Finally it is fucking time to get this over with, need 35k more VPP so about to start up epic last grind session here, will be live streaming it and can talk to whoever to help pass the time!!
Everything packed, leaving for sweden alittle bit earlier then we planned, tomorrow, we payed for the apparment in phuket for january but me and my fellow (poker) travelingpartner got alot of homesickness + we got some very tragic news on chirstmas eve as we got back home to our room on ko lanta (paradise/weed island outside of phuket) and since then we just didnt feel the same about the trip.
About 5 swedish pokerplayers had tryed to contact us on xmas eve, and i called one of them up and e got the terrible news of that one of our traveling friends (swedish, maybe u heard about it on the news / on 2+2) whom we lived with for 3 weeks in bali was found dead on his hotelroom from a fire in the room.
We couldnt believe it, everything just stood still for a while and all i could think of was that we were jokeing on christmasmorning as we read the news in swedish newspaper "young man found dead on bali" and we were kinda laughing and saying "haha its probably "J" that sicko" or something along those lines....
Very intellectual, atletic, kind guy. Very successfull in everything basically, inclueding poker, achieved way more then myself pokerwise, and only at the age of 20. Pure talent
We were 4 ppl starting out together in bali, but the internet was so bad and me and my "main" traveling buddy felt the need to move to thailand (read older blog) to get better internet for grinding, while the other 2 were gonna stay for another 3-4 weeks or so and then join us for new years in koh pangang for the famous full moon party.
The 3rd person in the "group" joined up with us on dec 16 and stayed in our appartment for a couple of nights as he already had booked his flight to phuket, while "J" where staying on his own in bali for another week or so before joining up in thailand, and then this happends. On christmas.
So no fullmoonparty for any of us this year. The 3rd person who were very close with "J" insta booked his flight home, and we now feel kinda the same way. We were still planning on staying for another month, but the sadnews just made the homesickness to strong, we just wanna get back home. And i miss my friends and family so fkin much atm.
Sorry to bring this news to you all during these "happy" times of the year with new years comeing up and everything. But i wanted to write something about him.
All thoughts and love goes out to his closer friends and family.
Im not a believer, but if there is a heaven he sure deserves to go there.
to write something pokerrelated, the stake has been going well so far, havent been playing much the last week, obv, but overall its been a good month on the stake on stars, for the ones following me on PTR, its pretty off, so here is graph of the progress so far during these 90 hours of play this month, mostly been playing 2/4 and 3/6
1: AVGN: Im sure most people have seen the Angry Video Game Nerd at some point in time, but if you havent and grew up with console gaming then you will like his stuff. His collection and knowledge of the old consoles is insane.
This is one of my favorites, because i remember seeing a lot of the stuff advertised. Its really a great insight into console gaming history, and how crazy the industry was when we were growing up.
2: So after mental christmas work schedule, i bought a bass guitar:
similar to that, in a pack with a little amp. So far im really enjoying it. Ive been using youtube and web material to learn some scales and riffs. I started trying to learn with fingers, but i think im going to continue playing with a pick.
3: Bought a phone with Android 2.3 - my last phone was a few years old and a bit beat. There was a special on at work so it was about 1/4 off. So i decided to get my first android phone. Any recomendations are welcome, I seemed to have a few problems with getting movies to play on the micro SD, but i downloaded MX Video Player, which seems to be doing the job, apart from playing The Simpsons.
Its primary purpose will be distracting me from work.
6 more days to go!!! Here is last session of the day today that i just finished up, tried to play pretty conservitaeatete firs thalf of it and then went nuts last half of it trying new things, did a little video blog midway through session, someone in my 2p2 SNE prop bet thread was asking why i havent posted any graphs where I am running over EV lately and made a big deal about it so thats what I am talkinga bout in video, ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 75ISH MORE HOURS TO GO!!
thanksss for the glll wishes in my comments when i update the blog for this challenge guys, def helps me get up that extra motivation when I read them all
Longest session of the month officially over, wanted to get to 800k VPP by the end of tonights session so would leave me with 10 days/200k VPP and I was successful. Played 29k hands with a 2 hour break in between so not actually sure if it all counts as one session but at least 20k of them were in one. Went through random spurts where I played terrible ie 3betting junk OOP and 3betting junk on BTN and getting it in with any piece, those times account for the random 5k dips and then i got refocused and those resulting 5k ups are from that. Finished it off with some deep table madness and a miracle of a hand to secure the win and up for the day. It is pretty sick that I made 150k fpps in one fucking session lol, thats like 2.5k/2.7k from that alone. Feel pretty great right now and don't think I'll have much of a problem getting there. I could have played a few more hours if i needed to so I know I have a potential 50k vpp session in me if I need to. Going to try to get some sleep now and wake up to do it all again tomorrow
O YEA and i banned my chat for a week because i tilt sooo hard when i start swearing at the god mode regs, i did it after the first session I lost 7k, probably should have done it alot sooner
Thought I was updating my blog then looked and realized it hasnt been since day 3/4. Im awlays updating my SNE prop bet thread on 2p2 pretty daily so if you want to follow more along with this then can do it there
brain feels dead, cant think, cant move, body sore, tired as fuck. Month started up up up then breakeven then up up and now down down down. Still up about 15k at tables for the month but can't think right now. I was sick for a good 4 day stretch and dont think i played much at all, was hanging out with a new person of interest here in vancouver as well during that time so combine those 2 and not a good recipe for the grind. Luckily I am all better now, the person of interest went back to states and now it is me back grinding 12 hour/20k vpp days for the rest of the month. 12 MORE DAYS, 12 MORE DAYS 12 MORE DAYS keep saying that its only 12 MORE DAYS lol w/e gridning is fun
there are some 2/4 regs i fucking hate and if i had the chance to beat them up or get beat up by them i might take it, for example, raymond wu (fuck u) podox (fuck u fuck u fuck u) , alex3344 (go fuck yourself in your moms basement), cantbeat (cheating piece of shit)
thats my rant
graph for this day, FOUGHT HARDDDDDDDDDDD to get back up
So, first thing: Ive been looking to buy a car, because i need something to get me from work to home. Unfortunately around this time of year Jesus decided to be born, so im stuck with some stupid forced holiday which is more expensive than if i were to take an actual holiday at any other time of the year I choose.
Anyway, So I was sort of needing a car since about last week. So i started hunting. If you want to see discussion on Veyrons, GT-Rs and Lambos, look away now.
I started off looking at Subaru Legacys. I had one before and it was rad. Unfortunately, when i moved to Thailand and my dad was in possession of it some kids (Maoris) stole it.
So i lined up a few viewings of 2 Legacys, 1 Impreza hatch-back and 1 Mitsubishi Legnum.
The Impreza was nice, but had a 1500cc engine and the actual car was tiny, and i like the room of a station wagon so i can move my shit or sleep in it. (Which is a topic i want to cover in another blog post, but seriously think about: with todays internet/communication technology and skyrocketing rent living in a vehicle makes a lot of sense)
The 2 Legacys were pretty shit. They were both the same year as my old one, but felt much worse to drive. One was fairly beaten up used by some foreign students to travel around. The girl was smoking hot but the car was beat, and the other one felt pretty crap and the guy was too honest about its condition, which was poor.
The Legnum however, was amazing. It was quiet, comfortable, had a sweet stereo, it was massive inside and it looked pretty sweet. It was the most expensive of the 3, with a nearest offer price of $4500.
So i got a vehicle inspection done on it and it was bad news. According to the report it had major oil leaks around the engine. There is a twist to the tale though. The kid who owns it said that the oil was a result of him spilling it whilst servicing it himself just prior to the inspection.
I got a quote on the potential cost to fix the likely causes of the leaks (rocker covers and filter) in the report at $500.
Given that i have spent alot of time in the last few weeks watching Pawn Stars, I put on my best Rick Harrison impression and set about hammering this guy down to a pawn shop price.
"Look man, its a nice car, but not great... Im gonna have to put probably $500 into this thing to get it working"
"Lemme call up a buddy of mine whos an expert in spilt oil"
Anyway, today this guy holds firm at $4000, He agreed to take it to the mechanic on Monday and get it signed off that there are no oil leaks. I offered him $3300 cash with all potential risk of oil leaks, but he still said no.
He never replied to my last text, but after this weekend my urgent need for a vehicle decreases and i have much more time to shop around. I will see if he actually bothers to text me on Monday or if he just throws in the towel.
So maybe im not as good a negotiator as i thought. Its a shame because I really liked the car. I will probably shop around for another Legnum in the time being.
OTHER SHIT
1: Super Meat Boy: I know im a little late to the party with this game, as i often am now since i dont buy shit until it turns up on Steam in their sale for cheap. This was the best $7.50 i have spent in a long time.
It is platform-genre perfection. Perfect learning curve with enough to keep you going. I struggled through the main story mode then I felt such elation when i beat the final boss - BUT WHAT, omg there is a dark world, holy shit.
I have 99% on Light World with 1 level left on Cotton Alley, all levels have A-rating and Ive completed forest, hospital, salt factory and hell Dark worlds.
Just amazing.
2: Music: So, ive been feeling recently like I would like to spend my free time learning an instrument. Ive always liked Guitar. I had one before but virtually never played it. The bass guitar intrigues me, because Lemmy and Steve Harris are so fucking cool, although the sound of a bass on its own is pretty crap. Might get the cheapest acoustic guitar available for fucking around on.
3: American Restoration: This show is awesome, granted that all they do is break something down, sand blast it, paint it and put it back together. The show is cool.
edit:
Probot was a side project by Dave Grohl, involving loads of rock musicians. Shake Your Blood bass was written/performed by Lemmy, and its fuckin sweet.
I wrote the lyrics in about ten minutes. . . It's rock & roll, you know. It's not one of those complicated things.
also:
Headcat was a rock n roll collaboration with Lemmy and they do loads of covers of old rock n roll like Chuck Berry
It really bothers me that there are lots of huge scams going on in the areas of coaching players. I dont think there is a lot of good/affordable coaching out there. I also want to give myself a way to make more money when I am not in canada and cant play online.
PLO coaching: $125 an hour
full ring NL: $100 an hour
MTT: $75/hr
After Feb 1, 2012 (refer to post #20 in this thread):
PLO coaching: $175 an hour
full ring NL: $150 an hour
MTT: $125 an hour
get 4 hours of coaching, 5th hour is free
I would consider trying a different method (ie % of profits) for a reputable lower stakes PLO/NL player who cant afford it. I would try to work something out with someone who wanted coaching but doesnt have a lot of money.
i only offer coaching in these 3 things as they are the only I have been beating the past few years for good winrates. I dont have every hand I've ever played, but these are about 95% of my online cash game hands since october 2009. of this 26 month period, I took lots of time off due to travel, breaks, and the DOJ. my total hours played is listed as 891, which makes my hourly $105.76, which is how i chose my coaching rates.
Prior to these hands, from 2005-october 2009, I made about 200k in NL cash on pokerstars, 75k in NL cash on full tilt, 100k in PLO cash, and made about 30k total on ub/cake/merge total. in total ive made roughly 500k from online cash games + maybe 150k worth of rakeback/fpps.
In live tournaments, I am up approximately 1.3-1.4million dollars with 3 major final tables in WPT events. In online tournaments I am up about 315k total. +387k on stars, up about 15k on ub/other sites and down about 85k on ftp.
However I am not a tournament regular. I only play a few hundred a year and stay up to date on how the game is played, but since it is not my main game I dont feel comfortable charging the same price as I do for PLO or NL.
I would do anything from hand history reviews to going through sessions to watching a current session to theory. For theory I would probably either require more hours or a higher rate due to a lot of preparation required. But I would be fair in how that rate was decided. Whatever the student wants, as long as I know ahead of time.
I am not available at all times as I do spend a lot of time traveling. But in any given month there is at least a 2 week period where I would be available.
I have done a little bit of formal coaching, but not much. However, I have made 15+ videos for cardrunners.com and have experience explaining my thoughts in all 3 games.
either post here or send me a pm if you are interested.
It really bothers me that there are lots of huge scams going on in the areas of coaching players. I dont think there is a lot of good/affordable coaching out there. I also want to give myself a way to make more money when I am not in canada and cant play online.
PLO coaching: $125 an hour
full ring NL: $100 an hour
MTT: $75/hr
After Feb 1, 2012 (refer to post #20 in this thread):
PLO coaching: $175 an hour
full ring NL: $150 an hour
MTT: $125 an hour
get 4 hours of coaching, 5th hour is free
I would consider trying a different method (ie % of profits) for a reputable lower stakes PLO/NL player who cant afford it. I would try to work something out with someone who wanted coaching but doesnt have a lot of money.
i only offer coaching in these 3 things as they are the only I have been beating the past few years for good winrates. I dont have every hand I've ever played, but these are about 95% of my online cash game hands since october 2009. of this 26 month period, I took lots of time off due to travel, breaks, and the DOJ. my total hours played is listed as 891, which makes my hourly $105.76, which is how i chose my coaching rates.
Prior to these hands, from 2005-october 2009, I made about 200k in NL cash on pokerstars, 75k in NL cash on full tilt, 100k in PLO cash, and made about 30k total on ub/cake/merge total. in total ive made roughly 500k from online cash games + maybe 150k worth of rakeback/fpps.
In live tournaments, I am up approximately 1.3-1.4million dollars with 3 major final tables in WPT events. In online tournaments I am up about 315k total. +387k on stars, up about 15k on ub/other sites and down about 85k on ftp.
However I am not a tournament regular. I only play a few hundred a year and stay up to date on how the game is played, but since it is not my main game I dont feel comfortable charging the same price as I do for PLO or NL.
I would do anything from hand history reviews to going through sessions to watching a current session to theory. For theory I would probably either require more hours or a higher rate due to a lot of preparation required. But I would be fair in how that rate was decided. Whatever the student wants, as long as I know ahead of time.
I am not available at all times as I do spend a lot of time traveling. But in any given month there is at least a 2 week period where I would be available.
I have done a little bit of formal coaching, but not much. However, I have made 15+ videos for cardrunners.com and have experience explaining my thoughts in all 3 games.
either post here or send me a pm if you are interested.
Ok, so i got featured blog thingy here on LP, and have been thinking of writing something up for some time now on how things are in asia etc, lifewise/pokerwise.
ill start off with the bad news, im kinda busto, it all happened really fast frmo me haveing alot of bad shots/bad months before i went on the trip, and then in bali me and my travelingfriend (good player atleast same caliber as myself) decided to share profits and just mass volume, just to keep both from us from playing the same tables + taking more fish/less variance etc
but it was doomed, he went on the biggest downswing ever, and after losing a ton of money we kinda decided to just stop the company because it made both of us feel very stressed since my roll wasnt as big anymore + him loseing so much he felt like crap and played worse by it aswell, so i had to ship him like 50%+ of my roll
and after that i just kinda didnt have the diciplin to move down stakes/been running bad at the good higher games vs big fish + spending a ton of money on the trip/hotels/roomservice etc etc ballin etc
so what are my options? well, first off i paniced and deposited like my "last" 8k$ i could spare on ongame to 14 table 1/2$ and did that for a couple of days, and it went fine, i played well and were running at 7bb/100 over 15k hands
then daut contacted me and we talked it all over and i got a nutstake from him basically on stars, wich is supergood for me atm since im in thailand, and the EU sites dosnt run many games daytime anyways, on stars i can play 24/7 and now being on stake i can continue liveing my life as normal for the rest of the trip without any risks
so ull see me in the starsgames for quite some time probably
ive been fortunate enough to catch a decent heater in the beginning since regs arent used to playing smoe1 playing as loose and wierd as me they are just spazzing off money to me basically
results so far since stake:
been playing 2/4-5/10 and trying to get deep tables going, with bad results, no one wants to play, but i got action by a bad reg (Faiv) today HU on 3/6 deep and ended up taking 4.5k from him on 1 table so that was sweet
hopefully can get more deep games going in the future, but my 100bb game feels pretty good atm aswell
anyways, even if this stake wouldnt work out, i would instaget good stakedeals/burrows from friends as soon as i get home to grind my bread and butter swedishsitegames, but for now, me and my traveling partner both share that site + that im alittle busto now getting this stake on stars by daut is supersupergood, im very happy for it <3 much love man
over to the traveling, we started off spending 2 weeks in Bali but the internet was supercrappy there so we went to phuket in thailand instead and have been here for about 3 weeks now, the first week or so we stayed at 5star serenity hotel, (following the advice roman on LP gave me in my prev blogpost and as he said the internet there was good)
but we left it due to its high expences with roomservice etcetc and have now found a supernice appartment a bit outside patong.
its 1/3 as cheap, and double the space and very fresh, and we got a gym/pool etc close to everything so its a nutplace really happy we got it.
we moved in here december first and will be staying here until february 1st, wich is when i probably will be going hmoe to sweden again (i miss all my friends )
anyways, TLDR to the pics shall we!
(the first grindstation (only place where internet worked alittle bit ~0.3mbit/sec at our first hotel)
(me gayposeing at kutabeach at sunset, still Bali)
(switching hotel to a nicer one, called the Radiant, some decent priced 4 star that promised high speed internet, they did not have but could grind at some hours, but very unstable, but got in decent volume)
(radiant were very nice tho, and felt like we were the only ones liveing there, had some pretty sweet shroom trips on that hotel very beautiful and relaxing place)
(most random thing ever hanging outside of the restaurant at radiant, rofl thread material almost, epic)
(i also bought a guitar wich was a great idea, havent played much at all the last years (played since i was 7 and probably where better when i was 11 then i am now, but its nice to have something else to grind then the pokers, learned how to play hotelcalifornia and stairway to heaven so far, close to the original versions, but had to do some deviations from it to be able to multitask enough to get the lyrics right aswell, especially on hotel california, but feels good to started up the musica again!)
(visited a sick temple in the jungle/mountains of bali wich was pretty intresting, my traveling partner on pic)
(we also drove by some village up in the jungle and looked at a volcano, (behind me, yes me on pic))
(on our way to thailand, sign got my attention, "fisk" means fish in swedish lol)
(insta started the grind for about 12 hours in a row as soon as we got to the hotel in phuket lol, finally good stable internet again)
(me giveing the moment an thumbs up sign of approval)
(went out on a "date" with one of the waitresses, very cute and smart girl, decent english and not some random hooker so thats nice, have met her a couple of times since, shes nice but probably in love with me wich sux balls to kinda have to break her heart as i go home)
(view from the hotel, pretty nice, and the tidewater goes all the way up at night)
(enterence to our appartmentbuilding the hindu god ganesha, "for good luck and fortune, protector of bad luck" wich was a great sign pokerwise i guess)
a couple of appartmentpics to come:
(have to share bed with my partener in crime for a month more, get a 2 bed roomer in january lol, gonna be so nice to finally not have some dudes ass in ur face when u wake up)
a couple of days ago we did a trip to ko lanta (outside of phi phi island, google for more sickness) to just relax and get away frmo the grind for a while and smoke some weed etc
as for the trip overall, we havent done much drugs/partying overall, we wanted this to be a healthy grindtrip, and its been awesome so far, have been working out 5 times/week following a great workoutprogram for 3 weeks now and it feels great, have been gaining about 20kg since i started playing poker, so it feels great getting back in shape again
have lost about 7kg so far, asia is the nuts for loseing weight, and have been already after 3 weeks been getting alot of great results from the training so everything feels wonderful
will schock ppl as i get hmoe in 6 weeks all negro and ripped
everything is gold except for the unfortunate bust, but thats kinda how i roll, i lost a big part on ongame taking a 25/50 and 50/100$ shot, and after that just kinda had bad timeings and some stupidity i guess.
but im superglad the stake have been starting off well, will be back in no time for sure!
hope everything is well and that it was a (y) read for the guys who read it all, ty for reading see ya soon and keep checking in on my hands in the handsection for some entertaining standard swedishness
Looks like it happened again sooner then later. Wasn't expecting to have another session like the first day of the month but man seems like I could lose when I got it in today, although a majority of the time i was getting it in 60%+ after doing some hand review after but was playing my A A+ game most of the day. Day 3 was pretty meh for most of it, went on tilt a few times and ended up dumping a bunch toward the end of the day when I was super tired and not at all the the mood to keep grinding. Need to insta quit and take a walk when that happens because I CAN NOT be randomly launching off 3k chunks of money from time to time.
Obv ran like Tim Tebow in the 4th quarter. I had to mix 2/4 and 1/2 which I don't like to do because I play so much tighter at 1/2 and really don't focus to much on those tables/hands, just try to b/e. At 2/4 I'm battling with everyone for every hand. I've gotten super comfortable in my game lately and have been playing pretty much everyone (with the exception of a few of the goddest of god moders) to get tables started but most regs prefer 6 regs to HU for a bit then 1-4 fish joining. Only a tiny few of the regs will give me HU action now to start and usually it ends up being high stakes guys grinding some 2/4 or like 6ptbb guys. I really have no idea why they won't play to get games going, esp when im 24 tabling where there edge on me will be big . As a result when I wake up late in the day my time I have to mix in 1/2 and 2/4. I play like a massive asshat at the deep tables for an unknown reason so have not been grinding those in my daily mix. Sometimes those games have 1 huge fish but the other 5 players are like either random recreational guys who only play deep tables and like 50/38 with 15 percent 3bet or super winning regs who only play deep tables as well and have so much more deep experience then I do that I'm going to get my shit owned there so often. Even buying in for 100bb I don't feel comfortably at all in those games quite yet.
Day 3 I didn't quite make the 14.5k vpps but planning to make that up here in a bit for a few more hours of grinding for the night
i sent my stats to a student so i figured what evs can post them here
i dont have large samples on the sites u play on, and this is 5max and 200bb deep atleast against 50% of the regs there buy in deep, but might be interested for some atleast
after talking to the student and from playing on stars the last days is what i noticed is that (probably) the most of you need to be opening way more buttons
from playing on stars a couple of days i saw guys on 2/4 opening more in SB 6handed then on the BU and were still big winners, i mean wtf?
open SB's against weak players but as aejones said one time was that against a very though reg BvB he is on the border if he even wanna open ATo, and that says alot about alot of you robots opening 45% in the SB no matter what
dont open 50% in the SB against every1, and dont raise 40% of BU's lol, go atleast over 50% from the BU and maybe 25% SB against though regs and against some nitregs u can go 80% probably (same goes for nitregs in blinds open 100% BU)
anyways, here are my stats, the first stats from reports are from the last 4 months as ive done some adjustments with my 4betting/folding to 3bets and raise first in ranges, the hudpop up are frmo all SH hands this year (filtered to more then 2 players, aka 3player+)
and remember its also 5max so the games plays alittle more aggro
In my poker collection there used to be over a hundred books, now I have nine, deleted the ones I felt weren't worth having. Three of these books are written by the same author. And now I have the privilege & honor of writing my very first book review of this man's next book, "How I Made My First Million From Poker".
The book greets you with a short foreword by Barry Greenstein (for those of you who don't know who that is, that's the guy who kissed Shannon Elizabeth, as shown here in this clip). + Show Spoiler +
Anyway, after a picture where Nguyen displays his smashing set of hair, we move on to business. When I first got the book, I couldn't stop reading. I chose to read through it first, then re-read it afterwards, where I proceeded to write over 30 pages with extensive notes.
The book consist of 20 chapter, all of them seem to be about stuff you "need to know/should know" when it comes to poker. It's fairly easy to read and feels a little bit like a mixture of Ace on the River & The Poker Blueprint all mashed into one. A little story like, but with poker content that helps you delve deeper and think more clearly about the game.
My favorite chapters were the ones about making your own Poker Journal, tracking sessions using excel, how balancing ranges helps me hand read better and what he likes to call "My Secrets to Crushing".
I immediately started a Journal using Evernote at the end of each day, only to re-read what I wrote the very next morning. (Feels pretty awesome so far), and the excel doc handles itself, calculates how much you are up or down. (You just type in the numbers and it does he math).
We also get to hear his thoughts on topics such as Tilt, Bankroll Management, Downswings, Routines and his take on how to make passive income with poker. The book is at times very "personal", has emphasize very clearly on his personal views and take on things, how he approached poker, and how he overcame the challenges on the way. Rocking back and forth from "Poker theories" to "Poker stories".
Every chapter also ends with one or more exercises. So it's pretty fun to read one chapter at the time, and then spend some extra time on the exercises, take a break, get some water, and then go back at it again.(I feel material stick so much better if you do it this way).
Here's an example of an exercise, (there are roughly 20 - 30 of these throughout the book):+ Show Spoiler +
Exercise 5.5
When was the last time you took notes while watching a poker video or reading a poker book? If it has been more than a month, make it a goal to start doing so once a month. Write down the date you are planning to watch a video or read a book.
So there you have it folks <3, and after release date, with Tri's approval avcourse, I will post my notes on it + my own answers to all the questions.
Wow, what a start to this month! If I had to imagine the best case scenario for this month to start off with it would have not even been this great. I was in the f zone pretty much the whole first session and I don't think I ever really lost 2 big pots back to back until like 13k hands into the day. Seemed like everytime I 4bet AAxx, they would miss or I would get it in and hold. Everytime I called a 4bet with a rundown vs AA I would hit. Was my best day ever of poker only counting money made at the tables. Overall I made 42BI (13.5k), I got 1st for the day in the PokerStars grinding Leaderboard for extra 1.5k and I won bet with BallCup, he bet me 1k I couldn't get 1st place one of the days. Add in another 750/800 in fpp value (roughly) and overall not a bad day at all and a dream start. Had a tough time getting to sleep but finaly managed to late last night. My personal assistant/cook/pro helper I guess we can call her came over today and made me some lunch and then chicken/veggies/pasta for dinner, she is sure on top of things and has a really good plan for the month to help me stay fed. Well worth the money imo and probably will deserve a bonus at the end.
I finally woke myself up this afternoon and crawled over to the computer to get started. A part of me really didn't want to play for fear I would end up losing all of it back today and another part of me expected to make another 10k+ today. Eventually I was able to convince myself to get in a mindset where I try to forget about wins/losses and try not to tilt and play my A game. First session felt pretty good and I managed to go for 5 hours without looking how much i was up/down, eventually I caved because I thought I was doing really well and was only up a BI . After I looked it obviously effected how I was playing and I quit shortly after. The 4b pots weren't falling my way today and my top sets werent holding 90 percent of the time sadly but still did okay. Went to do a quick workout because that always gets me motivated to play poker and then was back at it. I went into reg-ware mode and my 3bet was hovering around 11 percent most of the session, usually it is 5 percent. More 3betting=more variance and session was rocky, finally quit down 4BI and went to dinner with ballcup. Just finished up final session for the day where I started down 4.5k and finally said stop playing like a fucking idiot and was able to end up a BI. Usually my problems during my session happen when I go 3bet happy, esp OOP and the BTN. When I finally calm the fuck down and start flatting in those spots on the BTN and flatting/folding those spots OOP is when I start winning again. I'm sure most PLO guys are of the notion that 3bet BTN is always +ev but I think for me personally I do better when I flat and play postflop in position with higher stack-pot ratio and also greatly lowers my variance during a long session. I am getting better in 3bet pots but I think its one of the weaker parts of my game right now. In some spots I should prob be cbet/calling it off I instead check back and wait for a safe turn in order to lower my overall variance which might not be +ev as far as overall profit at the tables.
Heres the graph for Day 2 overall, this is how I expect many of my days to end up.
started grinding right at midnight est, then a few hours later I finally looked at how I was doing for session, ive found not looking at my results helps me play longer, better, less on tilt. Maybe should have done this along time ago. 14.5k vpp done for the day but i want #1 on leaderboard for pokerstars so will get whatever I need to for that
It looks like the time is finally upon me, December 1st. Currently blogging from my December headquarters for the month located street level in a different part of Vancouver, a much easier place to sleep in during the day. I've been putting off all my crazy hours for the last 2 months in anticipation of this day to begin the end of my journey in 2011. This might not have been the most effective plan or way to handle things but my main goal for November was to build my online roll big enough to be able to handle the swings that December would bring. As a result of this November was my first real winning month after relocation with +5k at the tables and +13k from fpp's.
What exactly is on the line for me in December? I am currently at 550k VPP which means I need 450k VPP to achieve my goal. By doing this I stand to make $36,000 from FPP's along that way. $11,600 from 3 milestone bonuses, $20,000 bonus from when I do achieve SNE, $5,200 WCOOP ME ticket, an extra $24,000 if I were to hit SNE again next year. That is $96,800..... That is a pretty serious amount of money on the line. Add in an extra $45,000 from prop bet money and well you will see there is no room for failure.
What do I need to do to be able to achieve this? Well simply put, I will need to set a new record for most hands of PLO in a month. I'm pretty sure I have the current record but these hands will need to be played at higher/more challenging stakes. Ideally I would like to play most of my volume at 2/4 where I have been playing the last month. My vpp/hand their has been 1.09 with some of that coming during off peak hours when there are a few less games running but they are much better. I plan on playing most of my volume during the midday-night time hours of PST so I anticipate a lower vpp rate during that time. I need to get 14.5k vpp/day which if I am getting 1500/hr equates to just under 10 hours per day, assuming I play straight through. I anticipate a break at some point so that most likely will end up being 11+ hours/day with joing tables to begin each session taking longer. Before prop bet money I can lose 3k/day and actually still come out +ev in the end, do I anticipate losing that much money? No way, PLO is a game where even the unimaginable can happen. I feel very good about my mass multi tabling PLO game right now and have changed 2 things to my game that have not only made it much easier to grind long sessions but have improved my ablilty to actually win some money
My plan for December is one that I do not know as of yet. I did find someone here to help me with my meals/ie cooking/preparing them daily for me. Its a girl/woman I met randomly when I first moved here who I went to the nude beach with lol but she was telling me her ideas/plan and it sounded exactly what I was looking for and I think it will make my ability to put in the sessions and feel better good. I do have some ped's (aka grind drugs) on the table if I do feel like I need them but my plan is not to use them for whatever reason. Fridge is stocked with water/vitamin water, place to sleep is dark at all times, hooded shirts and sweat pants are lined up, and the money is there for the taking.
You can see this all around: poker players throwing money away at often ridiculous stuff, buying the most expensive and luxury things that they often get bored with within days. But even high stakes grinders often don't care or simply underestimate effects of having a proper poker grinding setup. No, I'm not talking only about buying a fast desktop computer and 2* 30"Dell Monitor that covers playing on 40 titled tables at once; I will try to talk about this as well, but first I would like to focus on something that's been bothering myself lately: a comfortable chair.
It might sound ridiculous, but I would argue this is one of the most important parts of every poker setup, especially for players that tend to spend 8-10 hours, or even more, per day in front of their computer. A good chair will make not only your posture correct ( which will result in less health problems in few years ), relief back pain during long session, but will simply make you win more - the more comfortable you are, the longer you can sustain focus and play your "A" game. It's as simple as that.
There is quite a big choice of good ergonomic chairs on the market, and as I spent 3 full days riding around and trying various chairs to have a good comparison, I will try to give my own opinion on the most worthwhile ones.
Order of reviews is random, I will give a summary at the end. I'm going to skip on all 'presidential leather' chairs, as those are not adjustable and there is about a million of them available - if you want one like those, just go and test them yourself!
1) Herman Miller - Aeron
The Aeron chair is long in the tooth as office chairs go, having been introduced to the market way back in 1994, and is a signature "dot.com" chair that revolutionized market for office chairs, by being a first company to use a mesh instead of classical materials. It's also available in million configurations, you can choose base color, mechanism and back spine color ( black/white ) and seat material coor.
Long story short, this is an extremely comfortable chair that comes in 3 sizes ( A,B,C ) that should fit pretty much everyone. There are ton of versions of the chair, with standard black or aluminum polished base ( it's for looks only, costs are significantly higher for the aluminum option ), different back support options ( lumbar or posture fit, with the second one being better and more expensive ).
Mesh material was a spot on hit - it's not only comfortable to sit at, but provides a good air conditioning, which helps a lot, especially during summer. The chair doesn't offer a head support, but that's Herman Millers policy, as none of their chair have that option. I'm not a huge fan of it, so it wasn't a problem for me.
Whole chair is TOP A quality, design is slick and nice, but that's obviously my personal opinion.
Biggest downside? Cost obviously, in Europe this chair retails at $1500 in the best setup, and around $1200 for the basic one. In USA it goes for around $720 for a new basic setup ( black base, lumbar option, fully adjustable ) and around ~$1000 for the fully loaded option.
The chair also comes with a 12 yeas warranty on mechanism + 3 year on gas cylinder + 5 year on material. However, if you materials wears out after warranty period, it's possible to replace parts like seat pane, or back, without replacing whole chair, at lower cost.
Worth a note: If you would want to buy it, make sure you ask if it's fully adjustable option, and not just up/down and lay back model. Also, even this comes with a 12 year warranty, it covers only ORIGINAL BUYER, which means if you bought this second hand you are not eligible for warranty, even if the chair is week old.
This is quite a new model ( 2006 ) from Herman Miller that's supposed to be successor of Aeron.
The prize is WAY higher, especially in Europe. In USA this chair retails at around $1090 for the basic option ( worse material, standard black base ) and around $1390 for the fully loaded one ( aluminum base, better material ). However, in Europe I was quoted at $1300 for the basic option ( inc VAT ), and around $1800 ( yes, 1800 ) for the fully loaded option. There is also one size option only, but it's supposed to fit 98% of people. It's also available in million configurations, you can choose base color, mechanism and back spine color ( black/white ) and seat material coor.
Herman Millers policy regarding 12 year warranty and second hand products applies here as well.
Let's talk about Embody then: it looks fuc%@*ng amazing. Seriously, this thing looks huge, and looks like a bionic spine. This is obviously a personal opinion, but I loved it, it looks exclusive and doesn't really make your home office/poker setup feel like a call center setup with 100 people around in their cubicles.
The most important part obviously, is the back panel. Herman Miller claims at their site that "a matrix of pixels creates dynamic seat-and-back surfaces that automatically conform to your every movement and distribute your weight evenly." They also say it will even help your heart rate and other insane stuff, which is hugely exaggerating, but one thing is sure here: this thing 'moves' with you. If you try to turn your body by a small margin, while still putting pressure on the back, it will adjust, thanks to the multiple panels on the chair.
Arm rests also have more configuration option then Aeron ( you can adjust how close to body you want them ), however the back support is less configurable, as the back curve is pre-set and can only be configured by setting a proper level of tension. You can also adjust the depth of the seat.
So how does it feel? Do you know those hard-foam pillows that are supposed to adjust to your body? I have one of those ( from Ikea, paid like 15$ for it ) and I cant imagine sleeping on a standard pillow now. I mentioned it simply since Embody is close to that, basically the mechanism covers your whole back when you sit in it, which could make it comparable to an expensive suit tailored exactly for your body, even there are less adjustable options the on Aeron. I sat in it completely straight, close to standing posture ( which is supposed to be perfect for your health ), and I simply didn't feel the chair at all. It didn't change after half an hour, if the effect stays same for 10 hours straight, this has to be one of the most amazing things ever designed.
This is unfortunately a clear winner for me from all ~30 chairs I sat in, if not the cost I would be buying this in a heartbeat. However, this thing IS EXPENSIVE, so let's take a look at other alternatives.
Prize level here is comparable to basic Aeron option, it costs around 750-800$, pretty hard to get in Europe, no problem in USA. Happily, I have a friend who owns it, so I had an opportunity to test ride it.
Standard material, no mesh, which I now consider a worse option, but I'm pretty sure some people will favor it hugely over mesh. The chair itself is supposed to adjust itself to your body ( hence the Freedom name ), and it does the job pretty well. As opposed to previous two chairs, it does have a head rest, which will make quite a lot of people consider it over chairs without head-rest.
My personal opinion: I didn't like it. I prefer to set the chair as I want it, I didn't like the headrest and used material.
This costs around $550 ( cost is pretty much the same in USA/EU) for a brand new chair ( $750 for the version 2 with improved tilt mechanism that makes your whole chair lean back instead of just back panel ), and provides higher number of adjustments then any other chair out here I think. Material used is mesh, same one as in Aeron, but it's also possible to get a leather one for a few bucks more. You can adjust almost everything here, and even arm rests have 4 adjustment options ( height, direction, how far they are in front/back, and how close/far away from body ).
The base is aluminum, which makes it looks quite exclusive and nice ( especially you don't have to pay extra for it, as opposed to other brands ), and it comes with a headrest that you can take off if you don't like it - a huge plus.
Verdict? I liked it a lot... but! There is a major con, that I hated and made me not buy it. Some people will say it's funny but.. the arm rests don't have an option to block them ( only height regulation is block-able, 3 other option use pure physical force to adjust ), which makes them loose a little ( maybe half a centimeter each way, not much ) and that really irritated me. Basically if you try to shake them, you can do that freely in every direction, and it made me feel like I'm paying quite some money for something that's about to fall apart ( well , in EU you get 5 year warranty, but regardless it was irritating ).
In the end, I think the quality of the product should be way better for the prize.
This is a low budget option, this chair costs ~$200 and comes from one of the biggest worldwide furniture shops, Ikea.
There is not much to say about it besides it's a very solid, comfortable chair.
Obviously it doesnt offer as many adjustable options as more expensive chairs, as you can adjust height,tilt function and that's about it. It also has a built-in lumbar support which provides extra relief and support for your back, very comparable to basic Aeron lumbar support, however this one is not adjustable as opposed to Aeron. The headrest is also really nice in my opinion, as it doesn't "force" it's use, as opposed to Ergohuman or Steelcase chairs, where it sticks way forward.
The chair is a hybrid made from mesh ( back support ) and leather ( head rest and seat ). Worst thing? Arm rests are not adjustable at all, and they were way too low for me, meaning my hands were floating in the air. Best thing? It's probably the best chair you can get for 200$.
Few other chairs I didn't look at ( or didn't have option to test them ) and might be worth considering:
-Humanscale Liberty Chair, comparable to Freedoman, but little different ( mesh back ), I had no access to it
-Other Eurotech chairs: Ergohuman is the only one available world-wide, and the rest is just slightly cheaper, so it's not really worth considering them at the moment.
-Other Herman Miller chairs ( I tested them, but they were not that good to pay over 1k in Europe for them, so not really worth a mention, maybe Mirra is worth consideration, but back is made from a soft-plastic a-like which I hated )
-Random leather chairs, as mentioned in the begging.
-Amazing and stunning FitBall Chair, check spoiler tag: + Show Spoiler +
L O L.
My personal summary: 1) Best comfort and overall feeling: Herman Miller Embody, nothing comes even close when it comes to comfort for me. As I said previously, if this chair didn't cost ~$2k in Poland, I would already have it. This prize is ridiculous for a chair, and I find it irrational that the cost is double of what it costs in USA. 2) Best price/quality and comfort - USA: Aeron, as you can get a fully loaded version ( fully adjustabe, posture fit kit, but with black base ) for 738$ now with sale on HermanMiller's site ( till December 12th 2011). Consider this a 12 year investment, and this turns out to be a great value. 3) Best price/quality and comfort - Europe: Really hard to say. If not the fact that Herman Millers chair cost TWICE as much as in USA ( yes, twice ), they would be a clear winner here. However, I would say Ergohuman is a pretty good choice here, as for $500 you can get a really nice mesh chair with ton of configuration options. 4) Low budget : Ikea Markus, all day long. To be honest if the arm rests fit you without problem, I think I would get this over Ergohuman, as it costs 1/3 of the prize and looks nicer in your house/apartment environment. I liked it a lot.
Last, but most important advice: you should NEVER, EVER buy a chair without an option to sit in it first. If you are in USA it's no problem as most of companies offer a 30 day return policy, in Europe it's way more problematic.
All opinions in this blog are my personal, so please don't blame me if you order something without testing it first and don't like it.
Just to make it easier to compare I am 178cm / 75kg.
in bali indonesia atm, been here for 2 weeks and we are haveing big internet trouble
internet sux but i love it here, but its to tilting to not be able to get better internet anywhere, we been through some hotels and tryed the best mobile internet shit aswell like telekomsel and three 3G but it seems like its not possible to get better here
we are thinking of going to thailand instead, probably phuket
any1 been there, any recommendations of ~4 star hotels with good internet? how is internet overall in phuket?
I often just assume the stuff I'm into most other people are too, but that's not always the case. So tonight I felt like sharing.
There are many hidden gems all over the internet, I will talk about one of those gems, for those who's already indulged, appreciated this particular gem, do not fret. I put up the best of the best, and this shit you can re-watch indefinitely.
To make it cooler and more relaxing, I put up a description to each clip, what it's about, details and some other stuff like that.
Drive
The Truth about what really motivates us, most people think (and rightly so). The more money, the more motivation. Nuu UHHH!! Not the case, only if the task involves mechanical skills (Platinum/Gold and lower maybe).
Once you get above rudimentary cognitive skill, everything turns upside down. And I know a lot of passionate Starcraft gamers can attest to that, AMEN. (Ps, I'm not religious, hate that noob shit). + Show Spoiler +
Changing The Paradigms Of Education
This one is a lot more awesome than what it might sound like by the tittle. It's one of the most wonderful speeches I've ever heard about learning, growth and people's potential and more awesome stuff along those lines.
The speaker is Ken Robinson, which probably a lot of you already heard or know about from TEDTalks, but in this speech you get the essence in much more detail, and it's not added stuff to make it more entertaining as "a show". (Sex for your left hemisphere so to speak). <--- I just made that one up on the fly, yay + Show Spoiler +
The Secret Power Of Time
Talks about the 6 main time zones that people live in, 2 focus on the past, 2 focus on the present and 2 focus on the future. It also seems like, if you live around the equator, people are mostly focused on Present.
In in these categories, we have people who mainly focus on the positive (the good old times, nostalgia, so forth). And the other kind seem to focus a lot on regrets, failures and shit like that. Past positives and past negatives. And the same for the other categories. + Show Spoiler +
Empathic Civilisation
It doesn't get much more awesome than this. It seems like all the primates, especially the humans, we got mirror neurons. We're soft wired, so if I am observing you, I can feel the same as you're doing, the neurons in my head is lighting up at the same place as your neurons.
We are actually not soft wired for aggression, violence, self-interest, utilitarianism and shit like that which some poop heads have been feeding us. + Show Spoiler +
The Divided Brain
This is my favorite, I feel that most of what's being said is awesome. But I don't get half of it, if there's going to be any discussion about these, please talk about this one. I'd love to broaden my understanding of this.
New, fresh, cool information of the brain, discrediting a lot of what we "used" to think and know about it. Things that now has been proved is entirely false.
It's not true that one part of the brain does reason, and the other does emotion. Both are profoundly involved in both. Not true that language resides only in the left hemisphere, it doesn't, a lot of important aspects are in the right. It's not true that visual imagery is only in the right hemisphere, lots is in the left. + Show Spoiler +
21st Century Enlightenment
We're very very bad at predicting what will make us happy. We're even worse at describing what made us happy in the past. And stuff like "It's only by understanding that conscious thought is only part of what drives our behavior..... That we become better able to exercise control & distinguish our needs from our appetites..... And our amazing human potential from the hubris of individualism.
It's no wonder I find this one awesome as well. + Show Spoiler +
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very beautiful and relaxing place)
