I've decided to offer myself as a coach to some small - mid stakes players that are looking for some help. I'm primarily looking for NL25 - NL200 students, people who have learned the basics, but are looking to keep moving up and challenge themselves. I've had some people interested already, and will read everybody's request. Send me a PM with some information about yourself, what your goals from getting coaching would be, and why you think you'd be a good choice for me. I've planned on doing individual lessons, but a group option may be possible if there are enough people at the same skill level.
A bit about me: I'm a professional player from Chicago, USA who moved to Europe in January (lucky me, I can still play online). I've been an online player since 2005, and played NL2 cash games until I moved up over time as my bankroll grew. Now I've been playing mostly NL400 - NL600 for the past ~5 years, so I've experienced the game's changes over time. I've also been a student of Jay Rosenkrantz (pr1nnyraid on FTP) until he stopped playing much poker. For some results from my hold em manager, I've included some screenshots. I bought a new computer a couple months ago so I've included the hands I've played here (~150k hands), but I think it's a decent indicator of my recent results.
Pricing may quickly change, but as of now I've set prices that vary based on the limit the student plays to try to make it more affordable to everybody.
NL200: $100/hr, $80/hr if buying 5 or more at once
NL100: $80/hr, $65/hr "
NL25-50: $60/hr, $50/hr "
If I decide I'd like to take you on as a student, I'll give you a free first lesson to get a feel for your thought process about poker, and figure out what would be most optimal to focus on. I'll also be available for you to send hand histories to me outside of lesson times and I'll give you advice at no additional charge.
Post here / PM me any questions, and I'll respond as quickly as I can.
Fuck yeah baby!
This morning they published results, and I fucking did it!
I will most likely have a 2:1 (the 'good' degree that most employers want) with like a 10% chance for a 1st, my average is like 67.7%, 1st is 70%+ and sometimes they award it when you are just under - run good one time?.
The thing I am most proud of is 78% From my dissertation, as I never put so much effort into anything before in academia, and like half of the stuff was things I never studied before, especially the psychology and intuitive and rational thought process. It was also first time I did live experiments where I had to organize everything. Also, I used MS paint for all my diagrams :D
You can read my struggle here: http://vddissertation.wordpress.com/
What can I say, it feels good man, finishing a degree with work experience in a foreign country...now I can recklessly jump into the poker thingy knowing I have this to fall back on and that I am able to see something through to the end
EDIT:I also wrote a lil' update on my planning thing and progress in one of my hands, read below if you missed it: + Show Spoiler +
I found a well easy way of doing scheduling after reading a couple books on binge eating and this is my main focus now(a lot of credit goes to Thumbzzz, his mention of scheduling seems to be the central part of any binge eating tackling program): + Show Spoiler +
First thing is close monitoring and recording of:
When I eat (time)
What I eat
Did I binge?
Feelings /situation
Comments
I will expand this to exercise, and my poker sessions with major tilt goals in comments (4tbls 100%, 70 Minute hard session stop, 3BI hard stop loss before going for a 15 min.walk...)
There also will be weekly weighting and summary sheet for each week
I am really hooked on the monitoring process that my research shown is vital (but hard to do for a lot of people including me), and apparently very often just recording what you do improves the results as you force awareness
Second thing Will be establishing regular eating.
3 meals, 3 snacks at very specific times throughout the day. There is no way around it if you want to tackle binge eating, and it must be very precise. It can be flexible, and I will plan it every morning when some extra things are happening, but it will always be around the times below.
8:00 Bfast
M
10:30 snack
1
13:00 lunch
2
16:00 snack
3
19:00 dinner
4
22:00 snack
E
The great thing is, this naturally cuts my day into sections (M,A and 1-4 above).
M and E are 'dead sessions' where I can't play poker as the body energy is at its lowest, and only stuff like gym/movies/forums/vids for fun will go there
and 1-4 are productive sessions. It's great as I can e.g. say that this week in section 4 5/7 days of the week is one up to 70 min poker session focusing on e.g. 3betting (my sessions will be divided into core 'standard' grinding sessions, 'focus' sessions where main focus is e.g. playing from blinds and EV will be secondary, and 'challenge' session where I will play in the toughest games available on purpose, no matter how -EV they are)
Third is list of alternative activities
This is about avoiding playing when tilted, and avoiding urges when I binge eat. Basically I will have on my wall a list of possible activities from walking, calling up friends, chatting on skype, going to the gym or cleaning the flat, that I can undertake whenever I get my urges to obsessively play or eat.
Fourth
Will be focus on problem solving, I will have my list of alternative activities and I will apply the following:
1) Identify the problem as soon as possible
2) specify the problem accurately
3) consider as many solutions as possible
4) think through the implications of each solution
5) choose the best solution(s) or combination of them
6) act on the solution
+review how you did. Sounds familiar? Yes, it is like approaching a poker hand, just in real life
E.g. when I have the urge to binge eat or fire up 10 tables or playing past my stop loss, I have to follow the above and come to the conclusion that I should for example go for a walk and come back, or that it's a good time to watch a video instead of playing.
How
Each step stems from the previous one and builds on it. I.e. I never stop monitoring, never stop focusing on regular regime etc. but establishing a habit out of these things will come as one by one, e.g. if I at the beginning monitor correctly 7 times per week but tilt half my BR and binge 6 times per day it can still be considered as a good week as at the beginning my monitoring was at 0/7. That doesn't mean I am omitting the further steps though, I will always try to have a schedule, list of activities, and problem solve, just the main focus will be on the lower level until I am very good at it.
This thing will be at the core of my focus at all times, and I build everything else around it. It all seems very simple and achievable right now, and the process above will be good for doing anything, not just poker
Adhering to this is focus no.1, on top of that I am trying to create a very simple way of adding activities into slots, although that's in a stage of development.
I am thinking about making a list of things I have to do and how long they take, e.g.
Gym-Aerobic 1Hr
Video with taking notes - 1.5HR
Regular Session - 1.1HR
Have specific targets for the week, but to add flexibility I will take the 'pool' of things and every morning I will just plan the day based on how I feel and what I want to do. Having fun and doing what I like and feel like, in a simply structured way is very important for me.
I do this already with planning meals, and I always decide 'on the spot' what I feel like when the slots starts after every meal but planning in the morning would make me more focused. One problem I am having with this is everything else but playing on the tables. Watching a video, or having a gym session can be forced, but playing can be done just when I play my A game, I didn't quite solve that yet, right now I play when I feel like it only, which doesn't force me to de-tilt by meditating or going for a walk+drink, but too rigid targets would be counterproductive.
But overall it already feels great man, the slots are 'in my mind' and my day is no longer one big blob, and I had more A game sessions than in 2 months before that combined. I did relapse with binge eating last night, but that's to be expected. The program above is designed for 20 weeks, which is quite a short period compared to a lifetime of terrible habits. For the next few weeks I will be happy if I can monitor well while sticking to the regime and problem solve at least most of the time.
So I decided to take a month break from poker, mainly cause I didn't want to play with mediocre focus.
Powerlifting:
My Uni finally got a new gym, and been able to pick up my old passion: Power Lifting. I also found out there was finally be a national meeting, to which I'm attending with 1 month preparation to gain some experience so I can hopefully win by the end of the year.
Tbh my bench/squat suck. I had a month to practice so I only focused on deadlift/bench press, but my deadlift was just on a better starting position. On my last week I decided to learn to squat, so i've focusing on proper technique to get as much carryover from deadlift into it.
Realistic Goal (I'm sure I can make it): Deadlift 180kg, Bench press 100kg, Squat 100kg
Dream Goal: Deadlift 190kg, Bench press 105kg, Squat 130kg.
My weight class is 73kg.
In between, I want to hit 400kg this meeting and 500kg by the end of the year.
Here is my schedule for training so far, everything in pounds.
My business been going well; selling seem to be stabilized atm on around 1.2k/month.
We are also planing on organizing our first seminar dictated by 2 RKC's (certified dragon door instructors). It seems we can cover expenses easily and split profit with them on terms yet to negotiate.
Poker:
I took a month break from poker cause I was getting run over by obligations (business, uni, etc) and I didn't want to grind without complete focus. Will read some theory on monday/tuesday and resume grinding on may, and depending on the following months I'll determine wether to keep playing or cash out my roll for good.
besides playing poker I am also a golf professional (yes I would beat leatherass =O). I operate a golf shop located in Massachusetts and have extra inventory of 2011 golf clubs. The companies I have in stock are TaylorMade, Cleveland, some Callaway, and a small amount of Titleist. All of the clubs are brand new, never been hit and the most recent models. As far as prices go, I can offer clubs for less than any sporting goods store and any online store. For example a TaylorMade Burner Superfast 2.0 for $220 as opposed to $300. It just depends how much the clubs cost me. This might sound like a scam but hopefully some people on lp can vouch for me and the sincerity of this offer.
If there is any interest at all I'll post pictures and prices of clubs anyone is interested in. Just post here and ask for details, PM me if you want.
Had a pretty swingy day yesterday, not that it matters at the stakes I'm playing, but whatever. Also got my first Royal Flush at online real money. Woulda been more satisfying if there was more money or more players involved but I'll take it.
This is the e-mail I just got from the Chief of the Computer Science Departament of the University I used to attend.
He sent this e-mail to every student in the main mailing lists... http://uploadeimagem.com.br/out.php/i29937_troll.png
I will be updating this blog instead of making new ones every month. Wanted to stop blogging results because of superstition and that it just looks like I'm moaning most of the time but I am bored and I am going to update this to keep track of progress hopefully.
Played a long 6 tabling PLO session today. I still get confused when a couple of decisions have to be made at different tables at the same time. Standard -10bi downswing to start of the session didn't tilt as bad as I used to which was nice. + Show Spoiler +
I haven't played at all online for the past few weeks simply due to a) not caring and b) not having any time to do anything. I've been purposely trying to keep myself busy in order to keep from going insane. So far the jury is still out on how effective that is... I've been a pretty unhappy girl lately so the more distracted I am the better.
I got a second job which I work weekends at and it's been fun so far. Just retail. Main motivators for that decision were to meet new people, make a little extra cash (gas is RIDICULOUS right now and I don't have the most fuel efficient car), and discounts are always nice. In addition to that, I'm doing karate and working out a few times a week plus I started reading again. I also got my motorcycle learner's license and was thinking about getting a bike but everyone keeps telling me I'm going to die lol.
I've been playing at a weekly home game just for company and for something to do. My first few weeks were a little painful since I hadn't played for so long but I'm holding my own pretty well now. The funny thing is my ex goes to these games too. We still get along great, but for some reason when I do well he runs awful and when he does well I crash. Weird.
I've been really stressed out lately, what with everything that's going on in my life and, strangely, poker is kind of a destressor for me. Friends of mine who play for a living prob think I'm retarded for saying that but they're kind of retarded too sooooo yeah! I'm hoping to play a little bit more when I have time so I can stop playing the nosebleeds and head up to micros. Now if only I could figure out how to play properly! Knowing how impatient I am, I'll probably lose interest in a few days again and take another month-long break from online poker.
stupid feature in PS softwareby the cleaner, May 24
down 11bis today then this shit.
Email i send to pokerstars support. pretty much self explanatory. I'm posting this cause it might happen to somebody else. I made a 1 min video of a screen recording for PS support, can be downloaded here.
>> i was masstabling on pokerstars today and had about 10tables
>>open. i used the
>> CTRL+Y shortcut to get unjoin me from waiting list, when the
>>software started
>> acting strange. i would get dealt cards facedown. i couldn't
>>see my holecards
>> unless i would hover my mouse pointer over it.
>>
>>
>> things i have tried. i went into tast manager and forcefully
>>quit pokerstars
>> software and logged back in. this was to avoid having to
>>close the tables i
>was
>> on.
>>
>> tried rebooting my pc and log back on same thing.
>>
>> i quit the PS software and logged back in. without any other
>>software/scripts
>> running. same thing.
>>
>> please find attached screenshot i took.
>>
>>
>> kindly reply asap, since i have lost a ton of $$ today and
>>need to get back to
>> grinding
>>
>> best regards,
>> ingo
Hello Ingo,
Thank you for your email.
It seems that you have activated the new 'Hide Hole Cards'
feature accidentally.
'Hide Hole Cards' is an exciting new feature that will help you
play with your friends in the same room (for Home Games
specifically).
Activate or deactivate it by clicking ctrl + h or 'Options' -
'Table Display Options' - 'Hide Hole Cards'.
When this option is activated, it will only show your hole cards
when you move your mouse over them.
This is particularly useful if you are hosting a Home Game,
allowing you to play with friends in the same place without
having to worry about shuffling, dealing, chips, tricky side pots
or peeping pals!
If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to
contact us again.
Regards,
Andre
PokerStars Technical Specialist
yea that was it. wasn't aware of that feature. guess it's new. kind of inconvenient to put the shortcut ctrl+h, since the h is just below the y and might easily be confused with ctrl+y shortcut. and can become a nightmare when masstabling and you are not aware of the problem.
Poker is killing my social lifeby ManofFire, May 24
I don't really know how to explain it, but every time after a session I turn real quiet, and start mumbling instead of speaking loud + clear. It takes me like 6-7 hours to snap out of it and turn to the baller that I am, however due to the toll poker takes on me, I have lost many a girl friends.
)= Idk wut to do
Quit poker for two weeks and party like a maniac,
or play poker for two weeks and be a loser.
I can't do both!
I'VE TRIED!
Contact Users: 1137 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 09:16
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to a 400 river shove on a 1k pot.
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