New Challenge (old Challenge)

[psujohn 0]

FOURTEEN?!

You sir are a pessimist. To the optimist this is: LEGAL IN 4 YEARS!!!

[Fubar The Sperm 1]

You sir are a pessimist. To the optimist this is: LEGAL IN 4 YEARS!!!

4 years? To that I say take her to Canada.

[Dratj 0]

My story; (wonderboys)I was basically introduced to poker whilst on a 6-month sabbatical from my university studies in 2005. I took a job on a cruiseline,and in the evenings the casino crew would come off their shift and host an unauthorized secret game in one of the cabins. Basicallyhaving no clue what I was doing along with everybody else in the game, I was lucky enough to win a couple of thousand, which at thetime was a lot of money to a poor student like myself. There was a pirate DVD-copy of Rounders floatong about on the ship as well.When I came back home, I soon got back into my normal routine of life and started working a good job in a financial securities firm.The only exposure I had to poker was basically online freerolls every other weekend and "The World Wrestling Federation but with poker players" (WPT) on TV.Around sept. of 2006, I read an interview with some random online player that claimed he made x amount of dollars every year. It caught my interest, and Ikept reading accounts of succesful young guys who where making a decent living playing a game. However, what was interesting was that almost unlike any other endeavour,many of these guys who were at the top of their profession didn´t seem to be working or studying very hard or, in some cases, even understand what it was that theyspecifically were doing so right. Perhaps it had all come so fast to most of them. It basically seemed to me that very average people, like myself, who had not necessarilybeen excellent at anything else in life were making large sums of money somehow. I deposited 50 dollars into an online account, and started grinding the sng´s. I grinded the smallest onesand ran it up to 250 to 300 bucks within a couple of weeks. And then, in one night, I lost it. Although 250 dollars was not a lot of money to me, I came to bed that nightfeeling like i had been hit by a bulldozer. Feelings of humiliation, extreme fatigue and above all guilt were haunting me. And all this, for 250 dollars.For a few years, I had been very intrigued by the buddhist concepts of mindfullness and presence. These days, I try to apply them to every aspect of my life, big or small,which is a story for another post. But a loss of a measly 250 dollars had caused me to become unconscious and trapped in a stream of negative thinking to the point thatI could not sleep for an entire night. I was suffering badly.The next time I deposited 50 bucks, I promised myself to never make that same mistake again. I was trying to consciously recollect what had happened that night that Ihad lost all my money, making one bad decision after another. In theory, even at that early stage, I knew enough about bankroll management to know that I should not put itall in action at once. And yet, that was exactly what I had done, as if in trance. I was so fortunate to have this experience; I realized very early on that knowing somethingand applying it are two different worlds in poker, and that emotional control is what will merge the two together. This in my opinion is more true of poker than any other gamedue to its emotional nature and the fact you always have imperfect information and can delude yourself endlessly.I have never deposited another cent online. I played roughly 5000 sngs til the end of December, playing in the evenings after work, and made almost exactly 5000 dollars.The hurdle of transforming my 4900 dollar bankroll into a 5000 dollar bankroll, even now 350 k dollars later, is by far the most challenging memory I have of playing pokerand I will not forget it. It took weeks. It killed me. It was inhuman. When I reached that point, I decided to take a break from the SNGs and have a two week hiatus playingcash. I started at the 0,5-1 level in january of 2007. I made 980 dollars that month. I decided to keep with the cash. The next month I made 2218. The third; 14 459.My first year of playing part time in the evenings and weekends, I made 138 468 dolars playing 210 756 hands (excluding rakeback). I played mostly 1-2 and 2-4 on a small laptop,and ended up not having a losing month.In 2008, I gradually decided to move up from the 2-4 to the 3-6. During all this time, I was always MUCH more focused on learning techniques to control my emotions and tiltrather than the technical aspects of the game. I would make different papernotes and tag them all over the place, use meditation, use different routines etc. My year so far:Jan: 23 660 $ (17 952 hands)Feb: 15 800 $ (29 839 hands)At this point, I decided to go pro, and quit my job.Mar: 37 538 $ (42 169 hands)Apr: 21 900 $ (44 684 hands)May: 14 569 $ (58 451 hands)Jun: 58 156 $ (67 633 hands)Jul: 12 202 $ (35 381 hands)Aug: 32 202 $ (52 451 hands)Now, I am about to move up to 5/10. I believe I will do this at the beginning of October. Some people in this thread have commented that my poker journey is nothing special. They are right.I have done nothing out of the ordinary. And to make a living playing this game, in this climate, you don´t have to do anthing out of the ordinary or be somebody extraordinary. Most of you already know the right plays.Most of you already know, deep within yourselves, who you are in the food chain, and thus who to avoid. Work on your emotional game. You might not make it to the nosebleeds (actually, you probably won´t), but you might be able to provide a living or a side income to ease your lives and the lives of your family members.

[king1305 0]

vtlaxer09 is extremely results oriented.

[Ex_Matt 0]

Man I just played about 8 hours of straight poker. On top of being sick, I feel mentally drained, dunno how you guys do it almost everyday.

[Naked_Cowboy 0]

There is a fire sale on money tonight on cakehe SNAP calls all in i'm thinking "F*** set". http://cakepoker.com//HandHistory/?Hand=xc...DzYjDxcPAzcM%3dhttp://cakepoker.com//HandHistory/?Hand=xc...AxojDxcPAzcM%3d

[king1305 0]

There is a fire sale on money tonight on cakehe SNAP calls all in i'm thinking "F*** set". http://cakepoker.com//HandHistory/?Hand=xc...DzYjDxcPAzcM%3dhttp://cakepoker.com//HandHistory/?Hand=xc...AxojDxcPAzcM%3d

Short stacks usually aren't that good to begin with. Thinking he has a set there is a very minimal thing that won't happen too often, imo.

[Naked_Cowboy 0]

Short stacks usually aren't that good to begin with. Thinking he has a set there is a very minimal thing that won't happen too often, imo.

i only thought he had a set for the 1/2 second after he called SO fast and before i saw his cards and laughed.

[Ex_Matt 0]

I've seen 1/2 regs on stars buying in for the minimum for a couple weeks and then switch back to full buy ins. . . so I dunno if you should consider every short stacker a bad player.

[king1305 0]

I've seen 1/2 regs on stars buying in for the minimum for a couple weeks and then switch back to full buy ins. . . so I dunno if you should consider every short stacker a bad player.

lol.

[cwik 0]

I've seen 1/2 regs on stars buying in for the minimum for a couple weeks and then switch back to full buy ins. . . so I dunno if you should consider every reg a good player.

FYP

[yourboygsarida 0]

i am, so drunk, **** my team, they gave up a goal ten secs into 2ne ot. FML. ugh.

[GrinderMJ 0]

There is a fire sale on money tonight on cakehe SNAP calls all in i'm thinking "F*** set". http://cakepoker.com//HandHistory/?Hand=xc...DzYjDxcPAzcM%3dhttp://cakepoker.com//HandHistory/?Hand=xc...AxojDxcPAzcM%3d

People playing poorly at .25 .50 on Cake poker? I call shenanigans on that sir, there's no way that's possible.

[babylondonks 5]

Thoughts? Villain is a 42/5/1.1 over around 60 handsFull Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.comMP ($4)Button ($4.10)Hero (SB) ($24.90)BB ($3.75)UTG ($13.70)Preflop: Hero is SB with K , A :club:UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.30Flop: ($0.90) A , 10 , 8 (2 players)Hero bets $0.60, UTG raises to $1.20, Hero ???Do we flat this OOP? And if so how do we play the turn?Do you throw out a raise and fold to another raise?Or do we shove/fold/something else?

[Ko8e34 0]

Thoughts? Villain is a 42/5/1.1 over around 60 handsFull Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.comMP ($4)Button ($4.10)Hero (SB) ($24.90)BB ($3.75)UTG ($13.70)Preflop: Hero is SB with K , A :club:UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.30Flop: ($0.90) A , 10 , 8 (2 players)Hero bets $0.60, UTG raises to $1.20, Hero ???Do we flat this OOP? And if so how do we play the turn?Do you throw out a raise and fold to another raise?Or do we shove/fold/something else?

I don't shove, but I 3 bet for sure, especially at 10nl. I've been playing 25nl for the past week, putting in a high volume and see people shove this flop with any A or even gutters or j10. Unfortunately I don't have PT since Seth's site doesn't allow it or isn't compatible so I don't know what the numbers at the top mean, so I'd say use your read and figure out if he's outflopped you, or overplaying his hand. Minraise looks fishy to me.

[babylondonks 5]

I don't shove, but I 3 bet for sure, especially at 10nl. I've been playing 25nl for the past week, putting in a high volume and see people shove this flop with any A or even gutters or j10. Unfortunately I don't have PT since Seth's site doesn't allow it or isn't compatible so I don't know what the numbers at the top mean, so I'd say use your read and figure out if he's outflopped you, or overplaying his hand. Minraise looks fishy to me.

The first number is Voluntarily put $ in pot, so basically how often they call or raise pre-flop (so continue with a hand they like). Second is pre-flop raise, so he's only raising 5% of his hands. The third number is aggression factor, which I always seem to get wrong, but an aggression factor of 1 basically means he calls as often as he raises.

[psujohn 0]

I flat the flop. Check/call the turn and probably should fold if he fires again on the river but I usually call anyway.Agg factor is somewhat relative to VPIP. So a guy who has an AF of 1 but a VPIP of 42 is way more aggressive than a guy who has a AF of 1 but a VPIP of 17. This guy is very loose pre-flop and yet he still bets/raises as much as he calls post flop which means he has to be betting/raising with < TPTK/two pair type hands. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Ax here. Guys like this can also show up with JJ here believe it or not. If you call twice though anyone who isn't a complete moron will slowdown with < two pair.

[Lrgetrout 1]

Thoughts? Villain is a 42/5/1.1 over around 60 handsFull Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.comMP ($4)Button ($4.10)Hero (SB) ($24.90)BB ($3.75)UTG ($13.70)Preflop: Hero is SB with K , A :club:UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.30Flop: ($0.90) A , 10 , 8 (2 players)Hero bets $0.60, UTG raises to $1.20, Hero ???Do we flat this OOP? And if so how do we play the turn?Do you throw out a raise and fold to another raise?Or do we shove/fold/something else?

My solution typically here is "Hero raises to $1.80". Though a real raise to about $3, and a flat and either lead or c/r the turn are also possibilities.If he shoves? Ew. I expect to see a set, hands like KT, and hands like J9 with equal regularity, with occasional complete air thrown in. He's also the only one with a real stack at this table.Sorry, I've time banked out of my decision at this point.

The first number is Voluntarily put $ in pot, so basically how often they call or raise pre-flop (so continue with a hand they like). Second is pre-flop raise, so he's only raising 5% of his hands. The third number is aggression factor, which I always seem to get wrong, but an aggression factor of 1 basically means he calls as often as he raises.

Right. The actual formula for AF is ((raises+bets)/calls), where each action is the number of times they've done that at each opportunity.

[pookie_jurd 0]

sigh .. same bloke got me for stacks 3 times this session ...KK vs AA J7 vs 1010 on a 456 flop ( i check raise shipped him and he insta called)JJ vs A2cc on a 9s 4c 3c 5s (he min raised my flop c-bet .. i flat and then check-raised his obvious flush draw on the turn .. but he binkeddown 1.75 stacks so far for the evening

[Jargonator 0]

Quick rakeback question for FT, this seems like the best place to ask,Do you have to make a cash deposit before rakeback is activated?is 27% the standard rb%?does anyone have a referral link they use?

[pookie_jurd 0]

27% is the standard rakeback on FTPi believe you do have to make a deposit.I use rakefreeze.comyou can use my link if you wish http://members.rakefreeze.com/?referral=10562

[Jargonator 0]

27% is the standard rakeback on FTPi believe you do have to make a deposit.I use rakefreeze.comyou can use my link if you wish http://members.rakefreeze.com/?referral=10562

alright, prob won't get activated anytime soon as i'm just gonna transfer, but might aswell use link anyway, thx.

[psujohn 0]

alright, prob won't get activated anytime soon as i'm just gonna transfer, but might aswell use link anyway, thx.

Not sure but I've heard of people losing rakeback by not depositing. I'd make at least a small depo right away if you can.

[Jordan 1]

yea, bull, that link you posted is good. he actually gives away a lot of good information that's more on the emotional/mental aspect of the game.good thing he posted it in BBV though where the majority of those people have no idea who to apply what he is talking about. but when i read some of that thread i kinda wanted him to shut up cause he talks about a lot of concepts that i don't think a lot of people 'get'.- Jordan

[JubilantLankyLad 1,957]

DEUCES = the hand of the day Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) - Party-Poker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.comCO ($387.20)Button ($224.40)SB ($986.70)BB ($262.25)Hero (UTG) ($377.40)MP ($600)Preflop: Hero is UTG with 2, 21 fold, Hero raises $18, CO calls $18, Button calls $18, 2 foldsFlop: ($63) 2, 9, K(3 players)Hero checks, CO bets $54, 1 fold, Hero calls $54Turn: ($171) 10(2 players)Hero bets $70, CO calls $70River: ($311) 3(2 players)Hero bets $95, CO raises to $245.20 (All-In), Hero calls $140.40 (All-In)Total pot: $781.80

How did you get a fold in front of you preflop when you're UTG?