I made a transfer with Loco, my PP for his FTP. Now I would have liked to withdraw the money, but seemingly I can't, cause I am trying to withdraw money for others. OK. I ask them how many times do I have to play through the money for it to be considered mine and they say that I can only use that money for playing on the tables, cause FTP is not a financial institution. WTF? Ok, I understood that from the first mail, but will that amount always be blocked on my account? What if I never lose that amount and build up a 10k BR, will I still not be able to withdraw that 100 bucks? Sometimes I really hate these robotic responses they give, without giving a single thought to what the client actually asked for.
Share your thoughts please. Have you ever experienced such thing? WTF do they do with someone who is constantly selling shares of tourneys and transferring back and forth big amounts of money? Can they not withdraw it?
Seeking advice, Coaching/Stake.by HaiVan, December 22
Hey guys, first blog.
I started playing poker like many of you because i was a casual SC:BW gamer and used to visit TL.net daily. I remember back in 2009 some threads on there about poker and how alot of BW players were pretty good at it. So i started to play on PS with play money around november 2009, after a couple of months playing and reading LP i had gathered close to the then maximum allowed 20 million play chips. So i sold those for about 100$(maybe after a couple of tries because i got scammed for probably half of the play chips), and started to play nl2 on my laptop 12 tabling while in bed using the touch pad (fun times), after some time doing that and moving to nl5 then nl10 i decided to get a desktop for poker because it might be worth it. I remember when PTR was still tracking stars that i was listed somewhere in the top5 biggest winners on Stars at nl10 for 2010 i think. Shorty after that i moved to nl25 and im sad to say that with some short spells of breaking even at nl50 and nl100 thats still where i currently am. Ive been a Supernova since 2010, the current database i have on my desktop is ~1.5 mln hands and im ~2bb/100 winner according to HEM. In reality i probably have more than 4mln hands on stars and should be closer to a 3bb/100 (laptop, previous pc and so on). Ive played on Full Tilt before Black Friday and had a significantly better winrate at 25nl/50nl and 25nl/50nl zoom, i think i had >4bb/100 winrate over ~500k hands. Ive also played at 2-3 other poker rooms on Merge and Boss and was a decent winner there, but always left after 1-2 months due to being addicted to multitabling and the ease with which you could do that at PS.
The reasons for me being stuck on those levels for so long are probably complex, but one of them was that at first i was trying to prove to someone important to me that poker is more than just gambling and you could actually be a regular winner at it. That was done by me keeping a detailed chart of results for each month for about a year. I wanted as little variance as possible so i was content with playng 24 tables at lower limits than my bankroll allowed, in order to have a better chance of winning every single month. So i did that and i was succesful, won every month but didn't really progress much skill wise i think. By that time though this kind of play had become the norm for me, and with Stars raising my table limits from 24 to 28 and then to 32.... well i guess you can figure out what i did. Since i started to play i have had 4 losing months in total first two being one random month in 2011 and 2012 each(-50$ to -100$ kind of loss). Until last two months which combined are a loss of -1400$, which is not that big of a loss considering i play on the $,EUR and GBP tables, and might be due to variance, but it has made me seriously think about my game and what i wanted it to be before i got stuck in the multitabling SN maintaining kind of cycle that im in today. I currently have ~4k vpp's to go if i want to keep my SN for next year, but i am seriously considering not keeping it in order to change my game and not just autopilot 32 tables and not develop my game. I would appreciate any advice about that from people who have been in similar situations, and anyone really.
So i started to think about getting coaching, but i have always felt that just getting coaching from someone doesn't really make the coach look at the player he is coaching as anything but an additional source of income and not much more. So i think a Coaching/Stake situation would be much more productive since the coach would have an incentive to really improve the game of the player he is staking and thus increasing his profit from the deal.
Im looking for that kind of deal here because i've been an active member for a long time and i think this would be a much better option than getting a stake/coaching from 2+2 offers. If there is no interest i might seek one there, but id preffer to deal with LP players. Im open to disscuss different options and variations of the coaching/stake situation. Im very motivated to improve my game and move up, and i know i can put a significant amount of work to do so. If anyone is interested PM me or post here.
Sorry if that got a bit too long , any kind of advice is welcome.
backed my first pledge at kickstart for 799.. only need 12 or so more backers and I save around 400. http://i.imgur.com/xsCYd2l.png
whatever I get needs to be compact and I was initially looking at efold up bikes like the electric brompton & volt metro but going this route not only is cost effective but seems like it could be used in more spots, easier to maintain & lug around and overall more handy & fun
figure some ppl here might find uses for one too and if the pledge doesn't go through I will probably wait a bit to see user usage reviews before getting one
Launching my new projectby Joeingram1, December 22
What's going on guys, I am having an impossible time actually writing anything for the past few weeks so I am making myself write about the project/idea/website thats been in my head for the last bunch of months. After I started writing about drug experiences and shot taking and about my time spent in Vancouver I thought I could figure out a better way to write about all this degen stuff I've spent the last 6 years of my poker career doing.
I was listening to a podcast interview a few days later and realized I never listen to anything poker related on podcasts anymore and for the most part most of the content out there, strategy or of a more entertaining nature is not very interesting. I think this is to be expected as poker in america isn't what it used to be when poker road, poker after dark, hsp, etc was going on and alot of different people were talking poker all the time.
I thought about it a bit more and realized I love love poker and its basically been my life for along time now and the only poker site I really ever go to anymore is twoplustwo which is basically a place you go when you want to talk about nothing of any substance. Through some type magic I then came up with the idea to build a site that poker players would be able to go that could have entertaining interviews, poker (PLOOO) strategy podcast, an in depth view into what its like to be a high stakes poker player who travels the world and randomly decides to go on week long benders (rage). From that point the wheels started going crazy in my head and I started brainstorming on the type of things I could write about, youtube videos I could make, things I could talk about on podcasts, and then I started working on building the website.
When I started using wordpress I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't do some things I wanted to do with basic themes so naturally I decided that I would study html, css, and some php and build my own theme and be able to customize everything exactly how I wanted. I also thought that learning more about programming and getting started down that path could help me eventually get into learning how to build my own programs for poker. At this point I realized how much I was neglecting actually playing poker so I went back to 10 hour days for about a month and kinda forgot about the idea.
Learning all this new language for programming I wouldn't classify as difficult but rather very time consuming. Friends have asked me why I don't just pay someone to do all this and play poker instead but all of this is really interesting to me and something I want to learn. I've never been the best with balancing 2 really big things at the same time and it seems like when I am working on this, I'm not really playing poker at all. Right now all I really need to get the website launched is this little thing known as content. I haven't been able to write anything at all or even get into the zone to write anything and when this whole idea is generated from the things in my head, it is problem.
This is all a pretty basic introduction to it and with that said I will make myself write another blog post explaining the website a bit more
Out of about ten places today, three were online, the rest were paper. One of the places I went into, the second I asked for an application, I was laughed at by the staff and told no. No reason, just no.
The last place I went to, I got berated. I have a jacket on, ya know, cause it's fucking WINTER, and I'm in the wrong for wearing a jacket. I told the lady that I can't afford a tuxedo to ask for a fucking application, and she said that I'm way too under dressed, that if I dressed up properly, I'd get a job, even though she's just a fucking cashier. Mind you, this is a low volume restaurant. When I was walking out, she kept calling me back, and I was wondering what the fuck for... Guess what? She felt such pity for me that she actually gave me money to wash my clothes, even though they were clean.
That was after I went to olive garden and actually had some success there with three of the managers, wearing the same thing.
For the job that I was supposedly supposed to get, I called them again and they want an "extra interview" with me "when they call me" after telling me that I was hired two weeks ago.
Still getting yelled at at home for applying online instead of going into stores like wal mart and home depot, asking for the manager, shaking his hand, and demanding a job right then and there... Cause ya know... that's how people get jobs nowadays.
I tried to play some online poker for a stress relief and there's almost no traffic left. Might just be the holidays, unless there's some new site taking all american players.
Long fucking life update. Wont deleteby Seobombisgay, December 17
So I posted an update a couple weeks back but ended up deleting it thinking LP was completely dead. I just didnt want a bit of my life story lingering on the interwebz. Apparently, a lot of you guys are still around and quite interested in my story. So here I go again.
Like most of you, I was absolutely devastated from BF, foolishly thinking I'm making a sick return leaving all my money on Absolute Poker's 10% interest bearing account. I was making around 4-6k a month grinding literally ALL the turbo sngs(6max,HU,FR)on Absolute, and I was also spending like I had an income of 4-6k. Then boom, 20k evaporated and I'm down to $800 in my bank account. Being hopeful like everyone else, I thought I'd get at least 50% within a couple months. I mean a huge company like FT or AP cant just run away with that kind of money and get away with it right? Wrong...
So, with that $800, I went straight to the Borgata and decided to play a circuit event and a Borgata event, which was pretty much my entire roll. I bust half of that on the circuit. Then I find myself MTT4ROLLZ in a Borgata event. I ended up getting 8th for $8.4k. Damn this is ez money I thought.
Couple days later, I decided to try out Parx's new tourney series and tried my luck at a $330 tourney which brought in almost 600 people. Boom I get 2nd for $20k. Now, this win has caused more harm than good in the long run. At this point, I'm delusional to the point where I will take on Ivey in a heads up match. I felt like a poker god and I decided im going to become a MTT grinder. I mean, ez fucking money right? Back to back final table, what a joke.
Oh how fucking wrong I was. Live MTT is probably the most brutal form of poker known to existence, and only the real live MTT grinders understand what I mean. Honestly, I still don't know what it means to be a true grinder because I only grinded for about 2 years but I have no intention to find out what it's really like grinding tourneys for the rest of your life. The swings are just comical and you truly find out if you're a winning player, maybe after 1k tourneys? Which probably would take a life time for me.
Well, rather than bitching for the next hour about the swings of live tourneys, lets just say I had the most BRUTAL swings testing my luck in events like WPT and other big series, and shit did not go my way. I was completely broke and owed a ton of money to my cousin, who also grinded poker with me but has wisely given up as well. I was depressed, and smoking weed to the point where my brain was incapacitated. It was my escape from the truth. And it also passed time. I would beg my parents for a $100 a week, which went straight to weed. And I even stole food from various super market so I can use that money for weed. I'm completely fucking ashamed of doing this but those were desperate times.
While all this was going on, I decided to look for jobs. Anything. Tutoring, banking, insurance, so I can grind 1/2 at least. But no one wanted me. I was either severely overqualified or underqualfied. I graduated from a top school in USA, Carnegie Mellon, with a BS in Economics and Statistics, but none of the big companies wanted me with no experience. Nor did restaurants or entry level jobs as I was too qualified. Things couldn't have been worse.
After almost 100 applications, 20 phone interviews, 3 final interviews, I finally landed a job. Probably the best job I can ask for. A successful UK company that specializes in online gambling who also has big plans for launching online poker in the US, starting with NJ, and they thought I was a great fit considering the fact that I was a poker "pro" with a mathematical background. I trained in London, had the best days of my life there, and now working in NJ. The newfound security of knowing that there is almost no way of going broke next week, and being rewarded for doing a good job for once, was eye awakening. Being trapped in the poker world has been preventing what I could truly be doing with my life, and I am now so fucking thankful my company has pulled me out of the hell I've been stuck in for so long.
Now, why the fuck am I making poker look awful and bragging about my new job? Well, it's because I want to help some of you guys who have no idea wtf theyre doing with their life. Maybe you are destined for greatness, but like me, maybe you're not. And you g2 know when to throw in the towel when poker has defeated you. Poker should be a means of enjoyment, not your life revolving around it. When coinflips are constantly changing your life, you're probably living life wrong. So, if poker has been making you depressed, you should highly consider trying other options. Start small. Maybe start a hobby. Not you having to depend on a game with endless variance. You may not land the dream job of yours or launch a super successful business, but you might be heading towards the right step. Where as in poker, in MOST cases, is the wrong way to go, IMO.
With my life being pretty stable at this point, I've been casually playing poker and never had so much fun playing poker. Ever. Knowing that losing this buy in will have little to no effect on me felt good. And that's how you g2 approach poker. Online poker is also back in NJ so maybe i'll start posting graphs again like the good old days. I did grind a session of 1/2 and made a buyin.
Props to the people who are still in the grind. Some of you guys like whoosel and players999 were my fucking idols when I was an aspiring poker player. You guys have allowed me to become successful enough to understand how hard being a poker player is. And I just dont have it in me like you pros. I truly envy you winners.
Well, if you like these life posts, I'll throw in a couple updates here and there as I'm finally out of my depression shell =D
It's been such a long time since I've played. Never really did very well but I made "enough" for it to be fun and I really miss the critical thinking it gave me.
I'm going back to school in the spring and I've learned a lot about life (through bad experiences) in the time between now and my last "real" blog (Jan 19 2011) so I'm feeling good, finally moving forward in a way, but between poker being banned and not being able to purchase Djarum cigarettes I am apathetic about society here in the United States. Such small things to fret over but in the same sense such ridiculous things to ban. Why did it have to be 2 things I enjoyed in my life? Now they're gone.
Not mad about it... just apathetic.
Life goes on. I'll be where I want to be when the time comes and I put in the effort... and I can always import kreteks... so it's not so bad. Just weird. Still lurking LP and I always wish everyone here happiness and success for the fun times I've had here. Just wanted to say hi.
Oh... and Brood War. God I miss the it, for better or for worse. Zero and Woongjin gone, Free, Violet, Bluestorm, carriers... PL, OSL & MSL... I hate reading TL now, despite still loving the good times I spent (wasted?) there. Love hate love hate.
To the future, may I find new passions to enjoy and love in life while doing the necessary work to succeed.
Hungary and spinal surgeryby DustySwedeDude, December 14
So a while ago I went to Budapest with my gf, her dad and his new wife. It was kind of fun and that city is something like 90% London and 10% Mogadishu. It was weird but fun.
When we got home my gf had her spinal surgery at a place called Stockholm Spine Center. Due to the fuck ups the hospital in our hometown had made earlier they had sent us there, more or less free of charge. I think it was mostly their way of saying sorry and possibly also a fairly decent way to avoid some legal trouble. Whatever, at least they sent us to the best specialists in Sweden when it comes to backs.
First things first, so far so good and everything looks like the surgery was a success, even though it'll take a few months before we know how big of a success it was. They did both a spinal fusion and a what I think is called a "Lumbar Decompressive Laminectomy" due to Spinal stenosis and Degenerative disc disease. Not sure if I've gotten the translations right but basically her back was messed up in all kinds of ways it shouldn't be at her age, but for some dumb genetic reason she managed to get both.
They told us there where no point in visiting the first two days (the surgery day + day after) due to the fact that my girl would be sleeping most of the time so I got my ass on a train and arrived at the hospital early last Saturday. Before that I kept calling the hospital and asking how she was doing and she was even awake enough to talk to me a time or two.
I remember that I called just when she was out of surgery and a nurse assured me that everything had gone well, I was really confused by this because it sounded like she was telling me the truth but I was so used to things getting fucked up that I did not believe it before I talked to my girl later that evening. Spine Center has been by far the best hospital I've been in as far as information, good care etc goes. The doctors even called her on his day off and asked how she was doing. As far as quality of care etc goes everyone I've talked to and all data I have been able to get my hands on (and remember, I have a law degree, I'm fairly good at finding stuff) says they're the best or close to the best in Sweden in more or less all areas.
I wanted, and still want, to spend the maximum amount of time with her. Their visiting hours was 14-19 although since it was a weekend I figured I could probably get away with getting there a bit earlier and leaving a bit later. I'm very well mannered and likeable when I try so I figured that would help too. I started out calling up a flower store a day or two before I would get there and told them I wanted flowers for my girlfriend in the hospital. Next thing I said that I wanted a bunch red roses and whatever looked nice with that and that I'd just give them my cc-number and let the charge about 300 USD and do whatever they'd think would look nice and send it to my girl the day after surgery. With any luck that's the first and last time I spend more then 50 bux on flowers. Apparently one of the nurses commented on it that she'd been married for 18 years and that her better half never sent her flowers like that.
The next few days I spent as much time as I was allowed with my girlfriend and the rest at some hotel next to it. Had one very long and interesting conversation with a guy from Lebanon that worked nights at the hotel reception. Also got to hang out with a friend of mine I had not seen in 15 years who lived there. My gf sill can't walk much more then 100-200m and she's on pain medication for a week or two more, but within a month or two she'll be fit enough to work and within a year she'll be better then new.
We probably spent close to 10k on various treatments for her back, including physiotherapy, Naprapathy and all kinds of stuff like that and nothing has worked more then a little while and no one figured out wtf was wrong with her.
Anyway, gonna finish up my last milestone for the year now and then go for SNE next year. That feels nice.
aquaculture - its the future brehsby whamm!, December 13
Anyone into it? 50% of the worlds fish are already from farms. Fact. Been to malaysia 2 months ago for some training and i might go to vietnam this summer also. Its good to be this obssessed about learning something which i can make money out of in the long term without worry of trends making it dated etc. Its food and basically healthier than factory meat and poultry. Fish farms can be organic and factory based at the same time unlike food inc bullshit.
I mean not really b/c it tastes fucking great and goes amazing with food if paired well but like when niggas start talking about all this bullshit and where the grapes come from come the fuck on.
All that matters is love, relationships, some sense of purpose, some excitement, some transcendence some inspirations.
Like if you gotta place to live with a patio or a porch or somethin, then like some good food to eat whether that is finding the spots or just cookin' up some shit in the kitchen then like we are all naked and it's against the rules to be naked so we gotta' wear something might as well be so fresh and so clean clean.
I mean if you gotta place to sleep, some food to eat, and some clothes that are comfortable and clean and takin' care of business then you just gotta hang with some cool people and contribute to something and do some new, exciting shit every now and then. The Recipe.
Experiment. Mad Scientist. Learn. Experience. Do stuff. Knowledge. Relationship. People. Human Beings. The World. Environments within that World. Yourself. ohmmmm...
Anyways these past 30 days or so have been pretty rough - between two thanksgivings (divorced parents) and three birthdays (including my own) I've managed to lose a total of 1 lb as of this morning - so I'm sitting at 224. I'm not happy but not terribly disappointed in myself, if anything it has given me more motivation to really buckle down and get by this 220 plateau
Despite that some positives are new PR's for the three compounds of bench, squat, and deadlift
Last Months 1 Rep Max
Bench - 185 x 1 (started out barely doing 95 x 3 in August)
Squat - 275 x 1
Deadlift - 335 x 1
Current 1 Rep Max
Bench - 225 x 1
Squat - 300 x 1
Deadlift - 385 x 1
Very surprised at this months strength gains, but I've been working a lot more on form. I think I will take a break from pushing more weight any further until I really am positive that my form is as solid as possible to reduce risk of any injuries or creating any bad habits.
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, any kind of advice is welcome.
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