The Well: Hoosieralum

[GrinderMJ 0]

Since the well with Looshle went really really well and he gave some sicko responses to people, I think we should continue this. For those of you who don't know Hoosier, he's a really talented mid/high stakes NL cash grinder who has been winning at poker for as long as I can remember. Flies under the radar because he doesn't brag a lot and plays fewer tourneys but trust me when I say he's one of the best players I know and one of the most knowledgeable about what it takes to last long term in the poker world. Introductions aside, let us gogogo.Hoosier: How did you get your start in poker? Any advice for small stakes players trying to work their up the ladder? Books you read?

[cardcore 0]

Hoosier: What's the most baller purchase you've made with some of the money you've won? Also, walk us through a day in your life.

[StupidKid 0]

Toughest player you've faced a)Online b)Live?ty

[HoosierAlum 0]

.

[looshle 6]

.

^^^^ that was me, he was signed in on my companyways, Hoosier how do you sleep 16 hours straight? Are you human?

[TB17 0]

^^^^ that was me, he was signed in on my companyways, Hoosier how do you sleep 16 hours straight? Are you human?

would also like advice on sleeping that long.How do you become successful in cash games and tourneys? I always seem to fail at one or the other at different points.

[tuckermitchell 1]

I've been around here for a long ass time and I have basically continued to play and try to progress because I have followed you, Justin and JC's success coming from very little. My question is this... What pointers do you give for a person to keep the patience to grind the low limits in order to build a big enough roll to play at a decent stake? I have the utmost respect for you guys being able to do this as I cash the money out when I win decent and I just can't grind .10/.25 and .25/.50 with enough patience. Does the magic green herb help that much?

[looshle 6]

I've been around here for a long ass time and I have basically continued to play and try to progress because I have followed you, Justin and JC's success coming from very little. My question is this... What pointers do you give for a person to keep the patience to grind the low limits in order to build a big enough roll to play at a decent stake? I have the utmost respect for you guys being able to do this as I cash the money out when I win decent and I just can't grind .10/.25 and .25/.50 with enough patience. Does the magic green herb help that much?

Amazingly, all 3 of us do not smoke.

[tuckermitchell 1]

Amazingly, all 3 of us do not smoke.

really, I wasn't sure about you and JC, but I thought I remember Jon talking about how to get it to the PCA last year or the year before... Maybe I shouldn't of smoked so much when I was younger... anyways, back to your regularly scheduled program

[armen13 0]

I've noticed you rarely play tourneys anymore. Could you talk about why and also general likes/dislikes of cash vs tounerys.

[mase_gotsem 0]

Sup Hoos ,When im bored your actually one of the players i silently watch to jus sit back and pick up some habits. so my question is .. how do you stay consistant .. i get real bored if the money doesnt mean anything .. and i see you sit and grind 2-4 nl when you can obv take shots at 25-50 if not play it daily,how do you stay so disciplined ?quick edit i also sleep 10+ hours a day are you on any medication ?

[looshle 6]

Just saw this thread.... I'm going to be grinding at Bellagio the next few days but I'll try and keep up with the questions as much as possible. It might take a little longer than normal though.edit: this is Hoosier didn't realize Looshball was signed on.

[ThePhoenix88 0]

I was about to say whose well thread was this?

[king1305 0]

I was about to say whose well thread was this?

It's mine, I just didn't realize I wasn't logged in on my name.*Edit* Damnit, not again.

[HoosierAlum 0]

Hoosier: How did you get your start in poker? Any advice for small stakes players trying to work their up the ladder? Books you read?

Books: I've read SS, SS2, HoH, part of that Joe Navarro tell book, and Ace on the River. Ace on the River is my favorite poker book. Here is my story that I've posted before:I've always loved to gamble. Started playing poker when I was 14 with my buddies on weekends, for low stakes that got increasingly bigger as we got older. We played the usual home games, and at the time I thought I had an edge. In reality I was a weak/tight fish playing with my entire roll on any given night. But being weak/tight probably did give me a slight edge because we all played so poorly.My friends and I got really serious into poker in 1998, the year Rounders came out. We were 16-17 at the time and I remember we would play at least once a week. By the time we were seniors in high school we would have fairly big games for our age where the buy-in was around $200 and you could win or lose 1 thousand or more a night. I vividly remember that during every session we played there was ALWAYS the Rounders VHS/Dvd playing in the background. I was by no means a big winner, but I somehow managed to always have money despite rarely working a "real" job in high school. Since my parents didn't really give me much spending $, I guess this was my first foray into being a pro, lol.For my 18th birthday I asked my parents to take me on a trip to an Indian reservation in Michigan. They were surprisingly cool with it, little did they know this was planting the seeds to my degenerate future. I played blackjack, but honestly didn't like it much. It was my favorite "pit" game, but obv I lost my ass and as much as I liked to gamble, I hated to lose even more.I went away to IU and really lost touch with my gambling roots. None of my friends played poker, so I pretty much didn't play for 2 years. I still had a connection with gambling, because my sister went to UNLV. I was able to visit her at least once a year and this is where I was introduced to sports handicapping. My sisters boyfriend was a professional sports bettor (albeit not the most successful) in fact, he was profiled in the book "The Odds". http://www.amazon.com/Odds-Season-Three-Ga...7490&sr=8-1Since I wasn't yet 21, when I went to Vegas all I did was bet sports. Again, obviously I lost my ass. But I am a huge sports fan, and played baseball and football in high school so I had a natural love for sports betting. After one trip to Vegas my sophomore year of college I decided that since I always got crushed so much, maybe I should switch sides and start to book bets. I took on a partner from my frat house and I became a "bookie".I would book bets from kids on campus, and from nearby campuses like Purdue. Mainly I was booking college football and college basketball bets. It was still fairly small time, but we were making o.k. money for college kids. The toughest part was collecting, but we had system where if you were a newbie you had to pay upfront. I still remember the day we had a huge weekend and I had like 5k in cash in my hand. It was all the money in the world to me and I really thought I was "flossing". Eventually we started booking bets over our head that we couldn't handle, went on a bad run and basically went busto. It was a sad day when we closed up shop because I was in constant action, so it was a lot of fun.I got back into poker my junior year of college. For some reason I deposited $50 on UB and played there. Of course I had no concept of BR management and would play $50 rebuy tourneys with $70 bucks in my account. I busted my account countless times, and would always reload $25 or $50 because I was pretty much broke. Eventually I did some studying and started to learn the fundamentals. So I began to actually profit at low stakes sngs and build a small roll.Then my senior year in college I began to take poker more seriously. I was starting to build a roll online, albeit small, and I would take trips to Caesars, IN on some weekends. I was probably a slight losing player in the 10/20 limit game there. I went on a sick run one weekend where I played for 48 hours straight and won $2800 or something and this is when I was CONVINCED that I was going to be a professional poker player.I eventually lost most of that $ back, but I was still certain this is what I was going to do as a profession. I hadn't gone busto online in a while, and when I graduated I probably had a couple thousand online. Well, instead of looking for a corporate job I played on UB and Party all day. I found FCP and started studying the game very seriously, basically fell in love with the game. Even though I only had a couple thousand to my name, I was a "pro" in my mind.I was always pretty much a mix of a tourney/cash player. However, I was only a limit cash player. For almost a year, I grinded limit cash/sngs/mtts. This time is kind of vague to me, but 2 years ago I went out to the WSOP and met some guys that I have stayed in touch with that have really helped my game. Namely, JC and Looshle. One of the most important aspects of improving at ANYTHING is talking with knowledge people. This is the same with poker.After the WSOP, I went back to grinding, but this time I decided that I wanted to get good at NL cash games. I was already having a good amount of success in NL tourneys, but I was getting burned out. I was a "ranked" player on P5s and making good money, but not the type of money I knew was possible with nl cash. I heard the Bodog games were soft, so I threw some $ on there. I already had a nice roll from tourneys, so I basically started out playing 5/10nl. (DONT DO THIS) Luckily for me, the games on Bodog at this time were unbelievable. Seriously, the 5/10 games were such a joke it was impossible to lose, even if I had little nl cash experience. I honed my game on Bodog for about 8 months, making really good $ in the 5/10 and 10/20 nl games.Well then the legislation hit and Bodog went to shit. I had to start playing cash on other sites and people weren't giving away $ like they were on Bodog. I was able to remain profitable, but had to make a lot of adjustments. Maybe the most important thing I learned was that just because you have the bankroll to play a certain level, it doesn't mean you HAVE to play it. I really learned a ton about game selection, and I am proud to say I think my game selection rivals ANYONES on the entire internet.Fast forward to today. I now play almost strictly cash games online. I still play the big tournaments, like the Sunday millions, FTOPS/WCOOP, etc. But my mtt schedule is very limited. I've played NLHE online as high as 50/100 and PLO as high as 25/50. Generally on a given day you can find me playing NLHE or PLO anywhere from 2/4-10/20. It all depends on the game conditions, and who is playing, my mood, etc. I don't like playing 25/50 regularly because I am a nit at heart and the swings become too much for me to handle emotionally.Also, I want to start playing more live mtts. I've played 4 10ks, and I love the competition aspect of them. You get to play with the best players in the world, and its a great feeling knowing you just owned Ivey or Antonius. Unfortunately, I've bubbled 3 out of the 4 I've played, but I had fun doing it. So I want to start traveling around more, while playing live cash games on the side.So if I could give you advice, it would be to try and diversify your play. Play mtts. Play 6 max nlhe. Play HU nlhe. Learn PLO. Get good at a bunch of things. This isn't the easiest thing to do, and it will take time and effort. But trust me, it is a huge bonus when you are running terrible at one game, you can just switch it up and play something else. Also, as you move up in limits it is important that you become a well rounded, multi-dimensional player. The truth is that anyone can be successful in this game if they really put in the time and effort to become better (This advice is better suited to a more advanced player...if you are just starting out I think its best to focus on one form of the game and become profitable, then venture out. Obviously NLHE is the best place to start b/c thats where the $ is.)There are a million reasons why people don't improve as a poker player. Some are unable to look objectively at their game. Some have uncontrollable tilt problems. The list goes on and on....But all of these deficiencies can be improved upon and if you work hard enough and you want it badly enough, you will be a success in poker."

[HoosierAlum 0]

Hoosier: What's the most baller purchase you've made with some of the money you've won? Also, walk us through a day in your life.

Well if you ask any of my poker friends they will tell you I'm a pretty big nit. I like to invest my money. I guess the most baller single purchase I've made is a pretty expensive entertainment center. (I know very weak) However, I do splurge for things such as fight tickets, expensive meals, vacations, rhino trips etc. It would have been a car but I don't need a car in the city. In the next year I will probably be purchasing a house/condo, so that will be it I suppose.A typical day in my life is pretty boring. Wake up, eat breakfast. Get online check the games and play for a few hours. Wait for my gf to come home, eat dinner and spend some time with her until she goes to sleep. Then fire up the computer and grind for a few more hours. Generally I will be happy if I can put in 5 hours of grinding per day. Usually this doesn't happen. I play Mon-Thurs for approx 4-5 hrs a day and on Sundays I will play the big tourneys. I hope to make going to the gym a regular routine of mine in the near future.I travel to live events about once every other month, mainly for the cash games and sometimes for the main event.

[HoosierAlum 0]

Toughest player you've faced a)Online b)Live?ty

Its tough to say, as I try to game select very well and do my best to avoid very tough players. I'll list a few players that have given me trouble in the past:For some reason Hoyt Corkins gave me absolute fits this year when we were deep in the $2500 6 max event at the WSOP. Its tough to play against someone in a shorthanded tourney when they are constantly repopping you and putting pressure on you and you are never picking up hands. I would love to play against him in a deep stacked event as I think he is suuper exploitable, but in a shallow stacked 6 max event he plays a pretty successful style. Jon Little pretty much owns my soul as well. I played against him deep in the Mirage 10k and early at a WSOP event this year and I was very impressed with his game. I've played live with quite a few of the "TV" guys, and it should be no surprise that a lot of them play bad. Also, it should be noted that quite a few play great as well. Truth is, I don't play a ton of live tournaments (maybe 15 lifetime) so most of the tough players I encounter are no-name grinders from the cash games.There are soooo many good online players its impossible to list someone as the toughest. Pretty much most regulars in the 10/20nl and up these days are fairly tough players.

[HoosierAlum 0]

^^^^ that was me, he was signed in on my companyways, Hoosier how do you sleep 16 hours straight? Are you human?

The longest I've slept at one time is ~30 hours. No, obviously not human. This should be obvious by my super-human parlay choosing skills.

[HoosierAlum 0]

would also like advice on sleeping that long.How do you become successful in cash games and tourneys? I always seem to fail at one or the other at different points.

When I have some more time after I leave the Bellagio I want to make a detailed write up of how I think players can make the transition from one to the other. I do not think someone has be limited to having success in only one venue.

[HoosierAlum 0]

I've been around here for a long ass time and I have basically continued to play and try to progress because I have followed you, Justin and JC's success coming from very little. My question is this... What pointers do you give for a person to keep the patience to grind the low limits in order to build a big enough roll to play at a decent stake? I have the utmost respect for you guys being able to do this as I cash the money out when I win decent and I just can't grind .10/.25 and .25/.50 with enough patience. Does the magic green herb help that much?

When I was grinding low limits I always told myself "Do I want to be playing low-limits forever? How do I move up?" The logical explanation was to play within my roll and if I was a winning player I would move up in limits quickly. If I wasn't a winning player then I would go broke and have to improve my game and take another shot. You just have to realize that if you play under rolled, you will go broke. It might not happen immediately, but it will happen. I guess I was lucky in the sense that I never had a problem playing within my roll, its really not that difficult and takes the smallest amount of discipline.I know people who have been playing poker for a long time, but essentially have no roll. They use the excuse of "Oh I can't just sit there and grind low limits, its boring for me." This is silly to me...If they were truly a skilled player then they could grind up from the low-limits very very quickly. These people need to actually take responsibility for their play and realize that they probably aren't winning poker players in the first place. Spend some time improving your game and have just the smallest amount of patience, and before you know it you will be moving up in limits .As for the green: I smoked a little bit in high school, almost every day for 2 years in college, quit cold turkey for no reason for a few years, and now very very occasionally smoke. I haven't smoked in a while, no reason really I just don't enjoy being high that much anymore.

[HoosierAlum 0]

I've noticed you rarely play tourneys anymore. Could you talk about why and also general likes/dislikes of cash vs tounerys.

I'll include this in my response to TBs question when I have more time...it will be kind of long.

[SilentButDeadly3 0]

The wells are easily the best thing in Gen now adays. Tyty guys for doing this, it makes for really interesting reads.

[TB17 0]

When I have some more time after I leave the Bellagio I want to make a detailed write up of how I think players can make the transition from one to the other. I do not think someone has be limited to having success in only one venue.

are you staying around past the 16th?

[fitzinabox 0]

Do you play any other games besides texas holdem? If so, what is your favorite and why?

[PrtyPSux 0]

Why do you pay for all my dinners?