(x-posted from november low content)
With sexy red line:
Tilt self-excluded myself for the remainder of the year. I’ll be back alternately owning and donating to you guys in January. Until then, gl
On another note, would anyone on here be interested in mental game coaching? I wouldn’t charge much to start out with, probably somewhere between $60-$125/hr depending on demand (which is a bargain considering Jared Tendler charges upwards of $350/hr and you have to do an in-person three day seminar for $8k to work with Tommy Angelo). I’d like to help people suffer less at the tables, as well as pick up a little income while I take a break from playing poker for the remainder of the year.
I have had severe problems at times with tilt and gambling addiction, and I have put a lot of work into remedying those issues, and consequently I have a wealth of knowledge on the subject. I have had a few lessons with Jared Tendler, in addition to reading, listening to, and watching virtually everything Tommy Angelo and Phil Galfond have made available on the subject, much of it multiple times. I’ve also read The Poker Mindset more than once, and I’ve watched Jared Tendler’s videos, the Brain fail video series on cardrunners, Student Caine’s videos on Leggo, and a few of Travis Steffen’s videos on DC. I have also read both of Larry Phillips books and some of Schoonmaker’s work. I’ve digested almost everything there is to on the subject, and I think I might have a lot to offer, as I can cherry-pick the most applicable and helpful concepts from these works and you won’t have to take hours wadingthrough all the obvious, needlessly simple, and not particularly helpful filler in those books, videos, and podcasts.
You might ask, how can you have the audacity to offer mental game coaching when you are a tilt monkey yourself? To that, I say: 1.) You can know exactly what you need to do to succeed without being able to execute it. 2.) I have been supporting myself solely from poker for the last three years, and despite my degeneracy my net worth has never dipped below 20k during that time, so I have learned to protect my bankroll and persevere despite my mental game problems. 3.) Because I have had such difficulty with tilt actually makes me more qualified to teach how to overcome it, since I know first hand what it’s like to suffer through it, what it’s like to bust everything you had online because you went ballistic during a bad run.
I wouldn’t want to do any traditional strategic coaching, like sweat sessions and HH review, both because my fundamentals are lacking and because I wouldn’t want to divulge trade secrets to people who play in the same games as me, but I think I can provide some broad strategic advice that could be very helpful. Here's one example of the type of strategic advice I could give -- to take your game to the next level, you have to be absolutely fearless, trust your instincts, and be willing to back up your read with your whole stack. Take for example a hand where you have no showdown value and your opponent bets 70bb into an 80bb pot on the river, leaving himself 35bb behind. Let’s say his range is very polarized—he either has the nuts or a hand without much showdown value. From the way the hand played out and your opponent’s timing, bet-sizing, and past tendencies, you think he’s bluffing with a high frequency, maybe somewhere around 2/3 of his range consists of bluffs in this particular spot you estimate. Many people will just sigh in this spot, think to themselves “I’ll play it safe” and fold, either because they don't trust their instincts, they’re afraid of looking or feeling foolish, or they want to at all costs avoid that sinking feeling of getting snap-called by the nuts and having lost more than a buy-in more than they needed to on the hand. However, if your estimate that he is bluffing around 2/3 of the time is close to accurate, you are missing out on a hugely profitable bluffing opportunity, and you’re leaving tons of money on the table. A couple similar examples is where you have a hand on the river with showdown value that would be marginal to call a bet with, but would be very +EV to turn into a bluff, or where you're facing an all-in on the river with a hand that is a pure bluff catcher, not even strong enough to beat a number of hands your opponent could possibly be bluffing with, but maybe you think your instincts are telling you he is bluffing with a very high frequency. Make no mistake, having the testicular fortitude to go with your gut and ship your stack in spots like these is, if your instincts are good, what will skyrocket your win rate. Along with tilt control and work ethic, it’s what separates the rakeback pros and marginal winners from the absolute beasts. There's a reason I've done fairly well in the games despite having huge leaks and tilt problems.
If you are interested, shoot me a pm, and if you want and in as much or as little detail as you want, list or describe the issues you would like to work on. Some examples are demolition/meltdown tilt, desperation tilt, passive tilt, autopilot tilt, unfocused tilt, winner’s tilt (where you either start playing very conservatively or quit playing for the day when you get up to lock up a win), chasing losses both in the form of playing recklessly and/or moving up stakes, being too results oriented, getting very emotional and frustrated when at the tables, not being able to quit when stuck, playing too long in general, not being able to find the motivation to put in enough hours, not being able to find the motivation to put in work on your game away from the tables, overconfidence when things are going well, crisis in confidence when things are going poorly, gambling on things other than poker, playing while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, letting the results of a session affect your mood in the rest of your life, becoming consumed by poker and gambling and having trouble living a balanced life, not living a healthy enough life (whether eating poorly, sleeping poorly or irregularly, not getting much exercise, or overusing drugs or alcohol), lacking self control and discipline, not being able to stick to limits (for example a stop loss or session end time you decided on before playing), or being fearful or anxious, whether at the tables or in anticipation of a session. I believe I can be of assistance if you are having problems with any of these, especially if you haven't consulted much of the material out there on the subject.
Some older results threads of mine, to show that I have some clue of what I'm doing at the tables:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...stakes-404479/
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...result-845769/