omg did I just grind?
NewbSaibot, May 29 2010

Havent put in this many hands in a single session in like 6 months to a year. Maybe never! I keep fighting the addiction, but I caved and dropped $50 to grind away at rush and just play ABC with a few moves mixed in to exploit the rush dynamic. Interestingly I had very little success with my resteals and bluff's. It seems like almost everyone is just nitting it up at rush and playing straight up. The only money is truly coming from the fish, and as you can see they were in full suckout mode.
I dont really consider this a downswing, as that is more reserved for coolers and misreads, plus the occasional missed draw. I havent hit a downswing yet, so coupled with the suckout fest 10 BI's may not survive. Probably need like 50 BI's to handle all the bad beats, but this is all I feel like allocating right now.
So blogworthy
NewbSaibot, May 16 2010
Got a little rakeback in the mail;
Submitted by : NewbSaibot
Full Tilt Poker Game #20892790933: Table Corkseed (6 max) - $0.01/$0.02 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:47:15 ET - 2010/05/16
Seat 1: Hero ($3.29)
Seat 2: Zicccc ($2.59)
Seat 3: Apitome_spade ($2.10)
Seat 4: poker_incognito ($2.59)
Seat 5: dedai ($0.88)
Seat 6: kolinary ($2)
Apitome_spade posts the small blind of $0.01
poker_incognito posts the big blind of $0.02
The button is in seat #2
Holecards Dealt to Hero 
dedai calls $0.02
kolinary folds
Hero raises to $0.10
Zicccc folds
Apitome_spade has 15 seconds left to act
Apitome_spade calls $0.09
poker_incognito folds
dedai folds
Flop (Pot : $0.24)
  Apitome_spade checks
Hero bets $0.15
Apitome_spade calls $0.15
Turn (Pot : $0.54)
   Apitome_spade checks
Hero checks
River (Pot : $0.54)
    Apitome_spade checks
Hero bets $0.30
dedai: wooooooooooow
Apitome_spade has 15 seconds left to act
Apitome_spade folds
Uncalled bet of $0.30 returned to Hero
Hero mucks
Hero wins the pot ($0.51)
Summary Total pot $0.54 | Rake $0.03
Board:    
Seat 1: Hero collected ($0.51), mucked
Seat 2: Zicccc (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Apitome_spade (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 4: poker_incognito (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: dedai folded before the Flop
Seat 6: kolinary didn't bet (folded)
Hero: lol
dedai: you just folded a royal flush
dedai: uah
Hero: its ok apitome, i had a royal flush
dedai: thats the only one you will have in your life
dedai: :-)
Seat 3: Apitome_spade ($1.85), is sitting out
dedai: my god
dedai: unbelievable
Hero: i thought about going allin, but figured .30 looked more believable 
dedai: hahaha
Mission Accomplished
NewbSaibot, May 12 2010
I'll keep this one short and sweet. So after making $800 profit in a single session of live NL200 last week, I took the plunge and bought in for a single table at NL400 online because fuck it, thats why. Ran it up to $1700 because I'm a good player. Next night all the NL400 tables are full with long waits and the only open table i could find was...... NL1k lol. But whatever, a buyin and a half has worked before right? Besides this could really jumpstart the ole bankroll.... for when I take my single buyin shot at 25/50. Unfortunately I ran into a 200k winning reg who must have been tilted or something b/c he put me allin with 99 preflop once, 3 barreled air and rivered bottom pair for the win, plus a couple of other spots I cant really remember and wiped me out. Pretty sick really, cant complain since he crushes the game across multiple sites but his play still seemed way out of line.
But I did accomplish my mission, that being playing NL400 and doing well lol. I played live last night and soul crushed everyone. I think they were even starting to get mad because I must've played something like 70/50 raising almost every hand I was dealt. 2 people even left to go to another table and 2 others switched seats at my table. And while I assume variance is a little softer at live stakes due to fewer hands dealt, I got it in preflop QQ vs KK, nut flush vs boat, and a couple of counterfeit hands where the board ran out a straight on me for a split vs some TPNK bullshit I had dominated. I even laid down top 2 vs a fish getting 3:1 on a 80BB pot when he donkbet a paired turn and then showed me nothing more than an OESD.
So now I cant decide what I want to play right now, live or online. My hourly is better online but of course it's a lot more mental work playing against people out of my league. Live is such a haul and backbreaking, but it's also relatively easy. If I want to play tonight ill come home smelling like cigarettes which I'm not really in to, so that has a certain factor too.
Finally I find out that some new poker legislation is going into effect in Florida allowing uncapped buyins which will ultimately turn it into the next gambling epicenter as far as I can tell. I'm within driving distance of all of these casinos if I wanted to make weekend trips out of it. But I fucking hate where I live right now and could see myself moving there! Especially since right around the time this happens the UIGEA will take on some new twists, and I'm deathly afraid of investing heavily into online play just to have the christians finally win and be banned for life. I could def see myself beating 5/10 live for a living once I built up a roll and got used to living in a casino. So many things to consider!
Oh, and sorry for not keeping this short and sweet.
Offering degen lessons
NewbSaibot, May 07 2010
So if theres one thing I'm a master at, it's playing with my whole roll on the table for the highest limit I can afford. It's how I started playing. Depositing $200 and sitting down at NL200 seemed like a good idea at the time afterall, I mean what else would I want to do with $200, play .5/10 cent? Laugh... Over the years I've managed to increase my BRM to the 5 BI or so mark, so at least now I'm playing with 5x the funds as I used to. And of course winning 3-4 BI's in a single session is like the greatest day ever and proves I play good making 400% ROI, so naturally I should cash out and save some again for later. I'm down something like -1.26/BB which clearly proves I'm a losing player so I quit poker until I paid off some debts and did some more soul searching.
But tonight I could not handle it any longer. My withdrawal symptoms became too great and all I could think about was the NL200 game downtown running in an hour, and how gawd awful these players were. Just last night I was watching my wife Holly grind NL2 online and just kept facepalming at all the hands people were calling her with. I just sat back for a few moments and said "wtf this is so easy, I know how to beat these fucks. Just, fuckin play solid. Dont even come with a gameplan, just play fuckin solid. Wtf does solid even mean? Fuck if I know, just fuckin do it".
So all I can do is sit there in my office today picturing the various joe blows at the live table and imagine that we are really playing online at an NL2 table. And then it was done. I sent a text asking if they had a seat available for me and that I would be there in about half an hour. The entire trip I just kept imagining the live table was the stars table. The felt in front of me would look just like the digital felt online. When I took a seat, I wouldnt be playing this like it was live, I would be imagining I was playing NL2 online, and each face across the table from me was nothing more than another retarded avatar of some guys baby/and or dog.
I bought in for $200, which was all I brought with me. You see I couldnt really afford to be playing right now. I had to win. I really needed this money, and considered playing tonight no different than putting in extra hours at the office for more pay. I needed the money. And from 7pm-10pm I proceeded to go from a $200 stack to a $980 stack. I warned everyone early that I was rusty and just gettin back in the game and would be leaving early tonight. If I bust i bust, and if I crush I crush. Luckily they all like me and dont mind a slight hit n run. Of course thats not to say the whole table groaned when I asked the host to rack em and cash me out. But there were like 20 people there tonight anyway so they probably all forgot within the next 5 minutes anyhow.
So I pocketed nearly $800 tonight one-tabling NL200 live. A heater or whatever, doesnt matter, goddamn I needed the money. So what am I gonna do with it? Well I'm debating putting $400 down for a single buyin of NL400 online. Or maybe play the NL500 live game this weekend. Maybe just 1 BI of NL200 online will be enough. Or maybe I'll just sink it all towards credit card debt/holly's birthday or something.
I dunno, but clearly I can buy in for 100BB's at any game and just pwn it up, so all I really need to make sure I have is $200 laying around in case I somehow bust what I earned. Me busting what I earned is totally irrelevant though, even if it exceeds the 1 BI rule. If I lose it all, I simply pull 200 more out of the bank and play. All previous withdrawals are erased, and each night is a clean slate. There shall be no auditing of my buyin history, each day is a new day. If you find all of this confusing, PM me and we'll discuss proper degen theory and I'll offer some live coaching on how to properly buy in at a table and run it up, and how to properly lose it all and have it mean absolutely nothing.
New milestone
NewbSaibot, Apr 18 2010
The "I FUCKING QUIT!" milestone. Everyone has one, I finally reached mine. Done with everything remotely poker related for a long time. Cyall round.
Be afraid?
NewbSaibot, Apr 18 2010
Ehhhhhrrrm.... Behold, my NL50 HU results thus far

Should I like, quit faster than anyone has ever quit anything before? I'm only down 5 BI's, but look a that EV my god.
It feels so good!
NewbSaibot, Apr 14 2010
Cashing out that is. Made my first 2 cashouts in a year this week, totaling $600, hyuk! I rolled myself 40 BI's for NL50 HU with the intention of getting coaching from f4zi. But we could never get a time scheduled for a lesson so I watched a few HU vids to acclimate myself with the game and just decided to take a shot on my own, I mean if I kill it, then who needs coaching? FTP only allows for $600 deposit at a time so even though I had allocated $2000 for it, thats all I ever had in my account. I grinded up to $1388 when I made the sequential cashouts, namely just because I wanted to see what I felt like to cashout for once again lol. Figured might as well make it $600 so I'm technically freerolling the rest, although I made sure never to actually look at it in that manner.
Of course it was only a matter of time before FTP showed their true colors. I was simply in run hot mode at the start because I hadnt deposited in awhile. After 4000 hands it was time for FTP's auto-balance system to spread the wealth to other fish, and I promptly lost the remaining money with nut flushes, flopped sets, 2 pairs, and several TP hands all to runner runner this and that. With $150 left I sat at a NL200 table to chase it back, sat around for about 40 hands when this happened:
Submitted by : NewbSaibot
Full Tilt Poker Game #20064116100: Table Mop (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:57:26 ET - 2010/04/14
Seat 1: Hero ($182.65)
Seat 2: ADCampbell ($218.90)
Seat 3: MidgetB ($200)
Seat 4: chocolateNuts ($200)
Seat 5: asdfx1 ($310.40)
Seat 6: ABear44 ($203)
asdfx1 posts the small blind of $1
ABear44 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to Hero 
Hero raises to $6
ADCampbell folds
MidgetB has 15 seconds left to act
MidgetB folds
asdfx1 folds
ABear44 raises to $20
Hero calls $14
Flop(Odds) (Pot : $41.00)
  ABear44 checks
Hero bets $30
ABear44 calls $30
Turn(Odds) (Pot : $101.00)
   ABear44 checks
Hero bets $70
ABear44 raises to $153, and is all in
Hero calls $62.65, and is all in
ABear44 shows 
Hero shows 
Uncalled bet of $20.35 returned to ABear44
River (Pot : $366.30)
    ABear44 shows two pair, Jacks and Tens
Hero shows a pair of Aces
ABear44 wins the pot ($363.30) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Hero is sitting out
Summary Total pot $366.30 | Rake $3
Board:    
Seat 1: Hero showed and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: ADCampbell didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: MidgetB (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: chocolateNuts is sitting out
Seat 5: asdfx1 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: ABear44 (big blind) showed and won ($363.30) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Of course he's running 44/41 with a 37% 3bet rate, and im running 18/15 so clearly im raising lightly UTG and he should 3bet JT oop and proceed to stack off vs an ace with 2nd pair no kicker. I never have a hand here, even 40 hands into the game, gosh I'm so transparent.
So since I was never able to get any HU coaching which was the entire basis of wanting to play again, I think after buying 2 cars last month I'm gonna pay off some debts, save a little for a vacation, work my shitty job who continues to lay people off when they're not voluntarily quitting to work for our competitors, and just see where this crazy life takes me!
And if there are any solid HU regs still willing to coach, feel free to PM me and maybe I'll have the heart to do it again.
My buddy is a cheater
NewbSaibot, Apr 12 2010
So I became friends with a host at a local card game I used to play at every week a few months back. As a typical live player he knew relatively nothing about online play, or even poker in general, even though he hosted a game. That isnt to say he didnt dump $12,255 online as of today, but you get what I'm saying. So being the nice guy that I am, and one of the only live players I actually hang out with, I gave him the keys to the castle. I introduced him to cardrunners, dueces cracked, HEM, the forums, free e-books, retail e-books, the works. I just wanted to help a brotha out. Naturally he didnt do a damn thing with it and from that time he has lost an additional 3-4 grand, oh well, FAIL.
So I brought Holly (my wife) to his game one night for fun, and after we left for the night she immediately commented how she was suspicious the dealer and HIS wife, who also happens to play, were colluding. She just said they were in way too many pots raising each other till someone folded, then dumping hands on the river without a showdown. I disagreed simply b/c
1) they both suck
2) there are too many stations for them to successfully pull this off
Anyway, she actually told me she wouldnt even play there again she was so certain lol. Well, I didnt pay too much thought into it, although they do always sit directly across from each other. I dont know much about effective colluding so not sure what the most optimal situation would be.
So just moments ago Holly is looking up their PTR stats for a nice goodnight laugh, as they are pretty horrible, and even I laugh after how much info I shared with him to help them improve, and she notices that one of their accounts is a nemesis of the others in ring games. You can see how many hands you have played vs someone in PTR and it shows them at like 350 hands vs each other. What makes this even more damning is the fact that as I got to know this guy and he realized I knew a lot about online play, he actually began asking me if I knew how to cheat, and where to get poker bots to play lol. I reminded him even a building full of cray super computers cant play NLHE for shit, but now it's all falling into place.
Soooooo, what do you think? Are they cheating scum? What other reason would they be playing with each other online at the same tables for? Plus they have expressed an interest in cheating, they host their own home game, and holly already labeled them cheaters from the first night! Hmmmmmmzzzz.... Me personally, I dont think I'll ever play at their game again.
Oh yea, I was supposed to post pics of our new cars like weeks ago. If the weather didnt suck, I was too lazy, so here are some taken today!




Ok wtf HEM
NewbSaibot, Apr 02 2010
I had dual monitors and HEM isolated to monitor #2. I removed a monitor and now have 1 monitor, and HEM keeps vanishing off to the fucking side acting like theres a 2nd monitor. Anybody know how to fix this shit? I cant click a fucking thing.
The value of fish
NewbSaibot, Mar 18 2010
So I've been goofing around at the CAP tables again on FTP but for different reasons this time. The first time I played these it was simply because the tables were so ridiculously crowded with fish you couldnt lose. My hourly was higher playing CAP200 than it would have been playing NL400. But then I ran into some new breed of short stackers who also populate the tables and lacked the knowledge to adjust. Eventually I agreed with poker theorists that the lack of EV made it a waste of my time.
But lately I've been discovering some new leaks, #1 of which is that I just get it in too damn light too damn often. I'm always 3bet/4bet jamming my Ax flush draws, OESD's, and valuetowning myself with TPTK. So I dove back into the CAP games again with the intention of using them for their purpose, to "limit your risk of ruin" as FTP puts it. I dont mind only winning a 60BB pot with a fullhouse because it's helping train me how better to see my draws and TP type hands through. Basically, it's helping limit my risk of ruin lol. I've always commented on myself that I tend to win lots of small pots, but always lose the big ones. A good smallball type player should know how to dodge big pot losses, but I'm not there yet. But I'm still really confident in my preflop and flop game. It's the turn/river that always gets me.
And here comes the fish. While playing today, I was sitting at a table full of nits. I just joined at random and didnt really care. My stats were actually 50/30/3 at 200 hands. None of them ever adjusted. My steal must have been like 70% would I would just minraise the BTN every time and get folds. But I wasnt making much either. I would win a bunch of small pots and lose an allin on the flop or preflop thanks to the CAP limit. Luckily the cap kept me breakeven. Then along comes some obvious fish. Raising 6xBB from all positions, min3betting pre, and jamming any pair on the flop. It only took 3 hands before I was all over him, after witnessing him limp call preflop with Q6o. And heeeeeeeere comes teh money! I went from breakeven at 200 hands to finishing +3.2BI's at 46BB/100, all off one single player.
He eventually just left, and there went my earnings. While I managed not to get stacked again, I never won much after than. Just raise raise raise, they fold fold fold, then I get 3bet and see it's pretty obvious I have to fold. Who'd a thunk that a nit wouldnt be 3betting or calling light? Shocking.. Sad thing is I still remember reading some HSP's blog once that basically said, even if there is one fish at a table full of nits, that table is +EV.
Sooooooo... guess I'll start working on my table selection more. While playing loose as fuck vs nits is fun and all, at least from a boredom point of view, and playing loose vs fish is stressful, from a variance point of view; observe the fish and ADJUST ADJUST ADJUST! There is no 1 way to beat a fish. You dont necessarily have to tighten up or play by anyone else's set of rules to beat them. There is a certain level of respect held for players who teach themselves the game, as with all things in life. Since I havent read a book or guide or watched a video in ages, I have no particular memory of how certain pro's explain how to beat certain players. All I have right now is my own common sense. Keeping this unbiased perspective to the game might be good for me.
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