Mikhail Tal

Hell yes to exploitative chess, even though chess is "solved" i guess.

Who's your fav chess player (of all time)?

Having read all of this thread I can safely say after playing last night you would easily make money on the site. The global chat thing is very strange, hosts all the time asking people if they are OK and generally being over polite a la bingo sites.

The games are soft and tilting, especially when it shows you what you would have won when you get coolered. Think QQ< 24o twice AIPF for +10BB and seeing £50 pop out your magic box. Having said that I've hit £80 wins twice and a £50 in one session last night so if you can handle the 'fun players' it'll be a gold mine.

You cannot take your initial deposit out until you clear the bonus (4x) so you get your 200% straight away, something I wish I had read before depositing

Man up and play for christ's sake!

I don't really have one. I haven't really studied the old masters. I like watching things like the Sinquefield Cup, though. The guys that play in that seem to have great personalities, and seem much more likable than most poker players. The likes of Aronian and Topolov have surprisingly good senses of humour.

@Sleazy. Thanks for the info. I'm not sure I can mentally cope with the variance of jackpot games against droolers right now, but I'll sign up with an affiliate at some point. Have they got cashgames running too?

I'm close to losing my mind, as well as my bankroll. I think I was happier when I was grinding for 36 cents an hour at 2NL. This week, epic runbad means I've been burning 25 euros an hour and I don't think I can take it any more.


Also, Unibet on twitter seems to be trolling me by using the hashtag #LuckIsNoCoincidence. I think I'll hit back with #CashingOutMyRollIsNoCoincidence.

On a happier note, here's the monthly "real life" review.

In May, I mostly:

Listened to: Animal Collective. They aren't close to being my favourite band, but LastFm tells me I played 81 tracks by them in the last month.
Read: 'Taras Bulba' by Gogol. I'm about halfway through, but not particularly enjoying it. It's kind of like a cross between 'War & Peace' and 'Candide', but not as good as either. It's not as good as Gogol's 'Diary of a Madman' either, but I'm not gonna give up on it just yet.
Vaped: Cherry cola flavour.
Watched: 'The Trip' and 'The Trip to Italy', the two TV series (also condensed into movies) starring Coogan and Brydon doing tours of restaurants and doing lots of impersonations. Their frequent Michael Caine impression battles are just epic.

If the money's affecting you, why not get staked?

Also, you can't mention last.fm without linking your profile. It's, like, illegal or something.

Three spin and go buyins and a single MTT a day, no cash. Will let you know if that changes while I'm still there.

I thought you quit smoking. Vaping is still nicotine bro.

Thought you said Unibet was super soft. What changed?

That lifetime graph be looking pretty nice haha

Soft: yes
Super soft: no

Just found this but will be following from here on for sure.
I think iv mentioned it to you before but you've always been one of my fave posters. Gl on and off the tables Arty

I'm not convinced that GTO-type poker is beneficial against recreational players. A defensive strategy that prevents other from exploiting your unbalanced behaviour when most of them are barely taking notice let alone capable of adjusting well seems like overkill at the Unibet micros.

If they're calling you down on all streets with TP6K then just keep betting the **** out of them with hands that aren't always near the top of your range (not against regs obv).

I'm sure you're aware of this already, but the rake structure at Unibet is a bit odd. There's very little rake at 4 and 10NL, but it becomes really high past 25NL. Combine that with the fact that rakeback is basically non-existent on Unibet without affiliates/bonuses, it's likely you'll see a significant drop in winrate and experience more variance. Based on that, I wouldn't worry too much about losing a few buyins here and there as it's to be expected.

Arty's not playing anything like a GTO strat, closer to some weird attempt at MES.

A few people have offered to stake me in the past and I've thought about it, but I think it would just add to the pressure and make it seem even more like I'm working instead of playing.
Last.fm link reveals my music taste to be stuck somewhere in the 90s/early 2000s. Guaranteed no death metal. :P
Nicotine is good for you. (It has similar mild stimulant effects to caffeine). It's all the other stuff in cigarettes that is bad. I don't want to get on a hobby horse ITT, but it's incredible to me that some countries have actually banned e-cigarettes. They have the potential to save millions of lives, and billions of health service dollars.
There appears to be a worsening reg:rec ratio as more and more people have moved over from other sites, but I think it's still softer than rival sites.
That said, it's even reached the depressing point where 25NL+ tables sometimes break up if a fun player goes busto and leaves.


What's changed for me is my luck. I was running "better than usual" when I was racing up from 4NL to 50NL, but now I'm going through some runbad, and I have to admit it's led to some less than stellar play as I've been a bit tilted. With my winrate for the year plummeting, I'm gonna have to change my BRM plan when I resume grinding cash after a little break.
Yeah, I briefly mentioned it. I ran super-well when I first tried 25NL, but that limit is a tough one to crack due to the rake percentage being significantly higher than at 10NL.

It's good to see more thread followers. Hopefully I'll be able to post some more heater graphs for you at some point.

Pls cum play real volume on real site ty

<3

I think poker players should be paid to wear patches that reveal their playing styles, like chess players apparently are.

It really sucks that you are going through some run bad maybe you should try some live poker? You'd crush the games... You live in london no?

I think it's pretty standard ups and downs and Arty just needs to get past these mental road blocks to move up and on.

Um....yes obv

Also a syrup

Agree, art was suffering from "end of heater" tilt, whereby he couldn't remember what it's like to lose 300bb in a row => thought it's the end of the world => unhappiness took over mind => played bad + cared about how an allins went.

Out of interest how are you calculating your BRM Arty? BTW I'm the guy talking about **** and eckhart tolle on twitter the other day :P. [Edit: Apparently british slang for cigarettes is not allowed on 2P2.]

innit :P

FWIW you can find very laid-back backers, especially for the stakes you're playing.

I'd harbour serious doubts about anyone whose musical taste didn't include those three artists.

Was reminiscing recently with a mate about how the first thing strangers would often do when in someone's house would be to go through their record collection: it was considered to be a pretty accurate barometer of personality/character.