I've decided to do a quick post detailing how I am allocating my income beyond my basic expenses each month. At first, I was thinking that debt-paydown should be my number one priority, but I think that throwing all of my savings at debt would put me at a real risk of busting my roll during any major downswing. So I've made a set of guidelines for myself that dictates how I "spend" all of the money that I receive that I don't spend on monthly expenses. The entire system is based on the amount of cash in my bankroll at the end of each month. I broke it up into four phases outlined below.
Phase One:
If my BR is $25,000 or less, 100% of income beyond my monthly expenses will be allocated to increasing it to at least this amount. Being below 25k is emergency status for anyone playing 5/10, so obviously I would have to pile as much as possible at the BR to get back to that level.
Phase Two:
If my BR is between $25,000 and $40,000 I will allocate 50% of income beyond monthly expenses toward the BR, and 50% toward investments in my brokerage account. I believe this provides an additional safety buffer/downswing protector as I'm still keeping all of the cash that I have in an easy to access place, but I am also investing for the future at the same time
Example: I have a 25k roll and earn 15,000 during a month and spend 5k on expenses. The additional 10k will be allocated 5k to BR, 5k to investments and my BR would be 30k to start the next month.
Phase Three:
If my BR is between $40,000 and $100,000 I will allocate 25% of income beyond monthly expenses toward the BR, 35% toward debt, and 40% toward investments in my brokerage account. I think having the roll above 40k plus some money invested will allow me to safely pay down some debt and have a much lower risk of ruin.
Example: I have a 50k roll and win 15k and spend 5k. $2,500 would go to the BR, $4,000 toward investments and $3,500 toward debt.
Phase Four:
If my BR is above $100,000 I will allocate 25% of income beyond monthly expenses toward the BR, 60% toward debt, 15% toward investments in my brokerage account. I think I will always allocate 25% toward my BR so I can keep climbing the stakes, but with >100k I think I can throw 60% of extra income safely toward debt
I believe by following these four phases I will be increasing my wealth substantially while ensuring a margin of safety against losing my income. Let me know if you would do anything differently or have any questions/comments about my plan.
I have been a lurker on the teamliquid forums for the last 2 years and recently discovered the LP website. I think it is an awesome community.
I have managed to do well in most of the things that I've put my mind to (Chess, Soccer, Quake Live and Quake 3). However, SC2 and Poker have been to two things that I have never been able to be "Good" (not the best) at. I suck at SC2 because I feel that I don't have the natural talent and I don't have the will to put in enough effort to be the brilliant at it. I have played about 50-80 games in total and I am still bronze. I know if I put in enough time into it, I will eventually reach diamond but that is as far as I will go. The reward (sense of achievement) is not worth the time I will have to put in to be good at SC2. I do however, want to beat poker.
So let me give you some background. During the last 4 years I have been playing Poker casually (I mean as a gambler, no BRM etc). I have lost alot of money playing Cash games that are out of my league. My tournament game is above average and I have placed in quite a few tournaments. I've managed to cover up half of my cash game losses via tournament wins.
I am looking to get into Poker properly (not hardcore like full time, but when I do play I must take it seriously). I do not need the money and I am not playing for the money. I want to play poker because I feel that over the last couple of years it has gotten the best of me. I need to BEAT it. My goal is to eventually beat 200NL at a minimum of 2BB/100 over 50k hands.
I have a few questions if you guys could maybe help me out with some of them It would be great:
1) I played for a month in 2009 and managed to beat 25NL at a rate of 2BB/100 over 10k Hands. I recently (last month) tried to play 2NL on a random poker site and dropped 2 BI's over 5k Hands. Has poker gotten alot more tougher over the last 2-3 years?
2) I am planning on starting out with 200 dollars. How important is HEM? Has anybody here beaten the game up to 100NL without using HEM/PT? What I'm asking is, should I buy HEM and play 5NL or not buy HEM and play 10NL. Also which is Better HEM or PT?
3) I do not have time to put in the amount of volume like most of you guys. I am planning on playing poker as a hobby not for a living. So maximum 10K Hands a month. Will my poker improve with this kind of volume? Should I just leave grinding 10 25 50 NL out and just play MTT's during weekends and play 100NL once i'm rolled for it (I think I might donk my roll away if I do this)?
4) I have this bad mindset where I make rules around my game because I keep looking at poker as an "Absolute". Like i'll say okay in order to be good at poker I need to make a rule to only 3bet 5% of the time. I know that this is exploitable, how do I get around this kind of thinking pattern? I guess I'm used to the way MTT is being played because of the blind structures etc. I know that at that given point in time what the optimal strategy is (Blinds are Big, M is small, Shove Kx or Better etc etc) please tell me if I'm making sense here or I'm just talking bullshit.
Stars -> Moneybookersby rS.Wisdom[9], September 10
Hey guys,
I'm looking for someone to trade $15 on Stars or Party for $15 on Moneybookers, since apparently Party won't let me withdraw unless I've made a deposit in the last 6 months.
Long time ROFL thread stalker and the person that got wobbly into poker. My stars id is Filthy999.
Wobbly suggested posting here to see if there's any interest in getting a stake for 10k 8game event. I want to play it, but I can't afford it with my current br. I'm looking to sell 80% at 1.1 markup. I will play if I get 65% or more.
Softness of tourney
- relatively few good regs (and I generally will know who they are/have played with them before)
- large whale:fish ratio compared to nlhe (reg numbers way down, whale numbers pretty constant)
- large contingent of donkament/nlhe/plo pros who are just playing every event or playing the event because it's prestigious but won't properly know how to play 5/8 games
Wobbly can vouch for my honesty. Alternatively you can send funds to wobbly instead of me.
1%*1.1*10300 = $113.30 per 1%
send to Filthy999 (Australia, blank avatar)
or to wobbly_au (Australia, stupid pink pig)
i'll try not to be too sentimental, but my party is over.
i'm out.
if poker gets legalized in the US, theres ~5% chance I play again, but for now I'm out. I did my time and I'm done.
I know most of you won't care, and you shouldn't!, regardless this site was a major factor in me being a 25nl noob to a supernova MSNL grinder for YEARS.
to be honest this was never the lifestyle I set out for, that being said it was an experience I will be forever grateful for. I will be pursuing higher education moving forward and trying to enjoy my time spinning on the rock.
There are far too many people I owe thanks to, and regretfully I am a fair bit too lazy to list them individually. I sincerely wish you all the best of luck in your pursuits regarding poker and life in general. You are all a good lot and brimming with potential in all corners of life. Our time on Earth is short and wild, and hopefully we will all do our best to make the most of it. I am incredibly fortunate to simply have been born in an age where I had the ability to communicate with people from such varied backgrounds as are present here and I'd like to thank anyone who contributed in any way major or minor for simply helping me to better understand humanity and the world as a whole. To think if we were born 60 years prior to now being in communication with people 200km away let alone 2,000 would be rare if not impossible is fascinating to me.
I'll probably still check up on the ROFL thread from time to time, and if anyone has any questions or comments about anything whatsoever feel free to drop me a line.
Playing WCOOP 51 instead of 47 and 54. Because i missed 47 and 51 is the same value as 47+ 54.
I will be playing 54 as well but thats 100% of my self.
FINAL EDIT:
IF i end up playing less or more tourneys from the smaller main events I will use the money you invested as a % of the total entries. Changes wont be big, but say I want to play tourney 21 instead of 17 as stated you will be receiving a % cut based on how much money you sent divided by my non mainevent (5200$) tournaments.
Hope thats ok.
Looking to sell some action for wcoop 2012 ME.
Rate 1.2 : 1
I will also be playing a bunch of smaller events, so far it looks like 8 of em. Selling only 20% of the smaller ones for at 1.25 : 1.
As for the events im playing
17 $320
23 $700
29 $1050
30 $215
38 $215
44 $2100
47 $265
54 $320
totalling 5185
EDIT:
The non main event tournies I will be playing are all nonrebuy, and are totally 5185$ so if u want 5% do the following math.
5% * 5185 * 1.25 = send to wobbly_au and i'll confirm here
I'm a 4NL microstakes player but when I can I take the trip to Niagara Falls for vacation and to play at the 1/2 live games they have there.
This time around, my girlfriend got us free hotel stay for two nights and so we went together with the plans of shopping in buffalo after + eating at McDonald's which in America, they have 20 pcs for $4.99 which is basically unheard of in Canada. This more than anything in the trip blew my mind.
I had always wanted to go across the border to play at Seneca Casino because I heard that drinks are complimentary which is basically unheard of in Canada. This was the second thing that blew my mind. So, with all these dreams of mine and my girlfriend being very supportive of my ambitions, we decided to go to both during our time there.
I had four hands that were kind of interesting to me because I was a little confused with the way I played them. Some I know I butchered irreparably but I would like some input.
We get there pretty late, check into our hotel and eat something small before we go to the 1/2 game at the Niagara casino. We arrive around 2:30am and I sit down alone because my companion doesn't feel like playing anymore and to my dismay, there was only one table going. Sitting down for a short while I realized that it was actually a really good table, a lot of limping, passive, and bad-aggressive type players so I sit down with $260 and looking around I realized it was really deep.
I play tight, raise with KQs with no callers, 3-bet KK no callers and trying to play as solid as possible.
1.
First real hand opens up when two MP players limp in and I get dealt Kc10d in the CO. I raise to 12 and sb/bb and two limpers call. Everyone has me covered and I'm playing ~$260 effective. Four way to the flop.
Flop (~$48)
9d 10s 5d
x to me and I had a plan to bomb the flop if I flop any top pair. So I bet $45.
To my surprise and dismay, all four players call.
Turn (~$228)
Ac
Pretty much the worst card in the deck.
Checks to me again and I have about ~$200 left.
Not really sure what to do here since shoving into 4 players with Kc10d didn't appeal to me that much. Didn't want to check to the river where I give free equity to the players in the pot especially with just a pair of tens.
In hindsight, I think I should have shoved for thin value to get draws to call and maybe (MAYBE) weak aces to fold. Or to check and just give up the pot on the river if anyone bets.
I decided to bet $66 to fold out gut-shot/Q and J high hands that have a bit of equity against me and to charge players for the flush draw. I would never expect a x/raise as a bluff on the turn from these players so being bluffed out wasn't really in the question. Planning to fold if I got raised.
Plus I had position on the river to fold/check back/value bet depending on the river card.
That was my rationale, not really too sure what the best play was.
MP calls, rest folds.
River (~$350)
Jc
MP x's and I quickly x-back. He shrugs, and I show Kc10d to win the pot.
So far so good.
I have an image of a very nitty player from the way that I was willing to fold my small blinds instead of completing.
2.
Tagg-ISH Indian-Guy (~$145) raises from EP iso-ing a EP limper. MP calls, MP+1 calls. and I have AQo in the small blind. I really hate flatting these type of hands OOP and I considered folding but I thought that 3-bet was okay as well. I had the intention of calling his shove. My logic is iffy on this aspect, refer to QQ hand below. I raise to $56, EP limper folds, and EP raiser snap shoves ~$120 and gets folds to me.
My rationale: If I'm going to raise him I'm going to call getting like 1/3 pot odds.
I call, we both table AQo
I left with ~$375 profit after ~2 hours or so which was nice over all.
So, next day we decided to check out Seneca Casino.
As soon as I sat down, I noticed that the American players were really aggressive compared to the Canadian ones. There was hardly a pot where someone was limping, and even less so that they weren't being isolated. It took me a while to notice the tendencies of the players.
3.
I already know I butchered this one. I'm dealt QQ in the sb. LAG older gentleman raises limper to $15, two callers to me in the sb.
So I decide to flat.
My reasons were because QQ is strong enough to slow play pf, pot control OOP and to get his weaker range to bet into me post-flop.
In hindsight to me, this is a 93% definitive raise. Our effective stack sizes were about ~$250, deep enough so that they would never fold a raise. Therefore I can value-raise and the weakest part of their ranges would still call. Also, 3-bet for initiative, it's easier to bet for value than to x/call or x/r a c-bet to get value.
4 to flop
Flop (~60)
Qd 6h 6d
I check; LAG will c-bet every dry flop. I feel like donking was a bit worse than checking. it x's to raiser who bets $35.
I call. Rationale, my equity lock on this hand is pretty stable (little chance to get sucked out) and I wanted the players behind me to call as well.
In hindsight, raising here is okay; it doesn't look very credible. The flop is dry and the only real hand I could have is 76s/A6s but with the image I had, that might be out of my range and therefore raising looks bluffy and therefore, I can value-raise.
Players behind me fold
Turn (~$110)
2c
I check; I don't want to fold out his bluffs.
In hindsight, This is where I should have donked. He is not going to continue at all with his air-c-betting range on this turn and all his hands with SD Value is going to check back. All of his range except AQ/AA/KK will check this turn and I felt like I should have bet for value to charge all his mid-PP's and FDs.
He checks back.
River (~$110)
2d
So the board is Q6622.
I lead for $71. I guess this is okay. The flush hit but I didn't really expect to get called so I was surprised when he did.
I showed, and he mucked.
I was up around ~$300 profit, with a total of around ~$500 in my stack until this hand happened, and even though I feel pretty good about it not sure if it's THAT good or not.
4.
So, I get dealt 10h8h.
MP limps around to me in the bb who checks.
Six way to flop of
Flop ($12)
Qd 10c 8d
I lead $15. For value, it's really drawy and my equity is not so good against six players. Four callers, Effective stack sizes was ~$200.
Turn (~$72)
5h
sb checks, I bet $62 still for value. If I bet on flop for value, turn bet is for value.
In hindsight, I still think betting is better than checking. It is still drawy and my equity still isn't so good. Folds to sb who shoves for ~$144.
My only read with sb is that he plays a lot of hands aggressively and I saw only one hand where he shoved a brick river (~$65 into a $100) as a bluff because once the guy called, he insta-mucked and rebought.
I was pretty glad when he shoved, thinking in my mind to snap-call him and not really thinking about his range so that was a pretty big mistake on my part. I thought he could have KQ/QJ even 84/Q4/Q10 but mostly because it was $92 for me to call to win ~$250 and I had two purrr.
So, I called. He had the nut-straight, and I bricked out.
Not exactly sure how I should of went about the situation. Could I have found a fold to his shove? Against this player? I think MAYBE, but calling should be better.
I still left Seneca with $100 profit AND like 15 free rum and cokes which was nice. I did tip the waitress (obv) but overall I had an amazing time.
I recently borrowed a few books from the library about investing, economics, and personal finance. I have only finished one, and it was a book-on-tape that I was listening to on my commute to the casino so that's kind of cheating. Here are some of the books I'm reading and my impressions of them so far:
Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki What the rich teach their kids about money that the poor and middle class do not! http://www.startupgrowthexpert.com/wp...2010/10/Rich-dad-Poor-dad-300x300.jpg
This book is a best-seller and, although it was written in 1997, is still widely regarded as one of the best personal finance books available. I'm about half-way through this book, and it is a really engaging, and easy read. It's only 183 pages so you could breeze through it in a day or two depending on how quickly you read. It's about the author, who grew up in 1960's Hawaii with with his well-educated, but financially illiterate father, who he refers to as his "poor dad," and his friend's father (rich dad) who helps teach him how to make money work for him instead of working for money. I like this book, and like I said, it is a very light read so far and probably a good way to get into thinking about personal finance and how to think about money.
This was the "book-on-tape" I listened to. It was a very simple book that talks about how to go about purchasing your first home, and how to turn that purchase into an asset, and not a liability. How to use certain tax laws to your advantage when selling your home, or keeping it as a rental home to upgrade to another home. This book was written in the booming real estate market of 2004-2005, and you can tell from the tone of the book that everyone's houses are appreciating like crazy, but in general the author is clear to mention that you can still make money in any real estate market. The book is not about flipping houses and becoming a real estate genius, it is about an easy buy-and-hold strategy for creating wealth, and becoming an "automatic millionaire homeowner." I liked this book even though at times it seemed overly simplistic talking about things I already knew, relating to mortgages and brokers, etc. I still think I learned a decent amount from this book though, and would recommend it to anyone thinking about buying a house in the future.
This book is a difficult read. Most personal finance books are geared at a 6th grade reading level. This book seems to be at more of an undergrad college level. There are a lot of charts, and a lot of information in this book. For some backstory on the author, he lives on $7,000 per year, hence the "Extreme" in the title. He also runs a finance blog @ www.earlyretirementextreme.com. You can read his own review of the book Here. I have only gotten through the first few chapters of this book, and I would say it is a lot of material to digest. I would recommend only reading one chapter per day in this book to keep it interesting.
I'm reading a couple more books, but I don't have a very good feel for them yet. I'll post book reviews of a few more books when I find the time to read them, but I think these are a good start, and some tips on the ERE blog/forums could be put to good use by almost anyone.
Lacking anything else to do while I'm waiting for the lust to gamble to return (which will probably take about half an hour or so) I thought I could try to enrich the literary knowledge of LP by recommending one of my favourite authors. Anyone who consider himself as having any kind of humour should have read at least a few books by Terry Pratchett, preferably from his discworld series. Anyone who wants a background of the guy could read up on him on wiki. The guy has Alzheimer's disease and decided to handle that by making the BBC documentary Choosing To Die. Anyone who wants to watch it can find it on youtube:
Anyway, the guy has written some of the funniest books of all time and I think I've had more laughs reading them then from anything else, and I hope he can write one or two more books before it's all said and done. He also seems like a very nice old man so I wish him all the best.
Here's a few of my favourite quotes by him:
"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon... "
"The pen is mightier than the sword ... if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp."
"He could think in italics. Such people need watching. Preferably from a safe distance."
Anyway, if you like fantasy and/or stuff like "the Hitch Hikers Guide To the Galaxy" you should definitely check him out.
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