anyone else play? new HH file type so trackers aren't working. apparently they don't give out vpp's anymore, just "bonus points" for only clearing the bonuses, and ive read on 2+2 that certain players are restricted from cashing out at all.
aside from the first part, anyone else experiencing any shit with carbon? should i try to get rakeback if at all possible if this "bonus points" thing is for real? i thought about just using the points to take shots at mtt's but idk...
Spent $64k on MTT buy-ins and buying pieces of people this summer
Sold $28k worth of action in MTTs
Cashed twice for a total of $22,867
Returned $13,428 of total cashes to backers
NET: -$26,561
Pretty shitty results for this WSOP, but one close call in my second to last event (got 21st in the little one drop for 20k) saved me from a really bad summer. I have to say I had a lot of fun playing the series this year despite a lack of results. I think I played 23 events which is probably the most I've ever played. This was completely opposite of my goal of playing LESS events and focusing on cash for the summer. Oh well, I guess I have the MTT itch again, didn't think that would ever come back. I plan on playing more tourneys this year than in years past; some highlights on the schedule are: Borgata WPT $3,500 in September, maybe the $5k 10mill gtd in florida, and hopefully PCA or Aussie millions (I've never been to either).
Haven't blogged in a while, but WSOP kind of kills all other endeavors. Looking forward to normalizing my schedule again now that poker season has ended. I put in 180 hours in June and already 90 hours in July. That will likely return to my average of about 140 hours per month in short order.
Expenses have been quite high as of late, and I expect it to remain that way if I do decide to travel for some poker tournaments and continue to pay down debt. I'm still teetering on the edge of a 10/20NL bankroll thanks to an awful May (-35k) and a breakeven summer (-5k or so net) so I have to be careful in paying off loans. Having a roll for 10/20 is much more important than paying something down that I can't get the cash back for if I downswing (student loans). One big upswing and I can pay everything off in 6 months versus rebuilding at 5/10 and still having minimum payments to worry about. I plan on charting out everything, but I estimate that if everything continues steadily (does it ever?) I'll be rid of student loan debt (~50k) and vehicle debt (~10k) in about 2.5 years and have only a mortgage (~240k) to deal with. Seems insurmountable looking the numbers in the face, but it wasn't long ago that vehicle debt was 20k and student loans were 60k. Progress!
An Indian Nation in California has opened there own site to play on throughout the state, you must be 18 years old and in Cali (maybe a citizen, not sure yet)
You are probably well aware of politicians to outright PR firms who specialize in "disinformation campaigns" to help push a certain agenda. But how often did you think regular Joe Nobody engages in this activity? Some people suspect a lot of "Joe Nobody's" are really plants by the aforementioned groups meant to blend in with the general public, but all too often such suspects have extensive online histories on a given forum that it's hard to imagine they suddenly converted to the dark side.
Today I was arguing with someone about the efficacy of EV cars and started to notice a trend in their posts. What I observed was a certain speech pattern, i.e. they went from speaking in a very casual forum sense to extremely well written grammatically punctuated responses. I got suspicious that someone else was doing the writing and did some string searches for their responses, and came up mostly empty handed. So then I decided to do a more broad keyword search and after clicking through a few links I hit jackpot. I positively identified the source of their statements coming from another author discussing the same topic. The disgusting part was that the user I was dealing with had made obvious efforts to manipulate the wording so his plagiarism would be obscured, but it was all there.
Besides manipulating the sentence structure ever so slightly to avoid detection, they also manipulated the context of everything by sourcing their information from sites that actually conflicted with their own point of view! For instance, this certain poser used an article that was actually supportive of EV's but cherry picked some of the short-comings they mentioned to paint an overall picture of why EV's are so bad. It would be like if I tried to convince you that sunlight is entirely bad for your health because it contains gamma rays. I'm failing to mention the benefits of sunlight and thus leaving you with the impression that it is all bad. I finally caught what was bugging me so much about this user; they were completely full of shit, and so heavily invested in such that they would do anything to misrepresent the facts to fulfill their agenda. They were on their own little personal disinformation campaign volunteering information nobody was even arguing about.
I'm still bugged by this because I cant imagine why someone would do it. It also bugs me because the efforts were so subtle that I'm sure this person poses for a normal every day walking guy in real life, which means he blends in with the public, which means his words can do damage because people will not have an immediate distrust for him. Why should they afterall? What does he have to gain? It's sick, when people volunteer themselves for evil for no purpose whatsoever. I guess he feels he has some kind of vested interest to "do his part" to sway history.
Well, PLO25 continues to roar along. I've played 15k hands this month which is half decent for me. Trying to step it up so that I can play at minimum 60k hands a month whilst working for the government & continuing to push through my Master's degree. Things are starting to come along in my game. Right now I'm just focused on picking apart all the different spots and learning to use my HUD more effectively. For a long time I played without one at all just to get a feel for the game. I feel like at times I'll do this especially when moving up to new stakes so I don't completely bias myself with the information. Maybe that's not necessary but it feels right.
EV doesn't really mean much, but it seems like my game is getting on the right track. Basically breaking even until things start to line up a little more. Still need to fight harder on that redline and figure out the spots where I'm bleeding coin more and more. Day by day the game seems to be coming along as I get more comfortable. I've built up 20k FPP's and it'll be a wonderful day when I reach Supernova and get that first 100K FPP bonus.
Obligatory graph. An almost zero redline over 15k hands is approaching not terrible. Hopefully I can send it above the zero mark in the future.
Work HARD now with the long term in mindby Joeingram1, July 14
I was watching a video yesterday and a person mentioned how most people that start a business only focus on the short term roi and completely neglect long term roi (return on investment). I've never really said it in that way but I talk about this idea in a different way often with my girlfriend. I talk about how if I work really really really hard now, it will pay off huge in the long term. I can say this confidently now because this is the exact approach I took when I started playing poker about 6 years ago. People who are friends with me on facebook or follow me on twitter saw a point in time where I constantly talked about partying or raging non stop. I had spent the previous 4 years playing poker 8-10 hours/day and thinking about poker 24 hours/day with the idea that if I worked hard enough now, eventually I would be in an extremely comfortable place and be able to take a break and live life. I probably went out to really drink less than 10 times in my life before this point of my life. I lived out the stage of my life that most people experience when they are 18-23 but I was able to do it all around the world and do whatever I wanted to do.
I may have taken it a bit overboard but the lesson I indirectly taught myself is something I am able to apply again now to my life. The idea that if you work extremely hard, harder than anyone else around you, right now....you will put yourself in a position to have an extreme level of success. Doing this does require sacrifice and that is something most people do not know how to do. I've had many poker friends over the years who only looked at the short term who are now unable to play anymore, wishing they worked harder when they had the chance. I think its hard for most people to have that outlook who haven't achieved any success with what they are going for. Most people tend to not have the self-confidence and belief that it can be done. I've started applying this to learning basketball, how to dance, and playing instruments in the past months but I probably wouldn't have been able to had I not had the success with poker. The confidence you get from knowing you can do something if you really put in the work is real. I wish I knew how I was able to instill this into others that I talk about it with but all I can advise to people is that if you have the belief in yourself, put in the time and you give yourself a greater chance success will come.
You can apply this to poker and you can also apply this to anything you are doing with life
I think I meant for this to be longer but I don't get motivated to write much like this so I wanted to take the opportunity to put something down while I did
not getting paid FOR HOURS FUCKING WORKEDby Gnarly, July 10
I was working two jobs until one decided to give me full time hours, which meant I had to quit the other one. I only had about two weeks for the one I quit, but they completely erased all the time I worked, meaning they won't be paying me. Nor have I been paid by the current place I'm working at. I already quit a job this year because they threatened to not pay me all of my hours worked. I don't fucking get it.
I just don't fucking know what to do.
edit: i guess i shouldn't say quit because i was trying to put my two weeks in but the manager wanted to try to work out some hours. there hasn't been anything official in terms of termination, but this is fucking ridiculous.
Well, my battle with PLO25 continues. I quickly deconstructed PLO10 and decimated it, but PLO25 has proved a more worthy foe. I'm not the best PLO player out there. I'm not even much better than most average ones. I just treat each session like a math testing lab and try to figure things out. I think my game is finally coming together. It's been 1.5 months, which is longer than I thought it would take me to figure things out at PLO25 but at least I'm finally starting to feel confident and good about my game.
Today's session was well below average. The EV stat doesn't mean much, but obviously it's not overly enjoyable to look at -150, +35 adjusted for EV. I am however learning to disconnect emotionally from those results. I'm starting to remember to post winners/odd spots on that right hand column, instead of just always the amusing beats.
It seems like I'm starting to feel no stress about the process, which is how I felt at PLO10. Part of that is helped by being very well rolled for my shot at PLO25. Part of that is reminding myself none of it really matters. I just need to keep learning and keep trying until I get there. Life is all for fun anyways. BR currently floating at 1350. Just lots of room to breathe. Worst case scenario I bust down to PLO10 at 1k, and earn 250 to take another shot. No big deal.
Obligatory graph for today and the 1.5 months of PLO25 so far. Starting to put more hands in. Just more desire to learn and keep practicing and figuring things out. Really excited to see my redline starting to go where I want. Starting to figure out how to beat this thing.
Podcast With Airport Scammer by Joeingram1, July 07
Hey guys,
Thanks for the feedback I received on my last blog post talking about the 300 buyins in 31 days prop bet . A couple people had some really good ideas that I had previously thought about a bit and started thinking more about after. I do have an approach in my mind I would take but it would probably not be smart to post about it in regards to possibly getting action. I have a few different prop bet ideas I am thinking about trying but the first step is to officially get out of the country, my lease here in the states is up at the end of August and I need to decide in a couple weeks what I will be doing.
I've blogged on here about a couple of my podcasts and this time I wanted to write more about my latest podcast I did with the airport scammer Michael Borovetz. His story intially came to light on a 2p2 post http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/...-mccarran-airport-6-22-14-a-1454252/. The cliffs note version of it all is, he tries to scam someone at the airport for money with a sob story, he has apparently done this in the past many many times and it is posted about on the internet. He comes into the thread and tells his epic life story. Graduation from Penn State, developing a full blown gambling addiction, begging for money in casinos, living on the streets, losing multiple jobs, multiple felonies, scamming at the airport and a bunch of other fun things. At some point the sports website Deadspin http://deadspin.com/poker-addict-and-...mmer-spills-his-life-story-1598124425 linked to his story and the thread on 2p2 and it exploded even further with people giving there opinions on both sides of the spectrum.
I had been following the story a bit and was intrigued/entertained by it all. It seemed like people had a lot of questions and wanted to know more about this guy and I thought it was unlikely anyone else would try to have him on for a podcast/interview. I decided it would be a good idea if I tried to get him on a Poker Life podcast. This is certainly not the usual type of person I would have on any of my podcasts so far but I thought it would be a good opportunity to branch out a bit and try something new. Normally I bring a pretty high energy and joking attitude but I think this situation was better served with me being a bit more mellow and letting him dominate the discussion while trying to maintain a serious tone.
Overall I think it went pretty well and the feedback I received in the thread on 2p2 was positive. Someone mentioned I said "you know" and "obviously" a million times. It tilted me so hard as I was editing every time I said either one but I kept it in. The subject we were speaking about is something I am not super familiar with and I think when I get a bit nervous or am not 100 percent confident in what I am saying I start trying to validate it with "you know". Will try to improve on that in the future.
As for the episode, Part 1 is Mike explaining his life story that was posted in the thread. I think the ridiculousness of the story is one of the reasons the thread took on a life of its own. I was following along with the story in the thread while he retold it and mentioned if this was something he had memorized and used in the past because word for word it was the same. About half way through I decided to start leading the story by saying, "so then you were homeless" "then you went to vegas" etc...
In part 2 I asked him some questions people posted in the thread and we had some pretty good back and forth about what the future holds and how to escape this life he has known for so long. If you only listen to one of these I would suggest part 2.
Hey guys, got a new place, was stayin with my dad for a lil bit, was cool but good to have a grind station set back up
I've been playing staked in the States the last few months, I'm going back up to Vancouver in a couple months to dominate some tournaments, til then I play mostly NLHE and PLO though.
When I went to Ottawa last time I sold my car and moved out of my house, came back to a very bleak situation. Feels good to be making positive progression.
Hello you pokerers who keep pokering things with your pokers.
For those moments where TPB can't fulfill a internet wanderers needs, I am ill equipped. Any help in expanding the boundaries of my movie browsing landscape would be much appreciated.
Oh, as for updates, got the bachelors in psychology this May and am enjoying a "figure your life out" type of summer. Got some fun plans coming together, so maybe I'll write something here about them once they come closer to fruition. Hope all of you fun souls I met at poker tables, or Vegas parties, or Bnet chatrooms, are still living it up
TL;DR - Online poker is going well (got graphs below), did quite a bit of study and got paid off. Live poker is LOL good fun, and always been wanting to play poker for a living if I can ever get that good.
Online Poker
After my stars incident, went back and play on a bitcoin poker site SealsWithClubs (I live in the most northwest state other than Alaska and Hawaii in the US, so online poker is illegal as fuck here. I could play Bovada though, just not sure if I can cash out in this state, don't wanna risk it). It was rough at the first week.
Still bad at this game so I had been posting hands here and a lot of you helped me on various spots. Special thanks to fira, Devon, Lemon and Trav who helped me the most. Went really hard on myself in terms of BRM this time (got ppl pretty mad last time taking random shots at stakes I am not rolled/skilled for) - doing 30 BI for 20NL (0.02btcNL = 12nl). Playing a mix of 10NL and 20NL. I found myself most efficient 3-tabling (without losing focus), i usually do either 2x10NL + 1x20NL or the other way around. Playing about 3 hours every weekday (between 1-2 sessions) and more at the weekends.
Lost 10 BI in 20NL there at the beginning, but losing 20 BI at stars last month helped me prepare for this LOL so I reloaded for 200 more in the middle of the month and kept playing (so I don't play scared poker at 20NL while having enough volume of tables for me).
Read through a couple of thinner books for micros. Finally read through the Ryan Fee book that Devon linked me, and I read the BlackRain97's book as well. (Also read Easy Game but I wouldn't count on that book oops). Started actually folding more / overplaying less / calling less (at least pre, still got problems for calling too much). I play as ABC as possible and it has been going well for me at the bottom half of the month. Won quite a bit in 10NL and breakeven-ish on 20NL.
BR is sitting at healthy 700 right now and planning on moving up to 50NL at 1500 (wanna just to be safe and learn a bit more at the lower stakes this time around). Working very very hard on poker and the game is very fun for me. Not caring about winning but really just focusing on making the best fucking decisions whenever I play. I really hate myself for still spazzing around like a dumbass and I am going to try very hard to get rid of a lot of old habits and just play like a emotionless fucking robot and get those disciplined folds in.
Live Poker
Haven't played live for a long time, and my state is the worst to play at. We got casinos alright, but none of them are allowed to play NL. We play spread limit hold'em which you can only raise to a set amount (say if 3-20 spread, you can raise 20 on top, and re-raise is also max at 20 and there is a betting cap of 3 rounds iirc). Still soft as hell, so my bet sizing is super small (they do 1/3 so I would raise like 7 pre and add maybe 2 per limp). Not sure if I should play a bit more with pot odds since the bigger the pot gets the more odds you get for calling. Got myself into a very fishy habit of calling a lot when I play there.
I met some guys from my company at the card room and they invited me to a home game that they do. It is only 20NL but it is good and fun. People play super loose so I win some there from time to time.
The real NLHE I can play is MTT. There is a turbo MTT going twice a day in the cardroom I go to, but the field is a bit tougher than cash (lots of regs and some regs are pretty good, some kids like me here and there trying to be good and cool, you know how that goes). Binked one there once, with a 5-way chop ($55 buy-in and cashed $370). Don't want to get into that too much yet, but definitely will look into tournaments as I get better.
Today one of my poker buddy IRL is trying to get me to go play live. So I left work at 3pm and played till 10pm. Bought in for 200 for the 1/3-20 spread holdem game and just got played a couple of pots (some guy slowplayed QQ pre and slowplayed more when he flopped set and I got kinda fucked that hand since I wasn't thinking through at the river raise) and lost all of it.
Re-bought for 300 more and won 50 back. Bought in for the MTT for $40 and LOLDONKAMENT MODE ACTIVATE. Played very tight at the beginning, while trying to get my live HUD on. guy sitting on my left and right were not fish (guy on my left played till HU at the end) but everyone else seemed pretty fishy. Until this one hand when most of the people limped/folded to me and I decided to open 700 Ts9s (blinds 100/200 and everyone had 20k chips to start so pretty much lvl 1). My buddy called from the SB, so did rest of the limpers (kid on my left and guy on my right didn't call so coolio). Flop came 9h4h2s, my buddy donk bets for 2k chips. Folded to me and I was like, damn I know him pretty well and he loves his suited connectors. He definitely had 2 hearts. I was like, can't let him have it and didn't think about it too much. Shoved and got snap called by him. He showed QhJh. ugh.. Turn Jd River 2h LOL I was out. Thinking about it a little more I should have just folded (he had 15 outs so he was ahead), and would have probably just flatted/folded to an unknown. Well that goes my $40 for the night. Seems like I am the fish here LOL.
Well after finishing my dinner there, I went back into the cash action. They always had a 3/6 FLO8 table running with a kill (if you win both high pot and low pot you need to post for 6 and bets become 6/12). Going to give LO8 a shot because why not. Bought in for just $200 just for shits and gigs. While I was waiting for a seat, I did some quick readings on how LO8 works and it seems a bit easier than PLO (preflop determined a lot). And there is a new holdem table opened up so I sat down for an orbit and got couple of good hands vs a whole table of fish. Picked up 90-some in about 2 hands and I was up for FLO8, so let's go bitches.
My plan was just to play dumb and asked the dealer and other players like the rules and shit, and people helped me a lot. Then I just played like a nit. Fold pretty much all the shit hands and played only like 4 in a row, (A4)56 and like (AQ)A4. Limped in with hands like 6633 89TJ etc trying to hit something nice. Super patient overall and got paid off. Up about another 140 from FLO8 at the end (didn't get involved in a lot of hands so didn't win very very big). My buddy did pretty well at the MTT and got to FT, but busted around the bubble and didn't cash. Got him playing FLO8 for the 1st time as well (he doesn't play nearly as much poker as me so he is weak LAG at best) and he managed to lose a big chunk of cash. Oops.
Didn't wanna show the graph because I have like less than 10 sessions. But I am up about $260 live. Going to play more live if I can get a big enough roll from online for just live poker (I use my life roll for live so don't really wanna do it often as for now).
Life in General
Watched a lot of PokerStars videos on YouTube and the team online pro playlist catches me the most. Lots of good stories there. Enjoyed Baalim's video a lot. Really want to try to play poker for a living. I am still bad, very bad at this game.
I have a great job, not even going to be humble here (not bragging either tho), my job is fucking great. But I enjoy less and less about it. I love programming and I chose it as my major for college and as my job after college. But suddenly, when you get to program fucking 40-50 hours every week makes you lost in it, especially working at a big firm. For me I think I enjoy programming for myself the best. I wrote a hand history converter in no time so that I can use HEM2 HUD on the bitcoin website I play at (people even ask me to sell it to them bling bling$$$$$). It fucking sucks when you have a boss that gives you a lot of attention when your project is going well but gives 0 fucks to you when he moves onto another bigger project (and at the same time your project run into a little trouble here and there). I feel like software engineers are just fucking tools, expensive tools at these big tech firms. I don't like that. I would love small start-ups a lot better but I wouldn't be able to (I am Chinese coming overseas to work and I need a big enough of a company to sponsor me). I have a prototype game that I need people to draw good graphics for me and it is going to be very very fun to play. I couldn't find a designer and I sucked at drawing. If I finished my game and got some success I would probably quit my job and go for that. Maybe I am just fucking bitching here and I should be grateful about my current financial situations and use it as a resource to learn to play poker.
I have seen a lot of software engineers that are good at poker. Last year WSOP ME there was a Facebook engineer got featured for a lot of episodes for Day 3 and 4. This year there is another software engineer that binked an event (forgot which one though, but one of the 1500 NLHE events). Not sure if Daut is a software engineer but he seems to know lots of programming stuff .
In terms of effort, I am pretty sure I can put in enough effort for poker. I still remembered when I started playing my first RTS - SC2 (yeah I am fish at RTS). Spent 2 years to get from the 30 APM, bottom 5% of NA server, to top 5% of NA server (APM around 180-200 ish because the game is easier than BW LOL). Was still in college when I played the game and I dropped a class one semester trying to get more playing time in (fuck school man was gonna go pro SC2 gg). If I want to get good at something, I put a lot of fucking time into it. Poker is no exception here. I love the game, love the challenge, and I just want to get good at it.
I tried to express this to my mom (she is Chinese) and she was like wtf you are not quitting your job for poker. It is gambling bla bla bla. Even a lot of my good friends and my coworkers in real life don't understand it at all, even if they are tech-savvy, well-educated and I have explained the whole deal to them. Have not even tried to tell my girlfriend about this (she is going to flip as well I'm pretty sure - also Chinese). The more I think about this, it's like, for me, I just want to be my own boss. I feel like I would be happy to be a indie game dev or software dev writing apps for a living, or playing poker for a living. You are pretty independent and you don't have to listen to almost anyone about almost anything (I listen to all of you for advice and shit LOL). You tell yourself what to do and you are responsible for yourself (and your family of course).
The compromise I am trying to give myself now is that, put as much time as I can into poker, learn the shit out of it, get very good at it, and if I get good enough, I will eventually just do it. At the same time, see if I can find a chance to stay in the US while trying to work for a smaller company or something.
Alright enough for July 4 lol. Have a wonderful weekend LP. Need to pick up my gf in 2 hours at the airport (yep I am in a long-distance relationship and she is in Northeast of the State, 6 hour flights). Going to take a short break from poker for the weekend haha.
This year is going quite stellar for me. I started a MTT team and they're doing ok, especially considering a lot of them were total fish at the beggining and are playing mostly micros.
Unfortunately it takes a lot of my time so my volume has been really terrible, a bit less than half of what it was last year. Playing less makes me play a lot better though, so I get to enjoy an amazing winrate at least.
Those made me hit a nice half-mill milestone lifetime counting live poker wins, so that's pretty cool. Never thought I'd come this far when I found this site searching for freeroll passwords years ago. Ty all for being a part of this!
Following the bull market pattern of the past five years, the U.S. stock market continues to climb to new highs while shaking off all reasons for pessimism as well as the warnings of skeptics. Stock market bulls are becoming increasingly brazen as they drive the market to nosebleed heights, which is convincing a greater number of people into believing in the economic recovery. Unfortunately, the public is being fooled because the U.S. stock market and economy is experiencing another classic central bank-driven bubble that will end in a calamity, erasing trillions of dollars of wealth.
Ya? anyone else read this? care to share some opinions on this (please do read the article, at least partially befor shooting it down, lots of interesting graphs and patterns in there)
I have some economics background, though am a bit of a newb when it comes to stock market specifics.
Contact Users: 397 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 22:34
but the lesson I indirectly taught myself is something I am able to apply again now to my life. The idea that if you work extremely hard, harder than anyone else around you, right now....you will put yourself in a position to have an extreme level of success. Doing this does require sacrifice and that is something most people do not know how to do. I've had many poker friends over the years who only looked at the short term who are now unable to play anymore, wishing they worked harder when they had the chance. I think its hard for most people to have that outlook who haven't achieved any success with what they are going for. Most people tend to not have the self-confidence and belief that it can be done. I've started applying this to learning basketball, how to dance, and playing instruments in the past months but I probably wouldn't have been able to had I not had the success with poker. The confidence you get from knowing you can do something if you really put in the work is real. I wish I knew how I was able to instill this into others that I talk about it with but all I can advise to people is that if you have the belief in yourself, put in the time and you give yourself a greater chance success will come. 
. A couple people had some really good ideas that I had previously thought about a bit and started thinking more about after. I do have an approach in my mind I would take but it would probably not be smart to post about it in regards to possibly getting action. I have a few different prop bet ideas I am thinking about trying but the first step is to officially get out of the country, my lease here in the states is up at the end of August and I need to decide in a couple weeks what I will be doing. 
.
