Hey guys,
Been studying PLO a fair amount in the past few months. Was wondering what is standard PF these days headsup. Is it standard to get in a 100 bb stack heads up with:
Good kings
Bad Kings
Good Queens
High-4card run downs: 2-suited, 1-suited, 0-suited
Good double Paired hands: JJ99 double suited say
What about 50 bbs or 200 bbs?
In my games mostly at 100bbs I've been stacking off with good kigs, or double-suited 4-card rundowns 8 or higher (and aces obviously), but wondered whether that was abnormal.
MMA Fight Camp: Two Weeks Outby NotSorry, January 15
Was hoping to get an update out sooner than this with just little over two weeks out from the fight, been super busy, was trying to get a video series going and a ton of other stuff but just doesn't seem like there is enough time in the day. Next week it should start slowing down a bit, more focus on fine tuning technique while shaping our game plan, so hopefully I can start getting those other things in motion. Also the girlfriend started a new job this week so I'm able to cut back down to a 40hour work week instead of the 50+ I've been doing since September. My weight is in a good place roughly 240, will drop down to around 230-235 which is where I feel is my best gain of speed while still maintaining power and strength to keep up with 265+ wrestlers.
The end of the year usually is the time for the review and summing things up. Taking into consideration my goals as I saw them before this year started, I should regard 2015 as a failure. However, many events took place which were completely beyond my control and, in turn, these occurrences often resulted in huge lack of concentration, which is why ultimately I believe this year was a success. The results are pretty solid, I improved mindset-wise, despite the fact that my A-game manifested itself fewer times than in 2014 (one of my poker friends thinks otherwise, as he suggests that I’m the most consistent A-game player he’s competing with – thanks for kind words ;]). I played 800 hours, but I estimate that my A-game amounts to max. 30-40% of that time. What’s more, my C to Z-game reared its ugly head way too often. 2 most important lessons I learned this year, or more precisely two things I finally fully accepted are:
1. The quality is more important than quantity
2. You can’t always fulfill all of your objectives.
What the future holds.
I assume that no one really knows that for certain (apart from the policymakers). There are rumors that Pokerstars is planning to ban HUDs.
If it wasn’t enough, they also officially intend to remove the possibility of importing games to your HDD.
When I was starting out my adventure on Party, in the busiest hours there was 25-30 fish tables on average at NL200. Currently, the average is probably around 15 tables at NL200-NL1k. As shown, the decline is enormous.
As long as PP doesn’t go ahead and remove HH, I will most likely stay on this platform. Additionally, I want to throw in 2-3 additional softwares, in order to increase my volume on stakes 2/4+, and to be able to play the afternoon sessions with a decent number of games. For a while I considered adding NL2k-NL5k, but I rejected the idea in the end, as my mindset is not ready for such move just yet. I was thinking about the bumhunting on NL400+ on all of the biggest soft sites, but I gave up on this notion quite quickly as well. One of my strongest points is the skill of multi-tabling without losing much of the game quality. As a matter of fact my game suffers when there isn’t enough action going on – to keep my concentration on high I require the constant grind.
Coaching
2015 was the beginning of my venture into the world of coaching. For years I’ve never contemplated pushing my career into this direction because I thought I wasn’t good enough to teach other people. Furthermore, in a moment of my ego getting the better of me I will quote myself, I felt that ‘the amount of time I can spend on poker throughout the year is limited’. Taking into account that my ‘hourly’ is very decent and my conviction that the pay for coaching should be at least 2-3 times higher, I’ve never thought that it’s a good decision from the business point of view. Until very recently I based my knowledge about coaching on instructional videos. Oftentimes I was trying to grasp whether the author knowingly misleads and fools the listeners, or he’s just wrong about certain conceptions (or maybe, just maybe, he or she is on a higher level of comprehension, which I have not reached yet).
Most definitely the biggest advantage the coaching offers is the chance to look at your own game from a different angle. In addition, there are times when we’re not absolutely certain about the answer to a given question, what leads us to revising our views about the matter at hand. I believe that the main goal of coaching should be finding the aspects of a player’s game which can be improved upon and nurturing those which may bring the best results. Sometimes a gamer may have very strong tactical backbone, but his approach to poker is detrimental and his results are unsatisfactory because of it. A player with a mental monk kind of mindset who lacks any skills won’t find success, positive thinking is not enough. On the other hand even an adept person, who explodes after every little mistake or bad beat will lose a large part of his winnings. In order to proficient in poker, one needs to work on many levels.
Over the last few months I entered a partnership with my friend. I suppose I’ll come to regret the decision to undertake this endeavor in a year or so Oh well, for now the results seem promising and considering his diligence I believe he can make it big. (brag)
After fixing up few leaks and errors in the game approach, the results showed up immediately. In my opinion, when it comes to coaching, it’s the student who should be working the hardest, and try to get the most out of coaching. If someone thinks that taking up 5 hours of coaching will suddenly turn his life around, he’s in for a big disappointment. It is possibly the reason for the popularity of all kinds of personal growth shamans. It leads to situations as shown in the clip below.
I wonder when will the personal trainers appear who would teach ‘the character’ to people?
Goals for 2016
What are my objectives for 2016? My goals include playing 1000 hours online and the constant work on my game and the mindset. Also, I would like to participate in at least 1 live event. Year after year it was always a goal which persistently I skipped. In order to treat live games as a paid work, I would have to take part in tournaments like EPT, but thinking carefully, the variance in MTT live is too great, which is why at the current state of my career and the poker economy I’m simply not ready for it. My live results by far also lead me to conclusion that I run way above the EV and the correction is unavoidable :D For now I plan on planning professionally online for another 4 years, and regard live game as a form of work retreat.
As far as my goals unrelated to poker go, I wish to improve my physical condition the most. The correlation between the body disposition and mental capability is obviously significant. In particular over the last few months I suffered from intense back pain – years of ‘playing the game’ begin to speak up. May and June were the months when I felt great physically. I can totally affirm that it was also the time when my game was the best quality. The reason for this was the fact that I played soccer once or twice a week. For years after giving up on amateur football kicking, I was trying to find a good alternative, but the gym, running or table tennis were not capable of giving me the kind of buzz the good old football did. Unfortunately, in June I ended up tearing the ligaments in my ankle and my short comeback came to quick halt. Thankfully, my leg is getting better, which is why I’m hoping that after a short preparation I will still be able to become an MVP of the local football field.
What’s more, I would like to spend more time on learning how to manage my finances more efficiently. Once my poker career comes to an end, I’d like to become a professional investor. To be successful in this field I need to acquire knowledge which would help me to smartly invest my capital – just like in poker.
Something for the soul.
I wrote about perfecting the body and the mind, now it’s time for the spirit. In recent weeks my fascination with a certain popular music giant re-awakened. The legend in question is Johnny Cash. Extremely curious figure, on one hand music genius, on the other quite an ordinary man. Cash was a brilliant individual, but also quite controversial. Despite many obstacles the man reached the top, but throughout most of his life he had to fight his inner demons. The movie Walk the Line, where Johnny is portrayed by the amazing Joaquin Phoenix, is one of the best biographical pictures I had a chance to watch.
Good luck in New Year, 6-digit wins, satisfaction out of living day by day. May the A-game be with you!
/userpoll/draw.php?poll_id=1432
Poll: Do you want 8 handed to be the new normal?
(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No
(Vote): Doesn't matter, won't ever happen
Do you guys support a permanent change to 8 handed tables from 9 handed tables? More room to sit, and looser action. I just hate 9 handed play, and I think 8 handed is such a step up, while still being seen as "full ring" and not short-handed. I wish all casinos and tournaments made this change. What do you think?
So imagine this...you leave FPPS in Pokerstars account, they get transferred to starcoins, but not rounded up and you're small amount short of a cash bonus...You curse and write it off as bad beat, and keep the un-rounded up amount in there right?
Can OOP call here with a hand like 65s? Intuitively I think the answer is yes, but it could also be no.
If the answer is no, how would we balance our range on boards that favor 65? (66x, 55x, any kind of board where 6 and/or 5 is a straight). Is it not something to worry about at all, since these kinds of boards are rare enough and the SPR is low enough for 65 to not matter?
If at 200 deep we can't call, there is surely a stack depth at which we can (and must?) call, despite being OOP and facing a rather large 4bet. However I often feel like a fish for calling big 4bets OOP with a drawing hand. I guess it really depends exactly how deep players are?
(65s is mostly just an example hand, it could be anything from 22 to AK, although with 22 or AK I feel a little better making the call than with 65s.)
Fighting Through The Holidaysby NotSorry, January 03
The Holiday season is filled with pit falls for someone training, constant parties with family and friends filled to the brim with junk food make it easy to say "What's one day? I'll make it up tomorrow." Well while you're taking the night off, somewhere someone is on the mats or in a cage working it's ass off to one day destroy you. This Holiday season I am that someone. It wasn't easy, it wasn't fun but it is worth it. I can feel my skills getting sharper, my body getting stronger by the day and my mind more focused than ever before. I hope for my opponent's sake he has made the same choices or he's gonna find himself in a bad place come January 30th.
Never asked this before so still feels weird but been having potential sponsors ask me about follower numbers and what not on social media so would be a big help if you'd check out what I do. I'll try to get some training and technique videos going.
Best month yet, went pro mid October. I dont think I "paid to see" a single fishy bet, just let it go. Still having difficulty putting in time due to MUBS (Monsters Under the Bed Syndrome). I get 300BB's deep and just get nervous of some eventual suckout so I bail, resulting in a lot of 2 hour sessions. I did take someone's advice to just sitout and play a smaller stakes game until I can come back in at 2/5 for 100BB's which worked out nicely on a couple of occasions. The only thing I dislike about that is by the time I'm building any history at 2/2 I gotta run back to 2/5. Most of the time I just say fuck it and go home. I think once or twice I kept playing deep and lost a few big pots and kicked myself for not quitting, even though thats stupid and should just recognize the value by staying.
I intend to stay at 2/5 for all of 2016 unless I just smash the games and build my roll out of control. 5/10 doesnt run very often in Florida but the PLO 5/10 game does. I actually took a peek at it tonight since I saw lots of black stacks just to witness some guy ship 4k into the middle with JT63sss on a T58ss flop and win against a lesser flush draw. I mean goddamn, even with my limited knowledge of PLO this seems like a game I should take a shot at. 3k max buyin.
Once my lease is up in Florida depending upon how big my roll is I will be looking to relocate to vegas to line myself up for taking shots at 5/10. The only thing that would ever hold me back is if my hourly is actually better at 2/5 Florida vs 5/10 Vegas. The games really are that insanely soft here, and I like living on the coast.
I'll post some intersting hands sometimes, and will still put in some input in the community, but I need to avoid all the negativity that loves to swarm my page from things that happened 6 years ago that have been fixed (cept like 2 things)
I wish you all the best 2016 and hope many LPers Prosper and have a great year.
GL to everyone haters or friends,
we are all one.
Ryan
Pretty sweet right? Just 15 months ago I started playing cashgame from scratch and now I'm about to go for midstakes! :D
The following is my last month of play. I still have too many leaks and the worst is that I look at HM2 too frequently, sometimes even during sessions. Been putting lots of hard work and it's paying off
I know the big blind winrate is pretty bad and small blind not exceptional aswell. I'm working on blinds a lot and actually 2 weeks ago big blind was at -45 and I definitely want something higher than -30 in the future.
Contact Users: 427 Active, 1 Logged in - Time: 14:26
Oh well, for now the results seem promising and considering his diligence I believe he can make it big. (brag)
