so i don't know if anyone actually reads my blog since i only play 10NL but in my last post i noted that i had started with $18 on stars and was at $365. after that, i got up to about $450, lost about $75 in a few crazy plo sessions, and started regrinding 10NL. i just got off a sick heater where i basically made 6.5bi+$50 rewards bonus so my roll is up to just under $500. this year's graph minus omaha since i don't have omaha tracker:
So I know I'm a low postcount lurker here, and I'm pretty awful at poker. But I wanted to share this with you guys, ask for your help, or at the very least your interest!
I'm in a bluegrass folk band in Dallas, TX, and we're starting the recording of our first CD. We need $2500 for studio time, pressing and distribution. So, I've set up a kickstarter account to get the fundraising started. I'm spreading this like wildfire to my family and friends.
If you guys could throw $20 our way, you have no idea how tremendously helpful that would be.
If not, please, check out my band! I hope our music brings you some happiness today, cause we love to play and we love to have people hear it.
Thanks, and please leave feedback about the band and this project, I'd love to hear your opinions.
This is my current situation as far as poker goes. I feel very confident in my game at the $0.05/0.10 NL fullring tables. However I have yet to be able to do well in $0.10/0.25 NL. I was amazed when looking at the stats before posting. I have played alot less hands than I had thought. Indeed the number of hands that I have played really don't indicate much due to how small the sample size is (by the way this is nowhere near all of my hand history just maybe the last couple months). I really feel like I should start upping the number of hands I play weekly by a large margin. Afterall my current condition is pretty ideal to be able to have free time to pursue this hobby. I currently live at home with my parents after having had recently graduated from college with a Math and Economics degree. Having completed my studies in 3.5 years and graduating cumma sum laude I should be in a good position to get a respectable job. However at the moment I feel like enjoying my life as long as my parents can stomach me. In the future I see myself gainfully employed with poker as a hobby.
At the same time I am very competitive and I want to do as well as possible in poker. I think that the natural variance in poker is incredibly brutal, but at the same time a blessing. Being able to lose despite making the right play adds doubt to ones mind. While this is taxing on the nerves it also will force you to constantly reevaluate your play. It stops you from getting complacent. Every downswing even if variance induced has made me take another look at my game of poker. As such every downswing thus far I believe has improved my play. I wish to keep this perspective up for as long as possible. Because variance can also have negative effects on how people play. I wish to avoid blaming everything on luck. I want to be able to more accurately perceive probability and risk.
rabble rabble rabble *click* post
PS I would like to be able to bounce ideas and hands off people in the future. Anyone interested in talking please drop me a PM.
Run bad at poker, Run good at lifeby Uptown, February 24
Quick blog.
Poker - lost like 100bi over various limits and various games (PLO400~PLO25, NL50~NL25) over the last 4 months. Roll from $7,000 -> $200 or so. Looks like it's time to throw in the towel. I was never ever a "poker pro" by any means, but going out in this fashion hurts my pride a bit for sure
Life - Moved back to the Silicon Valley and joined a startup. Responsibilities are pretty close to what I was looking for (between Marketing and Engineering), and the CEO has successfully executed 3 previous startups. I like my manager, and this should be a lot of fun~
Life II - I've spent the last few months learning our family's finances and investment philosophies. The bulk of my own assets are of the buy and hold nature, but I've reallocated a small portion of my funds to a discount brokerage in order to be more actively involved in the markets. Whatever happens to this money won't make or break me, but the experience I gain from this endeavor will be super valuable as I advance in age and attain more assets that I could potentially lose had I not had these "micro-mistakes" and learned from them. Already, I've caught myself making rash decisions based on short term market fluctuation, without sticking to what I believed in about the companies I had invested in. I really enjoy reading analyst reports and connecting "business news" into possible investment opportunities (i.e. devalued stock prices, such as HP's CEO scandal, or BP's oil mess), so it's been quite intellectually stimulating.
Went to the casino with Babs at the beginning of February to play the 1/2NL game. The goal was to see how long we could stay grinding for. I got too tired though and we left after around 23hrs. I was up a little over 15bi which was pretty lol and Babs was down a buy in or so in what we figured out to be around 700 hands. Im playing 100nl atm and want to start taking shots at 200nl after I've won another 20-30bis. Here is this weeks graph....All smooth sailing NB: Don't have YTD as i recently formatted my PC
Decided to take a break from real money, so a edzwoo advised me to use my fpp and play some satelite sngs, then unreg for t$, then convert them via Liquidpoker.
Spent about 2500 FPPs and made 55 T$ so Good day overall.
After a 100k hand downswing and not being able to link more than two winning sessions together since Dec 1st I'm done with online. Roll is gone and I'm out. Not a big deal as last year this same exact thing happened to me and I came back in July and ran it back up. However, I don't know if a comeback is in order since I am completely discouraged to ever begin playing online again. FTP has once again left me dumbfounded after a session. The odds of what has happened to me day in and day out over the past 100k hands is too much for me to fathom and I can't subject myself to this nonsense anymore.
I didn't realize what a pain in the ass depositing on stars has become. Anyways, title says it all. My $200 on ftp for your $200 on ps. Will send first. PM me. Thanks!
One thing over this really small sample size I've noticed is that most players pick really bad bluff spots, a couple of lol hands result:
Submitted by : sc1pio
Full Tilt Poker Game #28491428504: Table Fabro (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:46:48 ET - 2011/02/24
Seat 1: Asjay ($12.07)
Seat 2: Wolfpact ($3.50)
Seat 4: Poolman18 ($14.64)
Seat 5: sc1pio ($10.05)
Seat 6: Mscimitar ($13.51)
sc1pio posts the small blind of $0.05
Mscimitar posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #4
Holecards(Odds) Dealt to sc1pio
Asjay folds
Wolfpact folds
Poolman18 folds
sc1pio raises to $0.30
Mscimitar calls $0.20
sc1pio bets $1.25
Mscimitar raises to $4.50
sc1pio calls $3.25
Showdown Mscimitar shows two pair, Kings and Nines
sc1pio shows a full house, Kings full of Nines
sc1pio wins the pot ($11.11) with a full house, Kings full of Nines
Summary Total pot $11.90 | Rake $0.79
Board:
Seat 1: Asjay didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Wolfpact didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Poolman18 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: sc1pio (small blind) showed and won ($11.11) with a full house, Kings full of Nines
Seat 6: Mscimitar (big blind) showed and lost with two pair, Kings and Nines
Is one example and probably the most hilarious. I know I bet too small, but didn't want to commit too much with top pair lame kicker with a board pair.
Hopefully this stroke of rungood continues, so I can continue on my way up!
There were a few questions in the comments of my last blog, and since I didn't want people to have to scroll through the blog abyss to find my responses, I decided to address them in this new update.
"grats hows feb gone so far"
Glad you asked. February is going amazing. This is by far the most consistently I've made money in poker ever. It's kind of crazy that I've made 6k after starting the month with a 1k BR. I'm going to continue playing 90 mans, but may switch to an 85% 90 man / 15% mtt mix instead of the 95/5 im playing now. Heres my graph. A 10k month would be insane, I'm going to need another FT to make that happen though.
"nice profit this month, can i ask how you do your 90-man sessions?
how many tables do you play this, and how many sessions you play in 1 day, how many breaks between?
im currently grinding 2.25$ on demand en 3.30 90man turbos
around when did you start grinding 6.50 and 12+1?
thx"
I play 18 tables at a time. Usually its between 13 and 16 90 mans with the rest being MTT's. I stack them all in the top left corner of my screen at their default size. I use different backgrounds for MTT's, 90 mans, and Rebuys. I prefer to play a single 6-10 hour session. On weekends when I dont have school I may play 2 seperate 6 hour sessions. I started at 3.30's and didn't mix in $6.50's until I made 1k profit purely from the $3.30's. Then I made another 1k profit purely from $6.50's and felt confident enough to mix in $13's. Since I had a 3k BR boost yesterday I will now be doing something like 4 $26's, 6 $13's, and 4 $6.50's.
Thats pretty much it for now. I got a pet mouse about a week ago and it's awesome. I let it run around my desk when I'm playing sometimes. I would post pictures if I had the capabilities.
Just read a really awesome book, thought i'd share some.
Might be a bit awkward to follow the red line, atleast at the start. But I think it gets better as you go along.
- The plateau can be a form of purgatory. It triggers disowned emotions. It flushes out hidden motivations.
- We sometimes choose a course of action that brings the illusion of accomplishment, the shadow of satisfaction. And sometimes knowing little or nothing about the process that leads to mastery.
- We are born geniuses of thougt and feeling, + geniuses in potentia of the body.
The Mastery Curve
(Ok, this I drew, so not 100% sure how I can draw it here. I'll just do my best explaining what it looks like.)
Starts out flat, then it starts going in an upward hill, to a beak, then it declines and goes down a little, then it stays flat for a bit (the plateu), and the process repeats.
- Practice diligently
- Strive to hone your skills
- Attain new levels of competence
- Be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing when you seem to be getting nowhere.
- Habitual behaviour system operates at a level deeper than concious thought.
* Involved the reflex circuit in the spinal cord as well as in various parts of the brain to which it is connected
Cognitive system: When learning a new skill, you need to make an effort to replace old patterns of sensing, movements and cognition with the new
The cognitive and the effort system become subsets of the habitual system long enough to modify it. To teach it a new behaviour. When the job is done, they withdraw. Then you don't have to stop and think.
How do you move toward mastery?
= You practice diligently (without getting frustrated on the plateau)
The 3 types of persona: Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker
- Commericals just show endless climaxes, no plateau.
- Why people lean toward drugs
(I don't care how you win, just win, about effortless learning, instant celebrities, instant millionaires)
Same in medicine/pharmacy "fast relif"
Research studies show that most illnesses are caused by environmental factors or way of life
- 10 min at the Dr. isn't enough to get to know the patient, or write a prescription.
The nr.1 cause of death can be reversed by a long-term regime of diet, moderate exercise, yoga, meditation and group support.(Most Dr. in the us claim this is to drastic, and suggest $30k open chest surgery instead).
The joy of regular practice
- We as humans often go against what's best for us, and waste an evening distracting ourselves.
- People who love the plateau have very vivid and satisfying lifes.
People who go into something for the money, the fame or the medal, can't be effective.
Mastery's true face is relaxed and serene, somtiems faintly smiling.
Goals and contingencies = important, BUT exists in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm
Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, smell it, feel it.
To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment.
Man is a learning animal.
Key One
Instruction
- The self thought person is on a chancey path (can work, like Edison, but most have kept on re-inventing the wheel.)
For mastering most skills, there's nothing better than being in the hands of a master teacher.
Either one to one, or in a small group. Also good options: Books, films, computer learning programs, group instructions, classroom, knowledgable friends, counselors, associates, "the street".
- When you learn to easy, you're tempted not to work hard, not to prenetrate to the marrow of practice.
The worst can be the best, for it perseveres, it will have learned whatever it is practicing all the way to the marrow of it's bones
- Make sure your teacher is paying attention to the slowest student on the math
When irreconciabable differences do occur, remember that the better part of wisdom is knowing when to say goodbye.
"Do not think that
This is all there is.
More and more
wonderful teachings exist -
The Sword is unfathomable"
Key 2
Practice
Practice is the path upon which you travel. Not in order to gain something else, but for it's own sake.
An old saying: The master is the one who stays on the math five minuts longer every day than anybody else.
- The master of any game is generally the master of practice
- Practice is the path to mastery. Mastery is staying on the path.
Key 3
Surrender
- The courage of a master is meassured by his or her willingness to surrender.
- The beginner who stands on his or her dignity becomes rigid, armored, the learning can't get through.
- The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations of familiar themes.
For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.
Key 4
Intentionality
Nicklaus quote: A successful shot was 50% visualization, 40% setup and 10% swing
Intentionality fuels the master's journey. Every master is a master of vision.
Key 5
The Edge
(I like this phrasing)
Masters are Zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step.
(looked up that word, connoisseur, someone who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts.)
Julie Moss
Share her stupid desire, heroism, to use yourself to the limit, to finish at all cost, to attain the unattainable.
But before playing this edge, there must be years of instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.
Being on the never ending path.
(Was a wonderful story about her, I found a youtub clip of it).
Tools for Mastery
Intro: How can you avoid backsliding? Where will you find the energy for your journey? What pitfalls will you encounter on the path? How can you apply mastery to the commonplace things of life? What should you back for the journey?
Why resolutions fail - and what to do about it.
- Every one of us resists significant change, no matter whether it's for the worse or for the better.
Our body, brain and behaviour have a built-in tendency to stay with the same within rather narrow limits, and to snap back when changed
- Equilibrium, called homeostasis
- Homeostasis doesn't distinguish between what you would call change for the better and change for the worse. It resists all change
- The resistance here is proportionate to the size and speed of the change
When you begind to pursue mastery, homeostasis will happen. Might come in any of these forms:
* Alarms in form of physical or psychological symptons
* Might unknowingly sabotage your own best efforts
* Might get resistance from family, friends and co-workers
Here are 5 guidelines to help you on your way if you do decide to go on the path.
1. Be aware of the way homeostasis works
(When the alarmbell rings, it doesn't mean you're sick or crazy or lazy or that you've made a bad decision.)
Instead take these signals as if you're life is about to change
- Don't panic and give up at the first sign of trouble
- Don't be surprised if some of the people you love start coverty and overtly undermining your self-improvement.
(It's not that they wish you harm, it's just homeostasis at work.)
2. Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
The willingness to take 2 steps forward and one step backwards
- To keep pushing, but not without awareness
Stay alert prepare for serious negotiations.
3. Develop a support system
* You can do it alone, but it helps a great deal to have other people with you.
4. Follow a regular practice.
Practice is a habit, and any regular practice provides a sort of underlying homeostasis, a stable base during the instability of change.
5. Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
* To learn is to change. Education, whether it involves books, body, or behaviour, is a process that changes the learner.
* The best learning of all involves learning to learn
Getting Energy for Mastery
* A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. (There are limits)
* Often the best remedy for physical weariness is 30 min exercise.
* mental and spiritual lassitude is oftne cured by decisive action or the clear intention to act.
Here's how you get started:
1. Maintain physical fitness.
* Physical fitness contributes enormously to energy in every aspect of our lives.
* People who feel good about themselves, who are in touch with nature and their own bodies, are more likely to use their energy for good.
2. Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Value a positive attitude and the effectiveness of praise and other forms of positive feedback.
* It seems you can hardly overdo it
- Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling; it means facing the truth and then moving on.
- Avoid teachers and supervisors who are highly critical in a negative sense.
(Telling people what they're doing wrong while ignoring what they are doing right reduces their energy).
"Here's what I like about what you're doing, and here's how you might improve it".
3. Try telling the truth
* Lies and secrets are poison
* Truth-telling works best when it involves revealing your own feelings, not when used to insult others and to get on your way.
* It has a lot going for it, risk, challenge, excitement and the release of all that energy
4. Honor but don't indulge your dark side.
- Stop putting so much of ourselves into that invisible bag.
- Use the blazing energy that flows from that which has been called dark.
5. Set your priorities.
- Before you can use your potential energy, you have to decide what you're going to do with it.
And in making any choice you face a monstrous fact: To move in one direction, you must forgo all others.
To choose one goal is to forsake a very large number of other possible goals.
(Television makes it even more complicated. By offering endless possibilities, it temps you to choose none, to sit staring in endless wonder, to become comatose. Indecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression and despair).
Liberation comes through the acceptance of your limits. You can't do everything, but you can do one thing, then another, and then another.
- In terms of energy, it's better to make a wrong choice than none at all.
- Start modestly, list your priorities, for the day, tomorrow. Try to do the same thing long term, use A,B,C. Priorities shift, and you can change them any time.
- Simply getting them down in black and white (if you use that color and paper) adds clarity to your life, and clarity creates energy.
6. Make commitments. Take action.
- Set your own deadlines
- Can give surge of clarity and energy
- You have to take it seriously
(One way is to make it public.)
- The firmer the deadline, the harder it is to break, and the more energy it confers.
- Above all else, move and keep moving.
- Take time for wise planning, but don't take forever
7. Get on path of mastery and stay on it.
- Adequate rest is cool, but unaccompanied by positive action, rest may only depress you
- People whose energy is flowing don't need to take a drug, commit a crime or "go to war" in order to feel alive.
Pitfalls along the way
It's easy to get on the path. The real challenge lies in staying on it.
1. Conflicting way of life
2. Obsessive goal orientation.
- The desire for quick, sure, and highly visible results is perhaps the deadliest enemy of mastery.
- When climbing, don't keep looking at the peak, keep your eyes on the path.
3. Poor instruction
* Surrender
* Don't bounce around from one teacher to another.
* But don't stick to a situation that's not working.
4. Lack of competitiveness.
* Competition provides spice
* Can provide motivation
* Winning graciously and losing with equal grace are the mark of a master
5. Overcompetetiveness.
6. Laziness
"Disinclined to action or extertion; averse to labor, indolent, idle, slothful."
The bad nres is that laziness will knock you off the path. The good news is that the path is the best possible cure for laziness. Courage!!! (Not suppose to be !'s there, but I added them for dramatic effect).
7. Injuries.
- The best way of achieving a goal is to be fully present.
8. Drugs.
Can give the illusion of getting the immediate success this culture is always promosing you.
9. Prizes and Medals.
Exessive use of external motivation can slow and even stop your journey to mastery.
10. Vanity.
To learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish.
- If you're always thinking about apperances, you can never attain the state of concentration that's necessary for effective learning and top preformance.
11. Dead seriousness.
Without laughter, the rough and rocky places on the path might be too painful to bear. Humor not only lightens your load, it also broadens perspective. To be deadly serious is to suffer tunnelvision. To be able to laugh at yourself clears the vision. When choosing fellow voyagers, beware of grimness, self-importance, and the solemn eye.
12. Inconsistency.
- Consistency of practice is the mark of the master
- Value in repeating favourite rituals before, during and after practice.
- Inconsistency not only loses you practice time, but makes everything more difficult when you do get around to practicing.
13. Perfectionism.
We fail to realize mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.
Mastering the Commonplace
- Most of life is "in between"
- Building a stone wall or washing dishes is essentially no different from formal meditation
Household Rhythm:
- Whatever you do, do it awesomely (I made that word up)
- Stay wholly focused on the moment
- Above all, don't hurry
- Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery.
Focus on the process rather than the product
This takes practice....
The challenge of Relationships
- If you have to work at a sport to achieve mastery, you also have to work, and generally work even more diligently, to achieve mastery in relationships.
- The most important learning and development takes place during your time on the plateau
* Instruction
* Practice
* Surrender
(The stronger you are the more you can give of yourself. The more you give of yourself, the stronger you can be.)
* Intentionality
(Cultivate a positive attitude)
* The Edge
The path to mastery is built on unrelenting practice, but it's also a place of adventure.
Couples with a willingness to play new games, dances, intimacy, willingness to strip layers, to live entierly in the moment, revealing everything and epecting nothing in return.
Ultimately, nothing in this life is "commonplace," nothing is "in between". The threads that join your every act, your every thought, are infinite. All paths of mastery eventually merge.
Packing for the Journey
Maybe an old skill or obsession you've been dabbling in, or hacking at for months or years. Maybe vowed to treat your entire life to the best of your ability, as a process to mastery.
* Be aware of how homeostasis work
* Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
* Develop a support system
* Follow a regular practice
* Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning
Getting Energy for Mastery
* Maintain physical fitness
* Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Try telling the truth
* Honor but don't indulge in your dark side
* Set priorities
* Make commitments. Take action
* Get on the path of mastery and stay on it
Pitfalls along the Path
* Conflicting way of life
* Obsessive goal orientation
* Poor instruction
* Lack of competitiveness
* Overcompetetiveness
* Laziness
* Injuries
* Drugs
* Prizes and medals
* Vanity
* Inconsistency
* Perfectionism
Parting Gifts
Balancing and centering
(oh crap)
Returning to the center
- Basicly, learn about meditaiton, breathing exercises. When you get knocked off, find your center.
Getting Energy from unexpected blows
- When things go shit, losing a friend, loved one. Don't struggle blindly, don't deny youself the pain.
- Have a partner grab your wrist, and spill your guts.
- When done, feel your center, focus on the clarity and use all that energy. Consider the possibility that any misfortune that befalls you during your journey can be converted to positive energy.
Introduction to ki
ki in japanese
ch'i in Chinese
Pneuma in Greek
Prana in Sanskrit
"the force" in Star Wars lol
In the ancient tradition, the word comes from the notion of breath
* Considered the fundemantel energy of the Universe that connects all things and undergirds all creative action.
- The idea of ki can offer the untrained person an effective way of gaining a sensation of increased power along with relaxation, especially during times of fatigute and stress, and thus is a useful item to pack for your journey.
Relaxing for power:
Power; to be able
Visualize with exagerrated images, make your muscles relaxed (not rigid and tense) to increase their power.
Interessting facts:
- Human DNA contains more information than all of the libraries in the world.
- In potentia, humans are the most formidable all-around athlete who has ever roamed the planet.
- The unaided human eye can detect a single quantum of light and discern more than ten million colors. (I'm pretty sure i'm stuck at like 9).
- The human brain is the most complex entity in the known universe.
- What you are made of is mostly unused potential.
- It is our evolutionary destiny to use what is unused, to learn and keep learning for as long as we live
To choose this destinty, to walk the path of mastery, isn't always easy, but it's the ultimate human adventure.
Closing words
To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.
- How many times have you failed to try something new out of fear of being thought silly?
- How often have you censored your spontaneity out of fear of being thougt childish?
Second naivete = childlike quality, often found in people with an unusually high degree of their potential
Hello all, im not sure how many words i have to write for this to be featured - so here goes. Its been a while since ive done anything creative, and ive had this stuff lying around for ages and finally decided to finish it.
BYRNESAMS DEBUT SINGLE JUST DROPPED
TILTY CONSCIENCE
save it to your favourites and subscribe, more great content in the works.
if you didnt know the original, its Guilty Conscience by Eminem and Dr Dre.
heres a copy of the original - id advise you listen to it first before you listen to mine, so you get an idea of what im parodying.