YugiohPro: There and Back Again (MTT Discussion Thread)
12-15-2018
, 10:30 AM
I resigned from PokerStars yesterday. I was a member of the Tournaments Team, in poker operations, working as a Poker Analyst. This is a manager-grade position working with systems and budgets. I joined in May 2017 and my last day was December 14, 2018. If you're curious what I worked on, check out my mixtape:
As you can see from this list, I was doing it for the culture. After getting settled in to the job, I started grinding on weekends. Battling on Sundays with 2+2 legends like abarone and blakkman, knowing their screennames while wondering if they knew me back. Giggling and tee-heeing to myself every time we played a pot. Here's an illustrated summary of my poker career.
Green Face: Thinking I run this **** from 2012-2014
Red Face: What is happening? Oh my lord what am I doing with my life
Blue Face: Moustache? Uncertain mouth line? You decide.
Before I started this thread I forced myself to read over all of my old PG&C's. I cringed the whole time. A lot of the cringe was just based on sun-running and underestimating the difficulty of the profession. As you can see from the sad face era, a lot of this has been beaten out of me and I've grown older and hopefully more reflective.
Future Plans
I plan on writing quite a bit in this thread so I will wrap this up. Future topics I want to cover include design decisions with the tournament schedule, how I feel about the industry, how I think you can support poker, and some of my personal experiences working at PokerStars.
When I joined PokerStars, I had no intention of leaving in the near future. The team was very welcoming and my wife spent a lot of money on furniture! However, there is now a list of various reasons I decided to move on. At the top of the list:
1. I still love poker. I would have regrets if I didn't give it another chance
2. I think big companies can treat employees and customers as numbers. A lot of this can't be helped but I want to use my experiences here to build more of a personal bridge between PokerStars the company and PokerStars players.
I still remember when Black Friday hit and I was completely stressed about my bankrolls. I remember FTP going under and then PokerStars cashing me a check within a few weeks. I remember PokerStars buying FTP and making us whole and me just beating my meat for a week straight (figuratively). I love old PokerStars. The company today is filled with many great people, many of them poker lifers, who truly care about the industry and the customer. Have they made some poor decisions? They sure have and I will elaborate on this in future posts. But there is a lot of good here too and I haven't given up on some of the elements of the old PokerStars.
It was very frustrating for me to sit on the sidelines and read threads like the Official MTT Thread every day. I also put myself in your shoes and thought it must be incredibly frustrating to have such limited visibility and communication. I decided I want to try to do more good for the players from the outside.
Thread Goals:
I won't be posting in any official PokerStars threads but I'm hoping this thread can morph into an unofficial thread where players with questions can get some answers. I won't be able to reveal any internal secrets or info that can affect finances but anything in the public domain and in my personal experience will be fair game for me.
I'm also looking into starting Twitch back up again, especially if it helps get the message out. Streaming was really fun for me and I think there's a hole at low to midstakes right now where Raise Your Edge bots have taken over and nobody is bringing the scorching hot takes.
- Summer 2017 MicroMillions 13
- Fall 2017 Main Schedule Changes (Marathon, BBHR, Daily 500, Triple Threat, etc.)
- April 2018 Sunday Million Take 2
- April 2018 Play Money Tournaments Revamp
- May 2018 Common Cents
- Summer 2018 MicroMillions 14
- October 2018 Bounty Builder Series
As you can see from this list, I was doing it for the culture. After getting settled in to the job, I started grinding on weekends. Battling on Sundays with 2+2 legends like abarone and blakkman, knowing their screennames while wondering if they knew me back. Giggling and tee-heeing to myself every time we played a pot. Here's an illustrated summary of my poker career.
Green Face: Thinking I run this **** from 2012-2014
Red Face: What is happening? Oh my lord what am I doing with my life
Blue Face: Moustache? Uncertain mouth line? You decide.
Before I started this thread I forced myself to read over all of my old PG&C's. I cringed the whole time. A lot of the cringe was just based on sun-running and underestimating the difficulty of the profession. As you can see from the sad face era, a lot of this has been beaten out of me and I've grown older and hopefully more reflective.
Future Plans
I plan on writing quite a bit in this thread so I will wrap this up. Future topics I want to cover include design decisions with the tournament schedule, how I feel about the industry, how I think you can support poker, and some of my personal experiences working at PokerStars.
When I joined PokerStars, I had no intention of leaving in the near future. The team was very welcoming and my wife spent a lot of money on furniture! However, there is now a list of various reasons I decided to move on. At the top of the list:
1. I still love poker. I would have regrets if I didn't give it another chance
2. I think big companies can treat employees and customers as numbers. A lot of this can't be helped but I want to use my experiences here to build more of a personal bridge between PokerStars the company and PokerStars players.
I still remember when Black Friday hit and I was completely stressed about my bankrolls. I remember FTP going under and then PokerStars cashing me a check within a few weeks. I remember PokerStars buying FTP and making us whole and me just beating my meat for a week straight (figuratively). I love old PokerStars. The company today is filled with many great people, many of them poker lifers, who truly care about the industry and the customer. Have they made some poor decisions? They sure have and I will elaborate on this in future posts. But there is a lot of good here too and I haven't given up on some of the elements of the old PokerStars.
It was very frustrating for me to sit on the sidelines and read threads like the Official MTT Thread every day. I also put myself in your shoes and thought it must be incredibly frustrating to have such limited visibility and communication. I decided I want to try to do more good for the players from the outside.
Thread Goals:
- MTT hand histories, graphs, recaps, and GROWTH
- Blog posts about various topics including industry insider stuff
- Personal stories about working at PokerStars
- Ask me anything in this thread and I will do my best to answer.
I won't be posting in any official PokerStars threads but I'm hoping this thread can morph into an unofficial thread where players with questions can get some answers. I won't be able to reveal any internal secrets or info that can affect finances but anything in the public domain and in my personal experience will be fair game for me.
I'm also looking into starting Twitch back up again, especially if it helps get the message out. Streaming was really fun for me and I think there's a hole at low to midstakes right now where Raise Your Edge bots have taken over and nobody is bringing the scorching hot takes.
12-15-2018
, 10:43 AM
12-15-2018
, 12:06 PM
12-15-2018
, 04:05 PM
12-15-2018
, 04:24 PM
12-15-2018
, 09:35 PM
Thanks for the encouragement to start. I don't want to spam the thread with individual replies to each post but I really do appreciate the well wishes 
I did make videos for DeucesCracked and this is how I met Luke aka IWEARGOGGLES aka LukeFromB13 aka LukeFromB14 aka LukeFromB15 aka Big L aka L-Diddy aka Lukieplaya. RIP DeucesCracked 
Still remember Krantz and whitelime going to Chipotle. That DC lineup was so stacked I joined at the tail end and then watched the decline. Thinking about Luke, my direct line manager, and all the **** he gets on these forums along with Ice-berg's post below has inspired me to write something up.
Hi bergeroo, nice to see you're still on the grind You might be one of the SNs I played against and teeheed against as well!
Your question has triggered an idea for a thorough post so I'm going to work on it and @ you when I'm done.
Still remember Krantz and whitelime going to Chipotle. That DC lineup was so stacked I joined at the tail end and then watched the decline. Thinking about Luke, my direct line manager, and all the **** he gets on these forums along with Ice-berg's post below has inspired me to write something up.
Quote:
Nice thread!
Quick question to start.
I am very interested in how decisions are made at Stars. For example the decision to increase rake in MTTs below $22 which happened recently. How many people were consulted on it? Is it poker people or accountants? Who makes the final decision?
Quick question to start.
I am very interested in how decisions are made at Stars. For example the decision to increase rake in MTTs below $22 which happened recently. How many people were consulted on it? Is it poker people or accountants? Who makes the final decision?
You might be one of the SNs I played against and teeheed against as well!Your question has triggered an idea for a thorough post so I'm going to work on it and @ you when I'm done.
12-15-2018
, 11:20 PM
12/16 Poker Update:
I worked hard at my job but the nature of it led to browsing a lot of 2+2. Mostly PG&C, some NVG, a little bit of Sporting Events, and such. A lot of people actually browse 2+2 at PokerStars. One day I'll put up my power rankings of my favorite PG&C. Maybe poll the office.
One of my favorite things is when a cash player posts a session graph with a very bad start but a "regrind" to bring it back and end near even. It made me realize that regrinds are a thing in MTTs as well. Usually you'll run under expectation in the tournaments you bust early so later on you'll have tournaments where you "deserve" suckouts. And these runs will consolidate into a few big birds.
We pulled off a regrind today boys. It was a weak poopy one but I'll take it any way I can get it. I played a solid D+/C- game, was spewing left and right and up and down. I think I have a problem playing on Saturdays compared to Sundays because non-Stars on Saturdays is so withered. People really come to PLAY on Saturdays. I see massive spew every session that breaks me down and then by the end of it I lose my fold button. I have 3 months until I can come back to Stars so this might be a struggle without $500's on Party to fill the gap. The prize pools are so uninspiring.
12/16 Saturday Session Results and Deep Runs:
1st $22 Hyper $798.88
2nd $66 $957.90
9th $109 6M or Mix-Max Turbo $229
My PT4 is messed up and doesn't show KO amounts properly or WPN buy-in amounts. It would be nice to be able to post session results + winnings/losings. Until I find a fix I'll probably post a weekly recap with a Sharkscope graph and some key stats. The three stats I'm focusing on lately are ev bb/100, Won When Saw Flop, and Red Line (for the e-peen). I think trying to strengthen your WWSF and Red Line will naturally lead to becoming a tougher player. I've taken a few opinions from pretty sick players and they don't really bother with red line. So that's just something personal I want to put off to the side for myself and my feelsies. For me it's still quite hard to keep a positive red line for deep stack play.
Deep stack and HU are still weaknesses of mine I'm working on. I was playing some HU matches recently with a very good HUSNG player who works for PS and he was just popping the trunk on me. Thankfully my winrate has been quite strong at sub 40bb play where most of the money is made. I made a few terrible 120bb punts today but thankfully the ABI was low.
The biggest leak I need to fix STILL, after 8 years, is loading too many tables I get quite greedy, especially on days like today where there are barely any big prize pool tournaments at all and I just want to chase ev per hour at the low to mid stakes.
Some Hands
1) I think my fold button broke after this hand. You have to note the savages when you can
partypoker - 450/900 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
MP+1: 117.82 BB
CO: 34.31 BB
BTN: 48.37 BB
SB: 53.21 BB
Hero (BB): 84.12 BB
UTG: 53.19 BB
UTG+1: 72.09 BB
MP: 24.13 BB
8 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.48 BB) Hero has 7
K
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.31 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.31 BB
Flop: (6.1 BB, 2 players) 8 4 K
Hero checks, BTN bets 4.33 BB, Hero calls 4.33 BB
Turn: (14.76 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, BTN bets 19.89 BB, Hero calls 19.89 BB
River: (54.54 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 21.72 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 21.72 BB
2) Winamax High Roller. First hand and it's a Saturday vs a blaster. I think these kinds of sizing schemes are 99% recs but I really don't know what I'll see if I call river. Showdowns are really grab bags of delights.
Winamax - 50/100 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BTN: 184.03 BB
SB: 140.54 BB
Hero (BB): 200 BB
UTG: 199.9 BB
MP: 206.3 BB
CO: 230.9 BB
6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has A
J
fold, fold, CO raises to 4.1 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 3.1 BB
Flop: (9.3 BB, 2 players) A T K
Hero checks, CO bets 9.3 BB, Hero calls 9.3 BB
Turn: (27.9 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, CO bets 13.95 BB, Hero calls 13.95 BB
River: (55.8 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, CO bets 27.9 BB,
I worked hard at my job but the nature of it led to browsing a lot of 2+2. Mostly PG&C, some NVG, a little bit of Sporting Events, and such. A lot of people actually browse 2+2 at PokerStars. One day I'll put up my power rankings of my favorite PG&C. Maybe poll the office.
One of my favorite things is when a cash player posts a session graph with a very bad start but a "regrind" to bring it back and end near even. It made me realize that regrinds are a thing in MTTs as well. Usually you'll run under expectation in the tournaments you bust early so later on you'll have tournaments where you "deserve" suckouts. And these runs will consolidate into a few big birds.
We pulled off a regrind today boys. It was a weak poopy one but I'll take it any way I can get it. I played a solid D+/C- game, was spewing left and right and up and down. I think I have a problem playing on Saturdays compared to Sundays because non-Stars on Saturdays is so withered. People really come to PLAY on Saturdays. I see massive spew every session that breaks me down and then by the end of it I lose my fold button. I have 3 months until I can come back to Stars so this might be a struggle without $500's on Party to fill the gap. The prize pools are so uninspiring.
12/16 Saturday Session Results and Deep Runs:
1st $22 Hyper $798.88
2nd $66 $957.90
9th $109 6M or Mix-Max Turbo $229
My PT4 is messed up and doesn't show KO amounts properly or WPN buy-in amounts. It would be nice to be able to post session results + winnings/losings. Until I find a fix I'll probably post a weekly recap with a Sharkscope graph and some key stats. The three stats I'm focusing on lately are ev bb/100, Won When Saw Flop, and Red Line (for the e-peen). I think trying to strengthen your WWSF and Red Line will naturally lead to becoming a tougher player. I've taken a few opinions from pretty sick players and they don't really bother with red line. So that's just something personal I want to put off to the side for myself and my feelsies. For me it's still quite hard to keep a positive red line for deep stack play.
Deep stack and HU are still weaknesses of mine I'm working on. I was playing some HU matches recently with a very good HUSNG player who works for PS and he was just popping the trunk on me. Thankfully my winrate has been quite strong at sub 40bb play where most of the money is made. I made a few terrible 120bb punts today but thankfully the ABI was low.
The biggest leak I need to fix STILL, after 8 years, is loading too many tables
I get quite greedy, especially on days like today where there are barely any big prize pool tournaments at all and I just want to chase ev per hour at the low to mid stakes.Some Hands
1) I think my fold button broke after this hand. You have to note the savages when you can
partypoker - 450/900 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
MP+1: 117.82 BB
CO: 34.31 BB
BTN: 48.37 BB
SB: 53.21 BB
Hero (BB): 84.12 BB
UTG: 53.19 BB
UTG+1: 72.09 BB
MP: 24.13 BB
8 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.48 BB) Hero has 7
K fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.31 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.31 BB
Flop: (6.1 BB, 2 players) 8
4 K Hero checks, BTN bets 4.33 BB, Hero calls 4.33 BB
Turn: (14.76 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, BTN bets 19.89 BB, Hero calls 19.89 BB
River: (54.54 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 21.72 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 21.72 BB
Spoiler:
2) Winamax High Roller. First hand and it's a Saturday vs a blaster. I think these kinds of sizing schemes are 99% recs but I really don't know what I'll see if I call river. Showdowns are really grab bags of delights.
Winamax - 50/100 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BTN: 184.03 BB
SB: 140.54 BB
Hero (BB): 200 BB
UTG: 199.9 BB
MP: 206.3 BB
CO: 230.9 BB
6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has A
J fold, fold, CO raises to 4.1 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 3.1 BB
Flop: (9.3 BB, 2 players) A
T K Hero checks, CO bets 9.3 BB, Hero calls 9.3 BB
Turn: (27.9 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, CO bets 13.95 BB, Hero calls 13.95 BB
River: (55.8 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, CO bets 27.9 BB,
Spoiler:
Last edited by YugiohPro; 12-15-2018 at 11:39 PM.
12-16-2018
, 06:18 AM
Hey Yughio
RIP DC I made a few vids at one point for them also)
welcome back to poker
Wanted to ask about other stars things.
Why did the payouts get changed to this absolutely awful % of the field and FT places getting loads less.
I mean I know why it's been done to recycle rake etc. Why was it done and not changed back when player base (2+2 and other forums) fed back it was awful
Plus the players don't like it either numbers are dropping really fast in Mtts.
Lots of regs (inc me) are now choosing party over stars and rec players are not idiots. Playing for 8/10hrs making a FT and getting a crappy payout will not keep them coming back
I am not sure u were at stars when PSKO were introduced but may know. Was there a policy of pushing psko GTD ahead of FO?
Reason I ask is when psko first were introduced. Every time a psko beat it's gtd I saw it rise in the next few weeks.
FO were the opposite it failed GTD once got reduced and sometimes it happened anyway.
Big 82 and BB 82 I actually measured in 2016 (on a excel sheet) and saw them flip in terms of GTD even though Big 82 didn't actually miss it's GTD. It was just gradually decreased over time even when beating quite comfortably.
Why are stars so stingy with GTD in general?
Why is communication so bad at 2+2 (in general not just 2+2) now from stars?
Not just that luke has 50 weeks vacation a year, but even schedules are not asked for feedback anymore before they are released.
When they are released or a change to schedule feedback is ignored also?
I know 2+2 is really toxic these days and a bunch of posters are ruining it for others (party just announced they won't maintain their threads officially also).
However there are some people offering good constructive feedback still and would be great to have that reflected in schedules.
Welcome back to poker man, I did wonder what happend to you randomly the other day. Along with a few other high volume grinders like rounder63 who I presume quit?
Sorry for poor spelling/grammar on phone + just woke up.
Gl mate
RIP DC
I made a few vids at one point for them also)welcome back to poker
Wanted to ask about other stars things.
Why did the payouts get changed to this absolutely awful % of the field and FT places getting loads less.
I mean I know why it's been done to recycle rake etc. Why was it done and not changed back when player base (2+2 and other forums) fed back it was awful
Plus the players don't like it either numbers are dropping really fast in Mtts.
Lots of regs (inc me) are now choosing party over stars and rec players are not idiots. Playing for 8/10hrs making a FT and getting a crappy payout will not keep them coming back
I am not sure u were at stars when PSKO were introduced but may know. Was there a policy of pushing psko GTD ahead of FO?
Reason I ask is when psko first were introduced. Every time a psko beat it's gtd I saw it rise in the next few weeks.
FO were the opposite it failed GTD once got reduced and sometimes it happened anyway.
Big 82 and BB 82 I actually measured in 2016 (on a excel sheet) and saw them flip in terms of GTD even though Big 82 didn't actually miss it's GTD. It was just gradually decreased over time even when beating quite comfortably.
Why are stars so stingy with GTD in general?
Why is communication so bad at 2+2 (in general not just 2+2) now from stars?
Not just that luke has 50 weeks vacation a year, but even schedules are not asked for feedback anymore before they are released.
When they are released or a change to schedule feedback is ignored also?
I know 2+2 is really toxic these days and a bunch of posters are ruining it for others (party just announced they won't maintain their threads officially also).
However there are some people offering good constructive feedback still and would be great to have that reflected in schedules.
Welcome back to poker man, I did wonder what happend to you randomly the other day. Along with a few other high volume grinders like rounder63 who I presume quit?
Sorry for poor spelling/grammar on phone + just woke up.
Gl mate
12-16-2018
, 06:55 PM
12-16-2018
, 11:01 PM
Thanks guys I'll be writing quite a bit this week especially since tomorrow is a day off. buffy it's good to see you in the thread! Still remember you and will definitely get to your post soon.
12/17 First Weekend Update:
The weekend grind went pretty well. I ended up making a decent chunk of $ but my Sunday ended a bit frustratingly. I was in a really good position to close some big birds but MTTs are a weird beast. I ran quite above EV overall in both full stack and endgame so I shouldn't really complain (insert complaints)
Some Tournament Recaps
3rd in $530 GG Network for $3750:
I ran pretty good to build a stack and then I was welcomed to the cage at the FT by a tough Swedish reg that was lagging it up. He grabbed the chip lead and I was second and put in a bunch of unpleasant spots with a bunch of 3-10bb stacks around. I ran pretty good at the final table, getting AA twice to bust two people. He ended up getting 4th and then we were all somewhat even-ish in stacks. Made a jam with A8s on the button and lost to AThh to get 3rd, even flopped a flush draw This was pretty early in the session so it was nice to get a good cash to start.
Side note: It really gets my goat when people steal a good player's screenname. I think someone runs around as Graftekkel on PartyPoker but it's not him (?) and then one of the guys at the FT was Canadian and named canofcorn22 which is Nick Petrangelo's old FTP name. He was pretty quick to click deal so I'm not sure if it was really him. Anyways I think it's a scum guzzling manuever it's like you're MISAPPROPRIATING someone else's identity and you should be tarred and feathered for trying to suck a man or woman's soul like this. BOO to making fake screennames. This is why I appreciate people like Moorman back in the day. He put his name as therealmoorman so you just knew it wasn't a fake.
Homages on the other hand are good. Shoutout to Jae85 repping Winamax hard. I think Americans on WPN have the best screennames for sure though. Saw a guy named LeonPotski today and it made me laugh.
8th Party $75K $215 Turbo for ~$1500:
Was cruising in this one as well. Then at the final two tables I lost A5s<A4o for a $400+ bounty, AKo<AJs on the final table bubble for a bounty, and then managed to make it to the FT with 5BB. Actually found JJ in the SB with 1.81bb and could have quadrupled up to 9bb or something but lost to a bounty hunter's 87o. Have you ever had JJ in a 4-way pot hoping to hold for $$$ in equity... and then the flop is T64... and the turn is a 5... and you sit and hope someone will fold out equity shares somewhere?! What a sweat.
10th Party $215 50K for $890:
Are you sensing a pattern here?! Again I was cruising here. Was lookin cute feelin cute in 2018 and then a bro gave me a back to back whammy. He had folded down to 2.76bb, beat my A7o bvb with 69s, even flopped an A I jammed 66 a few hands later and he woke up in the BB with AQ for another 8bb double. A round later I lost with A7o vs A6o near the FT bubble vs the big stack and hit the showers.
13th 888 $215 Mega Deep 80K for $1260
This one was a wild ride. Got really lucky on the bubble. I was about to stone bubble rejamming AJo vs CO and getting there vs AQ with 41 left. I stone bubbled the Deep Monsoon $55 earlier with a 2.8x mincash or something which hurt. There was a super loose player at the FT who made this call with 3 tables left:
888 Poker - 2000/4000 Ante 500 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BB: 75.63 BB
UTG: 28.33 BB
MP: 84.68 BB
CO: 62.3 BB
BTN: 79.76 BB
Hero (SB): 30.81 BB
6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 9 A
fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 30.68 BB and is all-in, fold, BTN calls 27.68 BB
Flop: (63.11 BB, 2 players) J 4 8
Turn: (63.11 BB, 2 players) 2
River: (63.11 BB, 2 players) A
BTN shows 6 9 (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 27%, Flop 15%, Turn 7%)
Hero shows 9 A (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 73%, Flop 85%, Turn 93%)
Hero wins 63.11 BB
I'm as big a 69 enthusiast as the next person but he took it to the next level. I ended up calling off 40bb vs him or something, possibly in a spewy spot, with AxQd vs his AK. Turned a diamond draw but alas.
888 Poker - 2000/4000 Ante 500 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
UTG+1: 73.63 BB
MP: 37.98 BB
CO: 29.33 BB
BTN: 82.68 BB
SB: 65.3 BB
BB: 47.83 BB
Hero (UTG): 62.74 BB
7 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has Q A
Hero raises to 2.03 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to 47.7 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 45.67 BB
Flop: (96.78 BB, 2 players) 3 9 7
Turn: (96.78 BB, 2 players) T
River: (96.78 BB, 2 players) K
BB shows K A (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 74%, Flop 82%, Turn 73%)
Hero shows Q A (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 26%, Flop 18%, Turn 27%)
BB wins 96.78 BB
I'm actually curious on this one. A lot of things go out the window when he shows 69o. I think it means his value system is a bit skewed. He's running 54/46 over 13 hands, has only 3b once, and no showdowns really.
I actually built back from this up to 40bb+. Then I lost two chunky pots with JJ and AA which is never good deep in a tournament. I ran both of the spots in Snowie and I'm not supposed to lose these hands very often when the action goes the way it did but I did Lost the rest of my stack reshoving ATdd vs KK and not getting there.
*******************************
I want to stress this is a no moaning thread! I ran exceptionally above EV this weekend so I was "due" for some unfortunate hands. Overall it was a real fun session. Things didn't end up the way I wanted but it's good to build stacks overall and winning some money on a Sunday is always nice. I've decided I'm going to take big buy-in shots in the weekends if I feel the spots are good and spend the weekdays value grinding mostly midstakes. I even fired the $1K $200K on WPN today. Still skipping the Party $1k's though.
I'll close with another hand in the Party $215 100k:
partypoker - 2000/4000 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
UTG: 53.39 BB
UTG+1: 59.54 BB
MP: 55.78 BB
MP+1: 20.24 BB
Hero (CO): 66.09 BB
BTN: 25.27 BB
SB: 25.1 BB
BB: 53.39 BB
8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has K T
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.1 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1.1 BB
Flop: (5.7 BB, 2 players) 7 6 K
BB checks, Hero bets 1.9 BB, BB raises to 6.95 BB, Hero calls 5.05 BB
Turn: (19.6 BB, 2 players) 8
BB bets 9.97 BB, Hero calls 9.97 BB
River: (39.54 BB, 2 players) A
BB bets 8 BB, Hero raises to 46.95 BB and is all-in, BB calls 26.24 BB and is all-in
BB shows A 5 (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 57%, Flop 19%, Turn 16%)
Hero shows K T (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 43%, Flop 81%, Turn 84%)
Hero wins 12.7 BB
BB wins 108.03 BB
This is a very non-GTO non-standard hand once V chooses that combo to play back with and mashes his sizings. I really didn't want to call river vs this sizing so I just popped the trunk reluctantly. I actually don't make these moves very often against these player types because they tend to call a lot in my experience and I think my hand is fine combo-wise but might be bad theoretically. His call with A5 almost definitely means my play was terrible
One consistent leak of mine is being too optimistic with what I think my opponent will fold if I show strength in a weird spot. I thought he might be genuinely scared of AK and other hands but him still calling A5 refutes that. This hand was quite unfortunate for many reasons.
I'll be writing quite a bit this week especially since tomorrow is a day off. buffy it's good to see you in the thread! Still remember you and will definitely get to your post soon.12/17 First Weekend Update:
The weekend grind went pretty well. I ended up making a decent chunk of $ but my Sunday ended a bit frustratingly. I was in a really good position to close some big birds but MTTs are a weird beast. I ran quite above EV overall in both full stack and endgame so I shouldn't really complain (insert complaints)
Some Tournament Recaps
3rd in $530 GG Network for $3750:
I ran pretty good to build a stack and then I was welcomed to the cage at the FT by a tough Swedish reg that was lagging it up. He grabbed the chip lead and I was second and put in a bunch of unpleasant spots with a bunch of 3-10bb stacks around. I ran pretty good at the final table, getting AA twice to bust two people. He ended up getting 4th and then we were all somewhat even-ish in stacks. Made a jam with A8s on the button and lost to AThh to get 3rd, even flopped a flush draw
This was pretty early in the session so it was nice to get a good cash to start.Side note: It really gets my goat when people steal a good player's screenname. I think someone runs around as Graftekkel on PartyPoker but it's not him (?) and then one of the guys at the FT was Canadian and named canofcorn22 which is Nick Petrangelo's old FTP name. He was pretty quick to click deal so I'm not sure if it was really him. Anyways I think it's a scum guzzling manuever it's like you're MISAPPROPRIATING someone else's identity and you should be tarred and feathered for trying to suck a man or woman's soul like this. BOO to making fake screennames. This is why I appreciate people like Moorman back in the day. He put his name as therealmoorman so you just knew it wasn't a fake.
Homages on the other hand are good. Shoutout to Jae85 repping Winamax hard. I think Americans on WPN have the best screennames for sure though. Saw a guy named LeonPotski today and it made me laugh.
8th Party $75K $215 Turbo for ~$1500:
Was cruising in this one as well. Then at the final two tables I lost A5s<A4o for a $400+ bounty, AKo<AJs on the final table bubble for a bounty, and then managed to make it to the FT with 5BB. Actually found JJ in the SB with 1.81bb and could have quadrupled up to 9bb or something but lost to a bounty hunter's 87o. Have you ever had JJ in a 4-way pot hoping to hold for $$$ in equity... and then the flop is T64... and the turn is a 5... and you sit and hope someone will fold out equity shares somewhere?! What a sweat.
10th Party $215 50K for $890:
Are you sensing a pattern here?! Again I was cruising here. Was lookin cute feelin cute in 2018 and then a bro gave me a back to back whammy. He had folded down to 2.76bb, beat my A7o bvb with 69s, even flopped an A
I jammed 66 a few hands later and he woke up in the BB with AQ for another 8bb double. A round later I lost with A7o vs A6o near the FT bubble vs the big stack and hit the showers.13th 888 $215 Mega Deep 80K for $1260
This one was a wild ride. Got really lucky on the bubble. I was about to stone bubble rejamming AJo vs CO and getting there vs AQ with 41 left. I stone bubbled the Deep Monsoon $55 earlier with a 2.8x mincash or something which hurt. There was a super loose player at the FT who made this call with 3 tables left:
888 Poker - 2000/4000 Ante 500 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BB: 75.63 BB
UTG: 28.33 BB
MP: 84.68 BB
CO: 62.3 BB
BTN: 79.76 BB
Hero (SB): 30.81 BB
6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 9
A fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 30.68 BB and is all-in, fold, BTN calls 27.68 BB
Flop: (63.11 BB, 2 players) J
4 8 Turn: (63.11 BB, 2 players) 2
River: (63.11 BB, 2 players) A
BTN shows 6
9 (High Card, Ace)(Pre 27%, Flop 15%, Turn 7%)
Hero shows 9
A (One Pair, Aces)(Pre 73%, Flop 85%, Turn 93%)
Hero wins 63.11 BB
I'm as big a 69 enthusiast as the next person but he took it to the next level. I ended up calling off 40bb vs him or something, possibly in a spewy spot, with AxQd vs his AK. Turned a diamond draw but alas.
888 Poker - 2000/4000 Ante 500 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
UTG+1: 73.63 BB
MP: 37.98 BB
CO: 29.33 BB
BTN: 82.68 BB
SB: 65.3 BB
BB: 47.83 BB
Hero (UTG): 62.74 BB
7 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has Q
A Hero raises to 2.03 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to 47.7 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 45.67 BB
Flop: (96.78 BB, 2 players) 3
9 7 Turn: (96.78 BB, 2 players) T
River: (96.78 BB, 2 players) K
BB shows K
A (One Pair, Kings)(Pre 74%, Flop 82%, Turn 73%)
Hero shows Q
A (High Card, Ace)(Pre 26%, Flop 18%, Turn 27%)
BB wins 96.78 BB
I'm actually curious on this one. A lot of things go out the window when he shows 69o. I think it means his value system is a bit skewed. He's running 54/46 over 13 hands, has only 3b once, and no showdowns really.
I actually built back from this up to 40bb+. Then I lost two chunky pots with JJ and AA which is never good deep in a tournament. I ran both of the spots in Snowie and I'm not supposed to lose these hands very often when the action goes the way it did but I did
Lost the rest of my stack reshoving ATdd vs KK and not getting there.*******************************
I want to stress this is a no moaning thread! I ran exceptionally above EV this weekend so I was "due" for some unfortunate hands. Overall it was a real fun session. Things didn't end up the way I wanted but it's good to build stacks overall and winning some money on a Sunday is always nice. I've decided I'm going to take big buy-in shots in the weekends if I feel the spots are good and spend the weekdays value grinding mostly midstakes. I even fired the $1K $200K on WPN today. Still skipping the Party $1k's though.
I'll close with another hand in the Party $215 100k:
partypoker - 2000/4000 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
UTG: 53.39 BB
UTG+1: 59.54 BB
MP: 55.78 BB
MP+1: 20.24 BB
Hero (CO): 66.09 BB
BTN: 25.27 BB
SB: 25.1 BB
BB: 53.39 BB
8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has K
T fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.1 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1.1 BB
Flop: (5.7 BB, 2 players) 7
6 K BB checks, Hero bets 1.9 BB, BB raises to 6.95 BB, Hero calls 5.05 BB
Turn: (19.6 BB, 2 players) 8
BB bets 9.97 BB, Hero calls 9.97 BB
River: (39.54 BB, 2 players) A
BB bets 8 BB, Hero raises to 46.95 BB and is all-in, BB calls 26.24 BB and is all-in
BB shows A
5 (One Pair, Aces)(Pre 57%, Flop 19%, Turn 16%)
Hero shows K
T (One Pair, Kings)(Pre 43%, Flop 81%, Turn 84%)
Hero wins 12.7 BB
BB wins 108.03 BB
This is a very non-GTO non-standard hand once V chooses that combo to play back with and mashes his sizings. I really didn't want to call river vs this sizing so I just popped the trunk reluctantly. I actually don't make these moves very often against these player types because they tend to call a lot in my experience and I think my hand is fine combo-wise but might be bad theoretically. His call with A5 almost definitely means my play was terrible
One consistent leak of mine is being too optimistic with what I think my opponent will fold if I show strength in a weird spot. I thought he might be genuinely scared of AK and other hands but him still calling A5 refutes that. This hand was quite unfortunate for many reasons.
Last edited by YugiohPro; 12-16-2018 at 11:20 PM.
01-12-2019
, 12:21 AM
02-02-2019
, 08:42 PM
Hey guys I had to deal with some things (see below) but I'm back
Thanks Spokul I was finding twitch a bit saturated and honestly I'm not sure if it's in my personality to do it day in and day out. Much respect to the people who don't burn out and keep the fire going.
Thanks mcc, appreciate the nice words
My WPN is IMSOBOSSY. I find the screenname uncomfortabley douchey but it's from a Jay-Z song I really liked at the time. I wish I could do a hard reset on all of my screennames
I was finding twitch a bit saturated and honestly I'm not sure if it's in my personality to do it day in and day out. Much respect to the people who don't burn out and keep the fire going.
Last edited by YugiohPro; 02-02-2019 at 08:48 PM.
02-02-2019
, 09:59 PM
Saved these for last since I want to write more in depth about this. Sorry about the delay!
Disclaimer: All posts from me are from my personal perspective as a poker analyst. My opinions are for my own person and do not imply one way or the other what my former bosses and teammates think themselves.
I was not privy to big picture business discussions like this. This is one of the reasons I resigned. In my view the operations people with the best idea of the climate should have some say and visibility in these matters but I personally didn't. My understanding is corporations (in general) are very hierarchical and power is concentrated at the top.
As for the consultation PokerStars has a business intelligence department filled with dozens of sharp people that run the analysis on various decisions. I didn't often receive these reports unless they pertained to what I was working on.
Again this is pretty interesting. I'll write a post below on the challenges of running a poker site and some of the things PokerStars does well that go unseen or are not credited. Here's the blog post that explained the payout changes:
https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/2...e-167974.shtml
The short answer is PokerStars thinks paying more places will lead to more winning moments. I disagreed with this. One of the things that's interesting about big companies is they can make decisions in the present that have no immediate, visible effects but might cost them in the future. It's not a given that these types of changes will hurt the company at all, however. Some might even argue that the pay table changes help the site.
Without offering comment on what the company thinks, my personal view is that this view is wrong. I think people are motivated by big payouts in tournaments and the rise of sites like Party have led/will lead to a lot of the smaller tournaments (such as the $109 6-Max PKO pointed out in the official thread) withering away continuously. It's possible to me that these types of paytables will lead to continuously reduced participation but this is very difficult to prove.
I'm curious where Party will end up. They are following my personal ideal of pooling liquidity and trying to buff their guarantees as big as possible. I will post more in depth about Party later as well but I'm curious where this ends up. I really like their strategy of trying to build prize pools then removing re-entry and only running a few tournaments per hour.
One of the reasons I started this thread was to provide real talk both ways. Like you said, the community has grown quite toxic towards Stars (for justified reasons) and it's hard to have a dialogue.
In regards to the PSKO conspiracy, no this has never been the case. We adjusted guarantees based on player demand and people looooooooooooooove PKO. They go crazy for them!
I did a lot of day to day guarantee management but I was never a part of the high level strategy setting. Again, in my personal view, I think you can map out guarantee increases versus player participation on a curve and then compare the cost.
If a company is motivated by net profits, we can map out player participation vs guarantee increases on a curve and there is a "sweet spot" where a good equilibrium is reached. If you go stingier than the sweet spot, you're losing out on revenue because players aren't showing up for withered prize pools. If you pump more than the sweet spot, you lose out on revenue because of overlay.
I think my view on this is pretty clear but let me know if you have any questions.
I think it's a toxic environment and a lot of my colleagues (who I still love dearly) have given up on being able to have a healthy rapport with players. Also, Stars and regulars interests are not as aligned as they once were. It's quite a shame because Poker Operations is filled with bright and wonderful people who really care about poker and the poker product. Some of them have been OG online poker players since the pre Black Friday days. I can say this quite strongly because I joined the company as an outsider and full time grinder/2+2er and came away with a very positive impression. Same with Luke.
Now I'm friends with many Supernova Elites and the decision to revoke the benefits was definitely out of line. However, I think it's important to remember that the person who ordered this change is no longer with the company and recently went on trial for insider trading. I'm not posting this as a defense of PokerStars. I actually think there have been many decisions since that point that I strongly disagreed with. And I think it's an indictment of the entire leadership structure of this company that David Baazov was at the very top. In terms of decision-making and influence in the company someone like Baazov is worth infinite Jaes or Lukes.
Thanks buffy. Best of luck to you in the future. Poker is just a very tough game and it chews up some of the very best of us Shoutout to rounder63.
Disclaimer: All posts from me are from my personal perspective as a poker analyst. My opinions are for my own person and do not imply one way or the other what my former bosses and teammates think themselves.
As for the consultation PokerStars has a business intelligence department filled with dozens of sharp people that run the analysis on various decisions. I didn't often receive these reports unless they pertained to what I was working on.
Quote:
2. Why did the payouts get changed to this absolutely awful % of the field and FT places getting loads less.
I mean I know why it's been done to recycle rake etc. Why was it done and not changed back when player base (2+2 and other forums) fed back it was awful
Plus the players don't like it either numbers are dropping really fast in Mtts.
Lots of regs (inc me) are now choosing party over stars and rec players are not idiots. Playing for 8/10hrs making a FT and getting a crappy payout will not keep them coming back
I mean I know why it's been done to recycle rake etc. Why was it done and not changed back when player base (2+2 and other forums) fed back it was awful
Plus the players don't like it either numbers are dropping really fast in Mtts.
Lots of regs (inc me) are now choosing party over stars and rec players are not idiots. Playing for 8/10hrs making a FT and getting a crappy payout will not keep them coming back
https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/2...e-167974.shtml
The short answer is PokerStars thinks paying more places will lead to more winning moments. I disagreed with this. One of the things that's interesting about big companies is they can make decisions in the present that have no immediate, visible effects but might cost them in the future. It's not a given that these types of changes will hurt the company at all, however. Some might even argue that the pay table changes help the site.
Without offering comment on what the company thinks, my personal view is that this view is wrong. I think people are motivated by big payouts in tournaments and the rise of sites like Party have led/will lead to a lot of the smaller tournaments (such as the $109 6-Max PKO pointed out in the official thread) withering away continuously. It's possible to me that these types of paytables will lead to continuously reduced participation but this is very difficult to prove.
I'm curious where Party will end up. They are following my personal ideal of pooling liquidity and trying to buff their guarantees as big as possible. I will post more in depth about Party later as well but I'm curious where this ends up. I really like their strategy of trying to build prize pools then removing re-entry and only running a few tournaments per hour.
In regards to the PSKO conspiracy, no this has never been the case. We adjusted guarantees based on player demand and people looooooooooooooove PKO. They go crazy for them!
I did a lot of day to day guarantee management but I was never a part of the high level strategy setting. Again, in my personal view, I think you can map out guarantee increases versus player participation on a curve and then compare the cost.
If a company is motivated by net profits, we can map out player participation vs guarantee increases on a curve and there is a "sweet spot" where a good equilibrium is reached. If you go stingier than the sweet spot, you're losing out on revenue because players aren't showing up for withered prize pools. If you pump more than the sweet spot, you lose out on revenue because of overlay.
I think my view on this is pretty clear but let me know if you have any questions.
Quote:
5. Why is communication so bad at 2+2 (in general not just 2+2) now from stars?
Not just that luke has 50 weeks vacation a year, but even schedules are not asked for feedback anymore before they are released.
When they are released or a change to schedule feedback is ignored also?
I know 2+2 is really toxic these days and a bunch of posters are ruining it for others (party just announced they won't maintain their threads officially also).
However there are some people offering good constructive feedback still and would be great to have that reflected in schedules.
Not just that luke has 50 weeks vacation a year, but even schedules are not asked for feedback anymore before they are released.
When they are released or a change to schedule feedback is ignored also?
I know 2+2 is really toxic these days and a bunch of posters are ruining it for others (party just announced they won't maintain their threads officially also).
However there are some people offering good constructive feedback still and would be great to have that reflected in schedules.
Now I'm friends with many Supernova Elites and the decision to revoke the benefits was definitely out of line. However, I think it's important to remember that the person who ordered this change is no longer with the company and recently went on trial for insider trading. I'm not posting this as a defense of PokerStars. I actually think there have been many decisions since that point that I strongly disagreed with. And I think it's an indictment of the entire leadership structure of this company that David Baazov was at the very top. In terms of decision-making and influence in the company someone like Baazov is worth infinite Jaes or Lukes.
Shoutout to rounder63.
02-03-2019
, 10:08 AM
Champ does beat pro! Your name doesn't have the word in it though so not fully repping..
---
Poker Update + Some Turmoil
Graph of results since I left my job. It's been a pretty good run. At my coach's suggestion I took quite a bit of time off from playing and hit the hyperbolic training chamber studying a bunch of different spots. I treated myself to one Sunday session during this period and was fortunate to bink a Christmas Freeze on my wife's birthday (beat: promised her all the winnings from that day in her honor).
I went to America for the first time in a long time for a few weeks and just got to Korea a few weeks ago. I got 2nd in a W Series event for another huge score and at this point I started spewing a bit in all ways. Too many tables, too high buy-ins, and too reckless with a few hands.
I cut the higher stuff for now and started rebuilding from the downswing. It's been going great and I'm pretty pumped for tonight
Life Lessons #1 and #2
I'm going to put the hard life lessons I learn (through pain) in this thread so people can learn from my failures.
I'm a procrastinator by nature so the move to Korea crept up on me and then really hit me out of nowhere. We had movers stop by and I wasn't prepared so we didn't give them enough of our items to ship over. This led to a huge packing crunch near the end where we had to giveaway tons of free stuff. I really loved the way my wife decorated our home and it was painful to see such quality merchandise go away for 33% or less. By the end of it we were just dumping away free boxes of tea and left an apartment full of decent stuff we had no room for. The silver lining was a lot of my friends received the goods.
By the time we got to the airport I was lugging around 7 full size suitcases along with baby gear and a crying baby. Rough stuff. I've moved before from college and stuff but I've learned now to never underestimate a full move. Plan in advance!
When I got to Korea I was already stressed out because of this. Poker as a job is stressful enough but then we got caught up in some real hoodrat BS. We were looking for a new apartment and closed a deal on a nice place with a non-Korean landlord (he was a Chinese national).
The housing system in Korea is quite unusual. It goes by a system called jeonse where people put huge deposits (mid six figures plus) to the owner and then live "rent free" usually for two years. The government props this sham system up with very low interest rates. Korea is in a housing bubble right now so the whole system seems like a ponzi scheme to me in a lot of spots where people overleveraged in real estate need jeonse from one spot to pay for their properties in another spot.
Because we had just come over from the UK, I had no proof of income in Korea. I went to the real estate agent to look at standard rent places but she encouraged us to go for a jeonse loan. I was surprised the bank was setting my wife up with a housing loan but we were approved. Banks give you 80% of the jeonse amount at very good interest rates. The loan officer came over, had us sign a bunch of documents, and assured us it was all set.
Our real estate agent seemed like a professional and my wife was looking over all of the paperwork. Reading Korean hurts my brain so I mostly stood on the outside and didn't review all of the agreements. I sent a 10% deposit to the landlord for 33k (standard), we all had a friendly meeting and signed the agreement, and we closed on the house.
The next day we found out that because we had no income and because our landlord was Chinese, we didn't qualify for the loan despite the loan agent signing the contract and telling us we were good. In terms of objective blame it falls on all of us, but mostly on the real estate agent and the loan officer because they didn't check if the landlord was Korean or not.
In this spot as the landlord I would just return the 33k since part of it is due to me being Chinese as well and everyone had good intentions. I can understand him wanting to keep it though since in Korea if one person can't honor the agreement the other can just keep the deposit.
I had to either come up with the 270k or so or lose out on the 33k entirely. This entire period was incredibly stressful especially since the landlord started ducking my calls. I ended up handling the negotiating strategy for our family and eventually settled for receiving $27k back and losing $6k on this deal after threatening to sue everyone involved. A lawsuit would have cost more and honestly there was a non-zero chance of us losing even.
It's a joke that I'm learning this now after graduating from law school but I really think this is a valuable life lesson. Always read the fine print, always review important contracts you sign, and always protect your neck. In this case I was seduced by the different professionals and my wife and didn't bother to insert clauses to protect us.
In this period of stress I acted poorly toward my wife. I never wanted a jeonse place but my wife really wanted that ideal Korean dream of a big apartment and such. I felt pressured into it and then blamed her a bit for not reading the agreements thoroughly.
Straight up this is the wrong approach to things and I've ended up apologizing for my behavior and reevaluating my approach to life (more on this later). My wife is a beautiful person and great at day to day management but finances and contracts are not her forte. They're actually mine and in the future I will take more responsibility.
Right after we sorted this mess my coach and friend visited Korea for a week and helped me out a lot. I now realize a lot of my leaks in life with my wife, poker, and health are tied to a somewhat toxic mindset and lack of discipline/responsibility. I'll save this for another post since this one is getting a bit long.
---
Poker Update + Some Turmoil
Graph of results since I left my job. It's been a pretty good run. At my coach's suggestion I took quite a bit of time off from playing and hit the hyperbolic training chamber studying a bunch of different spots. I treated myself to one Sunday session during this period and was fortunate to bink a Christmas Freeze on my wife's birthday (beat: promised her all the winnings from that day in her honor).
I went to America for the first time in a long time for a few weeks and just got to Korea a few weeks ago. I got 2nd in a W Series event for another huge score and at this point I started spewing a bit in all ways. Too many tables, too high buy-ins, and too reckless with a few hands.
I cut the higher stuff for now and started rebuilding from the downswing. It's been going great and I'm pretty pumped for tonight
Life Lessons #1 and #2
I'm going to put the hard life lessons I learn (through pain) in this thread so people can learn from my failures.
I'm a procrastinator by nature so the move to Korea crept up on me and then really hit me out of nowhere. We had movers stop by and I wasn't prepared so we didn't give them enough of our items to ship over. This led to a huge packing crunch near the end where we had to giveaway tons of free stuff. I really loved the way my wife decorated our home and it was painful to see such quality merchandise go away for 33% or less. By the end of it we were just dumping away free boxes of tea and left an apartment full of decent stuff we had no room for. The silver lining was a lot of my friends received the goods.
By the time we got to the airport I was lugging around 7 full size suitcases along with baby gear and a crying baby. Rough stuff. I've moved before from college and stuff but I've learned now to never underestimate a full move. Plan in advance!
When I got to Korea I was already stressed out because of this. Poker as a job is stressful enough but then we got caught up in some real hoodrat BS. We were looking for a new apartment and closed a deal on a nice place with a non-Korean landlord (he was a Chinese national).
The housing system in Korea is quite unusual. It goes by a system called jeonse where people put huge deposits (mid six figures plus) to the owner and then live "rent free" usually for two years. The government props this sham system up with very low interest rates. Korea is in a housing bubble right now so the whole system seems like a ponzi scheme to me in a lot of spots where people overleveraged in real estate need jeonse from one spot to pay for their properties in another spot.
Because we had just come over from the UK, I had no proof of income in Korea. I went to the real estate agent to look at standard rent places but she encouraged us to go for a jeonse loan. I was surprised the bank was setting my wife up with a housing loan but we were approved. Banks give you 80% of the jeonse amount at very good interest rates. The loan officer came over, had us sign a bunch of documents, and assured us it was all set.
Our real estate agent seemed like a professional and my wife was looking over all of the paperwork. Reading Korean hurts my brain so I mostly stood on the outside and didn't review all of the agreements. I sent a 10% deposit to the landlord for 33k (standard), we all had a friendly meeting and signed the agreement, and we closed on the house.
The next day we found out that because we had no income and because our landlord was Chinese, we didn't qualify for the loan despite the loan agent signing the contract and telling us we were good. In terms of objective blame it falls on all of us, but mostly on the real estate agent and the loan officer because they didn't check if the landlord was Korean or not.
In this spot as the landlord I would just return the 33k since part of it is due to me being Chinese as well and everyone had good intentions. I can understand him wanting to keep it though since in Korea if one person can't honor the agreement the other can just keep the deposit.
I had to either come up with the 270k or so or lose out on the 33k entirely. This entire period was incredibly stressful especially since the landlord started ducking my calls. I ended up handling the negotiating strategy for our family and eventually settled for receiving $27k back and losing $6k on this deal after threatening to sue everyone involved. A lawsuit would have cost more and honestly there was a non-zero chance of us losing even.
It's a joke that I'm learning this now after graduating from law school but I really think this is a valuable life lesson. Always read the fine print, always review important contracts you sign, and always protect your neck. In this case I was seduced by the different professionals and my wife and didn't bother to insert clauses to protect us.
In this period of stress I acted poorly toward my wife. I never wanted a jeonse place but my wife really wanted that ideal Korean dream of a big apartment and such. I felt pressured into it and then blamed her a bit for not reading the agreements thoroughly.
Straight up this is the wrong approach to things and I've ended up apologizing for my behavior and reevaluating my approach to life (more on this later). My wife is a beautiful person and great at day to day management but finances and contracts are not her forte. They're actually mine and in the future I will take more responsibility.
Right after we sorted this mess my coach and friend visited Korea for a week and helped me out a lot. I now realize a lot of my leaks in life with my wife, poker, and health are tied to a somewhat toxic mindset and lack of discipline/responsibility. I'll save this for another post since this one is getting a bit long.
