Kick, Push

Anyone in Vegas tomorrow that can sell me about 1500 cash? Willing to pay a vig, PM me with contact info please!

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UPDATE 2: All sold out, thanks everyone!

UPDATE: Not getting into Vegas until the 27th so I've had to adjust my schedule. Only playing 3 events total now as opposed to 5. My updated, confirmed schedule is below. I've booked about 40% already and would like to sell another 10-20%, depending on interest.

PanoRaMa WSOP Schedule 2010 (updated!)

June 28th 12:00 Event #49: No-Limit Hold’em (3-day) 1500
July 2nd 5:00 Event #56: No-Limit Hold’em (3-day) 2500
July 5th/6th 12:00 Event #57: No-Limit Hold'em Championship 10000


Total BI: 14000

Hi everyone, I'm selling action on my WSOP schedule. I will only sell it in a bundle, meaning you have to buy as a % of my schedule (and total buy ins) and not pick and choose events. I'm selling at 1.1:1, which to my knowledge is slightly undercutting my value due to how soft these events are (note I'm not playing any of the more expensive tourneys that draw the better players). Here is a link to my OPR: http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/...72A9F1834667AFBB98919BF5C928.html?t=2

Some background information:
My notable cashes include placing 1st in the Fifty-fifty last year for 12k, 1st in a 23k KO gtd this year for 6k, and most recently I placed 65/4997 in FTOPS 28 in the few tournaments that I have played in recent times. Admittedly I haven't played many MTTs this year but will begin to in order to stay sharp. As far as live experience, I've placed first in a 2009 Macau Poker Cup charity event for roughly 5.5k, and have been a regular player of PokerStars Macau and PokerStars APPT tournaments beginning the middle of 2009.

Most of my expertise is in 6-max online games, where I am and have been a consistent winner. My PTR located here includes a rough detail of my results so far this year (note the dates on poker timeline). I have documented my results from the past 2 years throughout my blog so you can look through previous entries as well. I was also a regular columnist for Baller Magazine (www.ballermagazine.com) which is a print and online English magazine based in Asia, and have 6 published articles thus far.

I will be providing daily updates to my backers via e-mail (and further correspondence via aim and/or phone if wanted). The way it will work is you will pay me a % of my buy-ins (with a 10% markup, hence the 1.1:1), and I will pay you the appropriate % from my gross winnings. For example, if you buy 10% which is 1540 (14000 * .10 *1.1), and I win 20000 gross amt, I will pay you 2000 - I don't deduct anything.

If interested, please PM me or reply to this topic with your contact information and we will discuss more over AIM/MSN/or Skype. As a side note, I will be giving priority to those who buy more than 5% moreso than those who buy less than 5% (I'll probably cap it at around 40 to 60%, we'll see). Thanks!

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Gave some EV back this month. Wish I got to play more but was on vacation for like 2 weeks (where I barely played but still lost several g's haha). 8k this month which isn't bad, ~4k from cash, ~4k from tourneys/bonuses, etc. I got Supernova! Finally reaping those rewards. WSOP started, I'm selling action feel free to look at the past blog post if you're interested. Not much else to say for the month, haven't had consistent winning success lately maybe I should stay away from 5/10 and stick to 2/4 3/6 for the time being bleh.

Probably going to full-force start PLO later this year when I move in with my friend who's a really good plo player. If anyone at low/small stakes plo wants to talk hands, strategy, theory, blah blah pm/reply with your aim/msn

Year-to-date Results
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PanoRaMa WSOP Schedule 2010

June 19th 12:00 Event #36: No-Limit Hold’em (4-day) 1000
June 23rd 12:00 Event #42: No-Limit Hold’em (3-day) 1500
June 26th 12:00 Event #47: No-Limit Hold’em (4-day) 1000
July 2nd 5:00 Event #56: No-Limit Hold’em (3-day) 2500
July 5th/6th 12:00 Event #57: No-Limit Hold'em Championship 10000

Total BI: 16000

Hi everyone, I'm selling action on my WSOP schedule. I will only sell it in a bundle, meaning you have to buy as a % of my schedule (and total buy ins) and not pick and choose events. However I might allow for people to specifically buy only Main Event action (but those buying the schedule have priority obviously). I'm selling at 1.1:1, which to my knowledge is slightly undercutting my value due to how soft these events are (note I'm not playing any of the more expensive tourneys that draw the better players). Here is a link to my OPR: http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/...72A9F1834667AFBB98919BF5C928.html?t=2

Some background information:
My notable cashes include placing 1st in the Fifty-fifty last year for 12k, 1st in a 23k KO gtd this year for 6k, and most recently I placed 65/4997 in FTOPS 28 in the few tournaments that I have played in recent times. Admittedly I haven't played many MTTs this year but will begin to in order to stay sharp. As far as live experience, I've placed first in a 2009 Macau Poker Cup charity event for roughly 5.5k, and have been a regular player of PokerStars Macau and PokerStars APPT tournaments beginning the middle of 2009.

Most of my expertise is in 6-max online games, where I am and have been a consistent winner. My PTR located here includes a rough detail of my results so far this year (note the dates on poker timeline). I have documented my results from the past 2 years throughout my blog so you can look through previous entries as well. I am also a regular columnist for Baller Magazine (www.ballermagazine.com) which is a print and online English magazine based in Asia, and have 6 published articles thus far.

I will be providing daily updates to my backers via e-mail (and further correspondence via aim and/or phone if needed!). The way it will work is you will pay me a % of my buy-ins (with a 10% markup, hence the 1.1:1), and I will pay you the appropriate % from my gross winnings. For example, if you buy 10% which is 1760 (16000 * .10 *1.1), and I win 20000 gross amt, I will pay you 2000 - I don't deduct anything.

If interested, please PM me or reply to this topic with your contact information and we will discuss more over AIM/MSN/or Skype. As a side note, I will be giving priority to those who buy more than 5% moreso than those who buy less than 5% (I'll probably cap it at around 40 to 60%, we'll see). Thanks!

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I'm on a cruise boat throughout Scandinavia. Internet costs a ridiculous fuckton, 175 dollars/500 minutes at the most +EV rate, and I've bought this package 3 times already so I've spent over half a grand on shitty satellite internet. I justified this by saying well I can easily make that $ back playing poker, and this is what happens. Can't really stop running into just ridiculous bullshit, i don't know. A big FU to all of those who run amazing every time they take a shot at high stakes >=/ (at least until iii start running hot).

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Another article, this is for the June edition of my Metagame column for Baller Magazine. Keep in mind my audience is mostly comprised of novice, live players. Once again thanks to Etter from TL for his proofreading and editing assistance.

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The Threat – Initiative and Continuation Betting

Over the past several years, poker at a competent level has developed into a consistently ag-gressive game. The mid stakes online games are comprised of incessant preflop raising, re-raising, con-tinuation betting, raising continuation bets – you get the idea. Most successful playing styles revolve around being more aggressive than passive. Aggression works – even blind, monkey aggression – be-cause it allows you to maintain the initiative in the hand. Initiative is an artificial privilege granted to the last player to put in a raise or a bet on the previous street, wherein most people who called out of position have the tendency to check to the bettor on the previous street. Initiative is artificial because there is no rule that says, “The player who only called preflop must check to the preflop raiser.” But before you dismiss the concept due to its artificiality, realize that most fundamental concepts of poker – hand strength and position – are just as artificial. If I have AA preflop and you have A-6 off-suit, there is no rule that says I must win the hand one way or another – I could make the worst hand postflop or be bluffed out. Likewise, having position over you doesn’t mean that I will always win the hand. The role that these concepts play in the grand scheme of poker is subjective. So while most players see a clear-cut need to understand hand strength and position, initiative forms the oft-ignored last leg of this essential trinity.

Consider that the chance to flop a pair is roughly 33%. Also, consider that when you have a hand like 7-6 suited, any pairs you flop will likely be middle or bottom pairs with bad kickers. Most players are familiar with this situation. They choose to call a late position preflop raise in the blinds with a speculative hand, and the flop either brings them absolutely nothing or a very weak pair on an intimidating flop. Not having any real options, they choose to check/fold against their opponent’s continuation bet. In this case, if we were the late position raiser, does it even matter what hand we have? If our opponent will be folding most of the times he doesn’t flop a pair or any decent draw, we might as well have 3-2 off-suit every single time they check/fold.
Of course, poker isn’t so black and white; there are other variables to consider, but the implied strength of having initiative, augmented with the power of position and/or a strong holding, makes for a combination that is very difficult to routinely outplay. Back to the 7-6 suited example: consider the option of re-raising instead. There are a few drawbacks to this play, but you’ve acquired the power of initiative for yourself when there wasn’t much going for your hand, as you were out of position with a speculative holding. The flop comes something you would normally have check/folded to, but because you have initiative, you elect
to continuation bet. With initiative, you force your opponent to make a hand, and when he doesn’t, the pot is all yours.

The influence of initiative is commonly used with great success through continuation betting. Like in the example above, it doesn’t matter if you’re out of position, in position, or what type of hand you have: you still have a very good opportunity to steal the pot with a continuation bet. When the opponent forfeits initiative to you and you continuation bet, you can still have all sorts of strong hands on any flop texture as far as what your preflop range allows. Your opponent, on the other hand, must now make a decision that will narrow his hand range by calling or raising. (Folding obviously narrows his hand range to nil.) From here, the basis of your strategy can be formed. “Do I want to bet again to charge his draws? Will I be following that up with a value bet on the river in most cases? Should I check turn to pot control, or to bluffcatch against a float? Should I bet again as a bluff? Should I just check/fold turn now that he’s called and I have nothing but 6-high?” You have many options available to you, a privilege your opponent lacks. His options tend to be, “I don’t have an amazing holding. If he bets again do I call or fold? What if I call and he bets river?” His range will likely be much more readable than yours. While you have the benefit of choosing the flow of the hand, your opponent is put into a reactionary stance, potentially opening him up to making mistakes.

Initiative is artificial, but so are your opponents’ fears and doubts. By maintaining initiative and aggression, you are imposing the threat of multiple continuation bets on your opponent. Often, I’ll have a weak pair on a dry board – for example, 55 out of position on K-7-3 rainbow against a loose, aggressive player. It’s a spot where I know my pair of fives might be ahead of my opponent’s range on the flop, but I’d have to fold the flop anyway due to the implied threat of him betting turn and river and putting me in a much tougher, more expensive spot. Similarly, one cannot blindly call against re-raises preflop, despite having position, due to the implied threat of the continuation bet that comes with the raiser’s initiative in the hand. By raising and calling against re-raises with speculative holdings I’ll be wasting a lot of money trying to hit flops. For every flop I miss, my opponent profits by bluffing me an inordinate amount of time. By raising then continuation betting a flop, you impose these threats and keep players in line, and merit a lot of folds. There simply isn’t much your opponent can do when you raise then continuation bet an Ace-high, dry flop if he doesn’t have much.

By now I’ve used the word “initiative” thirteen times throughout this article. I wish I could have found a way to fit it in another hundred times. It’s such a critical, understated, underutilized tool. Many people who rely on hitting flops continue to lose money and call it bad luck. In reality, they are not utilizing the concept of initiative in order to minimize chip loss when dealt a speculative holding. it’s those who utilize the concept of initiative well who make the most potential profit out of their worst holdings. But initiative still allows players to maintain the inevitable profit from their stronger holdings. Initiative forms the basis of aggressive play, which translates into a winning style when executed correctly.
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Feel free to leave any comments, criticisms, etc. I enjoy teaching pokers and writing is also something I've always wanted to be decent at. I still have a long ways to go in both so any help is appreciated.

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EDIT: taken care of, thx a song

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Look at that sweet, sweet EV. I ran pretty well at times, but the downswing in the middle was utterly horrendous stream of coolers that makes you forget how well you've ran just the previous day even. I played a lot more 5/10 this month, about 12k hands and i lost like 3 buy ins so the majority of the wins are from 2/4 and 3/6. I'm gonna be supernova next month!! can't wait to start including rakeback in my monthly results, since i'm just going off of bare winnings as of now.

Barely put in any hands this month (although a lot of it was due to me playing 4-6 tables of 5/10 at times), wish I could've done more. I'm not gonna be able to play much in May either because I'm going on a cruise around Scandinavia with my family (Copenhagen as main port, then Oslo, Stockholm, I think Helsinki, St.Petersburg, etc.). Danish people give me some tips about Copenhagen! They got a casino in the cruise so I can't wait to crush some live euro fish at small stakes haha.

Year-to-date Graph:
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Another article that I've written for the May edition of Baller Magazine. You can find previous articles (this is now my 4th) in previous pages of my blog if you want. Keep in mind this is directed mostly at newer, live players, but I suppose has some application no matter who you are. Thanks to Etter from TL for proofreading and making my articles a lot better than they were originally .

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Poker is often called a game of hidden information. Imagine how easy it would be to win if you knew what is largely unknown to most of us – our opponent’s hand, or the cards to come. Outside of cheating, there’s no way for us to preemptively figure out exactly which cards will fall on the flop, turn, and river, but there are legitimate ways to figure out what cards your opponent is holding – to varying extents of accuracy, anyway. In a nutshell, that’s the premise of hand reading. We can safely say a large aspect of poker is the struggle to ascertain what your opponent is holding, to make hidden information known information. This struggle is part of the underlying Information War that is waged every second of every hand at every poker tables around the world. The first step to winning the Information War is to actually know you’re in it. The second step is to acquire as much information as possible without leaking your own.

Poker is a cutthroat game, and your money is at stake. Assuming your goal is to win, you cannot afford to give away information. It’s a simple rule with deep complexities. Are you the type of player who likes to show your mucked hand to your neighbor? You’re leaking information. Do you like showing one card when you rake in a pot that didn’t go to showdown? You’re leaking. Ever talk about a poker hand or story with a buddy at a table when opponents could be listening? You’re leaking. If you were a secret agent, you’d be killed for that sort of conduct. Thankfully, the stakes in poker are not life-threatening, but repeated leaks of information just might kill your bankroll.

You can also leak information involuntarily through your own physical tells. That is a subject for another article, however, so we’ll be focusing on deliberate actions. One common leak is exposing any of your hole cards unnecessarily. If you’re folding a hand, your opponent cannot see your mucked cards. That should be the end of it. If you show him what you’re mucking, you only allow him to capitalize on that bit of information in the future. Now your opponent is ahead in the Information War and risked nothing to gain that advantage. The worst application of this is when someone calls the river and shows a losing hand at showdown when he wasn’t required to do so. People often do this to engender sympathy; they typically show a “cooler” hand, such as when their pocket aces lose to an unlikely two pair. This sort of conduct garners, at best, ten seconds of sympathy from those waiting to take your money. At worst, you’ve just made everyone aware of your potential inability to fold aces, along with any sort of physical tell you gave away in the process of losing (e.g. you were noticeably slower to act pre-flop).

With so many factors working against us in the Information War, we can take solace in the fact that our opponents are working under similar conditions. The best way to capitalize on leaks is to become observant enough to notice and digest useful bits of information. My favorite method involves listening to someone talk about a previous hand to a random player at the table. First of all, it might be a good story, but more importantly, he is likely to divulge a lot of information. Let’s see what we can extrapolate from this quote, taken five minutes after sitting down at a $5/$10 table:

“So I was playing my normal $1/$2 game when I caught pocket Queens pre-flop on the button. I raised it up, and instead of calling, this aggressive kid in the big blind re-raised me! I felt like taking a bit of a gamble and re-raised him back. He went all-in, I called, and guess what he showed? ACE KING! This punk was overplaying Ace King! Anyway, like usual, the river paired his Ace, and I lost a $200 pot. It was so infuriating that I had to go back to my hotel room.”

Stories like these reveal a lot. From the first sentence, we know that he is playing much higher than his usual stake. Maybe he just won a tournament and decided to play higher, making it likely for him to be a bit more careless with his money. Moving on, he found it surprising that someone would re-raise him pre-flop. Perhaps he usually plays at significantly tighter, more passive games. Next, he was baffled at the fact that his opponent would show Ace King. Because the pot was $200 at the end, we can infer that this hand was a rather shallow stack pre-flop battle. In situations like this, Ace King tends to be a reasonable hand with which to go all-in. Because of this, we can infer that he likely doesn’t know that effective stack sizes should affect your pre-flop hand selection and strategies. Likely he just plays whatever he feels like at the moment. Additionally, he thought his opponent was overplaying AK by getting it all-in, which means our friend here might have a very tight all-in pre-flop range overall (QQ or better only). Lastly, he was infuriated over losing a pre-flop coin flip scenario in which he lost 50 big blinds, which was enough to make him take a break. We can infer that this player lacks experience in controlling tilt and most likely doesn’t understand basic pre-flop all-in equities. Sometimes your assumptions will be wrong, which is why it pays to be continually observant and factor future information into your first impression of a player.

Get in the habit of being a keen observer, and take good mental notes when you’re playing at the table. You are only depriving yourself of information, which subsequently impacts your bottom line, if you are not paying attention and collecting on tells or reads – any sort of leaked information left on the table. Most people make very broad generalizations about their opponents and stereotype them accordingly. One of the most useful approaches is to make a mental note every time another player takes an unexpected line or shows up with a holding that you were not expecting. We all have our benchmarks for what we think is “good” poker (usually the style of poker we play ourselves). If I see someone do something that is not in my arsenal – for example, check/raising all three streets in No Limit Hold’Em – I’ll definitely want to see and take note of that player’s holding. If that hand occurred when you weren’t in the pot, even better; now you’ll have that extra bit of information if that player ever pulls the same line on you, and you came by that information risk-free.

I’m not encouraging you to be a soulless robot at the felt. Sometimes I just can’t help but want to listen to my favorite song on my iPod and shut everything else out. Normally, though, you should engage in friendly conversation and give people the basic respect that everyone deserves. Just make sure you’re not revealing anything about your poker game in the process. Let common sense prevail. Saying, “I’m from Hawaii, and I love the weather there” while on the felt is fine. Saying, “I’m 25, I’ve been playing professionally for the past four years, I’m Phil Ivey’s student, and they call me ‘Tourist Eater’ at this casino” is only going to put you at an immediate disadvantage in the Information War.

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Depressing. Wasn't even tilted, was just the culmination of MANY consecutive losing sessions with like a ~3bi stop loss. Not to mention utterly failing at live tourneys this month (although with live and coaching etc. I'm actually up in this field somehow).

Good timing for me to start thinking about other things though. The friends I had started this game with are all playing PLO now (one of them being one of the best 5/10-25/50 PLO regs now). Higher VPPs, easier to get higher winrates at the same stakes I'm playing. It's sad because I've put in a TON of work into my NL game and I've only been improving and hungry to get better for the past 2 years. My goal was always to be a 5/10 reg but it seems every shot at 5/10 ends in failure.

Overall on stars I do well at 2/4 and 3/6. I seem to have a good understanding of the games but it really is a lot of work to maintain what I consider to be a shitty average winrate (like 2ptbb) when I could just put in a ton of time learning PLO and making more potentially.

So with that I'm going to start playing PLO more often starting April. It's not like I'm quitting NL, but I do think this is a good time to start fully getting into PLO instead of just playing bits and pieces here and there.

If anyone is a ~50-200plo PLO reg and wants to talk feel free to PM me with contact info. I'm a 2/4 and 3/6 NLHE reg and I'll be starting at 50plo, hoping to make it back to 1/2 or 2/4 plo quickly :D

Cash: +~400
Live/Tourneys/Coaching: +700
Rakeback: Don't know how to calculate this for stars so I'll just do it when I actually have SN and can get bonuses and cool shit.

Total: ~1k (my secretary made more than me this month)

March Year-to-date Graph:
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