Poker Blogs

For some reason forgot to update it, been a few days, instead of adding the bottom half in the other entry, I just post the whole thing here.


Quitting

" Quitting is the one poker topic that touches our regular lives the most directly and most often."

"It is the demarcation between poker and non-poker."


Toughing it out

- The difference between normal manual labour and poker is that, when you do feel out of your A game, and don't feel up for it, you can still do the work, and get a paycheck at a normal job. In poker, you will lose money.

- Everytime you feel out of your game or damaged, you shouldn't necessarily quit. If you're a professional

"This whole quitting topic is deeply complex because each person is different, and each person is changing all the time."

(Just tossing out wide area of nets)

- Each individual needs to learn to know/feel themself good when they aren't on their A game, and what might bring them close to it, or how to refocus.


From Tommy's book:

I have always had very strict policies when it comes to quitting, even when I first started playing poker. Back then I had two main quitting rules that I never broke. I would always quit if I was out of money and nobody would lend me any, and I would always quit if everybody else did.


Taking Breaks

*Very important topic*

- Possible to recharge your engine, back to your A game if it's started to detoriate.

- Usually people take breaks because they want to pee, disturbances, get food so forth

- Really smart to take breaks just to take a break, because you been sitting for too long, you're starting to become flusterd, harder to focus, so forth.

"Walking away is easy. The hard part is standing up."

If you really wanna take on quitting as a skillset, as a new challenge, body of work that you're gonna undertake. The way to do that is thinking of taking a break, as quitting practice, because everytime you're taking a break, you're going away from the table.

(Only practicing the act of walking away in the middle of the table.)


What to do on breaks

*Start thinking of your beaks in a completly different way, you're not taking a break to do anything, you do it to remove yourself from teh game, physically, and mentally, and this takes effort.*

- Doing something that takes your mind off the game

- Just concentrate on the act your doing, on yourself, concentrate on the present tense and what's going on, do the breathing.

- If you play online, It's never smart to play more than 1hour to 1hour30min, take a break, do something, do sit ups, push ups, something.


- The reason why after we've sat down, feel fresh and sharp, playing our A game, then after 1 hour, 2 hours, we just feel, deteriorated, exhausted, flusterd is because we've accumulated mental stuff.

(Like an accumilation of weights, baggage.)

- Take breaks when you feel good. (We have a tendency to take breaks when we feel like shit.) Do it before desperate time.

EVERYTIME YOU TAKE A BREAK, YOU ARE QUITTING

- Have to practice quitting when it's really difficult.

Use the "object of the game" concept to practice quitting.


Quitting "lopping off the C game"

"Lopping off the C-game has such enormous long term effects."

- On your well being, happiness, bankroll, friends, family, so forth.

- We tend not to think in long term, but saving the cash you "waste" end of long session is huge. Lopping off the C game which starts to creep in

"I see quitting as a tool to use toward this higher objective of loppinf off the C game."

"If you want to lop of C-game, you need to trim back the end of your worst sessions."


I was about to go play poker at a local casino. I hadn't slept all that well but I had showered and walked and I had convinced myself that I was good to go. I was at the door, saying goodbye to my wife, when this big yawn opened up on my face.

Wife: "Are you sure you want to go play right now?"

And I'm like, "Yes."

And she said, "Well, of course you know if you are ready or not. I'm just saying, it's never wrong to not play."

It's never wrong to not play.

It's never wrong to not play.

I let those words melt over me for a second. Then I walked to my desk and wrote them down, and stayed home.


Stack size matters

- If the only one with same stacksize is to your left, good idea to quit (Both of you 200bb.) Ideally, you want him to your right.

- If players who are better than you are deep, the worse ones have small stacks, good idea to quit as well. (If not weigh heavily to your decisions.)


Stop losses

- Completly personal, it's about knowing yourself, it's about knowing when you need one, and actually doing it.

- If you get rid of your tilt, you don't need a stop loss.

"You can't fix tilt with stop loss."

- Stop loss are only related on how big your bankroll will be in comparisontment to not stopping.

- A lot of people tilt really bad when they're stuck, stop loss is not only a good idea, it's essential, until they get their tilt under controle.

"Long range stop loss strategies are a good thing."

- Stop losses are a great idea for they who need em.


Quitting: Earn rate matters

"Good quitting requires seeing deeply into ourselves and being able to analyze our actual performance at each moment."


Quitting, pain, tilt and fear

- Quit, and relieve our suffering at poker, so we can play again. When we quit well.

- When you know you're a good quitter, gives you a level of safety and security. When you're not afraid of having those terrible sessions, because you know you'll be able to quit, that relives the fear of that pain.


"From Elements of poker"

I think of quitting as a skill set unto itself, with branching subsets of skills for each type of quitting situation. There's knowing how to quit at limit games, and there's knowing how to quit at no-limit. There's knowing how to quit when you have a curfew, and when you don't. There's being able to quit when you're ahead, and when you're stuck. There's quitting when you feel good, and for when that doesn't happen, you need to know how to quit when you feel bad.


Quitting is a skill, it's a poker skill, it's one that you can work on, it's one that very few people do work on. This isn't on how to play poker, this is how to be a poker player, quitting is becoming a poker player.


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This is my month:
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3623/monthqf.jpg

This is how I feel:

http://www.thingsbearslove.com/img/things/boomboxes.png

Get ready


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quite identical posts, but this time need to transfer 50$ from my FTP for your 50$ PS, will transfer in advance, well know person around LP, blha blah,


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for all you hellraiser fans out there. check this one out.




note: watched this and it's
ok but not too great, god i run bad on everything lately lol


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Alright so ima make a little update how things are goin. I deposited and planned on putting alteast 20k hands between nl5/10 before moving up anywhere. Ive been 16 tabling and for some reason cant beat fkin nl10 as sad as it seems. Im so used to playin 2-4 tables max maybe thats it. But i get too bored when 4 tabling nl10, so i always end up playin 16 tables + 2 tourneys usually. Anyways, ive played some nl50 HU , even tho i tolled myself i wouldnt. I started my BR at 100, and still plan to play nl10 until i finally start showing results. HU is the only game ive been doing good so far.

As for tourneys , my best result since my deposit couple days ago was finishing around 40th in the 3$ rebuy. Which sucked cause i ended up busting out cause of 2 flips.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6510/pokergraph11810.png

Obvious where i played HU -_-

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7435/pokerchart11810.png

Can someone tell me what those stats mean, as i have no clue how to rly use poker tracker. I think im playing wayyyy to nitty for 6 max. That might be cause i 16 table, but still. Wat u think?!?



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still need stars $... send me a pm if ur interested in swapping

FTOPS coming up soon


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As many of you saw in my previous blog post, the non-profit organization I've been working part time for (PeaceJam Foundation) made the top 100 charities in Chase banks give away on Facebook, which shipped them 25k. Round #2 just started (only lasts 1 week) and the top 100 charities are competing to win $1,000,000. First place ships the million and the next 5 ship 100k. Pretty sweet.

So I'm calling on the poker community for help - please log onto Facebook and vote for PeaceJam, and then invite your friends to vote too! I truly believe that with the poker and starcraft communities working together we can take 1st place and get some money to deserving charity that will do lots of good with it!

Going on a weekend trip to Seoul on the Jan. 29th, back to Beijing on Feb 1st. Anyone have suggestions on good restaurants and other things to do?


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I'm looking to trade $1500 FTP for $1500 on Cake Poker. PM or reply if you can help, reputable members please.


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just wanted to update to remind me of my goals.
i cashed out almost my entire roll since my last blog. had to pay some stuff and bought extra xmas presents found a nice student job and im pretty busy with uni now. so ive become a very occasional poker player. just playing donkaments but im losing faith in online poker with every tourney i play. there has to be a doomswitch - im absolutey sure!!

last bustouts:

ak vs. a8 - straight
+ Show Spoiler +

jj vs. j10 - straight
+ Show Spoiler +

ak vs. aj - straight
+ Show Spoiler +

tp vs. gutshot - straight
+ Show Spoiler +

ak vs. aq - straight
+ Show Spoiler +

tp vs. 2nd - runner runner flush
+ Show Spoiler +

aa vs. ak - straight
+ Show Spoiler +

ak vs. ak - flush
+ Show Spoiler +

i know you people will say "standard!" , "fold pre!" , "donkaments lawl!" but theres a certain pattern if you know what i mean...
whatever , one day my doomswitch button will be broken or they will forget to push it and i will maybe win one of those hands untill then you will see my whine blogs here every few months or so


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2010 has come :
New Year - NOT Same Shit
Have to motivate myself to start grinding since im spending way too much these days.Dont know how im gonna do it but i always find a way.
I d wish things go my way this year as i dont feel like anything has gone my way last couple of years, but whatever i guess i should stay positive about everything and things ll get there eventually.Gotta say so far the year has been pretty good
Poker-wise year has started good euro/hr-wise so that has to be good eh ? Still i have like 5hrs played overally
Im not gonna set any precise goals since i find this pretty useless as i write most of them just coz they look like something good to do but i never find the right motivation for them.
So what im gonna set as a goal is to pursue to the end and hopefully reach all my real goals this year.


cliffnotes :
read you lazy bastard


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FU STARS
Yeah, fudge you mofos. The PS Sale gave me a strong reason to multitable again.
I made my SN requirement of 7500 VPP in 14 days while playing 1 hr during weekdays and full weekends.

But who am I kidding, I can't keep multitabling when I have a full-time job... there simply never is the energy to sustain it. Needless to say, I have a break even month and I managed to wipe out all my 5BB/100 winnings from 4 tabling and 1BB/100 when 9+ tabling during 3 hypertilt sessions, -6 to8 BI each.

I have FPPs I need to buy what I want and I already have SN threshold for this month... I ban myself from playing anything else than 4 tables for the rest of the month, and then I can only multitable when my SN is in trouble. And what if I feel bored? I will simply move up up to 200NL, or not play at all.

I will make 7BI at NL50, then take shots at NL100 and NL200 if it goes well. I can push it real hard as long as I keep returning to NL50 at $5k.


POKER PRO
I bought Tommy Angelo's book, but I have to say its less enjoyable than Ace on the river, and Tommy's series on DC, because it lacks continuity and is just a bunch of advice, without the awesome music.
It has some epic passages though, lets see one of them:


[...]When a professional poker player runs out of money, it's not a shame. It's just part of the game.
The shame is if you get calling to spread your wings and fly, and you approach the cliff, but then you back away, and from then on you wonder what it would be like to soar the wind, even for a little while, even if all you did was flail around aimlessly and crash.
Think of all the people who have set their sights on being a professional football player, or sculptor, or any other challenging career that comes wrapped in pain. Think of how many of them have 'failed' or 'came up short' or 'didn't make it'. Were those people wrong to be blinded by their passion? Were they wrong to chase a dream? Is it better to have jumped and crashed than to never have jumped at all?


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its not possible for you to find out if you 'have what it takes' to go jobless and make living out of poker, except by quitting your job. You've been a poker pro for a while now, and you're being tested like never before. You're having the worst losing streak of your life by far. You bankroll is at all-time low. You're stressed most of the time and depressed the rest. Your closest relationships are either not as close as you want them, or too close. Your health is, well, its's all over the place, because you are.

But you love it anyway, goddamn you really do! You'd do it all again, even though now everything is totally fucked. You've had so many, many soaring times these last few years, just free, on the breeze. Waking up with not much, but plenty. Playing the game like the greatest player you have ever been. Stunning not just them but even yourself. New discoveries. New people. New places. New new new. What's next ? Who knows. Who cares. Who knew you could be so hungry and so happy at the same time?
Those thoughts fade, replaced by what's real. You're not soaring right now, You're spiralling.

Looking into the future, do you think you can predict how you will feel when shits hits the muck? What you'll do? Do you think you can predict what the world will look like to you then, as you look at it from behind a paycheck now? Do you really think you know which cards are coming?

Here's a catch 22 that has caught many. You can't play enough hours to get good enough at poker to be a pro unless you quit your job. And you can't afford to quit your job until you are not good enough to be a pro.
If only that dang job wasn't in the way, you'd have the freedom to really work on your game by playing whenever you want to and quitting whenever you want to and just bearing down on it, week after week, month after month. But if you had hat kind of freedom, you'd really be a pro.

To become a good enough at playing poker to make a living playing poker requires a tremendous amount of poker playing, poker thinking, poker talking, listening, reading, and writing. There isn't quite enough time in a normal life to hold down a normal job, maintain normal relationships, and be a poker monster.


Cliffnotes for lazy Eastern Europeans
- You can't go pro unless your quit your job.
- Is it better to fly and crash or not to fly at all?
- Although poker is cruel and a whore at times, only few that actually went for it 100% wish they'd never tried to give it their best


Personal notes to the above

Being a poker pro is awesome. Its so awesome its hard to grasp for me. I never really had the knowledge and didn't know why am I doing things until about 2 months ago. I never had time to play by then - only in the afternoons and on the weekends.

The problem with that is that you have a very limited time to play poker. So you play, you don't quit and you don't study, and whats maybe even more important - you don't think about poker when you try to be the best/do your maximum at your job.

Then the 14 days break came during the Christmas. Boy that was awesome... All I did was think about poker, live poker and breathe poker.
I could quit whenever I wanted, do something else BECAUSE OF POKER - Its very important that you relax properly and I just took my GF to a cinema or for a dinner for that reason, or I simply went to gym after reading an article and having it on my blackberry and reviewed it on a treadmill.
I watched 3-4 videos per day and I 4 tabled only, and I played when I felt like it. Huge fish keeps rebuying? Cool, I don't go to sleep tonight. I don't feel 100% ok? Sweet, lets do something fun that will make me feel better, I have all the time I need for playing.
I would just do whatever and I always got these random cravings for the game. I felt fresh and full of energy, I put in an hour here, an hour there, and it always came to 6+ on average per day.


I am now very strongly decided - I will finish my placement, I will try to get by by playing part-time during my last year of university starting September, and then, if I still feel my passion for the game, nothing will stop me from giving it 100% no matter what.





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just played 10 4man HUsngs. lost this: + Show Spoiler +

and another one, and won the other 8.

8/10 4man HUsngs, 22bi profit in one hour. i feel like a monster. im good at HU. im happy. thats all.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4300/imgfh.png


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after running around 21/18-19 for xxx k hands over 2 years i seem to nit my game up.. atm im at 17,8/14,3 over 15k hands at nl25 sh

seems to work out well tho


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Ok so out of 4 different exams I took last week I'm fairly sure I aced one, passed on, probably past a third and fucked up a forth. For the last one I just tried to read stuff that looked important (was like +800 pages of stuff for it, and considering all the other stuff I had to pick and choose) and picked the wrong stuff.

Started watching a fair bit of ”Black books” which is a great TV-show, mostly thanks to this guy:



It's awesome! I really love the show which is kind of ironic since I try not to drink much anymore. Probably going to give up everything except maybe wine (but only with food) and whiskey, which is God's gift to to Irish and Scottish, and co-incidently the most awesome thing made on those otherwise God-forsaken islands. Dunno how long I'll hold to that but whatever, trying to get in shape. Hoping to lose 15ish pounds or so before the summer. Will be doing BJJ or Thaiboxing 5 days a week which is really awesome and I'm eating super healthy right now. The interesting part is if I can keep it up...

Anyway, here's a clip from that show:



Other then that I had the first lecture on my economics class today, and man, those student are stupid. At least the ones tries to answer questions. My roomie said some stuff I've made fun of him for all day and he was probably the least retarded as far as statements goes. The teacher tried used an example that was clearly to show one specific point he'd talked about for 10 minutes and the next 15 minutes are spent listening to retard ass students who starts a sentence with; ”But if...” and tries to change the example just to show fuck all. I've said my fair share of stupid crap in law school, and heard even worse, but if someone tried to pull that crap there I'm fairly sure the teacher would just ask him to either shut up or leave. At least most of them.

Poker's going decent, not really taking off but I'll probably have a solidish month. Lot's of swings though so can't say for certain. Omaha is a cruel game but I'm getting the hang of it, or at least some of it. It's ridiculous how fast I learn, mostly because I (like almost everyone else) suck something horrid at it to begin with.

Also I'm like halfway sure that some girl I'm getting to know either is a ghost or has like a secret identity to protect her from crazy stalkers. I will update if I encounter ninjas.

Happiness rating: 7.4.


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http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8928/88730879.jpg

Needed that. Gotta shell out 3k to various people because they are full of fail and are basically fucked without me. last time im doin shit like this. feel like im gettin taken advantage of but its family and thats what they'd do for me. right? right?

assholes


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Sigh. I just ended my session running 6 buy ins below EV sitting to the left of some of the biggest fishes ever. Felt like nothing was working and I just tilted near the end of the session because of it, so obviously I decided to stop.

Like this punk trying to give me a full buy in with K high...
+ Show Spoiler +

I thought he'd stack with any 6x there and apparently he's cool stacking with worse. :/

Regardless of this session, the month has been pretty good. I should be putting in more hands, but I've also been working so sometimes it's hard to grind when I know I'll just be playing my C game tired instead of resting and playing better later.

My bankroll is at 310 (it was 360 earlier ) and I'll start taking occasional NL25 shots around 475-500. For right now I'm gonna exercise, take a break and then come back in like 45 min to grind some NL5 to get my confidence back. I know that soon I'll need to hire a coach or get a strong player to sweat me because I feel unconfident in my game... I'm trying to play ABC but also think creatively at the same time... but there's clearly spots where I'm not playing optimally and I know I'm not thinking about every hand correctly. Honestly I kind of feel like I've just been running good recently.. which is why I know I need a coach or strong winning player to sweat me.

Anyways, here's the graphs...
Today's session NL10:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/cc990.gayness.png
Around hand 1600 I was all "sweet I'm coming back!" :/


This month:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/e4960.month.png


Stats:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/cccd0.untitled.PNG

Anyways, that's it for now .


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http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/84515.fps and run bad.jpg

I love running 4 bi below ev and then trying to get fancy at 25nl at the same time.

Oh well. pause, breathe, realign, continue.


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Everything has gone quite smoothly so far, though on the 2nd night I was here my uncle and I were chillin on the sidewalk drinking some beers at 4am when a street fight erupts 10 foot away! These fucking crazy thais are brawling, knocking over 4 street vendor carts and 3 motorbikes. They fall onto my uncle and I and our little plastic chairs just collapse, and one of those little thai palms half squished my right nut GOD DAMN IT. Luckily, I was running a pretty good buzz so the pain was dulled, and as of now I'm completely recovered from this dramatic incident.

Also, I should probably see some actual historical stuff soon. Baby steps.



ps brett, I still have no idea where I'm going to be when you arrive..will keep u posted.

pps I'm sporadicly using lan-cafe computers, so no one do any xfers with me or anything until feb 15th or unless you know me well and we can confirm somehow. just a warning


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So I'm only a few NL10 BI's away from being rolled for NL25. Are there any tips you guys have for moving up? I know there's a lot more regs in NL25. I'm gonna prob play 9-max for 4 or 5 buy-ins to see how it is.


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