Been playing a lot of 5/10 live lately to make up for the lack of online poker. It's been a pretty interesting transition that I'm still struggling with, but to start off here's my poorly produced graph from excel:
(x axis is sessions)
I'm avging an hourly of $60 right now that doesn't include commute (30 mins each way) and waitlisting. Really hoping I can bump it up to $100, which I'm not sure is sustainable or not, but that's my goal anyway. Was well on my way before the doomswong after session 12.
A quick list of things I'm struggling with, some of which are universal to live, and some characteristic of the LA casino I play at:
1. Dealing with Full Ring itself, coming from a largely 6max and HU background.
2. Dealing with people limping strong broadways, PPs up to TT, and occasionally the AA/KK l/rr from EP.
3. Dealing with people flatting big PPs pre, which makes their value range a lot wider than I give them credit for
4. Bluff frequencies and how they view which spots are good to bluff. This is obviously very player-dependent too but the size of the player pool at my casino makes it such that I don't develop deep history or understanding of any specific player. So occasionally some live reg will pull a bluff that I give too much credit for just because its, in my online-player mind, a suicidal bluff and thus he's probably nutted. It's a hard habit to shake.
5. I started buying in for the max at my stakes (150bbs), didn't like it because there aren't as many clueless, gambly fish as I expected. The majority of the player pool are loose passives and if deep stacks are ever getting in, its usually a cooler situation that I can be on the wrong side of. To reduce my risk of ruin I'm starting to play 100bbs, and 100bbs is obviously a stack size I'm very very comfortable with as an online player anyway. Good results so far from that switch.
I'd like to think I'm one of the best regulars at 5/10 based on online experience (there seem to be very few good online players playing this game regularly, though a few of them might be at higher stakes), but I feel like there are still some live intangibles that the live regs have over me, or it's just taking me too slow to adapt. Likely the biggest lesson I've learned (though I learned this some years ago when I was playing big live tourneys) is to not underestimate the live atmosphere. I don't think it's as easy as just being an online pro and coming in and schooling everyone, especially in a full ring setting, and there's definitely a learning curve involved.
There are some people MUCH more qualified than I to talk about live play like andrewsong cosmo myth rek etc. but if anyone has any questions about live play I can try my best to help answer
edit: oh man didn't know I was still a featured blog, haven't blogged in a year.
I was using www.compete.com to check visitor analytics between LP and some other sites and it shows a "Top Search Terms" for how people access each site:
Haven't blogged since capping off my 2010, and have mostly been working on my startup. In fact I haven't even played poker this year, and of course there was that whole Black Friday thing...
So why am I offering coaching? I think I still possess some small iota of ability, FTP's lock up of my funds is taking its toll on me, and I'm offering it at $40/hr. Decent deal as I used to coach for 150-200/hr at my prime (I used to also coach for free). Frankly after Black Friday I think at least Americans should be a lot more pragmatic and realistic about income generation and realize that even $40/hr is quite a lot of real world moneys.
This is by no means a sick deal on your part, like I said I haven't played at all. But I think I can be like that guy in Happy Gilmore, the old guy who's washed up but was still integral to Adam Sandler's improvement.
That said, I obviously don't believe I'm capable of coaching 400nl anymore, perhaps not even 200. Maybe even 100 is a stretch now? So this is mostly for lower stakes players, where the level of the games may still be similar to the games of 2010.
Past general theoretical knowledge, I'm pretty good at HU, I can teach a thing or two about emotional control, and I have a plethora of old material like old coaching videos (where I get coached) and assorted stuff I've made in the past that I don't mind giving away anymore. Lastly, I've spent almost a good year researching and understanding the silicon valley tech industry so anyone with any interest in tech startups (or starting one) can pick my brain for free as part of this.
It's always been better for me to coach people who I could talk to every so often as an actual person rather than some dude I'm making $ off of. Having said that I'm more partial to names I recognize for this offer but if no one wants to take coaching from a washed up player then I'll take anyone I can get .
Payment will have to be in paypal unfortunately. Besides that, I'll try to make this as beneficial for you as I possibly can. I realize this is the end of the line for me in poker, so I'd at least like to go out with some fulfillment.
Counting rakeback and everything else it's about a 133.5k year. From my blog entry a year ago detailing my goals for 2010:
- $200k (I plan on doing well in WSOP this year obv)
- At least 600k hands (though to achieve $200k in purely online results it'd prob take a mil)
- 1knl reg by end of year, if I'm still focusing only on NL6max
So I didn't bink any big tourneys this year, and if I did I would've made that 200k goal for sure but beggars can't be choosers. Also [ ] 600k hands lol. Not focusing on 6max anymore so I don't mind not being a 1knl 6max reg, and I made 35k at 1knl this year regardless which probably puts my 1knl total earnings at like only -50k now . Heater at end was mostly 5/10 and not 2/4 so that was pretty sweet too.
Made about 25.5k in December, but ending a year graph with a sudden 5k downswing is probably a bad omen for the oncoming new year.. but I'm fairly confident that I'll end up "quitting" poker for the most part in 2011 to focus on other ventures. If anything I might play a little bit on the side but I'll be surprised if I get in more than 100k hands next year. It's been a fun ride, but I guess I shouldn't talk about the end until I'm actually there. Quick plug: For those of you who might be curious as to what those ventures might be I have a blog at http://www.kokev.in that I just recently made. Poker-wise, all my strategy articles are contained there for easy reference as well (should be useful for most micro/small stakes players). I'll still be blogging poker stuff on here.
HEM has my year hourly at 165.91 which is pretty sweet although it's likely slightly more than that since I didn't find out about site import time adjustment until later, causing a lot of "extra" sessions in HEM to be recorded when it really was all just 1 big session. Overall I ran pretty well this year and better than I have in any other year, and ultimately I'm pretty satisfied with my results anyway.
Been on a blog posting spree, but I guess this month is full of brags. On August 30th I wrote
I'm close to about 100k in earnings this year but I don't want to graph it until I actually have 100k in pure cash profit without counting rakeback and tourneys. Hopefully I can make it because I've always wanted to have a $100k graph within the same calendar year (I always make a new database after each year).
I got disgustingly close at one point: 99731.89 then the poker gods decided it'd be funny to engage the doomswitch, and I shot down to ~79k almost immediately. That was a pretty depressing time. But I'm glad to say that I've started running well again and I've finally done it :D. I know sickos like Andrew Song and Fayth post 100k graphs within a single month but this is unprecedented for me, especially considering the small amount of hands I have on the year, so this really makes me happy. I made a pretty farfetched goal last year of hoping to make 200k in 2010, and while I'm nowhere near that, for once in my poker career I actually have this nice feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
Been a struggle, but i'm so happy to not be hugely in the red anymore. Thx to all the people who put up with my constant whining on aim/skype, that's the only way I know how to vent
A video representation of the latter half of the graph:
Had a decent winning month after the disaster that was October. Only averaging 20k hands a month but nearly 50 cents/hand is certainly a good result. Made about 10.5k after rakeback/tourneys. I felt like I could've made more but the first half of the month was just so unbelievably swingy, making crawling out of a downswing take some serious effort. I'm going to try playing some 50PLO on the side this month during downtime, since I always say I'm going to make an active effort at PLO but never really go through with it. Feel free to PM me if you're a low limit PLO player, if you'd like to toss ideas and hhs around, etc.
I was making a good hourly progress, hoping to put in at least 90 hours in the month but instead I ended up with around 70. On the 24th, Gran Turismo 5 came out and since then I've probably averaged 8 hours a day playing that game. If anyone wants to race pm me for my PSN name . I'm currently level 18 on both A and B spec (I grind B spec while I eat/am afk).
Here are some pictures I shot with the photo camera mode, which are now my desktop wallpapers. I decided to upload them in case anyone else was interested. Not an awesome photographer, for REALLY nice pics check out http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/dig...y-gran-turismo-5-tech-analysis?page=6 (scroll down to Bonus Goodies: PSP Import and Photo Mode)
Hoping to wrap up the year well, and make 2011 very productive as I begin my journey to become an awesome PLO player, simulation racer, rock star, entrepreneur all at the same time!
Coaching in poker has become an incredibly profitable submarket, with average players charging even lawyer hourly wages. While that's an entire issue in and of itself, I'd rather talk about how people can benefit the most from getting coaching.
I've probably spent more hours coaching poker than any other reg on LP besides maybe Myth, and have paid for plenty of coaching hours myself from very accomplished players. In most cases people are spending at least a buy in at their stakes per hour for coaching, so it's important to make sure that you're using that money and time effectively. Here are some things to keep in mind when deciding on a coach, and then the actual coaching process itself:
(Note: Before it looks like I'm pimping my own services, I'm not currently coaching and probably won't be anytime soon. If I do coach, it would be for free, but even then the opportunities are extremely limited - i.e. free coaching offer a while back).
1. Price
My quick thoughts on pricing are that the high prices are somewhat justifiable, in that coaches are often contributing to the demise of their own professions in return for a short-term guaranteed wage (a commodity within a world of thieves). In a weird way I also think higher coaching prices force exclusivity - an accomplished coach who charges relatively high premiums will have less students at a time, enabling them to allot more attention to their current student(s), resulting in a better coach/student relationship which means a happier, less-stressed out coach capable of delivering more information more effectively to the student. As a rule of thumb I generally don't suggest low stakes players to pay more than twice their buy in as an hourly, and for mid-high stakes players I generally don't think price should ever be a deterrent (as they're usually providing very exclusive information).
2. Game Relevance
The coaching approach I would take with 400nl players would be different from the approach I'd take with 200nlers. Considering that, my approach with 50nlers must be entirely different, and it should be. I think the best coaches for anyone are the ones that know your stakes best. They have kept up with the changing metagame dynamics, i.e. the way most of the regs think about the game and other players, any trending lines, etc. As a gaming example, years ago back when I was training War3 competitively, I specifically avoided Grubby's (my favorite player) replays and downloaded replays of amateurs instead. I was a mid-level solo Orc player on the Asia realm at the time and downloaded a lot of replays from "Lyn", who was then a mid-high level solo Orc player on Asia. His play was solid and flawless, backed by rational decision making and a solid foundational understanding of the game and how other races were playing. Years later he's apparently the undisputed best Orc in the world.
3. Know your own goals
Is your goal to become a high stakes all-star or are you happy churning out a respectable, consistent monthly wage at lower stakes? Different coaches will have subtle skillset differences that allow them to be better at coaching one or the other. In the former, there's likely a lot of emphasis on critical thinking, poker theory, experimentation, situational psychology. In the latter, there's likely more emphasis on limiting variance, seeking out common and consistent leaks rather than trying to force specific exploitation. Try to get an understanding of your coach's strengths in this regard, hopefully before you hire him, which also leads to:
4. Know your coach's style
As an addition to the previous, it's important that you understand what your coach's style and strengths are. Most coaches usually just impose their style on you (as it is what they believe to be the best form of poker usually). Some coaches are better at just talking and theorizing, in which case you're allowed to make your own stylistic adjustments but those coaches are less common. Check out videos, blog posts, hand histories + analyses from your coach before thinking about hiring them. Consider how it would affect your own personal style as a poker player or as a human being. If you're someone who is trying to make rent per month, likely you don't want to hire a coach who thrives on high variance aggro fests, rather you'd prefer someone who prefers to limit variance and avoid tough spots.
5. Keep an open mind
Your coach, despite all the reviews and money he's made, isn't an all-knowing force. But he's also likely much, much, much better than you. Definitely try to absorb anything he tells you but at the same time if something strikes you as a red flag because it goes against conventional wisdom or mathematics, ask questions about it. Understand that a lot of what he says can just be a stylistic approach to the game (which is hard to quantify as being wrong) but there are times that he may make an unintentional mistake in his assignment of ranges (a common problem) or even the basics like the math for calling a river bet (been there before).
6. Follow-up
Record your session using Camtasia. Watch the session over a day or two after the coaching session. Send your coach questions via e-mail following up on certain theory or lines he mentioned. "Hey I thought about what you said about river check raising, here's a couple HHs where I tried it out, did I apply it correctly?" goes a LONG way. I'm the type of person that tries to pack as much information into an hour as possible, and I've met very few people who can digest and remember all that material days later without having it recorded. If your coach is dropping gold nuggets of wisdom on you and you forget one or two very important things he's said, that translates into a substantial loss of money, both in you having paid for that wisdom but not remembering it, and also the missed opportunity cost in not being able to implement it when you play.
7. Follow-up some more
Months after your coaching hours are finished you're making a lot more money and feeling good about yourself, then you hit a downswing and you're unsure if it's just variance or because people are finally catching onto your antics. Re-watch the coaching sessions you've hopefully recorded to see if you've just forgot about something. Talk to your coach again see if he's changed his opinion about anything he's taught you. I'd be very surprised if the answer is no - the coach you hired is hopefully a very good player, in that case he probably spends a lot of time thinking critically about his game and learning about new things, his game is bound to change.
I'm a huge fan of coaching and being coached, it's just sad that the coaching industry in poker gets so much hate (although in most cases it's well deserved). I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without my coaches but at the same time, this is still poker, which is a meritocracy and to be able to acquire the most out of your coach you need to put in the due diligence.
That type of run bad where you can't make anything but your opponent makes at least a pair every hand, but proceeds to cooler you when you finally do make a hand. Repeat for about 10k hands and you have this graph.
Not really going to complain too much about it, I was really upset earlier in the month but like a drug addict in rehab, eventually you get to a state of reluctant acceptance and you just try to figure out wtf else you can do from there. That downward spike earlier on was especially painful because I was playing 10 20 and up 3k at one point and immediately lost 4 buy ins running terrible. I blame myself a bit for not sticking to my stop loss at times, def could've gotten the damage below 5 figures if I did.
I found this vid pretty helpful during my downswing:
I don't think I'm downswinging anymore since I've dropped a stake and am recovering my money back slowly, so I'm not too worried. I lost 8 nights in a row at one point and that definitely got to me mentally, but I spent two awesome weekends in Vegas (including halloween weekend just now) which saved me sorta . But I did lose a lot at table games (god I run sooo bad flipping in those) so my oct count is something like -16k. So I had an awesome 30k month, then +15k, then -16k so basically 10k averaged out over the past 3 months, still can't complain but it definitely ruined my hopes for a 150k year. I always say this, but I'm definitely going to try to put in more hands this month and study a lot more since I've basically not done any of that for a couple months now. GL in nov.
Not sure what my total count with rakeback and everything is, probably around 15.5k. Really would've liked to follow up my August god-mode run with at least 20k but wisdom teeth removal kept me out for a week, and for the past week I've also been in San Francisco attending some conferences like TechCrunch Disrupt which "gathers both Web innovators disrupting media and technology and also executives successfully navigating disruption to talk about turning change into opportunity."
In other words I got to watch people like Eric Schmidt CEO of google, Peter Thiel, Barry Diller, and other billionaires deliver awesome and informative speeches, and got to see a bunch of new tech startups demo their products some of which are honestly mindblowing. The one that won the startup competition (and 50k), qwiki.com, doesn't have a demo online yet but it's basically like the search engine from the movie Wall-E where you get an information experience rather than just reading text on a webpage. The other one I liked was www.cloudflare.com which if you own a website, will make your website run faster and more secure, for free. The other conference, CrowdConf (on crowdsourcing) is on Monday where I hope to meet my hero Tim Ferriss (author of the Four Hour Work Week).
I really liked TechCrunch Disrupt, gained a ton of inspiration, motivation, and direction. I'm not sure what I want to end up creating in my life after poker but it's likely going to be in the realm of tech (although I have no formal dev training at all). If you're in the same alley feel free to pm me we can talk, especially if you're an actual software engineer/developer/etc.
Poker-wise, still a bit shy of my pure-100k graph - Really wanted to put that up this month I'm only a few Gs away. Going to try to put in more hands in October, coach Sanai who won the free coaching offer. Overall if I can make 150k this year I'm going to be pretty happy (though I set a pretty farfetched 200k goal when the year started), especially considering how few hands I have on the year. It really just makes you think that if you put in 2x the time and 2x the hands (or any other amount), how much more money you'd be making and how that stacks up with the rest of the world. I could be making bottom range CEO money if I played poker at full-time hours probably, but that would never happen because I'd hate life tremendously and it's impossible for me to sustain quality poker play for that long consistently. Pretty low-content blog post so I'll end it with this sweet hand: http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/861379 ship the free PS3
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