blonde poker forum

(Cliffs at end)

I’ve been in exile, back in the family home for a few days and with a little time to kill. This gave me the opportunity to read through a few more of the longer rail threads that I have had bookmarked for a while, in particular some of the blog style posts. They were a fun read and gave me the idea to type one of my own out and then figure out if I would go ahead and post it or not.

Although a British ‘pro’ I only really came across the blonde forums over the last few months as I got increasingly involved in the DTD community and up till now I have been more of a lurker than a poster so it’s probably about time to jump in and participated a little.
 
Perhaps the updates I can stick up can highlight a different a side of the game that others haven’t covered and maybe be a good insight into how to approach some aspects tied up with trying to make it as a pro, critically how badly and how easily you can mess it all up.

My hope is to grind up from micro stakes once again playing mostly NL 6-max. Not for fun and not for any sort of bankroll challenge but because I have blown it and hit that rock at the bottom. Leaving 2009 with $100k+ bankroll and as one of the top winning NL400+600 regulars on stars I hadn’t planned on hitting the 0.05c/0.10c tables again but that’s where I have found myself through a combination of bad timing, bad judgment, moving down limits too late and when tilted and a lot of stubbornness. S*@t happens right.

The next few months will be my final ones as a grinder unless I can find a way to pick things up once more, frankly there is a lot of stress and heartbreak involved in this game and I hope I am still young enough to move into another field yet if I have to though it would certainly hurt to walk away. Poker was never something I had meant to do solely for many years but more of a springboard to lead into other careers eventually- something which at this rate may never happen and therefore the plan is seeming a little flawed :-P. But for the years I played for I didn’t just want to be good or win a nice amount. Although those are what I need to do I just wanted to be one of the best more than anything and this year I began taking way to big risks and simply buried myself.

Anyway, I am and have always been a cash game player. Despite many a trip to bustoville over the last 4-5 years cash game are where I have always excelled though never winning above $3/$6. Right now I have ~$950 and am playing 10c/25c after starting 8days ago with my last $400 after walking out of DTD following yet another crushing night. The plan? – Make it back to midstakes online and £1/£2 at DTD by mid-late September utilizing a minimum of 40buy-in bankroll along the way. It’s going to be a grind that’s for sure, I have done it a few times before but damn, the games aren’t half a lot tougher now than last time! In fact id say 10c/25c is as hard as $1/2 was last time ffs. Bonuses will play a major part in helping me achieve this goal- thank god i can play a lot of tables coz there aint many FPPS to be made from micro stakes lol.

I don’t want to out my screen name for now for a few reasons so I would appreciate anyone who knows it or works it out to not post it openly.
If people seem interested in any of the first few updates that I put up then I will endearor to keep this going and post regularly both BR updates and nuggets of things that I’ve learnt and seen over the last few years, should they be interesting. Hope this post isn’t tldr. Wish me luck :-P………

June 26th 2010.

Starting BR               $825
Hands Played      259
Games         PLO 0.25/0.5 (50% action sold)
Profit                 $250.90 ($125)
End BR         $950
      

(http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/8051/28june2010.jpg)


Hand i played today. Villain was tilted and not very good. I would have folded vs a non tilted opponent but felt i had to call in the end. I hate my bet sizing on the river and think it is actually a good spot to c/r bluff me but hard to give this guy credit for such a thought. I still called, he was tilted.  
http://www.handconverter.com/hands/772473 (http://www.handconverter.com/hands/772473)

He ended up showing down Jh Kd 2h 4h   (i dont know why the result was cut off). Damn i hate my river sizing.


Cliff notes:  One time proud grinder gets the snot knocked out of him and loses $100k bankroll this year playing every other limit and game type except the one he was successful at, attempting to start again with $400. Watch the flight or fall.

gl

gl

It would be interesting to hear more details about how you got started, what went wrong and how you felt about it.

gl and  ;welcome;

Good luck.

GL & Welcome

What sites are you playing on?

I think this will be a compulsive read.

I love people who are honest about themselves, their failings as much as their sucessses, who can be self-critical, self-deprecation can never be a bad quality. The final line / footnote was far & away the most revealing part.

If I had one wish for this, it would be that I hope it is "wider" than just poker, because our real "non-poker" personna is what we exhibit at poker, & vice-versa.

Good Luck Mr (Miss?) Fallen.

how much do you have to take out of your roll for living expenses each month? why not just get staked to play 1/2?

GL with this, i will be watching intently as you grind away.

Good luck with this.

As someone who is also terrible with bankroll management would you not consider staking? It's definitely right for me.

Also, what is your name? Do you know any of the many DTD blonde regs?

Any reason why you don't want to give your screename ?

GL with this.

Welcome to blonde and what looks like being a cracking read.

I have one question already.  You say you're not rolled for anything more than the 25c/50c games online, but feel you have a big enough roll for the £1/£2 games at DTD.  They can be very swingy, and isn't playing under-rolled a recipe for disaster.

Would you not consider playing the £.50/£1 games and grinding a profit on them - or do you mix it up between the two?

Anyway, looking forward to this.

Did anyone else read the title of this thread, see how it started off and think is this Blatch?



Nb.. No offence to OP, I can see this will be a great thread.

I thought the same, but can confirm that it isn't blatch.

yeah re-reading through does seem to be a level

Oh no, please don't let that be so.

How could you know that for sure?

I'm leaning towards it isn't, but dunno until the op puts his/her name

Looks like a level :-(, hope not though could be a good thread.

Edit - Sorry, apparently not a level, In which case I am sure I am going to like this thread. GL with it.

I've got a fair idea that this is fine. (Can't confirm, just based on a bit of knowledge and a bit of guesswork),

Hi Mr fallen

I note that you made a few posts a while ago on blonde as "desperadogm"

No problem, I assume you didn't remember your log in details

Unfortunately you can't reply to PMs til you have 10 posts. I am assuming you're happy for us to close the first account and you carry on with this one?


please let us know, thanks, and good luck

Confirmed  fine.......... and a  very nice guy.

thanks Neil, will do


on with the thread.....

Would have thought he posted under a new name to not give away him online SN, may be worth deleting last few posts so he can remain anonymous through his challenge.

+ Good luck Geraldine.

Thanks for all the ‘gl’s’, really. Was a little nervous putting the post up and it feels good to see to some nice responses. Going to put in a little session now but though id just stick up a reply first to clear up the whole ‘Is this a level or not’.  



I will pretty much be playing exclusively on stars for now just because I’m a supernova there still and have some good bonus’ half way cleared. In the past few years most of my play has always been split pretty much equally between party, f-tilt and stars due to how easy the software is to use and there being plenty of traffic at all times, that’s what usually puts me off the euro site.
I’ll be playing under the name DesperadoGM on stars, I suppose I may as well out it now since it has been already  =D. I just didn’t want this thread easily google-able for everyone who I have/will play against lots since I was planning on posting odd hands, stats and thoughts.  Keeping alias’ out of hand histories will probably keep it hidden enough I guess.



I tend to just take chunks out of my roll for expenses at a time rather than month by month, with each month spending varying hugely. I guess I can survive on 1k a month for a little while without it affecting my life happiness too much as I shouldn’t have any major expenses coming up (hopefully). Though I do plan on booking a summer holiday soon but FPPs should be covering this.




Typically I have always declined staking when offered. I tried it once and just felt a huge pressure on me to succeed for the staker, some days more stress than losing my own money even if I was up overall.  It also felt kind of tough to be accountable to someone who was looking over hands played and knowing that they will often disagree with decisions that you have made. I just hate letting people down and the end result is that it probably affects my game and maybe my life happiness even more to lose someone else’s money than my own. Maybe its something I need to get over. Definitely something to think about and perhaps if I can’t work things out on my own I will take somebody up on it.

Online staking would probably never be much of a problem since I am more known to online players than live ones and it’s pretty easy these days to prove yourself a winning player online given so many databases etc. Live staking might be harder to find as honestly I have never proved myself live (being a loser over the last ~2months). Also I don’t feel that I even played as well as I could/should have so probably nobody should put their money behind me anyway. A few people may take pieces of my in games or put me in smaller live games but with the number of hands I can play online coupled with the bonus’s I would probably need to play a decent sized £1/£2 live game if I was staked in order make it worthwhile doing right now (and the variance is going to take a lot longer to balance out live).



My names Ged, think I may have played some 2/5 at DTD with you and Pete.C once if you are Kos(?). Not really sure who are the DTD people on here but I know Mitch and Jakally (Neil) who have posted. I think I know george2 loose as well if it’s who I think it is.




I don’t have the roll to play 1/2 at DTD anymore for sure. I did have for a while but have lost ~£15k over the last month between online and live (damn £2/£5 is unbeatable!! :-P... sigh).  I’ll probably jump back into the £1/£2 if I can get back up over £10k again.
Again with the .5/1 games, I’m just not sure it’s worthwhile to grind for 8 hours a night if it’s only getting something like 30 hands an hour. With them being capped buy in of £100 at DTD and the rake being so high the profitability vs. short run variance doesn’t look too good considering it would probably require a similar bankroll as one that could allow me to play $0.50/$1 online.  



Haha, defo not Blatch. Hopefully that will be the last thing that ever causes confusion between the two of us.



Thanks Tight and Neil .

I saw you play once at DTD, I walk over 2 mins behind mitch to see him being stacked instantly. From that day on you were my hero!


Gl with the grinding, playing online is much more preferable to watching Jakally and Mitch eat playing live!

I am liking the look of this thread, here's to hoping you run good and keep it up to date.

from your PTR looks like you are running bad at 25NL so maybe you are due a huge upswing, but giving you a (probably very conservative) 5bb/100 and 100K hands a month gives you $1250 a month, dunno how much you get from your FPPs, but do you see how hard it's gonna be to move up when you are taking out so much (compared to stakes) a month?

they say you shouldn't borrow to gamble but I think it can make sense in some circumstances, put $5K on a CC, 100K @ 5bb = $5K pay it straight off if you can live on FPPs for a month and you're in a lot better situation a lot quicker. Need to be uber confident you can beat 100NL of course. Or sort out some staking thing on 2+2.

Hopefully you won't tho cos this looks like it will be a good read. GL!

LOL at using a credit card to gamble, great advice.

If you can't afford to play, don't.

so the zillions of staked players should stop playing? what's the difference? clearly your advice is good in general, this is a winning 3/6 player playing .1/.25 which is a total waste of time.

just checked your posts, you're just a troll who isn't even funny

Using a credit card is basically putting him in the same situation as being staked, pressurised by borrowed money.  He has already stated he can't play optimal on borrowed money.

I'm not trying to be funny, trying to stop someone getting bad advice

y? if durrr lost all his money (and red pro status) except $500 and a credit card and had $1500 living expenses he would be better off grinding 25nl? of course he wouldn't!

of course if OP is undisciplined which he may well be i guess ???

ok i see your point, was just saying it's gonna be hard to move up paying living exes that's all

should people not take out business loans? what's the difference?

Durrrr did lose pretty much all of his roll(well to the etxent he could no longer play games relative to what he was playing,probably to the same scale of difference in stakes to OP)

He got staked to keep playing his regular stakes.

Yer 10c/25c started out a little rocky but hopefully things pick up now, to be honest i was definitely rusty playing as many tables as i was and also had to adapt a little to how the players were thinking (not overbet bluffing in the situations that I am used to doing so or finding bigger folds etc.). I never really like to think I'm due an upswing partly because I'm superstitious and just think i will get jinxed but also because it can be a bit of a crutch sometimes.

Maybe i wont need 1k a month cashout but id rather over state it than try to budget for less. I mentioned a bonus that is pending (9/10th of the way cleared). This is a for ~$5K but with the FPP/hand ratio being so low at micro stakes I am still probably 70,000 hands away from clearing it. I will pay for the first months living expenses from it and also my holiday. Hopefully this could mean it might be possible for me to be comfortable rolled for and playing $0.5/1 by the end of next month- if I'm able to knock off the remaining rust and catch up with the times. Late July-August might be the most critical time to scrimp and save a little so that I may potentially make it to $1/2- especially since it will likely not be till late August that i see another bonus cleared. That's kind of the plan anyway.

I considered taking some sort of loan in order to miss out micro stakes but honestly that would be too easy. Its essentially what i have been doing all year, assuming i can just put the use 30k or 20k or 10k then 5k online and grind my roll back up after each stupid loss. Its this arrogance i guess that has meant that i haven't been putting in the hard work and have whittled away so much. Also i just don't want more debt hanging over me on top of a student loan and overdraft- hey my credit rating is already shocking enough probably given the amount of gambling transactions over the years lol.

Another daemon circling in my head is the fact that i haven't noteably won all year really. Maybe not focused, maybe a little run bad, maybe whatever excuse etc. etc ...... but damn, 6 months is a long time to go for without winning much for any supposedly profitable player. I have just now for the first time this year had 3 winning days in a row and this will hopefully be chalked up as my first winning week so my confidence has obviously been pretty ragged. As someone who probably plays 9 days out of every 10 these figures are either a huge anomaly or more likely somethin has been going seriously wrong. Basically I'm not even sure anymore what level I can beat right now and so using borrowed money to play a game I'm not sure I'm good in would just be suicide.  


Today i played some more 50NL and 50PLO HU since i can only manage 3 tables anyway without a mouse. Again had to sell half my action since there are no 10c/25c HU tables.


June 26th 2010

Start BR              $950
Handes Played     1099
Games                PLO50 NL50 (50% action sold)
Profit                  $269.3 ($135)
End BR               $1085


(http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1559/june27th2010.jpg)


A strange hand, the guy had a Donk Bet of of 83% over ~250 hands which is pretty ludicrous. I was raising any nutty hands or total air and pot controlling weaker made hands. He would typically 1/2 or 2/3 pot the turn with any semblance of a hand and just check fold air so it was pretty easy to work him out after a while. I had seen he liked to chase draws and not stick his money in so I wasn't really concerned with getting pushed out by a draw when i raised for value/protection and I was fairly happy with the fold after the hand was over. Calling down was the other option but i didn't want to lose value from top pair or from any draws he might have but it certainly has merits.  

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5530393 (http://www.pokerhand.org/?5530393)


The final hand we played. Again i wasn't overly excited to get it in on the turn but folding wasn't really an option. After this was showdown i hated my fold in the other hand. Oh well...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5530403 (http://www.pokerhand.org/?5530403)

GL Sir

do gambling transactions seriously affect your credit rating? never knew this

no they dont - although you own bank may not want to let you money if they see the transactions on your statements.  in terms of credit rating though, no effect.

gl man

refused credit card as self employed.

Next time put down poker player - instant acceptance!!!

A few years ago when I was arranging a bank loan to buy a business, there was a delay on the final decision because they wrote to ask me the meaning of various transactions from poker/betting sites on my bank statements.

I had to write them a letter to explain myself before they made their final decision! They loaned me the money in the end but it wasn't that pleasant feeling like a degenerate.  If I remember rightly I blamed the transactions on my dad :)

GL Ged btw.

Just win at the pokerz and you wont have so many deposits coming up on your statement, ldo.

Or in your case Maria, your gonna just have to keep blaming your Dad.  ;nanana;

Seperate account ftw! Only the transactions which are looked at would effect any lending application, your credit report would be fine.

One thing that leaps out at me here is that despite being in a pretty desperate financial situation you are still planning on going on holiday.

Surely the money spent going on a holiday would be better invested in bringing forward your move up to the higher limits?

Yes we all need a break once in a while but occassionally we have to make sacrifices for the greater good.

GLGL with this. Will be watching intently.

Was in fairly similar situation to TheFallen in terms of joining this forum, have played a lot online and recently quite a lot live as well. Have been meaning to sign up and post here for quite a while but this thread has finally given me a kickstart to doing so.

GL Ged, one of the nicest guys I've met in my time playing at DTD, and far too good a player to be in this situation, fortunately that also makes him far too good to be in it for long :)

On the plus side, now ur not playing at DTD for the time being, maybe i might get someone to fold 3rd pair when I triple barrel bluff

HAVE A HOLIDAY AND RELAX for a while

It wont be me.

Are you any relation to Fallen from Dynasty?

Played by a few actresses, including Emma Sams, who I had a crush on when I was a young teenager.

Wasn't she the one who was abducted by aliens or something in one storyline?

That's some hair...
(http://www.leninimports.com/emma_samms_gallery_1.jpg)

Couple of things I really like about her...
(http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/pv/Emma%20Samms-3.jpg)

hi m8
good luck with your grind. I play 2/2 omaha at dtd once a month and 3 times a week £1/2 omaha or round of each live in my local casino and am beating both games last 12 months for a very nice profit.

my question is why cant i beat 50c/$1 omaha online?
I just seem to tilt like crazy in front of a laptop where I dont tilt at all live. I did spin $200 bucks into 10k last christmas eve drunk but that is the only cashout i ever had in 3 years online. have you any advice for me?

i look forward to following your thread and best of luck Ged


Alex

Play to a bankroll and you won't tilt as much.

$200 spin ups is great when they come off, but unless you have a set bankroll in place with plenty of buy ins, you're going to lose, no matter how good u are.

Hi Alex.
Heres my take,

Omaha online is a lot different to Omaha live i think (way bigger gap than online vs. live holdem). Online regs may or may not be tougher than live regs but the big difference is that online there is hardly ever the few huge, very apparent marks with sizeable stacks that you can focus your game towards - so overall it makes winrates a lot smaller.  

Other notable things about the online games is the stacks are usually a lot, lot shorter than live games (especially considering the distinct tendency to raise and re-raise preflop online way more and limping live), this means that there are a lot more yucky spots where you may have to stack off with almost negligible EV. For instance calling a 3B with JQ78 in position, calling a QT7ssh flop, seeing 5h on the turn and being faced with another barrel from your opponent who has only around another 2/3 pot behind. Stacking off here might be slightly +EV vs this villain yet 8 out of the first 10 times you do so he may have a hand that just absolutely dominates you such as TTxx or QTxx. In a live game it is often a lot easier to pot control and with stacks being so much deeper people are usually way less inclined to stick in another huge turn bet in the same situation with the slightly more marginal end of their range such as AcKsKc10s.

Basically your variance or standard deviation should be way lower in live games. Lower variance = less epic run bad streaks + less incentive to tilt or question your game.  

My best advice would be to try dropping in stakes a bit and instead try buying in on deep tables (I know tilt, stars and ipoker offer 250bb buyin games now). So instead of playing $.5/$1 with $100 play $.25/.5 and buyin for $125 or $100. This may be more suited to your game and be a good segway into the shallower games down the road. Also just embrace Omaha variance rather than fight it because it's just too f' sick to even get your head around sometimes :-S..... I should know, I once had a winning session of it, considering the way I play that had to be minimum 10,000-1 feat right there :-P.

if u wana see something depressing have a play around with this. N.B. your standard deviation for online plo should be a minimum of 100bb and the very best players winraters probably will hardly ever exceed 12bb/100 at $.5/1 longterm.  http://www.evplusplus.com/poker_tools/variance_simulator/ (http://www.evplusplus.com/poker_tools/variance_simulator/)

hope any of that helps a bit. glgl =D

Ged

Thanks for taking the time to respond. What a great reply, it makes a lot of sense especially the limping in the live games which makes pot control on flop/turn much easier is just not happening in online games due greater agg/skill levels. And you are correct I do tend to make 75% of my live profit from 25% of the players. I will have a look at the 100bb games on ft.

I know I should do the old bankroll thing but play mainly for fun and feel thats for the pros. I just find it amazing how different online and live cash omaha games are and thats why I take my hat off to you for grinding out any kind of living online

Thanks again
Alex

Gouty, the other thing is online I'm guessing you're playing 6-max PLO and live ur playing full ring.

correct although taking smokers and mega rocks into consideration its about 7/8 handed.

GL Ged! Had similar fall from grace when spunked off 120k br down to 2k w combination of holidays, bahamas (12k), vegas (40k), and online mtts (30k) playing like an absolute monkey.  came back to nl50 having had no prior cg experience and pre vegas this yr was comfortably at 2/4 and in nice position to lose 24k in vegas (altho played well this time!).  am very confident that you're a much better player than me so will have no trouble to get back to the midstakes

I remember you mentioning this at DTD at the last deepstack but only just saw this thread. gl man, hope it all works out well for you and please keep us updated

wow. epic, this rings espcially true for me due to similar experience.
Thing ive learnt is in Poker you have to believe that everything will work, that the big moment that makes the comeback possible will happen sooner rather than later, and you'll always get through these horrible situations if you just believe in yourself and keep going.

If you dont have that then no matter how good you are, you may aswel close pokerstars down, and head to see if the local co-op needs anyone on the checkout, cos we're gamblers at the end of the day.

Seems like you have the belief and the drive so id put my money (wats left ;) ) behind you

Best of Luck x

bump?

yh BUMP!

Sick last post from me btw

BELIEVVVVVVE

sick last post from pleno more like. last post ever.

28 days innit.

least he made it a good 'un

Only just seen this. Pretty sick Ged as you play goot. Hope thinks are on an upswong

hmm i vaguely remember playing against you at midstakes 6max a couple of years back. No real history of note though :(

Did this diary stop or has it moved elsewhere?

no but he told me last night he was going to start it up again so watch this space....

ty