Been playing a lot of 5/10 live lately to make up for the lack of online poker. It's been a pretty interesting transition that I'm still struggling with, but to start off here's my poorly produced graph from excel:
I'm avging an hourly of $60 right now that doesn't include commute (30 mins each way) and waitlisting. Really hoping I can bump it up to $100, which I'm not sure is sustainable or not, but that's my goal anyway. Was well on my way before the doomswong after session 12.
A quick list of things I'm struggling with, some of which are universal to live, and some characteristic of the LA casino I play at:
1. Dealing with Full Ring itself, coming from a largely 6max and HU background.
2. Dealing with people limping strong broadways, PPs up to TT, and occasionally the AA/KK l/rr from EP.
3. Dealing with people flatting big PPs pre, which makes their value range a lot wider than I give them credit for
4. Bluff frequencies and how they view which spots are good to bluff. This is obviously very player-dependent too but the size of the player pool at my casino makes it such that I don't develop deep history or understanding of any specific player. So occasionally some live reg will pull a bluff that I give too much credit for just because its, in my online-player mind, a suicidal bluff and thus he's probably nutted. It's a hard habit to shake.
5. I started buying in for the max at my stakes (150bbs), didn't like it because there aren't as many clueless, gambly fish as I expected. The majority of the player pool are loose passives and if deep stacks are ever getting in, its usually a cooler situation that I can be on the wrong side of. To reduce my risk of ruin I'm starting to play 100bbs, and 100bbs is obviously a stack size I'm very very comfortable with as an online player anyway. Good results so far from that switch.
I'd like to think I'm one of the best regulars at 5/10 based on online experience (there seem to be very few good online players playing this game regularly, though a few of them might be at higher stakes), but I feel like there are still some live intangibles that the live regs have over me, or it's just taking me too slow to adapt. Likely the biggest lesson I've learned (though I learned this some years ago when I was playing big live tourneys) is to not underestimate the live atmosphere. I don't think it's as easy as just being an online pro and coming in and schooling everyone, especially in a full ring setting, and there's definitely a learning curve involved.
There are some people MUCH more qualified than I to talk about live play like andrewsong cosmo myth rek etc. but if anyone has any questions about live play I can try my best to help answer
edit: oh man didn't know I was still a featured blog, haven't blogged in a year.
I decided to deposit on Hero poker a few days ago and have put in about 3000 hands so far at 25nl. I'm really enjoying being able to play online again even though it is risky. The money I put on is insignificant so if Merge gets busted I won't be hurt or anything. I accept the risks. The games are "alright" I would say. When I get 50,000 hands played I will post a screenshot of my progress. I just like being able to play an hour or so in the evenings when I don't feel like going to the casino to play live.
I have done well in the local live games and have booked a 2 week vacation to Vegas from 6/22-7/06 so I am looking forward to that. I will be grinding a lot of 2/5 and maybe some 5/10 if the game is really good. Around here 2/5 only runs like 1-2 times a week which is kind of annoying. It's very deep because it is uncapped and a lot of the time it plays like a 5/10 game. It will be awesome in Vegas to be able to grind it on a daily basis.
It feels good to play poker for fun and not have to worry about anything. Getting a regular job was definitely the right move for me. Stress free is the way to be!
Since some of you have never played live poker or aren't much experienced with it, in case you ever wanna try it I present to you some pointers that I've learned through experience by playing live for the past 3 or 4 years.
- Learn how to look at your cards correctly, you don't know how easy it is to see the hole cards of the guy next to you if they don't know how to look at them properly, try to lean your body towards the cards if possible and conceal as much as possible. This mostly happens to either very very newb live players or old guys, if it's an old guy please be kind enough to tell him you can see his hole cards!, one time is enough.
- When in doubt always ask for the floor manager. Sometimes dealers think they know the rules, but some of them have no clue and you might get screwed.
- I find that it's much better to always announce whatever your action is going to be. When you wanna raise to 200 you are better off just saying so. There's been some instances where I didn't raise as much as I wanted because I fucked up with the chips. Also saves some time with misunderstandings.
- Always double check your cards before throwing them away! It's not frecuent but it has happened to me at least twice that I folded a much better hand than what I thought I had. Can't say how tilty that is.
- Try to follow the action but if you are distracted for whatever reason and find a hand you wanna play first look at the players before you to see if someone limped or raised. It's the worst feeling when the guy that always open limps only AA/KK limped and you raise/fold with your AQs.
- Always be on the look out if you are new to the poker room. Remember everyone is there to win money and some people will do whatever it takes to get an advantage, no matter if it's within the rules or a gray area, you aren't as well protected as when playing online on pokerstars. That said have fun, you can get to know some really cool people there as well.
- Whatever you do don't be the grumpy onliner that always complains when someone makes a bad play and boasts about how much better he is than everyone else at the casino. Try to be social and stuff, it's even +EV to do it, who knows, you might get a free showdown or a friendly warning just because someone likes you.
- Don't lend money to people you don't know! Even if they seem like they are super rich and gamble very big, if you don't know them outside the casino it's a no-no. Some(most) people are just terrible at paying back loans even if they got the money and it's just not worth it.
- Be weary of people trying to look at your hole cards and signaling his/her friend, it DOES happen, if someone is right behind you the whole time and you feel uncomfortable just say so.
Will try to think of more, if you got any feel free to add!
Not sure why I'm creating a blog but I decided to give a try.
Maybe it will force me to do more volume and hopefully some run good will come out of it.
I've played PLO for a year and half now but I'm still not sure what my real level is. I've had a terrific end of 2011 and managed to become a regular at 2/4.
But 2012 has been a real bitch so far and I had to move down as low as PLO50.
Here's my graph for 2012
I don't really believe in EV being a somewhat accurate perception of ones run (especially in PLO) but let's admit it, I ran like Stephan fucking Hawking.
It's still a small sample and I clearly didn't play as much as I should have. I probably made in RB what I lost in raw profits so the situation is not desperate but it's starting to really get on my nerves.
Big swings at the beginning of the graph is 400 and 200, rest of it is mostly 100 and 50 so it's pretty brutal. I'm playing on Stars.fr and the level there is terrible which makes it even more painful to accept.
Anyway, I didn't intend to create a blog to whine all day everyday, but I figured a little background is always good.
Let's hope JoeIngram swings by this blog and give me some good run.
I don't know shit about poker.
I don't even know what I don't know.
The only thing I have going for me is that I am aware of my absolute lack of knowledge.
This is my start from rock bottom. All I have done so far is depositing $20 on pokerstars, and played about 1500 micro-stake hands. Mainly zoom hands. I don't know about tournaments, standard poker abbreviations, or smart play. For the first day, I thought 'Villain' was an actual player that had accounts everywhere and was everyone's arch-nemesis.
I am following the guidelines for the beginners intro here on Liquid Poker. Results so far are a very slight loss. That is not due to the guide, but my own play. I downloaded the trial for Pokertracker. And lo and behold, I'm a freakin fish, throwing my money in as soon as I see a picture card
http://i.imgur.com/8rPvk.jpg Apparently, KQs and KQo are really poorly performing hands that just look so good.. and pocket pairs still havent payed off.
After this introduction, I hope you guys will help me when I post silly questions and post noob plays in the hands section. Also, what is the one thing you wish you had done differently when you first started playing?
This seems a little early, but honestly the WSOP is just 3 short weeks away so here we go...
EDIT: I decided to go ahead and make this a package for everything other than the 10k 6max for simplicity @ 70% backer/30% player, that way if you buy one share you have a sweat in 11 tourneys. The total amount of the buyins will be $35,500. That leaves 71 shares @ $500 a piece. The 70/30 split is because you will have a chance through the last MTT to get your money back as this will be a 35.5k bankroll to play everything.
Just tell me how many shares you want to reserve
(must be able to get me money before the event starts either cash in vegas or paypal/bankwire, something unless some special circumstances and I trust you enough):
This event I'll just put separate since I'd like to play it but I think it will stop my bap from selling a lot, so if you want action in this tourney just specify. It's not til the end of the summer so plenty of time on this one.
Event 57 - $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six Handed Jul 03 3 $10,000
Selling 90%
Price 1.10:1, 5%=550 10%=1,100 Full 90%=10,000 90% left
This is the first time I've done this, but I'll be updating this as I get offers (hopefully). Let me know if you want to reserve x% and i'll write it down and confirm the action later on when I get money from you. I might take some of my own action in things that need that last little push to play them.
LET THE BIDDING BEGIN!
Also whoever wants to put me in the $1,000,000 tournament, just send me a box full of money and I will play it for free.
ps: I guess it's standard to withhold 30% of any significant score (where they give you a W-2) for taxes, so unless we arrange the appropriate paperwork (you sign a simple doc I'll print out) I'll be doing that too.
pps: could someone knowledgeable inform me on one-time deals, if you do an 80/20 deal on a 1k tournament and the person cashes for 2k do you...
A- Give 1k back to the backer and chop the 1k profit 800/200?
B- Chop the whole cash 80/20, backer gets 1600, player gets 400?
It makes a big difference on small cashes so I'd like to know which way to do it.
Business has been really good. We've already grossed ~$550,000 this year and we're on track for $2-$2.5 million by the end of the year. Once August hits we're going to be swamped again with holiday sales. Definitely dreading the amount of work that's coming up. Last year, during the weeks before Christmas, I worked 18 hours a day for a month. This year will probably be no different so I'll be sure to stock up on coffee and five hour energy drinks.
Going to have to hire some official employees soon instead of just paying Acckerman and another friend to do the manual work. Also probably going to need a new photographer because our current one is thinking about a job in New York. I have no idea how the hiring process works. Will have to consider things like health insurance, overtime pay, workman's compensation insurance, running background checks, reading résumés, and whatever else we'll need to do to hire someone. We plan on talking to a lawyer soon to figure all this out.
We also plan on hiring a few employees who can do technical stuff a little later on. Right now edzwoo and I have to do things on a daily basis that we can easily pay someone else to do. But these tasks will require some technical knowledge and a ton of training because what we'd need them to do is really specific. Once we have these people we're going to get a manager to just oversee everything. The plan is that by 2013 or 2014 everything will be full automated by our employees and edzwoo and I won't have to come in to the office anymore. We'd just be making the more important decisions, attending trade shows and just living it up.
We're going to be heading back to the suburbs in early-mid June. It'll be really nice to get out of Champaign-Urbana. I've been here for five years now and I'm pretty sick of this area. It's been fun but I'm ready to get out of here. Really looking forwards to hanging out with friends from high school that are still in the Chicago area.
We're leaving because our lease is about to end so we found a nice warehouse to move our business to. edzwoo's brother used to work in real estate and he hooked us up with a friend of his who's a commercial realtor. We drove back two weeks ago to check out some warehouses with the realtor and ended up picking one that's actually right next to where edzwoo's dad lives. The warehouse was somewhere around 6000 square feet, had plenty of office space (enough for maybe 6 or 7 people) and a ballin kitchen area which edzwoo really liked. The warehouse was newly renovated so it looked really nice. The place was owned by CRP Holdings, a huge and well established real estate company. Having a large landlord is always a plus because they're financially stable and have efficient procedures to handle problems tenants might have. We were pretty set on the place but we thought that the price was somewhere around $8/sq ft. It turns out the property was actually $11.50/sq ft, $21,000/year more than we expected.
Nice as it was, we just couldn't lease the place because there were other warehouses of the same size that went for a lower price. We decided to go with a 5200 sq ft warehouse at $7.50/sq ft instead which comes out to be ~$40,000 per year. It wasn't nearly as nice and the landlord is much smaller so there was some risk involved with that. We let our realtor know about our decision and he actually takes this information and gives it to CRP Holdings (the first landlord). They in turn offered us a 6200 sq ft building at $6.45/sq ft. WHAT? Talk about unexpected. This was a much better deal. The reason CRP offered it to us at $6.45/sq ft is because they saw what our realtor sent them and they came up with a price per square foot that would also end up being $40,000 per year.
The 6200 sq ft place is a little beat up but there was no way we could pass it up for that price. We got the license agreement today so we should have everything finalized pretty soon. Never thought I could be this excited about a warehouse.
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i knew i had to fold but i couldnt
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