Grant Kropf's Blog

I've always been a very conservative type of poker player, player selecting carefully.  But now I feel the desire to play higher stakes and test my mettle at PLO.  I think a big part of it has been learning about the power of habits.  I am an almost obsessive person, so if I can put a few healthy habits in place and maintain carefully but not go overboard, I can achieve at a level beyond the average person.  For most of my life, I have always been an underachiever, settling for what I considered to be the least effort with the most reward.  I thought like an accountant.

But now I think like a entrepreneur.  Sure risk/reward still influences my decisions, but my main reason for being in the game is to test my limits and see what I can accomplish.  It's not about the money as much as it is the lifestyle for me (although they aren't mutually exclusive).  I could sit in my sweatpants and play poker for the rest of my life if I feel it challenges me enough.  It's more about how sharp I feel internally than how I look to others.

I worked out my legs today.  Worked out so hard I threw up in the parking lot when I was done.  I've started running 4 miles at the end of my lifting sessions (which are about 1 - 1 1/2 hours) to see how much I can withstand.

All in all, I think these are the adjustments I've made to my life mentally to deal with the constant stress.  Smoking (cigars) alleviates the stress, but I know that's just a short-term band-aid.

A REALLY important thing I discussed with Chris Yeung was the idea of MITs - Most Important Tasks.  You set 1 or 2 tasks that must be completed that day and you give them top priority every hour of every day.  That's really helped me out.

Been awhile since I've posted in my blog.  Think I'll start again.  A lot has changed in the past 9 months or so.  Since september of last year I quit my job and became a professional HU LHE player.  As the action started dying in Jan 2010 compared to previous months I started learning PLO.  Now I'm using my bankroll to play PLO 6max and PLO HU almost exclusively.

On a sidenote, I withdrew all of my money out of Absolute poker, except for $25 which I wasn't allowed to pull out for bonus reasons.  I've run that up to around $220 the past few days from playing PLO HU.  Man I think I've found my game.  Only in PLO HU could I run bad and still break even.  People really don't leverage position well in the small stakes HU matches, and even if I don't get the cards I can still use my position even more to level the field.

Since my last post I’ve been playing well and running decent. I really evaluated my game the night of the bad run and realized my mistakes. I made some corrections and made back my downswing in the following 2 days. My big leak was not bet/folding enough.

Finally completely free from my job. Cherishing the good things in life, like having free time, eating grapefruits and hot dogs, and playing a lot of poker.

Today I played 676 hands against a huge NIT. He bluffed probably only 1% of the time, and only as a semibluff on the flop when he checkraised or as a bet on the turn when checked to as a semibluff with a draw. The match swung both ways but near the last 200 hands I figured out he was peeling drawy flops light and folding if the turn bricked off, so I was barreling 100% in those situations and stealing the pots IP. He also never peeled dry/scary boards OOP without some kind of awesome hand/draw. One thing I got better at today was moving the cards I’d 2 barrel IP around exploitatively based on oppoonent tendencies. I’m also getting good at figuring out the types of hands they 3bet.

Finally put in a long poker shift, about 7 hours now. Lost $1000 playing 5/10 against some HUGE fish. Really frustrating. I think I’m showing down a little more than normal because I’m kind of tilted. A lot of big pots lost on me capping the turn correctly and having the miracle card hit over and over on the river. I thought I was playing well too :(. Well craps.

In addition to that I’ve been hit n run about 10 times total tonight, where a guy wins ~$70 and leaves.

I played a guy that would CR flop, CR turn with essentially any 2nd pair+, any draw. He was weird. I 3bet turn once with Khigh on a board pairing turn on a drawy flop and checked river IP and won.

I’m starting on a new quest, the mysterious 8 game. Already know limit hold’em, and a little NL. Starting with Razz, then 2-7 TDL, then LO8, stud and stud hi/lo, then plo. People have been saying the games are soft, and honestly if I were knew to poker I would find the 8 game the most exciting and fun. I opted to learn 8 game instead of specifically PLO because it will broaden my game selection a great deal and make me a more flexible player, in case I need to learn another new game in the future.

Took a couple days off from playing poker but tonight I got into it! The past 4 hours flew by pretty quickly. It’s easy to lose track of time when playing heads up limit. I never count the minutes or ask myself “do I have to play any longer?” except for when I have to pee really bad and I’m playing a subpar player.

Today was my first day as a pro. I woke up this morning and went straight to get a physical. They poked and prodded me. If I’m going to be a professional I need to do everything military style… jk :). I almost passed out when they took my blood, it’s not that I hate needles, I think it’s more that losing blood quickly makes me dizzy. I suck at giving blood. But overall I was pretty healthy, my blood pressure was low, and I’m 6’2 and 183 lbs, so I’m pretty happy. I want to get up to 200 lbs. by the end of the year. I plan on lifting about 4-5 days per week.

Since going pro, I plan on making some major lifestyle changes to maximize profit. Since I am taxed heavily on poker winnings 1 dollar saved is more valuable than a dollar lost… So I plan on kicking my habit of eating out almost everyday and plan on being more of a houseman. Since I will be at my apartment the majority of the work day I plan on cleaning it everyday. I hardly ever cleaned my apartment when I worked at costco, I was too tired.

So life is good. My first day as a pro will probably remain in my memory as one of the best days of my life. I have a lot of options now because of poker. I have been toying with the idea lately of joining the air force reserves, with the possibility of becoming a full-time fighter pilot eventually. Being a fighter pilot was my childhood dream, and I think it’s a viable option – I’d be good at it, I’m single and don’t have a family I have to take care of, and I’d rather die fighting than die an old man. But we’ll just have to see. Heads up limit is almost just as fun though, so idk yet.

I’ve been in a funk for a month. Tired of my job, not playing too many hands, but running like a bearshark (def: a hybrid of bear/shark. Natural predator of both bears and sharks) when I played. Then I had a pretty crappy day on monday, lost $600 playing 5/10. Could’ve been a lot worse, but still enough to shake me up a little. For some reason that put me in a good mood. It felt like someone offered me a challenge when I had that crappy day – “Play better”. I liked that challenge, and I’ve been in a good mood since. Yesterday and today I recouped the losses of that bad day and am back on track to playing.

Just counted my total $$, I have about $24,500 or so, bankroll + bank. I have about 18k or so in poker accounts and the rest in the bank.

This month was really profitable, especially considering I hardly played. I made about $5500. I have been running good and playing well. I do not really have a mathematical approach to the game yet, it’s more intuitive and psychological. When I quit my job in the coming weeks I’ll have a lot more time to study the game and get the math down. My coach sweetjazz has definitely helped me intuitively through some tough situations that I’m sure he’s sat down and done some thorough calcs on.

I’m currently reading mathematics of poker and not really getting anywhere yet, it’s pretty thick.

My account just broke the $8,000 mark. Funny that in January I was at $2,000. I would never imagine a 5 month return of 300% in the stock market, poker is such a great investment with a small amount of money.

Looking at my graph, my profits shot up incredibly sharply when I started playing heads up limit regularly. Given my ADHD personality, I am good at focusing on one thing, so heads up limit is ideal. I also like games that force you to think quickly and I love the psychology and mental stability required for heads up limit. I am a gamer at heart and HU LHE has the most action for sure.

My next obstacle I have to get past is to continue playing after I’ve won a hefty amount for the day. I have a bad habit of stopping when I’m winning.

Today went well. Played 100 hands of 5/10 and made just under $400 against a person who was trying to hit and run me but kept losing. He always went nuts when he got short and jammed anything pf. He was spamming chat with angry msg’s and said “bot?” because I didn’t talk at all. I ran really really well against him, which is nice because I just started taking my shot at 5/10 HU limit. Instead of having $1000 for this 5/10 shot I now have $1500, which gives me so much more flexibility. The money made at 3/6 vs. 5/10 is huge. Account around $7500 now.

I had a subway flatbread today. It was amazing and changed my life.

I have been playing my a and b game lately, and staying tiltless for the most part. Staying tight on my player selection at heads up until I get a bigger buffer of money for 5/10 HU LHE.

I might as well put some goals for the next 4 months.

By the end of May, I want to be taking a shot at 8/16 HU LHE (Account needs to be at $11,600 for a 100BB shot). I will need to make $4100 over the next 20 days. That’s about 205 per day. Given a 3bb/100 winrate, I should be playing 683 hands per day to make that goal. (4100/20 = 205. 205 / 30 = 6.83. 6.83 * 100 = 683 hands per day).

By the end of June, I want to be taking a shot at 10/20 (Account needs to be at 18,000 for a 100BB shot). If my account is at 11,600, I need to make $6,400 for the month. Playing 8/16 and winning 2.5BB/100 ($40/100 hands), My calculations are as follows. $6,400 /30 days in month = $213 per day. $213 / $40 per 100 hands = 5.325 * 100 = 532 hands per day.

By the end of August, I want to be at $40k. I need to make $22k in 60 days playing 10/20. $22,000 / 60 days = $367 per day. At a winrate of 2BB/100, I will make $40/100. I will need to play 367 / 40 = 9.175 * 100 = 917 hands per day to reach my goal.

This is going to take a ton of work and some rough downswings, but I’m excited. Good to finally be playing a limit like 5/10 where the rake isn’t nearly as much of a concern for HU.