Have not been running great as of yet, but I am confident in my game, which to me is the most important aspect of poker. I have been sitting down at tables, and not feeling outclassed at all. I got a long ways to go before I know whether I am able to beat the stake, so only time will tell, but I have a feeling this time around, I will be moving up instead of down again
Anyway, got a coach for the 1st time in my poker career, and it seems to be working well, even though we have only had one session. He has instilled in me that every time I make an action, I ask myself "Why are you doing what you are doing?" Has helped me think a lot more analytically about poker in general and my game as a whole
Wish there were some TV poker I could link, but with the exception of the world series, there won't be any for a couple weeks. Latest news at The Big Game is Jared Huggins from 2+2 is basically a shoe in to play on these upcoming episodes or the beginning of next season. Truly a heartwarming story. If you have not heard of him, you should look him up. Heres his audition tape for the Big Game
News from Poker after Dark is there are some sick tables coming up. One of the cash games is rumored to include Phil Galfond, Patrik Antonious, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Brian Hastings, and Brandom Adams/Harrington25. I also think there will be a table coming up with Annette Obrested, Huck Seed, and Hellmuth I believe. Apparently, Hellmuth takes another huge beat, which is most likely going to be entertaining
Not to mention FTP million dollar cash game will be airing sometime in December/January, and High Stakes Poker will be back too. Really looking forward to those.
Has really helped me grasp tough situations and think through effectively what to do in them. My new phrase is
"Given the information, what do I beat?"
I am doing my best to get into the habit of asking myself this every time I am placed in a tough spot without t nut hand, and it has really helped me out.
I have noticed myself making a lot more tough folds by doing this, but folds that typically come out positively for me. Has really helped me with slowing down on the tables and analyzing my opponents range, image, my image, board texture, my perceived hand strength, etc.
Anyways, after gaining a few weeks of cardrunners from FTP's FPP deal, I have had a chance to go through a number of them. I really have found the videos of concepts to be very helpful in understanding my game, rather than the live play vids. I am still on the fence with these types of vids, as I feel I may change my style to try to fit their model when I am not comfortable or 100% able to effectively do so. However, overall I can say cardrunners, in my opinion, is miles ahead of every other online poker training site. Great stuff and much better instructors I feel. Now if only they didnt charge a $100 sign up fee...
Here is some old music I have been listening to while playing poker. Not many were greater than Guru from Gang Starr...
And to end this blog, I will show you a sign of the coming apocalypse.
You may be wondering to yourself, "what does such a beautiful woman have to do with the apocalypse?"
Well, currently she is dating one of the Jonas brothers...Let that bounce around in your brain for a minute...
Saw a snippet of this while watching a cardrunners vid, and I thought I would link it to you guys. Very informative and really helped my understanding about tilt.
"The Only Reason Tilt Happens
Jared Tendler of StoxPoker
Tilt is a consequence of the brain’s response to a threat. This response has developed over the past 300+ million years and at this point in evolution, a threat does not have to be real physical danger; psychological threats are treated in the exact same way. This part of your brain is so old it doesn’t know the difference. The hundred’s of reasons poker players use to explain why Tilt happens are all examples of psychological threats and are not the cause. Calling a bad beat or being bluffed off the best hand a threat may sound a bit extreme, but the brain’s emotional system doesn’t view it as rationally as we can right now; although neither do you when it happens.
The brain responds to a threat by increasing emotion in proportion to the perceived significance of that threat. When emotions rise to your threshold, which is the point when the brain takes direct action against the threat, higher brain functions are systematically reduced in proportion to the level of emotion. The loss of higher brain functions like: self control, rational thought, logic, perception of self and other, organization, planning, strategy, mental manipulation of information, and others are the hallmark characteristics of Tilt. If the brain didn’t respond to a threat by shutting down these functions, your emotions could be completely out of control and you would still play great; Tilt would not exist.
The sobering reality is that you have absolutely no control over this process. When emotions rise to threshold, the response taken by the brain happen every time, guaranteed (assuming there isn’t actual brain damage). Knowing the brain has limitations is important, because just like in poker, information determines course of action.
Implications at the Poker Table
Some of you will immediately reduce the incidence of Tilt just by knowing what you can and cannot expect to be able to do on Tilt or during the emotional build up to Tilt. Since there is no more ambiguity, there is no reason to fight against it by trying to think rationally when it is neurologically impossible.
For many of you good information isn’t enough, and if you are serious about preventing or eliminating Tilt from your game, there are only two legitimate options. (1) Prevent emotions from crossing threshold and you never experience Tilt again; (2) Train poker skills to such a habitual or instinctual level that emotions cannot affect them. To a certain extent all of you have trained some skills to that level and seasoned pros have trained most of them, which is one reason why they Tilt infrequently. This option is complex and requires either years of experience or use of high performance training. The first option follows.
Prevention Strategy #1: Short-term
Preventing Tilt requires that you have accurate and specific information about how you Tilt. Thankfully, like any neurological pattern it happens in predictable ways and for predictable reasons. Some know these reasons immediately, others will have to gather some information first. Here is what’s important when organizing this information into a preventative strategy.
Step 1) - List the things, actions, situations, etc that cause your emotions to rise; essentially what puts you on Tilt or get you close. These are called Triggers. They can be caused by you, other players, and by factors outside of poker. Be specific and list as many as you can. Analyze the list of Triggers by emphasizing the 3 or 4 that, (1) happen most often, and (2) cause the greatest emotional response.
Step 2) - List the things that you do, think or feel in response to a trigger. These are called Tendencies and they are another way to know emotions are on the rise or that you’re on Tilt. Tendencies can be anything from, increased breathing and heart rate, shoving chips without thinking, aggressive calls, feeling shell shocked, heating up inside, convincing yourself everything is fine, making quick decisions, mind going completely blank, and many others. When analyzing the list of Tendencies, identify your threshold. Threshold is the amount of emotion you can manage while maintaining the higher brain functions listed earlier. Identifying threshold takes a bit of work, but the idea is to know the specific tendencies that show up when you’re getting close to it and when you’ve crossed it.
Step 3) - Develop a strategy to prevent crossing your threshold. To do this you take direct immediate action when emotions increase close to threshold. The consequences are too severe to ignore, so do whatever you can to stop your emotions from increasing further. There are many effective methods that players and authors have written about, and you may already have some that work well. Two ways that I often recommend, are (1) taking three slow deep breaths into your stomach (not chest), which is a great option because it is unlikely anyone at the table will know; (2) create a positive trigger with something like a piece of gum, or most anything that carries the intent of calming down. What you do to stop your emotions matters less than you actually stopping them. Whatever your strategy, write it on a note card and bring it with you every time you play. Rehearse the strategy so you know it well enough that when emotions start to block thinking, you know what to do.
A preventative strategy is a work in progress. Don’t bog yourself down by trying to make it perfect the first time, nor should you be too relaxed about rehearsing it. Make a good first attempt and update the strategy after you see how well it works or when you identify new Triggers or Tendencies. It’s important to keep in mind that this is not a quick fix, it is challenging and takes effort. You also will likely falter several times before you find a preventative strategy that works.
Prevention Strategy #2: Long-term
It is quite common that preventing Tilt using strategy #1 is too difficult for a couple reasons. First, emotions build up over a period of time, dropping the threshold and making relatively small increases in emotion enough to Tilt. This is true both within a session and over sustained periods of running poorly. The second reason is that at this point in your poker career, some threats may be so significant that they hit without notice and put you on Tilt immediately. There are a few psychological techniques that reduce the amount of emotion generated by a single trigger and reduce accumulated emotion from multiple triggers.
The first technique is called Systematic Desensitization (SD). SD has been around for years and can be self administered; it just takes a bit of training. I’ll be releasing a video on Stoxpoker.com that trains you to do it. The other technique is called EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) and requires that you see a therapist that is trained in EMDR. EMDR can be very successful for those with severe Tilt. There is plenty of information available on the web if you want to know more, but it bears mentioning so you know the options is available
Tilt is a hardwired pattern and it isn’t going away without a fight. With sustained effort the preventive strategies outlined here are highly effective in preventing and perhaps even eliminating Tilt altogether.
Jared Tendler, MS, LMHC, is the newest member of the StoxPoker.com coaching staff. "
How do people achieve these steady upward graphs? I didn't do anything out of line, no huge bluffs, no huge calls, etc. Started early getting a few coolers with KK/AK all in PF vs AA, hit a huge 2 outer on river KK vs AA again, and proceeded to stampede up.
I guess I can't complain too much since I'm up a good amount. Anyways, if you haven't been watching Pokerstars Big Game lately, get on youtube and watch it immediately or just end yourself. This week has been very entertaining with Raszi on. Don't wanna spoil anything, but it gets pretty good, so check it out!
Note: I know it's a little fanboyish, but I think I'm turning into a Raszi fan O_O
PAD table is the same as last weeks, but the huge whale of Alan Meltzer leaves pretty early. Been kinda uneventful, with + Show Spoiler +
Dwan being stuck over 500k and his confidence crushed
, but I have a feeling it is going to turn around soon with a table including Viff, Dwan, and Antonius.
AND for the last bit of visual stimulation, if you weren't impressed by my awesome MSpaint jobs above, I dare you to try to find a more beautiful girl.
But I have been running fairly decent and feel my play has improved significantly. With bonuses/rakeback/winnings, im not too far off from taking another shot at NL25. However, I may stay here for a little while longer and make sure my game is strong and this isnt a nice piece of short term variance.
If you have not figured it out already from my previous blogs/posts, I am a huge fan of TV poker, and this week has been huge in that aspect. The Poker After Dark table this week is literally amazing, and the Pokerstars Big Game table is pretty awesome as well.
Table consists of the amateur loose cannon(who is surprisingly not too bad compared to the other participants that have been on the show), Antonio Esfandiari, Tony G, Ike Haxton, Jason Mercier, and Phil Hellmuth.
Ike Haxton has truly impressed me from what I have seen so far. However, the person that has blown me away is Phil Hellmuth. He has completely changed his style in this cash game, and is playing very solidly. Along with this, he is taking huge beats but keeping his cool, even with Tony G being a complete ass and doing his best to needle him in every way possible.
If you have not checked it out yet, you really should.
New graph since I stopped playing rush and went back to 6-tabling NL10 6max
Typical old graph from when I played rush
The biggest change has to simply be the hand analysis that is in my play now, rather than having to determine what type of player they are on the fly with limited info. I can observe, take advantage of other players weaknesses appropriately, and my decisions can be much more thought out and tailored to my opponent.
I really hope I am not getting my hopes up with my improved play to just come crashing down, but this time I think I have finally found the monster leak I had playing online. I could run bad for a while(lets not hope though) and be content with my play. As long as I know I should be winning, I am content
P.S. Thinking about switching to UB for a little bit once my full tilt bonus clears, anyone have any experience there on the amount/quality of games there are at NL10? Advice plx!
