Main thing that is occupying me right now is reading a book by Izet Kalkan. I received it from the father of my friend whom i'll be travelling the balkans with. He used to be a journalist and was a member of the war parliament during the war in Sarajevo. you read about it in the papers and see it on the news. But that is not the same thing as reading such a personal account...
it's so fucking impressive. your home is besieged. grenades are shot at the city everyday. there is no food, no water, no gas, no elektricity, no cigarettes.. i can't even imagine how tough this is. it has some similarities to the dutch literature about World War II. i recognize the despair that seeps through the pages, the fight for survival that goes on from hour to hour but that is carried on because there is no other choice and i guess the hope that the end of it all is near.
i will write more about it as i read further. for the dutch boys that are interested in reading about this too. here is a link. i can't find a link for new copies. but if you PM me i can probably contact the author whether they are still available for sale.
Berating and grocery shoppingby DustySwedeDude, June 26
Ok so I'll write out the background first and the question is basicly at the botton for those of you to lazy to read my rant/brag/whatever.
So yesterday I decided to play a random donkament, prima's daily 30k grtd, since I felt like fucking around a bit and I tend to run infinitly good in that one (can't play donkaments for shit, still won it like 2 weeks ago and have gotten ITM like 2-3 times more so far this spring despite not playing it much). Anyway, some retarded tournament reg plays some hand where he valuebets top2 on the flop and the turn and then c/cs a decent sized bet on the river when the flush hit and the other dude had hit it. The retarded reg decides to berate the fish or w/e he was and I obviously got to the fish defense and started trashtalking the reg cause I feel that bad regs tend to tilt when you do that and I also hate it when people tell fish that the fish plays bad. Anyway, the reg gets mad and later limps in ep pretty deep, I limp behind with 76s and the flop comes 29Tss for a gutshot+fd for me. Retarded reg bets out pretty big in like a 4 or 5way pot and I raise him, we get it in and he has kings. Obviously I win the flip cause I run good. Thrash talk ensures and I obviously says that if he really thinks I'm a retarded monkey he can play me HU. He declines and continues to ”rail” me, comment on every suckout and play I make and I just asks him if he's still interested in HU. This continues for like 2 hours. Some other retard starts berating me too (I think I played NL20 with him 2 years ago or something lol, probably has a grunge) and I asks him for HU too. A couple of epic suckouts later, which everyone comments on, and a couple of bad beats, which no one seems to notice, I've got like 3-4 people constantly arguing with me in the chat but still no one wants to play me HU. This makes me very sad cause I feel that it would increase my happiness a lot if I could bust some stupid fish-berating faggot once on a while.
My question is thus; how do you best go about tilting people enough so that they'll play you HU, preferably far above their roll?
On an unrelated note I'd like to state that grocery shopping is very overrated and I tend to agree with what Good2Cu said in his episode of Hight Stakes Living about how you can't gamble in the grocery shop so you should try to keep away.
Ok so, when I stand at traffic crossings I make sure to stand quite a bit away from the curb. Like what if some fool pushes me into traffic?
You have to be smart to survive in this world. Another obvious one is not using public toilets if you don't have to and not touching anything when you actually have to (use feet to flush etc.). A few times I really needed to take a shit in a public toilet so I just assumed a sitting position without touching the seat at all. Ever tried it? A little hard to get things going, but you do get a good thigh workout...
Go ahead and share your tips for survival in this dog-eat-dog world.
Poker-wise, halfway through this month I made a recommitment to playing poker. With an iron will I've got up at 5:30am everyday (most traffic on Stars) to play for 2 hours in my freezing cold room (winter can go to hell) before getting ready to go to work. At night, I read articles and watch some poker vids. I've just made the move to NL10 this week and so far it's going ok. Quite a few coolers like flopped sets (A's and K's) vs flopped and completed straights but what can you do eh.
My goal for July is to play NL10 for 2 hours every weekday and a few more on the weekends, putting in 500 hands per hour so I should end up with about 34k or so hands. Not too bad, considering I work a fulltime job. Will post a graph at end of July when it's actually a decent amount of hands. I dunno why I'm wanting to put this effort into it, I like to think that I have dedication but maybe I'm just a degen that needs to get his fix every day -_-. Anyways, gogogogo to 625 dollars.
Since you've been nice enough to read this, here's a bonus:
You might not know this, but there's a 7 day trial for DeucesCracked which you can cancel at any time before being charged. Only catch is that you must enter your credit card details so you're charged if you go past 7 days. But still, during this time you can pretty much dl as many vids as you want (no DRM or any shit like that). Cool, eh? I went ahead and let them charge me for a month so I can leisurely dl, plus I'm not a cheap bastard.
Hello to all that know me, and greets to those who don't.
My name is Michael. I've been posting on TL.net for a little under five years now, and on LP.net since its conception. I, like many people here, transitioned from StarCraft into poker. I haven't ever been extremely talented at either, but I was better than average, and that's all you need for poker.
My main game for the past year and a half has been 1/2 FR. I haven't played seriously in four months, though, so I've lost touch with poker. I take a hiatus every once in a while after I go on a major downswing (25BI or so this last time around - this after a 200k sample of winning at 4.5ptbb... go figure). Poker is to me a major mindfuck. I go through a continuous repetitive process of believing I've discovered the key to poker and a perfect winning mindset, only to experience the psychological rape poker can so masterfully instill. The game has helped me out in life, though, paying for my education, my baller expenses, and now, my apartment, which I'm sharing with my girlfriend. I've cashed out most of my bankroll for living expenses for the year (I tutor and don't need poker money), and right now, I have only $3K left.
So where does that leave us? At the very beginning: I started poker with $10 from Pacifist, with which I built my bankroll playing SNGs. This July, I foray into the world of donkfests one last time, and I intend to win at least one tournament. I have never won a tournament with 1st prize greater than $1k or more than 18 entrants. The time has come, and the gauntlet has been thrown down: I will win a tournament, or bust my roll.
Afterwards, depending on my success, I'll spend the rest of the summer grinding back up to 1/2, and then hopefully make my way up to 2/4 and 3/6, which I feel I am perfectly capable of beating if I don't spaz out and 24-table.
There it is, then: July will be entirely about MTTs. I am a very systematic person, and therefore I am documenting this excursion in this blog, with a hope to give back to the site that has given me so much. Let me present...
The Plan
Until Tuesday, July 1st, I will immerse myself into MTT literature. I have all three Harrington on Hold'em books, which I will re-read. I will read every single topic in Tournament poker pertaining to NLHE, and will post if I feel I have any insight (unlikely).
I will make myself a schedule for the entire month of July built around tournaments on PokerStars. Until I have a $4k roll, I will not touch a tournament above $20. Until I have a $5k roll, I will not touch a tournament above $50.
I will mostly be playing the $10 tournaments on Stars, and hopefully the $3 rebuy. Every week, I will satellite my way into the Sunday Million, and I hope to sat my way into the Sunday Warm-up and Second Chance. Can anyone point my toward the best satellites?
Most importantly, I will post on this blog every day, starting Tuesday, July 1st. I will update with a record of tournaments of the day, plus one hand with full analysis.
Please wish me luck. I hope to bring as much insight as I can to the newer players, and learn as much as I can from the more experienced ones.
I have not played poker for nearly a month and a half. I am not suffering any BR or downswing problems, it is a little strange I just don't feel like playing much.
What are some ways you guys got motivated to play poker again?
I feel asleep during the day today so obv couldnt sleep when I was supposed to. What to do what to do? Obv I load up a couple of HU tables and get a grind going. Doing ok but this guy sits down and slowly just owns my soul.
I got completely fucking stomped, he ran very good and made some pretty fucking mad soulreads on me. I guess I wasnt playing optimaly either. Now, I usually try to stop and leave after losing like 4 buyins to someone who isnt completely retarded, but today I had a fish on two other tables and I was stomping him huge so I was actually up for the session. Having a good mindset I decided to keep grinding the soulownerer while I was beating down on the fish. Looking back, that was probably a misstake since he had momentum and he pissed me off in the chat constantly.
Neways, at one point the guy was up 3,4k on me and the fish on the other table was down like 2k to me. I had gotten a pretty good idea on how the soulreader played and I managed to identify a few pretty big leaks. I finally started to make some hands and the guy instatilted after losing a few pots to me.
I finally beat him down to $800 and I left once he won a $800 pot with a luckboxed 85 against my AK.
Im quite satisfied going from being down around 2k to being up 4,4k. Life is good. Although if there is a lesson to learn from tonight session its that momentum is hugehugehuge in HU. Think elephant. And then add like, a car.
The guy completely owned me after winning like 3 buyins. I couldnt win a pot and he played really well. But once I managed to beat myself back, got some confidence and rattled his cage a bit I took it all back in a matter of minutes and it turned out the feared soulowner was just a huge station fish with alot of momentum and confidence.
With this experience I will not make the same misstake again and just leave when im down a couple of buyins, regardless of if im up for the session or not. This time I was fortunate to beat myself back into having some momentum but things could definitely have gone diffrently. I think the edge you have theorywise over an opponent becomes really diminished when you are frustrated and hes loving life.
Oh and I will upload some pics from norway in the near future. Also, hopefully the powercord for my computer arrives tomorrow and I can post some stats and graphs and awesome shit again.
so ive been grinding nl10 on and off, i never play sessions longer than 1.5k hands simply because i get bored. the beginning of the summer was going well, i never had losing sessions and i spent a lot of time reading and developing my thought processes for higher stakes so i'll be prepared when i get there. basically microstakes has been a joke. however this week i ran into a 4 buyin downswing. the ole KK v AA, set over set and just some 55 v 45 losses. nothing too big but i dont like losing. ever.
even though i rarely get it in behind it snap tilts me because getting it in ahead and losing is part of poker, but getting it in behind means you are playing bad and that is unacceptable. so when this happened more than once i decided to take a break and play a couple cheap tourneys to get my mind off of it.
i played a 2.20 quintuple shootout and got knocked out in like the 3rd hand by some KK vs AK 4 handed bullshit. However, it was my first shootout and i liked the shorthanded format because i play much better shorthanded. so i decided to play another today and shipped it for ~330 or so. first tourney win and felt pretty good. rolls me solidly for nl25 but i might play a couple more of these first to continue a little break from grinding 6max micro.
ideally i want to get rolled for nl50 heads up by the end of the summer. i tend to be pretty aggro postflop and i like the idea of playing your opponent rather than always nut peddling the cards in your hands. ill continue to slowly work on omaha over the course of the summer because i feel like the future is in omaha for a while as the high stakes games dry up. microstakes grinder talking about high stakes? yea, well, hopefully sooner rather than later if i start to grind more.
if you are rather new to omaha also but fairly smart id be more than willing to discuss hands and help each other out in the process over msn or aim. shoot me a pm if ud like. poker theory interests me tremendously.
heres a song for reading through that painful garbage
dtom068: bets $0.30
Hero : raises $0.70 to $1
dtom068: raises $0.70 to $1.70
Hero : raises $7.65 to $9.35 and is all-in
dtom068: calls $3.17 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($4.48) returned to Hero
Showdown Hero : shows (a straight, Eight to Queen)
dtom068: shows (a straight, Eight to Queen)
dtom068 collected $5.28 from pot
Hero collected $5.28 from pot
Summary Total pot $11.11 | Rake $0.55
Board
Seat 1: chiara asr (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: josik (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: wietse folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: gio fil folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: dtom068 showed and won ($5.28) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 6: Hero (button) showed and won ($5.28) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Or sometimes I'll make a strong hand and get action! Like this:
Showdown Hero : shows (a straight, Nine to King)
josik: shows (a flush, Jack high)
josik collected $3.79 from pot
Summary Total pot $3.94 | Rake $0.15
Board
Seat 1: chiara asr folded before Flop
Seat 2: josik showed and won ($3.79) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 3: wietse folded on the River
Seat 4: gio fil (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: dtom068 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Hero (big blind) showed and lost with a straight, Nine to King
Showdown superarci: shows (a pair of Eights)
clayburn - 5: shows (a pair of Aces)
Hero : mucks hand
superarci leaves the table
clayburn - 5 collected $11.41 from pot
Summary Total pot $11.96 | Rake $0.55
Board
Seat 1: clayburn - 5 (big blind) showed and won ($11.41) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: hotrodm_27 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: J.Crowds folded before Flop
Seat 4: xxJuly47xx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Hero (button) mucked
Seat 6: superarci (small blind) showed and lost with a pair of Eights
PokerStars Game #18382211522: Hold'em No Limit ($0.02/$0.05) - 2008/06/25 - 19:23:09 (ET)
Table 'Oberon III' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: hotrodm_27 ($5.18 in chips)
Seat 3: J.Crowds ($0.84 in chips)
Seat 4: JOSuBtLeTyDY ($8.63 in chips)
Seat 5: Hero ($10.90 in chips)
J.Crowds: posts small blind $0.02
JOSuBtLeTyDY: posts big blind $0.05
Holecards Dealt to Hero
J.Crowds said, "now i can gamble"
Hero : raises $0.15 to $0.20
hotrodm_27: folds
J.Crowds said, "lol"
J.Crowds: folds
JOSuBtLeTyDY: folds
Uncalled bet ($0.15) returned to Hero
Hero collected $0.12 from pot
Summary Total pot $0.12 | Rake $0
Seat 2: hotrodm_27 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: J.Crowds (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: JOSuBtLeTyDY (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Hero collected ($0.12)
So that's my latest rant.
But seriously, I could really use a coach or someone to look over my shoulder and tell me what's up. I am having two major issues from what I can see:
1. Never getting paid when I make a hand
2. Never making a hand
3. Ok seriously for problem #2, help me please. Jesus christ. I can't figure out what's going on :/
So for the last month or so I had a lot of time to put into poker, hoping to move to lowmid stakes. Unfortunately this didnt really work out and at times I really started to doubt my edge and looking everywhere to mix up my game. I took a few shots at nl100 and managed to lose about $450 in around the same number of hands.
Obviously i dont believe that my edge is in the region of -100bb/100 so I definitely ran into some nasty coolers and the like, although I'm also aware I have a lot of trouble moving up, I think i get very comfortable with the bet amounts of my current level and suddenly I play pretty scared, especially trying to avoid high variance situations like aggro PF games.
Anyway I managed to drop I guess around $700 doing this and spewing some at nl 25 trying to masstable lag and other pointless things at times when i doubted my 50nl edge.
When feeling really incompetent I played a couple sessions just 1-2 tabling nl 25, and this restored a lot of confidence; even 4tabling i hadnt noticed just how awful nearly every player was. I intend to stay down at nl25 for a while and win back maybe 10 bi to just stop a string of losing sessions at nl50 from getting to me.
I found this 50nl graph which might explain why ive had such a tough time this past 2 months:
Fact is im a very impatient type of person and I need to learn to just keep playing the game that works for me instead of being a maniac in order to try and get some massive winrate. Hopefully my focus will improve with time and as the stakes rise I will be more motivated to keep thinking about every hand.
In any case, not sure quite what the point of all this was. Guess its some kind of 'negative milestone' post at what I hope to be one of my lower points
Hello guys, so I finally decided to make a blog about that I want to be staked. So what should I say, well I recently posted in my first blog post like everything about my poker career, and when I read it back and back again I really feel like a douche. When I am thinking about past 6 months I just can't believe it how I was "throwing money from the window" if I can say it like that.
As you might read I am micro stakes player, and I would like to be staked for NL2, NL5, or which I would prefer mostly NL10 or NL25. On NL25 I would be able to play 6max which I like more than FR, 6max is kinda bad to play at NL10 as I read somewhere, because of rake and such things. Maybe I am overreacting and NL25 isn't for me, but I just feel so.. Anyway, on every limit I mentioned it would be cool to find something.
What can I add, I already mentioned in my last blog that I am well prepared to play some serious poker and finally do something with my life, errr... I mean to create some goal and be a motivated to play. In the poker slang, I can say that my mind is ready.
All in all, I am honest to you guys, and I just hope that I will find something, because I don't have that much money to create some safe BR and I feel better to play on stake, which may be kinda weird, but that's just it.
Yeh, there will not be any good looking Asian girl this time, sorry
Ok so I want to do a ridiculous challenge for myself and would like to get some action from people here. I posted this in brazilian lp but I don't think I will be getting enough action from there.
Here is the deal:
Few years ago I went through bad health problem (cancer). Got treated, am fine now. During and up to now I stopped working out completely and gained insane amount of weight. Before treatment I was weighing in around 95 kg, my height is about 1'92 m.
About a month and half ago I joined a gym and started working out again. I weighed in at 125kg's. Yesterday I weighed myself and am now at 120kg. Dropped 5kg and I am not eating as best as I could, this in 45 days.
BET: Starting as soon as possible, I am to lose 15kg (33 pounds) in one month. It's an insanely high amount of kg's and I don't really care, I just want to challenge myself to my limits. I like it like that!
how to keep it honest:
1) I will video myself weighing in at my home or if people want I can go to some professional facility of mutual accordance and weigh in there. The video will contain me saying some password to guarantee that I filmed it that day and will be posted on youtube.
2) Escrow. Some trusty lp'er to take care of all the money.
3) For what its worth, I give my word. I have made a bunch of prop bets with many lp'ers and I think they can vouch for me paying/getting paid.
I am willing to accept bets up to 10k, possibly more. I have not thought about what are just odds. I read just now this guy who wants to lose 25kg in 3 months who is getting 2-1 odds. I think his bet is easy. For mine, I was thinking 1.5-1 odds, but maybe I am hustling myself.
I hope to get suggestions from people as to how to make things as just as possible.
Reason for this: I wanna get back in a good shape and making the bet motivates me 1000% more than normally.
Because I banned myself from playing last week I already can post results for june. I played enough to maintain Platinum star and my ban will end at 18th of July, so that should be enough time to keep Platinum for August.
I need to hurry up a little bit so I don't miss the semis against Turkey. I fear riots on the streets because there are many Turkish here in Germany and they are known for their aggressive behavior.
After the last game I had some serious trouble with a fellow student. We were both drunk but I am a calm person who won't get involved in fights, when he started pushing me around some other people hold him back but that wasn't a pleasant experience anyway. It's not like I was afraid of him but the situation was not worth losing some teeth or facing legal issues in my opinion and he probably knows it as well but he is a poser.
Here is some oldschool UFC vid for you, back then they weren't wearing gloves and headbutts were still legal, so you can expect some serious action: + Show Spoiler +
So overall since my "6max style change" - results are :
18 K hands 1139 profit + 239rb + 30$ in FPP
-> + 1408$
I am kinda satisfied with that and i am 100% sure i beat NL50 longterm for >4BB/100 easy
SInce i know what my edge at Nl50 is and where and why i make the money
So,
it seems that I am going to play in that event. I didnt manage to get cash for PS money but I ran quite ok in cash games so far + my wire transfer deposit just arrived, so I have enough to buyin for the tourney and still have some roll (although marginal) to play up to 5/10 cash games.
I also sold part of my action like I wanted. Following are the people who bought action from me, just for the record:
I am very much looking forward to playing the tournament because it will be my first WSOP event ever! I would also like to know, which other LPer's are going to play it. I think there will be quite a lot of us and I have a feeling someone from LP is going to make a big score in this tourney
House Committee to Vote to Clarify UIGEAby hansen, June 25
Im not american but you who are should support the fight
Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will review a bill, H.R. 5767, that would block the implementation of UIGEA regulations. In order to get this bill out of Committee on onto the House Floor, we need your help. We need you to contact the committee and express your support for H.R. 5767, as well as the King amendment which will refine the bill language. PPA strongly supports H.R. 5767 and the King amendment, but this important bill and amendment won’t pass without your help!
Call or Fax the House Financial Services Committee*
Democrats’ Committee Office Ph: (202) 225-4247 - FAX: (202) 225-6952
Republicans’ Committee Office Ph: (202) 225-7502 - FAX: (202) 226-4301
Click Here To Contact Via E-mail
The UIGEA regulations will demand that banks block “unlawful internet gambling” but there is no definition of this vague term. Banks will be forced to block millions of transactions that are not in fact illegal. As a result, you may not be able to play poker or any other game of skill online. HR 5767 will prevent this regulatory nightmare. The King amendment will force the regulatory agencies to define “unlawful internet gambling” through a formal rulemaking, with due process and opportunity for input from affected parties.
Groups that oppose your right to play poker are working to defeat this important bill. Don’t count on someone else to take action for you - call today, there’s no time to waste!
Contact Users: 1471 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 18:31
(a straight, Eight to Queen)
(a flush, Jack high)
(a pair of Eights)
(a pair of Aces)
Ph: (202) 225-4247 - FAX: (202) 225-6952
,
,
,
,