Aze Gallo's Poker Blog

I know I've been slacking on the blog posts, my bad, I'll try to update more frequently from now on. 

February sucked. played just over 500 games and only made around $500. February wasn't a complete waste: I did get a lot of review in. 

And review has been the theme of my pokerings for quite some time now. I've put in more review in the last 3 months than I have since the start of my poker career. I am completely obsessed with poker lately. From the moment I wake up to the moment I pass out, while listening to an episode of The Blueprint here on DeucesCracked, poker is on my mind. 

I definitely feel like I'm at the peak of my game and improving every day and it's a great feeling - tho my personal life is definitely suffering because of it -- I think it's been about a month since I've even bothered going to get my haircut. In fact I've barely left my house in the last few weeks unless it was to get food or travel to this live 50NL game that's been going on at one of the local pool halls...

Speaking of that game.. It's fucking awesome! It's a 25cent/50cent game, most people buy in for $100, and it plays way deeper than that - it's pretty common to have at least 4 players $500+ deep in the game. The entire game pretty much plays cards face-up for me; everyone is pretty easy to read (save one or two players on occasion). I'm up something like $2,000 over just a few sessions at the game including one session where I got coolered to death for $500 within an hour and spent the next few hours tilting off to lose ~$600 total. The game got me thinking maybe playing a little live poker at the casino won't be such a bad idea as a pass-time that will allow me to get out while still making a little bit of money. I may start playing the 600NL game at the Hard Rock and take a few shots at the 5/10/20(ante) game.

I'm thinking of setting another goal to accomplish. I don't know why but today I randomly decided I wanted to make $10,000 and at that point I could let my brain get a breath and not stress out so much over poker every second. It's silly and pointless but whatever I feel like when I hit that mark there will be a weight lifted off my shoulder - maybe I can even go get a haircut and have a night out! 

well, gonna review a few more hands and pass out so I can wake up rinse and repeat tomorrow.

Well I know it's a little later than expected but I'm back with my results from January. 

+2,100 leaderboards / propbet / coaching. = ~8,000

January was probably the worst I have ever run in my poker career but thanks to rakeback and bonuses it ended up not being the worst month ever profit wise. As you can see I completed my 2k game prop bet. 

Running so awful forced me to study more which really has me feeling confident about my game. But confidence aside I've still been running pretty awful. I'm stuck about $3k before rakeback. I haven't played that much which is mostly due to mental fatigue from losing nearly every session I play and having a $1k downswing in under 15 games basically every day for the last 50+ days. 

I'm currently fighting off ANOTHER cold (this one is pretty weak) and waiting to get back into the grind.

I've been getting back in the gym which feels good, missed a few days because of the cold but I think I'll be back in later this week. 

I think I'm gonna go play some games now. Wish me luck, I need it.

First I want to give notice to a few of you that play in games with me on Full Tilt. I e-mailed support and requested a self chat-ban. I'm not ignoring you. For the few of you that I actually chop with heads up just keep an eye on the "discuss deal (1/2)". 

I was spending too much time in chat, mostly just joking around with regs but also wasting energy on trying to get some of the moron regs to actually *gasp* avoid playing games with 84738393 other winning players. I also regret to say that I was getting so tilted I went off the handle and started berating people, mostly regs but even fish :(. So chat has to go until I feel like I'm allowed to have it back. 

I've spent a lot of time in the past week or so working on my game and making some tweaks. I don't want to go into too much detail but I will say I don't think I've ever played as good as I'm playing right now. I'm obviously super confident in my game at the moment which is going to help me put even more volume in.

Speaking of volume... I'm currently  40 games ahead of pace to play the 2,000 games this month. This is actually not good news. I wanted to have the 2k games already done by this point but between the (possibly) worst run of my poker career and being sick from the 2nd of the month til a few days ago it's just been tough. 

I have 1,459 games played. Another sad thing is I spend quite a few FTPs in the store this month without realizing it would effect my MGR which effects my placing on the rake leader-board I'm on with my affiliate. It was a 1,750 MGR deduction so it's probably going to cost me a few hundred that I would've been up in the rake race.

I just had a pretty sick day so far, 80 games and +$2,500 which leaves me down $200 pre-rakeback for the month and up $3,600 after rakeback. Hopefully I can continue riding this good wave and maybe just maybe have at least some pre-rakeback winnings  for the month. Either way I'll be making $6-8k this month after RB/Bonuses/Coaching so theres always that.

See you at the end of the month!

Wish me luck. I need it. 

Full Tilt Poker recently made some changes to their new Black Card promotion.

For those of you that are unfamiliar: Black Card is a status you can achieve on Full Tilt Poker by earning an average of 500 Full Tilt Points a day over a rolling 100 day period.

The perks of being a Black Card member are: you get a physical Black Card (which is a very useful tool for picking up the ladies), ability to shop in the Black Card Store (which includes merchandise and CASH BONUSES), specialized e-mail support for BC members (much better than regular FTP support, IME), ability to play special Black Card tournaments and a 2x FTP multiplier; which means you earn two times the full tilt points for money raked than non-BC members.

Now, for me, the bread and butter of the Black Card is the specialized support, the cash bonuses in the Black Card Store and most importantly the 2x FTP multiplier.

The reason the 2x FTP is so important is because it is effectively additional rakeback and in this post I am going to help you figure out how much it is worth to you. 

---- MATHS WARNING!! ----

Let's start with some calculations based on the original Black Card program, which is still going to be the case for any of you averaging 500-1,499 FTPs/day (I'll explain more why this number matters in a bit). 

For the sake of saving time I am going to assume you have the standard 27% rakeback on your FTP account, you play SnGs/MTTs (cash rake is a different calculation), and give you results for spending your FTPs on the $5,000 cash bonus, $500 cash bonus, $250 cash bonus, the Step 5 tournament Ticket, $640 1M GTD ticket, $75 tournament ticket and $26 tournament ticket. 

There are other things you can spend your FTPs on but most of them will be of lesser value (except for higher buyin tournament tickets)

As most of you know, when you spend FTPs and you have an account with rakeback your purchase comes with a deduction to your MGR. This deduction comes at the cost of $5 per 1,000 FTPs. So for every 1,000 FTPs you spend you take a $5 MGR hit, and since you get 27% of your MGR you take a 27% hit of that $5 to your rakeback. In other words for every 1,000 FTPs you spend you lose $1.35 (5 * .27 = 1.35). 

Now let's show you how to find out how much an item is actually worth after the MGR hit. I'll show you the steps for the $5,000 bonus and see if you can do it yourself for the others (I'll give you the answer anyways but it's always good to know how to do the math by yourself).

$5,000 bonus - Well, you are getting a bonus of $5,000 at a cost of 1,100,000 points. At $5 per 1,000 points (1,000 goes into 1.1m 1,100 times) this $5000 costs you (5 * 1,100 = 5,500) $5,500 to your MGR, which reduces your rakeback payment by $1,485. You're effectively paying $1,485 to get $5,000 which leaves $3,515 profit. Got it? Good!

According to Full Tilt Poker's website a non-BC member gets 10 full tilt points for every $1 they pay to the rake. This means as a Black Card member your FTPs are worth double the rakeback as you get the 2x FTP multiplier which means for ever $1 you pay in rake you get 20 FTPs. 

Now, at a rate of 20 FTPs per $1 in rake it would take you (1,100,000 / 20 = 55,000) $55,000 paid in rake to earn enough points to get the $5,000 bonus; which we know now is a profit of $3,515. The percent that $3,515 is of $55,000 is the rakeback equivalent that you are getting, in this case (3,515 / 55,000 = .0639) just over 6.39% rakeback! This would mean a player with 27% rakeback and Black Card is now getting 33.39% rakeback.

Now it's understandable that most players aren't going to want to wait as long as it takes to rake $55,000 to claim the $5,000 bonus. As far as the cash bonuses go you'll be taking a bit of a hit getting any of the others in the store vs the $5k ($500 bonus = 5.3% RB, $250 bonus = 4.99% RB); but fear not! There are other options available to retain a higher rakeback percentage in our friends the tournament tickets.

Buying a tournament ticket is effectively buying cash, with the restriction that you must use that cash to play a tournament of that buy-in, which shouldn't be much of a problem since you're already a SnG/MTT player. So the formula is the same as buying a cash bonus from above. 

Let's take the $75 tournament ticket for example. You're buying $75 at a cost of 16,500 FTPs so (16.5 * $5 =) $82.5 MGR hit, of that you take a (82.5 * 0.27=) $22.275 rakeback hit leaving you with (75 - 22.275=) $52.725 in value. It costs you (16,500 / 20=) $825 in rake to make the 16.5k FTPs needed to buy the ticket so you're getting a rakeback value of (52.725 / 825 =) 6.39%! The same rakeback value as a $5,000 cash bonus that would normally take you $55,000 in rake to clear.

The $26 touranment ticket is worth 6.265% RB there are other tournament tickets which can yield you an ever higher RB %; such as the $640 ticket to the $1M GTD at 133,000 points, a 6.924% RB value; though most will be about the same or slightly less value. 

---- MATHS WARNING!!!! ----

With the introduction of the new improvements to the Black Card promotion now members who achieve a rolling average of 1,500-2,999 points get a 3x FTP Multiplier   and if you achieve a 3,000+ point average you get an amazing 4x FTP Multiplier

I'm going to use the $5,000 bonus to illustrate the effects of a 3 or 4x multiplier as it should be a lot more realistic to use your FTPs for this bonus if you've earned this level of BC.

$5,000 bonus for 1,100,000 points. (1,100 * 5 =) $5,500 MGR hit, (5,500 * .27=) $1485 rakeback hit. ($5,000 - $1485 =) $3515 value.

Now, here is where the change takes place. Instead of $1 to earn 20 FTPs with a 3x FTP you are now getting 30 FTPs per $1 paid to rake, so... 1,100,000 points divided by 30 points (per $1 in rake) = $36,666.66. You are paying roughly $18,333.34 less for the same bonus and getting (3,515 / 36,666.66 =) 9.586% rakeback!

When you average 3,000+ points your 4x FTP makes that jump to 12.781% RB!

That means a player with a 27% rakeback account who achieves BC 4x status is making almost 40% rakeback! And even better durring happy hours he is making almost 43% RAKEBACK! That is quite the step up from the 27% you thought you had, isn't it?

Well, I think this post has served it's purpose. No go out there and grind, just make sure you stay away from my tables -- rakeback is worthless if I'm taking all your maneys. 

Well, let's start with the good news.

REBOUND:

I made a nice little poker rebound in the past few days. At the moment I'm only stuck $1,703.74 in winnings for the month and I'm actually up $212.79 after rakeback.

RAKEBACK:

Full Tilt Poker introduced a few upgrades to their Black Card program. 

They introduced a concierge service (for members with a >1,500pt/day average) where you get to send in a reciept for something you bought in real life and have FTP points deducted in return for cash. This is really cool, however the rate isn't that great and I still find better values for my FTPs (namely the $5,000 bonus). 

More importantly they added a tiered system to Black Card. Originally everyone who had BC status would have their FTPs multiplied by 2, now they've introduced 3x and 4x multipliers.

With the original BC my rakeback was 40% and 43% during happy hours. Now I'm getting 43% RB (46% happy hour) and in a few days when I get my average over 3,000pt/day; i slacked for a while; I'll be getting 46% rakeback (49% happy hour!). This is obviously great for me and a very welcomed change.

NO MORE SORE THROAT!:

Yup, I woke up with a sore throat for the 11th time today, but mid afternoon it cleared up. Throat feels fine now for the first time in 11 days weeeeee...

...Oh, but that brings me to the bad news

I'M SICK :(

Yup. My throat cleared up as my entire face got congested, my nose is runny, I have the chills and I just feel shitty all over. 

I'm thinking I got sick early this month, but it was extremely mild, and then I caught another cold recently that's taking hold now. WTF!? :(

I really hope I recover fast and this doesn't have too much of an effect on my goal of 2,000 games this month. As of right now I'm at 758 games played; 16 games behind pace. I wanted to play more tonight but I just felt too shitty. At least I ran good.

OK I guess it's best if I try to pass out now. Send in the get-well-soon vibes, I need 'em!

Well, for the first time this month I am behind pace to finish my 2,000 game prop bet. Pace would be 580 games and I am at 557.

I have been running insanely bad. Probably the worst run of my poker career in regular turbo sngs. I had 8 losing days in a row, and it seems like I'm losing $1k almost every time I play.  I am running unrealistically bad in card distribution (I am constantly shoving into hands that dominate me) and a bit bad in all-ins in general. It really all feels pretty surreal right now. Needless to say it's been making it pretty hard for me to look forward to putting in much volume.

I feel like I've been playing pretty well (spare the end of a session or two where I just tilted out of my mind) and I have been doing a ton of review to make sure I'm not making many mistakes; I haven't seen anything that bad. I've even had a few regulars comment on how bad I've been running. 

There's not much I can do besides keep my composure and put in the time and ride it out. Like my new tattoo says - "This too shall pass". And that's all there is to it. If I keep playing +EV poker this will pass and I will start making money again, I just hope it comes sooner rather than later. I still think I'm going to beat this 2,000 game prop, I'll make up for the slacking and then some in the next few days. 

Well, time for sleep so I can wake up and crush in the morning. Nite!  

I went to hang with my boy Derrick while he was getting some of his tattoos touched up. D has been trying to get me to get a tattoo forever, I've always had one in mind but I never really thought I'd actually get it. D gets one of the artists to make the stencil for me and I tell the guy that I'm probably not going to get a tattoo but I'll check it out - he puts the stencil on me and I'm just instantly loving it. 

I've never gotten a tattoo before so I'm pretty nervous and of course the tattoo is to be put on my upper chest /collar bone which is supposed to be one of the more painful areas you can get a tattoo but I said fuck it I've just got to do it. You only live once.

I'm sitting in the chair pretty on-edge talking to the guy about what kind of pain to expect and if he has any tips to keep me from jerking around and ruining the tat. He's basically telling me that it's going to hurt but just to remember to breathe and focus on not moving. He tells me "OK, I'm going to start a line right now so you can feel it and let me know if it's too much for you", he does it and I didn't feel a thing, I'm like yeah ok funny but do it for real and he tells me it was for real. Surprisingly through the 1.5-2hr session I really felt no pain at all, I think I only made a face once as he was going over a bone.

I'm really happy with the way the tattoo came out. I only have crappy phone images of it right now but I'll get some better ones taken later.

"Isto Tambem Passara". It's Portugese for "This Too Shall Pass". It's my favorite quote (King Solomon), something my mother told me that really stuck with me. It's also in honor of my mother (she's still alive) and my heritage as an Azorian (Portugese). 

In unrelated news I'm on one of the worst bad-runs of my poker career. I'm a little bit ahead of pace to play the 2,000 games for July but I'm stuck something like $5k and just running SO horrible. I had one winning session in the last 9 days of play. It's been the same luck all the way though, I just keep shoving into hands that dominate me - I'm also running a little bad in all-ins in general aside from just being dominated pre. I'm pretty much breakeven pre-rakeback for the past 2,500 games which is obviously standard even for a winning player but it's really annoying to go through. 

I'm trying really hard to stay in a good mental state. I don't think I'm doing an awful job at keeping my composure but I may look to one of the mental coaches here at DC and book some sessions. 

Hopefully this runbad stops really soon and leaves me a better player because of it - if it keeps up too much longer I'm afraid it may really have a negative effect on me mentally in regards to playing.

Well. I'm off to play a bit more. Look forward to your comments!

So I've made a little motivational prop bet for the month of January with a few poker buddies. I have to play at least 2,000 games in the month. 45mans $26+ and 6max/9mans $36-$350 (mostly $60-$119). No Super Turbos and I don't play any more than 9-10 tables at a time.

This may not sound like a lot to some of you but I have only played more than 1,000 SnGs in a month twice (excluding SuperTurbo). I'm pretty well known for my laziness when it comes to playing poker which is why I got any action on this. 

At the moment I have $490 in bets. 

Unfortunately I think I'm coming down with a cold  which will probably cut into my playing time quit a bit so I'd say my buddies have a decent edge right now. If this turns out to be a cold bad enough to stop me from playing I just hope it doesn't last too long.

I guess I'll do occasional blog updates to let some of you follow the fun. 

Yesterday I played 102 games. Not bad.
 Today I played 77  games because I'm starting to feel shitty from this bug and I wasn't able to pay much attention at the tables, I'm pretty sure I played horribly. I ran a little bad both days :(. I'm stuck about $1,500 before rakeback. 

WML! 

It seems like it went by too fast but 2010 is over and 2011 is here. 

Overall 2010 was a pretty good year. It left me with a lot of good memories and even tho I didn't do nearly as much grinding as I should have (by a long shot) I feel like I've finally come into my own as a poker player, I feel very confident in my game and my abilities as a coach.

All things said and done in 2010 I made just around $90,000 which is pretty good considering the lack of volume I put in. 

I finished the year 6th 5-6 seated turbo $101-$300 total profit and 15th 9-10 seated $300-$1,000 on the sharkscope leaderboards under my Full Tilt account. 

I finished as the #1 5-6 seated turbo $101-$300 total profit on Full Tilt.

I am also proud to say that 3 of my regular students have Sharkscope stars of their own.

On the SS 5-6 turbo $16-35 total profit leaderboard Slideby finished 14th, Killab101 finished 5th and Raven4Knight finished in 2nd place! It feels so good seeing these guys have this success. Congrats guys!

I am obviously more than a little upset with my volume in 2010. I was beyond lazy and it's stupid because I'm in a position to really make some good money right now and I'd hate to wake up one day and see this oppertunity passed. The whole poker legislation thing with the threat of a 15month blackout really scared me straight and I think I'm finally ready to start grinding.

In december I put in the most volume I've ever put in at regular turbo sngs with 80% of the volume coming in the last 2 weeks. I have a feeling my days of not grinding are over - I'm ready to make heaps of money!

After RB/Bonuses and money from coaching/videos I made just over $8,000 in decemember playing just under 1,200 games. 

Well, I need to get on the grind for 2011, but before I do let me just put down my goals... better yet, forget goals, let me tell you what I am going to do in 2011.

I will play a minimum of 18,000 SnGs. 

I will make a minimum of $200,000 (after RB/bonuses/etc) and am hoping I can bink a few MTTs to make this a much higher number. 

I will improve as a poker player and a coach / video instructor. 

Outside of poker; I will be more responsible with my money. I will grow as a person. I will return to my routine at the gym and not miss days... I will conqure the world 

Well if I'm going to do all this I better get started ASAP. Let the crushing begin!

GL EVERYONE!

hi my name is aze,

im drunk

here is a pictuer of me with a stripper. 

bye.