played 100nl in the first few days at bodog and ap which really tilted me coz the software sucked and i didnt have rb there, moved to stars now it's time to crush again eh? -2100 left on my ptr before year ends. so thats 40bi at 50nl before i see a breakeven graph at least for motivation.
This will be one of hopefully many business-inspired poker blog articles I'll want to write (especially if I get a good reaction ). This article specifically was written with an article in mind by entrepreneur turned VC Mark Suster, "What Makes an Entrepreneur (3/11) – Ability to Pivot" http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/20...an-entrepreneur-310-ability-to-pivot/
It's a long read, so the tl;dr version is that in (especially tech) startup, likely your business model will be entirely different just a few years after you've started. In order to keep up with a fast-paced, ever-changing business environment, varying market feedback, you must pivot/change your business plans and strategies to remain competitive. While I think business and poker do not have to correlate and overlap tremendously, there are a lot of concepts that are inherent to both fields, much in the same way that the strategic traits of games like StarCraft correlate to traits almost required for poker success.
As poker players I'm sure we're all used to this concept one way or another. If you even visit this forum you're conscious of your own poker game enough to make micro adjustments every day, month, etc. However I thought this would be a relevant topic as we're almost coming up on the fourth year anniversary of UIGEA, and the effect of time on the games post-leg is obvious. We've seen many big name players fall into retirement or obscurity, and so with each passing day it's important to critically think about your income generation from this game both in the present and future.
I'm not going to write a guide since I can't say I have enough knowledge of the psychology and decision making of other players, and so I can only present what I've observed and what my personal pivots have been. I've made significantly more each year after UIGEA passed and this year I've already made more than I did in 2009 with 4 more months remaining. Besides the basic adjustments of simply trying to get better at poker by watching videos, talking hands, etc. here are the pivots I've made:
- First Pivot (Successful), 2006 - UIGEA passed and I switched from playing small stakes Fixed Limit to micro stakes No Limit. Competitive edges amongst regs seemed too thin in that game (at least that's what I perceived as an 18 year old new to the poker world), and 100bb NL poker was far from being considered solved.
- Second Pivot (Successful), 2008 - Began studying tournaments as a side game to my usual 6-max game. Besides the obvious monetary benefit, there were a lot of implied benefits that included traveling around the world to play events, making the invaluable connections and friendships as a result of those events, and poker-wise, an increased understanding of shallow stacked poker.
- Third Pivot (Unsuccessful), 2009 - Began 12 tabling 2/4 iPoker with rakeback as primary form of income generation. I reasoned that with how volatile poker variance is, the only guaranteed income is rakeback. My 12 table set up netted me $70+/hr in rakeback, but increased my stress and destroyed my winrate. That didn't last long.
- Fourth Pivot (Successful), 2009 - Began playing Heads Up on the side of 6max, made me an overall stronger player in literally every aspect and had huge monetary benefits.
By 2010 I've made other smaller pivots, another important one worth mentioning was studying/discussing Zen with friends and understanding how to minimize subtle tilt as much as possible (which probably saves me tens of thousands of dollars per year). I've began playing even more HU which increases my overall profit, etc.
Your pivots can be for any reason, though I intended this article to primarily have monetary incentive in mind. I know a fairly common pivot some ex-mid/high stakes winners have made is the switch to Supernova Elite chasing, which nets you about 130k/year with a breakeven winrate. Perhaps you're a winner at your current stakes, but maybe playing a different game could acquire you the same winrate but with less stress and/or volatility. A good example of that would be playing PLO, a pivot I'm considering for 2011, where achieving a 2ptbb winrate at mid stakes PLO is (as I'm told) a lot easier than maintaining a 2ptbb winrate at NL.
I talk to a lot of players who are relatively new to the game, and they envision themselves on the same trail that was created by the people that have been playing for much longer - get really good, grind out mid or high stakes, make money. The fact of the matter is that formula has rarely worked out for anyone who has taken up this game seriously within the past 1 or 2 years. As mentioned earlier, the primary focus of this article was making more money. Phil Galfond was famous for his NL dominance a few years ago, but has since became a PLO player primarily and has made more millions (to my/public knowledge) and a bracelet. There are some who play for the pride of being a great or well-known player, and that's great too - but if money is your priority then you must have the ability to be critical of your game and your financial endeavors, and be able to pivot when the time is right.
I'll be getting my wisdom teeth out in a week, and then heading up to San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt (business conference) at the end of the month. If anyone happens to be going, PM me :D
Fist hurts, just beat the shit out of my monitor after losing 3 allin's preflop back to back at rush starting from my very first hand. You know, sit down, buy in, STACKED STACKED STACKED. Awesome. 5 BI's total within 30 hands or so. So I raged and now I have even more dead pixels and crazy lines going down my nice 22" lcd. Took what was left to NL50 hu and just dumped to some random player. Didnt hurt that he caught KK and AK first two hands in a row. So im busto again.
I always find some new "system" that I want to try out before quitting for good. By system I dont mean some gay betting strategy or whatever, I just mean a gametype + bankroll that I feel confident I can work in my favor and run up. This time it was single-tabling rush so I could focus on every hand. Was on a sick heater, winning 12 BI's in probably less than 1000 hands, dunno I dont have HEM installed anymore. Fuck that, it was no heater, it was pure and simple good play. I routinely read peoples hands in the dark, meaning at a rush table I'm putting them on precise ranges without ever having played them before. I like that I can do that.
So at the moment theres only one other system I have left in my head, and thats playing the 20-50BB tables on stars. I've been observing them for a few days now and they seem ultra soft. Yeah the stack/pot ratios blow, but fish seem to flock to them so they can play NL200 with 100 bucks. Even from observer mode I get to see enough showdown to laugh and see how profitable they are, probably moreso than the 100BB tables. Gonna use what was supposed to be my live bankroll and make a run at em, as long as I dont run bad I should build a nice little roll real quick.
It's so funny too, when I sat down tonight I gave myself a 1 buyin stoploss. Thats right, a single buyin, because I'm playing right before bed and dont want to get all pissed off and unable to sleep if I get sucked out on. I didnt expect to hit my stoploss the very first hand with AA to a 2 outer on the turn though. No way I can just play 1 single hand and quit.
Im sorry I received news that my grandma has late stage colon cancer which has metastasized to her lungs and liver. She does not have much time and I will stay by her side. I will most likely not be able to play WCOOP due to stress, time spent at her bedside.
I have shipped all the money back, im sorry for causing a rukus.
So I actually decide to put in volume for once in my life two tabling NL5 rush, and get knocked down. I came back eventually, and patted myself on the back and took a shower. When I came back, I decided to go at it again, only to get knocked down again.
the way that it feels to play against meby sawseech, September 07
suffocating
pressured
scary
paranoid
peeing oneself
a dark cloud
the sense of being in the presence of power
a strong computer
an immovable will
a good person who likes you and wants your money and that's it
attacks with no shape, no form, no pattern
the sense that you are facing an immensely disciplined force of nature
I've had several trades here and at 2p2 and can provide references for those trades. I can do any increments or w/e you prefer. If you're not a respected member nor have a good established trade history, you'll definitely being sending 1st.
My plan is to move $ to FT, work comfortably toward my bonus, then move all $ back to PS, so if you you happen to have a very large BR and are not necessarily needing to trade but can part with $300 for 20 days, that would be nice.
My 512MB Ram PC sucks ( Will buy new one when I will play NL100), so I need to purge some hands.
It will be also nice to have only hands after I quite my job from now on.
Pro Update
Its going well so far, and from the current progress is shouldn't be too hard to make the $20/day $600/month target at NL50 if I put in enough volumes, even without rakeback.
I had a rough longish session today, where I was cold decked for some 2 hours and didn't win a single pot, was forced to play some 17/15 and my red and overall lines bombed totally.
I still have remainings of the careless mentality where I call 4bets with K5s out of spite, and I will have to work on switching gears some more when I am not getting any hands (I have a tendency to play roughly the same amount of hands and tend to widen my range if I have a bad run of cards).
Still this is EZ life compared to the office and I can't imagine a downswing big enough to make me stressed like I was at peak times there.
I am taking a break for 3 days to write some 12k words report about my work, have a party on Friday and then I am back in the action.
P.S. STILL TAKING BETS AGAINST ME - $600/month without rakeback minimum target on average - FREE MONEY IF YOU LOOK AT MY WINRATE HISTORY - we can work out sth long term for 3-6 months if you wish. Skype LP-LemOn
This is my additional thank you for coaching me. It was a great session and I learned a lot. Hope to continue crushing and really appreciate your insight. The rest of you may now benefit from our coaching session; enjoy and plz vote
Crushing PLO lately, over last 20k+ hands and the first 5 days of this month. Running decent but at the same time im playing really well. I feel really good about my game, my post flop reads are always dead on and its so easy to manipulate the horrible players that populate these games. I really cant even name one reg that I worry about or even have to adapt to.
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). This article specifically was written with an article in mind by entrepreneur turned VC Mark Suster, "What Makes an Entrepreneur (3/11) – Ability to Pivot" 
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