June, You SOB You Betrayed Me

Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2008 Professional Internet

I give up. I swear, I just don’t know what to do anymore about this game. I am just getting so fed up with this year. After having such terrible months In April and May I vowed to get on the right track again in June and even though you can’t control luck, just somehow will myself to having a good month. Well, as you guys know, I was having a fantastic month and on track for possibly even my best of all time. For once I was getting that little kick back in my step about this game and starting to feel like I was really accomplishing something. For once I actually put together 3 weeks of avoiding the massive downswings that make no sense considering my low standard deviation and my overall tight style, but wouldn’t you know it my entire month just went from great to meh in one unbelievable weekend where I actually lost 4ptbb/100 over 20k hands. Simply unreal. I had two separate 20+ buy in downswings in one weekend!!! Just when I thought I could finally feel good about my month, I once again feel miserable about how it turned out. I take some solace in the fact that I did accomplish my goal at the start of the month to make over 100k points. But I only set my goal that low because I felt like I should start taking baby steps again after such terrible months before. I had a very real chance for a banner month, and it just “hopped down the fucking drain and my fate is now with Grandma…lol”

July is probably going to be my lightest month in terms of hands in probably my entire career. I have the WSOP and I am going to take a week and hang out with my wife and probably not play any poker at all. In August I am going to have the $250k prop bet, hopefully, so that won’t be a normal month of playing either. Then to follow it up I will probably take some time away as I will surely be exhausted. So it looks like I won’t have any opportunity to have a big month until October and that leaves me feeling pretty empty. I was really hoping to snap off a big month and just ran so stupid bad to finish…..ughhhhhhhhhhhh. Overall I can’t complain about the month because I think I ran right at expectation which for me is $1 a hand. I just feel frustrated because I feel I am far below EV this year and if I had finished the month well I would have felt a lot better about April and May being so poor.

I will say one thing about poker in general. As much as I would love to do it for the rest of my life, I would be pretty surprised if I have much passion for this game 5 years from now. I never really thought I would say that and I think if my winnings this year had been much more balanced rather than a bunch of massive upswings/downswings (which makes no sense with my tight style but whatever) I may be singing a different tune. But as it stands right now I am putting a lot of effort into something that yields the highest possible frustration with absolutely no upside other than money. It’s not like I get to experience the thrill of victory nor do I even get to put hard work in and watch it pay off necessarily. If I prepare really hard for a session, it often times makes no difference as luck is such a big factor. If the poker world came up with some way where you could compete against the best and take the variance out of it (kinda like the man vs. machine where it is rigged to cut down on variance) then I would probably play poker for the rest of my life. I would LOVE to do something like that. But as it currently stands I experience minor thrills from doing well and massive frustration when it goes poorly. I mean when poker goes poorly I could not possibly be more frustrated. Before I played poker, I wasn’t even aware that my body was capable of feeling the way it does like I do when things go bad at the tables. It is hard to describe, but maybe if I can take the big lows out of the equation (through Jared’s help obv)I may love poker forever. But right now I haven’t fully accomplished that yet and as a result it has me doubting how long I want to keep doing this.

Anyway, hate to ne such a negative nelly. I wish I felt differently obviously and I wish that I could take satisfaction out of poker regardless of the results. That is the ultimate goal of course. I am doing a ton better. I actually played through the entire 20k hands and didn’t have a massive blow up. I probably was on the cusp 6-7 times throughout the weekend and went through my mental checklist that I have that helps me get on the right track when I am about to blow up. It has been quite a test this year. All I can say is thank God for Jared. Because this year has been by miles the most challenging of my career. In the 26 weeks so far I have won almost all of my money in the best 7 weeks that I have won all year. That is not even close to a normal distribution. I’m not saying your chart should go steadily up the whole time, but somewhere in between is pretty normal. Maybe the 2nd half of the year will be different and I can go back to having my ups and downs like anyone, but on a more normal level.

For anyone that is going to be out at the WSOP, I can’t wait to meet ya. Please feel free to stop by the booth or come to the meet and greet at Hooters. Hopefully I can buy lots of Stoxpoker members a beer on me and we can have a good time. Good luck to all who are playing.

Discuss this blog here:
http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?p=91878#post91878

Las Vegas Starting tomorrow night

Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2008 Professional Internet

I was originally supposed to fly out tonight, but most guys I know don't arrive until tomorrow and I know the last two times I came out for the main event I couldn't get out of town fast enough once the tournament was over. So I figured I'd shave a day off the trip on the front end. genius.

I've been playing some poker and had fun hanging out with dusty and his wife nicole and our good friend rob and his wife sheera. We did a bunch of fun stuff, wine tasting, nice dinners, some poker. Rob taught dusty how to stretch out in the morning and i participated a bit in that. Mostly we joked around and laughed a lot. Dustys ridiculous prop bet got started somehow around the time he arrived and so we talked a bunch about that. Estimating his chances of success, how to structure the bet, and how much to bet on it.

I'm looking forward to my las vegas trip. Bryce, Kyle, Jim, myself, Ijay, Stosh, Jared, Matt, are all staying in the same house together and that should be a blast. I've met everyone there in person except for stosh and Ijay.

Our booth at the world series should be pretty cool. We'll be giving out free 24 hour passes and DVDs of stoxpoker content. We'll also have a small putting green and stoxpoker gear. Maybe I can dial in my putting while I'm there. Most of our book authors will be around to sign books so if you have a copy or just want to say hello please stop by. The booth runs from July 3rd - 6th, hope to get a chance to meet some stoxpoker members!

Matt Blogs the WSOP: Out of $1500 NL

Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2008 Professional Internet

I got it to 160k after only a few hands today, but unfortunately that was the highest my stack ever got.

With five or six tables left I doubled through Men Nguyen by running JT through his AK, but he eventually got more than even for that suckout. With four tables left, Men moved in for three blinds and got called. I isolated with AQs and the caller folded. Men had A9o and won. A few hands later, Men moved in on my big blind for 104k (ten blinds) and I called with 55. Men had T4s and won. Down to less than two blinds, I got it all-in blind-on-blind on the next hand with 75o vs. 74o. I lost.

Though the end was pretty disappointing, I'm glad I made another run and gave myself another chance. Also, I almost got even for WSOP events with this mini-score. Almost. Also, I'm almost talking myself into playing more of the tournament circuit again after this month out here. Almost.

Tomorrow: Limit Hold 'Em Shootout

Lefty Power Hitters

Date: Sun, Jun 29, 2008 Professional Internet

This will be quick to not take up much of the blog page.

For anyone who follows Major League Baseball, all these teams do a shift for the lefties who can't hit the ball opposite field and always pull it. They shift the second baseman into the outfield, the shortstop to the right side of the infield, and the third baseman to the shortstop spot. In turn, these guys who only pull the ball hit for a lower average because now more of their hit balls have a chance of being recorded as an out.

Can someone please explain to me why they do not learn how to bunt and just bunt it down the third baseline for a hit about 90% of the time. Even if they have never bunted, a major league player could work on this in batting practice and easily get this down within a few weeks. This issue really bugs me and I don't get it. Please help me figure it out. Or maybe it is unexplainable like how great basketball players can't shoot over 60% from the free throw line.

comment on the blog here http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?p=91629#post91629

-Reese

Matt Blogs the WSOP: $1500 NLHE Update

Date: Sun, Jun 29, 2008 Professional Internet

I played the $2,000 No Limit event on Friday and didn't last very long. I played a bunch of hands in the first hour, didn't win any of them, and lost half my stack. Then I got the rest in with AA vs. QJ on a board of QT8 and lost.

After busting, I went over to the Bellagio to play their $2,000 No Limit event. That didn't go any better. I won a coin flip to almost double my starting chips, but then later on I tried a resteal with T9o, ran into AK, and lost the showdown.

The good news is that I accumulated a bunch of chips in Saturday's WSOP event--the $1,500 No Limit event. I have about three times average (113,600) heading into Day Two. Wish me luck.

The Secret Face of Polaris

Date: Sat, Jun 28, 2008 Professional Internet

The force behind all the pixel-chips and talk of equilibrium strategy is not the sort of soulless Agent-Smith entity that might be expected. Instead you'll find a lot of MacBooks and empty coffee cups, and some really cool people who have built one of the best HU LHE players in the world. The Computer Poker Research Group will be present in the flesh at the Man vs Machine Poker Championship at the Rio, July 3-6. For the most part they'll be identifiable by their team t-shirts, and I think they'll be more than happy to have you pester them with questions.

Score one for the fleshbags!

Date: Sat, Jun 28, 2008 Professional Internet

So Hoss and I had our first match against the Polaris computer yesterday. As you know, Bryce has described Polaris as the "best HU LHE player on the planet" (or something like that), and even proposed to bet me and Hoss that Polaris would beat us.

Well, Polaris played well, but in the end the humans prevailed (albeit narrowly).

To reduce luck as much as possible the match was structured so that the humans and Polaris would end up playing the same cards against each other. So in the 500 hand match I played side "A" of each hand against Polaris, which played side "B." Then Hoss and Polaris played the identical 500 hands, only this time Hoss played side "B" and Polaris played the cards that I had against it (side "A").

I went first and it was immediately clear that Bryce had programmed it -- the damn thing ran as hot as the sun! Lots of coolers, rivers, cracked overpairs, runner-runner flushes, etc. Which isn't to say that Polaris didn't play well, it definitely did. For example, it had a few sick calldowns -- one with J high. I don't want to get into its play too much since the feature match between me/Hoss vs. Polaris is next Sunday at the WSOP, but suffice it to say that Polaris played well, though with some tendencies that I think can be exploited.

In any event, despite the cards being stacked against me I did a good job saving bets in some hands and picking up pots without the best hand in others. I got a little spewey in the middle of the match, but overall I was fairly pleased with how I had played despite the fact that when it was over I had lost 87 BBs. I told the Polaris team at the end of my match that even though I had lost 87 BBs I thought that given the cards Hoss would beat Polaris for more than Polaris had beaten me and that the humans would take the match.

Sure enough, last night, with the hands reversed, Hoss won almost 100BBs, giving us humans the victory.

I'll be very curious to see how the other human teams do, and I'm already looking forward to the rematch in Vegas on 7/6.