Sold my car! And .. Coaching rate addendumby MARSHALL28, June 14
Hey guys,
I finally just today sold my Porsche. Bought it about 6 years ago, roughly 4 months after declaring myself a poker pro. It really was the only asset I had to my name. So now I'm back to ground zero. I consider this a good thing though, because now I feel motivated to work towards new goals--which if you are a regular reader of this blog--you'd know has been a major issue in my life. At this point in my life I'm 28, and a lot of non-poker players my age are catching up to me as far as acquired wealth. I have such a different outlook now than when I bought that car at 22 years old since all I cared about then was trying to be a baller and spend every dollar I made. Now with these regular guys catching up to me, it's like a race, and I don't like to lose.
I'm ready to start building my financial portfolio and actually get myself headed in the right direction for the future--i.e. acquiring wealth (if you guys have any suggestions regarding investments, please let me know!). The car was so expensive as far as general upkeep and insurance payments that I'm actually just glad I got out from underneath it before something bad randomly happened that could have ended up costing me like 15 grand to fix. So that burden is gone. And now that I have no assets, I'm hungry to acquire new ones. This is the chance for all of you guys who told me I was making a huge mistake and how bad of an idea it was for me to buy the car in the first place. haha.
So, onto a new era. Going to take a large portion of money I received from the sale of the car and invest it, and I'm actually going to take a step down in stakes for the foreseeable future. In addition to my savings and investments, I want to follow the 50 buy in bankroll rule from now on, so you'll probably see me playing a lot of 2/4 and very little 5/10 for the next couple months. You know, for the last 12 months I've been constantly playing under-rolled pretty much everytime I took a seat at a table, and because of this, it forced me to pass up on many marginally +ev spots in order to preserve my bankroll and my ability to continue playing in those games. No longer do I have to pass up those spots which means I can get away with playing more aggressively and I won't have to just let other guys push me around nearly as much. This is going to make the game a lot more fun--and profitable--for me.
And also.....I wanted to make a correction regarding the coaching rates I stated in my most recent video. I had said that I was currently charging 200 per hour. What I forgot to explain is that I've switched to doing 90 minute sessions. The 200 I am asking is for one 90 minute session.
I understand that in this current poker economy that the price might seem relatively high. The reason for it is because I feel very strongly that the cost of subscribing to poker training websites is incredibly low. People have been paying such a low price for such high quality content (if you think about it, like 130 bucks or something gets you every Phil Galfond video ever made--which is just completely absurd IMO).
The rest of the players who subscribe to websites have improved so much while paying so little that I feel I can't possibly charge any less than this 200 per session, especially since even after a couple of sessions I notice how quickly the mistakes you guys are making get fixed. I really hope other guys who coach have noticed the same thing and adjust their rates accordingly. Otherwise, they really are just hurting themselves way too much by improving their competition so quickly for such a cheap price. Either that or they are just scamming people by claiming that they are better than they actually are and baiting potential students with relatively low prices. This is something very important to be weary of. If someone who plays above 2/4 regularly is charging less than like 100/hr there's a good chance they aren't winning very much, or at all.
Also, I think the smartest and most economical way of attaining good advice for your game individually is for you guys to find a friend and split the cost of a session between you. You wouldn't be getting completely one-on-one coaching, but if you have a friend who you talk strategy with frequently, likely you play a lot of spots similarly and also make similar mistakes.
Additionally, I know there are a lot of you guys out there who are in study groups. If you have like 4 guys in a study group and you pool your money together, like 50 bucks each, then you prepare a number of spots/questions you'd like to discuss, or a string of footage you'd like to discuss, that's something I'd be open to doing as well.
For you guys at 50-100nl, these I think would be the best ways for you not to have to spend 2-4 buy ins on one coaching session and still get a lot out of the information being shared.
With this new set of series I'm doing of climbing the limits, taking a look at the 50nl games, then the 100nl games and the 200nl games, there are still an alarming amount of you guys misapplying concepts spoken about frequently and at length during videos. Another other thing about it is that sometimes the right advice to give in a video is the exact opposite advice to give to an individual in a coaching session. The reason for this is that in a video, I'm usually trying to give the best general advice to a range of players at different intervals regarding level of skill. When I talk to you personally and understand your skill level, the type of advice is automatically much better--and semi-frequently completely different--this is because I am basing it off of a better understanding of the skill level of the person I'm speaking with.
Anyways, shoot me a PM if any of you guys are interested as I'm becoming more regimented with my personal life, most specifically, my sleep schedule is becoming more normalized therefore I won't have the same issues I've had in the past regarding my unwillingness to schedule appointments. From now on I plan to schedule all appointments.
Drop any comments in the section below, I always appreciate them.
A public service announcmentby DustySwedeDude, June 13
This might be the most important post I've made on a blog. It has very little to do with me but a lot to do with anyone who lives in Europe or any other country that might turn to shit really soon. To get some background, please watch this speech in the European Parliament by quite possibly the most entertaining politician in recent times:
The Euro is shit, it'll turn to shit and to claim that the Euro was a good idea is bullshit on such a level that I can't even describe it. Ten years ago I though the Euro was a cool thing that Sweden should use. My only defence is that I was 15 and an idiot.
If you live in a Euro country, the possible exception being Germany which seems fine for the time being, make sure to have some stockpiled food home, enough to last for a week or two, keep enough cash home that you and your family would be fine in cash the banks top working for a few weeks. Make sure to have enough saving to survive unemployment for 6 months or preferably more. If you're a poker player, make sure that at least some of your profits are reachable even if your bank account would stop working for extended amounts of time.
Obviously this crisis might blow over, but my guess is that it'll be a lot worse before it gets better and while we've seens rome riots in big European cities and bank runs in Greece, that shit is very likely to happen a lot more.
I live in Sweden and since the Swedish currency is not pegged to anything and Sweden is doing better then most of Europe (even though private debt is soaring due to retarded mortgages and that will, not might, will blow up in our face sooner or later) so I'm ok to have most of my money in this currency, but if you live in a Euro country, get hold of some Swiss money, gold and/or silver if you want to be on the safe side.
He's a bit extreme but he is mostly right in his predictions.
We will face another batch of news of "recovery" and crap before the election in the US and politicians in Europe will say that it's about to turn around. That will all be lies. Watch how country after country in the EU will need to be bailed out and eventually the Bundesbank won't be able to stop ECB from printing money and creating inflation. Inflation is a lot like a tax on money, and it's sneaky as hell. The FED will soon (within the year) start some kind of QE3 in disguise and print a shit ton of money and create even more inflation. Sooner or later China won't be able to drive the world economy. This fractional reserve banking system we have will most likely cause a fairly big collapse.
I'm aware that I sound like a paranoid gold bug (and I am, no argument there), but at least take the time to think about it next time you see a big European country in need of a bail out (I'm guessing Italy sometime this fall) or congress raising the debt ceiling.
I won't rant more about this since I do know that people who don't believe in it probably won't be convinced and people who do can read up on it much better elsewhere. Take care, feel free to ask stuff and remember that being prepared is the best insurance against things turning ugly.
Torrentleech, anyone have an inv?by ggplz, June 13
Hey guys,
I'm looking for an inv to torrentleech and figured some kind soul on LP might have one to share
Asking here reminds me I haven't posted a blog in a while. I've been wanting to get back into that for a while and a lot has changed with me from the old LP days some may remember still.
"Talented amateur MMA Fighter Elias Garcia is profiled during training, as he prepares for his June 23 title fight. At 19 years old, Garcia's skill level surpasses that of many veterans of the sport. Garcia is the cousin of UFC number one contender Anthony Pettis. Coaches and fellow fighters are interviewed, including his next contender. Student Producer/Director Kenneth Williams."
----------
This documentary is a decent watch for any fight fan. The filming didn't seem top notch, especially since I think this was shown on a local TV station in Wisconsin, but, the storyline and interviews with such fighters as Sergio Pettis, Anthony Pettis, Erik Koch, Ben Askren, Allen Belcher, and Duke Roufus, pick up the slack.
Yo! How we all doin, boys and girls. I really think the tutz's "Change your ways" blogpost was left somewhat unfinished and with a lot of questionmarks. So I thought that among the conspiracy theories suggested by tutz(there were many vids) were some plausible theories and some crazy but whatever my idea is that if you want I can create a thread where you put me in the position of defending the thesis of ONE conspiracy theory suggested by tutz and I would do my best to present the theory in several key points just as many of you suggested tutz do it just to see where it takes us and see some world class trolling ofcourse . Crazy theories create crazy threads so here is your chance to put any conspiracy theory no matter how crazy under test and I would try to present the strongest arguments of the conspiracy theory and defend it. It's not that I believe in every theory out there but I know enough on each of them so it would be a fun discussion. So - choose your crazy conspiracy theory you want me to defend. Let the Conspiracy shoot-out begin.
Showdown pasa33: shows (three of a kind, Fives)
Hero: shows (a pair of Tens)
pasa33 collected 29368 from pot
Summary Total pot 29368 | Rake 0
Board
Seat 1: Hero (big blind) showed and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 2: MarkusG91 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 3: Klebanov999 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 4: PokerrPieter folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 5: peelme1 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: BriDge2PaiN folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 7: soniccccc111 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 8: ineb26 (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 9: pasa33 (small blind) showed and won (29368) with three of a kind, Fives
I just watched the video of Brad Booth talking about how he has a gambling problem and is in a huge amount of debt to countless backers. He also admitted to straight up stealing money from WCGRIDER. He was crying and looked like he was at rock bottom.
It got me thinking and I decided to share some of my experiences.
I definitely used to have a horrible gambling problem and was in denial for many years. I have never played a pit game in my entire life but I used to constantly play high stakes cash games while on tilt and under rolled. However I only did this with my own money, and never on the money of other people. If I had people feeding me an endless stream of cash I never would have learned anything. I was only staked one time for 3k back in early 2007, and it went really well and my backer was paid back 6k and I profited the original 3k. Unfortunately when I was back on my own money the next day I tilted it playing 5/10 and was broke again. My backer, Ket, told me that he was cutting me off for my own good because I would never learn anything if I continued down this path. He told me I need to learn the value of money and that I should grind 1$ sngs until my fingers bleed. I knew he was right and that advice stuck with me even though I didn't follow it for a long time because my addiction was so powerful.
I eventually got to the point in late 2008 where I was completely broke and I had no way to get in action. I was at total rock bottom. My credit cards were all maxed out, I had 2-3 bank loans of like 2-3k each, and lots of school loans. I had too much pride to start messaging my poker friends begging them for staking money. I talked to my parents and they agreed that it was time for me to grow up and get a real job. I went and got a job and for 9 months I lived with my parents and 85% of my income went into paying back debts. The road to recovery was long and hard. I had a lot of time on my hands and read countless books and spent many hours working out. I started practicing meditation and spent many hours analyzing myself and trying to understand my addiction and its triggers. Yomer from LP gave me 200$ to play 10nl on and I doubled his money and paid him back. From that point on I never went broke again, even though I did have a few relapses where I would lose 40-50% of my bankroll I never put myself in the position where I had everything on the line. As time went on my tilt control started to get better and better. I started meditating more and more and had a few really huge breakthroughs and realizations. The first time I read the book Siddhartha it was essentially a religious experience for me. It opened my eyes to so many things, and I no longer view the world in the same way. I finally made the decision to quit trying to move up in stakes and to just grind the small stakes games and be happy with what I had. This gave me a lot of peace, and I was finally able to release much of my ego.
Post black Friday I worked two jobs to save up for a live poker bankroll. When I had enough money saved up I continued working 7 days a week and when I would get off work I would go grind at the casino. I got about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. This continued for about 3-4 months and I had a huge run where I didn't lose for 5 weeks. I completely paid off all of my credit card debt and school loans. I'm now completely debt free and am looking to potentially buy a house or condo soon. I quit my second job about 3 months ago and am very well bankrolled for 2/5NL cash games live. I still work a full-time job that I really enjoy, and I just play poker for the intellectual challenge and enjoyment.
I'm a huge bankroll nit and take absolutely zero chances with my money. I will continue working on my game and trying to improve because I really do enjoy playing. I have no desire to play poker for a living, and have no delusions of trying to become rich from it. At this point it is just a nice source of income that I can get from doing something that I enjoy. I no longer feel the gambling sickness inside of me, and when I lose I just accept it instead of feeling the sense of "desperation" that I used to.
I was certainly lucky in the sense that I had parents who allowed me to stay with them while I got back on my feet. I was also able to discover Buddhism and use my time training my mind instead of coming up with schemes to get back in action. I would say that I am probably in the minority of people who are able to overcome the sickness. I think that in the case of many people they would be much better off giving up the game completely.
I am extremely happy with my life now and to be honest I have no regrets. Without my experiences I wouldn't be the strong person that I am today.
Had one of the easiest sessions of my life yesterday, and all for one very simple reason, people loved showing me their cards. I meant to blog about this when playing at the Aria, but goddamn does it pay off to be on everyone's good side at the table. I'm no Daniel Negreanu, but I do like to talk at the table a lot in a casual friendly manner, and be overall supportive of players' actions. I quickly came to realize that when people like you, they want to do you favors. From Vegas to the homegames, you can get a lot of free info when people are eager to show you they werent bluffing you, because nobody wants to take their friends' money right?
I was able to get out of two big hands last night when villains showed me their cards IN THE HAND lol. I folded AQ on a QT8ss flop after villain swore up and down he had J9, and I said "if you show me that hand I'll fold" and so he turns it over, wtf lol. I gave him a hearty pat on the back and let it go. And another spot with another villain when I had something like KT on a 89Jss flop and he showed me QTo. I didnt even know these guys' names.
It's amazing how nice people can be when you're friendly with them. Just thought I'd share, always try to be jovial at the tables, you can end up saving a lot of money.
Nothing is what it seems to be
All of this is an illusion
All you think you know
All you experience
All you fear
All is none
And it is all connected
Once you see it
Infinite Love
Seek the truth
Do or do not, there is no try
But I'm just crazy
Contact Users: 692 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 03:09
. Crazy theories create crazy threads so here is your chance to put any conspiracy theory no matter how crazy under test and I would try to present the strongest arguments of the conspiracy theory and defend it. It's not that I believe in every theory out there but I know enough on each of them so it would be a fun discussion. So - choose your crazy conspiracy theory you want me to defend. Let the Conspiracy shoot-out begin.
(three of a kind, Fives)
,
,
,
,