the link made me laugh

First off, I'm 28 not 21 like a lot of people playing online poker today. Also, you seem to be focusing a lot on the number of days off I've taken rather than the actual time I've spent playing poker. If I sleep 7-8 hrs a night and play poker 40 hours a week, that leaves me with about 10 hours a day, every single day for the past 3 years, to live my life (a lot more than most serious people I know have) - actually part of the reason I'm committed to playing as much as I do is because I spend so much money "enjoying life"....

The most ironic thing about ur statement is that I think most poker players fall much more into the category you put me into than I do. I said that I have a complusive need to feel productive. What I can't stand is feeling like I'm wasting time. Feeling productive takes on a lot of meanings for me. The most important things in my life are my family and friends. I have a serious gf that I love a lot and will probably marry soon. The thing I do the most with my free time is read. I'm interested in politics, history, economics, philosophy, and a bunch of other stuff. I actually just got the new Kindle and its pretty incredible, like having a portable Barnes & Noble with you at all times. I love to travel, go out in NYC, play sports etc. I went to the US Open 2 nights ago and a Brittney Spears concert last week - dont worry dog, I'm not sitting at home sharkscoping myself over and over....

Actually that reminds me. I would be interested in setting up a HU prop bet with someone or more than one person combining sports and poker. I would be willing to play both cash and HU SNGs, and then maybe agree to a list of 10-15 sports from which we could pick 6-7....(bball, tennis, a running event, ping-pong etc, some sports are obviously more conducive to HU than others). I'm not interested in doin this for hundreds of thousands but would consider a range of a sweep being 20-100k - sweep obv meaning u win every event....

Analytic or Continental?

Camel, you seem like a nice enough guy and are pretty damn good at poker from what I've seen but you also seem like one of these overly sentimental people that allow their emotions to cloud their better judgement.

A. Iftarii is levelling in chat much more than you think and is not the sweet and respectful guy he comes off as being. During the HU event of the WSOP this year, right as I got knocked out, he literally jumps out of a crowd, and laughingly points right at me and yells out "LIVB!!!" - lot of respect and courtesy there. And from a poker standpoint, hes not even in the top 6-7 players.....

B. I agree that Genius is very polite and seems very chill but if you have watched him play Adam in the past few months, its pretty clear that he is not the best player. I also find it odd that you didn't mention Adam who is also very courteous and respectful in chat, (also a great kid and one of my best poker friends IRL) and clearly is the best and most dominant HU SNG player.

C. Pokerstars did not take my chat away. I emailed them and asked them to take it away from me. I did this because though I tried to control my chat, I found that I couldnt control myself at times. I understand that berating players is wrong and I'm not proud of the fact that I've done it. That is the whole point....

When I'm travelling or at mygf's house, I use the Sony laptop from the FTP store. At home I have 2 of the big LCD monitors from the FTP store attached to the wall with movable arms that people put plasma tvs on - when I get home Ill try to remember to take a pic and post it. I dont use any software. Someone asked me about my ftp points. I've spent about 3-4 million mostly on electronics. Like 7-8 ipods for friends and family, 4 tvs, 2 for me and 2 for friends, 2 gps things for family, 2 monitors for me, 4 laptops, 1 for me 1, 1 for my gf, 1 for my friend and 1 for my future step daughter. Iactually went through a phase where I was just gonna get everything from the store. When I moved into my new apartment I found this cardboard box in a closet in my old apartment that I had never opened and it was the set of fulltilt golf clubs lol.....I didnt even open it, just tossed it.

gotcha...pretty reasonable response. and i would agree that a lot of players are FAR worse at the thing i mentioned than what it sounds like you do. i just think it can sound crazy when it appears poker goes from being a lucrative way to live a free life, to a life consuming task that some people become a slave to. its a fuzzy line and from this response i wouldnt say you are fully in the slave category...

now ironically...what if i were willing to do this prop bet? what 'sports' do you have in mind. i am not sure i can name 15 sports unless you count stuff like poker as a sport.

Yea what sports do you play? I might be interested in playing just for the competition.

I'm not sure exactly what I would be doing if I wasn't playing poker. I had two jobs before I played poker and both were in finance. I worked on a trading desk and at a big hedge fund - where I had considerably less free time than I do now. Now, though, I'm more interested in pursuing something in media/journalism. I'm not exactly sure what I want to do but I have a lot of respect for people like Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose and love television as a medium for educating the public about important issues.

ITF was/is definetly not significantly better than me. He had a small psychological edge within the small timeframe that we were playing and he ran insanely good. At that time I had only played about 3-400 5ks in my life so 5k swings were tough for me to deal with. I still dont like them but have gained a ton of experience in 5ks from Stars. Hes a smart kid and a very good poker player but there are at least 4-5 people who I consider at least as good as he is if not better. Rememer he hasn't played many games and played only one site. I lost 10k in 1ks to some massive fish last nite playing 1ks and then came back and ended up on him. There are big swings in HU SNGs. Momentum and luck play huge factors in the short run.

I dont transition out of HU SNGs because for my personality and set of skills, HU SNGs r clearly the most profitable form of poker for me.

If I had to put a number on it, I'd prolly say I've tilted off at least 200k.

Insideman,

You're the second person to mention how consuming poker can be and I definetly have some thoughts on this subject so I'll write something about it tomorrow or something.

In terms of the sports bet, I mentioned bball, tennis, a running event or 2, ping-pong. I'm happy to consider other people's suggestions. I would consider something like 1-1 footall with an auto QB or soccer with an auto goalie but I don't love those ideas. Bowling. Pool. Badminton....lol idk. For the sports bet, I'd like to do it in NY. I'm happy to split travel accomodations and I'd be willing to host whoever wants to do it at my apt in NYC (though ur welcome to stay in a hotel if u want)....I live in a pretty sweet penthouse in Manhattan. Again I'm open to suggestions....

You seem like a really focused, reasonable, intelligent perosn livb. Congratulations on your success and good thread.

if you are interested in media/journalism you might want to check out http://www.fair.org/index.php they are a media watchdog group and they totally pwn mass media and call them on all their BS lies.

other sports you could do are bicycling, kayaking, boxing.... and another fun thing to do is go to an arcade type place and bet on everything they have there. oh and those mini race cars you can drive too.

Hey Liv, thanks for doing this.

1. Would you care to comment on Jovial Gents and Chapmoney's game?

2. Are you only child or have any siblings?

3. Which 1 person would you pick as your inspiration in just life in general.

ty

awesome thread!!! tytyty!

what do you think of dario minieri( ) ?? i mean he used to play a lot of 5k husng, didn't he? is i true that he married a random asian girl he had just met in vegas?

i wish snorer was here to say funny stuff :P

Interesting read thanks for doing this, gl in the future.

A) He is clearly overall polite but he does seem to take a particular joy in antagonizing you. I haven't played some of the better players much, but I think it is a strong possibility he is not in the top 6-7. He is certainly in a top tier of players though.

B) Although I am typically polite in chat, I def lose it on people sometimes. As for Genius, I have run extremely hot vs him. I also think I match-up well on him/have played some of my better poker vs him. I do think I've had an edge in our matches, but our matches have not at all lowered my respect for him. He has run awful at points, including losing something like 8 5ks in a row and continued to play solid focused poker vs which I do not think it is possible to achieve more than a small edge vs him. Also, thank you for your kind words, but I don't really consider myself the best. Look at how poorly I've played vs trader or steves. You play far far far better vs steves, and I highly doubt genius would have played that poorly vs either one of them. I really wouldn't pick out one person as the best, as even within husngs there are a variety of skill sets and match-up issues. I think you are actually the best at the most important skill for high stakes, which is learning how to read/play the same opponent over a lot of games. In particular opponents who are overall pretty good but not the best of best and have certain leaks that you pick-up on and exploit better than anyone else does.

pwning sergio atm 33 v 88 was a bit sick

what would be doing if you weren't a poker player?
where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
do you have a routine that you do everytime you play and after you play?
do you ever wish you'd done something else?

Thanks man for doing this, GLP.

Hi livb

nice thread, props

what do you think of da_prof's game?

thanks for this thread

i just want to ask one thing: how do you keep your head up and focused when running bad/breakeven for long periods?

Do you think you got where you are because of your skill set (IQ/Talented from birth in analysing/getting reads on people etc) or because you put alot of hard work into it?

And how do you know for sure your answer is correct?

Something that intrigues me and wonder how the pro's themself feel about it.

Pics of Penthouse and Car!

Maybe I am over sentimental, but I would rather that than being over cynical.

I just don't see (and will never see) why anyone would berate and insult an opponent. And for one of the biggest winners in online poker to do it is almost breathtaking. If nothing else, it is bad for business causes animostly and will lead to players either quitting you or playing better against you.

I apologise for suggesting Stars took your chat away, I think you 've made a very wise move and applaud you for doing it.

Obviously I forgot skilled. Apologies for that, but if I had to have my entire bankroll on one player winning one heads up match against anyone, I would pick Genius.

A good post.

It's all about how you match up v an opponent.

Check out my sharkscope record v stevesbets. I don't think I'm that much better than him but something about his game makes me match up well against him.

My admiration of the way Genius plays is mostly down to the way he killed me one week. (He went something like 13-2 and I was lucky to get 2!). Maybe he isn't the best player but I certainly had more trouble v him than any other player.

EDIT: there was one other player who gave me fits. BBJ. And I doubt many would put him even in the top 20 of hu sng players.

It's all about matchups, you're right.