DJ Cautious On Stars: The Worst Player In The World

After all my plans at the beginning of the month to get back online and to start playing again I still have not made the jump. In a way I am happy with myself as it means I have reached the stage where I am not just jumping at any game which is going and playing regardless. Instead I am focusing on other stuff which is going on in my life like working on my start up company and putting all my energy into that. I do miss online but don’t feel I have the time to commit to playing it properly,

 

However the funny thing is I still play live which some will say does not make sense. Why would someone still play Live if they are complaining about having limited time as live play takes much more of ones time than online. The reason I play live at the moment is for the break from the computer and for the social interaction. With all the online concepts which I have learnt I don’t have to focus too hard when I play live so I can have a conversation with people, have a drink, a massage, talk about business opportunities and generally relax from the long day and pressure I am in starting up a company!! I remember reading a book that people play poker for different reasons and two years ago I didnt get it. I thought everyone played for money money and just money but now I can understand. I turn up to play my best but then only with an amount I am willing to lose. I dont have a figure in my head that I need to hit and then leave the table.

 

In conclusion even though I miss the competitiveness of online at the moment I need something which both relaxes me and is social while at the same time is not too taxing on the brain and that I would have to say is live play!!!

Dont worry though as soon as I get that online mojo back I will be hitting the tables hard!!!!

 

In reference to the above title this is a statement which I read time and time again on different forums and poker websites. I want to first and foremost say i think the word that player is a "Fish" is a Derogatory word to call anyone. Yet this is the common word people use it all the time on forums etc. I have seen players online abuse players calling them fish etc and also live calling people fish but mainly behind their back. Its like saying you motherf**** to someone you dont know... you are very likey to get a punch in the face so why do a lot of poker players not show the same level of respect to people they would overwise show respect to in normal life??? Its better to call someone a beginner, or causal player or action or simply a bad player to saying "oh you know you are a fish aka motherf*****".

I have been called many words online.. fish, dochue bag, you f*** bastard etc when I sucked out or won a lucky pot etc by players who claim to be the best. I think it shows a big lack of maturity if when you lose a pot you are attacking the player who won it from you. MAN UP!! Take it like a man (or woman). Has respect in yourself and intergrety in your behaviour and people will play with you all the time...

In answer to the title, all the so called fish have gone back to play live with people who respect them and where they can enjoy and play the way they want to play without having someone on cyberspace abuse them for no reason. I play in games where I make an effort to engage with people and make sure they are at least having a good time beacuse at the end of the day as a professional poker (which I dont claim to be) these players should be your most valued customers. They are paying your bills so you should make an effort to make them want to play with you and not have them walk to a casnio look at you (douchbag number 1 with your sunglasses and not even a word hello who goes nuts at players when you lose a pot while playing 1/1) and decide not to sit down. (Im not having a go a sunglass or 1/1 players before I get killed in the forums lol but just make a point!!!). You should treat bad or causal players who donate the same way Belligio would treat a rich gambler in town for a big boxing fight!!!

Now I know i am going off on one but its just something I observe and sorry to say I think us young guys are worse at it than the older guys. In the games I play with a lot of older guys in london these guys are so respect to the other players. Years and years of experience has taught them it makes no sense to berate the bad players and call them all sorts of names because it will scare players away. I discus will all the action players about online and everyone has dabbled online but none of them any more beacuse first of all they lose and then get called names for good measure...

Now I know I am probably boring you now as I have been rambling on but lastly I want to give an example of how live players treat their customers. I had been playing 5/10 in Boragta in AC for 30 hours. I was a real action player and had had swings of up or down 10k. The players loved it and it was a fun game. When I suggested I was going to quit because I was too tired and wanted to head back to New York as I was too tired a few of the older players offered to let me use their loyaty points to get a room there so I could come back in a few hours and continue playing... As I mentioned above - Looking after your customers!!!!

Very random title you may say but I lost the equalivent of $1000 playing live in London playing plo on Monday and I feel great..

Why you might ask? Its because for the first time in a long time I reisted the urge to run back the next day and jump straight back into the game and win my money back. I am happy I protected myself before I went to the casnio and only brought enough that I was willing to lose and I left my Debit card at home so that I didnt have a really bad bad lose. I happy that I kept playing in the game when I was up because it was a good game and did not lock up my chips and leave.

Bascily I am happy that I am really working on sorting out the one big leak in my game and that is when I lose I lose big and also having bigger losses than wins!!!  Obviously when I got up from my seat and when was asked are you coming back I felt like shit and also on the way home didnt feel to good but I am happy I aint catching those losses and I am waiting till when I get it out of my system before I return (which will probably be today lol)..

Ahh poker poker

Just back from a short trip from the crazy city that is Amsterdam.. Had a crazy time even though I dont remember most of it but was good to get away and relax and just chill. The sickest thing was that I stayed across the road from the Holland Casnio but felt to resist the temptation to go play poker with the Dutch as a) I was on holiday with my gf and she would be livid and b) I was abit out of it that weekend and would probably have blown off cash..

The whole of June I have just had no motivation to play online poker. As I posted before I had a very swingy trip to the WSOP in vegas which completely burnt me out. As one of my friends said to me "How do you go to the WSOP and not play any tourneys - You traveled half away around the world to play cash games fool"!! Now looking back at it I have to laugh and agree and say I should have at least played one but hey thats life.

Back in London I have been working on a new Biz venture so the time to grind poker online simply has not been there. I am seriously thinking of just playing 8-10 hours a week online max in July but playing slightly higher than I am playing at the mom - (which is 1/2) to get me interested and motivated. I still have my challenge of winning 18k on poker stars in 6 months prop bet. I have won 4k so far but have to admit that has been due to alot of luck, running good and taking shots when running good. It runs out in 3 months time so need to get back on it.

Been playing live in London twice a week for short sessions and been doing ok. After being down at one stage in vegas 11k playing 5/5 plo and 5/10/25 I managed to end the month flat which also included my Vegas travel expenses which I am thrilled about..

Now all I need to do is get my motivation back and fire up my online account!!

My goal at the beginning of the month was to when I get back from WSOP to grind out and get in alot of hands of plo to improve my game. However the desire to play after putting in crazy long sessions in vegas and playing in alot of tough and intense games is not there. I just want to relax and focus on other non poker related stuff for a while just to get myself sane!!!!

I think it is important for all of us to take sometime off and just chill!! You dont even need to travel!! Just hit the self exclude button for a week and just get the stuff we want to get done in our life done. Sometimes the problem with online poker is your house becomes your place of work so you dont get to enjoy it anymore as any spare moment you checking on your pc/laptop to see if any juicy games going and if there is your jumping right in. You sometimes negelting family and friends and it becomes almost a drug addiction!! So I think its heathly to self exclude for a while and just sort your ish out!! Get your goals figured out for the next few months, hang out with friends, go and get wasted, go shopping and get some new clothes and just get yourself together. Its important to actually self exclude for a week  as sometimes the tempation is too much and you end up jumping right back on your pc.

One important advice someone ever told me is that there will always be a game tomorrow so why stress about todays game....

Very very good book I am currently reading about degens in poker and about poker characters and full time professionals is "Shut up and Deal" by Jesse May. Its an old school book but goes to show the same degen behaviour of poker players has not changed over the years and it reminds me of many a poker player I see in various card rooms all over the world. The Cheats, the slowrollers, the bums, the guys who always broke, the guys who are the best players till they have a big lossing session are all describe in this book. Sometimes I like reading these book to look at my life and try and anyalsis: what type of character do other people see me as and also to ask myself what type of character do I want to be. Win or lose I want to be someone with intregety who does not allow let the results of poker to change me into some monster!!...

My point being Poker is great but there is alot of bad side effects and we all need to be careful to not let it change us badly...

I know many of u are thinking what the f are u on about and what u been smoking so I will crawl back into my little hole and shut up for now lol

Hi folks.. back in the UK after short vegas wsop trip. I was out there from 1st June to the 8th June...

All I can say was WHAT A CRAZY TRIP!!!!!

Was staying at the belligio for the most part and was probably averaging 3-4 sleep max per day. I play mostly cash games and they did not disapoint. the 5/5 plo action in the RIO was amazing and the 5/10/25 plo was just sick pure sicko!!! first day was stuck around 4k and the next day was stuck another 4k playing 5/5 and 5/10/25 so it was a great start lol By day 3 i was like what do I gotta do to book a win in this town and decided to go play 1-3 nl in ceasers for a few hours to get my confidence back and managed to grind out a $38 win which was the turn around for me.

On the 3rd of June i decided to short stack with 1k the 10/20 game which phil lack was playing in during his endurance challegene just to tell the folks back home I played with a "high Stakes pro".... I lasted all of 30 mins lol set over set pretty standard for me upto that point but hey at least i can say I played on the world breaking poker session!!!1

After day 3 I got my confidence back (the karma of 1/3 nl) and started winning at 5/10nl (OMG how slow can nl be at times.... so boring but abc play seems to work at that level) and then went back to take on the PLO games again at the RIO. I have got a new found respect for the old school gamblers who play the 5/10/25 and 10/25/50 plo (which i railed).  In the 5/10/25 which I played i saw 30k pots regularly and saw a level of gamble I had never seen in my life. Was just sick sick sick but great experience for me.

one thing which I think seperates the big winners and lossers at live high stakes plo is the ablity to not go on tilt and give money away when things are not going their way. Anyone can win when all the cards are running their way but its when you suffer a few bad beats or go card dead is what separates the tog dogs from the rest.

i left vegas truely humbled but in the end manged to hold my own and end up 1-2k down on my trip but have life lessions and poker experiences which will last me a life time!!

now its back to 1 tabling against the best internet players in the low to mid stakes plo players to improve my game for a month and work on playing time sessions rather than results based sessions to help improve my focus and concentration.. but for now im taking a break cos I am pokered out!!!!!!!

Ahh The month of May is over. Was an up and down month for me.

Firstly I decided to spend more time playing more hands and over the last 2 weeks been playing 200 and 100 plo. Im not going to lie its been pretty tough. When I was not playing much hands I think I was able to focus more and be more fresh and also just fully focus on one table. With my commitment to playing more hands I am playing 2/3 tables at a time and I feel my focus and freshness has dropped. Also it feels much more of a grind rather than when I was just playing one table for only 1/2 hours a day it felt much more fun. So I think I need to find what my balance is and how to get the best out of my time at the table. I also feel the problem with me playing more than 1 table is my game is not improving and I am staying on the same level so I think my goal for June is to commit to just playing 1 table hardcore and get my focus up and my game to a level I am happy with before I step out and play more tables. And this may sound crazy to alot of people I am going to find the toughest tables with the best players at the 0.5/1 and 1/2 and 1 table them and learn from the plays that these players make and see if I can improve my game to a decent level. I think I am going to write off June and get back into focus.

Sickest Concept I have looked at now is at the super super deep tables on stars the 100-250b and antes tables there can be a case for folding AAxx (xx being trash) preflop if there is like a 3 way all in and you know at least one of the players have AAxx as well. I think sometimes we see AAxx and go nuts with it. But if you 3 bet someone 4 bets and some else 5 bets shoves and we all playing over 300/400 bb why are we going to piss it all away when you could be in a situation that you only have 25 equity. Sometimes its worthwhile waiting for a better spot. I feel PLO is all about waiting for the better spots rather than just saying f it im going to gamble. U lower your variance and also you max your skill edge vs certain players by playing flops, turns , river. Il learnt this the hard way this month probably losing around 10 bi this month gambling it up with AAxx.

1 big leak I think in my game is playing both live and online and letting my results in one effect the other. I.e I have a bad session live I go online trying to chase my losses or tilting off my frustrations. Same with if I have bad session online I go live to gamble it up and try and get even.

I think for June I need to make the two seperate and not play both on the same day or only play them if I have won that day rather than if I have lost and I am chasing. I think as I want to improve my online game I should give up Live for a while or just play one varation during one week and then the other the next to vary it up.

 

Anyway now I am going to take a break from online poker. Im off to Vegas for WSOP action for a week and a half to mainly chill out and party it up with friends. I am still debating whether to play in a 1k donkement but I think I am going to focus most of my attention in cash games and night clubs and pool parties!!! And hopefully get my mind right so that when I come back I can attack online with avengence!!!

Been playing 0.5/1 and 1/2 plo this week on Stars. Yesterday had my first major down day in a while. I dropped 10 bi playing PLO. I made a few weird plays and calls that maybe was not postive EV but it has allowed me to know how alot of the players at that limit play. Il keep a few things to myself but I feel becoming a calling station at times (as long as you have the bankroll to absorb it) can really at any limit get you to know how your regular oppenents think.

Now my goal is use what I have learnt to ag the players I have played against and to use it to improve my game. But I am really learning alot from these stakes and I experimenting with alot of plays and moves to see what works and what doesnt.

Interesting Hand

Board: 7s 4h 3h

Opponent 1: 2S AD 6C 5D

Opponent 2: KS 5H 7H 7D

So sick that the first hand has flopped the nuts but only has a 31.3% equity .

SO sick PLO...

Anyway gotta run and see if I can back on track and book a win before I go Vegas