I haven't gotten as much support from LP as I had hoped, but I'm still trying hard to win. At the time of this post, I'm in second place trailing very close at 35 votes to 38. I've already worked very hard campaigning on facebook and it would be disappointing to get second. Winning this would mean a lot to me, and I'm going to exhaust all my resources to do it.
Thank you for your support! I'm planning on making a PLO powerpoint/video over the next week about my thoughts on micro-stakes preflop theory and what is the best way to value hands preflop in a generally low-aggression micro-stakes context.
If you guys aren't already aware, PTR is having it's second POY contest, and with great prizes this year. For the past few hours I've been campaigning over facebook and instant messengers trying to get votes for the micro omaha category. I've been getting a decent response rate, but most people don't really care or don't want to bother making a PTR account. So far there has not been much competition other than MRobot, who won micro omaha last year. I think I am qualified for the title, and have good chances.
Now getting beaten by MRobot wouldn't be a problem for me if he wasn't a huge losing player. I did some research, and last year he had over 5x the number of votes as second place (who was much more qualified for the title). I have doubts about the legitimacy of his votes, and would not like to see him win again, especially with over 1k in prizes up for grabs in the micro category.
I'm going to make a valiant effort this month to win, and I'm going to need all the help I can get.
Here is the link to my PTR, please support my efforts by voting and promoting my PTR link. You must have a facebook account to vote, and you must publish the vote on your wall, but you can delete it after if you want. If I win, I will give recognition to LP in my 50 word bio in Bluff magazine and return something back to the community.
Thanks - and if you've voted, may you run good in the near future!
And it was
I've been thinking about attempting to reach supernova next year. To help better my chances, I thought I'd try to increase tables to 12. Decided to experiment at 20-50bb .25/.50 PLO. Games were very good and very suitable for mass tabling. Not too many difficult decisions at lowstakes shallow PLO.
This was basically my first ever attempt to play more than 6 tables of a cash game though, and it was quite overwhelming. I'm not using table ninja or AHK. I still managed to play 20vpip and tried to pay attention to game dynamics + player adjustments as much as possible. Also my first time playing stacked so it was weird not being able to see the results of my hands immediately, but that's probably a good thing for PLO.
Based the rate from today, I estimated I need to play about 44 hours a month to make supernova 12 tabling shallow stack 50PLO. Less if 100bb, and less if I move to 100PLO.
When I haven't played poker in a while, I tend to not be able to stop after I start especially when the games are really good. It's 6am, and I just finished playing 50plo for over 16 hours. I don't know whether I should be happy that I've just had my best session ever or that I have problems quitting. I have such a huge headache right now. It doesn't feel like I've won.
Also looking for some PLO buddies, PM me if interested
Cardistry, also known as XCM (xtreme card manipulation) is the "extreme" manipulation of cards. This involves intense moves and flashy displays. It can also be incorporated into magic routines.
Since poker is played with cards, and this is a poker community, I think cardistry is an art which may interest some of you. I have found it to be very useful for relieving stress. It's something very fun to switch to when you're trying to enforce a stop-loss. Just a few minutes of practice will make you forget about the downswing you just had.
Here are some demonstrations:
Some magic applications:
A downside to Cardistry is that it can be difficult hobby to start up, let alone knowing where to start. It's very easy to get discouraged early on when you can't do anything and you're dropping cards all over the place. But with the right guidance, and if you talk to people with more experience / use the internet, you can build up your foundation relatively quickly and perform some pretty impressive moves.
I've been doing cardistry for about a month and this is an awesomely visual yet easy cut that I just learned. (the cut itself took 4 hours)
That said, I'd encourage everyone who's stayed interested enough to watch all those videos and gotten through my post to give cardistry a try. If you're lost on where to start, you can PM me and I'll direct you to some resources. When you get better, don't show off too much in public if you still want to be invited to poker games
Especially when you've got press passes to the WCG Grand Finals.
Our club approached the WCG PR people as the USC student organization "USC e-Sports" and were successful in negotiating 5 press passes.
Here are some of the highlights of my day
Group picture with Jaedong
Picture with SF4 pro Justin Wong
Bumped into Jaedong again at lunch
Jaedong signs my mousepad
Picture with WC3 champion remind because why not
Group picture with flash, gotta do the thumbs down
Upgraded to staff passes, got into player's party dinner @ ESPNZONE
free arcade, sup team Korea
Battery soon ran out
The event was absolutely amazing. After the closing ceremony, there was a huge raffle for some pretty sick prizes. I won a HORI Real Arcade Pro.Ex Tekken 6 design joystick :D.
I won't be posting my graph because I'm lazy and this is not a results blog anyway, but rather a brief reflection.
Resultswise I played 50nl/25plo/50plo and ran bad early on in the month. I started redeeming my month a week and a half ago and ended up -$150. I did pick up $150 from the LP BBP rakerace so I'm up for the month after bonuses and rakeback.
This month, I've taken up a real life SC1 friend as a poker student. I've also staked him a $200 starting bankroll even though he has very minimal experience. I'm usually very conservative about these types of ventures but I have a lot of faith in him because he can put in the hours and was B+ on ICCup. This will a fun personal challenge for me and by the end of it I'll have some decent coaching experience as well as the satisfaction of my friend's success. I'm going to start putting in hands for my HU bumhunting stake starting this weekend so that should also be interesting.
Originally, that's all I was planning to do with poker this September. I've been actively trying to get involved in a lot more student organizations at my university. I was gonna cut down on poker and make the most of my sophomore year developing my networking and leadership skills. However, FTP is making me reconsider with a $500 bonus and only 21 days to clear it. It's a bit frustrating but I guess I can fit in some time to clear as much of it as I can.
On that note, I don't have any money on FTP atm so I'm looking to transfer 1k from stars to FTP sometime next week (however my pokerstars transfer limit is still at its minimum and I emailed them to increase my transfer limit but they declined so wtf). If anybody can give me more information on that, I would greatly appreciate it.
ugh this month is going to be a sick test of time management
I spent the last month in China, and experienced many first times.
Tomorrow's my last day, and I'm going to spend it shopping for lots of cheap stuff.
I've had such a blast here but I'm about ready to come back to the US.
I haven't blogged in about 2 months so I'll post my results since last blog
Various games and stakes 10plo/25plo/25nl/50nl
Was playing 10plo when I first got to China due to unstable internet and the added benefit of micromania@stars.
Towards the end of last month, I put $600 on BigBetPoker through LP promotion and started playing NL again.
Took down 2nd in last month's LP rakerace and also netted a hefty amount in rakeback so it's been good.
When I get back to the US, I'd like to find as many opportunities as I can to play some live poker for the first time. I'm looking into places in SoCal where the minimum age requirement is 18. If any LPers want to go on a trip with me to Morongo or somewhere else, let me know. I'm completely free from Aug 11 - 23.
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