Planning Vegas
Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2008
Not played any poker at all in June so far. Been back at work too and had a bunch of stuff to sort out for Vegas. Unfortunately Roman had to drop out of the WSOP house so we interviewed a bunch of folk over the last few days and settled on Matt, a professional player from Florida, I think we've got a great mix of guys now.
Not long 'til I leave now... Saturday night!!! :) I cashed out all money I have in poker sites to organise my roll for the trip. Gonna stick $5k on Full Tilt and take $6-7k to Vegas. Seeing as I'd like to get staked for a bunch of tourneys I really need to come up with a schedule...
Rough poker schedule
Week 1/2 - settling in. Get acclimatized... used to the heat, housemates, etc over the first few days. I'll prob be gagging to play... Will grind a bunch of $1/2 and $2/5 live and play a few $200-300 range tourneys at the Venetian/Golden Nugget/Caesars Palace deepstack series.
Week 3 - up the stakes. Should be super confident live by this point, will play $2/5 exclusively, most likely at the Wynn and Venetian. Probably play in a $550 Venetian deepstack, and a $1.5k WSOP event.
Week 4 - finale. If I've been running well at $2/5 cash games and my roll is in good shape then I'll take shots at the $5/10 games. Depending how I feel about tourneys I'll consider playing more sats for to the WSOP ME, or maybe play the Caesars/Golden Nugget $1k Main Events instead.
Online
Throughout the trip I'll grind a bunch of $1/2 on FTP. Dropping down stakes to lower the variance and hopefully help provide some stability over the rocky variance of live poker. Also, I'm expecting to have to adjust a bit from iPoker so I think dropping to $1/2 is wise.
I'll be taking backing across a series of events I decide to play. It'll likely be around $4-5k worth of events, and I'll be looking for around 50% backing. I'll decide on the schedule over the next few days and post it up along with instructions on how to buy stakes. I'll be specifically targetting MTTs with large soft fields where there's the most value. I'd expect myself to be hugely +EV over the field in all of the events I play and I'll be selling stakes for face value so I think it'll be a great deal for anyone looking to invest.
Getting ridiculously excited about the trip now... :D
Also, this thread on 2p2 is GOLD.
And lol check out Amatay's crazy prop bet to try to make $10k this month from $33 SNGays on FTP, I've got $100 against but am secretly rooting for him.
May roundup
Date: Sat, May 31, 2008
It's pretty suitable that i'm writing this roundup tilted. The session tonight went the same way that the entire month has... I was cruising along nicely then started getting screwed left right and centre. Fk May.
EDIT: Just after I submitted the post I uncheck blinds get sucked out on in a $1.3k pot to go from a 2 buyins up to a -$1.2k day. Fk poker right now.
2nd EDIT: -$1.4k ... dropped $2,000 in the last 45 mins to complete donkeys. Fkkkk poker.
2,200 hands at 3/6, +8.2PTBB, +$2176
16,300 hands at 2/4, -1.7PTBB, -$2237
Live cash games +$400
LeggoPoker & coaching -$430
Site loyalties +$1000
MAY: + rougly $1000
Wow really, fk that month. I don't believe that shit, having a -$1.4k day on the last day of the month. What a bullshit month. I guess I asked for it because I knew I'd be bothered if I lost a lot of money tonight. SO FRUSTRATING.
Most frustrating month ever in poker now over. Lets go June!
Veeeeeegas babyyyyy,
play loads live,
drink,
party,
profit?
Week as pro finished
Date: Sun, May 25, 2008
Woke up on Saturday morning after the shitty loss and didn't really feel like playing poker much, went out to enjoy the sun and hung out with a bunch of friends. Went to see the new Indiana Jones film too... man that put me on the megatilt...
*** SPOILERS ***
I rate the Indiana Jones trilogy amongst the best films ever made, the final 2 in particular I watched like a million times when I was a kid. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a great film, however as a fourth Indiana Jones film it SUCKED. Right from the start there was shitty hollywood cheese, one liners and crappy jokes about Indy's now being old. I'd say I hated the ending more than any ending I've ever seen in a film. All the alien shit, man what the fuck were they thinking, it was just utter nonsense and turning Indiana Jones into fucking Men in Black. Then CG segment of the UFO taking off, and the cheesy one liners about space at the end. Are you kidding me? It's Indiana Jones, not the fucking X-files! So ruined. :(
There were a ton of bits in the film that irritated the hell out of me. Shia LaBeouf (who was awesome btw) swinging through the trees with the Monkeys FAILLLL, Mac's entire pointless plot filling envolvement with the film MASSIVE FAIL, casting the Janitor from Scrubs... FAIIIIL, explaining every little thing in the shitty plot as if the writers assume the audience are stupid when noone gives a fuck anyway because the plot is ridiculously farfetched... FAIL.
All that said, the action sequences in the film are fantastic and the settings/props are great. It is probably great by regular action film standards, but it's not a great Indiana Jones film.
*** END SPOILERS ***
Man that was a solid rant. Anyway, needed to take Sunday off poker also due to the Indiana Jones tilt, went up norf and spent a bunch of time with my cousins and the family and generally just lazed about in the sun which rocked. So hmmmmm, not a very hardcore grinding end to week as a pro...
Here are the main things I took away from week as a (lazy) pro...
It's extremely difficult to stay disciplined
I thought this was way overrated but it's a lot more difficult than I expected. I was pretty easily distracted, couldn't get into a good daily routine, and generally just didn't put in enough hands.
A bunch of my time was wasted table selecting, soemtimes playing less than4 tables (as there weren't enough good tables available at iPoker), spending too much time on hand analysis, blogging and IM. Overall if poker was to be treated like a full time job I'd for sure need to be more efficient with my "working hours". I actually feel like I put in quite a lot of poker hours, and if my time management was more efficient then I would have got in an extra 1-2k hands.
Grinding on your own is lonely
I'm used to working in a large team and always having a lot of friends around to mess around with, chat, help each other out, take breaks, etc. Grinding at home it's just me and the computer. It's a LOT less fun. Also, sometimes I don't feel like working, but at least when I go to work there are people to talk to and stuff, however when you're not in the mood for grinding there's just grinding, which kind of leads on to...
When you grind part time you play when you want to play, this makes poker a lot of fun... I spend a lot of time at work looking forward to playing, it's also a good release from everyday life. However grinding full-time you *have* to play, and despite still enjoying it, it does become more of a chore because you know you have to get those hands in. You start looking forward to doing other things when you're grinding poker.
All of that being said there are a ton of positive things, like not having a boss, working your own hours, taking holidays whenever, etc, etc. I think with improved efficiency and self-discipline, and living with other professional players then it would be a lot of fun. However it wouldn't suit me personally right now. I think I'd need to be doing $10k+ months regularly to even consider turning pro, mainly because I really enjoy my job.
Graph is pretty meaningless due to being only 5.6k hands, but some people like results so here you go. It's useful just to laugh at the shitty last 1k hands anyway :)
doomswitch day
Date: Fri, May 23, 2008
Woohoo standard train wreck nearing the end of the week as a pro. Got 1.6k hands in and had my biggest ever losing day, dropping 6-buyins. $2k of that being in the last 60 mins. Played fine, just ran incredibly badly. Don't really feel that tilted.
At first I was a bit frustrated that it came close to the end of the week as a pro, then I realised that it just doesn't matter. Yea, it's just fucked all of my results for the last week, but it means absolutely nothing. Short term results like the last 10k hands just don't mean that much at all when you can drop 6 buy-ins in a day while playing well.
Analyse, accept, grind.
3/6 Donkey Battle
Date: Tue, May 20, 2008
There was a cool part of my afternoon session yesterday where this donk basically took me to pieces over about 10 mins... really pissed me off at the time and I quit the session because I was frustrated. Gonna go back over the key hands here and check to see if I made any mistakes, adjusting to superloose maniac villains can often be something I do badly.
SuperLagDonk plays like 60/40/4 with a WTSD of 32. Guy is just a complete spazzer, his spew is ridiculous, he floats and raises flop bets a ridiculous amount of the time... he's the reason I'm at the table playing 3/6. Nevertheless he put me in some difficult spots due to his wide ranges and aggression. Naming him SuperLagDonk as I don't really want to call him out on here.
Anyway, these hands all occur within like 10 mins of each other...
Hand #1 : River makes a straight on the board
Considering this guys image and the fact that he could easily be bluffing at this trying to take it down, is there any way I can fold here? Do you think he'd check maybe putting me on something like 89 if he didn't have an 8?
Hand #2 : Can't be +ev calling on the river here?
Given that I've seen the guy call light on the flop a lot, and float a lot I guess I have to give him a bit more credit this time as he's making the call OOP. On the river I doubt he value bets a Q 8 or 7, I think he must have QT, T8, T7, A7, A8, maybe J9. I know he's capable of making a small bet like that with no hand on a board that coordinated if he thinks his opponent is weak. How often does he bluff? Not sure... again tough spot. Difficult to get a handle on how often he'll have some retarded air hand here. Don't think I can call.
Hand #3 : Big river bets mean strength
I flat the BTN as I'm happy playing JTo in position against him. Very profitable. No way I can fold the river, however I do gain the information that he bets big with strong hands on the river, could have been to make it look like a bluff in this case. But it's possible he bluffs smaller.
Hand #4 : Double-barrell on pretty dry board
Preflop and flop are very standard here. Firing the turn here is actually a value bet, I feel that I'm genuinely ahead of his turn range... I'll get value when he calls with FDs too. When he calls turn I think he either has a piece or a draw now, river misses the big draws, he checks and I check behind. My AJ high is actually good here a lot of the time I think when he calls me 2 streets with draws.
Hand #5 : ... and I lose my mind
After the previous few hands I just feel beat up by this guy, and probably start tilting, wanting to win my money back and labelling him too much as a donk spewtard.
Pre is standard, then I flop the nuts, I just flat his bet as I didn't think there was too much value in betting. Probably should have just raised him up to like $58 here, I think there definately was value, and I can take the lead back. Turn he leads same again, kind of wierd, at this point I think his range is still pretty wide, like a Q, PP, or an 8, he has a piece for sure, never has air.
Now the river should define whether he has an 8 or not, as his turn bet could have been either a blocker or an 8. A small river bet would mean blocker, and my hand is probably good... but a big river bet means that he likely has an 8 and wants value after concealing it a bit on the turn. Then again would he take this like with 57/79? Not as often as he would with an 8 I don't think.
Think I talked myself into calling where I shouldn't have here. Pretty stressful playing against maniacs as the ranges are just much wider and you're under constant pressure from them... I'll get him next time.
Week as a pro - update
Date: Tue, May 20, 2008
Cheers for the comments in the previous post guys. I'm not going to be doing like daily $$$ updates or anything like that for 2 reasons really... 1) I can't be assed, and 2) I don't really want to post short-term results, it's not good for the poker mindset ;). So I'll post my results at the end of the week. I'm not really interested in results anyway, I know where my game is at right now. More interested in finding out what it feels like to play poker as basically a full time job for a week.
The biggest thing I've noticed is god damn it's hard to be self-disciplined and self-motivated. Have I got up at 9am yet? No. Have I gone to the gym yet? No. :S When all I really need to be worried about is getting some hands in at poker I don't really bother doing anything else. Think that's mainly down to me personally lacking a lot of self-discipline, I'm generally a very undisciplined person despite the best intentions.
Day 1 I put in I think about 1.3k hands. But I mean I felt like I played a lot of hands, I didn't feel like a cruised it. I still felt relatively motived to play, but I was easily distracted by other things. Day 2 I put in just over 1k hands, which would have been more if it wasn't for having to quit early. It'd help to be on another site too so I had juicier tables available, as I was sometimes only 2-3 tabling. I don't really think I'd have too much of a problem getting motivated to put in around 1.5k hands a day, 5 days a week or whatever. That only comes to around 30k hands per month though, which most would argue isn't enough. However I like to spend around 2 hours a day on poker outside of the grinding... reviewing hands for myself and others, railing people, coaching and watching videos. My point? Putting 40-50k hands in per month would be very difficult to sustain unless you're playing 8+ tables, so I've got a lot of respect for professional players who do pull that off.
So yea, they're the 2 main points that have stuck out at me so far. There's been a ton of intersting play over the last couple of days as I've been playing with the regs a lot more which is a lot of fun. Was about to wind up the session to take a break tonight when this hand came up...
Interesting Hand
$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
Converted at weaktight.comHero ($828.30) UTG+1 ($422.70) CO ($510.50) BTN ($387.60) SB ($694.90) BB ($400.00)
Pre-flop: ($6, 6 players) Hero is UTG
Hero raises to $14, 3 folds, SB calls $12, 1 fold
My table image is really aggro. I took a buy-in off of villain about 20 hands ago in a hand that he played like a complete spewtard. Villain is 19/16/3, other than previous stacking hand i think he's pretty decent.
I think he's good enough to know that he can open his flatting range pre here because we're deep. So his range pre is as wide as Axs, broadway, scs and pps.
Flop: 
($32, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $24, SB calls $24
Flop is obviously bingo, he checks really quickly leading me to believe that he's - at least - calling any cbet, I bet regular sized and he snap calls. Almost certain he has a hand with some sort of strength now, like an A for a FD, I guess a PP still fits too.
Turn: 
($80, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $58, SB raises to $128, Hero calls $70
Turn is a great card for me as it makes the flush so I lead out wanting a call. He check-raises me about 2.3x, at this point i'm putting him pretty strongly on a flush. AK/KK are extremely unlikely as he 3bets me pre with them for sure. I don't really feel like he ever bluffs here, so I'm putting him on a flush almost exclusively. At the time I decide to flat (repping my hand as AT+) and let him lead the river where I'll move in, as the stack sizes will be perfect and I doubt he'll be able to find the fold. In heinsight this is probably a mistake, if I put him on a flush here then I should raise as there are a bunch of turn cards that could kill my action, like another diamond, K or the case 5 or A.
River: 
($336, 2 players)
SB bets $136, $136 to Hero ($662.3)?
The only hand I can put villain on at this point that could stack me is AJ. However I think I get a shove called by any flush (he calls like 60-70% of the time), AQ, and maybe AT.
So I shove, villain calls with... JcJh. Gaaay. I'm pretty sure my shove is still correct. Nice -$1.4k river to end the session lol. That was probably just a bad beat veiled in strategy, lol. I quit all tables real quick and don't play for the rest of the evening, which i'm happy with.
Champions League final tomorrow... Gwannn the Man U!
Going pro (for a week)
Date: Sun, May 18, 2008
My schedule over the past few weeks has been pretty ridiculous, usually going to bed at 2-4am and getting up around midday most days. I'd like to use the rest of my holidays productively and I think it would be a fun experiment to spend the next week as an 'online pro'. Getting into a good schedule will help me increase fitness, health and poker volume before Vegas.
Here's my rough daily schedule for through the week...
9am - Get up, breakfast
10am - Gym
11am to 2pm - Free to get lunch, hang out, etc
2pm to 6pm - 1st session, probably 1 or 2 hours of study (videos, PT, hand analysis from previous days weaktight hands) and a 2 to 3 hours of multi-tabling
6pm to 10pm - Free for dinner, chilling out, etc
10pm to 1am - Main multi-tabling session feasting on the evening fishies, spend 15-20 mins at end posting key hands on weaktight
1am to 2am - Chill out
2am - Sleepage
I think it's a pretty good schedule, will be interested to see if it works. I like the idea of the afternoon break to chill out and meet people for lunch, or just hang out and enjoy the sun in Edinburgh. Also plan on using it to get a lot of drums practice in as the studio hire is half price during the day. I like the idea of having a bunch of free time in the evening too after dinner as I like to play sports and hang out with friends during that sort of time. Obviously the times aren't gonna be super regimented or whatever, it's just pretty much a guideline. I'd be interested to hear what sort of schedule online cash game players stick to.
Had a sweet lazy Sunday today hanging out with my family and having a BBQ, just chilling out in preperation for getting back into things tomorrow. Here comes the grind!
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