This is the rail thread relating to this selling shares for coaching offer http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...-tips-1500650/

in play updates: @sagedonkey

Shareholders:

The McC: 15%

nomalice: 2.5%, +£500 bonus if I make the official FT, + bonus if I finish top 3 of 100% backing for £1100, €1400 or $1700 of tournaments with you keeping 75% equity and me having 25% equity.

clarkson7: 2.5%

dreenie: If I make the official FT, 100% backing of $350 of comps on Stars with you keeping 75% equity and me 25%.

SageDonkey: the remainder.

Tournament played February 25th to March 1st at Dusk Til Dawn, Nottingham England. I am playing day 1d on
27th February.

Tournament info page: http://www.dusktilldawncasinonotting...pionships/2456

Subbed, gl!

1 to 1 coaching with The McC http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?n=190582 took place today and was absolutely excellent.

Over the last 4 weeks, having got all the great coaching I feel that I have increased my NLHE Deep Stacked know how from 30 out of 100 to about 85 out of a 100 and feel confident that I can play a good game in Nottingham.

Of course it is my 3 coaches above that have around 18% equity in me and nomalice the freeroll lottery winner who has 2.5%+

Thanks everyone and I hope to do something big in the comp for you.

GL Cliff, subbed

All booked

St Pancras - Nottingham, return tickets (paid extra £12 for 1st class)
Nice Hotel 3 minutes walk from the station and 10 minutes taxi ride to the venue.
(paid extra £10 per day for breakfast)

All travel and accommodation above for £320 in total for 4 night's stay.
(paid a little extra on some things so that I am as prepared as possible, and I arrive the night before.)

That's right, I'm thinking very positively here about playing all 3 days of the comp..... and should the unthinkable happen and I do not make day 3 I'll play in some other games.

Just 16 days to go now until the fish mutates.

It's just 6 days away now until I play Day 1d at Dusk Til Dawn and I have been thinking a lot about this tournament and pumping myself up mentally for it, as it is a big chance to do something significant in poker.

I assure you that I will be the most pumped up player in that tournament, bar none. But players will probably not detect this because they will not be able to see my face when I am in a hand. In every hand I will have wrap around shades on and a full scarf wrapped around my face from the top of my nose to the bottom of my chin. Let's see how people enjoy playing The Invisible Man.

NLHE Deep stack MTT Coaching Update

TheMcC gave me great coaching in all of the areas that I was weak in as well as in other areas where I still need a lot of improvement. This was a 2 hour person to person coaching session.

Clarkson7 similarly covered a lot of my weak areas with some great technical game playing theory advice, plus overall tournament progression advice.

dreenie similarly covered a lot of my weak areas with some great technical game playing theory advice, plus overall tournament progression advice.

If you have read some of my posts about my PLO comps you will have noticed that I have a talisman in PLO/PLO8/Mixed game comps, that person being JJ.

Well I now have a new talisman specifically for this £1K, £1M Gtd SPT comp and he is............................... (drum roll)......................... (anther drum roll)....................
.......... (that's enough drum rolling)................................Ninjasam.

I am pretty sure that all bar "nomalice" know who he is. One of my coaches rates Ninjasam's play, or aspects of his play so highly that he has used Sam's real surname as his sn on one of his on line poker accounts!

Anyway, Ninjasam hasn't as yet achieved some of the same heights as other players, in part through simply not playing the volume, but everyone who knows him knows that he is the top and most charismatc personality in poker and that when he gets into his stride in live NLHE MTTs that he dominates tournaments. To back this up, although not Hendon Mob listed tournaments, Sam has a remarkably high number of 1st place finishes as a percentage of his total number of tournament cashes.

Being a good coach/advisor/poker confidant and talisman of course is not based on the person's playing results alone. The person also needs to have many other qualities, which Sam has in spades... and clubs, and hearts and in his favourite suit Diamonds. (okay, I made the last bit up, I have no idea if he has a favourite suit)
Qualities such as being a good communicator, motivator, encourager... and listener. (the last of which in my case is most important, given the amount that I prattle on!)

So I had a few hours social, meal and drinks catch up with Sam the other day, and for the last couple of hours we discussed poker of now and in the past, and we discussed how I am going to be able to be competitive at Dusk Til Dawn.

We then had a 2 hour telephone discussion last night specifically about the tournament.

The overall result of all of the official coaching and of my NLHE talisman Sam and his great advice on all aspects of NLHE tournament play is that I believe that I have now glued everything together and have a firm game plan and strategy for all aspects of the tournament.

The key areas I am now either totally comfortable with or am self aware of so realise that I ought to steer clear of or treat cautiously are these.

(in no particular order, and unless otherwise stated relate to deep stack specifically)

Blind on blind

I am cautious in this area, because from the coaching and advice I have received it appears that blind on blind (deep stacked) is one of the least completely solved areas of deep stack NLHE MTT play. So I will play blind on blind situations more cautiously until the comp reaches <30BBs.

It is basically an area which I will largely duck. Having said this, I have received two very good, and differing methods to use blind on blind from my coaches, both methods being equally logical. So I can adopt either or both of these methods at any stage of the comp should I need or want to.

Pre flop 3/4/5 betting etc

I have received a total consensus of strategy and advice in this area so am happy with
how I will play it, although clearly pre flop, deep stacked is and can be a very high variance area of the game. But there are some key areas, particularly to do with 4 bets pre where I have received some enlightening coaching and advice.


Post flop C bets in HU pots when OOP having been 3 bet pre by an aggressive player.

This is the area where I feel I know 5 times as much as I did pre coaching, so this really shows just how poor and deficient I was in this area.

Furthermore, I have learned so much about it that I can now invert the theory so that I can use it when I am the player in position who has made the 3 bet pre.

So much so, that in last night's telephone coaching session with Sam we jointly came up with a great strategy (against the right type of opponent) whereby I can put a certain type of player in some awful spots making exactly the play that they will hate most and least want me to do.

Overall tournament strategy/navigating through a big field/difference in play and objectives pre and post antes/changing gears/chip growth v preserving one's tournament life

Well I've kind of said it all in the title, and the best news is that all 4 coaches have extremely similar views and strategies on everything in the title. So again I am very comfortable with how to approach all of these categories.

SageDonkey specifics

I will be making sure that I am one of the worst people for anyone to have at their table, their worst nightmare.

Not just because I am now in a much better position to execute technical play correctly, this won't necessarily make it awful for people to have me at their table (there are lots of good and far better technical players than me in the tournament).

No, primarily because they will be playing The Invisible Man, I will be giving off a bad guy persona throughout, and I will be playing in such a way within the rules that affects the balance of my opponents.
(Trust me, I am capable of maintaining an acting performance for 3 days solid)

In boxing terms, at the beginning of some "rounds" I may come hurtling out of my corner like a whirlwind, in another round I may cover up and let my opponent punch themselves out, or I may go all defensive in a boxing sense by back peddling and frustrating my opponent, or I may deploy one or more of many, many other available "boxing styles", in a poker sense.

No-one wants to "fight" against someone in the boxing ring who has an unpredictable, aggravating or difficult to deal with style, so this is what I will be doing in a poker psychology sense from the very first hand.

As I mentioned to Clarkson7 on Twitter, if there was an OPR for psychological poker warfare I would be rated at 99.98, so I will be using this ability at DTD. Good luck them with dealing with it.

So that's it really, I probably come across now as maybe too confident, too ebullient and too bullish about my chances in Nottingham, but all of the above are my honest thoughts and feelings about my ability to play, and how I will play.

Finally. I need to come back to my NLHE MTT talisman, and now one of my 4 coaches, Sam.

Sam has not asked for anything in return for giving me advice and encouragement for this tournament.

But you know that I like to always try to be as fair as I can and do what I think is right, not really in a poker sense as such, but just in a human sense.

So in our social thing/poker chat the other day I said that if I was to bink big at DTD that I would pay for a Vegas travel and some $1k comps package for him. I didn't quantify either what "big" meant (but I hinted that I was talking a £100K plus cash), nor did I quantify the value of the package, but again I hinted that it would be £3.5K ish.

I am not a big fan of vague stuff and think it's better to be more exact. Had I not chosen to now cover this in this thread I would have stuck to my word based on the parameters above that I hinted at.

I have also given further thought to the fact that it is better and more flexible to give a cash amount as a reward for the coaching and encouragement that Sam has given me because he can then choose any kind of Vegas package, or no Vegas package at all, or half and half or anything at all, as it his his money that he's earned through helping me.

So I am going to specify Sam's equity in me for the comp right now.

I am giving Sam in exchange for his coaching and help a flat 2.5% equity in me, plus a bonus that if I officially place 1st, 2nd or 3rd, he gets an extra lump sum of £2000.

I have also realised the dreenie's coaching (she didn't want anything for it) is worth much more than I stated above, so am I am upgrading her equity to a flat 1%. Well deserved.

Thank you very much for all of the coaching and advice from everybody and I will be trying harder than I have ever tried before in a poker tournament to my best for all of us.



In play updates: @sagedonkey #FishToBoss

Shareholders:

The McC: 15%

nomalice: 2.5%, +£500 bonus if I make the official FT, + bonus if I finish top 3 of 100% backing for £1100, €1400 or $1700 of tournaments with you keeping 75% equity and me having 25% equity.

clarkson7: 2.5%

dreenie: 1%

Ninjasam@ 2.5%, plus a £2K bonus if I finish in the top 3.

SageDonkey: the remainder.

Wow! Cliff thank you!!! I'm not sure my 'coaching' is as good as Clarkson or Dreenie but I appreciate that and will be funking for the win! GLGLGLGL!!!!!
ps Hearts is my favourite suit!

dreenie, I didn't mean to call you "the dreenie" it was a typo of "that dreenie", and Sam your equity should have read "Ninjasam: 2.5%, plus a £2K bonus if I finish in the top 3", not Ninjasam@

Other than that, not a bad typing performance by me. (Rating 9.4 out of 10)

Hey you fully deserve the equity, and you shouldn't under rate your own level of skill, your coaching or your impact as a coach and as a person.

The fact though that you *do* have a favourite suit does make you come across as a bit of a fish!!

Good luck buddy.

Just a suggestions about "the invisible man", H&M sell some jumpers with a roll-up neck, they will serve the purpose and you'll look way cooler, infact I have got 4 myself!

GL!

Sent from my C2105 using 2+2 Forums

Thanks for that idea and for the gl wishes, but there are two reasons why I can't take up your suggestion; one because it can be very hot inside DTD so a jumper may not be practical, and secondly because if I adopted your idea I would have to give you 2.5% equity and a roll neck jumper bonus if I finish top 3!, and I am running out of 2.5% pieces.

Cheers

SageDonkey

Lol,

Matalan do t-shirts with roll up neck then!

No worries about the % all advice is for free or if you ever play in Luton you can buy me some unsalted cashew nuts!

Sent from my C2105 using 2+2 Forums

Ahh, Matalan, a very under-rated shop, along with Argos.
Don't have one near me but will look next time I'm somewhere that has one.

I'm gonna stick with my glasses and scarf routine for the time being as I have a 100% final table record using them together. True story.

Does this fella http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=41735 play in the Dealers Choice cash game at The Grosvenor G Casino Luton, and is he still pretending to read a newspaper after making any big bet?

No never seen him. I hate the freaking dealer choice, no idea of how 90% of games are played.

I'll be railing

Sent from my C2105 using 2+2 Forums

The very best of British luck to you, will be railing hard.

Cheers Steve.

Hey, just read this, have been off forum for a while... very kind gesture Cliff. Best of luck for the tourney

Thanks dreenie, and if I happen to finish in a final tournament position where the previous "equity" would have paid out more then I will pay that amount, so whichever is the higher of the two offers basically.

I will be using a few specific parts of your coaching as well as other parts of it in conjunction with all the other coaching I have had.

Cliff

It took the purchase of a new phone specifically for Tweeting and nothing else, so finally, finally I can Tweet from mobile.

So providing there is working Wi-Fi at Dusk Til Dawn, I will be Tweeting in play updates from @sagedonkey

It's a tiny phone with tiny buttons so I may only Tweet brief data such as "60K, ave 55K, 100/200, 1200 entries, 1150 left." (but knowing me, it will be more text than this!)

I may Tweet a bit more detail but only in the longer dinner breaks.

I will also type an end of day little piece on this thread.

I'm playing day 1d tomorrow (Friday) at 1 pm, so you will see updates @sagedonkey
from then onwards.

I'm running a Treasure Hunt event tonight (my regular job) and then I'm on the train to Nottingham straight after.

I intend to do my best to wipe out the field and send a lot of people home crying. Yes I am feeling confident and mean (in a poker sense) and just hope that the cards I am dealt back this up.

Anything could happen, but I will be playing without fear or pressure.

#FishToBoss will be at the end of all tournament update Tweets so please search that to get a full list of updates at any time.

Gl us, I'm hoping to ship some £Ks to all of you.

UPDATE..... UPDATE...... UPDATE

Arrived in my hotel late last night, it's very comfortable. Just had a full English breakfast.
(beats that Continental cr@p, when you really need some solid power food to get you through a potentially grueling day)

Found out yesterday that day 1s start like this: 9 handed. 50k chips at 100-200 25 ante, and it's a 45 or 50 minute clock.

This changes strategy a bit compared to 25/50 no antes so will make adjustments accordingly.

My day 1d starts at 1 pm so I'll get there about 45 mins before to size up the opposition on my table (may well have their names on seat listings so I can Hendon Mob them etc), and to generally warm up physically and mentally for the task ahead.

I have 3 shirts prepared for hopefully what will be a 3 day comp for me.

Day 1: will be clean shaven and wearing a purple, blue and green striped shirt.
Day 2: stubble and purple and pink striped shirt.
Day 3: thick stubble, Gringo Spaghetti Western style, and a Lee Van Cleef jet black shirt.

Lining the shirts up for each day will have no scientific effect on the cards I am dealt or on the end result but it will set my mind and focus up correctly for a 3 day comp.

Psychological War Games

I have a different psychological game plan for each of the three days.

I will reveal what I did at the end of each day.

I am changing it every day because if/as I go deeper many players will already have seen it so will have become used to it.

All I can tell you about today's is that I am now wearing a Mind The Gap official London Underground red baseball cap as well as the wrap around shades and the scarf..... but this is only part of the day 1 psychological war games.

That's it for the rail thread updates for today until either I bust before day 1 is out or if I make day 2 then I will be posting here hopefully quite late this evening.

I have put a lot of thought and preparation into this competition and am hoping
that many others haven't and that this may give me an edge in certain areas.

Live updates @sagedonkey #FishToBoss (hopefully (WiFi is available at the venue)

Loving your updates very best of luck to you.

Thanks, it didn't go too well unfortunately, please see below.

Busted in roughly 600th place of 1000, will have to calculate/estimate my fin pos when I get back to London.

Summary: Played quite badly overall and even ran good rather than bad.

Important factor was what I found to be unbearable conditions (very high temperature and lack of air flow etc) so I never really had a chance in a very long comp as extreme temperature discomfort badly affects my ability to concentrate and think straight.

I'll type a full report in a day or two and I will be directing the management of Dusk Til Dawn to it so that they can get some honest customer feed back as I think the conditions were poor for all players, not just me.

Sorry to everyone who had percentages. I planned very thoroughly for this and was trying my best and hopefully you'll see this when I do the tournament report.

I don't make excuses, I report facts, and it is a fact that the playing conditions at Dusk Til Dawn are very far below acceptable in my opinion.

It is a real shame because all the people and staff that run it and work there are great, and the effort they put into putting on great games and tournaments is excellent, but to my mind this is being damaged by not taking some simple measures to do with player comfort.

Or perhaps the measures aren't simple to make, but ether way big improvements could and should be made.

This is the second time I've played at DTD and it has been the same both times, unbearably high temperatures for me, exceptionally dry and stuffy air, no air flow and no water dispenser machines, and both times I played a tournament like a moron.

P.S. I have never complained about or had problems with the temperature at any other venue I have played at, and I have played at quite a lot of venues.

Temperatures are never going to be perfect or everyone, but at DTD it is off the scale.