However I miss this (pics below). Last game of the Swedish football season on sunday. We're in 1st place with the same amount of points as 2nd place team, but with a better GD. To makes things worse, it's one of our worst rivals. We absolutely hate eachother. I will not be travelling home as I had planned, because of business meetings/trip to London. Yipee.
My new phrase for marginal spots + RANDUMB STUFFby Carthac, November 05
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.
Coming from StarCraft I was greatly inspired by Mr. ElkY Grospellier and decided to learn how to play poker, as I don't really want a job and I don't think it's that unreasonable that I can make an OK living off of poker (~$2000 a month), since my living expenses barely exceed $1200 per month. I don't need a lot of pointless shit.
Now don't get me wrong, I know being a professional at poker isn't easy, especially for people like me who are just starting out, and I don't expect to be making 2k a month starting tomorrow. I know it'll take me quite a while until I fully grasp how to play properly so I can make a living off of it. But when I do, it's FUCK YOU Sweden and Hello London because the gambling taxes in the UK seems to be non-existant. Is this true?
I knew that the tax laws on Poker in Sweden were pretty tough, but I never realized how unreasonable they were until just recently as I looked them up. Apparently if we play on a poker site that's not based in the EU we have to pay 30% tax on every pot we win, excluding losses. Meaning I have to pay 30% on every tiny pot I win, not the total amount I withdraw to the bank when I cash out my chips I have on PokerStars.
I recently started playing on the micro stakes and after having played about 2000 hands I've lost a total of 6 dollars, five of these dollars came down to just horrible luck from lucky calling stations who managed to river a two-pair when I have their first pair dominated with pocket AA/KK. Needless to say I got quite angry because luck was against me. I probably could've played those hands better and as a newbie I'm not sure I even played correctly. I knew with Hold'em manager that these players had a VPIP of over 50% which is why out betting war ensued me going all in five fucking times, and losing.
im chipleader and 1 guy has a small blind left. the results r hilarious.
Submitted by : SIG1
Stage #425034385 Tourney ID 5293732 Holdem Single Tournament No Limit 300 - 2010-11-04 23:26:41 (ET)
Table: 39297823 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 3 - BPOCAS (150 in chips)
Seat 4 - SEOBOMBISGAY (5,150 in chips)
Seat 6 - HOCKEYSNOBB (3,700 in chips)
SEOBOMBISGAY - Posts small blind 150
HOCKEYSNOBB - Posts big blind 300
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to SEOBOMBISGAY
BPOCAS - Folds
SEOBOMBISGAY - All-In(Raise) 5,000 to 5,150
HOCKEYSNOBB - All-In 3,400
SEOBOMBISGAY - returned (1,450) : not called
Showdown SEOBOMBISGAY - Shows (Straight, five to nine)
HOCKEYSNOBB - Shows (ace high)
SEOBOMBISGAY Collects 7,400 from main pot
Summary Total Pot(7,400)
Board
Seat 3: BPOCAS (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: SEOBOMBISGAY (small blind) won Total (7,400) All-In HI7,400) with Straight, five to nine - ]
Seat 6: HOCKEYSNOBB (big blind) HI:lost with ace high - ]
MOTHER FUCKING ASS-CUNT BITCHES, GOD DAMN HU EPIC RAPE DOWNSWING OF DOOM OCTOBER YOU WHORE OF A MONTH YOU ARE MAKING NOVEMBER FEEL CONFIDENT IN RAPING ME WITH A SMILE. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GO ALLIN EV MINUS 20 BUYINS ON TOP OF 20 MORE BUYINS WORTH OF ACTUAL PURE INSANITY IN 1 WEEK FOLLOWED BY PERPETUAL HOPE BEING CONSUMED WITH SODOMY? I AM QUITE FAR FROM A TILTING SPEWTARD MONKEY FUCKFACE BUT IN WORDS I DO RAGE HARDER THAN ROIDS INJECT DIRECTLY TO MY BRAIN. GOD THIS WALL OF CAPS IS GIVING ME THE RELIEF I NEED AS I LACK A TILT ROOM, WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO CRUSH WATERMELONS WITH MY FISTS. OF COURSE THIS WALL OF CAPS IS NOT GIVING ME THE RELIEF BUT LET ME BE IGNORANT, FOR BLISS IS WHAT I AM SEEKING. AT WHAT RATE CAN A 15BB WINNER LOSE AT OVER 30K HANDS? I DON'T WANT TO SCARE AWAY THE FISHES. I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD ON MY LIFE THAT BEFORE THIS MONTH IS OVER I WILL HAVE ACHIEVED SUPREME RUNGOOD DONKEY SOUL CRUSHING MADNESS. I WILL POUR THE SOULS FROM WHICH I SLAUGHTER INTO MY TOILET AND SHIT ON THEM FOR A WEEK. FUCK THEIR SOULS. I WILL SHIT ON THEM FOR AS MANY DAYS AS I HAVE RUN BREAKEVEN. ETERNITY? NO SORRY I'M NOT WCGRYDER. THIS IS WHERE THE FUCKING BULLSHIT ENDS AND FROM THIS DAY FORTH I WILL STARE THROUGH MY MONITOR TO FINALLY SEE THE WHITE WALL BEYOND IT; AS MY EYES GO BLIND, BLANKETED BY THE FUZZY STARS THAT WAIT FOR US ALL, I WILL FINALLY SEE WHAT LIGHT HAS BEEN HIDING FROM ME ALL ALONG.
MOTHER FUCKING ASS-CUNT BITCHES, GOD DAMN HU EPIC RAPE DOWNSWING OF DOOM OCTOBER YOU WHORE OF A MONTH YOU ARE MAKING NOVEMBER FEEL CONFIDENT IN RAPING ME WITH A SMILE. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GO ALLIN EV MINUS 20 BUYINS ON TOP OF 20 MORE BUYINS WORTH OF ACTUAL PURE INSANITY IN 1 WEEK FOLLOWED BY PERPETUAL HOPE BEING CONSUMED WITH SODOMY? I AM QUITE FAR FROM A TILTING SPEWTARD MONKEY FUCKFACE BUT IN WORDS I DO RAGE HARDER THAN ROIDS INJECT DIRECTLY TO MY BRAIN. GOD THIS WALL OF CAPS IS GIVING ME THE RELIEF I NEED AS I LACK A TILT ROOM, WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO CRUSH WATERMELONS WITH MY FISTS. OF COURSE THIS WALL OF CAPS IS NOT GIVING ME THE RELIEF BUT LET ME BE IGNORANT, FOR BLISS IS WHAT I AM SEEKING. AT WHAT RATE CAN A 15BB WINNER LOSE AT OVER 30K HANDS? I DON'T WANT TO SCARE AWAY THE FISHES. I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD ON MY LIFE THAT BEFORE THIS MONTH IS OVER I WILL HAVE ACHIEVED SUPREME RUNGOOD DONKEY SOUL CRUSHING MADNESS. I WILL POUR THE SOULS FROM WHICH I SLAUGHTER INTO MY TOILET AND SHIT ON THEM FOR A WEEK. FUCK THEIR SOULS. I WILL SHIT ON THEM FOR AS MANY DAYS AS I HAVE RUN BREAKEVEN. ETERNITY? NO SORRY I'M NOT WCGRYDER. THIS IS WHERE THE FUCKING BULLSHIT ENDS AND FROM THIS DAY FORTH I WILL STARE THROUGH MY MONITOR TO FINALLY SEE THE WHITE WALL BEYOND IT; AS MY EYES GO BLIND, BLANKETED BY THE FUZZY STARS THAT WAIT FOR US ALL, I WILL FINALLY SEE WHAT LIGHT HAS BEEN HIDING FROM ME ALL ALONG.
Informative article about tiltby Carthac, November 03
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. "
So while I was grinding I started thinking about what thumb rules you can use to decide whether or not you should make a continuation bet and I came up with this:
This is supposed to apply for both in and out of position with you always being the aggressor pre-flop.
I was going to add examples to show you some basic strategies with certain ranges of hands, but I'll do it later. What I'm slightly worried about is that my ranges might get too polarized by generalizing like this, but it should be easy to adjust to make it a bit more "merged" and less exploitable.
Edit: Last question of course means if hero can call or raise a bet with it on a blank turn.
Edit 2: Realized I forgot to add which hands are not even good enough to bet and you should just give up right away. It was too obvious for me when I was thinking about this. I guess we can just call the "Bluff" part which hands you semi bluff. Rest of the hands goes into bet or check/fold. :D
Edit 3: This is also assuming that you will never check/raise as aggressor.
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(ace high) 
7,400) with Straight, five to nine
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