hey pgc,

sorry for the mega tl;dr, just have been meaning to make a thread like this for ages

i'm a 25 year old cash game grinder, been a professional almost exactly 2 years and love the game. i'm making this thread to get myself to write and to help motivate myself through the judgmental eyes of 2+2. been a massive slacker about volume lately. i'm currently living in NYC suburbs (like a boss) and grinding online and nyc homegames + at the borgata. current goal is to win 5k euros between now and when i leave for israel on birthright trip (free 10 day trip for jewfaces like me!) may 1st at nl100-400 i'm not religious or anything but i love traveling. i've also extended my trip so i can stay through SCOOP and then come back for my sister's college graduation. btw if anyone has any recommendations on a nice resort town where i can chill/suba dive/grind happily in israel i'd appreciate it.

after i get back me and my good friend ari (another crusher i met at borg) are doing a road trip from NY to vegas and hitting up poker rooms along the way. check out our route: https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=N...mra=ls&t=m&z=6 . i'll be updating this thread as we hit up various places/poker rooms.

i started playing poker in college. i enjoyed it a lot and made decent money off the other people in my dorm but never got really into it. i probably wasn't very good either but like i said i didn't play that much and i was happy with the beer i bought with it. when i graduated in 2009 i had the fortune of graduating in the job market in the history of money and the job i was supposed to take in greenwich, CT disappeared. so i took the LSAT and moved to korea to be an english teacher. i've always loved traveling and if you take a job in korea they pay for your flight ticket and housing which was a big deciding factor for me heh. i figured i would do this for a year or two then go to law school. teaching EFL in seoul was a really awesome experience and i met some great people whom i'm still pretty tight with today including 2+2's jsissy whom i'll be living with in vegas over the summer. i also really recommend looking into teaching in korea/china if you're about to graduate college and not sure what to do with yourself. jsissy and a few other friends got me into poker and i started playing a lot online and at the casino in seoul.

i was definitely a massive fish and really degen when i started playing back then. i'd play drunk a lot and had crazy tilt issues and would often end up going straight to the BJ table after getting bad beat. i was also saving like 1k USD a month from my job and didn't have that many expenses so i didn't care that much. i started getting better and studying strategy more. i also started playing SnGs which i was beating at really nice clip and starting to get better at playing live.

then in summer of 2010 i went to the philippines on vacation . i had the most amazing time on a gorgeous island full of hot girls, cheap beer, and surrounded by 85 degree water and realized i could cover my expenses through poker.

got to meet gorgeous babes like this (i only have photos that a female friend took otherwise i'd share =/ )and live like this (not pictured is the huge delicious seafood meal we ate for like 7 USD each) and pay for it all by beating a really easy game a few hours a day! this trip convinced me to take the game way more seriously and eventually go pro for a while before going to law school. like, whoa i can live on a gorgeous tropical island and play a videogame for a living!

i ended up getting coaching for SnGs/studying ICM + sngwiz a lot and putting mad hours into the live game at the walker hill casino in seoul which is very special place...standard open is 20-25$ at 1/2 and it's uncapped so people would be sitting like up to 3k deep. the largest pot i ever played at the 1/2 game there was like 2.25k big blinds QT>AQ on QTx allin on a brick turn (whale limps, i raise to 25 for like the 4th time i a row, guy calls, fish backraises me to 80, i call, guy shoves 150 me and the whale call. whale donks flop for 100, i raise to 500, he thinks a bit and calls, he then donks turn and i ship he goes into tank and says "YOU HAV-UH POCKET-ACES-OOO???" and some other stuff a bunch of times so i was thinking he had KdKx...nope). i couldn't believe stuff like that could actually happen. i used to sit at the poker table in seoul see a fish and imagine what i'd do with his money when i went to whatever country he came from.

i also learned card counting and was making ok money from that. jsissy and a few other friends learned it but i've pretty much forgotten how to do it now since i try to never play BJ. i was playing FR rush on FTP but i decided i liked SnGs more i switched to playing 18man SnGs on stars exclusively.

after finishing my teaching contract in seoul i went on an 7 week backpacking trip through thailand and cambodia. i met a really amazing girl my first night i was in bangkok (yes, a legit girl with good english/a masters degree) and we ended up keeping in touch. i moved to BKK after seoul and got with her. lived with two really cool guys in a gorgeous penthouse and grinded online + coached a bit. life was good. i also transitioned back to playing cash after a long breakeven stretch at sngs while i was there and was 16-20tabling 6m nl100 on stars. i managed to spend wayyyyyyy too much money while i was living in bangkok going out 4x a week and traveling. this is a recurring theme with me as i have really poor budgetting and even though i have pretty good BRM i have trouble adjusting my spending when i'm breaking even/having losing weeks compared to when i'm crushing. i am also pretty stubborn about moving down =/. i'll get back to this at the end of the post.

i came back to the US around labor day of last year (right after WCOOP). when i got into jfk i got questioned for like 5 minutes about what i did for a living and why i had so many stamps in my passport and why i was in thailand for so long. been to almost 30 countries and counting . def one of the great things about teaching EFL and playing poker.

back home i got to grinding on lock and at borgata. i had been living abroad like 3 years and missed home/family + friends a bunch. live players are fish and i crushed really hard for like $80/hr at the borg 2/5 100bb max game over a few hundred hours and people were willing to buy lock from me at like 1:1. i also hit a BBJ table share beginning of december on their high jackpot for 13k (was 13.5k but a guy who had been at the table for over 4 hours had gone to the bathroom and missed one hand so we all agreed to give him $500 and the winners gave him 1k) which was mad sick. i had finally built up roll to play 5/10 and had just bought a car so was de-rolled and then re-rolled. 2006 toyota avalon like a boss. i also had piece of a guy who won a FTOPs for a massive score and had met my ex in early november and things were going well with her and i was basically living with her in queens + housesitting in manhattan for a relative. life was good!

i definitely played really bad poker in december though because of my luckboxing. a few days before xmas i went out to vegas and lived in a poker house. my ex had gone home for 3 weeks to detroit and i had never been to vegas before so i thought this was a good chance to go and see if i wanted to move out there and be a live pro. i was planning on coming back to NY and just living with my gf though and thought things would be cool.

i offered to fly my ex out to vegas but she is a dumb hipster and wasn't interested. she was also really poor and cheap and didn't want me to have to pay for everything which i understand but w/e thought it would be fun. i did really well in vegas...then i went to LA for like a week during LAPC to play cash games and visit a friend. i was on 'live at the bike' which is one of my favorite shows...i ran really bad that night and the whole time i was staying at commerce. i lost a little over 8k in a day taking a shot at 10/20 (AT<TT allin on flop on AT7s i was PFR and nutflush<set villain checkjams turn we run it 2x board pairs both times) and and booked like one winning day the whole time i was there. i was pretty lifetilted and i got sick while i was there as well.

i came back to nyc feb 1 and stayed with my ex for a bit, realized she was actually a really mean/selfish person who was tbh, emotionally abusive and had very few redeeming qualities. she was cool but i guess once we got closer she decided she could get away with anything. i ended up breaking up with her a few days before valentine's day. moving back to nyc was dumbest thing i prob ever did in very long list of dumb things and i miss vegas a bunch. i ran horribly live at borg and parx and online and my grandma passed away like 3rd week of febuary. i played a live HSMTT for the first time in my life (parx big stax main) and despite having a massive stack ended up busting before end of day 1 by people constantly having tops of their ranges. then i lost a 4k pot playing 5/5 PLO a few hours after busting the tourney where i flopped full wrap+NFD allin on Q45cc and lost all 3 runs to KKxx. i usually never comment to people while playing poker but i straight up asked the guy if he was ******ed and snapquit the game. i had a chance to play another day 1 from a backer but i was too tilted and drove home at like 3am. so that stretch was just really horrible period and that hand kinda capped it off...was tilted at myself for going back to ny with so many red flags coming from this girl, was convinced i couldn't win a hand and poker gods hated me, etc..it was pretty much the worst one month stretch of my life and i basically stopped leaving the house for a while. women are definitely the ultimate tilt monsters.

anyway, since then things have gotten a lot better. i have been crushing very hard on intertops and euro sites. since opening my tops account have been winning at 5bb/100 while playing every table of nl100 that ran on revolution and won a bunch on italian sites that i couldn't track until recently. my bankroll is rebuilt and i have been staking my old roommate who is doing well and has had a recent deep run in lock 100k and a nice bink. i have also started coaching 2 new students. i really enjoy coaching/teaching in general and have had some pretty successful students i also think that it improves my own game. finally, i submitted my deposit earlier tonight to start law school in the fall. i have been putting off going for YEARS. but, i am still not certain i will go despite getting into a good school with a decent scholarship. let's see what happens this summer.

immediate goals:
- win 5k euros between this post and my flight to jerusalem on may 1. i'll be posting HHs and graphs in the thread. if i do hit it i definitely won't stop playing but i will buy myself a nice present at least and maybe do some contest for a freeroll homegame SnG on stars or something
- no masstabling cash games while playing MTTs
- get more students. as i said, i really enjoy coaching and seeing people succeed
- on a similar note, find a microstakes cash game player to coach and stake
- 100 pushups a day + some other forms of exercise
- volume! i mass-table but lately i've had trouble putting in day-after-day of heavy volume. in thailand i was usually playing 150k+ hands a month. now that i'm living at home and have like no expenses i need to really kick myself to play. also having to use ****ty software doesn't help =/
- practicing BRM outside of poker. keep better track of my finances etc.
- do some non-poker or screen (i.e. no TV/videogames/movies) related hobby an hour a day; guitar/playing bball/studying a new language/learn about investing
- keep crushing live and play seriously no matter the stake. when i play live 1/2 i end up getting bored playing hyper-LAG and usually get drunk or something. if that's the only thing running and it's a good game gotta get those gold coins

constant goals:
- watch a poker video a day with ACTIVE studying (notetaking, doing calcs) rather than passive studying
-hitting the gym at least 3x a week
-work on building more revenue streams

longterm goals:
- keep moving up to where midstakes online and live 5/10 is my regular game. i do believe i'm capable of winning at midstakes online and i'm rolled for it but i'm just comfortable and complacent playing the games i currently play (mostly 6max nl100-200 though usually 100). it's not because i feel that (or even know if) regs at 2/4-3/6 are significantly better; i just have trouble leaving my comfort zone. my confidence did really get wrecked by my failed shottake and downswing that followed
- maintaining my foreign language skills through practice and study
- eat better! it's very easy to fall into trap of eating garbage-y casino food. especially when i was living at borgata i was very guilty of this. i also tend to eat lots of fast food when i have a bad session because it makes me feel better for whatever reason

thanks for reading and enjoy some threadsavers

in honor of my years in asia:


and for my upcoming trip to israel, some hot jew biddies:

oh wasn't exactly clear in the OP but i'll be spending the summer in vegas living with 2 good friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7KSkZxt_zo

not sure where is next after that...

All of us that have had the pleasure of getting to know you over the past few years know that you are a smart guy and wish you all the best. You have shown great discipline in my mind and should easily accomplish all of the goals you set.

Hope you get a 5 figure score in scoop.

Your friend, the constant depositor on your transfers.....

[ ] gorgeous babes

you don't find barbie and her 36GGGG tits gorgeous????? dafuq?

good luck

You have a really cool story OP!

Good luck with the grind

cut session short today...wasn't really happy with how i was playing and i had a bunch of computer issues resulted in crashes while i was playing. i'm going to try another session after i run some errands. spewed in some really dumb spots and leveled myself against fish.

was planning on playing 2k hands but i'll make up for non-existant volume tonight, i swear. this session was solid hours' wise but yea couldn't put enough hands in due to software issues.

this is not on fulltilt btw it's just how my software converts the hands and the currency is in euros not that it matters (currency doesn't matter i mean...would love to be playing on FTP right now and not on this site with the crazy high rake).

some hands:

villain 18/12 7% 3b thought was OK spot to bluff pre. on the flop i don't think his line makes any sense and i'm just going to call and let him stack off. think he'd jam QQ+ pre so either like worse Jx/AK/pairs lower than the jack. he's also pretty active postflop so yea was happy to play for stacks here.






lol i ****ed up the sizing cause i misread his stack size from playing too many tables. on the river i expect him to jam a flush and fold his Ax that floats flop/Tx. he full timebanked down folded. wasn't happy when i realized how much he had though. i def think i rep very strong though.



total spew by me vs a 50/10 that i was isoing pre. he took forever to bet the flop and river and called the flop raise really fast. i didn't expect him to donk Tx or bet so small on the river if he's boated or has a flush but i don't expect ppl to tank-lead a FD and the only boat that makes sense on flop is just 3 combos. also thought he'd 3bet a lot of Tx or something like 98cc/QJcc. i guess i couldve bet/folded turn. i would expect him to fold tons of pairs to my jam and maybe even like 9T/JT but w/e. dunno why i ignored the timing tell. he also took FOREVER to bet the river. trusts your reads and don't resort to default lines!

Big tits =/= hot girl

good story. keep em coming

chokdee kap

Quite the adventure! That, and I'm excited to see the new chapter beginning this summer. It sounds like you have the travel and poker departments under control. However, regarding law school, ask yourself why are you going? Do you have a profound or compelling enough reason for attending? If so, what is that reason? All I'm saying is that make sure you are prepared to dedicate your time and energy in pursuit of your education. In the end, you get what you put in.

Life is too short for all the bs. Love what you do and do what you love.

Interesting how many things we share in common

good luck djz!

you shouldve played more cash in korea!

thanks! i'd be dead of lung cancer now if i'd played more at walker though...

i don't think poker is really a career...or even a job. it is work though. i also think i'd enjoy being a lawyer and making the moneys from that. i am kinda lucky in that my parents will pay for my grad school or else i wouldn't even consider going. =/

i mean, even if i'm practicing full time and playing on the side or playing full time and practicing on the side it's still good steady income. it really does suck to go weeks without making any/losing money.

someone was sweating me during the J9 hand who mostly plays lower and didn't understand my play until i explained my thought process...i actually thought it was a pretty easy call on the turn when he snap-jams. think his range is mostly broadways/56/67/9T/JT and i doubt he checks that wet of a board with overpairs/98/88/99. so yea with all the equity he couldve turned i like my call. with tens this is a massive overplay imo and i have a blocker to JJ.

I rather enjoy these long back stories. LS is such a bad investment though, that is unless you're attending T14 or a regional powerhouse with decent scholarships. IMO just stay a crusher or do something besides the law. Just my two cents.

GL Andrew, just spotted this. Sub'd.

I played with you a couple of times at the Borgata, think your pretty solid. At first thought you were weak-tight but this one session you kept 3-betting me, no way you had that many big hands. I mean I was opening really wide and abusing the table so I guess you were just adjusting to me though the other players (droolers) weren't. You made one iffy hero call with AA playing 2/5 against an old dude when the river paired the board and completed a flush. He raised your river bet, imo it was an easy fold but what do i know. He wasn't knitty, actually rather spazzy. But maybe you were just tilted because you picked up right after the hand. Enjoy having you at my tables though, you take some of the attention off of me since i'm usually the table villian, hahaha.
Good luck man!

^^seem to remember you smashing your stack in frustration a few times while i was at your table

anyway another session cut short by connection issues. i'll do more grinding tonight.


cooler nothing i can do. still sucks for the session when it happens when you're somwehwat deep though


two kinda interesting hands where i had boats and wasnt sure if i should jam turn:

villain 52/36/10% 3b 133 hands. i think against a good reg the river is probably a call or a fold but he's a fish so i wasn't sure how many Ax he stacks off with on turn and i figured he'd pile every river anyway





villain is mass-tabling reg 22/18/10% 3b/91% cbet in 3b pot over 2.4k hands. he's pretty solid expects me to peel 3bets light probably. he bet flop and turn pretty fast and tanked a while on the river. i thought about raising flop but idk how often he'll continue with worse. any thoughts on betting like 30 on riv?.

graph:

i know tilt during this session after the KK<AA hand cost me at least another buyin =/

dunno why it bothered me so much.

was a very swingy day...see ya'll at the river!

4/20/2013 10:52:26 PM - Round 362083304 starts
Inastamente is seated with €496.42
whatnoway is seated with €423.00
OMGITSME is seated with €214.45
MINAN is seated with €111.72
Inastamente Posts small blind of €1.00
whatnoway Posts big blind of €2.00
Dealing cards
whatnoway: Kh Ah
MINAN Calls €2.00
OMGITSME Folds
Inastamente Folds
whatnoway Raises to €10.00
MINAN Calls €8.00
Flop: Qc 8h Th
whatnoway Bets €12.00
MINAN Calls €12.00
Turn: Qc 8h Th 7h
whatnoway Bets €25.00
MINAN Calls €25.00
River: Qc 8h Th 7h 9h
whatnoway Bets €376.00 (all-in)
MINAN Calls €64.72 (all-in)
whatnoway gets refund of €311.28
whatnoway shows Kh Ah (Flush, Ace high)
MINAN shows Jd 7c (Straight, Queen high)
whatnoway wins the main pot of €219.44 with Flush, Ace high

rep less sir...either 87 or nothing imo.

Hand #5732069-519 - 2013-04-20 18:57:24
Game: NL Hold'em (80 - 400) - Blinds 2/4
Site: Seals With Clubs
Table: NLHE 6max 2/4 #1
Seat 1: bopeep (420.95)
Seat 2: soulek1 (400)
Seat 3: RunnerUp (865.85) - sitting out
Seat 4: yoboimacho (418.65)
Seat 5: mmmmbacon (491.28)
Seat 6: mmmmOK (890.50)
mmmmbacon has the dealer button
mmmmOK posts small blind 2
bopeep posts big blind 4
** Hole Cards **
Dealt to mmmmOK [8c Qc]
soulek1 folds
yoboimacho folds
mmmmbacon folds
mmmmOK raises to 12
bopeep calls 8
** Flop ** [2c 3h 7h]
mmmmOK bets 16
bopeep calls 16
** Turn ** [8d]
mmmmOK bets 44
bopeep raises to 88
mmmmOK calls 44
** River ** [Jd]
mmmmOK checks
bopeep bets 170
mmmmOK calls 170
** Pot Show Down ** [2c 3h 7h 8d Jd]
bopeep shows [Qd Ks] (High Card King +QJ87)
mmmmOK shows [8c Qc] (a Pair of Eights +QJ7)
mmmmOK wins Pot (564) with a Pair

i can't see my WTSD for the day but i think it was prob like 75% cause no one would ever.fold.ever.

+650 in eur and bitcoins.

also today was my first day playing without a hud in...ages. i wasn't playing that many tables but i still found myself autopiloting and not notetaking in spots i should've been focusing harder on. idk if that was fatigue (merry 420 ya'lls) or what. but esp when i'm playing <10 tables it's really inexcusable and cost me a bunch of money.

Good luck Andrew. You definitely have the skills and smarts to accomplish whatever you want (although your taste in women is suspect). Looking forward to seeing you and Jon during the series!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using 2+2 Forums

thanks dan looking forward to seeing you too! maybe your eyes are broken tho?

my friend told me it was fine to mix adderall and 5hour energy drink....i ended up playing for 28hours straight...

unfortunately i had issues wither pokerplaner so i was playing without a hud and the hands are untracked (the software is a POS and the designer is a massive dick btw)

some hands:

4/21/2013 11:28:50 AM - Round 362278862 starts
LiegiRapeMe is seated with €388.34
whatnoway is seated with €510.40
giada<3 is seated with €493.50
widebiti is seated with €478.00
LiegiRapeMe Posts small blind of €2.00
whatnoway Posts big blind of €4.00
Dealing cards
whatnoway: As Qc
widebiti Folds
giada<3 Folds
LiegiRapeMe Raises to €12.00
whatnoway Raises to €36.00
LiegiRapeMe Raises to €85.00
whatnoway Raises to €510.40 (all-in)
LiegiRapeMe Calls €303.34 (all-in)
whatnoway gets refund of €122.06
LiegiRapeMe shows Jd Jc (Pair of Jacks)
whatnoway shows As Qc (High card, Ace)
Flop: 3s 4h Kh
Turn: 3s 4h Kh Ts
River: 3s 4h Kh Ts Js
whatnoway wins the main pot of €771.68 with Straight, Ace high

first flip won at MSNL

4/21/2013 9:58:07 AM - Round 362230409 starts
whatnoway is seated with €412.00
luc211 is seated with €390.00
LiegiRapeMe is seated with €400.00
whatnoway Posts big blind of €4.00
luc211 Posts small blind of €2.00
Dealing cards
whatnoway: Kh Ks
LiegiRapeMe Folds
luc211 Raises to €18.00
whatnoway Raises to €50.00
luc211 Calls €32.00
Flop: 8d Kc 9d
luc211 Checks
whatnoway Bets €32.00
luc211 Calls €32.00
Turn: 8d Kc 9d 2c
luc211 Checks
whatnoway Bets €120.00
luc211 Calls €120.00
River: 8d Kc 9d 2c Qc
luc211 Bets €188.00 (all-in)
whatnoway Calls €188.00
whatnoway shows Kh Ks (Three of a kind, Kings)
luc211 shows Jd Kd (Pair of Kings)
whatnoway wins the main pot of €775.00 with Three of a kind, Kings

wasn't really happy to call river when JT/7T/BDFD got there but i guess he figured since he was calling he should bet?

4/21/2013 5:20:45 PM - Round 362448446 starts
J@ngelmann is seated with €513.00
whatnoway is seated with €455.70
CoNteDr4cUl4 is seated with €489.80
sgrau is seated with €570.50
bellapattina is seated with €421.10
stadio89 is seated with €563.50
J@ngelmann Posts big blind of €4.00
whatnoway Posts small blind of €2.00
Dealing cards
whatnoway: Jh Jc
sgrau Folds
bellapattina Raises to €12.00
stadio89 Folds
CoNteDr4cUl4 Folds
whatnoway Raises to €36.00
J@ngelmann Folds
bellapattina Calls €24.00
Flop: 7h 5s Kd
whatnoway Bets €34.00
bellapattina Calls €34.00
Turn: 7h 5s Kd Kc
whatnoway Checks
bellapattina Bets €70.00
whatnoway Calls €70.00
River: 7h 5s Kd Kc 2h
whatnoway Checks
bellapattina Bets €140.00
whatnoway Calls €140.00
bellapattina shows Td 8c (Pair of Kings)
whatnoway shows Jh Jc (Two pair, Kings and Jacks)
whatnoway wins the main pot of €559.00 with Two pair, Kings and Jacks

wtf at his float in a 3b pot IP to rep AK.

4/21/2013 1:23:12 PM - Round 362343043 starts
Micia<3 is seated with €269.03
CoNteDr4cUl4 is seated with €298.63
sponsors is seated with €191.00
whatnoway is seated with €430.50
Micia<3 Posts small blind of €1.00
CoNteDr4cUl4 Posts big blind of €2.00
Dealing cards
whatnoway: Qc Qh
whatnoway Raises to €6.00
sponsors Calls €6.00
Micia<3 Calls €5.00
CoNteDr4cUl4 Calls €4.00
Flop: 4s 8d Jh
Micia<3 Bets €14.00
CoNteDr4cUl4 Folds
whatnoway Calls €14.00
sponsors Calls €14.00
Turn: 4s 8d Jh 2h
Micia<3 Bets €42.00
whatnoway Folds
sponsors Calls €42.00
River: 4s 8d Jh 2h Ad
Micia<3 Bets €150.00
sponsors Folds
Micia<3 wins €295.00
Micia<3 mucks

villain is a good reg i doubt queens are good when he donks (no stats tho) into 3 people (one is really bad fish) on a board he expects me to cbet with like whole range

2.3k euro from goal at least

Good luck buddy, will subscribe and follow thread!

glgl andrew