker and the guys who were here in 2012 and are still here crushing today have probably grinded thousands of hours, studied hundreds of hours, and just worked their asses off in this game. This is a survival of the fittest game and talent/luck can only get you so far. Hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard. Raw intuition won't beat the guys who have spent hours upon hours finding equilibriums for every scenario.
3. Money Management Skills: A lot of guys ruin their poker careers because they just make -EV decisions repeatedly with money. They might win EV of 50k/year playing poker, but their spending might be 75k/year. Not to mention they might end up backed their whole careers and that 50k only becomes 25k. Then they might have to live off loans and credit their whole careers which adds a bunch of expenses. Back in the day you would go to a tourney circuit and see so many regs in the "pits" chasing losses. It's rare and almost a social stigma in poker to be seen gambling in the pits. Long story short: spending beyond their means, making losing investments, and dooming themselves to perpetual debt.
4. Understanding the degree of profitability/variance associated with a game and selecting it accordingly. It's vital to be +EV in the game as well as having the bankroll to sustain it.
5. Lack understanding of how to treat it like a business/job. Sounds easy on paper but a lot of guys really suck at prioritizing/balancing their activities. If Sunday is the most important and +EV day of the week for you, it's probably unwise to go out and get blackout drunk the night before and be hungover all of Sunday. So many guys try to fly by the seat of their pants and without a plan.
6. Social Suave/Networking Skills: You can be a trash poker player and still print money, as long as you are less trash than the players you play against. Some guys are wizards at networking and getting invited to private games where players are literally salivating to hand over the big bag of cash. On another note, a lot of the crushers have often worked/got themselves into a network of other crushers. Ever notice when you go to a live stop all the sickos hang out with each other? The power of putting multiple sharp minds together will almost always overpower one lone wolf. Not to mention, it's great for the soul to talk with a like minded player once in a while.
7. Persistence: This game will drag you through hell. I don't care who you are it will burn you over and over and test the wits/mental fortitude of even the toughest players. It is so tough to deal with the swings and inconsistency of income. Running bad can happen for tens of thousands of hands or thousands of tournaments. A lot of players just can't deal with it (and I don't blame them for it!)
8. Balance: Notice how so many guys at the top of the game seem to be in peak physical condition? I was at a tournament stop a few months ago and looked in the gym every morning. I saw Brian Altman, Bebaimis77, and a few other top regs working out every day before their sessions. A lot of people might say "ah yeah well if I had all the money in teh world then I'd travel a bunch and focus on my health too". Well, the top regs got where they are by gaining every edge they could on their opponents.
9. Intelligence: Not saying IQ is crucial in poker but I think it really is a massive aid in rising to the top. It's rare to see a guy crushing nowadays who doesn't at least appear to be intelligent. Then again, lot's of intelligent guys have failed at poker, and lots of average dudes have excelled. Street smarts obviously count towards intelligence too and are very important in poker as well.
10. THE ABILITY TO ENJOY THE PROCESS. If you are sitting there hating poker ever day and only focusing on the money aspect you will flame out. Eventually, the money loses it's appeal and when in a downswing you need to find intrinsic motivations for the game. Almost always the guys at the top have an obsession with the game and would still play if there wasn't a dime at stake.
-------------------------------------------
Anyways, that's all I got for now. I'm going to try to emulate as much of the above as I can in the next few weeks where I put nose to grind stone. Thanks so much for reading everyone and hopefully that post could provide some type of value.
PS: This one's for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPcgIgVy1Dg
08-01-2018
, 11:58 PM
Welp, I've spent a HEAP of time in the lab and talking about poker in the last few weeks. I don't want to get too in depth with what I've been working on but I do want to talk a little bit about a few things:
Let's kick off with a little bit of discussion about this hand:
https://gyazo.com/383af46304e2114a5c5b405d4c69b10f
What is our play if this pot was folded around to us? (just a straight 3 bet, no 4 bet from field mice)
My general instinct here in the past has been to just call pre flop and I believe that the general consensus of a lot of regs is to just call as well.
However, when you think about this scenario I feel like it's bad for quite a few reasons:
1) We're facing a likely very tight 3 bet range, I'm assuming TT or JJ+some AQ all AK+ with very few bluffs if any. If he is including bluffs the candidates he will choose are likely broadway hands. I guess he should have some A5s but population I don't think 3 bets the wheel Axs as much as GTO would suggest. So in terms of raw equity we are doing fairly poorly.
2) He is 3 betting an EP open from EP off a shallower stack, which inherently brings a very tight range. The fact that he has a much shallower stack makes it much tougher to realize our equity in the hand. For example we probably just do a lot of check/folding, or check/calling and check/folding turns or rivers. If we do get stacks in on the flop a lot of the time he will just have over pairs.
3) His 3 bet sizing is quite larger meaning our investment pre flop is much higher meaning we can't peel nearly as many hands. We can exploit this by trapping or 4 betting a bit more.
4) It might seem like calling pre flop isn't losing much because implied odds are quite high when we hit our set and we're just losing a lot of small pots when we x/f, but in the long run this adds up to a heap of chips probably.
IMO peeling a hand like say 89s will realize equity far better here and not blocking his 3b bluff or value range is nice. Let's say calling a hand like QJs here might be bad because his bluffs are probably KQ/KJ type stuff.
5) I think all of the above just goes out the window if we have reasoning to believe villain is over bluffing here (few are imo), but in that case we just jam and print $.
Anyways, just my thoughts there guys, would like to hear if anyone disagrees with me or has anything to add.
-----------------------------------------------
A few people have been asking where I'm at with poker and my retirement from the game. We're more than half way done 2018 already and I really feel I'm not that much closer to retiring than I was in January. I've checked off a few more things from my poker bucket list this year and I'm definitely regretful of that "to do list" becoming much, much shorter.
So I'm at this really weird stage in my life now where I've spent thousands of hours honing my poker skill and mindset down to the very finest granule and there isn't really as much room for improvement or room for growth as maybe the years when I was just a busto introverted Uni student trying to make some money to keep the lights on. Back then I had all of these dreams for a couple years of a poker career, winning lots of money, giving back to my family, traveling the world, final tabling a live event, being on a feature table, or even just having the recognition from my friends and family and to prove them wrong that I could "make poker work".
I guess I really did "make poker work", and it worked a little bit too well sometimes imo. Some parts of me wish I just never even touched poker and just got a job and went on to live a normal life. After slapping myself in the face and saying "this was your dream and you've lived it" I quickly wake up and appreciate everything I've gotten from poker. I'm not just talking money. There's a whole slew of things I'm grateful for in the game: money, competition, entrepreneurial lifestyle, the work ethic it instilled upon me, amazing friendships, networking, and just the opportunity to step out of the every day 9-5 lifestyle. Without knowing what it was like to put on 60 lbs. in a year, to owe someone 35k USD, learning to be self-sufficient in a competition based game, and whatever else...as much as I could say I regret those things I also never would have gotten on this amazing journey that I've been on through poker or learned some of the skills the game has taught me.
So where was I? Oh yeah, retirement. If someone could give me some other type of similar living, money, competition, or even just a small degree of each, I would gladly move on from poker and shut this thread down. The problem is that in reality that is quite tough to do. When you've lived and breathed poker for 10 years it's quite tough to just quit cold turkey. It's also even tougher to play half-assed if you're an all or nothing type of dude. I've thought a lot about real estate, careers, starting a business, branching out in poker, and so much more.
The reality is that I'm just sort of taking this day by day right now and enjoying myself along the way. At this point I really don't know if quitting is right. In my mind it feels right, in my mind it doesn't...or maybe vice versa? If anybody has any suggestions or wants to talk business feel free
Let's kick off with a little bit of discussion about this hand:
https://gyazo.com/383af46304e2114a5c5b405d4c69b10f
What is our play if this pot was folded around to us? (just a straight 3 bet, no 4 bet from field mice)
My general instinct here in the past has been to just call pre flop and I believe that the general consensus of a lot of regs is to just call as well.
However, when you think about this scenario I feel like it's bad for quite a few reasons:
1) We're facing a likely very tight 3 bet range, I'm assuming TT or JJ+some AQ all AK+ with very few bluffs if any. If he is including bluffs the candidates he will choose are likely broadway hands. I guess he should have some A5s but population I don't think 3 bets the wheel Axs as much as GTO would suggest. So in terms of raw equity we are doing fairly poorly.
2) He is 3 betting an EP open from EP off a shallower stack, which inherently brings a very tight range. The fact that he has a much shallower stack makes it much tougher to realize our equity in the hand. For example we probably just do a lot of check/folding, or check/calling and check/folding turns or rivers. If we do get stacks in on the flop a lot of the time he will just have over pairs.
3) His 3 bet sizing is quite larger meaning our investment pre flop is much higher meaning we can't peel nearly as many hands. We can exploit this by trapping or 4 betting a bit more.
4) It might seem like calling pre flop isn't losing much because implied odds are quite high when we hit our set and we're just losing a lot of small pots when we x/f, but in the long run this adds up to a heap of chips probably.
IMO peeling a hand like say 89s will realize equity far better here and not blocking his 3b bluff or value range is nice. Let's say calling a hand like QJs here might be bad because his bluffs are probably KQ/KJ type stuff.
5) I think all of the above just goes out the window if we have reasoning to believe villain is over bluffing here (few are imo), but in that case we just jam and print $.
Anyways, just my thoughts there guys, would like to hear if anyone disagrees with me or has anything to add.
-----------------------------------------------
A few people have been asking where I'm at with poker and my retirement from the game. We're more than half way done 2018 already and I really feel I'm not that much closer to retiring than I was in January. I've checked off a few more things from my poker bucket list this year and I'm definitely regretful of that "to do list" becoming much, much shorter.
So I'm at this really weird stage in my life now where I've spent thousands of hours honing my poker skill and mindset down to the very finest granule and there isn't really as much room for improvement or room for growth as maybe the years when I was just a busto introverted Uni student trying to make some money to keep the lights on. Back then I had all of these dreams for a couple years of a poker career, winning lots of money, giving back to my family, traveling the world, final tabling a live event, being on a feature table, or even just having the recognition from my friends and family and to prove them wrong that I could "make poker work".
I guess I really did "make poker work", and it worked a little bit too well sometimes imo. Some parts of me wish I just never even touched poker and just got a job and went on to live a normal life. After slapping myself in the face and saying "this was your dream and you've lived it" I quickly wake up and appreciate everything I've gotten from poker. I'm not just talking money. There's a whole slew of things I'm grateful for in the game: money, competition, entrepreneurial lifestyle, the work ethic it instilled upon me, amazing friendships, networking, and just the opportunity to step out of the every day 9-5 lifestyle. Without knowing what it was like to put on 60 lbs. in a year, to owe someone 35k USD, learning to be self-sufficient in a competition based game, and whatever else...as much as I could say I regret those things I also never would have gotten on this amazing journey that I've been on through poker or learned some of the skills the game has taught me.
So where was I? Oh yeah, retirement. If someone could give me some other type of similar living, money, competition, or even just a small degree of each, I would gladly move on from poker and shut this thread down. The problem is that in reality that is quite tough to do. When you've lived and breathed poker for 10 years it's quite tough to just quit cold turkey. It's also even tougher to play half-assed if you're an all or nothing type of dude. I've thought a lot about real estate, careers, starting a business, branching out in poker, and so much more.
The reality is that I'm just sort of taking this day by day right now and enjoying myself along the way. At this point I really don't know if quitting is right. In my mind it feels right, in my mind it doesn't...or maybe vice versa? If anybody has any suggestions or wants to talk business feel free
08-18-2018
, 11:38 PM
What's up crickets? Or maybe some random person who stumbles upon this washed up thread.
Bailed on a couple plans tonight and somewhat feel bad about it. Problem is it's been ages since I've been able to just get a good rest on a Saturday night and flick my little heart away on a Sunday. Vacation has to end sometime and a man has to put his nose to the grind stone at one point or another if he wants to play a game for a living. Figured I'll make a little post in here to muster up any run good in the tank that I haven't used up in my poker career for tomorrow.
Couldn't really think of anything to write tonight. So here's a few tips I've sort of found over the years to maximize your $ earned in poker:
1. Be logical about game selection. All that really matters is ROI+the variance associated with achieving it. If you can make 10$/game in the Big 11, and 10$/game in the Big 109, the Big 11 is better. Your swings will be much smaller because your edge is far higher (which reduces swings greatly), and the buy in is a 1/10th as big. Variance can be super sick if you're only working on a ~5% ROI, whereas on a 100% ROI it is much much smaller. Forget about the glory or ego of playing higher stakes (unless you play poker for those reasons). At the end of the day, game selection is like an investment...why would you invest in something that is losing or sub-optimal?
2. When your session is winding down, don't sit there 1 tabling and watching Netflix. Load up a couple turbos or SNGs. If you can get 3-4 more games where you make even just 2$/game, it will help your hourly rate drastically. OR focus on your last games/taking player notes/sharkscoping players, focusing on game flow and dynamics.
3. There is some misconception that late reging tournaments is very bad. Well, I guess in some instances it could be. Let's say you have a 100% ROI in the Big 11 when you register from the start, whereas maybe that decreases to 40% when you max. late reg. If you don't have the table landscape in the early stages, don't register. If you have it later, flick it in...it's an extra 4$ in your pocket. (However I think late late reging Bounty tourneys is a lot worse and should be avoided unless very soft).
4. If you don't have table real estate don't push it. If you have 10 tables with ABI 100$ and flick in the Big 11 it's pretty stupid because the added ~5$/game of the Big 11 might cost you far more than 5$ in one of the bigger games because lack of focus or mistakes etc.
5. Late registering tough tournaments is actually not as bad as people think, it's actually somewhat beneficial. Often people try to get into their biggest buy in tourneys ASAP, and late reg all the smaller stuff. Well, if you don't have that much edge on the field by late registering you already have a large % of tough players eliminated. Spinning a stack up with not many players til ITM is sometimes the most +EV option.
6. Stalling. I hate to post this tip in here but doubt many people reading anyways When approaching money bubbles or pay jumps always be aware of approximately how much time they will take. Don't rush acting and always be aware if there is a pay jump before you go all in. I see guys miss out on 2-200$ pay jumps constantly because they didn't wait an extra 10 seconds. The thin edges add up.
7. Multi Site. No brainer here. ROI and variance. Don't make your last table on Stars be the Hot 55 where you make 5$/game with huge swings when you can register the 55$ bowl on Party where you can make 30$/game.
That's all I got for now lads. Hopefully those tips can be helpful to at least someone. Feel free to use the stall trick on any other table except mine haha. Taker' EZ and GL tomorrow all!
Bailed on a couple plans tonight and somewhat feel bad about it. Problem is it's been ages since I've been able to just get a good rest on a Saturday night and flick my little heart away on a Sunday. Vacation has to end sometime and a man has to put his nose to the grind stone at one point or another if he wants to play a game for a living. Figured I'll make a little post in here to muster up any run good in the tank that I haven't used up in my poker career for tomorrow.
Couldn't really think of anything to write tonight. So here's a few tips I've sort of found over the years to maximize your $ earned in poker:
1. Be logical about game selection. All that really matters is ROI+the variance associated with achieving it. If you can make 10$/game in the Big 11, and 10$/game in the Big 109, the Big 11 is better. Your swings will be much smaller because your edge is far higher (which reduces swings greatly), and the buy in is a 1/10th as big. Variance can be super sick if you're only working on a ~5% ROI, whereas on a 100% ROI it is much much smaller. Forget about the glory or ego of playing higher stakes (unless you play poker for those reasons). At the end of the day, game selection is like an investment...why would you invest in something that is losing or sub-optimal?
2. When your session is winding down, don't sit there 1 tabling and watching Netflix. Load up a couple turbos or SNGs. If you can get 3-4 more games where you make even just 2$/game, it will help your hourly rate drastically. OR focus on your last games/taking player notes/sharkscoping players, focusing on game flow and dynamics.
3. There is some misconception that late reging tournaments is very bad. Well, I guess in some instances it could be. Let's say you have a 100% ROI in the Big 11 when you register from the start, whereas maybe that decreases to 40% when you max. late reg. If you don't have the table landscape in the early stages, don't register. If you have it later, flick it in...it's an extra 4$ in your pocket. (However I think late late reging Bounty tourneys is a lot worse and should be avoided unless very soft).
4. If you don't have table real estate don't push it. If you have 10 tables with ABI 100$ and flick in the Big 11 it's pretty stupid because the added ~5$/game of the Big 11 might cost you far more than 5$ in one of the bigger games because lack of focus or mistakes etc.
5. Late registering tough tournaments is actually not as bad as people think, it's actually somewhat beneficial. Often people try to get into their biggest buy in tourneys ASAP, and late reg all the smaller stuff. Well, if you don't have that much edge on the field by late registering you already have a large % of tough players eliminated. Spinning a stack up with not many players til ITM is sometimes the most +EV option.
6. Stalling. I hate to post this tip in here but doubt many people reading anyways
When approaching money bubbles or pay jumps always be aware of approximately how much time they will take. Don't rush acting and always be aware if there is a pay jump before you go all in. I see guys miss out on 2-200$ pay jumps constantly because they didn't wait an extra 10 seconds. The thin edges add up. 7. Multi Site. No brainer here. ROI and variance. Don't make your last table on Stars be the Hot 55 where you make 5$/game with huge swings when you can register the 55$ bowl on Party where you can make 30$/game.
That's all I got for now lads. Hopefully those tips can be helpful to at least someone. Feel free to use the stall trick on any other table except mine
haha. Taker' EZ and GL tomorrow all!
08-20-2018
, 01:11 AM
@arizona: ty sir. unfortunately no luck was had today whatsoevr
@megalo: tyvm
@nomalice: uhmm i'll see what I can come up with here.
Some Thoughts on BRM:
-When you invest in anything you should be concerned with the edge at hand and the variance associated with achieving that ROI. Maybe you can invest in a low variance stock that yields 3%/year but is very consistent, but another stock might yield 10%/year but with a higher variance/standard deviation. It all depends on risk/reward and your ability to sustain the swings.
-In poker you want to make game selection decisions that make sense for your current situation/bankroll.
-What happens if you go broke? Will you have a roof over your head and food to eat? Do you have rent and monthly bills? If the worst case scenario isn't too bad/risky you can afford to take a few more shots.
-Shots should be in games where you have a high projected long term ROI, but might be a little out of the reach of your BR. An example of a good shot would be a 215 WCOOP Sunday Million when you have ~100 buy ins for it (assuming you make ~100% ROI playing it with massive swings). An example of a bad shot would be the 215 Supersonic, where you might make 10$/game.
-The higher the variance (bigger field size/less edge), the bigger your BR should be. For example if you are playing HU vs. a whale with super good structure when you have a massive edge, you might only need 20 buy ins. When you are playing fields with 5k runners and you have 20% edge you might need 200-2000 buy ins.
Ways to Overcome Variance BRM:
-Get backed. This is the route a lot of tourney players take. I recommend this to guys who are still young and coming up in poker that need the guidance and networking. Guys who are older or have already got the network and skills it might not be as GTO.
-Sell action. This is a really good option from my experience to get yourself into games a bit outside of your BR or to help stabilize your swings. Selling with a big of markup reduces swings drastically and helps you gain close to your long term ROI with much less variance. If you have a 20% ROI but sell @ 1.1, you give investors a chance to make $ while gaining half ur long term ROI with 0 varirance.
-Play smaller fields/softer fields/off peak hours when all the regs sleep
Anyways, I'm half in the sack right now, that's the best I could come up with
@megalo: tyvm
@nomalice: uhmm i'll see what I can come up with here.
Some Thoughts on BRM:
-When you invest in anything you should be concerned with the edge at hand and the variance associated with achieving that ROI. Maybe you can invest in a low variance stock that yields 3%/year but is very consistent, but another stock might yield 10%/year but with a higher variance/standard deviation. It all depends on risk/reward and your ability to sustain the swings.
-In poker you want to make game selection decisions that make sense for your current situation/bankroll.
-What happens if you go broke? Will you have a roof over your head and food to eat? Do you have rent and monthly bills? If the worst case scenario isn't too bad/risky you can afford to take a few more shots.
-Shots should be in games where you have a high projected long term ROI, but might be a little out of the reach of your BR. An example of a good shot would be a 215 WCOOP Sunday Million when you have ~100 buy ins for it (assuming you make ~100% ROI playing it with massive swings). An example of a bad shot would be the 215 Supersonic, where you might make 10$/game.
-The higher the variance (bigger field size/less edge), the bigger your BR should be. For example if you are playing HU vs. a whale with super good structure when you have a massive edge, you might only need 20 buy ins. When you are playing fields with 5k runners and you have 20% edge you might need 200-2000 buy ins.
Ways to Overcome Variance BRM:
-Get backed. This is the route a lot of tourney players take. I recommend this to guys who are still young and coming up in poker that need the guidance and networking. Guys who are older or have already got the network and skills it might not be as GTO.
-Sell action. This is a really good option from my experience to get yourself into games a bit outside of your BR or to help stabilize your swings. Selling with a big of markup reduces swings drastically and helps you gain close to your long term ROI with much less variance. If you have a 20% ROI but sell @ 1.1, you give investors a chance to make $ while gaining half ur long term ROI with 0 varirance.
-Play smaller fields/softer fields/off peak hours when all the regs sleep
Anyways, I'm half in the sack right now, that's the best I could come up with