Hey liquiders, I've not written blog in awhile, and for that I feel I need to be punished.... Severly.(I'm thinking maybe forced hours and hours without end, grueling sweath sessions with longple, or something equally gruesome).
And I also need to make a blogpost to make up for it <3
A few mates of mine requested I make their life easier by giving them all the posts that "were good", so they didn't have to sift through all the crappy ones. So I got the idea of starting with a compilation of all the posts i've made that's gotten very positive feedback and lots of pm's of encouragement over the last 2 years.
Been reading through half of the book, and it's really good. So I thought I'd list down most of the important stuff I've been through so far (Most for my own benefits).
Understand and Accept the Realities of Poker
- You need to understand the Five Realities of Poker, but more important you need to accept them. The Five Realities of Poker are:
1. Poker is a game of both skill and luck.
2. In the short term, luck is king.
3. In the long term, skill is king.
4. Poker is a game of small edges.
5. Poker is a game of high variance.
Play for the Long Term
- If you are looking to make money from poker, you need to play for the long term and accept the short-term risks.
- A player who puts too much emphasis on his short-term results will be prone to the following errors:
- Playing to get even
- Protecting a win
- Tilting
- Getting mad at bad players
- Making rash changes to his game
Emphasize Correct Decisions over Making Money
- The big advantage of playing poker for the long term is that you can focus on the only thing that is important: making correct decisions.
- "correct play" is defined as the best play you could reasonably be expected to make given the information you have available.
- If you make correct decisions, your short-term results are irrelevant as you will make money in the long term.
Desensitize Yourself to Money
- It is difficult to make correct decisions at the table if you are scared to lose the money in front of you.
- You could fall into a number of traps by playing scared:
- Not protecting your hand properly
- Not value betting your good hands enough
- Playing too tight
- Not calling enough in big bet poker
- Not bluffing enough
- Two factors tend to contribute to how likely you are to play scared:
1. How strong is your bankroll?
2. What is your attitude to money?
Leave your Ego at the Door
- Your ego may lead you into several traps at the table, the following eight being the most common:
1. You might call bets that you shouldn't.
2. You might allow a personal feud to cloud or override your judgment.
3. You are likely to try too hard to get even.
4. You might play in games you can't beat.
5. You might make plays to impress your opponents.
6. You might not drop down a limit when you should.
7. You could inadvertently give away information to your opponents.
8. You might scare away players who you would rather stay.
Remove All Emotion from Decisions
- Many players let emotion affect their poker decisions, yet emotions should have no impact whatsoever on the decisionmaking process.
- Emotions can cause you to make sub-optimal plays that you would not otherwise make.
- Many types of emotions can affect your game such as anger, frustration, misery, fear, happiness, pity, pride and nervousness.
- A poker player has two defenses against his emotions:
1. Do not play when you are in an emotional state that may cause your play to suffer.
2. Acknowledge your emotions, but don't allow them to affect your decisions.
Dedicate Yourself to a continuous cycle of Analysis and improvement
- In order to ensure long-term success at poker, you must commit to an ongoing program of analysis and improvement.
- If you stop learning at poker, not noly will you not improve, but your game is likely to regress.
- There are many reasons why long-time players might become less keen on learning over time, including:
- Complacency
- Illusions of mastery
- Loss of enthusiasm
- Stagnation
- Top players may disagree on many things, but the one thing thta they will voice resounding agreement on is that they are still learning.
Oh crap lol, it got a lot longer than I thought it would, still got like 3/4 of the book left, I'll take more later lol. Wanna eat, my eggs are getting cold xD
- In poker, the link between action and reaction (or in this case, between decision and results) can be difficult to identify.
- Just because you are winning does not mean you are playing well, and just because you are losing does not mean you are playing badly.
- In poker, the laws of action and reaction do apply, but in a very different way than in everyday life. The results of your actions will be extremely volatile in the short term to the point where they are almost not worth worrying about.
- Make sure that when you make a link between poker play and its results, you are looking at the result of many, many trials.
Setting Goals
- Broadly speaking, setting poker goals for yourself can be good, but they should never be monetary targets. There are three important reasons why:
1. You have limited power to achieve monetary goals.
2. Conclusions are difficult to draw when you miss a monetary target.
3. Monetary targets detract from your true goal (making correct decisions).
- Setting goals in poker is important, but they should fulfill two important criteria:
1. You need to have the power to directly achieve the goal
2. The goal must not conflict with or detract from your ultimate aim of making the best decision as often as possible.
Is "Average" Acceptable?
- If you are an average player at poker, then you are losing money. Poker is one endavour where average is simply not good enough.
Risk Aversion
- No matter what attitude a poker player has toward risk in his everyday life, he must adopt a risk-neutral attitude when sitting at the poker table.
- A player who tries to play poker in a risk-averse manner may be prone to the following:
- Chasing opponents out of pots too often
- Not value betting enough
- Playing in less-profitable games
Greed
- When playing poker, you need to get rid of all pretenses that greed is a bad thing. Greed is not only acceptable when playing poker, it is vital.
Woolly thinking
- Woolly thinking is any line of thought that contains a logical flaw - any deduction that, when you break it down, does not make sense. The problem when playing poker is that every bit of woolly thinking will cost you money.
- Some types of woolly thinking in poker include:
- Considering irrelevant variables
- Misunderstanding probability
- Results-based thinking
- Spurious regression
- Acting on principle
- Superstition
Summary
- It is important that you break out of the pre-programmed thinking patterns and develop a new kind of intuition that we call the Six Truths of Poker Intuition:
1. Actions and reactions are only tenuously linked.
2. Setting short-term monetary goals is counter-productive.
3. Average is not an acceptable standard in poker.
4. Risk neutrality is the only acceptable attitude to risk.
5. Greed is good.
6. Clear logical thought is required.
- The hands that have a big emotilnal impact are those where you lose a big pot.
What happens When You Lose a Big Pot?
- How much losing a large pot affects you depends on several factors, including:
- How big the pot is
- How good you felt your chances were of winning the pot
- How you lost the pot
- How your session or recent results have been going
- Whether it is in a tournament or cash game
- How adequately bankrolled you are
- Your attitude
- When you look at all of these factors combined, you can see why it is difficult for many players to tune out their emotions completely.
- Fortunately, what is really important is not how much losing a big pot affects you emotionally, but how it affects your play.
- Beware of the following pitfalls that may snare a player who has recently lost a big pot:
- Berating your opponent
- playing the next hand badly
- Playing badly in similar situations in the future
- Tilt
Reaction to losing a Big Pot
- There are four stages in how players react to losing a big pot:
- Each stage represents a better reaction than the last.
- Players at later stages will be better able to rationalize the loss of a big pot and not allow it to affect their play.
Applying the Poker Mindset
- A player might read and understand the four stages to losing a pot, but still be unable to consistently react in a way congruent with stages three or four. There are two main reasons for this:
1. Emotions are difficult to control.
2. His entire approach to poker might be wrong and everything goes awry from there.
- Understanding the seven attitudes of the Poker Mindset can help correct your approach to poker, which in turn will help you to respond better when you lose a big pot.
- Whenever you lose a big pot, rather than focusing on your emotions, focus on these two important questions:
1. What does that hand teach me about my opponent's play?
2. Could I have played that hand better?
Bad Beats
- Broadly speaking, there are three ways you can lose a pot:
1. Bad Play
2. Bad Cards
3. Bad Beat
- The average player gets angrier over bad beats than over any other kidn of lost pot. Some of the reasons for this include:
- Entitlement - Players with a strong hand will often (subconsciously or otherwise) belive they are entitled to the pot.
- Rewarding Bad Play - For the myopic player, bad beats are seen to reward bad play.
- Directed Anger - Anger is often stronger when there is something for the anger to be directed at.
- Bad beats are the best way to lose a pot as you make money in the long term when your opponents make mistakes:
- Bad play makes you money in the long term
- Bad beats keep bad players playing
- Bad Beats encourage bad play by rewarding it
- A good player will take more bad beats than he gives
- Bad beats are an integral part of the game
- Bad beats are a good poker player's best friend!
- A downswing is a period when a player earns significantly less than their expected win rate over a number of sessions.
- The high variance in poker makes it inevitable that you will suffer sustained losses from time to time. These will not be rare, freak occurrences, but something that most players have to put up with regularly.
The Reality of Downswings
- Downswings are not an entity in themselves, but an observed pattern in results.
- A common error is trying to assign downswings properties, such as giving them a fixed size, shape, or frequency.
- Many players try to define downswings in the present or future tense. They are trying to predict future events based on past results, which is impossible.
- Unfortunately, the psychological pressure of running badly for a sustained period of time makes ignoring downswings difficult.
- Managing a large downswing is one of the most difficult things you will have to do as a poker player, and the penatly for failure can be losing your entire bankroll.
Common Bad Responses to downswings
- These are some of the most common bad responses to downswings:
- Losing confidence in your ability and game
- Making radical changes to your play
- Getting obsessed with your losses
- Trying to ride out the downswing
- Moving up a limit to recoup your losses
Dealing with a Downswing
- You cope with downswings the same way you deal with anything else in poker. You make the decisions that will make you the most money in the long term.
- Your decisions away from the table such as what games you play, what limits you play, and how you prepare will all play a crucial part in ensuring you come through tough periods.
- If you are not playing well, then your results will deteriorate, magnifying the effect of the downswing, which in turn makes you even more depressed. This cycle can continue until either:
a) You have a lucky run of cards pulling you out of the downswing; or
b) You go broke.
- Having the correct attitude toward your bankroll and your win rate when you are running well will help you maintain that attitude when things inevitably go bad.
Staying in Control
- There are two things to concentrate your energies on during a downswing: Improving your game and avoiding tilt.
- The relationship between tilt and downswings is a vicious circle, and either can be the trigger.
- Some of the most common traps that can befall a player running badly include:
- Trying to get even
- Damage limitation (playing more defensive, passive)
- Unwillingness to gamble
- Breaking the pain threshold
Downswings and the Poker Mindset
- Preventing tilt when on a downswing is all about attitude. If you play poker in the correct frame of midn, you are less likely to tilt.
- Understanding the seven attitudes of the Poker Mindset is the key to avoiding tilt during a downswing. (I listed those in Part 1)
Improving your game
- Generally speaking, you should remember the following two things when you are on a downswing.
1. It is very unlikely that your downswing is entirely due to bad play.
2. Likewise, it is very unlikely that bad play is not contributing to your downswing at all.
- If you reduce the "poor play element" of a downswing, and improve your win rate, you will recover more quickly.
- While finding and correcting leaks in your game is an end unto itself, it also has fringe benefits helpful in recovering from a downswing:
- By concentrating on improving you game, you are keeping your mind on something other than poor results.
- By proactively improving your game, you can sit at the table with greater confidence.
Downswing and Your Bankroll
- If a downswing is large enough, there is a risk that you are not sufficiently bankrolled to play at your current limit and should move down.
- Unfortunately, players on a downswing are often bad at moving down limits, which can be for a number of reasons:
1. It's a step backwards.
2. It will be harder to win back losses.
3. The player might be in denial.
- If you cheat on your bankroll, you are risking your entire poker career.
- There’s no comfort in the growth zone and there’s no growth in the comfort zone.
- When you get comfortable, you get stale. And when you get stale… Someone else who “gets it” passes you by and leaves you in the dust.
- It can be uncomfortable to grow.
GOOD!
The tingle means it’s working : ) That feeling of being uncomfortable means that you are growing.
- I believe hand reading is a function of your mental / emotional state at the time more than anything else.
(Ever noticed that some days you can put people on hands right and left, other days you´re just fumbling in the dark? They haven´t changed, you haven´t changed, your skills have not diminished. But you are probably not in that same emotional state you were in when playing the first game.)
- The reason you struggle with the more subtle technical aspects is that they usually require a good and clean state of mind whilst playing and analyzing.
- If you are on constant subtle tilt you will never understand your own image, your opponents projected image vs the way they actually play, what your history with a specific opponent really means and CORRECT adjustments (as opposed to a couple of 3 bets and now you´re waiting to shove any 2)
- what all this basically boils down to; hand reading and putting your opponent on accurate ranges, and knowing what to do with those ranges. These qualities will separate a 2 ptbb winner, from a 5 ptbb winner.
- Good idea to review yesterday's hands at the start of a new day, as prep game, and at higher stakes, take notes on specific regulars when not playing to prep.
- Check list on every hand someone calls or raises you, ask yourself his range of hands.
- Common mistake to be "on the ball" first 5 minuts, and then go into Droid mode for the rest of the session.
- Just start out by doing this every time you have any preflop decisions. Then extend to the flop. Then extend to asking yourself about your perceived range (2nd level).
- The absolute most important thing when faced with a big decision, is to first breathe and relax for a couple of seconds.
- The greatest lesson that can be applied to your poker game is the buddhist lesson of being mindful and aware of one´s thoughts and actions at all times.
(Hmm, I should find out more about meditating)
- Optional (Before every session, make a short little goal for that session). To play very tight first 15 minuts, don't spew or go overboard.
Example: How many combinations of 22 and 55 on an A25 flop?
Solution: 3x2/2 + 3x2/2 = 6
Common Low/Mid - Stakes Leaks
- Most obvious reasons why low to mid-stakes players are worse than high stakes players is that they can't read hands well.
* Less aggressive and don't fight as much for pots.
- As you become better you'll realize no one ever has anything and you should battle for more pots.
Limped pots
- Rarely do players in early position lead out.
* They check and when late position player bets, they fold and move on to other tables.
- 90% of low-stakes players do not fight for limped pots. They check-fold if they don't hit anything.
- Limped pots are the easiest in the world. No one fights for them, no one cares.
- Steal any pot which isn't coordinated or draw heavy. If you get a call and a high card falls on the turn, fire again. (People usually never limp with J,K,Q,A's
Image
- Players don't use image enough
* Especially nits
* Nits should semi bluff more often
* Also two and three barrel more (Since nits never bluff in big pots, when they do, it's hard to call them down.)
* Nits should also fold TT and JJ more often when facing aggression. (When you're a nit, everyone knows you're a nit.)
- Generally, the majority of players should treat JJ like 99 and give both same value.
* Most of the times when we get either of these hands in on the flop, we are either against sets, overpair or a draw that has atleast 40% equity.
Pot Patrole
- Next time you're in a hand and want to check back the turn with top pair, medium kicker or an overpair, BET!
- Good players peel a lot of flops, because they want to steal on later streets. But almost always they have 5-9 outs, therfor you should bet.
- Betting the turn also makes you a tougher player.
- A common thing among low to mid-stakes players is checking behind on the turn after betting the flop on an open ender or flush, because they want to see a free card.
* Like saying "I want to lose 38 out of 47 times"
- When you check behind on the turn after betting a draw heavy flop. Villain will know your range is weak, and can play well vs you.
* With a draw himslf, bet the river to move you off your hand.
* If he has a good pair, check call your bet.
- High stakes players like to bet enough on the turn so that they'll have the correct odds to call if they get check-raised all in.
* In addition, by betting, leaving small amount behind, it shows you're committed and discourages your opponent from making a play at you.
* If he does shove all in (doesn't happen often). You can call and hit your outs and tilt him.
Balancing
- The idea behind balancing is to make yourself a tougher player so people can't accurately put you on a hand.
- No point balancing when people choose to ignore it.
- In short, up to 3/6 against almost everyone, just play.
* Bet when you tihnk an opponent's range is weak (strong) and check (or fold) when you think it is strong.
- Start balancing 5/10 and higher.
Playing Out Of Position
- Poker is a game where you make money by avoiding difficult spots with marginal hands.
- Nevertheless, people still like to play hands out of position.
- The reason it sucks is because we don't have a lot of choices:
* It's hard to manage the size of the pot
* Infinitely more difficult to run a three-barrel bluff oop than in position because villain could be flatting with the nuts 3 streets.
*Harder to extract value
*Can't choose to see a free showdown on the river and we win fewer pots.
- Simple advice: Fold!!
Showdown Value
- On a T28r board we should be more inclined to showdown with AK than A5 because AK dominates more hands if it improves.
* It also has twice as many outs against top pair.
- We should bet A5 because this causes A6+ type hands to fold and we rarely improve.
Leveling
- Players try to out level themselves too much
* If he's a nit, he's got the nuts, 2nd nuts or in rare cases 3rd nuts.
Backdoor Draws
- Players don't value backdoor draws enough
* Often we'd rather have a backdoor flush draw by the turn than a one pair hand.
* The main reason is the equity we have against villain's calling range on the turn.
* Can continue putting pressure if we miss river.
* Also balances your overall game. Players will think you are a crazy aggro maniac when you are just playing your equity.
Equity Equity
- Example: 55 on a 9TT board, your equity is horrible
* KJ on a 9TT our equity is decent, and rarely drawing dead.
- We often see players C-Betting 569 with AT or KJ. You do have overcards, but will need to fire 3 barrels because whatever handscall the flop aren't going to fold the turn very often.
Not All Fishes Are Alike
- Against the overly aggressive fish, you can start to call more with marginal hands or wait for the nuts
- The loose passive are bad at extracting value and genrally play passive.
* When this type of fish bets, fold.
* Since they call a lot, make thin value bets.
* Don't bluff them.
- Against those who never fold preflop, figure out what amount they are willing to put in with rags. (5x,6x,7x,8x etc.) until they fold
* And raise the highest you can with your premium hands
- Be more inclined to bluff the passive fish who are willing to fold when scarecards appear
* Increase your river bluffing freq. vs them.
- Against fish who like to show bluffs, and is doing it again, he will do it over and over. (Don't out level yourself thinking "he showed a few bluffs a few hands ago, to get payed off on this on). They don't think like that.
Everything in here is said by Phil Galfond, except from the questions
- There can be a thing as too much aggression, does something to your range, so you have to fold to raises a lot. Just have it in the back of your head. For balancing purposes too
- Forcing yourself to play is always a bad idea, both financially and emotionally.
- No monetary goals, and try to work out regularly and keep friends in ur life.
- Moving with peopel who play/study/love the game, watching them play, and discuss talk about diffrent lines is something that made me grow sooooo much
- (Quote from a discussion with Durrr on a hand) he had something like weak top pair and was facing a big river bet. He was like, 'I think a call is better than a fold' and I thought to myself, 'yeah I agree' and then he said 'but I would shove' and I exploded. I realized that you should think of every possible option you have in nlhe. You usually have a ton of them.
- If you are near someone who plays poker and is smart, spend as much time around them as you can if you want to improve your game.
- realize that you have more options than you think you do. Thinking outside the box, turning made hands that are good enough to call into bluffraises that turn out to be even more profitable, cbetting 1/3 pot in a rr pot, etc.
* Ephipanies (or how you spell it)
- how to use your style/image and balance your range accordingly. I started out being pretty nitty before realizing that I could use my image to bluff. Then I started to get called down. I got angry, like 'I'm so tight, how can they call!?!' before figuring out what my ranges really consisted of in certain spots.
- every time the action is to you, it's an opportunity for you to make the perfect play. Thinking about poker that way is great for your game.
- I've realized that working out regularly helps your game more than you might think. I highly recommend it.
- I think the three most important areas of intelligence in regards to poker are logic, probability, psychology. They actually are pretty close in order of importance, and change depending on game structure.
- one of my strengths is that I'm self aware.
- Smart to get a coach early on, for a slight boost in your horly win rate is really significant in the long run
- Tommy didn't teach me the things I wanted to learn, but he taught me the things I needed to learn.
- A lot of people don't get the most out of coaching because they ask the wrong questions.
In poker, every player has personal motivations.
* Through watching their play, you can get a general feel for what they want, what they fear or worry about, what they are comfortable/uncomfortable with. Most importantly, you get a feel for what they want, at their core.
* These are generalizations, but are true for most people who play these ways. You can find out more specific details about a player's personality by paying attention.
* a nit is afraid of losing a lot of money with the worst hand. They're uncomfortable in big pots with marginal hands. They often fear coin-flipping for a lot of money.
* The loose passive player usually plays for fun. He wants to see flops and wants to showdown his hand. He wants to see if the cards in his hand can match up with the cards on the board, or if they're good enough to rake in a pot. He wants to see your hand.
* The Bad LAG wants to win THIS POT. RIGHT NOW. Anytime he gives up on a pot it's because he's holding himself back. He likes to gamble, and usually doesn't mind getting his money in without proper odds.
(He often (but not always) has pride issues, meaning he wants to show you how big of a man he is. If he trash talks, you can be especially confident that he has pride issues. This means that he very badly doesn't want to be bluffed off of a pot or miss an opportunity to bluff himself. It also means that if you have any history with him, whether you won a big pot, showed a bluff, got bluffed by him, really anything, he's more likely to bluff you or call you down light.)
* So those are his main character traits. What else does he do differently?
Phil's old Stats:
21/16 preflop, 2.4 total AF
W$WSF 45.45%, Went to SD 28.88% , W$@SD 55.56%
Flop AF 2.6 Turn 2.0 Riv 2.5
Q: Everyone always asks this, but what do you think are the biggest differences between the really good nosebleed players and your average 25/50 regular? Is it just small details?
Phil's A: Intelligence, time (different point in career), Being able to play shorthanded and adjust to players.
A lot of it though is honestly variance and being in the right place at the right time. There are a top players who aren't any better than some 25/50 players. They just ran good at good times, and have the roll and the risk taking ability to play in great games. It's not that rare that a 200/400nl or plo game is softer than a 25/50 game going on at the same time.
Q: Do you agree with the idea that 1 or 2 tabling higher stakes will help your growth as a player better than multi-tabling medium/lower stakes?
Phil's A: Yes, less tables definitely. Especially with another smart player watching you and discussing concepts. And especially HU tables.
Higher stakes, not really. It might make you a bit more interested, and the competition will be a bit tougher, but you might not play your best. You can learn a lot about the game 2 tabling fish hu though.
Q: What dictates your decision to quit/go on with any given session?
Phil's A: The one thing I learned most from Tommy Angelo, is how awesome quitting is.
You should pride yourself in making a good quit. I really mean that. When I'm playing and make the decision to quit, I'm very happy with myself.
The two real reasons to quit are if playing is -EV financially or -EV emotionally. I know the latter isn't a real thing, but I use it all the time.
Basically, if for whatever reason I think I'm not a favorite (or a very small favorite), I'll quit (Ideally).
Or if I'm unhappy or stressed out by playing, or would be much happier doing something else, I quit (Ideally).
Reasons you become -$EV should be obvious, and you should realize when you are unhappy.
- Phil Quotes:
"Think of what your opponent wants you to do, and then do the opposite"
"Saying position is important in poker is like saying distance and direction are important in golf."
"It can never be that wrong to not play"
'Approach every decision as if it were tomorrow and you were looking back upon it'
Phil's thoughts on going through rough downswings; confidence issues, tilt, emotional effects, etc.
* It's easy to play when things are going well. How a player deals with a bad run is what defines him as a poker player.
* The most important thing is the be honest with yourself. Admit when you aren't focused or playing your best. Take breaks all the time. Get outdoors if you can. All the time means every 90 minutes or less.
* If you're afraid of losing your seats, take 3 minutes and walk into another room, do 20 pushups, go to the bathroom/grab some food, and come back.
* Taking time off when on a downswing is always a better idea than you want to admit. Getting away from poker for some reason usually helps you get your confidence back.
* Be willing to quit games when you find yourself tilting at all. Most people tilt by going on autopilot and don't realize they're tilting.
* I think it's probably possible to stop most of your tilting. It's very difficult though. Understanding that you tilt, and being able to identify it and quit is your best bet by far.
* Also don't play tired, unless there's a very big fish in the game.
Q: in playing the highest stakes, aside from the rare and egregrious fish, what are some subtle distinctions between winning/marginal/losing players?
Phil's A: think that a lot of medium-good but not great players probably undervalue betsize/timing tells. Especially against weaker opposition.
Q: Also, do you believe that some inherently winning players (that is, with the skills to win) end up losing longterm, and vice versa?
Phil's A: Some players are smart enough and work hard enough to win, but lose because of 'soft skill' leaks. Things like game selection, BR management and tilt control.
Q: Looking back what are some things you would change or stress for someone looking to get to your level to do or not to do? Any mistakes you made a lot that took you a few times to learn?
A: The best thing I ever did for my poker game was meet other people who played poker. My poker friends and coaches helped me move up 3x faster than I would've on my own.
I'd also recommend trying to eliminate autopiloting. Too many players can't make the jump into bigger games because they don't know how to think for themselves. They just play a TAG cookie cutter style and think it will continue working because they crushed the lower limits with it.
Some rant about goals: I think it is very important to identify your goals as a poker player so that you can act in a way to achieve them.
Do you just want to have fun playing? What’s fun for you? What would keep you from having fun? Do you want to make money? How much? When? In the next two weeks? For the next 10 years of your life? Can the big money wait? Do you want to keep getting better? At what game? Why?
Q: You also mentioned that when players have coaches, they often don't ask the right questions. In your opinion, what are some of the things most players should be focused on but aren't?
A: Along the same lines, a player should go through hands he's played or is playing and say "I (bet $x/called/raised/folded) because _____" Is my logic good?
The coach should ask more questions about what the player is thinking... "why is (bet x) better than (bet y) or c/r?" "What hands that you think he can have are you hoping will call/fold to that bet?" and listen to the players' response. For the first session, the coach shouldn't volunteer what he thinks the correct play is IMO.
Q: How long (hands/time) does it take you to identify fish in the games you typically play in?
A: If I'm paying full attention, not too long. If there's a new player that I don't recognize in a big game, I make sure to watch his play, and go back and look at any hand he showed down. That's where I get the most info.
Q: What are the top 3 or so indicators that first tip you off you are playing a fish? (what are the ones that first surface, as opposed to ones you only figure out over time)
A: If someone is playing a ton of hands, or open limping all the time, you can expect them to play badly elsewhere.
The second fastest is probably bet sizing. Usually regulars keep to a standard bet size style.
Usually what helps the most is seeing a shown down hand, and realizing that whatever logic he was using doesn't make sense. I know thats vague but I don't have an example in mind.
Q: What are the key reads that you find most important to use? or the ones you use most frequently? ie. how he plays draws? how thin he valuebets? timing tells? etc?
A: Flop and turn play are big for me. How light people call flop/raise flop is important. As is how often they fire turns, and with what hands. Are they pot controlling top pair? Are they checking the turn back with 8+ outs sometimes or always firing?
Q: What do you think is the most important game trait a HU player can have to be successful and why? Tilt control, patience, hand reading, aggression, game selection, etc.?
And what do you think was the most profound concept or tool you added to your HU game while developing it?
A: Tilt control is huge. Hand reading is important in all poker, but moreso heads up, because less hands play themselves.
I realize as I'm going down the list, everything is important, heh. You have the right idea. None are really more important than others I would say, and HU poker isn't THAT much different than regular poker.
I think though, understanding and adapting to an opponent is the most important thing I've learned to do for my HU game.
Q: What do you think the number one misconception about poker is? (On 2p2, not the general public consensus that its all about bluffing)
A: Ugh, so many. I basically don't talk to non poker players about poker. They're all so retarded when it comes to poker.
Misconceptions the average person has:
-they understand poker
-it's mostly luck, I'm gonna lose eventually
-tv pros are the best
-it doesn't take intelligence
-poker players are low life degenerates (becoming less and less true. I get personally offended anytime this stereotype is reinforced)
Q: 1) In a lot of your responses you mention the importance of having the right thought processes at the table. Can you please elaborate on what some of the correct thought processes are and what a player should be asking himself or thinking about at the table and during a hand?
A: Your question is a good one, but one that I would answer over 12 hours of coaching or an entire book. In short, you should be asking yourself why you want to make a play, ever play. If you have a good reason for it, better than your reasons for other plays, then you should make it.
Q: can you elaborate further around especially betsizing and timinig tells. Do you have any labels on patterns that you use?
Do you have any suggested reading covering this?
A: Betsize and timing tells are learned with practice.
The best general tip I can give on the subject is, there is always a reason everyone bets the size that they do or at the speed that they do. Often it's because they want you to do something, either consciously or subconsciously. Try to figure out what they want you to do. Then, don't do it.
It will make most sense if it's all put together, the amazing Tommy Angelo spent close to a year making this series and it's probably the best series any poker player can watch through.
Took me around 10+ hours writing the notes about the most important stuff, because when I write notes I do it with a pen while I'm studying, and I write really ugly lol. Here is the whole journey.
- Example of wrong view: When we are result orientated (When we base an alayzis of a decision on how things turn out, rather than basing it on the decision itself.) Happens when we analyze a betting decision, quitting decision etc.
- Right view: Not being results orientated (result orientated just an example)
Tilt
- "Tilt is any non A-game performance." (Tired, under bankrolled, emotional unstable, etc.)
- Anything that changes your good decisions, to making bad decisions, is tilt.
Being results orientated effects our evaluation
Example: We make a play, it didn't work out, and we think we made a horrible play, and can easily put ourself on tilt, even if the play might have been pretty good.
The professional:
- The little Angel/voice on your shoulder
- What if there was a guy, who had to make money of poker, or die
*All of his decisions will be based on his poker, what he eats, when he sleeps, what he thinks, anything in his controle, it's all metagame for this fictional character*
- What if all "my" decisions were based on maximizing my poker profits?
* Will influence on how I will behave (wouldn't badmouth the casino, want people to be happy, and come there, want players to come there and play. So last thing would be, say something bad about the Casino).
- What if all my decisions including what I say, were based on profit, what would I say, what would I do (How you can use "The professional" as a guide).
More examples of wrong view
- The whole idea by being bugged all day by a hand is something you want to let go
- Any time you think "I finally got a hand, I finally won a pot etc" let it go
- "There was this total fish at the table" (There's no fish/donk/at the table, wrong view) let it go (Look at them as trees instead lol)
- Having a big pair, waiting for an Ace to come (terrible view)
- Hating anything a fish(tree) /regular does is wrong view
Look at things for what it is, there's no room for fear
The gray area
That part of poker strategy evaluation, when you just don't know what the right play is or was, and you never will. And it's built in the nature of the game.
"The decisions that bother us the most matter the least."
(Decisions where your EV was 50% wether you would have bet or folded).
In our mind we're latched to take one side or another
- You don't want anything in/around the grey area to cloud/bother you mind. Don't get stuck in the quagmire of the grey area. All it does it bring us down
Belive and accept that a lot of decisions are very close, and neither would make a diffrence
- Suggestion: Recognize when you've come upon one of those, analyze them, and think what you should have done, then move on. FAST!
(Usually these decisions who get loooong threads on the forum, with a myriads of opinions who's right and wrong, and people fight to the death about it. When you find these, move along).
Interessting fact: 75% of all poker players think they play better than the other 75%.
The grey area is so huge, allows any of us to over evaluate our own play.
More on right view
- A good poker player wants to put himself in +EV spots, by evaluating profitable situations
- A guy who finds a table which looks really juicy, might say: Wow, a table full of fishes(trees) who sucks ass, I'm better than all of these isn't evaluating, he's juding
Judge versus evaluate
Judging is when you bring in type of words which move towards wrong thinking. When you attatch to those words, it detracts from your ability to evaluate.
Improving from the top up and the bottom up
A diffrent approach to how you spend the energy that you put toward improving your score.
- Improve not only your A game, but your C game aswell
- Conciously spend 50% of your energy improving your C game, so when you're losing/playing bad, you don't lose that much, and can get faster back to your A game.
Example of C game:
- You get stuck, and you start playing looser, chasing your losses
(A lot has to do with awareness)
Be honest with yourself, say to yourself (When Im stuck i play to loose, i need to keep tight).
- Bad beats
- When you play bad (compounding tilt)
(When I play bad, I'm very harsh on myself, and go on tilt)
- When too tired, when drunk, berating the fish, so on so on.
(Monster leak to critizise other players.)
Ungracious, un generous way to treat another human being. If your motive is purely profit, there's a much higher road to take.
Summary of Right View
Myself:
- To look at yourself with no delustions, no distortions. It means to be able to step out of ourself and observe ourself in a situation, and be able to objectively evaluate what we are doing without emotional entanglement. This is the rightest view of all, that can help us at the poker table, and anywhere we are. Especially if we find ourself struggling with strong emotions we wish we didn't have.
Example:
Driving, it's one of the most irritating thing we do. People who might be calm and compassionate, lose their cool when driving.
(Right view does not say, you should be good all the time, you should improve yourself. Right view is just the act of being able to view yourself, and being able to say "I am angry now" Without saying "there's something wrong with me for being angry"
- Better off if you can label your emotions
My opponents:
- They're an obstacle, in the way (Look at them as just tree on a golf course). And not hold them accountable, or be emotionally evolved with them. And will let you properly evaluate things.
My play:
- Be constantly aware that you have different levels of preformance. A B C game. What right view does, doesn't pretend your in ur A game all the time, opens your eyes when you're in their C game. Everyone has them.
- Being aware of the diffrent level you preform at, and being aware of which ones your in.
- Knowing your actual weaknesses and strengths within the betting strategy. (Calling big bet to bluff, not being comfortable being the one who bluff etc)
- With no delusions or distortions, step outside yourself to give a good evaluation
End thought
What makes something right view, is the lack of wrong view. (The lack of judgment, the lack of emotional attachment.) The thing added on to a "story". Just tell it honestly.
position
anticipation
door A door B
reciprocality
the rake
the rules
lopping off the C game
(play when ur most awake, most energtic, don't eat a big meal so on).
"Losing less is a form of winning."
Examples of C game: Playing too many hands
(Become aware that ur in C game, ignore all D rank hands.)
Find out where your bars are, and remember them when you feel on ur c game. And never go below.
door A door B (applies to any betting decisions).
Always have 2 options, betting or checking, not saying one is better, but you always wanna be looking, which one is better.
- Have the concept of seeing everything as a choice. (You have an option)
- Look for every little bit of edges you can find (site, table selection, rake deals so forth).
Position
- "There's really only two positions. There's last, and non-last."
(Like,4 way multiway, 2nd to last isn't in position).
- Whoever is last has huge advantage, not 2nd to laste.
- It doesn't matter if you don't understand position, it's so fundementally profitable to be last, comparing to be non last.
"Acting last is like taking a drink of water. We don't have to understand why it's so good for us to know tht it is. And the benefits are unaffected by our understanding of them".
- Adjust ur betting strategy, in a way that results in you being last more then them.
Positions crushes dominaces hard (AT vs AK blabla osv). Dominance is overrated.
Example: if one guy in last pos has KJ, early pos has KQ, chances of a K actually hitting the flop is same as a set. And when it does happen, the late position guy will lose a lot less than he would if he was oop, and win a lot more when he hits.
Anticipation
- The only thing you need to anticipate is a bet or a raise.
- In theory, if you're good at anticipating, you'l Never ever ever ever ever.... be surprsied.
- If your oponents check, you bet, and he check raises you, if you right then and there have to make a decision, didn't see it coming. You should have already decided.
A) It will make your bet better (When you already considderd he might raise).
(Or if you told yourself, if he check raises, I'll fold)
It's easier to let go, but if you get surprised It's really easy to get sucked in or make a mistake.
"Plan the street."
Ps, It's really really hard to not get surprised (omg omg now what)
- Takes a lot of training, it's a big emotional spike, and by anticipating it, you're ready, and more focused. Repetition, focusing on that task.
* Makes your mechanics eerly scripted
anticipation = better betting and less tilt
The Rake
"Separate the rake as a business expense."
- The rake is huuuuuge
Rules
"Don't think of any rule as being good or bad, or right or wrong."
- When we have resistance to our rules somewhere else, it throws us of. "Mind noise" and that can have only one effect on us.
- Don't wanna sit at a casino thinking "ffs, that is a dumb rule"
* Be in complete acceptance. Adapt to new rules (buy ins, bettings, blind structure, so forth). (Avoid creating a negative state in your mind).
- Righting thinking is, avcourse there is gonna be new rules here and there. The rules is the rules.
Goals and Targets
- People have a tendency to not want easy goals, because goals should be hard to obtain. So people then tend to set goals which are unobtainable, because then it won't matter if you don't make them, because it's so far fetched. (I wanna play perfect poker, I want to never tilt.)
- People want to avoid hard goals they could in theory be able to reach, but don't want to feel like a failure when they don't reach them within the given timelimit.
"Just because you don't hit a target doesn't mean you're a failure."
Methaphor: If you throw a log in the ocean, then like to throw rocks at it, sometimes you'll get close to your target, sometimes you'll miss and sometimes you'll hit
Success or failure is detrimental to a poker player.
- Much better to think of whatever sort of projections of things you hope to happen in the future, of targets, you aim, sometimes you make it, sometimes you miss it. (You pick up another stone and go at it again).
Goals have an inherent time frame that takes you into the future (We don't want to be in the future). We wanna play our A game NOW!!.
Targets: "Playing this next hand well, or saying the right things" Targets can be in the moment.
" A target can be a constant stream of present tense attempts."
- The word targets leans us to right thinking, and goal takes us to all the places we don't want to be.
The four noble truths of C game
- C game exists (I you're gonna be a poker player, you're gonna have a c game. No way around it)
- the cause of C game. Desire, attachment. Exactly the same cause of all suffering, and rears it ugly head in poker and causes C game.
"Only when we truly understand the cause of C game, can we move to the third noble truth. Which is how to end it."
- The cessation of C game: How to end it, how to be unattached, how to be not full of craving.
- The instruction. (The eightfold path). The instructions which digs right to the heart of undoing the cause of C game, which then will undo the C game.
- Mindfulness is the oposite of mindlessness. Unfortunatly how most of us go about living our lives, puppets on a string, doing anything people want us to do.
- One of the most common misconception about the buda stuff is "you want to empty ur mind, get rid of the feeling" But it's the oposite, you observe your thoughts, you observe your feelings. Witnessing them.
- None of us are ever rarely a good witness.
"Mindlessness is our normal state of mind." (Our default operating system.)
"Mindfulness is intentional awareness."
"Mindfulness melts away anger" (If you get really angry, and you become aware, you tell yourself I am angry now, then it will go away.)
- Mindfulness is a tool which directly relate to how you play poker, will tilt less. And carries on into your regular life. (See it as a tilt reduction tool.)
Breathing
- This is the best tool there is for practicing mindfulness. The reason is, it's always with us, we're always breathing.
- The act of being mindful, is putting ur effort and ur mind to something which is happening right now. Mindfulwalking, standing, sitting, looking, listen, so forth.
(All ways you can look at mindfulness, but the one that trumphs them all, is breathing.)
To practice minful breathing, there is 2 main ways
* Counting you breath
1 in, 2 out, 3 in, 4 out, 5 in, 6 out...... (count to 10, then start again.)
* Following your breath
" Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I am aware that I am breathing out."
- The only practice you'll ever need, if you want to train yourself to be mindful of your thoughts and your actions, and what's going on around you."
Benefits: Forcing your mind away from it's own wrenching, ongoing thinking.
- In the moment you gain the benefit of not being consumed by your thoughts
- And when you do do it, you can't help but notice, that you are consumed by ur thoughts
- Take the training wheels off, and count when you breath out, in then out and two on the second exhale.
"And when you lose count, that's fine. It's like, the whole point. That we can't hold the count is a symptom of an affliction that counting cures.
Breath > Body calms mind > Mind calms body
(Like a circle of effects.)
"The breath is the link between the mind and the body."
- If you can do this at peak agitation, there's tremendous benefits
"The moments when you're most agitated are exactly those moments when you're most lost in your thoughts."
- The more practice you do, the better you get at it. Increase the % of mindful breaths in your life.
* The intense way of doing this is Meditation.
* The closest synonom in the English language is Concentration.
(Bringing your mind to focus, listening to stuff, great skills for poker.)
Poker is so distracting, we're constantly being dragged into the past, thinking of the future, noise, anxiety, so forth generated in your mind.
- Very smart to practice them in your life, then drag them into poker, or vice verca.
The four postures
We are always doing one of four things in life
* Laying down
* Walking
* Sitting
* Standing
What's so awesome bout this is, if our objective is to put more mindfulness in our life. All we have to do it put more of it into when we're doing one of the four things.
Something to try: Lay down on ur bed, have ur legs straight, arms on ur side, just do some breathing, a few breaths. Even if your tired, laying there in bed, the act of focusing, can wake you up, and you'll become more vitalized.
- The act of concentrating will give you more energy.
Walking: A practice to do at home, practice at going very slowly, and breath once every 2 or 3 steps, back and forth, concentrating on ur feet, on ur breathing. What happens is when ur doing other stuff, instead of ur mind going bzz, you'll do it other places, a casino, buying groceries.
(Maybe not smart doing this in public lol.)
Standing: Stand straight, mindful breathing, can do it anywhere.
Sitting (Biggest one of all, the posture we're in when we play poker):
*Will increase the winrate of ANY poker player*
- Posture, and there's breathing. Arrange your leg straight down, spine straight. Like a sphinx sitting. It's gonna be a huge improvement of not having good posture.
(Unrealistic sitting 1,5 hour in correct posture, but any amount of time is a huge improvement, just keep adding time, even if it's just 30 seconds.)
- Singletasking and online poker: Don't multi task when multi tabling, msn, phone, mail, looking at tv, so forth.
- Interessting thought: When someone calls you, and your playing poker, either stop playing take the phone, or don't answer. It's disrespectful not giving someone your whole attention.
"Play when you're playing."
Mindful listening
- When you're in a concentration, the other person starts talking, you concentrate on your breathing.
(What will happen the mind energy which would normally be thinking of, what am I gonna say next, yeah I have a story like that, yeah he's wrong. You'll be more likely to actually be hearing them, hearing what they are saying. And it's a beautiful thing when you can keep the conversation on the other person, but not be faking it, but actually interested. And that happens when your own thoughts arent stirred by what they say.)
"So easy to be consumed in your own reality all the time"
- The way to break that chain of churning thought is the tool of mindful breathing.
When to practice
- You can do it all the time
"Think of being agitated as an opportunity to practice not being agitated."
- Being bored is something that can be eliminated with mindful thinking, because your observering what's happening around you all the time, no matter what it is.
(The main thing about it, it takes time before you get the benefits.)
Shedding mental weight
- Understanding practicing will make you more thoughtful/tiltless, understanding, easier to enjoy moment to moment, you do actually have to do the work.
"You do this for me, I do this for you, the former."
Reciprocality
"In the world of reciprocality, it's not what you do that matters most, and it's not what they do. It's both."
- No thing in poker is isolated. (I bet, that was good, it's in correalation to what you opponent does.)
" Reciprocality says that when you and your opponents would do the same thing in a given situation, no money moves, and when you do something different, it does."
Information reciprocality
- It's as simple as not giving up information in situations they would.
- Each time you don't give out information, you gain.
(example, raging after bad beat, making comment, so forth, just stay quiet, muck the hand, nothing.)
"There's two sides of the information coin at all times, there's giving information and receiving information."
The Information War
- Recieve more, and send less, and you win the information war.
(Anytime you can isolate a situation, where you're able to do something diffrent than they do, which is profitable, which comes again over and over again, you're gonna make a ton of money.)
- Important to put effort into sending less information, and recieve more.
- You work on moving less, moving ur tongue less, eyes less, hands less, shoulders less, everything.
- Where does the money come from ? Is it just from playing good? No. It's from playing diffrent than they do.
- Giving off little information is profitable.
- Over time, this will add up huge.
The origin of reciprocality
- From duplicate Bridge, where everyone plays the same hands.
- In poker, a good way to see if you played the hand well is, at the river, when hands are shown, imagine you had his hand, he had yours, and then play the hand out in ur head. What would have happend.
"Reciprocal Analysis"
Reciprocality
- Look for, create, and amplify profitable differences.
Life: Can look at it with life as well, for instance, you eat meatballs and spaghetti and get stuffed, the other guy eat some salad and yogurt, and you sit down and play poker.
" Mine for reciprocal gold inside any decision that impacts your poker game."
- Any sort of health asspect is major. (Correct sleep, working out, so forth.)
- If you feel good and sharp all the time, you earn a hell of a lot more money.
Reciprocal analysis
- Example: You bet the river, he calls, you reverse the street, you get his hand, he bets, you would have folded.
"You can use this tool on just one street, or a combination of streets."
Reciprocality in action: Look what people aren't doing, and do that, till they find a counter strategy, then do something else people aren't doing. (Example, when people started 3 betting light, then people started 4betting light, so forth.)
Acting Last
" You can think of there being two positions: last and non-last."
How strong is acting last? It's strong, so strong. The act of being last is monumental.
What does this mean as far as reciprocality matters?
"If you can act last more than they do, you have created an advantage."
Acting last. how to create it?
- playing the button more often than they do
- folding the blinds more than they do
- And how you decide to play in the high jack and cut-off (Play it really aggressive.)
- Multiway pot, you're middle position, first guy bets, you raise, guy behind you fold, now you're last on turn and river.
"Anytime you take action which puts you last more than they do, you made a reciprical advantage."
Bankroll reciprocality
- How you partition your money, and where it actually physicly exists, compared to your opponents money.
"Anything that is not your A-game, we are defining as tilt."
"Tilt reciprocality is anytime you tilt less than your opponent would in the same situation."
Tilt reciprocality is your slippage matched up against everybody else's. Tilt reciprocality recognizes that any reduction, however small, in the frequencies, durations, and depths of your own tiltings will always have the effect of favorably widening the gap between your tilt and theirs, thereby earning immediate reciprocal advantage. To make money from tilt, you don't need to be tiltless. But you do have to tilt less.
Rolling with the reciprocality flow
"There's no absolute right or wrong way to play poker, ever. It's entirely dependent on what other people are doing."
* That's why being adaptive and flexible is critical.
- You want to have all the skills available, play extra tight when they are not, and you need to play looser when they are not.
- Preflop % Is something to always be looking for.
Reciprocality and mindfulness
- Be more mindful than your oponent in situations where it is more profitable than mindlessness.
- mindfulness can be seen as a renewable energy sources which never goes dry.
What is the diffrence that makes the biggest diffrence? The ultimate reciprocality?
As it turns out it has nothing to do with the diffrences between ourself an our opponent, and has everything to do with how we are today, and how we are tomorrow.
And that's why this practice with mindfulness is the ultimate
place to mine for recpirocal gold. Because what we are really doing when we remember to put more attention to what is happening now, than we did in the previous hour, day, week, is that we are generating profit, in ourself, in our lives. By making ourself happier people.
What this mean?
If we want to try and take the concept of reciprocality, and apply it at it's very highest level, toward the objective of reducing our suffering, the suffering around us, then all reciprocality should be thought of as being internal.
" Quitting is the one poker topic that touches our regular lives the most directly and most often."
"It is the demarcation between poker and non-poker."
Toughing it out
- The difference between normal manual labour and poker is that, when you do feel out of your A game, and don't feel up for it, you can still do the work, and get a paycheck at a normal job. In poker, you will lose money.
- Everytime you feel out of your game or damaged, you shouldn't necessarily quit. If you're a professional
"This whole quitting topic is deeply complex because each person is different, and each person is changing all the time."
(Just tossing out wide area of nets)
- Each individual needs to learn to know/feel themself good when they aren't on their A game, and what might bring them close to it, or how to refocus.
From Tommy's book:
I have always had very strict policies when it comes to quitting, even when I first started playing poker. Back then I had two main quitting rules that I never broke. I would always quit if I was out of money and nobody would lend me any, and I would always quit if everybody else did.
Taking Breaks
*Very important topic*
- Possible to recharge your engine, back to your A game if it's started to detoriate.
- Usually people take breaks because they want to pee, disturbances, get food so forth
- Really smart to take breaks just to take a break, because you been sitting for too long, you're starting to become flusterd, harder to focus, so forth.
"Walking away is easy. The hard part is standing up."
If you really wanna take on quitting as a skillset, as a new challenge, body of work that you're gonna undertake. The way to do that is thinking of taking a break, as quitting practice, because everytime you're taking a break, you're going away from the table.
(Only practicing the act of walking away in the middle of the table.)
What to do on breaks
*Start thinking of your beaks in a completly different way, you're not taking a break to do anything, you do it to remove yourself from teh game, physically, and mentally, and this takes effort.*
- Doing something that takes your mind off the game
- Just concentrate on the act your doing, on yourself, concentrate on the present tense and what's going on, do the breathing.
- If you play online, It's never smart to play more than 1hour to 1hour30min, take a break, do something, do sit ups, push ups, something.
- The reason why after we've sat down, feel fresh and sharp, playing our A game, then after 1 hour, 2 hours, we just feel, deteriorated, exhausted, flusterd is because we've accumulated mental stuff.
(Like an accumilation of weights, baggage.)
- Take breaks when you feel good. (We have a tendency to take breaks when we feel like shit.) Do it before desperate time.
EVERYTIME YOU TAKE A BREAK, YOU ARE QUITTING
- Have to practice quitting when it's really difficult.
Use the "object of the game" concept to practice quitting.
Quitting "lopping off the C game"
"Lopping off the C-game has such enormous long term effects."
- On your well being, happiness, bankroll, friends, family, so forth.
- We tend not to think in long term, but saving the cash you "waste" end of long session is huge. Lopping off the C game which starts to creep in
"I see quitting as a tool to use toward this higher objective of loppinf off the C game."
"If you want to lop of C-game, you need to trim back the end of your worst sessions."
I was about to go play poker at a local casino. I hadn't slept all that well but I had showered and walked and I had convinced myself that I was good to go. I was at the door, saying goodbye to my wife, when this big yawn opened up on my face.
Wife: "Are you sure you want to go play right now?"
And I'm like, "Yes."
And she said, "Well, of course you know if you are ready or not. I'm just saying, it's never wrong to not play."
It's never wrong to not play.
It's never wrong to not play.
I let those words melt over me for a second. Then I walked to my desk and wrote them down, and stayed home.
Stack size matters
- If the only one with same stacksize is to your left, good idea to quit (Both of you 200bb.) Ideally, you want him to your right.
- If players who are better than you are deep, the worse ones have small stacks, good idea to quit as well. (If not weigh heavily to your decisions.)
Stop losses
- Completly personal, it's about knowing yourself, it's about knowing when you need one, and actually doing it.
- If you get rid of your tilt, you don't need a stop loss.
"You can't fix tilt with stop loss."
- Stop loss are only related on how big your bankroll will be in comparisontment to not stopping.
- A lot of people tilt really bad when they're stuck, stop loss is not only a good idea, it's essential, until they get their tilt under controle.
"Long range stop loss strategies are a good thing."
- Stop losses are a great idea for they who need em.
Quitting: Earn rate matters
"Good quitting requires seeing deeply into ourselves and being able to analyze our actual performance at each moment."
Quitting, pain, tilt and fear
- Quit, and relieve our suffering at poker, so we can play again. When we quit well.
- When you know you're a good quitter, gives you a level of safety and security. When you're not afraid of having those terrible sessions, because you know you'll be able to quit, that relives the fear of that pain.
"From Elements of poker"
I think of quitting as a skill set unto itself, with branching subsets of skills for each type of quitting situation. There's knowing how to quit at limit games, and there's knowing how to quit at no-limit. There's knowing how to quit when you have a curfew, and when you don't. There's being able to quit when you're ahead, and when you're stuck. There's quitting when you feel good, and for when that doesn't happen, you need to know how to quit when you feel bad.
Quitting is a skill, it's a poker skill, it's one that you can work on, it's one that very few people do work on. This isn't on how to play poker, this is how to be a poker player, quitting is becoming a poker player.
Right view begets right speech (Because often what we say are just reflection of what's in our mind.)
When we can control what's in our mind, we can control what comes out of our mind, and we can calm situations, calm ourselves, which also causes reduction of suffering, absorb the stuff that comes at you, which will reduce tilt as well.
Scaring the fish ?
Does it cost you money? (Will it make them quit if you harass them, make them play better?)
Wrong speech....
You're also stirring up some negative mojo inside you.
"Clear your mind of the evil that could put you on tilt."
Think of it as, purifying your mind, undoing of wrong speech (Which is the same as right speech.)
Chatting online
"Look at typing in the chat box purely from an EV standpoint."
Do you think your probability of making miss clicks is increased or decreased by typing in the chatbox?
It can't be positive EV to type in the chat box.
Reasons to keep your fingers quiet:
- You'll make fewer mistakes.
- You'll optimize information reciprocality.
If you're actively using msn/aim.
You'll divert power to making money. Any language uses up a lot of brain power.
Upside of chatting and aIM-ing while playing:
- soothing
- humor
- release
"Awareness is the most important thing."
- For people who are unsure, test, try play a few hours not using it, to see how that makes you feel.
* Extremely easy to miss out on profitable spots where you "give up" on a hand, and it goes check check on the next street as well, and you could have taken it down if you were paying attention, hugely + EV
Posting online
If we just take a minute to not be so "reactive" then we're a little more likely to say what we really want to say, in the way we want to say it.
*One of the problems with talking to people and we say things we regret, is because we immediately reacted, didn't take a split second to just pause, so we're not mindlessly reacted.*
- It's the nature of message boards that people tend to post when they disagree. So when you post something, there's a high probability that you're going to get a disagreeing reaction.
- So when someone replies to your hand "I think you played this like a moron, I hate you." React with, sitting up straight, breathe, and think before replying. Or rise completely above it.
- Your happiness, your thoughts, never need to be dependent on what someone else write/says/thinks about you, ever...
Thought is such a dangerous thing, they come out of people's mouth, they intent one thing, and gets interpreted another way, and then get's miss interpret even worse.
Rise above it
Not being thrown of what people say is an essential skill not to be put on tilt.
Online anonymity
"Don't poison your own mind."
Stillness
"You can't hear what is quieter than you."
- You need to still your mind, then you can hear what comes in at all levels.
- When you're talking, you're not going to hear people who are lower than you.
The whole idea by being still, is to CRUSH your opponents in the information world.
Theory of mum
mumpoker = Silent poker, two days of doing it:
* Don't talk/interact speak about anything poker related to anyone at the table/or in the chat box. But react to non poker stuff.
* Don't speak to anyone, remain silent no matter what at the table.
- Usually people respect people's right to remain silent.
Sixth Street / Defined
Everything that happen at the poker table after the last round of betting is done. (Can go on for a long time.)
* Don't explain anything, or make any excuses. Don't get dragged in when people shoot at you, or question you.*
Shutoff answers: Anytime anyone ask you a specific questions, no matter what it is, just say Yes. No matter the question, shuts them all of. (If that won't work, say something where you use as few words as possible, and use same answer for everything.)
Some words from his book
- Bet with your hands, not with your mouth.
- Never call for the clock on another player.
- When you are going to raise, and you are goign to state the amount you raise, do not begin to speak until you know what you are going to say.
- Do not say the word "call" unless your call is the final betting action of the entire hand. And even then, only sometimes, such as when you have the nuts or a probable winner, and you are doing a courtesy fast roll. In that case you would simultaneously turn your hand over and say "call."
- Sixth street starts when the betting stops. Sixth street is when players let their guard down, as if all of a sudden it's safe to reveal classified secrets to the enemy. It's like they don't even know the war is still going on.
Upgrades
- Right speech cures foot in mouth disease.
- Stop saying stuff you often regret right after, gossip, stop the cruel toxic language.
- Right speech is close to right view, changing views and ideas, poisonous words.
- The act of not blaming other people for thing, or yourself.
"Blame is a form of cruelty."
Ending words
Whatever you do, end things with a smile on your face. No matter if you lose or win.
- Instead of always sitting down to "make money" you change the object of the game, can be for instance.
*Today I want to try that new seat selection ting
- A tool, ideas to implement new things to the game. And this itself is right action.
Bankroll, under the heading of Right action
net worth (Everything)
poker bankroll (What you only play poker for)
pocket bankroll (What you have available at that moment.)
table bankroll (What's right in front of you, what you have in front of you.)
Thinking of it this way, is really healthy for your bankroll. These labels can be helpful making good decisions.
The purpose of your poker bankroll
"it's like buying mental insurance"
- What you need to avoid risk of ruin, and/or so you can keep on your A game, so you're never freaking out of going out of money.
Moving up
- Usually the minimum is 300BB or 20bi (Is a bit absurd.)
- There needs to be a range, so you don't move up, post the Big blind, then you don't have enough bi, and need to move down?
- Taking shots ? smartest to do strategically. So you decide the amount of "BI/BB" you want to use in that shot. Find out exactly how much you're going to take a shot with.
Moving down
- Moving down is just part of the game. Have to accept there will be big backward streets.
(Ideally we want to get to a place where we're not ashamed of it, but playing bad is part of poker, it's about accepting reality as it is.)
"Each day that we wake up, our bankroll is what it is, and it doesn't matter how it got there."
- Ideally you want to make a decision based on the size of your bankroll. Take the ego out of it, best you can.
This of moving up as a skill set unto itself. Think about the challenges that will be common to all of your move-ups, and prepare:
* You might not survive forever at the higher level. You might need to employ one of the vital skills for moving up, which is moving down.
Bankroll tilt: If you're one of the people who like to go higher stakes when you go on tilt, might be very smart to keep smaller amounts on that site.
Selections
* Site selection
- People have their own prefrance, the skin, the rake, the traffic, the software.
* Game selection
- Nl, razz, omaha, fixed, fullring, 6max, hu, tournaments so forth, smart to stick to what ur best at and excell
* Table selection, by way of rejection
- Find good games, and leave when they go sour
* Stakes selection
- all related to bankroll, what is your comfort zone, and where you like to play to keep emotional stability. Good idea to have 3 ranges, find the softest.
* Seat selection / and rejection
- This one is huge, important decision which makes a huge difference in the long run. You want TIGHT players on your left (flop seen %.) More important than having a loose player at your right.
- You don't want a complete maniac on your left
"Make your seat selection decisions as if the object of the game is to be last to act on as many streets as possible."
Live poker crap
- Look at your cards just when you get them, so you won't get in a sticky situation by looking at them when it's your turn and everyone is looking at you.
- Be ready to often look to ur left, to try and find out if he's going to bet, raise or call, really smart.
- Fast-roll is cool and smart if you're a good guy, slow-rolling is for idiots.
- Don't act super fast when it gets to you, breath think, then do stuff.
- Some people get more comfy wearing sunglasses and hats, if you do, that's fine, even though a lot of people are going to judge you. But you don't care about that.
Firstlessness
"Any player who consciously makes a move toward more firstlessness rates to increase their score by doing so." (At least a good experiment to try.)
"Don't chase your blinds."
Miscellaneous topics
Number of tables to play
- Live, smart to play just 1.
- If you know the number of most tables you can play, smart to cut down 1-2 tables of that.
Going pro
- It's a lot harder than everybody think it is
- For the people that it's right for, it's worth the risk, it's worth the pain
- Extremely personal topic, that's why so many people hire coaches.
Judge versus Evaluate
- When you encounter ideas, or things that happen, what other people do. You don't immediately think "that's right, that's wrong" You act above the act of judging, you observe.
Summary
- The best thing any player can do, is to sit upright, breathe. Literally puts a roadblock into the stream of unconscious thoughts that binds us to ego, cravings and desire. Helps us focus, concentrate and being mindful.
Some explanation of harmlessness at the deepest level in some buddhist thing
"When we harm ourselves, we are harming others, and when we harm others, we are harming ourselves." (Because we are all one, won't make any sense to a lot of people, but that's how it is.)
* If that's too complicated, start with, do no harm to yourself, don't blame yourself, don't be so hard on yourself.
I was a great tilter. I knew all the different kinds. I could do steaming tilt, simmering tilt, too loose tilt, too tight tilt, too aggressive tilt, too passive tilt, playing too high tilt, playing too long tilt, playing too tired tilt, entitlement tilt, annoyed tilt, injustice tilt, frustration tilt, sloppy tilt, revenge tilt, underfunded tilt, overfunded tilt, shame tilt, distracted tilt, scared tilt, envy tilt, this-is-the-worst-pizza-I've-ever-had tilt, I-just-got-showed-a-bluff tilt, and of course, the classic: I-gotta-get-even tilt, and I-only-have-so-much-time-to-lose-this-money-tilt, also known as demolition tilt.
The actual cause of the tilt is the attachment to the thing we lost. It isn't the loss in itself.
More from Tommy's book
I'd tilt, and I'd look back on my tiltings, and I started seeing cycles, and then cycles withing cycles, and before long, I started to see my entire poker future as a ceaseless fluctuation between tight and tilt.
The grand delusion
"The grand delusion is that external things are making us unhappy, and that external things will make us happy."
*If only I had the next thing, I'll be happy, if I didn't lose that I'd be happy.*
"It's all about attachment."
- That's why poor people who have nothing is way happier than people who have tons of stuff.
- There's no amount of accumulation that is going to give us peace of mind. It simply can't happen that way. And the delusion is that we go through our whole lives, despite the evidence, still believing that if only I had that one more thing, I would be happy.
"Totally about attachment and desire."
- All fears are attached to attachment.
A big day in my career was the day I realized that tomorrow I would still be a tilter.
The grand premise
That we want to be happier than we are now, and we want to be more deeply happy, more often.
More from Tommy's book
I figured if I ever went broke at poker, it wouldn't be because my best wasn't good enough to keep me afloat. It'd be because my worst was bad enough to sink me.
bankrolls and bodies
"If only we could just live our bankroll, every single second, no matter what it was, the amount of agony we would let go of is H U G E."
Defining suffering
- If you slam your hand in the car door, that's pain, nerves sending signals to your brain causing you pain. That is not suffering.
- The stuff that gets stirred up in your head, "this is going to hurt for a week" that's suffering
* Suffering is an affliction*
Countless different kinds of suffering, here are some examples:
- Worry
- regret
- fear
- anger
- stress
- dissatisfaction
- annoyance
- conflict
- panic
- unease
- I'm to fat
- I'm to skinny
- regret
- I'm too busy
- inadequate
- nervousness
- aggravation
Ignorance, in regular language the way we use it, it means lack of knowledge, not knowing.
In the Buddhist teachings, it's a word that gets used along the lines of delusion, but not intended that way.
The root word for it is "ignore". Good to look at it as ignore - ance, not pay attention
Emptiness
Tiltnessness
metaphors / tuning your instrument
- Look at yourself like the instrument, in the morning, take a few minuts to meditate and tune yourself, or when you take a break from a session, or just in the middle of a session, if just for a few seconds.
(The metaphor is, if you have an orchestra, they will sound like shit, traffic noise, if they don't tune themselves before they start.)
Tiltlessness
a few metaphors / water in a lake
- Think of your mind like the water in a lake, on the surface, it's sometimes smooth, sometimes it's wind, and it causes waves. Or if a big rock comes into the lack, it causes a big splash.
- But the really cool thing is, is right under the surface of the lake, it's always smooth, it's always calm. All you have to do it still yourself, calm yourself, and connect with that part of yourself.
Tiltlessness
a few metaphors / Surfing
- Another way to breathe, pretend you're surfing the breath.
Tiltlessness
a few metaphors / Tilted poker is like crooked teeth
- It's not your fault, and it can be fixed.
* What it comes from, is the entire sum of human suffering, accumulation of the non mindfulness, that is the cause of tilt*
- It will take some time, small changes, but in the end of it all, you'll smile a lot more.
More from Tommy's book
Tilt has many causes and kinds, but it has only one effect. It makes us play bad.
Best Tilt Inducers
- Running bad
- Playing bad
Probably the top two tilt inducers.
If no one is tiltless then everyone can tilt less.
How to handle bad beats
Move your awareness out a level, from your absorption with the injustice and the unfairness, and all the other thoughts.
And it's all about awareness, it's about being aware of the actual mental activity in your mind, and calling it what it is, and saying the whole reality:
The card came. I lost the pot. This is causing my mind to stir up...
Playing bad
- such a huge cause of suffering, living in the past, beating ourself up, gigantic heap of suffering we go through, and we keep coming back to, it's my fault.
The way to ease this suffering, is similar to before, keep peeling layers of the union, and accepting that reality
If you focus on doing your best, if you think doing your best involved
- Sleeping right
- Eating right
- Training right
- Sitting upright
- Whatever it might be, to ease the suffering of playing bad, practice on playing your best. This will ease your suffering, as long as you were focused, doing your best. Then you won't have regret.
Perception is reality
More from Tommy's book
Tilt is anything less than your utmost. Tilt is suboptimalness. By defining tilt from teh top down, we can draw a line for any player that cleanly divides his tilt from his non-tilt.
The Blame Game
- When you blame other people, it's causing suffering in your brain.
*The act of blaming* is the thing that causes it, not the thing that's been done. It's your fault you can't control your mind.
- If you should blame anyone, blame yourself for blaming someone else. Don't stir up the surface of your lake, it's just mental noise
You don't blame people for anything. Ever.
(Start with yourself.)
Roll all blames into one. (Just take it all on yourself if you have to.)
If you know 100% that you're unjustly accused, and you know you're not wrong. Can you not react to that ?
You suck it in, and you don't spit it back out.
This is the greatest test, you just absorb it in. This is unbelievably awesome.
The more right you are, by not saying "No it wasn't me, blabla" The stronger you get.
The Blame Game
it just never ends
it never ends, you will be suffering from the blame game, forever
Until you make a conscious effort to not blame, saying it isn't enough, you have to do the work.
Internet irritants
Lost connection:
This is the landscape you play in, this is the world you play in. Just breathe your way through it. It'd be the same as playing basketball but hate the size of the ball.
Computer wait time:
Instead of being anxious, wishing it to speed up, just transform it, sit up straight, take a breath. Make it into a positive. Calm yourself, tune yourself.
Internet helpers:
- Written reminders
- Staying busy
- Taking breaks (Sick important)
- Taking days off
- Playing drills. (Where you force yourself to play more, even if it's just 10 minutes.) (For people who wants to play more, ur not playing to earn money, just to get more play.)
- Sit up and breathe
- Finger tilt, when the big pot comes up, train yourself, to put your hand in your lap, give yourself a chance to get a little bit of space so the instant action doesn't happen.
Running bad
"Running bad is just an idea, it's just a thought."
One of the ways to overcome this huge burden, the idea that we're running bad, is letting go of the past, it's just ideas, thoughts.
The act of coming back to the present tense is the cure for running bad.
More from Tommy's book
Tilt is all about you.
If you think you should have taken the day off, or if you think you should have played at different stakes, or if you think you made a bad raise, then you tilted. Only you know when you knew better.
Last thing about running bad
When you manage to get to the point of where losing doesn't hurt, that in itself is a higher level of joy, which is just wonderful. You don't get the suffering you would normally have, + when you realize you feel like this, that will make you feel great.
Living in the moviement
When you are watching a movie, where is your mind? What is your eyes and your ears doing?
- Movies serves as suffering remedy, because they force the mind to be in the present tense. Proof, that coming in the present is pain relif.
- When you do it with drugs etc, you go below awareness, the more pure better way of doing it, is doing it yourself, without substance, without the movie.
Taming the mind
"In the same way we have arms and legs, we all have the racing mind."
* Discursive thought, out of control, cluttered, rambling*
Meditation: It's not what you think.
- If you meditate you will suffer less, just the same way as, if you're overweight, and you eat less calories, you will lose weight.
It can be easily tested, all you have to try is, do it.
"The benefit is a reduction in unhappiness that will permeate every aspect of your life."
Yoga
- In music you have two components, you have rhythm, and notes. You can make rhythm without the notes, but not the other way around.
So in Yoga, there's the stretching, and there's the breathing
Breathing is to rhythm as stretching is to notes.
If you do the stretching without the breathing, it's just stretching.
Breathing is the essential act of Yoga.
Bandaids and cures
- For all of the bad habits you have at poker, there's things you can do to fix it right now, and there's cures.
(For instance, keep telling bad beats, having to tell bad beats, but you feel bad afterward.)
- As for the cure, for stopping the telling the bad beat stories, is not having those thoughts in your mind. Taming your mind.
Simply thoughts gushing out of your mouth, but if they're not in your mind, they won't even come up.
"It always comes back to taming the mind and managing what's in there."
Compassion
- We're normally thinking of compassion as feeling sorry for someone, pity, it's hard to describe it without using those words. (Like walking past a bum on the street.)
- Our compassion seem to be tied to circumstances, like if someone rich or famous fuck up, we react totally different. like (Hey, lol, look at that fucktard, like we judge them.)
The buddhist branch of compassion kinda look like this:
- Everyone suffers, and everyone suffers from the same reasons and in the same way. And one of the effect of suffering is violence, cruelty, the list goes on. The ways we have of inflicting wounds on other.
- In the buddhist version, you see the violence, see that's wrong, the more in need and worthy they are for compassion.
From Tommy's book
We play our new game, and the bad times come, and we remember to follow our breathing. In, and out. In, and out. By doing so, we set aside our thoughts about what went wrong, and we step away from our thoughts about what might go wrong, and for that moment, when those thoughts are gone, so too is unhappiness. By eliminating the past, and eliminating the future, we give ourselves this present. We will practice this process of elimination, using our new game, and it will become for us a process of illumination. Let us play.
The wind up
The difference between ignorance and stupidity is, ignorance is when you don't know, stupidity is when you refuse to act on the knowledge you receive.
Play to learn
- Forget about earning money, grinding. Learn, consume everything you can, get knowledge and apply it. Question everything, think.
Table Selection
- Table selection is the most important factor seperating winning and losing players.
- Anyone playing 35% or more hands is bad, unless a regular
- Few tables, generally bad
- Not a full stack, usually bad
- Tendencies, often smart to watch a game a few minutes, see if any of the regulars are on tilt etc
- Have the fish on your right, if a reg is being a bitch on your left, just chop off the lowest end of your range, close your eyes and check call him down. Sit yourself top left on the table, fish likes to sit underneath most of the time
- As long as there is 1 fish at the table, it's worth playing
- When a player has a name of an alcoholic beverage or a car, usually recreational over the age of 30. If they have a screen name of a famous player followed by a number, usually bad. If they got a sport team with the team's logo, usually bad.
If they got words like "lunatic", "bluff", "crazy" etc, usually a nit. If words like "monies", "lol" usually a young player, probably aggressive and has read forums etc. If a player has picture of a dog, a baby or something, usually older and always bad.
Bankroll managment
- Implement 30 buy-in rule for whatever stake
- Play 4 tables, so you can focus more on both your own and your opponent's play
- Take notes religiously and try to move up as fast as possible.
- Another reason why is, as you grow older, your willingness to gamble and take risks decrease tremendously. (You worked hard to get where you are, the risk of losing it all is disheartening and at times, scary.)
- Remember, your earnings improve exponentially relatively to your skill level, you should try to be as aggressive as possible with your bankroll
- "If you're too careful, your life can be a fucking grind."
- Taking shots is one of the most important things you can do to improve as a player. You get a reality check, you realize they aren't that good higher up, and you might never look back
- You shouldn't cash out frequently, cut down your expenses and work hard to improve your craft, spend as much money as you can to improve your game, use it for coaching and taking shots. That's your expense.
Math is easy
Hand Combinations
- Some facts:
1. There are 1,326 combinations in No-Limit Holdem
2. A set has 3 combos
3. Two pairs have 9 combos
4. Pocket pairs have 6 combos
5. A pair + kicker has 12 combos
6. Under paired cards have 16 combos
7. Any two specific suited cards have 4 combos
8. Any two specific cards have 1 combo
Hand Ranges
- You estimate a player's hand range based on his image, tendencies, history and position
- A good generalization to keep in mind is that if you think your opponent's range is stronger than your hand, you want to fold more often. And if you think his range is weaker than your hand, you want to call or raise more
Probability and Odds (the proportion of the time that something is likely to occur or has already occurred.)
- Usually expressed as a percantage (e.g., 35%) or a ratio indicating odds (e.g., 4:1). They are one and the same
Pot odds
- Knowing about odds allows us to determine if a call, bet, fold or raise is the most optimal play
- Two main types of odds for poker: Immediate odds and implied odds Immediate odds
- Normally referred to as simply "odds", how much you stand to win immediately in relation to what you have to risk, and is usually expressed as a ratio.
- Five steps we need to take to determine our pot odds:
1. Determine the original pot size
2. Determine the amount we have to call
3. Add up original size of pot and amount we have to call to get the Total Pot Size
4. Express it as a ratio (Total Pot Size: Amount we have to call)
5. Convert it to a percentage
implied odds
- Reflect how much we expect to win in later streets if we hit our hand
Fold equity
- based on how often we expect our opponents to fold to a bet or raise. Since poker is all about being aggressive at the right time, it's a good idea to know a little something about fold equity
Estimating your equity on the flop and turn
- Multiples of 2 are generally more accurate than Multiple of 4, but both give good estimates
* Multiples of 4: To approximate the equity you have on the flop, multiply your number of outs by 4 (You have an open-ended draw straight on the flop. That's 8 outs, so 8x4 = 32 percent to win by the river. The actual number is 31.5 percent (This is if you get to see both the turn and river cards.)
* Multiples of 2: To approximate your equity on the turn, multiply your number of outs by 2. (You have an open-ended draw straight on the turn. That's 8 outs, so 8x2 = 16% to win by the river. The actual number is 17%.)
Expected Value
- (EV) is the average amount that we stand to win or lose if we see a certain situation many times.
- To calculate your EV, use this formula:
EV = (% you win)(amount you win) – (% you lose)(amount you lose)
If the sum is over 0, it's + EV
Pre Flop: The Fundementals
The Blinds
- When the decision to fold or call pre-flop is close, folding is better because a small mistake can lead to a bigger one post-flop. In the occasion that you do play and find yourself being out of position, try to keep the pots small so you won't find yourself in many sticky situations.
Raising from the Blinds
- Be very conservative with your raises from the blinds. With limpers in the pot, don't raise unless you've got a good hand like 99+, ATs+. Most people will put you on a premium hand also when you do it, and it's hard to extract value from weaker hands. Good spot to fold if you get re raised with top pair
3-betting from the blinds
- Against a utg raise, the majority of your 3-bets should be for value. Unless you know the UTG is a fish. Your perceived range get so strong.
- Since we are rarely 3-betting a UTG open from the blinds, we should call with the majority, if not all our holdings.
- Against middle position, you should 3-bet more often with JJ+/AK against looser opponents. If your opponent folds to 3-bets a lot, I wouldn't 3-bet with JJ and AK, call to keep them in the pot
- You shouldn't 3-bet non-broadway suited connectors either when they are in MP, since they don't play well in 3-bet pots, and you won't flop enough hands to continue after c-betting. No point c-betting Axs either
- Against CO/BTN you should 3-bet with a wider range, because his stealing range is wider. From this position it's smart to 3-bet with a polarized range. Premium hands JJ+ /AQs + and speculative holdigns such as 74s 56s that can't play profitably post-flop without the initative. And call with marginal hands QJ, AJ. KQ etc.
Squeezing
- Something that will look extremly strong unless you have a history of 3-betting a ton
- At 50nl a squeeze is usually very strong hand, at 600nl ranges are wider, and people can show up with speculative hands
- A good spot to squeeze is when a loose player opens in mp/co and the people behind calls, the reason is, it's a great spot for btn to 3b, so if he only calls, he's usually not that strong
- Smart to keep squeezing until someone gives you a reason to stop
- On Ace high flops, with TT-KK oop, you should bet-fold more often than check-call. (Unless that particular oponent let's you go to showdown easy.)
- Don't Squeeze against nits if they raise from early position, their range is too tight and strong
- Against loose-bad players, don't squeeze loose, better to call their raise preflop and stackw hen you do hit
- Against shortstacks, don't squeeze if you don't want to call his all-in raise. He's not going to fold often, and will jam with any A or any pair. AT+ or 77+ are good hands to use vs them
- Against light 4-better, don't squeeze them
- After a villain calls your squeeze, never bet unless you think he will fold a lot or you are willing to get it in on the turn
Caution: Squeezing a lot will build up adrenaline and you may find yourself playing too aggressively to the point of spazzing out. You will find yourself fighting for pots because they are bigger. Start by 3b bad people, get comfortable and continue from there
Under The Gun (UTG)
- Standard general hand range: 13.1% (To play standard tag 23/18 or so, good to raise 12-14%)
1. All pairs 44 and higher
2. All suited Broadways JTs +
3. AJo and KQo, if players behind are aggressive, fold AJo and KQo as well
4. Medium Suited cards such as 87+ (Stay away from single-gap suited cards like T8s).
Important Note: Avoid playing ATo UTG, because of reverse implied odds
- How tight or loose you want to raise depends on how good/aggressive players are behind you and how good the blinds are
Middle Position (MP)
- Treat it almost the same as UTG, 14,6% (13% - 16%)
Button (BTN)
- 34.5%
- The most profitable position in NLHE, and you should find any excuse to play in this position
- A good hand player can profitably play 50% of his hands from the button
- 3-betting from the button, if people fold a lot to 3b, do it nonstop, if people call, then fold to c-bets a lot, keep doing it.
Important Note: Sometimes you want to deliberatly force yourself to fold pre-flop sometimes, the reason for this is, you don't want an opponent who's folding way too much to recognize he's folding too much. Want to give him the illusion that he's not constantly getting exploited, even though he is
- If people fold to you, and the blinds are tight, keep stealing
Postflop
Why we bet
- When we have the best hand, value and to extract money
- When we rarely have the best hand and need to bluff
- Dead money
Continuation Bet
General guidelines on whether you should bet on certain boards:
1. On your HEM, if it's greater than 70%, you can bet your entire range and still profit
2. You want to have some sort of rquity in the hand
3. Dry flop with one high card (Your percieved range include tons of A and K, and theirs include small pairs and suited connectors.)
4. Wet boards, don't bet, board like 89Ts hits a lot of the Villain's medium-hand range, and will call often, also you have some equity you want to realize.
5. Paired Flops: Avoid betting 552 rainbow with weak hands like 86s or 67s because you have very little equity if he calls, rather check and do delayed C bet if he checks on turn.
6. Way Behind/Way Ahead: Example KK on A82, you're way behind a pair of aces or a set, and you'r way ahead of bottom-and middle pair and random gutshots. You can check behind here some times if it's checked to you
7. Multi-way Pots: You generally want to bet more in a three-way pot on a dry flop because people are less likely to mess around in these spots. But check behind if there's a short stack
8. In position/Out of Position: You should C-bet a lot more often OOP. In position, you can check behind and get a free card. It's a lot harder to get a free card when you're OOP, and you generally want to be aggressive and take down the dead money
9. Against Loose players: You generally want to check behind or check-fold some of the tiem on low-medium boards (876s, 647s, 542r, etc.) Loose players like to call flop bets with all sorts of hands, making c-betting on the flop with random hands less profitable.
10. Against Tags: C-bet all the dry boards versus TAGs, and check behind wet boards if you miss. And adjust if they're attacking you light (etc, check raising you on J52, you got 75s.)
11. Inducing bluffs: Some players will almost always bet if checked to, because they percieve it as weakness. You can check call with AT+ on A83 boards etc, and if flush draw, check raise
12. Polarizing your range: You'll want to polarize your range when you check behind. This means you bet the flop with strong hands and air, but check behind with marginal hands
Paired Flops
- When a player check calls your c-bet on paired flops, he's almost ALWAYS got a pocket pair. Sometimes with A high, so be ready to fire a lot of turns, if he raises the turn bet, it's almost never a bluff, so fold unless you beat trips
3-bet pots
- Villain's calling range is similar to that of single-raised pots. Mostly middle pocket pairs and occasionally AK/AQ that he didn't 4-bet with. Knowing this, we should double-barrel bluff the turn if we pick up some type of dr aw. Most hands will not withstand a second strong barrel.
Monotone Boards
- Be very conservative, people seldom re-raise without a set or better, and if you do want to C-bet A LOT of hands might call you. Be careful with what you shove your stack in with
Villain's perception of your range
- You should generally bluff more and value-bet less if Villain's perception of your range is strong, and bluff less and value-bet more if it's weak
- Polarize You Leading Range: You generally want to lead with strong made hands that can easily call a raise, or with draws (pair + flush draw, flush draw, open-ended, overcards + open-ended, gutshot +open-ended, gutshot).
- Want to avoid leading with JQ on KJ3r, getting raised, not knowing what to do. So don't put yourself in these without a plan
Single-raised multiway pots
- consider leading with middle or bottom pair in single-raised multi-way pot. It'll be too hard to profitably check-call with medium pairs. Leading also puts the player behind you in a difficult situation. Example: 65s on a Q64r flop
Who to lead against
- Straightforward players who are passive:
1. Players who fold too often to leads. A good example is aregular who is playing more than 9 tables. You can also check a pre-flop raiser's stat on your HUD to see if he's folding a lot (75%) to donk bets
2. Players with a high stealing frequency from the CO or BTN. Their ranges will often be wide and weak
3. Weak-tight players. They play straightforward game and will just fold to your flop leads without a strong hand
4. Players who like to check behind for pot control. When you have a strong hand, consider leading into them to extract value since they are going to cehck behind a lot
Who NOT to lead against
- Aggressive players, they like to re-raise donk bets, but consider leading into them with a strong hand
- Do not lead into calling stations. You want to take down the pot on the flop without having to fire numerous barrels
Playing the turn
- Bluff the turn on scare card, or lead if a flush or straight completes
Raising
- There are two reasons why we want to raise-for value or for bluffs. We never raise to "see where we're at" it's too expensive.
Raising for Value
- On boards where we flop a Straight, all connected boards, or all 2 tone flush boards we want to re raise for value, too many cards can come to kill our action.
- Flopping a top pair with JTo on a T56 2 tone board vs someone bad, we always want to raise if donked into, so many marginal hands, or draws they may have
Type of Boards to bluff raise on
- The best boards to bluff-raise are ones where opponents c-bet a lot, such as AK3, KQ8.
- Monotone and low connected boards 456 two tone etc. Monotone boards will slow them down unless they have a set or a flush.
- Stay away from paired boards, may want to throw in a bluff here and there, but it's generally not a good idea to attack those flops. May be good vs some ppl to float on paired boards though.
Floating
- A good tool vs people who c-bet too much (75% or more on the flop). And vs people who play straighforward on the turn.
Factors to consider before floating:
1. If your opponent 2-barrels too often, you shouldn't float the flop because you will have to fold the tun too often.
2. If your opponent plays straightforwardly on the turn and telegraphs the strength of his range either by checking or betting. Some players check whenever they don't have a hand on the turn and bet whenever they do. These are your primary targets.
3. It is credible for you to represent a hand on the turn or river. Example, you've got 78s, flop A46, you've only got a gutshot, but another flushdraw on the flop, if the other flush completes on the turn, your opponent checks, you can easily represent that flush
4. Make sure that when you float, you have some equity in the pot and have soem backdoor draws so you can continue on the turn.
Double-Barreling
- Most low stakes players have problems playing the turn, because they don't plan the streets. No backup plan if they miss the turn and got nothing
- You generally want to fire the turn if either of these conditions exists:
1. Your equity improves
2. A scare card hits
- On boards where a turn puts more draws out there, bet the river as well. The turn creates a lot of draws, Villain is likely to have a made weak hand or a draw. If he had a strong hand, he would've raised the turn to protect it. Therefor a river bluff is profitable.
Scare card
- Best scare cards are high cards, or completed flushes on the turn
- Bad scare cards are low cards and turn pairing the board
The problem of scare cards
- In today's game, many people know what the obvious scare cards are. For this reason your bet is less credible on that particular card, and you need to fire another bullet to take down the pot, Fortunately though, people call on the scare card and fold to a river bet all the time.
- To balance this by betting your medium-strength hands on the turn too
- Also an alternative to check the A turn, and go for river bet or bluff Implied threat of the river bet
- The threat of losing a stack causes players to err on the side of caution, casuing them to fold their marginal holdings on the turn. This puts their turn range face-up.
- Also a reason why you should incorporate bluffing on the river into your game.
3-betting
- One of the most powerful plays you can have in your arsenal, extremely profitable to 3-bet in position, especially from the button.
Creating an aggressive Image
- 3-betting lightly is an excellent way to create an aggressive image. Players will put you on a wide range of hands and pay you off lighter.
- Will let you control the flow of the game unless they fight back. Allows you to isolate the fish more often, playing pots in pos vs regulars.
- You generally want your first 3-bet to be a semi-bluff (j8s, 86s, 75s etc).
After that, keep 3-betting until people give you a reason to stop- by 4-betting you, calling you down lighter, and/or check-raising the flop more.
- You will end up tilting him and he will be ecstatic to get all-in pre-flop with AQ or 88 etc.
3-bet stats
- Although 3-bet stats are helpful, don't put too much emphasis on them, more reliable if it's heads up.
Polarized range
- Polarize your range when you 3-bet, if it's vs a passiv bad fish, you can throw in 88-jj
3-betting as the aggressor
- Do most of your 3-betting from the CO or BTN.
3-betting against UTG/MP
- Increase your 3-betting range versus UTG, if he starts playing back with calling or 4-betting, slow down. For the most part, he will be playing back with JJ+ and AK. If he starts to call down multi barrels, narrow your range to include more broadway cards and fewer suited connectors.
3-betting against the cutoff
- Most regulars widen their opening range from the cutoff, so you want to 3-bet the cutoff relentlessly from the button.
You'll have tons of fold equity because: 1) his range is weak, and 2) he doesn't want to play against you from out of position.
- The general strat, 3b till he starts 4b light, check raising, or calling down with marginal holdings.
3-betting from the blinds
- Don't 3bet too much from the blinds, it's too tough. Also remember do it with a polarized range, can sometimes if the dynamic and your image is right, do it half the time with 99-JJ and AQ.
3-betting with Deep Stacks
- With stacks 1500B or more, you can 3-bet with many more hands in position. Players play much more straightforward when stacks are deep. Some will call a lot pre-flop, hoping to flop a strong hand, and will check fold once they miss, some fold preflop all the time.
- If you're in the blinds, tighten up your 3-betting range a lot, not profitable vs regs when they have position.
3-betting with AQ
- Most of the time, it's not profitable to 4b or call with AQ, but when the situation is right. You and another guy who's been 3-betting a lot, and you raise, he 3bets again, you can now call. If any A hit, you can call his bets, if any K hits, you fold, if not, check raise him big, this will get them to fold their pairs.
Playing the flop
your perceived Range
- People will usually put you on AK, high cards, small suited connectors that can't profitably call a pre-flop raise, or high pokcet pairs when you 3-bet before the flop.
- On a flop like AT3, if we bet, they will fold a large percentage of the time because the board texture hits our perceived range.
Had the flop come 789 it probably wouldn't hit our range much, so it's best to check-fold with a hand like AK.
Paired boards
When a villain calls a c-bet on a paired board, he will have a pocket pair most of the time, sometimes it might be a float with A-high. Knowing this you want to apply serious pressure.
A player calls your c-bet on 772
If and A,K, or Q hits, bet hard again (and fold to a shove). and if you have 89s, turn is T, you can still bet strong and commit yourself.
Only do this vs peopel who are generally tight, who can make folds, not passive bad fishes and stuff.
Monotone boards
- Players generally play two pairs, sets or small flushes very fast on these boards. If you c-bet, he calls, you can safely rule out those hands. Knowing that, you want to be shoving your stack on the turn if you have the nut-flush draw.
A93-type boards
- You want to c-bet almost 100% of your 3-betting range here, even if you have TT-KK.
Counter
Ace-high flops are great spots to float in position in 3-bet pots. The reason is explained above-villain will c-bet almost 100 percent of his 3-betting range on this flop.
If he checks, check with him, if he bets the flop, then call.
If he bets the turn, he probably has an ace, so just fold. When villain checks the turn, check behind to represent something like a5s going for pot control. When he checks again on the river, he rarely has an ace, go for 2/3 - 3/4 of the pot.
Countering 3-bets
From a defensive point of view. You raise from MP and the BTN 3-bets you for the 3rd time. How to deal with that?
Tight strategy
- You generally want to be calling 3-bets in position. If at all possible, avoid doing it OOP.
If you're OOP against a good, aggressive player, the best strategy is to simply fold his 3-bets and tighten up your opening range. Fight back when you have JJ+
Playing Fit-Or-Fold
- If you decide to call with a hand like 77, you can't just fold to his c-bet everytime you don't hit a set, need to play back. Otherwise it's not profitable.
Calling 3-bets with Pocket Pairs
- Even with position, you should fold pocket pairs worse than 99 when stacks are less than 150BB.
CO vs BTN
- You can actually call with a wider range of hands here versus a button 3-bet because he will have hands like ATs, KTs, and QTs. For this reason, you can call with AQ, AJ, KQ, KJs, hands that play post flop.
Late position vs. 3-bet from blinds
- If Villain has a very narrow 3-betting range, then I want to 4-bet to give him a chance to stack off with a range of JJ+/AK, which AA/KK dominates. (By calling, he may slow down, and we won't stack him).
- If an opponent is 3-betting with a wide range, I will call with premium hands, because I want to balance the time I have marginal holdings. Against someone who is really aggressive, I will slow-play and then call down all three streets, even if the board gets scarier, because aggressive players bluffing frequencies increase as the board gets scarier.
- I would shove over villain's bet on wet flops like T83s because that's what I would do with my semi-bluffs on this board. If villain 3-bets a lot and c-bets at a high percentage, then semi-bluffing the flop is insanely profitable since he will bet-fold very often.
Don't jam the flop
Don't always just get it in on the flop agsinst 3-better's c-bet. Almost always call more with sets and two pairs.
Bluffing the flop
- Players who 3bets too much, also c-bets too much. Good boards to bluff-raise on are connected boards, and sometimes Kxx or Qxx. A high is usually best to call and represent.
Inducing a Bluff
- Some players never belive you when you raise a fairly dry flop, by raising you represent such a narrow range of hands for value taht a thinking villain will not give you credit for it.
- As you move up in stakes, you will realize that there's more value to fast-playing your hands than slow-playing. As players get better, it's more difficult to trap them. However, a lot of players want to make hero calls so if you're playing your strong hands aggressively, you will get called more often than you think.
4-betting
- You generally want to 4-bet a hand that either cannot profitable call a 3-bet (a3o KJo) or that you want to go all-in with pre-flop (QQ+ / AK).
Having an ace or king in your hand is great because of hand elimination. There is less chance that Villain holds AA,KK, or AK.
- Don't 4bet with T7o, you want to least have decent equity in the pot if he does call, choose T7s instead.
- Also important that you don't 4-bet with hands such as 55-88 or T9s. (Assuming the stacks are 150BB), it's better to just call his 3-bet with these hands because of the implied.
- You can also widen your 4-betting range when stacks are deep (150BB +), tough to counter it because stacks are so deep, people rarely ever 5b bluff, so it gets taken down a lot.
4-betting
- A player who has been 3-betting a lot, or folding to 4-bets a lot are prime targets. The standard of today's game is 4-bet to 2.1 - 2.5 times the 3-bet size.
- You never want to put in more than 30BB of your stack pre-flop because you do not want to commit to the pot with a weak hand. If you 4-bet to 40BB and he shoves, you would need to call 60BB to win 140BB, roughly 2.3 odds. This means you will have to call a shove with a hand as weak as A2s, or 56s against a shoving range of QQ + / AK
Playing TT and JJ
- you lose a lot of value by 4-betting these hands small, rather shove or 4-bet big so he knows you're commited, or call his 3-bet, might get to showdown then.
- Against passive opponenets who don't barrel enough, calling is optimal because you have more chances of showdowns, if a nits 3-bets you, should fold to his re-raises when you open from UTG or UTG+1.
- People will save a lot of money if they treat TT and JJ like 99.
Playing AK
- It's a mistake to push this hand too hard. AK falls into the same category as TT and JJ because it's a marginal hand to 4-bet and get all-in with.
- The idea behind calling the pre-flop 3-bet instead of 4-betting is to call all of his flop c-bets and bet then turn when he checks to you. A half pot bet will be sufficient.
- You also likely to stack any Ax from villain, lastly, Villain will be barreling with a high frequency on any turn A or K to represent AK.
Playing AQ and 99
- We rarely want to 4-bet with these hands and get it in preflop without history.
The majority of the time, however, the best play is to call a 3-bet with them when stacks are deeper than 125BB.
Adjusting against different players
- In this example you have ATo, flop is 862. In a vacuum, you should bet try and take it down, you have initative and 6 outs.
Against a loose-passive player: Check behind, he's going to call with any piece, and he probably won't lead the turn, you have showdown value as well
Against a Nit: 17/12 or tighter, you shuold bet, nits often play fir-or-fold game. You may also have to barrel the turn, because their range include a lot of pairs, if the turn is a high card, fire again.
Against a Decent TAG: You want to bet as well, for the most they will stay in the pot if they have something and get out of the way if they don't, an occational check-raise. Be ready to fire second barrel on all overcards, if he calls, you can still fire the river, they know you will probably fire on the scare cards. Fire on a scare card higher than 8 or 9.
Against a Good, Aggressive Player: It's okay to mix it up, it's okay to check since he's good at balancing his range. Pick your spot to bluff the river if you decide to.
Balancing your range
- No need to balance vs. bad players. They either don't know what you are representing or don't care. But against good hand readers, having a well balanced range will earn you more money and make you difficult to play against.
- Example, A good aggressive player raises to 3$ from the Button and you call from the SB with ATs, the flop is A62, you check- call his pot bet. The turn is a 7 and you check. He checks behind. the river is a Q, you bet 2/3-pot for value, and he folds.
In this scenario you rarely have a bluff, so you should check the river the majority of the time.
This has three purposes:
1) It induces him to bluff with air so that you can call him down.
2) It induces him to make a thin value bet with worse hands.
3) It balances your range so that he will be less likely to valu-bet light or bluff you in the future, thus allowing you to see a cheap sowndown with your medium/small pairs.
A guideline to balancing your range
* Any time you find yourself in a situation where your perceived range is strong (good top pair or better), then value-bet less and bluff more.
* Any time you find yourself in a situation where your perceived range is weak (mid-pair or worse), then value-bet more and bluff less.
Strong percieved range
- You should value-bet less because your perceived range is too strong. When your betting range on the river is almost exclusively for value and never a bluff, Villain will fold worse hands and call or raise with better hands. If you check instead, it may insude a good thinking player to value bet light or bluff.
- With a strong perceived range, you also want to bluff more if you have a hand that can't win at showdown.
- If you have air, c-bet and it goes check call, check check on turn and he checks the river, and you can't win any other way, often smart to bluff if the board allows it.
Weak perceived range
- If youre perceived range is weak, then you need to value-bet more often because Villain is less likely to belive you. You also want to bluff less because you can't credibly represent a strong hand most of the time.
Multi-way Pots
- Proceed With Caution!
- Can be good to raise with gutshot + backdoor f draw type hands, if Co bets, mp calls. But use with caution when the timing is right
- if Co calls, check the turn, if you hit tons of equity, pot if MP calls
- do not make the move on a flush board
- There are good spots fo bluff raise in multi way pots as well. You have A2s, mp and btn calls, flop is J7r with one of your suit. Mp bets, btn folds, you check raise, insanely strong line, usually folds out hands as strong as qj, if you hit ur f-draw on turn, pot and commit.
- The general concept is, always have something, some backdoor, gutshot, some rope in case they call.
WARNING: Don't pull these stunts if you don't have a general idea of how villain plays, and at lower limits people really can't think that well. Some ppl at 100nl won't fold QJ. This is for motivation to think outside the norm.
Scare cards
- Your hand QTs, flop 983, one of your suit. Villain checks, and you check, turn is an A.
Great spot to raise, because villains usually fire scare cards, and if they call, a big bet on the river usually takes it down. But once again, know your villain.
- When scare cards come, it dramaticly increases a villains bluffing frequency, on the turn and on the river.
Timing tells
Quick call:
Usually an attempt to appear strong and to slow down the aggressor on the next street. With a strong hand, a player would take more time thinking about his option.
Sometimes we have no option besides check-calling, so we often act way too fast.
Example: QT, Btn raises, we call from the SB, flop is T57r, we check to villain, he bets, we insta-call.
- Another reliable tell is when fish check-calls really afst on boards where flush draws are possible. (Vs them, if you don't have anything, if all draws miss, a half pot on the river is enough to make them fold a high card that might beat you).
Slow Call:
They almost always have a strong hand.
(To find out which players genuinely like to tank long, you can just try bluffing some rivers to find out.)
Example: You raise K9s from the BTN, sb calls and the flop is QT3 with another F-draw, one of your suit. He checks, you bet, the turn is a 7 of your suit, he checks, you bet 22$. The tanks for a while, and finally calls. The river is a nonsuit 6.
- On such a draw-heavy board, once he cehck- calls the turn, the strongest hand that he can show up with is QJ. Any better hand probably check,shoves the turn to avoid playing the river. So when he tanks the turn, usually figuring out whether he is getting odds to call a turn bet. Usually a pair with flush draw, or flush + straight, something similar.
Correct play is to shove river. (If you are the type of player who will bet this turn put don't follow up on the river, you should check.
Final Words
Remeber that everyting is hard before it becomes easy. Keep working at it and there's no stopping you.
- 200 billion known Galaxies in the known universe.
- Our Galaxiy, The Milky Way, 12 billion years old.(Huge disc with giant spiral arms, and a bulge in the middle)
Born in nebulas, born in clouds of dust and gass.
* Pillars of creation.
* Around many of them are planets and moons.
(We humans thought for a very long time the milky way was the only one until 1924, until Hubble found out otherwise).
He found fuzzy blobs of lights, far far away, whole cities of stars, galaxies, way beyond The Milky Way.
Random Facts
- M87, a giant elyptical galaxy, one of the oldest in the Universe, and the stars all glow gold!
- Sombrero Galaxy, has a huge glowing core, with a ring of gass and dust all around it.(Baal Galaxy?)
- Galaxies are big, really really big.
Some distances and perspective
On earth we meassure distance in kilometers, in space astronomers use lightyears. The distance light travels in a year, which is just under 9,5 trillion kilometers.
- Our Galaxy is 100.000 lightyears across, which is just a small spec in the universe.
- Our nearest neighboer, Andromeda is nearly 200.000 lightyears across, twice the size.
- M87 is much much bigger than Adromeda, nearly 5 times as big.
- But all of these are tiny compared to IC 1011, biggest galaxy ever found. 60 times larger than our Milky way.
- The first stars formed 200 million years after the Big Bang ( 13,8 billion years ago).
- Then gravity pulled them together, building the first Galaxies.
Mankind's incredible tenacity and creativity
Whatever we see in telescopes today are things that has happened millions or more years ago, because it has taken the light as long to get to us. The feint smudges, formed 1 billion years after the big bang is the furthest back Hubble can see.
Until recently, humankind made Act, a 500 meter tall telescope, and the largest in the world. Act doesn't detect visible light, it detects cosmic microwaves, from the time the Universe was a few hundred thousands year old.
It doesn't just detect early Galaxies, it can see how they grew. The footprints of all the growth, from a few hundred thousand years till now.
Letting Astronomers see how they form and evolve: Stars form cluster, forms to galaxies, which builds into clusters of galaxies which builds into super clusters of Galaxies.
- In the beginning Galaxies looked like poo, random and bulgy, now they look awesome and perfect. Gravity, gravity shapes and molds Galaxies
Unimaginable Power
- There's an unimaginable powerful and incredible destructive source of gravity at the heart of most Galaxies. And there's one at the deep center of our own milky way.
- For years scientists wondered what could be powerful enough to change how a Galaxy behave, and then they found out.... A black hole, not just any kind, a super massive black hole.
* It eats gass and stars, but sometimes black holes consumes too quickly, and what they are consuming are dispatched back into space in beams of pure energy.
* This is called Quasar, when they find one, they know the center has a Super massive black hole.
- The black hole in the center out of Galaxy is gigantic, 24 million kilometers across.
* Even though, Earth is in absolute no danger, since Earth is 25.000 lightyears away (trillions of kilometers). So the earth is safe... For now....
Dark Matter
Super massive black holes may be the source of huge amounts of gravity, but they don't have enough power to hold a galaxy together, according to the laws of physic, a galaxy should fly apart. Why don't they?
Because there's something out even more powerful than a super massive black hole. It can't be seen, and virtually impossible to detect, but it's there. And it's called dark matter, and it's everywhere.
- Scientist are discovering that dark matter doesn't just hold em together, might have sparked them into life as well.
- They think dark matter was created into the Big Bang, and that dark matter became the seed of the Galaxy, even though they have no idea what it really is and no idea what it's made of.
- They think that dark matter weight for weight make up for x6 as much as all other matter in the Universe.
Recently it's been detected in deep space, it bends it, in a process called gravitational lensing. Allows us to detect the pressence of dark matter. As a beam of light is travelling towards us, if it passes by dark matter, it gets deflected around it by the gravitational pull.
Triggers the birth of galaxies, and keeps them together, scientists call it, the master of the Universe.
Unfathomable vastness
Scientist have come so far, they've built almost the whole Universe in a super Computer. Here you can't see individual Galaxies, can't even see clusters. But what you can see is Super Clusters, linked together in filaments, in a vast cosmic web. One finds a cosmic web which lights up all of the Universe, making the Universe looks like a gigantic spunge.
Each of the filaments is home to millions of Galaxy clusters, all bound together by dark matter. In the simulation, the dark matter glows along the filaments.
Dark matter effects where in the Universe Galaxies will form, holds together the whole superstructure of the Universe, binds them in clusters, and clusters in super clusters. All are locked in a web of filaments, and without it, the whole structure of the Universe will fall apart. This is the big picture of our Universe.
It's a giant cosmic web, and hidden deep within one of these filaments are our Milky way.
Dark Energy
In recent times, the last decade scientists found something new, kinda scary. Dark Energy, far more mysterious than dark matter, since we don't have the slightest idea what it is or what it's doing. Like space has little springs in it, make things repell eachother and pushes things apart.
If Dark Energy wins vs Dark matter, it make Galaxies spread apart and push things away from eachother. But that's not going to happen for a very very long time (trillions of lightyears).
Fantastic time to live in
We're extremely fortunate, life has only evolved on earth because our tiny solar system was born in the right part of the Galaxy, any closer to the center, we wouldn't be here. Since life there is extremely lively, radioactive.
To far away from the center would be just as bad, ain't as many stars, we might not exist at all. We're not to far, not too close, perfect distance.
Endless questions to ask, and mysteries to solve. More and more scentists are focusing on Galaxies, it's amazing time to live in, where we're making the most extraordinary discoveries imaginable
The Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda, and since the bigger of galaxies crashing eats and consume the smaller, Milky Way will lose. Which is doomsday of our own Galaxy, but according to Astronomers it'll be amazingly beautiful.
- The plateau can be a form of purgatory. It triggers disowned emotions. It flushes out hidden motivations.
- We sometimes choose a course of action that brings the illusion of accomplishment, the shadow of satisfaction. And sometimes knowing little or nothing about the process that leads to mastery.
- We are born geniuses of thougt and feeling, + geniuses in potentia of the body.
The Mastery Curve
(Ok, this I drew, so not 100% sure how I can draw it here. I'll just do my best explaining what it looks like.)
Starts out flat, then it starts going in an upward hill, to a beak, then it declines and goes down a little, then it stays flat for a bit (the plateu), and the process repeats.
- Practice diligently
- Strive to hone your skills
- Attain new levels of competence
- Be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing when you seem to be getting nowhere.
- Habitual behaviour system operates at a level deeper than concious thought.
* Involved the reflex circuit in the spinal cord as well as in various parts of the brain to which it is connected
Cognitive system: When learning a new skill, you need to make an effort to replace old patterns of sensing, movements and cognition with the new
The cognitive and the effort system become subsets of the habitual system long enough to modify it. To teach it a new behaviour. When the job is done, they withdraw. Then you don't have to stop and think.
How do you move toward mastery?
= You practice diligently (without getting frustrated on the plateau)
The 3 types of persona: Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker
- Commericals just show endless climaxes, no plateau.
- Why people lean toward drugs
(I don't care how you win, just win, about effortless learning, instant celebrities, instant millionaires)
Same in medicine/pharmacy "fast relif"
Research studies show that most illnesses are caused by environmental factors or way of life
- 10 min at the Dr. isn't enough to get to know the patient, or write a prescription.
The nr.1 cause of death can be reversed by a long-term regime of diet, moderate exercise, yoga, meditation and group support.(Most Dr. in the us claim this is to drastic, and suggest $30k open chest surgery instead).
The joy of regular practice
- We as humans often go against what's best for us, and waste an evening distracting ourselves.
- People who love the plateau have very vivid and satisfying lifes.
People who go into something for the money, the fame or the medal, can't be effective.
Mastery's true face is relaxed and serene, somtiems faintly smiling.
Goals and contingencies = important, BUT exists in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm
Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, smell it, feel it.
To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment.
Man is a learning animal.
Key One
Instruction
- The self thought person is on a chancey path (can work, like Edison, but most have kept on re-inventing the wheel.)
For mastering most skills, there's nothing better than being in the hands of a master teacher.
Either one to one, or in a small group. Also good options: Books, films, computer learning programs, group instructions, classroom, knowledgable friends, counselors, associates, "the street".
- When you learn to easy, you're tempted not to work hard, not to prenetrate to the marrow of practice.
The worst can be the best, for it perseveres, it will have learned whatever it is practicing all the way to the marrow of it's bones
- Make sure your teacher is paying attention to the slowest student on the math
When irreconciabable differences do occur, remember that the better part of wisdom is knowing when to say goodbye.
"Do not think that
This is all there is.
More and more
wonderful teachings exist -
The Sword is unfathomable"
Key 2
Practice
Practice is the path upon which you travel. Not in order to gain something else, but for it's own sake.
An old saying: The master is the one who stays on the math five minuts longer every day than anybody else.
- The master of any game is generally the master of practice
- Practice is the path to mastery. Mastery is staying on the path.
Key 3
Surrender
- The courage of a master is meassured by his or her willingness to surrender.
- The beginner who stands on his or her dignity becomes rigid, armored, the learning can't get through.
- The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations of familiar themes.
For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.
Key 4
Intentionality
Nicklaus quote: A successful shot was 50% visualization, 40% setup and 10% swing
Intentionality fuels the master's journey. Every master is a master of vision.
Key 5
The Edge
(I like this phrasing)
Masters are Zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step.
(looked up that word, connoisseur, someone who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts.)
Julie Moss
Share her stupid desire, heroism, to use yourself to the limit, to finish at all cost, to attain the unattainable.
But before playing this edge, there must be years of instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.
Being on the never ending path.
(Was a wonderful story about her, I found a youtub clip of it).
Tools for Mastery
Intro: How can you avoid backsliding? Where will you find the energy for your journey? What pitfalls will you encounter on the path? How can you apply mastery to the commonplace things of life? What should you back for the journey?
Why resolutions fail - and what to do about it.
- Every one of us resists significant change, no matter whether it's for the worse or for the better.
Our body, brain and behaviour have a built-in tendency to stay with the same within rather narrow limits, and to snap back when changed
- Equilibrium, called homeostasis
- Homeostasis doesn't distinguish between what you would call change for the better and change for the worse. It resists all change
- The resistance here is proportionate to the size and speed of the change
When you begind to pursue mastery, homeostasis will happen. Might come in any of these forms:
* Alarms in form of physical or psychological symptons
* Might unknowingly sabotage your own best efforts
* Might get resistance from family, friends and co-workers
Here are 5 guidelines to help you on your way if you do decide to go on the path.
1. Be aware of the way homeostasis works
(When the alarmbell rings, it doesn't mean you're sick or crazy or lazy or that you've made a bad decision.)
Instead take these signals as if you're life is about to change
- Don't panic and give up at the first sign of trouble
- Don't be surprised if some of the people you love start coverty and overtly undermining your self-improvement.
(It's not that they wish you harm, it's just homeostasis at work.)
2. Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
The willingness to take 2 steps forward and one step backwards
- To keep pushing, but not without awareness
Stay alert prepare for serious negotiations.
3. Develop a support system
* You can do it alone, but it helps a great deal to have other people with you.
4. Follow a regular practice.
Practice is a habit, and any regular practice provides a sort of underlying homeostasis, a stable base during the instability of change.
5. Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
* To learn is to change. Education, whether it involves books, body, or behaviour, is a process that changes the learner.
* The best learning of all involves learning to learn
Getting Energy for Mastery
* A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. (There are limits)
* Often the best remedy for physical weariness is 30 min exercise.
* mental and spiritual lassitude is oftne cured by decisive action or the clear intention to act.
Here's how you get started:
1. Maintain physical fitness.
* Physical fitness contributes enormously to energy in every aspect of our lives.
* People who feel good about themselves, who are in touch with nature and their own bodies, are more likely to use their energy for good.
2. Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Value a positive attitude and the effectiveness of praise and other forms of positive feedback.
* It seems you can hardly overdo it
- Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling; it means facing the truth and then moving on.
- Avoid teachers and supervisors who are highly critical in a negative sense.
(Telling people what they're doing wrong while ignoring what they are doing right reduces their energy).
"Here's what I like about what you're doing, and here's how you might improve it".
3. Try telling the truth
* Lies and secrets are poison
* Truth-telling works best when it involves revealing your own feelings, not when used to insult others and to get on your way.
* It has a lot going for it, risk, challenge, excitement and the release of all that energy
4. Honor but don't indulge your dark side.
- Stop putting so much of ourselves into that invisible bag.
- Use the blazing energy that flows from that which has been called dark.
5. Set your priorities.
- Before you can use your potential energy, you have to decide what you're going to do with it.
And in making any choice you face a monstrous fact: To move in one direction, you must forgo all others.
To choose one goal is to forsake a very large number of other possible goals.
(Television makes it even more complicated. By offering endless possibilities, it temps you to choose none, to sit staring in endless wonder, to become comatose. Indecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression and despair).
Liberation comes through the acceptance of your limits. You can't do everything, but you can do one thing, then another, and then another.
- In terms of energy, it's better to make a wrong choice than none at all.
- Start modestly, list your priorities, for the day, tomorrow. Try to do the same thing long term, use A,B,C. Priorities shift, and you can change them any time.
- Simply getting them down in black and white (if you use that color and paper) adds clarity to your life, and clarity creates energy.
6. Make commitments. Take action.
- Set your own deadlines
- Can give surge of clarity and energy
- You have to take it seriously
(One way is to make it public.)
- The firmer the deadline, the harder it is to break, and the more energy it confers.
- Above all else, move and keep moving.
- Take time for wise planning, but don't take forever
7. Get on path of mastery and stay on it.
- Adequate rest is cool, but unaccompanied by positive action, rest may only depress you
- People whose energy is flowing don't need to take a drug, commit a crime or "go to war" in order to feel alive.
Pitfalls along the way
It's easy to get on the path. The real challenge lies in staying on it.
1. Conflicting way of life
2. Obsessive goal orientation.
- The desire for quick, sure, and highly visible results is perhaps the deadliest enemy of mastery.
- When climbing, don't keep looking at the peak, keep your eyes on the path.
3. Poor instruction
* Surrender
* Don't bounce around from one teacher to another.
* But don't stick to a situation that's not working.
4. Lack of competitiveness.
* Competition provides spice
* Can provide motivation
* Winning graciously and losing with equal grace are the mark of a master
5. Overcompetetiveness.
6. Laziness
"Disinclined to action or extertion; averse to labor, indolent, idle, slothful."
The bad nres is that laziness will knock you off the path. The good news is that the path is the best possible cure for laziness. Courage!!! (Not suppose to be !'s there, but I added them for dramatic effect).
7. Injuries.
- The best way of achieving a goal is to be fully present.
8. Drugs.
Can give the illusion of getting the immediate success this culture is always promosing you.
9. Prizes and Medals.
Exessive use of external motivation can slow and even stop your journey to mastery.
10. Vanity.
To learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish.
- If you're always thinking about apperances, you can never attain the state of concentration that's necessary for effective learning and top preformance.
11. Dead seriousness.
Without laughter, the rough and rocky places on the path might be too painful to bear. Humor not only lightens your load, it also broadens perspective. To be deadly serious is to suffer tunnelvision. To be able to laugh at yourself clears the vision. When choosing fellow voyagers, beware of grimness, self-importance, and the solemn eye.
12. Inconsistency.
- Consistency of practice is the mark of the master
- Value in repeating favourite rituals before, during and after practice.
- Inconsistency not only loses you practice time, but makes everything more difficult when you do get around to practicing.
13. Perfectionism.
We fail to realize mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.
Mastering the Commonplace
- Most of life is "in between"
- Building a stone wall or washing dishes is essentially no different from formal meditation
Household Rhythm:
- Whatever you do, do it awesomely (I made that word up)
- Stay wholly focused on the moment
- Above all, don't hurry
- Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery.
Focus on the process rather than the product
This takes practice....
The challenge of Relationships
- If you have to work at a sport to achieve mastery, you also have to work, and generally work even more diligently, to achieve mastery in relationships.
- The most important learning and development takes place during your time on the plateau
* Instruction
* Practice
* Surrender
(The stronger you are the more you can give of yourself. The more you give of yourself, the stronger you can be.)
* Intentionality
(Cultivate a positive attitude)
* The Edge
The path to mastery is built on unrelenting practice, but it's also a place of adventure.
Couples with a willingness to play new games, dances, intimacy, willingness to strip layers, to live entierly in the moment, revealing everything and epecting nothing in return.
Ultimately, nothing in this life is "commonplace," nothing is "in between". The threads that join your every act, your every thought, are infinite. All paths of mastery eventually merge.
Packing for the Journey
Maybe an old skill or obsession you've been dabbling in, or hacking at for months or years. Maybe vowed to treat your entire life to the best of your ability, as a process to mastery.
* Be aware of how homeostasis work
* Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
* Develop a support system
* Follow a regular practice
* Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning
Getting Energy for Mastery
* Maintain physical fitness
* Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Try telling the truth
* Honor but don't indulge in your dark side
* Set priorities
* Make commitments. Take action
* Get on the path of mastery and stay on it
Pitfalls along the Path
* Conflicting way of life
* Obsessive goal orientation
* Poor instruction
* Lack of competitiveness
* Overcompetetiveness
* Laziness
* Injuries
* Drugs
* Prizes and medals
* Vanity
* Inconsistency
* Perfectionism
Parting Gifts
Balancing and centering
(oh crap)
Returning to the center
- Basicly, learn about meditaiton, breathing exercises. When you get knocked off, find your center.
Getting Energy from unexpected blows
- When things go shit, losing a friend, loved one. Don't struggle blindly, don't deny youself the pain.
- Have a partner grab your wrist, and spill your guts.
- When done, feel your center, focus on the clarity and use all that energy. Consider the possibility that any misfortune that befalls you during your journey can be converted to positive energy.
Introduction to ki
ki in japanese
ch'i in Chinese
Pneuma in Greek
Prana in Sanskrit
"the force" in Star Wars lol
In the ancient tradition, the word comes from the notion of breath
* Considered the fundemantel energy of the Universe that connects all things and undergirds all creative action.
- The idea of ki can offer the untrained person an effective way of gaining a sensation of increased power along with relaxation, especially during times of fatigute and stress, and thus is a useful item to pack for your journey.
Relaxing for power:
Power; to be able
Visualize with exagerrated images, make your muscles relaxed (not rigid and tense) to increase their power.
Interessting facts:
- Human DNA contains more information than all of the libraries in the world.
- In potentia, humans are the most formidable all-around athlete who has ever roamed the planet.
- The unaided human eye can detect a single quantum of light and discern more than ten million colors. (I'm pretty sure i'm stuck at like 9).
- The human brain is the most complex entity in the known universe.
- What you are made of is mostly unused potential.
- It is our evolutionary destiny to use what is unused, to learn and keep learning for as long as we live
To choose this destinty, to walk the path of mastery, isn't always easy, but it's the ultimate human adventure.
Closing words
To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.
- How many times have you failed to try something new out of fear of being thought silly?
- How often have you censored your spontaneity out of fear of being thougt childish?
Second naivete = childlike quality, often found in people with an unusually high degree of their potential
"Are you willing to wear your white belt?"
I was thinking about adding more stuff here since I got tons of ideas for new posts, but this compilation took a lot longer than what I expected, and I'm a little scared I'll lose it all if I don't post right away.
Ty for reading, and I hope you like it.
Ps, in the future I'll post some boring crap about my holliday, add some pictures, some ideas and cool stuff from some interesting books I read, like the "Best of Litemind", some motivational stuff and some more compilations of notes laying about, literally got hundreds.
I think you are missing the last 3 chapters of The Poker Mindset review (the ones that are about getting in your opponents minds, advanced tips and "poker with real life" stuff) but i think no one is in position to argue the fact that your blogpost is really awesome.
Thank you for this, i think this will help me improve my game a lot.
Your a retarded taco eating bad fuckin poker player. lolololo
thanks marius dinner on me- jlost
For the people who wants to reach mastery in life, they will need to find something besides poker to do as a living. Playing poker professionally and acquiring more money then you need to spend leads to greed and selfishness. Trying to help society back and do something more productive and giving. What the main stream media teaches is all wrong and brainwashing. Money is not what we live for. Knowledge is power and happiness is not money.
blessed soul
Last edit: 14/08/2011 19:25
1
palak United States. Aug 14 2011 20:42. Posts 4601
dont tap the glass...im about ready to take a fucking hammer to the aquarium
On August 14 2011 02:34 Carreira wrote:
I think you are missing the last 3 chapters of The Poker Mindset review (the ones that are about getting in your opponents minds, advanced tips and "poker with real life" stuff)
Thank you for this, i think this will help me improve my game a lot.
Oj, weird, either the power went out, or I felt I didn't want it in... Hmm, maybe I got lazy and forgot too, my bad xD
Not at all as long as you give link, cred to my blog, the source, or to lp.
You're also not allowed to pretend it's me who has the downloadable link, just in case.... You got 1 post, been thousands of scammers in the blogs pretending to do good things, but wanting to teamview, get money, send trojans so forth.
Contact Users: 825 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 14:27
Sweden. Aug 14 2011 05:44. Posts 4472
