Life has been kinda crazy the past couple days. I've basically been glued to any kind of news that's been available. In summation follow @Kevmath on twitter, listen to #hey_smile, read WoT's blog post: http://plusevpoker.com/blog/?p=452, drink heavily, and let the dust settle. It's stressful looking for answers with nothing coming out.
I am not sure what the plan will be until the dust settles.
Pretty sure that poker is a lot like driving. Any rando that drives faster than you is a maniac and anyone that drives slower than you is an idiot. Any rando that's looser and more aggressive than you is a maniac, anyone tighter than you is a nit.
After 9.5 hours of play sometime after 2:30am we were done for the day and I still have chips and my mini T-rex!
The field is about the same caliber as the satellite that I played. I had UB pro Bryan Devonshire at my table to start, but he ended up busting fairly early on. To his credit he made a decent number of superuser jokes and assured all the live players that new UB was in no way connected to anyone involved. I didn't feel like mentioning the AP rigged Keno stuff... He and maybe only 2 other guys that I played with throughout the day had any clue what they were doing. There were so many head explosion moments, far too many to recount... In all seriousness I don't think that I got 3bet once all day other than maybe a shortstack reshoving. The guys immediately to my left (seat6) and 2 to my left (seat 7) got an ungodly number of hands and didn't 3bet any of them. Seat 7 literally flatted AA, KK, or QQ 7 times and flopped top set on 6 of them and busted Devonshire with KK>QQ on a low flop after calling a 3bet oop. Seat draw was obv rigged.
For me I managed to double up fairly early on a 3way all in. I raised 8
8
from MP and got called by both blinds. J
T
8 and after a SB lead, BB all-in, I jammed and SB called too. I managed to bink the 8 on the turn to leave them drawing dead with KJ and QQ. Awesome. QQ>99. Blinds quickly went up and with the 2 cardracks to my left, my stack was soon dwindling. I got a pretty key double against seat 6 who was chipleader by a significant margin at this point when my A8 managed to outflop his AQ for like 7bb. He obviously found this unbelievable despite getting premiums every third hand for the previous 5 hours.
From there I was able to eliminate some short stacks, steal some blinds, and work my stack up to where I was able to win my largest pot of the night. Vs a younger guy that was one of the 3 that seemed to know what he was doing, I had probably ~115k in chips and he covered at 4k/8k/1k he opened UTG to 18k, a shortstack jammed in behind after some thought for like 12k. I looked down at AA and feign some disgust/deliberation and toss out 2 black 10k chips to call, it folds the rest of the way around. While the dealer is counting out the chips for the side pot, he neglects to give me my 2k change back. I decided that if I visibly made kind of a big deal about getting my 2k change it would make my hand look weaker than it was since I was trying to save every last chip, some confusion ensued and I eventually got my chips. Flop QT7 UTG leads 16k into a now ~70k pot. I flat, turn 7. He thinks and then checks. With the pot over 100k I was unsure what was best, jamming seemed bad, checking back seemed decent in order to let him hit a K, maybe value bet a Tx, JJ, or Qx hand that he was pot controlling with. So I decided to bet small I think like 24600 or something like that. He's calling or crai any Qx or better, the 7 helped me counterfeit some of his outs if he had a Tx or Qx hand but I mena giving up a 2-4 outter kinda sucks too. He snap folded though. Curious about your guys' thoughts on that.
So with now a pretty sizable stack I was feeling comfortable and was looking to really chip up as the last level of the night was ticking down. This however didn't work so well with seat 7 constantly slowplaying his big pairs and flopping top set every time on me (though willing to totally check it down) He did get maybe 25k or so out of me that I probably should've just folded to on Q95 when he lead out with his top set of QQ vs my Q6 BTN vs SB. But the blinds and a few steal attempts gone awry I ended with 92.5k. I feel like I played pretty well considering the cards I got and was lucky to be in at all.
Starting day 2 tomorrow morning, there will be about 80-90 people left our of ~500 and top 50 get paid. First should be around $200k-225k and 50th will probably be in the $3-4k range.
Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some chips early, manage to get a decent stack rolling into the bubble and then exploit the hell out of these n00bs. The final 6 will be televised so I'll be sure to post something on DC or to my twitter @2fouroffsuit if I make that.
RUNGOODFORLIFE, RG4L
-2four
No, not a bracelet, but a live satellite! Besides, what a silly object to award the winner of a tournament... I have a hard time imagining Doyle, Amarillo Slim,. Johnny Moss, Sailor Roberts, Benny Binion, et al... getting together to figuring out the trophy for the 1st WSOP:
Doyle: I think the winner should get a tiara!
Slim: No, no, no, a set of diamond earrings!
Moss: What about one of them new fangled European purses?
Sailor: Or a really fancy broach!
Benny: Now listen here boys, I'm hosting this damn thing, so I get to decide! The winner gets a gold bracelet and that's that!
Anyone know the real history behind this?
So back to me winning though! Today I played a satellite to the PRESTIGIOUS Heartland Poker Tour's "Main Event" here at the local Colorado mountain casinos. It was a $330+$30 to win a $1500+$150 seat in the Main Event. In my brief experience playing live poker in CO, people talk about this thing like it was the WSOP, WPT, and the Onyx Cup all rolled into one. "Prize pool will be over $750,000 this year!" "Oh I know partner! I'd love to get me a piece of that action!" N00bs learn how to play online any Sunday.... Like it really is about the ghettoest "poker tour" that I know of aside from like bar leagues (facepalm). But it will be MASSIVELY + EV to play, even if the structure seems a bit top heavy.
I made a post here: http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/25-Tournament-Poker/topics/374031-HPT-Main-event-advice-for asking if anyone had experience with these events, but I decided to head up to the mountains and see what the competition would be like firsthand.
I arrived just in time to get a players card at this casino and register for the satellite. 10k starting chips and for an extra $10 you could get a 1k add-on and that $10 went to tipping the staff. So I do this and find myself seated at a table with 9 strangers all over 40, awesome. Out of the entire event I think there were maybe 5 entrants including myself under 40 and 4 of us won seats. There ended up being a field of 97 nd 19 seats up for grabs.
I can honestly say that I ran pretty well but even if I hadn't I think that I could've easily qualified.
At 200/400 I was able to double up my 9k stack with AQ vs A3 on a AT5board. That gave me some room to work with and a while later at 500/1k/100 I was able to play probably my most interesting hand of the tournament. The guy directly to my right was a middle aged muscularish asian guy who had a decent stack probably about 25k and had been very talkative about how good he was and how he "always gets his money in as a favorite." Although he'd been calling an abnormal amount of hands oop. What he'd done 3 hands earlier was call a raise oop and then donk a T53 flop into the preflop raiser. He got raised pretty quickly and folded showing the 5. Weird. Anyways, folds around to him (18k) and I ( covered him with about 28ish k) he completes the sb. I look down at A5 and make it 3100 total. He thinks and calls. Flop J32 He quickly bets 3k i pause and call. Turn 9 he does something really weird and snap bets 1200. As he did this all he had left were two 5k chips that he was holding in his open palm. I asked him if that was all he had left and jammed. Now, honestly it just seemed like he was so FOS like the pot is already 12 or 13k, why would he bet 1200. Like i still had the gutter and over if called. I just felt that there was a decent amount of fold equity vs this guy who I'd watched call a bunch oop and fold later on. But then he starts tanking and humming and hawing.I'm thinking "shit" but as I do in all live hands I'm involved in I just pick a spot in the room and stare at it and don't say a word. So then he starts saying he needs a and I internally chuckle like now I'm golden because he's going to see that he doesn't have odds to call and will fold because he prides himself on getting his money in good. But he keeps going on and on about how he thinks he's only got 20% and how he should fold and finally he ends up folding A7 face up. Nice. There's likely no real reason to be getting involved fighting for these pots when the field is this weak, but this was
the one player that I'd faced up to this point that I thought I could get involved postflop with.
A while later I knocked out a fairly large stack in a 4 way pot with KK vs JJ on a 975, this set me up probably as chip leader and I could've very easily coasted into the seat from there despite having more than half the field still in. I got moved to a new table where pretty quickly I lose AJo<ATo aipf to an old cowboy. A couple of my opens got jammed on and i folded, same cowboy limped the sb vs my bb and I made a small raise with A6 that he agonized over for at least a minute before folding. Next orbit he tried to steal the btn and i folded my sb but a kid in the bb 3bet him and he folded. Next orbit he limped sb vs my bb again I look down at 3T and check flop J3T, he checks, I bet min 2k and he jams like 16k over the top and I snap call and hold vs his J8. ez game.
At this point we are down to about 30 people left and I am feeling pretty comfortable about being able to ride this to the finish, but I was able to knock another guy out with KK, and stole a few blinds when I had AA and KQ. In reality I had about 2-3x as many chips as I would've needed to fold my way in comfortably. But to my surprise these people had literally NO CLUE how to play satellites! with 24 people left and 19 getting seats there was still plenty of limping, medium sized stacks limp calling oop, at one point there was a 5 way (raised!!!!) pot with 20 people left! How is this possible! The eventual bubble boy was this old man who was probably like 15of 20 in chips and shipped in A3o for 4ishbb when a guy with <2bb was 2 hands away from his bb! There were also 2 shortstacks at the other table. Wow.
Very soft field overall and it was nice to have a tournament where I actually ran pretty well in. Hopefully there's some run-good saved up as I play the Main Event Day1A starting Friday night and if I make Day 2 will play Sunday morning with the Final Table being televised Sunday evening.
So I went out 2 days ago and bought myself 3 whiteboards. A large one to mount on the wall above my desk, a medium one that I think I'll either mount next to it or keep loose, and a small one that's portable. This idea comes from an excellent piece of work called The Hero Handbook by "my boy" Nate Green. Available for free here: http://www.thenategreenexperience.com/blog/the-hero-handbook HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR BASICALLY ANYONE!
He is all about sharing this with other people so I don't think he minds me republishing a short section, but in any case, the following is his work, not mine.
Use Whiteboards
What do you want to accomplish this year? How about this week? What about today?
Goals are good, but they don't mean shit if we don't write them down and actually set up habits to achieve them.
Go to the store and get three Whiteboards: 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small.
Write your “big” goals on the large board, your weekly habits and “things to do” on the medium board, and your daily habits on your small board.
Here's a peek into each of my three boards:
Big Board
- Take a one-week trip by myself
- Don't look like an idiot while dancing with my Richelle (my girlfriend)
- Pass the Precision Nutrition certification test
Medium Board
- Make a list and research 5 places I want to see
- Research the cost of private dance lessons
- Pick one chapter per week from the PN textbook read
Small Board
- Pick a date to leave on my trip and book the fight
- Actually go to the private lesson and practice Read the chapter and take notes
- See the big picture. Write out a weekly goal. Set daily habits and do them.
So similar to outlining a daily a la Shuffle and Flow, but also tying that together with larger goals. I am still working on what some of these goals are really going to be; relating to poker, fitness, relationships, and the rest of my life, so if you are reading this and would like to share any of your own life goals that'd be interesting to see.
I was talking with a friend about if he'd ever used whiteboards like this and his response was: "have used it for a while. it's pretty great imo, aesthetically i hate it tbh but it just works so fucking well" Excellent! So I'll see if I can get to work on getting these goals solidified, and figuring out some awesome shit to do with my life.
In other news, I got a sweet groupon for a 72"x18" wall mural. They are typically of cityscapes, beaches, landmarks, countrysides etc... I was a little torn about which to get. Obviously I'd like to rep Denver, but I didn't find one that I really liked. After cruising through them for a while I found this little gem of the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I took a trip here 7-8 years ago and I hiked up to the rock formation and managed to snap a picture from the actual formation while battling 50mph winds. One of the prouder moments from that trip!
Mural:
My Photo:
Reminds me of that amazing day and the entire trip, which was certainly an incredible experience all around. Gorgeous country! I'd love to go back sometime.
Best of luck all!
-2four
Can't all be Fun and Games! Sure it can! This is where I talk about non-poker things!
One week ago today I finished my prop with DJ, we both reached our goal so no money exchanged hands. I played a lot and lost a lot, but... I did learn a few things!
I found out that putting in volume isn't actually that hard, but putting it all in at once is a terrible idea. Taking breaks, small short sessions, staying very relaxed and focused is by far the best way to get in a lot of volume without getting thrown off your A-game. So after that I took a couple days off, enjoyed St. Patty's Day and the weekend afterwards and now that my liver has recovered it's back to the grindstone!
Things have actually turned around some and I'm feeling really stoked about how I'm playing again. As some of you that know me are aware, I have a whip (not a real whip, or a car, but something that I'm whipped by, the way one of your buddies is probably whipped by his girlfriend), and that whip is Starcraft 2.
In the interest of getting my grind on, I've agreed to a prop bet with DJ Sensei for us both to get in hands. Runs from yesterday Feb 15th (my birthday yay!) to March 15th at 3AM local time! So if any of you know want to help out, send a ton of hand histories his way, links to amusing time wasters, ask him tons of questions in his video threads, etc... you get the gist!
I hope that we both make tons of moolah, run well, and enjoy a little sweat with it! If we both reach our goals it's a push.
In other news I began an interesting thread almost 2 weeks ago in the HU forum: http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/21-Heads-Up-NL/topics/338841-Anyone-playing-50nl-want- with the premise being that I like posting in hand history threads in that forum, but thinking about it, a raw hand history is difficult to decipher in a HU match. A lot more of the things that make you good at heads up are figuring out your opponent, their strategies, adjusting, responding to their adjustments, etc... a single hand history just can't encompass that as well as a video of a full match can. So time to review some vids imo. Only 2 things wrong with that though. #1 I can talk about poker for a LONG time! #2 videos take a LONG time to render and it's difficult or impossible to play more than like 2 tables on my comp with HEM, poker clients, table ninja, and Camtasia all running at once! No big deal though as I'm glad to help give back to the DC community that made me into the player that I am today.
This is still going on if you play 50nl hu and would like a video review or a short skype coaching session PM me or post in the thread!
Lastly, I will leave you with this:
My gf got me a mini T-rex, "good luck charm" as she calls it, for Valentine's Day. I think it's fucking sweet. Mini T-rex and will be bro'ing out a lot and IT WILL BE AWESOME!
After significant planning, discussion with friends and coaches, a growing disgust for my current employment and my growth potential there, I've decided to take the plunge and quit my job to play poker fulltime.
This is coming on the heels of a massive upswing, which is nice, because it's given me some living expenses money and significantly padded my roll. However, it's important to remember that a massive downswing is just around the corner and failing to account for it can truly mean financial ruin. :( So with that said, it's time to sharpen the skills, get into the chair, and take the reigns!
Essential things to focus on as a professional:
1.) Healthy Diet - This should be no problem as I generally eat pretty healthy overall. What I want to focus in on with this goal is making sure that I am eating breakfast early enough after I wake up, making sure that I am eating lunch at a reasonable hour, snacking healthily through out the day, and getting in a good dinner. I love cooking and am working to improve my repertoire. One of these will be coming my way soon. (It's sharp as FUCK! and highly acclaimed by people that know what they are talking about)
2.) Working out on the reg. - The gym is something that I had struggled to wrap my brain around for the majority of my life. I've been blessed with a super high metabolism (aka skinny kid syndrome) and haven't ever felt the desire to bulk up or get to the gym. About 2 years ago, my father lost 70 lbs in about a 4month span. It's done wonders for his energy, demeanor, outlook on life, and overall he's just a better person because of it. That really helped me get some perspective on it, and a little further down the line, I found the "Get better at this kind of shit for dummies" book in Built For Show by Nate Green. This book took away the guesswork that was preventing me from regularly going to the gym, and put me on a structured program and steered me clear fo a lot of misinformation. I began to see and feel results in a very short amount of time. However lately I've been slacking and it's time to turn that around. Gym 3 times a week every week barring injuries. I can get in and get out in like an hour, there's really no reason not to, besides I feel like it really does help your mental acuity! Booyah!
3.) Read dammit! - Right now this is what my list of books that I need to read looks like, consequently, that's also what my nightstand looks like. There are so many things that I want to read up on as well as some fiction stuff that I enjoy. Additionally, reading before bed, helps me get to sleep much better than watching a movie/video or listening to music.
4.) Writing - As I mentioned in my last post, writing is something that I see a lot of value in. I enjoy blogging, and find that when I am writing it helps me organize my thoughts in such a way that just ins't possible in other mediums. "The ability to clearly communicate with others is and always will be a valuable skill to possess." (loosely paraphrasing my father) I feel that that is something that I have always struggled with and am now working to improve. Any suggestions on this matter are welcome!
5.) Work on my start up. - More details once we get further along, but a friend and I have started our own company and I'll be putting in a good amount of work on it in the coming months (years?). The idea behind it is really really good and I feel that if we can execute, we will have something awesome on our hands. All of these things that I have mentioned so far are pretty non-poker related; they are also constructive. Something that I was discussing with WiltonTilt recently is that when you play poker seriously (pro or not) and you go through a really crushing stretch it's good to have something to take your mind of off the game and specifically off of losing. For me this alternative was usually in the form of another game. I love games! But when you are constantly losing in poker and then you don't do well in other parts of your life, it can really begin to take a toll on your psyche. Another game might not be the best alternative, and really what are you getting out of it aside from some temporary entertainment? I think that having constructive non-win/lose activities in my life will be a big part of keeping mentally stable enough to take this on seriously which brings me to...
6.) Getting in hands. - This was one of the major things the had held me back from getting to this point earlier. I never put in much volume. I had about a 250k breakeven stretch in 2008-2009. I would play a couple hundred hands every couple days, no real schedule to it, and while I was doing well and winning consistently on my good days, I was also FPS'ing and losing consistently on my off days. Variance played a large role, I was running like ass, but everyone runs like ass! I wasn't thinking sometimes, I wasn't always playing well, I was letting my ego take over and the humility wasn't there. I just wasn't putting in the hands or the work to improve. At the suggestion of jk3a in Episode 1 of Moneytrain to Midstakes I started getting my act together, got a real groove on and started putting in a lot more hands. It's just so much easier to play well regularly when you are playing the same games day in and day out. You learn who the regulars are, what their tendencies are, who the fish are, the game dynamics that exist. When you come and go willy nilly in the games, checking in once every so often you can't identify those things and what I ended up doing was usually blowing a buyin or so every session on things that I wouldn't have done if I had been playing in those games regularly. Additionally, as much as I hate to encourage volume for volume's sake, the rakeback really helps out. Getting a $19.06 rakeback payment was just kind of sad. Get your ass in gear if you're going to be serious about this shit!
7.) Homework assignments - I've been assigning myself homework assignments to improve my edge in the 6max games that I am regularly playing in. This means spending a lot of time in pokerstove and HEM and writing out my findings into some concrete nuggets of advice that I can write that my future self will actually find useful. Another part of this includes getting coaching check ups and reviewing a lot of hand histories in the forums to keep my thought processes in check.
8.) Staying Social - Remember that there is more to life than just poker. The relationships with non-poker friends are essential to staying grounded and not getting lost in your own little world of checks, calls, bets, and raises. Do fun things with your friends that you will remember (or remember the hangovers from) for the rest of your life. I love my friends and I love that they don't always understand what I do or why I will be glued to the computer for hours at a time. They don't have to understand, it's usually better that they don't. They just have to be the people that you want to be around and do things with. That's why they are awesome.
9.) Be good butters! - Don't ask, but it's really important!
Best of luck to you all! I feel like I've worked hard enough, ran well enough, put in the work and finally gotten to the point where I'm ready to embark on this! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
One of these critters?! It kinda looks like a rat... wearing a set of Mickey Mouse ears... on crack... but alas, no. Just some awesome pokering and some awesome life stuff.
Poker: I have been taking a shot at some higher stakes games and crushing (also running ridiculously well). Playing a good amount of volume as well and am closing in on the 1500 Black card points required for a 3x multiplier. As a result of playing a ton, I have been the largest rakeback payments of my life. Score! If I keep up the current volume that I've been putting in so far this year, I am pretty confident that I could support myself solely from rakeback.
Disclaimer: I have seen numerous threads and people suggesting grinding like a hundred of thousand hands at like 25nl or 50nl to support themselves based solely on the rakeback, and I think that that is a terrible idea for almost everyone. Similar to some decent advice regarding going pro : "You should be making as much from poker as you do from your job before considering quitting," I would offer that you should be at least as much from poker as you do from rakeback before considering supporting yourself with rakeback being a large factor in your decision, and preferably much more. Playing a shitload of tables brings down your winrate, and a lower winrate means more variance... A breakeven player or very small winner trying to support themselves off of rakeback alone will find their bankroll eroded by variance some months and will be forced to play smaller, use their rakeback to replenish, or end up playing on a shorter roll leading to a higher risk of ruin. Constantly stressing your bankroll will also prevent you from growing it and eventually moving up.
I will be making a life update soon as well at www.thedeucefo.com some really great stuff to talk about, some serious life stuff but also a few things that are funny, awesome, inspiring, who knows what else?
One of the things that I have really enjoyed of late is the Blueprint series here on DC. I am actually considering making one of my own and posting it up in the members video section. As I recently discussed with my girlfriend I have in fact been playing online poker now for 7 and a half years. I feel old just writing that, but I've gotten a good bit of experience with this game and lifestyle, so I figured that it might be valuable to the DC community.
One thing really struck me this morning listening to Baluga Whale's Blueprint--writing. "Writing seems like it's a hassle for us because we can speak and we can read. So if we want to intake info we can just read it or listen to it and if we want to put out info, we can just say it... You can't organize your thoughts nearly as well when you're listening or when you're speaking or even when you're reading as well as you can when you're writing. Writing forces you to have structure to your thoughts; words, sentences, paragraphs." I find that often in my life, is that I'd much rather just rattle something off than sit down and compose it in a well thought out fashion. In school I would have a lot of fluff in my papers, usually because I wouldn't put enough time or effort to really delve into the subject matter enough to get to know it really well and spell it out in a very clear and concise fashion. "You can tell when someone is good or not at poker by how they describe things, what words they use." That's really true with a lot of things in life. Interesting...
My personal resolution is to practice writing a lot more. Andrew's right, it's not easy (for me at least), but if you practice you can't help but get better.
With that, I leave you with Louis CK's awesome possum:
