blonde poker forum

I'm currently grinding 4 tables of nl5 ZOOM and playing .50/1 and .50/.50 at the casino. I have a bankroll of 1200 and although this seems too much to be playing nl5 with and too little to be playing nl100 with I genuinely believe my WR is something close to 20bb/100 in a decent casino game whereas I don't feel comfortable beating nl10 yet. If my roll gets to 800 I'll stop playing .50/1.

At the moment just trying to get as much volume as possible online and also study mainly using HH's. I don't find that many videos that useful for me as I try to use a GTO style whereas many of the videos talk about hand reading etc.

The reasons I've started this thread are mainly to get more poker playing friends and all the opportunities that affords mean to learn and also the possibility of getting staked in certain games. Also to keep myself accountable so I don't just get pissed and chase birds all summer.

Anyway I've got until December to prove to my parents that I am a winning player otherwise I'm going to have to get a real job at the end of my degree and no-one wants that.

Here's a hand from last time I played live so we don't start the thread on a high otherwise where would there be to go from there?

I reload to ~120. And get dealt a pair in MP which isn't part of my range and so should be folded, I open due to boredom tilt, two players behind me call. Board comes J56r, my face goes a bit red and I bet out about 7 into 10 one caller. turn Q I bet about 15 one caller. River 8, I bet 25, should be more but yeah, one caller he goes "two pair" I say "set" and flip over the 44 towards my chest, "hang on, no it fucking isn't" mucked em. Insta left and went on a search for a lighter.

lol whats wrong with a real job?  :D

GL anyway  :)

Haha nothing mate just taking the piss.

Cheers for the run good. Balance now at 482 in my PS account when I get up to 500 I'll move up to nl10.

What is your name?

Where you from / studying?

Studying philosophy dunno if I wanna say who I am etc. yet.

Post casino drives are the illest. Up 40 prob 30ish for the day. Played a weird hand at the end still unsure whether it was good or not but I'll post it tomorrow. Big winners were aa into kk and ak v TT on axx board v same guy who tilt shoved on the flop.

Favourite philosopher and reasons? :D

Good luck! I'm playing a bit of 50nl zoom atm, feel free to hit me up if you want a chat or to discuss a hand or two sometime :)

Sounds good man. You got Skype?

Hand from last night went straddle, limp, I raise to 6 folded to bb reg who calls and limper calls. Think he might have been pro but played way too loose. Flop comes akxr x,x,x. Turn bring diamond draw bb leads for 11 o think loose guy folds I call. Rivers a diamond and bb leads for 21 I raise to 50 he calls I muck. Was wondering what everyone's river raising range is here. Obviously aa and flushes but what are you bluffing here? I'd think the bottom of his bet calling range would be AQ and weal two pairs so we need blockers to this stuff and of course we need to be getting to the river with it as well. Think doing anything other than calling/folding ax here is a mistake as that's what we're trying to make him fold.

EDIT
Been through it all and I think my bluff with KQ here means I'm bluffing with too many combos, would only bluff with KQ and KJ of diamonds here. Full river raising range looks like this AdAh, AdAc, AhAc, AdTd, Ad8d, Ad7d, 8d7d, Ad5d, Ad4d, Ad2d, KhQd, KsQd, KcQd, KhJd, KsJd, KcJd maybe lose aa and KJ if villains are better but then I also might be folding my Kx on the turn.

Also Hume cos he's a funny and miserable bastard

Hi Mate,

Welcome to blonde, you'll meet a lot of good/funny/generous people on here, give a little and you'll defo get it back  :)up

I'm 25 and have been playing poker full time since i was 20. I started at small stakes casino games like you are doing and played majority cash games (like you're going to do?) all that time, so a few things I've learnt along the way that might be worth considering, and btw if I'd have got this adivce 5 years ago I would have almost certainly ignored it lol.

Firstly, I think you've got to think about your bankroll strategy a bit deeper, one thing I always suspected, and now I know for defo is that you cannot make a living playing 50p/£1 in casino's or 5c/10c online. You get swallowed up by the rake, I'd bet against anyone in the world if they could play 100,000 hands of 50p/£1 in a casino without the games being crazy deep or very low rake, that would not be winning at the end. Ivey/Trickett ANYONE. This isn't to say that you shouldn't play these games right now- you absolutely should, but if you want my opinion the way to move on and try form a sustainable way of supporting yourself through gambling then you have to be looking to get past those games ASAP. My advice would be to either;

Put your live poker bankroll into online poker, move up stakes to 25c/50c there and get some good volume in there, talk hands with anyone who will listen (post them on blonde) don't play too many tables (to keep a bit of pressure off your BR and to make sure you're REALLY focusing)

or, continue to play in the live games you are using all your BR - but try be a bit more selective about when and where you play - try joining the games later when they are a little deeper, if the games appear very shallow then don't play etc. If you go on a bit of a run in the games (which you'll need to do) then press on to slightly bigger games asap (£1/£2 often has the same rake structure in casinos) and from there you have a chance to actually make some money. Once you have enough spare BR to deposit ~$1000 online then start from 25c/50c and ^^^.

Stars is very good for game ecology and there frequent player/rakeback system is the best out there but if you're not playing enough volume at sufficient stakes then you wont feel the benefits - perhaps consider going to an ipoker skin where you can get a decent RB deal - that way even playing B/E poker you will be able to make a few hundred a month relatively risk free.

I think though the best thing to consider is that you cannot rely on i) making any money to live whilst also attempting to move up stakes in the next 6 months, and ii) the time pressure you have put/have had put on yourself is totally unfeasible, you might be a winning poker player now,you might be becoming a very good poker player that is currently without the resources to sustain a living but if the deal is "be winning by Xmas or it's over" then I'd put your chances of success at about 5% - it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and a lot of emotional development to become a winning gambler and your 6 month time limit will prolly be your biggest hindrance. In my opinion. You'll prolly find it damages your enjoyment a bit as well.

I'd prolly look to try get a part time job, preferably doing something that interests you, that way you can support yourself outside of poker winnings, meaning the money you win can be invested into your bankroll and give you the best possible chance of succeeding, and it'll be a good compromise with your parents as you can say "look im trying both things and seeing which I like better" and then you won't be getting hassle from them when December comes along and now you're gonna have to try spin up to £5k just so you can get another couple of months without aggro (I been there, trust me!!!)

Oh, also - play a couple of tournaments on a sunday, loads of huge field small buy-in stuff (Big$11, Sunday Storm, $3rebuy etc) which won't affect your BR too much but will give you an (outside, but legitimate) chance of a score for a couple of grand which will really spurt your bankroll on. Remember those this is pretty thin punting for the most part so don't expect anything from it!

GL with it all anyways.

David

Great advice there Kingpush.  Listen to Dave.  He has been there and done everything you strive to do.  GL bud all the best.

Cheers lil Dave really appreciate it mate. Agree with you on pretty much everything. Not going  to get a part time job as still doing uni until the end of the year but if I don't have enough to play 1/2 then or be backed then I'll get a part time job. At the moment though I can live off my loan.

On moving up stakes online I've lost chunks at nl50 on ipoker and stars recently that's why o started at nl5 and just proving to myself o can beat every limit before moving up and playing higher. I may be costing myself money but from my exp I'm saving myself money by doing so.

I'd like to get your thoughts on bankroll strategy for my current br(~1200) what would you be buying on for at .50/1?  and also thoughts on getting staked and the pros and cons?

Everything Dave said except the bit about him being 25. He trys to get away with it as he loks it but he's pushing 30 for sure.

Down 80. Don't think I made that many mistakes apart from playing the tourny when should have just waited for .5/1 to open. A8 lost to kq in that. Don't think I made a hand on the flop all night and nothing really to write home about. Losses came from double barreling then xfolding draws or getting raised on the turn with the bottom of my range. On to the next one.

Ahh sorry i thought you'd just finished uni! My mistake :P

Few things to think about BR management, firstly, and the most important thing is to think about yourself personally and your propensity for risk. One thing I think you're going to have to bear in mind is that with a BR like yours atm you're going to run a high risk of busting it - poker has a lot of variance and a 1200 BR isn't enough to smooothly ride out any variance at any stake (except online micros) so if you're naturally less risk-inclined and really really don't want to bust this 1200 then playing micro's online and pounding the volume in is without doubt your best bet...

However a couple issues with that, firstly time - as described by your personal circumstances it seems to me very important you don't donk your degree off - if your parents a little skeptical about poker now, then they'll be near irretrievable on the subject if  you ruin your degree due to gambling. So for your own sanity (and I had to battle my family over gambling for 2 years and pretty much lost contact entirely with them as a result) it's best to just keep the cynics on board!

The other point, "lessons not learnt in blood are seldom remembered" the stakes you're playing online are very small, and as such it's going to be difficult to really hold your focus or advance your learning - speaking with very little experience of these games I would imagine that the difference in levels of opponent between 5c/10c and 25c/50c is reasonably small (obviously you;ll get some much better players at 25c/50c) and your oppurtunity for development as a player will be greatly improved at 25c/50c - IMO. Like I say though you're risk of ruin goes up, and it depends how much you think you can handle that. For me, it has to hurt if i lose for it to teach me anything lol.

As for live poker. I'd seriously reccomend playing shorter in deeper £1/£2 games if you can as you'll get much better value from the rake and the opportunity playing short-stacked in deeper, more aggressive games is a lot better to spin up. Playing short stacked is kinda shit, but this isnt an enviroment where you're going to develop your poker skills that much, but it's a real good oppurtunity to develop your skills as a gambler...
At 50p/£1 I'd be buying in similar to other players on the table - if no-one has more than £50 then no need to buy in for £200, and you can always top up as a situation requires it...

I'd advise you to be quite aggressive with your BR in live poker games as a good run can really spur your bankroll on - don't be wreckless though :P you're likely going to find yourself in a situation where you have quite a big % of your overall BR in play - so think about how you're going to handle that before you decide what and where to play. If you're going to be in a casino anyway you could consider playing some of the comps - £20-£50 comps and there is usually a decent top prize, a couple of result in those would really kick start your poker and the standard is usually very very low.

Mostly though my advice would be to enjoy playing, and dont let some rules and numbers spoil it - it's a game afterall and it would really suck if after 8 months you lost your £1200 and had had a shit time doing it!

Took Dave's advice sat shallow in 1/2. Won a lot without sd and then won one big one with aa on 226a. I raised, nearly everyone called. I cbet called in 2 positions. Start thinking about checking one street but turn a changes my mind I bet guy shoves for ~120 I snap he has a 2 and I fade the one out. Phew.

Lost 2 big hands afterwards. First was limp utg, pro(?) raises to 7 from btn. I 3bet to 20 with at from sb, I don't have a calling range here so this is def a 3bet, btn calls. 876r I cbet he calls. 2 no flush draw, I bet again he calls. turns an under card again and I check fold. Think this is fine.

Next hand was played 4 handed I open co with kj to 6 btn calls SB 3bets to 27 ish and I 4bet to 50 with kj. Think this is a big mistake. Heads up it's good but with the caller as well I think this is a fold unless he's way ool. Live though it's shit. Think something like kjs, kqs, AQ, ak and jj+ should be my range here. Maybe not even that wide.

70 up anyway and will definitely be sitting short in 1/2 again. Line ups seem better than .5/1 and also a lot more fun even when people are losing chunks more.

why do u have no callin range?

Don't have one from any positions apart from btn and bb as unless it is balanced it is easily exploited. Also with a limper calling here is burning money as have nut worst position.

Gonna do some HHS then play mtts later. Any suggestions on which ones to play? Have money on ipoker stars and 888.

Not having a flatting range apart from BTN and BB is really, really, really bad. There is some justification for not having a flatting range from the SB vs LP opens in non-MW pots, but even this is sub-optimal. However, not having a flatting range in other positions is terrible. Playing 3bet or fold means you are turning down a TON of +EV spots where you can make money by flatting.

Besides, I would not worry about having exploitable ranges in a small stakes live game! Seriously, don't even consider it until you have evidence that one particular player is actually exploiting you! Which is unlikely to ever happen in the games you are playing tbh, and even when it does happen it only matters in pots that are HU between you and him. He can't do much to exploit you in multiway pots since such pots are 'protected'. Keep in mind that I am giving you this advice even though I am pretty much the most theory/GTO-based regular poster on this forum.

Having a dogmatic approach such as "I never open limp" or "I don't have a flatting range from the SB" or "I always open raise to 2.5x on the button, 3x in the CO etc" will hinder your development as a poker player as well as reducing your EV in most live games you play in.

But if I did have a dogmatic rule in this particular spot (which I don't) it would actually be to have NO 3betting range, and to flat ALL my playable hands. Justification for this would be to keep the limper in the pot (assuming he is a weaker player) rather than forcing him out.

BTW, you can make a virtue of your bad relative position by sometimes leading through the limp-caller.

Really? Think it's fairly standard to only 3bet/fold in all positions apart from bb and btn in online cash games now at least as default.

Would think the only flatting here is just an exploitation of the utg not having a balanced limping range, when this is un knowable, especially as people love sandbagging. Also the fact we can lead does not mean we have good position as if we get called we're still oop.

Would have to echo Stu's post, Live poker (if your in ok-good games) is mostly about maximizing vacuum profit, i.e. what ACTUAL hand you have vs the range/hand you think he has. If you think he'll fold better hands then BLUFF, if you think he'll call worse then VALUE-BET if your not sure then prolly lean on the side of caution and do whatever is safest.

Worrying that you can't flat AT in X spot cos you don't have a flatting range isn't going to do you any favors in a live game - having said all this your approaching the game from a theory driven angle is very much how it needs to be these days.

Errr.... I assumed this was live poker you were talking about. The way you wrote the hands down seemed like it was a live game (otherwise why not just put in the HHs?)

That said, you should have flatting ranges in online poker too. What you doing with TT or AQs from the CO vs an UTG open? These hands play WAY better as a flat than as a 3bet. What if MP opens, CO and BTN both call and you have 55 in the SB... you really only 3bet or fold here? It is definitely not standard to be only 3bet or fold in online poker.

And in live poker you should definitely have flatting ranges.

For that matter in live games you will often have limping ranges depending on how the game is playing, and there will be periods in the game when you can open to 15x and still get action etc. It all depends on how the game is playing. Don't be dogmatic about anything.

I have told this story before but I remember a while back I was playing in a game that was going through insanity half hour. That period where, for the next few hand at least, certain players were simply never ever going to fold preflop. This is NOT the time to be having a standard 3x opening size or having a polarised 3betting range or stuff like that. But you gotta be focussed on the game flow to know what is going on. Anyway, someone opened to £10 in a deep-stacked £1/2 game, there were 5 callers and I 3bet with AA to £150 - a HUGE raise in normal cirumstances. And as the chips left my hand I realised I had made a terrible mistake - that I should have made it £300 and would still have got the same amount of action. Everyone called, obviously. But they'd have called £300 just as happily, so that's what I should have made it. Perhaps I should just have jammed for £1000 or whatever I had. Probably would have got at least a couple of callers. Being aware of stuff like this requires thinking non-dogmatically. Having 'standard' 3bet sizes or ranges does not win as much money in these sort of spots.

Hi there!

Suuprlim and honeybadger have gave real good advice on game selection BR and theory, what I'd like to add to that is when you're playing dont feel frozen to one style of play. online NL5 zoom is a billion miles from live local casino NL100+
Try adapting to the games separately, don't have set rules about how you play, each scenario will be different, sometimes flatting will be best. also try not to consider being balanced or villains being balanced,V rarely the people you will play against will think deeply or correctly about how ranges change and how for example they should start limp raising a certain % of hands as bluffs.

Good luck on the full time grind, make sure you put in a ridic amount of volume and move up stakes asap on stars because those benefits are too good to miss!

This may be the best thing to do but really struggle to think like this since I've been playing my range versus the middle of villains for a few months now. Also any attempts at hand reading have always lead to me levelling myself a lot.

Was in a live poker game and I'm happy to admit I'm still struggling to make correct adjustments for live poker. Every time I deviate from my standard strategy I end up in spots where I don't know my range and feel like I'm making a lot of -EV plays this may also be to do with me not feeling comfortable enough in my own strategy being optimal enough in the first place. Also I agree with you but these are all adjustments it is +EV to shove all in with aces but this does not mean it is the best play. Especially as it is terrible for your subsequent range. I agree though that when you're confident no-one is ever going to exploit you and for example is never going to fold then obviously we should just bet big with our good hands and not play anything else. From my experience though these spots rarely exist.

Hi, cheers for the support. Definitely agree with you and the more I play in these games the more I feel comfortable adjusting to each situation. For example I used to cbet flops too much in multi way pots and now I've realised I need to have much tighter ranges in theses spots as people are generally calling way wider than online.

Played three tournies bricked em all. Dunno why I do it. This happened earlier though.

GAME #5931276417: Texas Hold'em  NL €0.02/€0.05 2014-08-22 18:57:39/GMT
Table Speed Hold'em 1
Seat 1: USERO1 (€4.35 in chips)
Seat 3: Morzhoviii (€5.07 in chips)
Seat 5: thetruegrinder18 (€2.12 in chips)
Seat 6: KingPush1 (€5.90 in chips)
Seat 8: baadnewzz01 (€5.24 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: 201skeet (€5.00 in chips)
201skeet: Post SB €0.02
USERO1: Post BB €0.05
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [HA SA]
Morzhoviii: Fold
thetruegrinder18: Fold
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €0.15
baadnewzz01: Fold
201skeet: Fold
USERO1: Raise (NF) €0.50
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €0.90
USERO1: Call €0.40
*** FLOP *** [C2 CA D10]
USERO1: Check
KingPush1: Check
*** TURN *** [DA]
USERO1: Bet €0.91
KingPush1: Call €0.91
*** RIVER *** [C10]
USERO1: Bet €2.54
KingPush1: Call €2.54
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €8.14 Rake €0.58
USERO1: Shows [H10 S10] Four of a Kind, Tens
KingPush1: Shows [HA SA] Four of a Kind, Aces
KingPush1: wins €8.14

poor bastard

nice hand.

LOVE your turn and river play :P

Basically I think of online and live poker games like this;

Online games, and over the past 18 months I've had to really overhaul the way I play online and hasn't been easy, is like working high up in a big company, you have plenty of room for creativity and flair but there is a certain set of "rules" that you really have to stick to in order to be successful, you're doing the same thing day in day out vs the same people and in general the people you're doing it against are fairly competent. You have your strategy and if you deviate too wildly from it then you will likely end up in a bit of trouble. There is just a certain way things mostly have to be done working for the big company, and your protected by those rules as well - if you have to bluffing X amount in a certain spot then you have to be bluffing, and so on, much safer...

Live cash games though, is like being the boss of a small business, your out there with complete creative control just trying to make it work. Because your doing everything spots always coming up that you dont have the answers for and you have to rely on your skills to make good decisions. Live cash games are deeper, generally speaking much looser and with often less experienced or more "gambley" players and you're going to find yourself all the time in situations where you think WTF is happening here. That's actually half the fun of live poker games imo. You need less theoretical poker knowledge and more raw skills, in a live game, all the information you can get you need to use, hows the guy acting, how he look, how's he been playing, is he tilted has he just won a big pot and calm, is he eating, is he getting a massage and more interested in chatting the waitress up than getting involved right now...

Its like poker "on the streets" as opposed to poker in the classroom, both are good fun and have there merits but you need to really understand the environment your in if your gonna be successful.

Or you could just make quads over quads...then it doesnt really matter :P

Haha cheers man. Think I might just try and do quads over quads consistently. In all serious though mate really appreciate the advice.

Swingy day played terrible at the start. Just button clicking and the button was never fold. Went through HHs and talked theory on the hand analysis and rehydrated and played much better second session. Taking a break now and then gwan casino later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVDcw6iW8

Good luck with the diary, intresting read, and some different views on things! Listen to all the advice and youll improve!
WHich casino is your local?

170 down. Had Kd v Ad on 4 flush board for 30 odd. Couldn't hit a flop for a while and whittled down then the weird spot came up. 2, 4, 8 straddle. Utg limps  I'm in SB with 127 and shove. What's your range here? Cos I shoved 77s and I think that is fairly standard. First straddle snaps and utg tank calls qq and an and don't suck out with first the gutshot and then the diamond draw. With 15bbs though I think this spot is about as standard as it gets. Can't fold can't call and can't raise. Not saying it's a fist pump and its probably bottom of my range (without looking at+, kq, 66+) but yeah feels weird to lose that much.

Hello kingpush.
Very interesting this diary, and some great advice in it , esp from suuprlim and honeybadger. I play live 50-1  or 1-1 cash games and suuprlims comparison to companys is spot on imo.
I'm light years away from being an expert but imo and from what ive seen in live games , i would think above hand would be an ideal one to have a flatting range, although there has been straddle to £8  you are still really shoving 127 bbs, as its a 1-1 game imo, or am i completely wrong? what can call you thats not better, or you are in aflip with?  maybe im a nit lol, hopefully get some answers from honeybadger and suuprlim.
good luck and keep posting

Wow, is shoving 127 to win (approx) 16 or 20 or whatever with players behind us really "standard"? Good Lord, the game has changed.

I rarely play NLH these days, (probably just as well) but that's scary-wary stuff.

Good luck, anyway, been an interesting read so far.  

Sorry if I missed it, but at what Cardroom/Casino do you play? I don't recall you mentioning it.

I don't like flatting because there's 4 players still to act, so there's a decent chance we get isolated. When we do get to the flop, we're not gonna flop sets and get value from them often enough to make up for the times we get isolated pre and have to fold, or miss and end up c/f flop, and occasionally get stacked with a set. I'd much rather fold than flat with £127 here.

(We're also out of position, but the stack to pot ratio and that we're probably only continuing on flops with a 7 on them and never folding makes that much less important than usual)

If we have £327 instead and there's some other big stacks out there, then flat is probably okay, but our stack is too small with the £8 straddle and number of players behind to make it profitable IMO. Think limping would probably be fine if it wasn't for the final £8 straddle, though.

I've only played live cash a handful of times ever btw, so could be talking bollocks.



Any more info on the limper?

Same caveat about not playing live much, but I think it's okay to shove if the limper is loose passive. The amount of dead money in the pot is pretty significant, we flip against a lot of stuff that the players behind can call us with, and they're simply not going to be dealt bigger pairs often enough. Even if they do, not everyone is going to call with the mid PPs that we're dominated by. I guess we might get called by worse occasionally too if someone (especially a loose passive limper) decides they feel like having a punt with underpairs and hope they're flipping.

However, if limper is anything other than loose passive, I expect him to limp/call a decent amount and be ahead, so would just fold.

Obviously not gonna be great when called but would be a really nitty fold considering fold equity here. when straddle to 8 it's now 1/2/4/8 rather than 1/1 so yeah it's 15 bbs.

G in Luton and Aspers in MK. Haha it's 15bbs to win 3bbs mate!

Cheers man appreciate this a lot. Definitely made me feel better reading that it was an alright play even if I was 99% sure it was anyway. Limper is definitely loose passive and then nitty in these sorts of situations. The fact she tank called means she would have probably been folding about 90% of her range in this spot. Although after rereading you seem to be advocating a fold or a shove here. Genuinely think it's fairly close but if everyone folded through I'd probably be patting myself on the back about how much of a sicko I am and then realising it's fairly standard and moving on.

Are you John Black?

I am always shoving here for £125 with 20% of my stack dead in the middle in a live game.  This assumes you are easily rolled to play this game.  Think it's the easiest way in the world to play ak suited given your stack/dead money.

Wasn't AK was 77. Can see the confusion though as should read "utg tank calls, they have qq and ak".

unless you know utg is limping for £8 to trap in a live £1/£1 game i would prob shove 77 as well to try and steal the dead cash playing £120

You just know some mug that is staked will call with AQ though ;)

I do the jokes around here! 

Ahh, misread it, sorry mate......

Kingpush, how would you play the hand, if it was just the 4 straddle on?

Completely different that would give me 30 BBS so would prob raise to 24 and fold to 3bet and not cbet many flops.

Nah just flat the extra £3 if only a £4 straddle and play for the times you hit a set in a 5 way pot. However it is perfectly understandable why you don't want to flat the £8 straddle. That said, with the £8 straddle it is still close. If you have a read that the straddlers are passive then you can profitably flat there too. As a rule of thumb, you can set mine for a much bigger % of your stack in many spots in live games, because so often it goes 5+ ways to a flop so your implied odds are better than you might think.

If you want to raise/fold with the £4 straddle then 77 is a really bad part of your range to do it with. Burning equity, no blockers (actually reverse blockers) etc. Prefer stuff like raggy Ax hands, since these at least have a blocker to your opponents' 3betting ranges.

What are reverse blockers? Cards that will never / rarely be in opponents 3b range?

Best hands to find yourself against with 77 is 7x or (22-66)

For me I think you have a very, very standard call in the SB for £7 more, you only have two more players to get through without it being raised and if it goes Raise, call, call then you're left closing the action and have a likely pretty straightforward call again (assuming it's raised to £30 or w/e) and if it goes call, raise, call then I think you can call safe int he knowledge that the BB will call as well pretty much always. If the UTG limper raises back then wave your £7 goodbye and get ready for the next hand.

Going 4way to the flop with 77 in a live poker game where the stacks have been made shallower is a very good situation for me when the price of entry is £7. I think jamming is incredibly spewy and needlessly high variance (if UTG calls then I imagine your doing fairly badly, although you could find yourself against 55 or 66 i spose) if the BB or the £8 straddle calls then you better PRAY for AKs or you're going to need to find a 7.

Shoving for £127 has basically turned a fairly low risk situation - set mining in a lose 4handed pot for £7, into a very very risky one. Remember this is full ring poker as well, not 6 handed where the chances of running into big hands goes up.

I think this is one of those situations myself and stu discussed, think about your "range" for this spot - do you need a "jamming from the SB after a triple straddle and UTG limp" range? I doubt it, I think you just need to look at the stacks of the 3 others in the pot, think about how they've been playing and make a vacuum decision from there. 


Saying that whenever you have AT-AK, KQ and 66+ you're going to jam £127 hereis going to be a fairly huge mistake - I wish i had a £1 coin for every time I justified a really spewy play in a cash game by saying "Oh well it's the bottom of my range what can I do"

Your approach to the game seems very good, but there's theory and then there is the practical application of the theory and I think that's something to think about.

Really Dave? We've jammed 16bbs with 77, doesn't seem too bad. We actually did the maths on this hand (mainly because I'm sad and have nothing better to do with my time) and assuming a wide calling range of 15.5% of hands (which seems pretty wide, but given that this is a 1/1 (?) game with an £8 straddle then I'm assuming people haven't turned up to fold) then we net £17.40 by jamming here. We need the jam to get through 84% of the time for it to be profitable assuming we lose every time get called, but assuming a 15.5% calling range with 5 people left to act (bb, 1st straddle, 2nd straddle, 3rd straddle, limper) we're going to be called about 57% of the time and be almost exactly a flip against this range.

DISCLAIMER When I say we did the maths, I mean me and adrian. Credit where it's due :)

I'm not saying I think calling is bad, because for sure we can set mine here, but I certainly wouldn't think a jam is spewy.

Good point about the implied odds. Still wouldn'
Good point about the implied odds. Still wouldn't flat though. Don't really understand your point about having blockers to ax when raising. I don't think you can say that a6 is a better open than 77 here because it means they're less likely to have AQ+. If you think about what people are 3betting in these games I don't think it's going to be a mistake to raise/fold with 77 here. Having a polarised opening range makes no sense to me as I said before I have no limping range.

Putting a quarter of your stack in with 77 then folding flop seems really bad to me. As you said though the play is really high variance and it might just be better to flat here and hope for a seven even though it seems really passive in theory it probably isn't going to get punished enough in these games to matter. This isn't to say I disagree with my play though. I don't think shoving 77 with less than 20bb will ever be a huge mistake when there's that much in the middle.

Cheers lads. Made me feel much better about it! Wouldn't even say calling ranges were that wide here maybe more like 8-10% considering utg tank calls with akcc

Fwiw I'm definitely not raising this hand if the straddle is only to 4, seems like the nut spot to set mine. Completely echo honeybadgers thoughts on that.

Hmmm, i'd be willing to lay pretty big odds you wont be exactly a flip against the range that calls you. You'll do better vs the limper's calling range as he'sclosing the action but if you get in vs the BB,straddle or straddle then you are in a lot of trouble.

Also, the fact it's 16bb's is irrelevant, it's £127 to win £x and you either have the equity or you don't.

And if you have to gamble £127 to win £17.40 then you are DEFO not playing in the right live games!

If you're wearing a hoodie they're probably calling that wide. If you're wearing a cardigan they're probably only calling QQ+ ;)

It's defo not inconceivable that A6s is a better here than 77. A6s make a good bluffing hand because you have much better equity vs KK, QQ, JJ etc than 77 and you have blockers to the hands that you really dont wanna run into, AK, AQ, AA. As stu said, 77 even has reverse blockers, as you block the best hands for you opponents to have against you, and you yourself could be blocked.

I just dont see a single reason not to have a limping range for £7 here out of £127stack? What about  Ac 2c,  3d 3h,  Kh 9h,  Jc  8c and so on? You're just going to fold all these hands?

Haha so true

Get your cardy's boys.

have contemplated long and hard if i should get involved here...

there are quite a few things I want to say, but im resolving to be less of a killjoy/moany twat, so I won't :p I will say that not having AT LEAST an overlimping range live is pretty terrible.

Do tell us more about these old fish, it's been a while since we've had that debate   ;danafish;

I didn't have to think very long to decide I would like you to get involved please. :)

I like what Dave said about flat ting with the 77 here
Think shoving £127 in with it is very wild /spewy play and with a ltd bankroll you will prolly be looking for a job soon if you carry on doing this in a full ring game
But I've probably done worse as most have

I don't mean to be the miserable fart but i'd focus on your degree until it's finished, it's one of them things you'll never be able to change if you f*** it up. Play a bit on the side like i did, you can still learn a lot from smaller/ fewer sessions and then after you've finished commit your time to it, if you still want to.

Good luck with university and poker!

In before bowl is mentioned again.

I agree with baldock fwiw, your degree is far more likely to be worth more to you in the long run than poker so I would focus my efforts on that in the short term.

Hi ... Welcome to blonde.

Can't fold
Can't call
Can't raise

Can you please explain why you cannot do any of those things please. As far as I'm aware there has been no raise and action is on you with 77 in the sb right?

IMO I think it's suicidle to be shoving in this spot. All well and good about maths and theory etc etc but what about the fact it's live, and I'm pretty certain there are a million and one other ways to win 127£/£254 etc none of which would be shoving 77 pre flop.


Defo don't agree that it's 'standard' to do this in a live game of this ease.... If it is ill make sure to get out more.

Same here!

Seems strong but definitely more easy spots with higher EV, don't think anyone an argue about that


Summer holidays lads. Will be playing less once uni starts again. Not even playing that much at the minute to be honest. Hate playing hungover and don't really wanna miss nights out whilst I'm still young.

Hi,

I very rarely post but this is a great read so far.

Kind of strange that you wanna prove you can be profitable before Xmas but don't put in max volume during summer when you have most free time. I don't know Dave or Pleno but obviously know who they are. The fact that you can have them comment/help on here is a testament to blondepoker IMO. Pretty insane how the recent online ranking no.1 comments here to be honest.

I guess what I'm saying is commit fully or you'll no doubt fall short of your goals.

Cheers mate. Completely agree with what you're saying but I'd also regret not enjoying my last ever summer holiday with my mates as well. Definitely struggle with getting the balance right and seem to swing to either just playing poker to just going out. I know this is what I want to get good at would like to make a living out of and maybe I should have just stayed in and worked on my ranges all month and it might be worth it in future gains but I think I'd probably get depressed and lose friends I've had for years in the process. Also when I say I haven't played that much, it's relative. I've only played 2 hours since Sunday night.

BR is at 750 so won't be playing live for a while now. Feel fairly demoralised to be honest. Hadn't realise I'd lost that much and think the Deceember thing is fairly unrealistic now unless I gamble it which I really don't want to do as I feel like I've done that too much this week anyway. I appreciate but most of you seem to be advocating aggressive bankroll management to move up the stakes as fast as you can and I'm really not sure this is the best strategy for me personally. Probably won't play that much for a while now and just work on my strategy until the point where I'm extremely confident with it and then start playing again.

Yeah that not playing thing didn't happen. Played 1700 hands at nl5 speed and won 2 BIs.

GAME #5944469565: Texas Hold'em  NL  Tournament 2014-08-28 23:26:43/GMT
Table €400 GTD Speed Hold'em, -, 6303117569 (Tournament: €400 GTD Speed Hold'em Buy-In: €1.82+€0.18)
Seat 1: DannyDribbler (€26,685.00 in chips)
Seat 3: RIVERMYARS (€80,420.00 in chips)
Seat 5: Gallic71 (€61,114.00 in chips)
Seat 6: HipSticks (€13,386.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 8: KingPush1 (€30,532.00 in chips)
Seat 10: madmust (€126,863.00 in chips)
KingPush1: Post Ante €160.00
madmust: Post Ante €160.00
DannyDribbler: Post Ante €160.00
RIVERMYARS: Post Ante €160.00
Gallic71: Post Ante €160.00
HipSticks: Post Ante €160.00
KingPush1: Post SB €800.00
madmust: Post BB €1,600.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [C6 D6]
DannyDribbler: Fold
RIVERMYARS: Fold
Gallic71: Fold
HipSticks: Fold
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €3,200.00
madmust: Raise (NF) Allin €126,703.00
KingPush1: Allin €27,172.00
*** FLOP *** [SA S6 S5]
*** TURN *** [CA]
*** RIVER *** [C8]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €158,035.00 Rake €0.00
KingPush1: Mucks [C6 D6] Full House, Sixes full of Aces
madmust: Shows [DA S8] Full House, Aces full of Eights
madmust: wins €158,035.00

standard? Villain is 40/32/8 3bet

Hey

Get your degree mate, put work into your poker, enjoy it and all things being equal make a bit of money.

Being a "poker pro" or rather making a living from the game would be a really tough gig in today's world imo. Having to grind constantly to pay the bills and dealing with variance.

I hear stories all the time from people about how soft the games were 5 or 6 years ago and how easy it was to make money. Even in the short time I've been playing I would say the games have been getting tougher.

Really important to get your degree.

Just so so difficult to understand how important at 21.

+1 to the degree>>>>>poker

99% of intelligent people with a decent education and good degree will earn miles more in a job longterm than poker

And you are probably better off just borrowing 5k and playing higher than bothering grinding with such a small amount. That's my opinion anyway. Gl

agree with the last 4 posts massively.  Given the change in poker in the last 5 years how can you plan for a career in poker for 40 years?  God knows what poker will look like in 5 years never mind 40.

Am still getting my degree. However I probably should have been given this advice a while ago, it's hard to try hard when you know it's maximum a Desmond.


Is that an offer haha? And how come just because of the rake. This seems fairly insane to me.
I think if you keep growing with the game you can survive. Especially live where there are a lot more players there for fun, I mean the level of play will definitely get better but they'll definitely be beatable.

Seems like lack of money is preventing you playing live where you think you are highly profitable - it's not a computer game, you don't need to complete every level- skipping some can be the best move in a lot of cases. They never used to have games smaller than 0.25-0.50$$ when I started playing and I didn't bother with that either. The flip side is obviously your poker education from going through the levels, but can't imagine you are learning too much playing puddings for pennies so id say missing some levels is fine. If you are a losing player at higher levels then obv reevaluate. Think you need a pretty aggressive bankroll strategy these days if you really want to come from micros to playing proper stuff. Or run better than 99.99% of your opponents

Dubai is obviously right.

I just wouldnt suggest many people to listen to him because most poker players are deluded about their abilities. If they listened to him (what he says is correct if you are good) then they would just lose a lot of money quickly. Generally people are just degens and if they can play small stakes, lose a little or win a little its probably good for them.

You wont learn much moving up the stakes like Dubai said, they are generally just filled with players from paragraph 2 ^^ that try to not make many mistakes and thus just play weak tight and with the high rake its just a snoozfest, you're not learning anything and you won't really be improving and it wont help you for higher stakes games that are filled differently.

If you want to learn theory stuff just buy Matt Janda's book. Playing live really makes little sense, I've done the math in other peoples threads previously, but try and work out your actually hourly playing live, then minus costs, then minus all the other stuff that comes with it and then realise the variance of it vs playing online where your hourly will be way higher.

Finally Dubai right again about you should probably lend 5k and play higher but obviously thats a hard thing to do, instead just forget about poker for 3-4 months, get some job where you amke 1-2k a month and then you will have a little roll for yourself.  Poker will be here in a few months, dw.

Bear in mind that in the above three posts from Dubai, Arb and Sonour (and earlier too) you are getting advice from people that gamble for a living.  They are very good at it and they know the personal and financial costs of the decision to make it a career so their opinion is worth listening to when they tell you that concentrating on your degree is the best thing for your long term future. I am too and would give you the same advice.  We are all 30+ now and have done this for long enough to now not have a choice and, frankly, if I had my time again I am not sure that gambling for a living was the right decision.  I could certainly have made more money devoting the time I have spent to something else and the opportunity cost of devoting huge amounts of time to gambling at this stage of your life is something you shouldn't underestimate.   You say that if you keep growing with the game you can survive but at 21 is that really your ambition for life?  To survive?  Of course there are some people that make very good livings but they are a very small minority and most professional gamblers I know probably make less than 50k a year which, when you consider the skillsets, education and time devoted is an insanely poor return for people that are close to the top of their profession and even the very best, the Tony Blooms, Chris Moormans, Phil Iveys of this world might have made more if they devoted their time to financial markets or something like that instead of gambling.

Me and all my friends in poker never really set out to be professional poker players, in fact I can't remember ever actually wanting to be a professional poker player or actually ever properly classifying myself as that.

Everyone just sort of fell into it if i recall...

Loving the game + Some good fortune early on + nothing really else to do = A taste for it and it just sort of went from there.

3 years ago, when i was enjoying a pretty sizable upswing, if someone had sat me down and informed me about what I would be doing to try make money from poker in 2014 I'd defo not have believed them...

"David, you know in 2014 to play a live poker game you want to play you're going to have to drive AT LEAST an hour, and you'll get the chance maybe 2 times a month"

"When you play online you'll be playing no higher than 5/10 and spend half your time being sat out on chasing games round the lobby"

I firmly believe there is plenty of money for up and coming pro gamblers to make but i'm 99% sure if it was me coming into it now I'd almost certainly not make a success of it (without far better fortune than I had, and I ran pretty good)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just on the subject of internet poker and cash game levels - something I've noticed this year. 5 years ago when I started online there was a real wall at the 5/10 stake. The buyin was now 4figures, the games were much more aggressive, the players just seemed better and getting past that level just felt so hard, if you did however you would usually push onto bigger and better things, get much better player and earn a ton of money.

I had endless failed shots at 5/10, more than i can count.

Didn't really matter though, i just went back to 2/4 and slowly made the money i'd lost back before having another go.

Nowadays though that same wall seems to be at 2/4, so failed shots at 2/4 now mean a trip back to 25c/50c where the rake is brutal and the games are very weak-tight. It's seriously very very hard. Sometimes I'm amazed on ipoker how tough the 2/4euro games can be...

Like i said, put me back where i was 5 yrs ago, now...I'd give myself a 5-10% chance of making it, if that.

Teach him how to make the batter mix incase it all goes wrong lilDave

Watching poker as was how I started !
 Looks great all exciting stuff ,then discovering playing on line in your pants from home and " earning a living "sounds all well  and good  but variance or delusion in my case is a hard reality to face /admit even after years of playing pontoon /3card brag down the pub
After running a small business for 30 years now I learnt
How to bluff -yeah yeah we can do that
How to raise -put the prices up
How to check - fk me this isn't working
Now try applying it to poker / gambling it's harder than it looks mate
When you win it's great
As I have an income already it's all gravy I.e holidays luxury items ,meals out in casinos great
When I lose it's back to work earn some more
If you don't have that income and you come home busto what then ???
I'd have been living in a bus shelter on the bypass
The one thing I've always enjoyed thro poker and gambling is the friends I've made and people I've met
But having a reliable income makes it much less stressful
If you have the chance to get qualifications personally I'd take it maybe get a part time job so you can still take the odd shot
But good luck whatever you deceide

I was going to start a thread asking how many people on here that have been successful gamblers would recommend getting into it or if they themselves would choose to do so again if they could wind the clock back. I decided against it as I've well documented my current negative issues so thought it would just seem like a current negative bias(not actually sure what decision I would come to if I sat and gave it a lot of thought). I believe there would be a majority from those who would be able to say they've been successful and yet would still choose not getting involved in gambling for a living and we can be pretty confident how those that have failed would sway, and we all know the ratio isn't pretty on success:failure in this industry.

GLGL with the degree KingPush, and the gambling.

Sorry for bringing up a week old quote but have just spotted this diary.
Where do you get this opinion from?
I understand why flatting from the SB is problematic (tho not always wrong) but why would flatting a MP raise in the CO be fundamentally different from flatting it on the BTN?

You seem to be getting lots of advice, but still, may as well add mine:

Do go out and enjoy life.
DEFINITELY make sure you get your 2:2. Even if you once thought you would do better, you'll (likely) be more disappointed in the future if you don't put the effort in this year.
Don't obsess about your ranges. Just set a certain amount of time aside for study and tweaking. Being perfect is the enemy of being good.

Cheers for all the advice everyone. I've only got two modules left of my degree so it's not poker or degree it's poker whilst I have nothing else to do whilst completing my degree. Whilst I do take your point about penny games I still thinbk they'll be useful practice to me in the short term. I have the bankroll to move up to .25/.50 dollar games and once I feel good enough I will do. This is not make 10k by December or sack it all off it's get as good as I can and learn as much as I can so I can make money from it in the future, whether that is part or full time.

Ironically found 60 quid in my pocket from last time I played that I thought I'd lost. That plus getting my rb yesterday means I do have enough roll to play those games. Obviously get student loan in a few weeks as well which could be a useful boost.

May try and sat in to the 500 wpt event next month. Gonna start playing a few more 6max tournies and deeper ones as well as mtt fields seem super soft a lot of the time but obviously the edge is negated a bit when every one is on less than 20bbs after a few levels. Will do proper goals at the start of September.

Then I would have to kill him :-p

^ Read this. Great post. Degrees are so ubiquitous now that it really is the minimum requirement for almost any job.

That said there is this myth in the poker/gambling world that if people had turned their mind to some other career they would be on £100k+ by their early 30s. In my experience the real world just doesn't work like that. Getting a job in any industry is hard work, really hard work for new graduates. And getting ahead, and being a success, is just as much about running good as poker is.

NB: I'm not and never have been a professional gambler, but I've met a LOT of pro gamblers and pro poker players over the years. Many of whom are no longer pro!

yeh have to agree my head does shake a little whenever anyone says to me "Oh you're a poker player, you should have been a stockbroker you'd have made £4.75m by now"

Do what makes you happy mate :)

Yeah agree a lot. Think the argument of you could have earned x doing this is fairly flawed.

Gonna try and play 120 hours this month and study for 40.

I'm quite sure you are right Alun, but like most worthwhile things, it's not supposed to be easy, is it?

No. But I think people in work, and midway through their careers, often forget just how hard it is to get started. And how much luck is involved in that. And as far as I can make out it's even harder these days. That's not to say not to try, quite the opposite, but the idea you can walk into a good job with a degree these days is laughable.

This is a stat from a government report: Overall participation in higher education increased from 3.4% in 1950, to 8.4% in 1970, 19.3% in 1990 and 33% in 2000.

I think it's well over 40% in 2014

Interesting read here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21302065

Think I left school in around 1962, & I only knew ONE person - a posh kid who lived on the hill in North Ealing - who went on to do Further Education. I can honestly say, I never knew a single person at the time who went to Uni.

The world is a very different place now, in so many ways.

Run good to get a job? Yes, I don't think that has changed much though. A whole string of lucky breaks conspired to get me my first job. It never occured to me at the time that it would, literally, shape my whole life. 

I don't think anyone is suggesting that it is easy these days.  The point that i was making is that the amount of time and effort that most prospective professional poker players (and other gamblers) put it would get a better return in other industries with much less variance.  If, for example, I had spent 60 hours a week programming rather than studying form for the past 20 years then my upside would be the same or higher and my minimum income would be much higher too with significantly less variance.  Of course those arent the only things to consider.  I have had a blast doing what I do and there are other positive externalities such as ability to travel, not work in a corporate enviroment etc etc but they were much more important to me when I was younger than they are now when my number one priority is providing for my little one, paying the mortgage etc and given what I know now I am not sure if I would make the same choice again.

Yep, hard to argue with that. And I wasn't to be fair. I thought it was a really good post. I meant more the people who speak in generalities such as going into "business" or "trading" etc. Definitely agree if I could live my life again I wouldn't make the same career choices, but hindsight is a shitload easier than foresight. To be a good programmer you need to enjoy it too I suspect.

Sorry for the derail!

If you have been out the corporate environment for a while its easy to forget just how frustrating it can be..


I am certainly finding that after coming back after a few years out.

Read the thread and believe this is the best advice you receive. Would reread. Best of luck. And if you think you can do it
put all possible effort in and go for it.

Ha poor kid starts a diary and it's somehow turned into a UCAS Application/Career advisors office :D All us poor professional gamblers sharing the hardships of our lives :D

Let's not forget, if you enjoy poker or gambling then doing it for a living is fucking amazing. I don't even tell people about half the things I've seen or done because it might seem braggy and actually they probably won't even believe me. All the people I've met, the things I've done and the places I've been I wouldn't have done even 5% of them if it wasn't for "pro" poker playing...

Sure right now as I start to get a little older I have looked into the future, 3, 5 and 10 years down the line for me as a professional gambler and I'll be honest for me personally it really doesn't look too great, but doesn't matter what I do if I make a success in business, or fail and have to get a job somewhere, or even if i fall back into gambling full time and go from there then I'll always have the memories and the experiences of the last 5 years and I know 1000% there is no way I will ever regret the choices I've made during that part of my life. Sure I'm sure there are a few individual moments that I could have done a little better (mostly blackjack + vegas related haha) but if i had to make those howling mistakes to have done what I've done then I'd do it again, 1000 times over.

Just go for it mate, you're young and there's no losing atm, it'sonly winning or not winning and that's not a luxury you have forever.

Add me on skype (same name as here) if you ever wanna chat strategy or just want any help on anything :)up

Amazing post could not put it better myself, fair play. Diary has been great so far will keep up with it for sure.

Goals for September

50 HHS
Learn plo starting ranges
80 hours of poker play
20 hours poker study
Read "treat your poker like a business"

Started playing plo and seems like no one has a clue including myself. Also been watching a lot joeingram1 podcasts and even though I'm not the biggest fan of him, plo seems a lot of fun and easier to move up in than nlhe where a lot of people are full time grinders even at nl25/20 which is insane when you think about it. Anyway I really recommend the podcast with lex veldhuis guy's been there and done it and has a lot of stories to tell and still seems to crush online as well which is really cool to me.

Is there absolutely no chance of getting a 2:1 in your degree? I thought it would be pretty impossible but managed to scrape the goods this summer. Even so, a 2:2 would be a great effort. Even if there is a small chance of achieving the higher grade you should dedicate your time to it. Your time to study will only be there for a few months, whereas poker will always be there

Looking forward to hearing Lil'Dave's views on this one...

As someone that has played a reasonable amount of low stakes plo, and received some coaching and a lot of advice on it, low stakes PLO is not beatable, and in either case is a very, very different game to NLHE. I'm at NL50 at the moment and very much intend to jump into PLO if/when i get to higher stakes, but its just not beatable before then. There's a pretty long 2+2 thread about it and some stuff buried on blonde too. IMO, if NLHE has been your thing, stick with that for now. It's perfectly possible to make a decent living playing NL50.

That being said, some of the most valuable NLHE stuff that I've learnt has come from studying PLO. Highly recommend everything Phil Galfond has ever done about anything.

Hope you don't mind me suggesting, but a very obvious thought occurred to me.

You seem resigned to "only" getting a 2:2 - why not reverse those planned hours, & maybe you could get a 2:1 or better? It's only for a few months, & your Degree lasts a lifetime.

As to poker, I'm a big fan of PLO, & the more that play it the merrier, but it is VERY swingy, so tread carefully.

Good luck. 

THIS

You have no idea how many doors in the future will be automatically slammed shut by having a 2:2 compared to a 2:1

It's ridiculous, but it is what it is. I guess employers have to draw a line somewhere and often that's where they draw it.

What the 2 before me said!

I feel like I know what you're going through. 5 years ago I was stumbling through university whilst my poker infactuation grew, not enjoying it at all and not inspired by anything in my course. Whilst poker was the polar opposite - a completely compelling game that I just HAD to succeed at. And I was absolutely inspired by the lifestyle that it could bring.

I know that whatever the right thing to do is, you won't listen to any advice here. I had everyone telling me one thing and I knew they were probably right, I should get my degree, but in the end, you're always gonna do what your heart says. My heart was in poker, not my degree. And I dropped out after just over a year.

I'm not the best person to speak to because I got extremely lucky and it's actully looked like being the right decision (or at least the wrong decision that worked out well). 99% of people who took my line would probably be seriously screwed now. And even the 1% who do get lucky might be fucked in 5 years. I think my years in poker are seriously numbered, almost certainly <5, and what am I gonna do then? The idea is I'll have enough capital, enough passion, enough contacts, and enough intelligence / life experience to be able to make something else work, but that's all very hazy isn't it?

I would never recommend anyone to try and become a professional poker player. I would recommend being a professional player though!

Basically I think you'll end up doing what you want to do. And I can already see like that's settling for a 2.2 whilst pouring your heart into poker. So advice from all these veteran gamblers, and clever older folk like Tikay will sadly fall on deaf ears.

I wrote to Neil Channing back then and asked him for advice, and the first thing he said to me was "Get the degree!". I thought at the time, yes neil that's good advice, I'll do that, thanks Neil, appreciate that. The heart always rules the brain.

Good luck.

ps. forget all that nonsense about playing GTO in live low stakes cash games. You should basically never be balanced lol.

Can I ask, having just finished uni myself and with the poker interest rising all the time, what's your piece of advice for making the next step up in the game? I currently play smaller buy-in live tournaments but have profited fairly consistently over the past year or so.

Very good post Alun, also when people talk about poker being good experience for other jobs I can't help but smile either.

Off the top of my head I think if you are earning 50k in a job you are in the top 10% of earners in the UK.

The thing about poker players is you will never really know if you have done the right thing until either you get old, or you get out of poker with a lump of money big enough to help you into the next phase of your life.

I remember back in the day (fk I sound old lol) when I was winning loads, and I had 2 years where I made more money from poker than I did in my job (I have a decent job) thinking about doing poker full time. Now I know not doing it was one of the best decisions in my life as I'd probably be skint now lol.

Pretty close. £60,500 for a single person gets you in the top 10%.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/25/uk-incomes-how-salary-compare

Great Post Alex, & no, it''s highly unlikely your advice will be heeded. Young people rarely listen to elders, I was the same, so were you, we almost all were. But I'd have felt bad if I had not said what I did.

It's bizarre really, when you think about it. Half the world (genuinely) would give their right arm for the chance to study for a Degree @ Uni, so if someone gets that chance, I sort of feel they ought to give it their best. It's not that long, in the context of our working life really, & it's hugely +EV. Spending 75% of available time on poker & 25% on studying took my breath away, it really did.

I wish Mr King Push nothing but goodwill, I'm not having a swipe at him, not at all, I just find it all a bit sad really. Poker, as Phil Bull once described horse racing, is the great irrelevance.

What % of poker players make enough to earn a living? 5%? 2%?

What % even make a profit? 25%?

Anyway, good luck to our man, whatever he does.
   

Sat into a major mtt and bink a 6 figure score then kick on from there.  All joking aside survival bias in poker is just incredibly massive.  The long term is so long there are so many long term 'winning' players who are actually big real cash 'losers' who never get close to seeing the long term and give up/quit/go skint etc etc yet they do nothing wrong technically at all just run bad over a relatively small sample.

The other thing to remember about gambling for a living is the sheer amount of volume you have to turn over every day/week/month just to make your margin.  Plus this doesn't account for variance either. From a sports betting angle which i predominately do let's say you have a 5% edge in your chosen area of expertise (this is a good return in 2014 as TFT is returning less than this over a big sample of bets mainly from decent pro gamblers).  This is obviously not a fixed 5% return every day but you will be subject to variance.

If you choose to 'earn' £3k a month you will need to bet/invest £60k a month or £2k a day every day of the month to in theory make £3k.  This does not take into account rake/bf commission/expensves if you adjust the example to poker which is dead money and lost to your roll. It also assumes you have the same 5% edge on every investment which you, in reality, will not and will therefore have to stake more than the stated amount each day as your edge is lower. The bottom line is it is not easy to keep finding these spots where you have such an edge and to secondly be able to get money on (in poker terms get into the games where the value is) to realise your £3k a month salary.  On top of this you are open to the dreaded variance which doesn't gtd any salary at all in any month in real cash terms but just an EV salary of £3k in my example.  

If you go down the pub in 10 years time when most of your 'normal' mates will be earning £3k a month with their degrees and you will be telling them you are betting £2k a day (maybe a lot more if your edge falls to 2% you will have to bet £5k a day to make your £3k a month salary) and they will look at you like most of my non gambling mates do like you are a total degen.

It's not impossible to do it but it's getting harder and harder each and every year whatever form of gambling you wish to partake in for a living.  GL whatever you decide to do.

This. Plus there is so much confirmation bias - all the multi-hundred page diaries from BITB, Alex and all the other blondes who have made chunks make it sound so simple; study, play, bink. Diaries that detail how and why the vast majority of players are "a bit shit" are not as appealing to write for some reason ;-)

As Alex said, doesn't really matter if the top 100 players all post in your diary saying don't do it, pretty much every single person would still go ahead and do what they think is best anyways, it's just human nature.

For an interesting read, if you find the maths side interesting have a read of this

http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/01/mtt-pros/

Another really good post Alex this diary is brimming with great advice. I actually
thought about posting up a really old one from Alex when he started out as I thought
it was a similar to this blog.

As is pointed out you will read all this and soak it up although truly you already know what it
is you want to do. Life is short, to short to have regrets. As long as you actually do put in
a serious amount of work you will enjoy it and improve as a person while having some
amazing experiences along the way.

Through playing poker I have met and become very good friends with some great people.
As a whole the community is great. Just reading through this blog makes me think
these are good people. Life is about balance find that and things will work out as best they can.

You've changed so much, swearing and becoming a scouser

I think you and a handful of others are exceptions to the rule..ldo. Most of the guys in my local casino who 'make a living playing poker' live at home with their mums..some of them are quite old, others have managed to get their own gaff but dress like chompy and don't tip.

Having said that, very much a first world problem. We live in a society that allows any young person to have a blast on their way to bustoville with little real downside and so I think Kingpush should go pro in pretty short order, glgl

You know the answer to this already I suspect. Around 3-5% are better than break even and less than 1% earn enough to make a living would be my guess.

Yo, I would describe living with your mum as a pretty big downside actually. I love my mum but the thought of living with her makes me shudder. I've had nightmares about walking across her white Axminster carpet in muddy boots before now. And think you're bringing girls back? Forget it! Let alone the constant interference with questions like "gambling again are you?" or "is that what you went to university for?" Nah I think this is a serious point and Kingpush needs to confirm if living with mum is part of the strategy on his road to being a pro.

Yo, yo, crazy life man. Start with half jokes and then you have to seriously reflect.. you basically have to commit to living at home for ever. Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee it

Guilty as charged. Was trying, I suppose, to give Mr King a reality check. Don't know the bloke, but I want him to make the right decision. 

So many of us set off down that road to the poker dream, making a decent living at it. Poker seems to make us think that way, it grips us in a vice of hope & delusion.

but the thing Tikay, Alun et al really don't follow is that a HUGE % of players could be successful, could make a living and could be winning professionals.

Looking at the top 10 guys in the UK

Trigg
Moorman
Jareth East
Charlie Combes
Toby Lewis
Connor Beresford
Chris Brammer
Middy
Myself

None of the above are your stereotypical geniuses. None went to award winning universities or I suspect were even the cleverest in their class at school, I for sure wasn't.

Almost every "lad" that likes poker could probably relate to one of the above in that list. Out of each of those 10 there was probably 1000 very similar kids who liked poker but for whatever reason didn't get into it, or didn't want to work hard enough.

The guys above rose to the top because they grinded so much, Trigg, Moorman, Brammer, Middy all played so much when they were learning, grinding day and night and learned the game together. Connor for example is a supernova elite player who went from liking mtts to studying ranges every day and getting really solid. I went from losing at 5$ sngs to learning cash games and devoting my life to poker.


Look at redarmi, arbboy, dubai etc, I'm sure they are intelligent guys, but again there will be literally 10s of thousands who can relate to them. So many guys who punt week on week on football, if they spent 60 hours a week studying form like redarmi suggested earlier then they too could potentially be as equally successful.

OP is showing the desire, he is showing signs of doing well and showing a lot of hunger. Granted its very easy to show that initial desire, the next 12 months will be the real big test, and if he spends 5 days a week really engrossing himself in poker, perhaps getting a coach to help him get to the next level and really pushes hmiself there is no reason why he cant be successful.

If you want to be a professional, then as Alex said earlier you have to be professional about it. You have to play a minimum of 5 days a week, have to study 2 days a week, poker is perhaps one of the toughest graduate schemes out there, but all of the tools are so easily accessible, the graduate % rate is very low, but thats because there's nobody to kick you up the arse like there is at university, in truth its one of the easiest ways to make a top 5% living and almost everybody could do it if they really wanted to.

Some just want it more than others.

By definition, Patrick, that (enboldened) cannot be true.

More people COULD be BETTER players, yes, & that includes Mr King. Statistically, most will fall by the wayside. They will. When we are talking with young people at the start of the journey, we ought to be straight with them.

And I don't believe, not for a second, that those guys you named (or you) were successful because "they grinded a lot". They became successful for all sorts of reasons, including hard work & talent. But grinding a lot would not help if you are not learning the right things. I know plenty who play 50 hours per week. They are of the same ability as they always were though. They are not learning, they are playing. 

I could practice my golf swing 24/7. I'd still be shite though, as I'm just ingraining my weaknesses & bad habits in my muscle memory.

Yeah I think there is a lot of confirmation bias in your argument Patrick. Name drop coming in 3....2....1

Tom Dwan (remember him) once said to me anyone could learn to beat $5/$10. This has not been borne out by my experience of the poker world. I think maybe he could have taught anyone to beat $5/$10, but I'm damn sure most people couldn't teach themselves. The effort you have put into poker is WAY above what most people could or would be able to do for example.

That said I don't really disagree with your fundamental point-  that effort and desire are the two most important components of success in poker. And I don't think anyone here thinks most poker pros are geniuses ;)

BUT

This is NOT what me and tikay are talking about. We are talking about making life EV decisions. And this seems like a very -EV decision to me.

In the VERY SHORT TERM a focus on uni will be MUCH more +EV for him. IMO obv and your miles may vary. After that knock yourself out. Give poker a go. You only live once. But don't underestimate the difference in value between a 2:2 and a 2:1. That's not an opinion, that's a fact*.

* 2:1 worth £81k on average over a lifetime compared to a 2:2 source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10088784/Good-degree-grade-worth-extra-2000-a-year-in-wages.html
So putting an extra 80 hours of work into uni and getting a 2:1 is equivalent to a lifetime £1000 per hour

Not being baller or anything, but £2k a year difference seems like nothing in the grand scheme of things. I would've estimated it be at least £10k.

Had I continued with my degree lol I would've been far less motivated to get a 2:1 if I had known it was only 2k difference.

You could make that £2k back in a weekend playing poker rather than studying. Do that for 40 weeks during uni and get your 2:2 then you're already freerolling!

Lol. Or there is that argument.

But it's one month vs a lifetime. Wouldn't you work hard for one month for £2k more a year EVERY year?

Also as I said before it does at least partially close the door on quite a few potential jobs. More each year as the number of graduates increases.

Agree with all the long term thinking is best stuff etc, but degrees that aren't vocational are utterly worthless, 2:2 2:1 or w/e it is, it's such a shit system based on not offending anyone rather than allowing people to judge how much you achieved at uni.

Pads is still in his own little world assuming everyone is just like him, so so many people would struggle with the poker skills required to be a decent winner let alone the non poker related stuff like mental game, commitment and other outside factors.

poker in 2014 is nothing like poker in 2011 or poker in 2007, couldn't imagine a worse  time to be trying to both get into and learn the game AND move up and build a bankroll whilst also providing for yourself etc.

I don't agree with this tbh.  A 2.2 in a 'proper' subject from a top 20 (esp top 10) uni is worth substantially more than a first from Wolvehampton or Luton in media studies to potential employers who will be ultimately paying those top 10% salaries.  The 2k extra per annum is just a mass of stats all grouped together and ultimately it's a pretty meaningless stat.  Your drive/passion/contacts for your given career is far more important than simply getting a 2.1.

A degree just helps you get your first job, after that it's how good you are at that job as to whether you prosper or not.

Agree with titaniumbean on most degrees being worthless as a measure of ability. But seriously a lot of employers will have essential requirements as a 2:1 these days and you're not getting past the HR gatekeeper with a 2:2.

Yep. But getting that first job is the hardest bit!

There's all different kinds of people/mentalities/skill sets in poker though.

I really believe that around 80-90% of people could be professional poker players if they spent as much time trying as a full time university course.

Generally the only poker players that don't win are the ones that are 1) lazy or 2) stubborn. Thankfully most poker players are both.

Get your degree ffs.

I screwed up my last semester because of poker and ended up failing. I am incredibly lucky to have made a living out of poker ever since. I think 98% of the time I'm working in McDonalds because it all went wrong somewhere along the line. Might still happen because I'm 29 and have never had a real job and have no degree, and let's face it poker isn't getting any easier!

Degree / career > Poker

You can still enjoy / make money / grind and have a full time job as well.  For me I found that the best balance was having a fixed income that covers me for my fixed outgoings and puts me in a comfortable position where I can grind and not have the pressure of being dependant on it.

best in the world in being utterly stubborn and clueless shocker lol.


ridic exaggeration because your basing things off what you can do. 8 or 9% maybe 80 or 90% and you been smoking some cray cray shiz.

I would go as far to say that at least 80-90% of people's personal circumstances/family pressure/aversion to risk/unsocial hours and lack of steady income would stop them doing it even if they were talented enough.  Of the remaining 10-20% i would say less than 1% could actually do what pads is suggesting.  Without blowing smoke up your arse pads you are super talented AND super driven and, without being disrespectful in any way, probably ahead of the EV curve as well.  It really isn't as easy as you think.

pleno is right from a purely theoretical perspective - 10,000 hours and off we go to the races.

Most people can't/won't put the necessary effort into achieving excellence in what they are doing. For me good enough is good enough but for someone like pleno I can't imagine him ever taking the view that good enough is OK, he wants to be the best and has been in a long process of achieving it. Wish I'd ever had 50% of the motivation towards a specific goal.

If we're frank, we know already that Mr push is gonna struggle cause he's spent 3 years being average at doing a degree and plans to remain average. It's a bit like turning up on x factor and talking about how you want it so so so much and it means everything to you and your plan is...er, show up on x factor.

I guess we can change

I think if I was finishing my A levels now and just turning 18 and the age to go to uni - I wouldn't.  Actually, I probably couldn't.  The average expected debt for a uni graduate who was starting uni in 2012 was over £60K.  I just don't know how important a university degree is (unless it's for a specific career, such as medicine).  As Woodsey said, it can help you get your first job, but after that it becomes less and less important.

Very different situation to when I graduated over 15 years ago.

I agree with this totally.  £60k is a huge amount of debt to be in when the vast majority of graduates don't really need a degree for their chosen degree (unlike doctors/dentists/lawyers etc)  I left uni to work for a big 5 accountancy firm in 1996 on £12k a year (Outside of London) after graduating in a non accountancy subject and if i was looking to do the same now i would just go straight into work after Alevels and avoid all the debt and come up the other end with the same professional qualifications 3 years earlier and get on the earnings career path quicker.  Out of interest does anyone know what a graduate trainee would start on straight out of uni now in a similar career in 2014?  Just interested in comparing relative debt/salary ratios across the two periods and how they have changed.

In 1996 all tutition fees were paid by govt, i got a grant every term which covered all my hall fees and left me with £400 a term on top to spend on beer effectively (£40 a week - £1 a pint in those days) and the max student loan was £900 a year i think.   Pretty sure i came out of uni with more money than i went in with at 21 with summer job money as well (i never worked during term time).  Quite incredible how the game has changed in 20 years.

How does having £60k of student debt around your neck effect you getting a mortgage even if you have a reasonably well paid secure job at, say, 26/28 years old?

fyp

Depends what you wanna do though really. You work for yourself right? At that age it's hard for most to have the stones to have a plan to work for themselves, they mostly just want a job. No chance I could be in the corporate game without a degree. The only people who get in my profession without a degree are people that have worked in healthcare before for a while as a nurse or something along those lines.

Most, if not all nurse training is at degree level

Now it is but not a few years back.

"Can I ask, having just finished uni myself and with the poker interest rising all the time, what's your piece of advice for making the next step up in the game? I currently play smaller buy-in live tournaments but have profited fairly consistently over the past year or so."

@baldock

If it's a hobby then I advise you play up to a level where it's still fun, not stressful in terms of ££, and if you're looking for the next level, maybe treat it like a more serious hobby by tracking results accurately, thinking about hands afterwards, posting on PHA for hand advice and asking friends or peoples whose games you respect about hands / general strategy. Don't let it rule your life though, balance is imperative.

Think we pay around £24k - one of the larger global IT consultancies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26954901 has some interesting numbers on student debt in 2014. Average debt now £44k, average repayment expected to be £67k. 55% will end up repaying less than they borrowed in real terms.

Appreciate all the comments and advice but most of them seem to be down to this misinterpretation. I meant 40 hours studying poker not for uni haha.

Ahh, my apologies Mr King.

So you plan to play or study poker for 160 hours this month, call it 40 hours per week, which is equal to 5 x 8 hour days.

Why not play a little less poker, & spend a little more time studying for the degree, so you can get better than a 2:2? I think that's the point most of us are trying to suggest.  

Yeh this.  I think the 2(i) point is very valid.  I still see it in job specs and I am pretty old.  There isn't much between a 2(i) and 2(ii).  A bit of hard work now should easily be able to get you up the 5% or so you need to bridge the gap in each subject.

I did quite a tough subject, but practically nobody did the amount of work they could have done for their degree.  The year after you leave you are going to be doing 40 hours a week in work anyway, so everybody should be capable of that.  The hours you are putting into poker are going to be more than enough to get you a 2(i).  To be frank they look more than enough to cause you to drop to a 3rd or mess it up completely.

Poker will still be there when the degree is finished.  Taking it easy now is going to make so little difference to amy potential poker career.  When I am not working I am allegedly a top 100 UK player and am allegedly the best in my county and don't really make enough to pay all the bills when doing it.  I have put many hours and years into playing and think I clearly have an aptitude for it. I don't even get staked so keep 100% of profits too, it would be really marginal keeping 50%. Same with other gambling, I only really make a couple of hundred a month long run, it is nowhere near enough what you need to live on with a family. 

Sure give it a go if you can, but the chances are that you aren't going to be as good as me, never mind the top 20 or so I the country who make a very decent living from it.  Maths is going to be way better on those making a decent living from a 2(i).

Uni doesn't start until October guys...this is why he's focussing on poker lol. Honestly Tikay, you'd think you were out of touch with how things work for the yoof of today...

As if........

I fear I'm weeing into the wind here.

Amazing how addictive poker is, & the grip it exerts on us. I had a cracking job, & retired from it due to the lure of poker. Don't regret it either, had a ton of fun, made so many friends, had so many wonderful times & experiences.

But my career had run its course, pretty much, I'd ticked all the career boxes I ever dreamed of & more besides. Thats a bit different to doing it before my working life began though. In my case, it could never have happened, of course, my Dad would have killed me, he was in the "get a proper job, Son" school.

Times, of course, have very much changed, some for the better, some not so much.

What has not changed is that young men, then & now, were & are always resistant to advice from elder people. It was always so.   

Viewed from a distance, it's incredibly interesting how our perspective of life changes with age.

I can't tell you how glad i am that i wasn't at uni from 2000 onwards where the lure of online betting/poker would have probably ruined my education.  Punting then consisted of bets in the betting shop in cash and/or the phone to stan james via their teletext pages.  There were pretty much no other outlets (i didn't even know casinos existed in those naive young enjoyable days!) being at uni in a town that never had a casino.  It was hard enough then just with the normal distractions of drinking/clubs/birds/sport and the occassional bet to get the degree work done.  The temptation of seeing young guys your age winning enough cash to buy houses and 10 times what your first salary will be in a year tax free in a weekend must be hard to cope with if you fancy yourself to make it as well.

It's ruined many an education.

Some of us just have that gene in our body where we want to get the "gamble buzz". I've had it all my life, but I'm now at an age where though I still have to feed that addiction as often as possible, ideally daily, it no longer costs me money, & I play very small-ball. Still get the same buzz though, & I probably enjoiy it more than I ever did. I'll probably gamble until the day I die, but at least nowadays I have it under control, & make a little money from it. Can't imagine more than a few % of youngsters entering poker these days will ever make meaningful money.

I know Plinop believes ANYONE can, but I don't buy that. I could play 1,000 MTT's in September, & not learn a damn thing. The difference is I've lost my false ego, & I know I'll never be good enough. And that applies to well over 90% of poker players.

It's a GREAT social game, one of the best, & I'd recommend it to anyone. Not so much when it seizes control of our common-sense. It certainly over-powered my common-sense at times. 

Who is to know what the legal issues with online poker will be in 5 years.

Let's say that online poker is stopped by a future government and you'll have to be a live pro.  Unsocialable hours, really tough grind etc.

In the last 4 years I have made £50k+ per year from poker and am under no illusion that I can't do this forever.  If you had asked me 2 years ago if I would have felt like this, I'd have been nah mate gonna do this forever.  And this year has been my best ever year.  I still enjoy the game, find it fun and interesting and love the freedom it gives me.  Don't have an exit plan yet, other than saving my binks for when that time comes.

The game is getting a lot tougher too.  I rarely feel that uncomfortable at the table, however recently I was at a table where 5 18-21 year old Germans were totally bossing and knew I was out of my depth. Who knows what they will be like in a few years.

Poker will always be around and certainly at social/recreational/fun levels there should always be really good action and liquidity. 

To make enough to have a decent living and maintain that living for the next 5-10 years tho?  I'm not so sure.  For the very best around like Pleno et all.  Sure.  There just aren't many Pleno's about tho!

ITT gamblers tell people to forget about gambling.

There is luck is all aspects of life, if no option jumps out in front of you re: career path i say give poker a whirl. Its tougher than it was but there's still money to be made, and more importantly you will be your own boss with the freedom to pick and choose your hours. It doesn't work out for everyone, but this is probably the only real chance you will get to find out. If it goes tits up get a vocation, probably a better way to go than a degree IMO.

People who refer to pocketfives as a link to ability/profitability is enough of a clue that there is still money to be made at the game.

There is the famous quote by a certain sportsman 'the harder I work the luckier I get'

In my case, only forget about it untl he has his Degree sorted.

The gambling instinct in many of us is too strong to forget, I'm certainly not advocating that, just a question of priorities at certain times in our life.

When I was 18 I thought my Dad was an idiot.

When I was 21 I was surprised how much he had learned in 3 years.

BOOM!

And there we have it.

I just wanted to pull out 10 guys who were basically recognised as being good/have own hundreds of thousands

Haha brilliant  ;topman;

you wanna learn PLO?

Now we're talking :)

Wow, if you're just in 2nd year and decided you're settling for a 2:2 then you really need to change that and i can't stress this enough. The graduate job market is tough as it is and so many places won't even look at you if you don't have a 2:1 minimum. This will be the most important thing you can achieve next year and it's not close.

With regards to being a pro, don't. Do it on the side. I would say quite frankly it's close to impossible to "make it" as a professional poker player in 2014. Games are so solid even at small stakes and rake so high that you don't stand much (or any) chance of rapidly climbing up the stakes, and the amount of work and study it's going to take to get to an hourly of even like ~$20 starting from scratch just isn't going to be worth it for someone trying to make a living. Having it as a hobby though is a different story, and this is how i'd encourage you to start thinking about poker. It can be a fun game, rewarding, and the UK poker community is an awesome thing to be a part of. Just don't put all your eggs in the poker basket at the expense of a 2:1 and especially not at a degree.

Very good post, agree 100%. Last sentence sums it up.

2:1 is genuinely not mathematically possible. just to clear things up for everyone I have 3 modules left. My uni hasn't started yet and it finishes in December.

Also I appreciate what you're saying about it not being an easy line of work. I agree when I started playing online ages ago I thought it was extremely simple and I thought it wouldn't take that much time to become a winner. I genuinely think to become a pro you need to put in more work than anything else you do or will do in your life. I expect that and I'm happy to do it.

Terrific post, but the boat has long set sail & won't be changing course.

So many paths to take in life, i know so many people who have wasted a lot of years by umming and arrring over which one to take so fair play to you imo, decide what you're going to try and do and do it. Not like you can't try uni again at 23 or 24 anyways, friend of mine finishing his course at 28 and enjoying himself.

If everyone took the sensible or linear pathways then it would be a dull world.

Let's get behind the lad, cmon KingPush run good :)

A couple of buy ins down at nl25 but came seventh in a tourny on 888 so about a BI down. Got loads of leaks and also not ran great. Gonna try and get 5 hand histories in tomorrow and then grind for at least 6 hours.
Cheers man, could do with it!


PokerStars - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4 (http://www.pokertracker.com)

SB: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BB: 51.68 BB (VPIP: 80.00, PFR: 60.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
UTG: 252.52 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 44.56 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
Hero (BTN): 111.04 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has  A:spade: K:diamond:

fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BB raises to 5 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, BB raises to 51.68 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 39.68 BB

Flop: (103.76 BB, 2 players)  5:club: 2:diamond: 8:diamond:

Turn: (103.76 BB, 2 players)  J:club:

River: (103.76 BB, 2 players)  J:diamond:

BB shows  8:heart: A:diamond:  (Two Pair, Jacks and Eights) (Pre 27%, Flop 87%, Turn 93%)
Hero shows  A:spade: K:diamond:  (One Pair, Jacks) (Pre 74%, Flop 13%, Turn 7%)
BB wins 99.08 BB

Ok but when he's skint and living with mum and dad at 35 we'll blame you  :D

lets just hope they have a big house :P

If we count the 2 AM zoom session this morning then we're up about 120 today which is highly enjoyable after the long b/e stretch pretty much for the past month. Started playing on Sky Poker either on the deep TV tables at .5/.10 or at the .10/.20 tables and managed to win a 100 quid today which is nice. No tracker software works on there which is probably a good thing as means there are very few regs as they can't show off their graphs on 2 plus 2 but also means you'll have to take my word for it. Bit gutting this also means that I can't look at the hand histories. I guess I'll have to look at others. Ran fucking well today probably helped by Lil'Dave's well wishes and the thought of living with my parents at the age of 35 AK>KK KK>AA and a few sets and a straight flush for good measure. 

Doubt there's many garage heads on here but may as well ay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQilwacuBO0

Morning Mr Dave.

To be fair, we are ALL behind him, & most of us wet blankets who advised putting educatuion - just briefly - first, also were at pains to say "but good luck whatever you do". And we meant it.

I also said that very few people of his age - & this certainly included me, back in the day - listened to the advice of elderly folk. Poker is so so addictive though, it's like a beautiful woman with her skirt up her arse & a push-up bra, we all find it hard to resist.

We don't have to take your word for it, I actually commentated on several of your hands "live" on Sky Poker TV Ch 861 on that night (Tuesday), as did the Studio Guest, Neil Channing. The screen-name was the clue, so it was good to give you a nice shout-out.

I seem to recall, amongst others, 8-8 on the Button. ;)

And no, it's a fundamental strategic policy on Sky Poker not to allow third party tracking software. It's paying increasingly good dividends, too.

Good luck on Sky Poker & elsewhere.

Ah gutted I missed that. Is there anywhere I can get a replay? Yeah I think it's good but would prefer there to be the ability to track results but not allow people to have huds. Also the lack of hand histories is kind of annoying can understand it to some extent. People are more likely to feel they can play how they want if no ones watching but I think even a fun player would want to look at a hand after its been played even if you can't see the opponents hand.

Most Shows are repeated 2 or 3 times, but mostly in the following day or two, so you may have missed it now, but I'll take a look.

Players CAN view Hand Histories on Sky Poker. They are not 'Stars quality, but are perfectly adequate & fit for purpose. I assume, by Hand Histories, you mean something like this?

 


https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=show_static&page=poker_community_forums&plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a2e4f51cb-c64c-449f-a843-8db9c5fe7283Forum%3af6da0520-771e-4022-95ff-9cf89f27717fDiscussion%3a9d272056-6463-47e6-9d46-c0a4bcd4709b

Thanks a lot mate. Yeah that's what I mean just couldn't find them last time.

Bck to square one with the Sky Poker bankroll. Played when I was tired and definitely didn't play that well but fucking hell

bulgaden   Small blind      £0.10   £0.10   £23.38
AddChips   Big blind      £0.20   £0.30   £34.28
    Your hole cards   
Q
Q
        
safc20   Call      £0.20   £0.50   £19.80
FORDYCE   Fold            
KingPush   Raise      £0.60   £1.10   £24.01
gemstoon   Call      £0.60   £1.70   £29.98
bulgaden   Fold            
AddChips   Call      £0.40   £2.10   £33.88
safc20   Call      £0.40   £2.50   £19.40
Flop
        
A
7
Q
        
AddChips   Bet      £1.88   £4.38   £32.00
safc20   Fold            
KingPush   Call      £1.88   £6.26   £22.13
gemstoon   Fold            
Turn
        
8
        
AddChips   Bet      £4.70   £10.96   £27.30
KingPush   Call      £4.70   £15.66   £17.43
River
        
A
        
AddChips   Bet      £11.75   £27.41   £15.55
KingPush   All-in      £17.43   £44.84   £0.00
AddChips   Call      £5.68   £50.52   £9.87
AddChips   Show   
8
A
KingPush   Show   
Q
Q
AddChips   Win   Full House, Aces and 8s   £48.72      £58.5

KingPush   Small blind      £0.10   £0.10   £19.90
natok11   Big blind      £0.20   £0.30   £36.94
JimiAls1   Sit out            
    Your hole cards   
Q
K
        
RyanC7   Fold            
gemstoon   Raise      £0.60   £0.90   £34.96
KingPush   Raise      £1.70   £2.60   £18.20
natok11   Fold            
gemstoon   Call      £1.20   £3.80   £33.76
Flop
        
4
9
K
        
KingPush   Bet      £2.00   £5.80   £16.20
gemstoon   Raise      £5.75   £11.55   £28.01
KingPush   Call      £3.75   £15.30   £12.45
Turn
        
J
        
KingPush   All-in      £12.45   £27.75   £0.00
gemstoon   Call      £12.45   £40.20   £15.56
KingPush   Show   
Q
K
gemstoon   Show   
10
Q
River
        
7
        
gemstoon   Win   Straight to the King   £38.40      £53.96

maybe could x/fol this

RyanC7   Small blind      £0.10   £0.10   £19.70
KingPush   Big blind      £0.20   £0.30   £23.22
    Your hole cards   
2
2
        
IRONYCARDS   Raise      £0.40   £0.70   £10.06
scouse_ste   Call      £0.40   £1.10   £81.20
hoolies   Raise      £0.60   £1.70   £15.90
BAMBAM575   Call      £0.60   £2.30   £25.09
RyanC7   Call      £0.50   £2.80   £19.20
KingPush   Call      £0.40   £3.20   £22.82
IRONYCARDS   Call      £0.20   £3.40   £9.86
scouse_ste   Call      £0.20   £3.60   £81.00
Flop
        
2
Q
5
        
RyanC7   Check            
KingPush   Bet      £2.70   £6.30   £20.12
IRONYCARDS   Fold            
scouse_ste   Call      £2.70   £9.00   £78.30
hoolies   Fold            
BAMBAM575   Fold            
RyanC7   Fold            
Turn
        
8
        
KingPush   Bet      £6.75   £15.75   £13.37
scouse_ste   Call      £6.75   £22.50   £71.55
River
        
Q
        
KingPush   All-in      £13.37   £35.87   £0.00
scouse_ste   Call      £13.37   £49.24   £58.18
KingPush   Show   
2
2
scouse_ste   Show   
5
5
scouse_ste   Win   Full House, 5s and Queens   £47.44      £105.62

PokerKinga   Small blind      £0.10   £0.10   £20.23
gemstoon   Big blind      £0.20   £0.30   £18.94
    Your hole cards   
Q
Q
        
TMT_TBE   Raise      £0.60   £0.90   £44.61
Dark_Clown   Fold            
haidyboy   Fold            
KingPush   Raise      £1.80   £2.70   £20.42
PokerKinga   Raise      £4.10   £6.80   £16.13
gemstoon   Fold            
TMT_TBE   Fold            
KingPush   Call      £2.40   £9.20   £18.02
Flop
        
8
4
5
        
PokerKinga   Bet      £6.90   £16.10   £9.23
KingPush   Call      £6.90   £23.00   £11.12
Turn
        
7
        
PokerKinga   All-in      £9.23   £32.23   £0.00
KingPush   Call      £9.23   £41.46   £1.89
PokerKinga   Show   
K
K
KingPush   Show   
Q
Q
River
        
9
        
PokerKinga   Win   Pair of Kings   £39.66      £39.66

Had AK v a straight which would probably be on TV later as well. Top day.

Just so you know (and no offence intended to your software here tikay) the sky HH's are pretty dreadful, takes forever to make sense of them :p

weaktight.com convert most hhs into readable formats. Sky too perhaps

yeh would love to help but reading that is just too painful!

Came in with good inrentions, leaving due to hh format :F

the answers no lol you have to code something yourself to do it.  ;grr;

Yeah there's no other way to show them. I agree they look pretty bad but I put them up here more of a vent than them actually having any value. Already worked out I misplayed the KQ hand anyway and it should be a x/f on the turn.

They mostly look like coolers but don't have much value without the suits anyway.

Sky HHs can be a bit of a mare to read (if you don't post them on the Sky forum) like, but I've played 90% of my volume on there for pretty much the whole time I've played poker so I'm well used to it by now. Deffo put suits in though, then I'll give my (limited) advice when I can.

Also, meant to say that it's really not that hard to review your HHs on Sky, although granted you can't do all the lovely things you can on HEM like just viewing hands against 1 particular villian  or viewing hands with particular starting hands etc.

If you go to 'My Sky Poker' and 'Hand Histories' though you got pretty much all you need. Imo, it's best to just keep a notepad document open while you play and then C+P any hand IDs in-game for any hands you're unsure about as they come up, then you can just search for the hands at the end of the session or whenever. Otherwise I'd just set the filters to like won/lost 20xBB (you gotta enter it in £££ like so this is a pain if you're playing across multiple levels) and go from there.

Just post the hands the way they are posted in PHA, or atleast include suits when posting.

I seen you at the tables last night, seemed to be a fleeting visit!

No idea what your bankroll roll is, but if it's 500 or below, would defo play 10nl for a while to get used to the site /players and build up a bankroll.

Yeah I should do but it's a lot of effort. Got 500 so not moving down yet. What's your sn man?

Played about 4 or 5 hours mostly on deep tables at .5/.10 won about 4 BIs and there might be some hands on TV I think, especially one with JJ where I turn the nuts and get pretty lucky. Think getting in as much volume as possible is going to be the key to me to become as good as I can. Whether this means moving to zoom 10nl or not I dunno but I'll stick it out at Sky until the end of the month anyway. Noticed I play a lot better when listening to music rather than doing anything else, keeps me in a good mood and stops boredom, also seems to keep me more alert.

Also won a tenner on Middlesbrough winning today so BR got a decent boost. No idea what it is at right now pretty much spent a shit load of money on going out recently and most of that was form my BR so just gonna wait until student loan comes in and then sort my life out again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOpTrDlYQ7I

Also been messing about with CREV but I don't know what I'm fucking doing so if anyone does and can help out that'd be top draw.

How many points are you racking up on sky? It's certainly not like RB on Euro sites but will give your bankroll a boost at the end of the month

925 and got 30% rakeback so should have a bit.

Watched this last night and thought it was the shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73La1RdWOo now reading "think and grow rich"

Running hella bad on Sky poker still. Tried to check more with strong hands, it went horribly. AA lost to KT on qxxja. Xx flop then xb/c turn and he bets river half pot and I jam the rest in which is about pot, feel like a lot worse calls in this spot. Also checked back nut flush on 952sss then he bet turn 8 1/3 pot and river 5 small as well, I raised and then he 3bet, think this is a snap fold but called it off like a mug. Then x/c KQ all the way down on KJxxxr and fella hits his set on the turn after betting 88s on the flop.  Only lost about 25bbs for the session after gii on 10102dd after checking jt, tactic finally paid off and we make a full house on the turn and quads on the river just for effect.

Played about 6 hours a day for the last 4 days. Not made any money but definitely feel like I'm going to. Gonna probably get more coaching from a coach I've had before. what is the etiquette on asking a coach on what games he plays and at what stakes and what his win rate is? Feel awkward about doing it but surely it's my right as a customer or no? It's like a 100 quid for an hour which would be a a decent percentage of my bankroll but considering I can then ask him questions on everything for the next 6 months I still think it's plus EV.

if someone is selling himself as a coach then you, as a customer, have every right to ask any question you like on his credentials.

I'd wanna see decent sample graphs, and breakdowns by stakes personally.

100 quid per hour, for someone playing your stakes seems very pricey, I can't really see how you can justify paying this when your starting out. Your learning curve should be pretty steep atm as your still a relative newbie, so just putting in hours you should still get plenty of aha moments. Be careful with coaches, lots of cowboys who specialise in buzzwords

I joined a big 4 after graduating in 2007, starting salary was around 34K GBP including benefits, and overtime (Luxembourg though). EY London back then paid 27.5K, and around 43K when qualified (now, 2014 it hasn't increased).

EY Bham pay around 21K for graduates, and 32K when qualified (same 2007, and again not changed in 2014).

Never known uni debt (as long as its student loan debt) affect any mortgage. I took out a mortgage in 2012 and they just asked for my last 3 months pay slips which showed like 215 GBP coming out per month (there was only 1K left on it, but they didn't ask how much was left, total debt was 12.5K i think as 1k fee per year).

£32k in 2014 for newly qualified ACA with a big 4 firm in Birmingham?  Really?  Pretty sure they were getting more than that back in 2001.

Don't you only play like 20NL?

Either way, don't pay £100 per hour for coaching at your levels. I know a couple of players from Sky that offer coaching and they're 2 of the best cash players on the site, and only charge £30 per hour, both of which I've received coaching from (albeit 1 of them was only for one session) and would recommend them highly. Think whoever is offering it for £100 per hour is trying to rip you off tbh.

Yeah, 32k for 3 rating (5 rating staff maybe £35k). Pretty High salary for people who would be 25 years old in Birmingham where house prices are like £150k for decent 3 bed, compared to London where you get £43-45k and is £370k for one bed in an ok area in zone 2.

Please don't even CONSIDER paying that sort of money until you move up several levels. You are simply burning money. IMO, of course.

Agree with every word of that.

Personally, no matter how much or little you pay a coach, I think you are perfectly entitled to ask those questions you mentioned.

However........

The important thing if you want to learn, & get better, is that if you pay for the services of a coach, you must take on board what they say. I say that (with the best of intentions, please be assured) as you were asking questions on PHA recently, getting great advice from the likes of Messrs Nicholson, Barnett & PBN, & ignoring it. That makes no sense to me.

I wish you well, & I hope you accept my views in the spirit intended.   

Without wanting to sound like an old fart, this thread reminds me so much of everyone I knew playing poker in 2005. "Come on lads, all it takes is a little work a few videos and some coaching and we'll be crushing in no time..."

I hope you win the lot OP, but please please listen to some of the advice in this thread. It's very hard and expensively earned for the most part.

never been a big fan of coaches. just get out in the streets and make it happen :)

Losing has always taught me a lot more than winning.

Realised I wasn't gogo enough to be playing as loose as I was so I've tightened up all my ranges and seems to be working a bit more. Also paying way more attention at the tables and making a lot of notes on everyone. People seem to have really weak rages in a lot of spots and I just wasn't exploiting people at all before really. Decided I'm not gonna look at my balance until the end of the month either, should look much healthier when it is + rakeback and points as well.

Not looking at your hem or balance is awesome to do but so so so hard, tried so many times lol

I just need to know god dammit.

Yeah tried to do the same and its hard. Usually find out your balance when the message comes up to say you don't have enough funds to top up ;)

I look if I know I'm winning :p

Would be impressed by that kind of willpower!

Just read this thread and there was so much good advice and insight.

My two pence worth…  Try and create a lifestyle/income that allows you to play poker rather than playing poker for a living.

I don't think most people could enjoy playing online purely for a living unless you are making at least £70k + per year. Even if thats possible it will take unbelievable discipline  - the daily grind of day sitting in a room on a computer all night cannot be enjoyable - not long term anyway.

IMO there is no way you can trust online poker 100% anyway, it regulates itself so you can't guarantee anything. There will always be a select few who will win big $ but poker rooms need winners, it will always need the elite players for the rest to look up to. Trusting poker sites is no different to trusting bankers in the city… Just my opinion...

in 2014 To make a living from live poker IMO you need to win a big tourney early in your career or a few top 5 places and make a name for yourself- so try and sat in as many big comps as possible, and once your there play well and don't get unlucky.

Online or live making a living in poker you will need some luck regardless - do you want to rely all your future earnings on something that has an element of luck that you can't really control. In life I personally believe in making your own luck from the choices and decisions you make - in poker you can't always do that, sometimes or most the time its the poker gods.

So why not try and create or plan for a lifestyle/income that allows you to play poker rather than playing poker for a living? If you get lucky and win a big tourney early you can always change your plans. Im 35 & I run my own business, its seasonal so between April and November I might work 7 days a week 10 hrs a day but for 5 months of the year I'm more or less free to do what I want. If i want to play poker solid for a few weeks or go on tour I can this allows me to get my poker fix, This is the lifestyle i wanted to create for myself, you're at an age where you can plan what ever you want so what ever you choose good luck to you.

 








 

it was definitely true then and probably true now too.

In a standard coaching session what normally happens? Do they advise you whilst you're playing, watch you then give you feedback, etc?

I've always been a believer that just getting out there and playing hands is the best way to learn.

Could not agree more with this.

watching someone play in real time cant be a good way for coaching to work out unless 1 tabling and even then it would just degenerate into ghosting even if unintentional. coaching should be focused on the student and what they are looking to achieve. everyone learns differently and at different speeds.

playing hands is a great way to get experience at poker but you still need to be fundamentally sound or putting in more and more volume will just lead to you losing more and more and getting frustrated.

100 an hour seems a farce

Depends on the level of skill, willingness to try new and probably weird things, and happiness levels of the ending.

Definitely agree with experience helping to your increase your skill level. However, having an insight on your play by someone who is clearly better than you is still never going to be a bad thing. Honestly, he plays 2/5 zoom so I feel like he can charge however much he wants. Say he helped my up my win rate by 5bbs a 100 it would only take 10,000 hands for me to earn my money back. This is discounting future earnings at higher stakes as well. Obviously it's unlikely anyone is going to improve that much but when you consider coaches are protecting their own edge as well, after all it is a zero sum game, I can understand why they would charge that much.

Not gonna get coaching for the time being anyway. Will get it when I'm playing 50nl, flicking in 2 BIs is probably plus EV in the long run.

Appreciate everyone warding me off playing poker for a living and I'm well aware of the competitive nature of it. Very few are capable of making a living out of it. But I am not doing this professionally at the moment, I'm back at uni. But I refuse to have the mindset of thinking, "oh I just want to play it as a game and have fun". Like I want to win a lot of money from it and I'm well aware that what I put in is what I'll get out.

Anyway did the best suckout I've done for a while today. btn opens to .60 sb calls, I call with KT off 4 hours sleep. 1097dd sb shoves 50bigs, he's done this before, dunno if it's with a linear range or polarised one but I'm happy to see 2 more here as I'm going to be good a decent amount, I reshoved for some reason, btn snaps w/ 99. Turn K river K. Party time. Played a couple of tournies as well, the sky 5.50 I think and the 10 dollar 6max snap on 888. Was chippy for a while on 88 then busted on the bubble after losing heaps with QQ v 77. Never got going on Sky and shoved QJhh into QQ for a non sweat.

Gonna try and play more poker than FIFA tomorrow which is gonna be a struggle. Played football games since I was about 5 and had ISS(Roberto Larcos) on the Nintendo 64 and FIFA on the gameboy. Send me a message if you have it on PC, happy to put a few bets on if anyone's interested.

Assuming you're already at least breakeven, if you can find a coach that can increase your winrate by 5bb/100 in an hour I will personally sex a goat.

Booked. Gonna get Odd_Oddsen to teach me PLO.

Also anyone have problems with HHs on Sky? Sometimes when I already have 2 open it won't let me bring another one open and then I close the ones I have open and it still won't work. Torn between thinking Sky is decent and thinking the software is a load of shite. The time bank is stupidly fast for normal tables as well.

rexas is right, for £100 seeds an hour id be wanting rub downs on the felt, and off it too

it's dreadful ldo. hhs are a nightmare.

you dont need someone who plays 2/5 to teach you to beat nl20 on sky or w/e. each to their own.

who is the guy?

do you have a birthday coming up? maybe ask for it as a present? or agree with parents that if you get x grade they give you 4 hours or something.

4 hours? WAL you lead ;)

Just ask this guy no arguments then.

Yeah good idea. Blah234 off deucescracked.

Anyone know how to calculate points on Sky poker? need 500 more points by the end of the month and I get an extra 20 quid. Wanna go for it if it's less than 10 hours.

Sorry, I was offline last night, & so missed this. Probably a bit late now, with just 2 days to go.

I don't really understand how the Cash "Reward Points" work, as I'm mainly a SNG player these days, & it would be bad etiquette towards our Sponsor to post a link.

However....

It always surprises me how often this question is asked when there are just a few days left in the month.

I always set out my goals & targets for Reward Points before the month starts, so I have something to aim for. It's quite satisfying to stay on target, & even beat it, & get a few bob back.

It's much easier for a SNG player, as we know exactly how many Points we will earn per game, of course.

So I just decide how many points or money I'd like to make, assess how many playing days I'll have available, & divide one into the other. 

In my case, I usually go for 3,300 points, which is £50, & if I have, say, 20 "poker days" available, then I know I need around 165 points per session, so that's exactly what I do, play each evening until I hit my nightly target. It's really quite satisfying, & £50 comes in handy every month.

The same logic applies on any sites you play, of course, though maybe you get more for less elsewhere. ;)     

In my quest to make an extra 20 quid in bonuses I've lost about 4 buy ins. aces>kings twice, fours>aces and jacks<a4. Did have quads vs full house at one stage which was nice but fuck me today has been brutal so far. But then again I had top KJ on kt4cc in a 3bet pot to lose another buy in. Wasn't sure if this was standard or not. Reg opens btn I 3bet KJss from SB, calls. KT4cc I x, prob can't fire three streets and get called by worse here versus good oppos but did have not that said he calls down light so prob should have fired, either is fine imo, he bets 2/3, I call. Turn is blank I x, he bets 2/3 I call. River is another blank and I x he shoves~pot, I call. Thoughts? Fold river?

Also really hate playing during the day. Way less fun players, way less tables and I always seem to get smashed.

Realised I was going out later so just 8 tabled it for about 2.5 hours and did it. AA v KK one more time just for laughs. Starting to think people only get AA and KK in pre in a lot of spots which is pretty wrong but explains why I really struggle to win all ins, like I got in Jacks when I opened button sb min 3bet bb overcalled I 4bet sb basically jammed and I put in the rest and he turned up with KK, these are supposed regs so maybe they know what they're doing but I dunno. No idea how I did in the session just gonna look on the 5th when the RB comes in.

It is 5 WORKING days after the month end, so in theory you will get paid on Tuesday 7th October not Sunday 5th. On some occasions, they pay a day or so earlier.

This probably goes right back to what people have been saying about exploiting vs gt. From what I've seen of sky (and I've seen a reasonable amount) a lot of the general player pool on there just aren't very good. As such, the standard "winning" regs are just nits (as they will be at any micro stakes level). This is basically how to beat these games on sky, play tight, get it in with a strong range and pass up some of these marginal spots, because they just have it, especially the regs.

7

better players play in the day the shit ones are at work earning their cash to donk off at night. ;)

games are much better at night, but somehow over the course of 2 years I lost money in sessions that started after 8pm and won heaps in sessions starting before 4pm.

Always seems a lot less stressful in the daytime, just a few guys trying to nick a few quid as opposed to the evenings where everyone is baying for blood.

'It's easier playing against good players' that old chestnut when you are a pro.

yeh i mean obviously being a huge boss helps

 ;nana;

haha mbn

Gonna aim for 5000 points on sky poker. I'm 8 tabling at the moment and gonna 2 BI shot take at 50nl once I get to 1k. Aim is still to make 3k by the end of the year and I still feel like I'm going to do it. I'll only play live if I get staked or get to 1600.

Thoughts on this hand, think it should be a fold pre

UTG opens to .7
I 3bet to 1.7 with  9s Ks
He flats
flop
8s 7s Qc
He leads full pot, I call
turn 10x
He leads full pot again, I shove for 21. Had no reads on the player but think I'm shoving QT, KKns, AsKs, AsJs and KsJs and then calling hands like AA and QQ and flush draws with a pair.

Couldn't agree more with some of the comments above/previous comments about GTO v exploitative. I was discussing this with a mate the other day and it's just far better on Sky to not be focussing on trying to play GTO imo.

I've played probably 1million+ hands at low stakes on Sky (20-50NL) and completely agree with Rexas. One of the best things for my winrate was to stop levelling myself into thinking that surely they gotta bluff X% in this spot when they just aint. Most regs don't have a light 3/4b range, almost all aint getting it in wider than QQ+/AK pre (and for a lot it is just AA/KK, maybe AKs if they feel saucy), they vv rarely bluff more than 1 street post, and they generally tend to not vbet thin enough either. Obv there's a ton of sweeping statements in there but for the most part they apply to 90% of Sky regs.

As that's the case, it's much better to focus on exploiting them rather than playing GTO when they'll just nut peddle V you. Obv it's up to you how you wanna do that.... if their range for continuing when facing a 4b is KK+ but they 3b a fair bit wider than KK+ (may not always be the case) then I'd 4b bluff lots w/ blockers and just make your 4b sizing tiny V them (dw, they won't adjust). Lots more you could do obv but just exploit, exploit, exploit imo.

Mornings sessions ftw! Always seem to get more punters and less regs in my morning like 10am - 2pm sessions.

That bold bit is the answer. Like 100% proper thin value, combined with learning to fold rivers, is how to smash up the micros.

Yeah agree a lot. Think I've xr bluffed river about 50 times v regs and everyone one of them feels like its been snapped. Which leads to the point about folding rivers don't think anyone bluffs them.

When I try to go for thin value I always seem to value town myself. Gonna try just betting pot every time I have top pair plus v fun players though.

Kingpush,

Have you read John Blacks diary ? If not, I think you would find it useful.

Good luck

make good value-bets and pick off the silly bluffs.

This is how we win money in cash games.

3 BI day, not bad considering only played for 2.5 hours. Shoulda stopped 8 tabling on Sky ages ago just not good enough for it with the timebank on there. Prob end up winning if I nitted it up and took the rb but I find that fairly soul destroying even though the rush is a lot of fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f_WMMSvuM

philosophy&poker  ;carlocitrone; good combination

Had a decent day but pretty much b/e since the start of the month. Swapped 20% in the Storm with someone and he got a decent cash which helped. Felt like I was playing his game rather than mine though, didn't really like the pressure of it at all. I think someone's poker strategy is a fairly personal thing and whilst one person does one thing andn another might do something different their win rates could be very similar. It all makes sense over an entire strategy if you see what I mean rather than one hand.

Played more in the last 4 days than I probably ever have in the same time span and think my game has swung massively between different spectrum's. From alright to shit and then back again. Noticed I play really badly after I lose a BI no matter how it was lost. And also after I win a BI no matter how it was won. Definitely go through spells of trying to win every pot when it's just not possible.

On for the 5000 points mark by the end of the month which will bring in a ton. Gonna try and just grind it out 4 tabling rather than smash it 12 tabling on the last few days. On the uni front there is very little to do at the moment, so keep your hair on!

 :)up Good luck!!!

cheers boss

https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby/poker-promotions/punta-cana-cash-kings?dcmp=p_pr_puntacashking
Told you I'd been grinding. Only just signed up for it kind of gutted I didn't realise earlier and just mass table 5nl or something. Gonna go for a top 3 finish though would be stupid not to. Obviously dontelmum is a pure bo(t?)ss so doubt I'll catch him but 2nd to 6th is hella tight so just gonna be grinding a lot this month. Reckon it's gonna take 55k at least.

He's Defo not a bot , just the nanonoko of sky

Yeah can't fault his work ethic, seems like he wins as well. Don't think he's ever bluffed the river in his life but probably doesn't need to.

-6 BI day. Gutted. Looking back through at biggest pots I'm just playing way too loose on the river. Would post some HHs but Sky ones just look shite and I'm not gonna write them all out. My favourite was flopping a set 88s in a 3bet pot and gii ott with a full boat v ak on k866 river K.

nh beating my 7 high lol

All the best mate, take a break when the promos finished and chill.

hahah really

I'll be so glad when this fucking rake race is done.

Just chill out with the rake race imo. This is table as it stands now...

http://gyazo.com/e2e6ca159dd5639af5757f63db9ccfd4

Only 4 days left of the rake race. If you just play a regular decent amount of volume then it's unlikely you'll drop any lower then 7th imo (if at all) and if you carry on going nuts, you're probably still not gonna beat the people above you.

So really no point going mad to for the sake of what, like 2 BIs? When you could easily lose that if you're playing more tables than you're comfortable with, or more hours so playing tired, or playing on when tilted when you'd normally stop but feel like you need to carry on for the volume. Quality over quantity imo unless the rake race is offering a sick reward (and it aint).

Def agree with this as someone who has been involved in more rakeraces than i care to remember years ago.  Not good for your health/brain or your wallet unless you get offered an incredible deal and can actually win them.  I played 18 hours a day for 30 days straight once to get 150% rakeback the next month in 2010 and then played another month of 18 hours a day straight to make it pay.  It was worth it financially but still very hard to do.

Did u have spots and struggle to chat up birds arrboy? :P

Fuck, that's a lot of time. Must have been grim.

Can definitely beat the people above me, that table is from 2 days ago I think. Put in a load of volume since then and def played on more tables than those above me. Still aiming for top 3. I agree with you that it's quality over quantity but since I've already dropped 10 BIs may as well just go for it now. Managed to cooler a few people for a change earlier, felt great. Lead to the first 100 pound stack on Sky.

Optimal leaderboard strategy imo is to try to crush the first prize from the get go and avoid having to work hard towards the end of the period as the chasing pack give up and you have to do a lot less work to win the fixed first prize.  The guy(s) in front of you will be very hard to beat if you are not leading from half way imo unless they don't know anything about the leaderboard/rake race and are just on it by chance from big volume (this is usually unlikely) therefore you can put all the volume in you want and if they match you you just stand still and the site makes a fortune in rake for no extra investment.  Plus your roi will go down on the games you play as well as you start chasing volume over your usual style of play.

https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby/poker-promotions/punta-cana-cash-kings?dcmp=p_pr_puntacashking

Leggo

Felt like the guy in third wasn't going to go offline. So pump faked him, watched MOTD and now I'm back grinding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0QcxWPB59o

Think it should be said because i was one of the people who questioned your aims in the beginning - you've seem to be doing really well so far and waaaaaay better than i imagine most people thought you would! :D Keep up the hard work and best of luck.

Cheers man.

Final table https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby/poker-promotions/punta-cana-cash-kings?dcmp=p_pr_puntacashking

Even though I got third I'm fairly pissed I didn't get second. Either ihadtrips had loads of hands backlogged or I just didn't notice him at the tables at all yesterday or I hadn't been reading the table properly. Kind of gutting as was sure I'd got it. I'd like to see the numbers for each day. Fair play if he did like 10k in one day. Mainly just pissed off with myself for not getting it done when I should have. Still managed to start having a decent win rate towards the end and should have enough by the end of the month to move up. Gonna take a couple of days off and go outside though.

Seems like a lot of fun players complain about etiquette by regs at the tables when I mostly find it's the other way round that is the problem. Play a guy heads up on two tables, up a Bi, blast off in 3bet pot when he has top pair so I'm only up a bit. Open AJ flop comes J54 I bet he calls, turn 5, I bet, he raise I call, river 6, he bets, I should fold but call. He has the straight he's now up a BI and a bit and insta sits out both tables? Just so poor. Had words in a chat as he was sat out saying I'm not going to play him again etc and he just leaves. Just pisses me off. Much prefer to play heads up for a living but the etiquette just seems so fucking unreasonable. It's not like this live so why do people feel it's ok online? Not even sure he was a fun player to be honest, doesn't really matter either way, still a knobhead.

I call.

Lol incredibly tilting.

(http://a.fod4.com/images/GifGuide/DealWithIt/slothdealwithit.gif)

After reading this, and i apologise for being blunt, but i certainly have made my mind up who comes across as the bigger 'knob head' in all this, dont think its right to start abusing a fun player because he left the game. He would be less inclined to play again in the future for sure

P.S. Trivial river fold too

Andddd we have a new leaderrrrrrrrrrrr

[/quote]

Andddd we have a new leaderrrrrrrrrrrr
[/quote]

Ha I guess it seems that way. Just thought it was a little harsh to come on a public forum and call a guy that. I have been following this blog and good to see it going well. Clearly a rant out of frustration I guess.
I'm also fairly sure, on other blogs,  when similar things were posted, some members crucified the writer. I guess kingpush just has to be how he comes across that's all.
I did like the gif though, that stands :)

top quoting tekkerz

Ha I guess it seems that way. Just thought it was a little harsh to come on a public forum and call a guy that. I have been following this blog and good to see it going well. Clearly a rant out of frustration I guess.
I'm also fairly sure, on other blogs,  when similar things were posted, some members crucified the writer. I guess kingpush just has to be how he comes across that's all.
I did like the gif though, that stands :)
[/quote]

I find this the most questionable part.


Yeah you're right but at least it's genuinely frowned upon.

Pretty sure you're the biggest "knob head" in everything ever? And we abuse you constantly, yet you seem to want to play more and more.

Spoke to HoneyBadger and he said get aggro with your bankroll so moved up to nl30 today. Seems like mostly the same players, just the better regs, one in particular who it feels like runs me over hard, at nl20 and some of the same fun players. Ended up up about 5 BIs didn't feel like I was playing that well just ran really good in a lot of spots. Had KK v AK all in and picked up a tell on the fun player to my right who always 2xd his bluff raises. Biggest pot was v him when he opens button to 4x I 3bet in the SB with KcTc to £3, he calls. Flop kk4 I bet, he calls, turn 5, same as flop, river 8 which brings the spade flush. I bet again he raises to 2x, I call and he has 3x3s. Had the nut straight in a multi-way pot as well and there were other good spots as well. Didn't even play that much as felt tired/ill after uni yesterday, nice to run good when you move up anyway. Bankroll is about a a grand right now and should get at least 200 in rb at the end of the month. Probably gonna shot some live games and and 40nl next month if all goes to plan.

Even though I bitched about it a load and wished it was over the rake race was probably the best thing for me and anyone else starting out in poker. It forced me to put in a shit load of hands with no excuses and with a safety net of even if I lose 15Bis, which I was definitely at at one stage, I'll be reimbursed for it at the end of the 19 days as long as I put the hours in. It's all about the hours/volume at the end of the day even if at the time it seems fucking stupid it's probably worth it at the end of the day. If I can keep up the work ethic I've had this month I'm sure I can get to where I want to be with poker. Will need to step off it a bit though in the coming weeks with uni work looming.

Keep it up and gl.

Oh and keep listening to ppl such as honeybadger and lildave,  u will realise in a couple of years the advice they are giving you now is invaluable to you for the future.

Gl

If you've got >£1k online you should be ok for a few well-timed shots upto 50nl as well. The money is waiting for you at the lower stakes if you put in the time so a 15-20bi shot if games are good will be fine.

Got my bankroll up to a bag on Sky Poker which considering I had put about 90% of my roll on there and it was sub 300 with about 4 days left of the rake race, I'm pretty fucking happy with. Games seem really easy at the moment like the more I think the harder it seems to get. There's no doubt that I'm running like pure fire but think I've had something like 7 or 8 winning days in a row now which is fairly ridiculous considering how I was doing beforehand. Weirdly though I'm struggling to get hours in, whether I'm still blown out after rakerace or I have no clear goal at the moment, I'm not sure. I think a lot of it is to do with me anticipating my rakeback at the end of the month, I'll be getting 30% and that could be anything between 200 and 400 quid which changes a lot about what I'll be playing etc. If anyone knows if you can ask Sky so that you can know how many hands you've played or something that would be much appreciated as then I could set myself a volume goal for the end of the month. Think a lot of the lack of motivation is that I haven't done much bar poker at the moment, probably just need to go out, get pissed and get rejected by a few girls and I'll be raring to go again.

take rexas out with you, hes good at that ;)

You won't get 30% RB, that's for earning 30k+ points. If you finish under 10k you'll get what it says in the widget (pictured). 10k - 19999 points = 20% RB.

Cash games u get 6 points per £1 of rake (sngs and mtts are 10 points). Obv over the 10k threshold points become irrelevant unless it gets you to the next tier 20k+/30k+ to move you to 25/30% RB.

So if you get 10k points purely from cash... Divide it by 6 = you must have paid £1333 in rake, 20% of that = £270ish

Probs on 30% rakeback for everything!

This is possible to record using the Hand History.

If you click the "More search options" button, you'll get time filters. By recording the start and end time of your session, you can search between that time and see how many Hand Histories come up.

Unfortunately, it'll only show 500 Hand Histories at a time, so you'll probably need to break your session into smaller chunks of less than 500 hands each, then add up the "X hands found" underneath the HH to get the total number of hands played for the entire session - As long as you're not Donttelmum playing more than 500 hands in 5 minutes, you'll get the right number of hands. I manage to keep pretty detailed records of my cash results in Excel without too much trouble, despite no PT4.

It's a ballache to calculate things like bb/100, profit/loss for individual stakes if you're playing across more than 1 level, but if all your tables are 30nl (or whatever level you end up playing), all you need is your BR at the start and end of the session, and hands played.

Was a nice challenge playing against you tonight btw, first impression is that you're easily one of the better regs I've played at these levels. GL

gonna have to get used to this pal, if online poker gonna be your thing :( it's infuriating but once you've played for 2 years online you'll barely even notice it. I still give people who do it action as well cos it's just so hard to get action.

Yeah this.


Man that sounds like such a ball ache esp as I play 6-9 tables across two stakes. Cheers man, what's your sn?

I'm EvilPingu.

3 losing days in a row were inevitable after my previous post. Pointless to say I ran well/bad as you're always doing one or the other, I've definitely been playing badly ever since I got to 1k, it was more about protecting that rather than pushing on for more. I stopped betting as much started folding more and just nut peddled which is the opposite of my general game plan. I also keep checking if I win hands or not which is stupid and time consuming when you're playing 8+ tables tiled. Only just felt like I've come out the other side of that now and played alright tonight even if I ended up losing. Gonna just get to an amount of rakeback which guarantees 450 at the start of next month, dunno if I'll play much more as I'm busy.

Came 10th or 11th in Mini UKOPs last night. Feel like my MTT game is decent only thing I really struggle with is calling shoves, does anyone know of any Nash charts for this? Also shoving after someone has entered the pot, what percentage should we be shoving with 10bbs v CO if he opens 25% etc.

Also if anyone wants to do swaps for the mini rebuy tonight hit me up. Might also sell 50% as don't want to be concerned about rebuying in 3 or 4 times.

Download ICMizer, buy it for a month or two and start putting ranges in spots where you think "what should my calling range be here?" Tidies everything up a considerable amount, easy enough to turn it into auto pilot decisions over time

Playing UKOPS main?

How's Uni going as well?

Download ICMizer, buy it for a month or two and start putting ranges in spots where you think "what should my calling range be here?" Tidies everything up a considerable amount, easy enough to turn it into auto pilot decisions over time
[/quote]

Good shout, probably get it for myself for christmas.
I wish bruh

Not really playing and don't plan to for the rest of the month cause of uni. Can't say I'm enjoying it but just grinding it out and find playing and working at the same time impossible to do. At least competently. Completely understand the mindset of someone who earns a decent whack through the week and so just wants to play poker for fun and never fold. Pokers not really that much fun otherwise, unless you're winning and that's a much more difficult skill to learn than never folding.

Bankroll is at 1400.

Even when winning it probably isn't that "fun", having to grind for hours is tough. Playing recreationally is the way forward, and a potential good way to earn a little bit on the side.

Keep up the efforts on your uni work!

Genuinely enjoy grinding for hours. I complained about it during rake race but the sense of accomplishment far surpasses any tedium. If I get bored I just watch/listen to something when I grind anyway or add more tables. Don't think I'd ever play poker recreationally.

Cheers man.

Lol I used to be like that at the start playing endless hours a week, the grind got to me eventually though. 4 or so years later of playing this game fairly seriously and I now find playing just hold em consistently boring as hell. It's another reason never to give everything up for poker imo. I don't have to play to survive but would be hating life now if I did.

When I need to stuff which I don't want to do I end up procrastinating hard on really random shit. What I've started doing recently is watching professional Call of Duty matches. I don't play this game, I used to when I was younger a fair bit (COD 4 and Modern warfare 2) but I don't play video games half as much as I used to. What used to be really enjoyable about it was that you were playing with your mates. You'd go home from school whack on the xbox and chat shit to each other whilst killing each other/ scoring goals against each other.

The professional video game players seem to be doing this. They are all part of teams which play against each other online for small prizes and then compete for big prizes at LAN events or live events. Most of them stream and they often have audiences of 10,000 plus. I'm pretty sure most of them make 6 figures plus and the very best or the most well known make 7.

It's notable how similar most of these guys are to online players. They are mostly under the age of 25 and they are pretty much all nerds. If people have a problem with how poker players interact with each other then this would probably be a massive shock to the system. They often shout out "get rxped" or "I am a young God" or "you fxcking suck". This is to other pros or recreational players. Honestly I'd prefer this to the sterility in poker now. A lot of them live in team houses and have youtube channels where they upload real life stuff and have shops which sell their merchandise which often sells out.

If poker really wants to boom again, for me this is what it needs to do. All the top online players need to become knowable. I know that information on play is guarded now but streaming and earning money that way will much more beneficial than just being better at poker than everyone else. All the players interact with each other on twitter or via skype whilst they play. Why is this feature not on online poker tables? I thought 888s webcam tables were a hit what I remember from playing them back in the day were that they were the softest online. Fun players enjoy this shit because it is fun. I know playing multiple tables could make this difficult but if you were streaming and knew all the regs, let's hypothesize these are the HS players, then why not have a skype chat going at the same time. There are threads and threads of chat messages from well known online players. People love this shit as it gives an insight. Unless you lover poker, watching it is extremely boring, watching people interact however, especially in stressful situations isn't though.

Ironically this is what made poker boom in the first place just instead of the internet the players became well known through the more popular medium of the time, television. Look at pros like Phil Laak or Sammy Farha. Would anyone give a shit about these guys if they weren't on television at some point? I doubt they'd be known for their poker prowess.

In general I think it's probably time for poker to start taking itself more seriously and people at the top to actually start streaming and becoming something other than their screen name.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/technology/esports-call-of-duty-nadeshot-celebrity-success.html?_r=0

Que?  I was aware of a growing professionalism in gaming, but not this. 

both outstanding poker personalities. I think Sammy Farha is exactly the type of player who should be advertising poker.

agreed but I doubt they're T300 players in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_7_595mDE
probably the best thing I've ever watched which is poker related

Just watching this now. I'd seen/heard of Seb86 but didnt realise until they said that the other guy was BiatchPeople. About 30 mins in and its good to watch if you can get past the French and having to watch it in subtitles.

thanks for posting

watched it and enjoyed it

Just won my biggest pot online on a TV table so might be on the box later. Playing NL50 at the moment and not playing well or running well at the minute but still winning so can't complain. Uni finishes end of this week then gonna try and get 3k by the end of the year and take it from there. Don't think I want to do any more education for a while these last pieces of work have depressed me to shit.  Also lost my biggest pot online ever with QQ v AA where he over shoved the turn after cold 4betting it was probably close.

What Table was it on, & at what time did it happen?

I'm doing the Show tonight, so I may be able to persuade the Producer to show it - assuming the hand was "interesting", rather than just your biggest ever pot.

Master Cash 9 400BB pot at 3:38 wasn't particularly strategically interesting to be honest with you but would be very grateful if you could slip him a fiver for me!

First time I've felt like I'm getting outplayed for a while. The NL50 regs are definitely much better. jrvs and Ludacris seem much better than me, gonna have to start playing 5/6 hours and grinding a shit load of CREV. Need to sort out my defending 3bet range from the button for starters.

Probably gonna stop playing anyone heads up as well. Was getting smashed.

ayyoo

4/5 buyin downswing had set over set then AQ<KK on AJxss. Also had to keep bet bet xf loads of rivers. Really don't feel like I'm playing well at nl50 yet.

Ayyyy chopped first in the 55 quid tourny at the g in luton for a bag and change. Will try and do a pleno style write up tomorrow

Can't really remember much of it now. 3 key hands from the tourny win were qq when JJ shoved utg for about 10 bugs, I reshove 15 and guy on my left folds ak. Second was opening q4cc in the co and cbetting v the bb for half pot on 1075cc, turns an 8c I bet he raises I shove and he has j9 and I have the chippy. On the final table I managed to have a chop pot v kqss with aa don't think I busted anyone and ended up 4 ha died with about a fifth of the chips in play and with one massive chip leader on the table to my right. Think I saw a showdown about twice in an hour and was playing about 40% of hands. The rwp shorties to my right were folding everything and I kept shoving over the big stacks limps so by the time it was 3 handed I was chip leader again. Had aa when the short stack who seemed to refuse to calk off shoved 3 bigs and then it was heads up. Guy only wanted to deal of he got a bag. Said I wanted to play for something for first and first Hans got crippled with 99 on j87jx when I raise x the flop and called turn and river. Doubled up with and then chopped it.

Played in the genting on Tuesday and played a ten hour cash session in the g last night all for a loss of 80 quid.

Been playing a shit load of live poker and even though I haven't been winning I've been enjoying it. One problem I have with it though is that I feel like it makes me worse at online. To be able to truly beat certain games and know you're beating certain games it seems to me you need to be playing them constantly about 40 hours a week. Here is the problem then, should I play 60 hours a week online and become a better player and have a better win rate after an initial period of b/e or small loss or play livefor a small gain right now. I'm probably enjoying live poker more right now but I enjoyed online a lot more before. Dunno if I'm gonna make any plan either way I'll probably just play whatever I want to at that moment but I'm interested to see how everyone else feels on this.

IMO if you really desire what the title of your diary is then I would say Online ainec

You're probably right. Why do you think this though?


Lost 700 since the tourny win. Not playing well running fucking terribly live and also a bit of tilt.

Gonna grind 100 hours of 50 no and do a shit load of work off the table.

Sorry I should have expanded a bit more but am sure this convo has been done loads of times on blonde over the years.

Im sure I will be shot down if I am wrong but IMO feel that if you move up through the levels online you will get better fundamentals to start off with and can always move across to live at a later date when as long as you dont level yourself or come with too much ego should be a long way ahead of the curve in the games you play.

I dont think there are too many Alex Goulder's ( just plucked him out of the air as someone who started live and dont think there are too many like him around)around and even Alex has realised over time that Online needs to provide some of his income as unless you are prepared to move around you can find the games dry up plus add in expenses, travel etc your win rate will always be higher online.

I'm a rec at the end of the day but live vicariously through these others exploits and for me just enjoy turning up at decent events holding my own and enjoying the challenge but not relying (in before it's a good job) on poker to provide any part of my income and for us it is a completely different game/experience altogether.

In short I dont think you will realise your true potential (I dont know you personally so it would be unfair for me to judge) live as again IMO you will always be at the liberty of where you  are on the life/variance chart as it is a long game.

Just my opinion but keep up the work and keep writing....

Finished top 500 in the Storm yesterday. Don't think I could ever play mtts full time. The structure of the pay outs is really fucking dumb, the variance is disgusting and the play after the first two hours is repetitive and boring.

That being said I'm playing the two 22 quid UKOPs and hopefully selling enough of the 55 to play it as well. Just need to win about 20 flips in a row and we should be golden.

Been playing on stars just cos its easy at the moment. Just fire up zoom for however many tables you want and it pretty much never breaks. Don't think playing on there consistently would be a good idea though cos the rakeback scheme is terrible. A big help of it though is being able to track your hands, I'm not talking about using a hud I'm just talking being able to track your hands, statistics and red and blue line mean that you get a much more accurate picture of your play. IMO anyone who is creating or working with a poker site is making a massive mistake without allowing tracking sites, I agree huds shouldn't be allowed but no tracking sites is just cutting your nose off to spite your face.

hey mate,

All the best for 2015.

Are you still focussing on going pro?

You have a good game, and its cool you look for spots to 3 bet/ 4 bet preflop, hardly any regs at those levels do that kind of stuff.

Yeah you too man, gl on the tourny grind. Have no job at the moment so just grinding for the minute. Cheers bro used to be much more effective than it is now though, feels like noone folds on sky to me anymore

Not a problem if you always have it.

Not a problem if you always have it.
[/quote]

What a life that would be.

Lost 10 BIs today. Just gonna put up my biggest losing hands let me know if you see anything bad

GAME #6210509044: Texas Hold'em  NL €0.25/€0.50 2015-01-06 19:20:50/GMT
Table Speed Hold'em 4
Seat 1: cobobandit (€59.18 in chips)
Seat 3: iluvducks26 (€34.88 in chips)
Seat 5: KingPush1 (€65.39 in chips)
Seat 8: BrightSunrise (€20.50 in chips) DEALER
cobobandit: Post SB €0.25
iluvducks26: Post BB €0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [HK CQ]
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €1.50
BrightSunrise: Fold
cobobandit: Raise (NF) €5.00
iluvducks26: Fold
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €9.50
cobobandit: Call €4.50
*** FLOP *** [D3 H9 C9]
cobobandit: Check
KingPush1: Bet €7.00
cobobandit: Call €7.00
*** TURN *** [SK]
cobobandit: Check
KingPush1: Bet €10.50
cobobandit: Call €10.50
*** RIVER *** [CJ]
cobobandit: Check
KingPush1: Check
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €52.50 Rake €2.00
cobobandit: Shows [S9 SA] Three of a Kind, Nines
KingPush1: Mucks [HK CQ] Two Pair, Kings and Nines
cobobandit: wins €52.50


GAME #6210728605: Texas Hold'em  NL €0.25/€0.50 2015-01-06 20:31:45/GMT
Table Speed Hold'em 4
Seat 1: KingPush1 (€50.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Fukuj1ni (€40.88 in chips)
Seat 8: JayWise78 (€50.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: PABLOOOO67 (€50.97 in chips)
PABLOOOO67: Post SB €0.25
KingPush1: Post BB €0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [CQ DQ]
Fukuj1ni: Raise (NF) €1.50
JayWise78: Fold
PABLOOOO67: Fold
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €5.00
Fukuj1ni: Call €3.50
*** FLOP *** [D5 D6 C10]
KingPush1: Bet €6.00
Fukuj1ni: Call €6.00
*** TURN *** [S9]
KingPush1: Bet €11.12
Fukuj1ni: Raise (NF) €29.00
KingPush1: Allin €28.38
Fukuj1ni: Allin €0.88
*** RIVER *** [C5]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €89.63 Rake €2.00
KingPush1: Shows [CQ DQ] Two Pair, Queens and Fives
Fukuj1ni: Shows [H9 D9] Full House, Nines full of Fives
KingPush1: wins €9.62
Fukuj1ni: wins €80.01

iPoker Network Hand #6210904316 begins at 2015/01/06  9:35 pm
Seat 8 (Salarian) is the dealer
KingPush1 posts the small blind 0.25
Kasik25 posts the big blind 0.50

This ones weird af. Thought about bluff catching but decided against it with the diamonds.
GAME #6210782166: Texas Hold'em  NL €0.25/€0.50 2015-01-06 20:51:05/GMT
Table Speed Hold'em 4
Seat 1: sciusciainer (€50.75 in chips)
Seat 5: PABLOOOO67 (€47.73 in chips)
Seat 6: KingPush1 (€51.90 in chips)
Seat 8: Salarian (€45.09 in chips) DEALER
sciusciainer: Post SB €0.25
PABLOOOO67: Post BB €0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [DJ DK]
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €1.50
Salarian: Fold
sciusciainer: Fold
PABLOOOO67: Call €1.00
*** FLOP *** [C7 D10 D3]
PABLOOOO67: Check
KingPush1: Bet €2.27
PABLOOOO67: Raise (NF) €8.50
KingPush1: Call €6.23
*** TURN *** [HJ]
PABLOOOO67: Bet €14.00
KingPush1: Call €14.00
*** RIVER *** [SJ]
PABLOOOO67: Bet €23.73
KingPush1: Fold
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €69.98 Rake €2.00
PABLOOOO67: wins €69.98

Just looking over them now, think cbet with kq is bad. and should check call with qq on the turn.

Hand1, if you are going 2 4 bet, make the raise bigger. Hand 2, ott, bet for sure and fold 2 a raise.

My ipoker and pokerstars graphs so far this month. I know there is a difference in quality in the two sites and sample size is tiny but fucking hell man.

Would have to crev it but I think folding qq here is bad if he has anything over than the nuts in this spot. 4betting larger is unnecessary in my opinion unless your using weaker ranges.

Haha the fucking turn

GAME #6215763474: Texas Hold'em  NL €0.50/€1 2015-01-09 03:18:33/GMT
Table Speed Hold'em 5
Seat 1: WoodElfZg (€96.12 in chips)
Seat 5: KingPush1 (€115.78 in chips)
Seat 6: LukasFlour (€78.40 in chips)
Seat 8: marjamirjami (€101.39 in chips) DEALER
WoodElfZg: Post SB €0.50
KingPush1: Post BB €1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [D10 S10]
LukasFlour: Fold
marjamirjami: Fold
WoodElfZg: Raise (NF) €3.00
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €9.00
WoodElfZg: Raise (NF) €90.00
KingPush1: Allin €106.78
WoodElfZg: Allin €6.12
*** FLOP *** [S9 H4 H3]
*** TURN *** [H5]
*** RIVER *** [H8]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €209.90 Rake €2.00
WoodElfZg: Shows [HA D7] Flush, Ace High
KingPush1: Shows [D10 S10] One Pair, Tens
WoodElfZg: wins €190.24
KingPush1: wins €19.66

Then spewed it
GAME #6215770140: Texas Hold'em  NL €0.50/€1 2015-01-09 03:28:40/GMT
Table Speed Hold'em 5
Seat 1: KingPush1 (€101.00 in chips)
Seat 3: SHOCK0 (€104.00 in chips)
Seat 6: cuigege (€41.50 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: zhanfagwei123 (€41.00 in chips)
zhanfagwei123: Post SB €0.50
KingPush1: Post BB €1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to KingPush1 [H4 HQ]
SHOCK0: Fold
cuigege: Fold
zhanfagwei123: Raise (NF) €2.00
KingPush1: Raise (NF) €6.00
zhanfagwei123: Call €4.00
*** FLOP *** [D6 CJ H2]
zhanfagwei123: Check
KingPush1: Bet €6.00
zhanfagwei123: Call €6.00
*** TURN *** [HA]
zhanfagwei123: Check
KingPush1: Bet €89.00
zhanfagwei123: Allin €29.00
*** RIVER *** [D7]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot €140.00 Rake €2.00
KingPush1: Shows [H4 HQ] High Card, Ace
zhanfagwei123: Shows [D4 DA] One Pair, Aces
KingPush1: wins €60.00
zhanfagwei123: wins €80.00

On the plus side I turned bottom quads v a reg on Sky earlier.

Back at 100nl tomorrow although I've got to do some "muggle" shit tomorrow. Anyone have any opinions on sleep schedules? People seem to say a lot of things on them without any of them being backed up by anything. Does it matter when you sleep if you get enough hours? Surely ten hours at 7 to 5 is better than 6 at midnight to 6?

Signed in twoplustwo for the first time in ages and saw some diary on there from mine in 2013. I was playing and losing at ipoker 5nl then and I was fucking awful. The hands I had posted were unbelievable. Hopefully I look back at this in 18 months and think the same.

With regards to the sleep schedules, I think it's going to vary from person to person.

Some people can have four hours sleep and then truck on and work 12 hours without a problem, some people still feel knackered after getting 9 hours sleep in.

From my own experience, if you're sleeping through the day when it's winter and nights draw in early, it is going to throw your body off massively. We are predisposed to being asleep when it's dark, and awake when it's light. If you try and adjust this, it's going to be a pain to get back into a regular sleeping pattern and you'll probably just have to pull a 30 hour stint of being awake to force yourself back into a normal routine.

Personally because I work nights and rarely see sunlight, if I'm not in bed soon after it gets light right now then I am not going to be able to sleep until it starts to get dark again. My body thinks I should be up and about even after being awake for 17 hours already.

I've had sleeping tablets before (the prescribed kind) and while they made me pass out within 15 minutes usually, if you managed to stay awake through the pills kicking in you'd just trip your balls off on them. Don't really recommend going down that route if you can help it.

If you're only getting 4-6 hours of sleep a night, your body will soon adjust to it anyway. While the initial phase of waking up and hating life because you're shattered will still be there, it'll wear off much faster than it usually would and you probably won't feel bad at all. I guess you just need to ask yourself if you can sacrifice a couple of hours sleep to keep to a routine, or if you'd rather be less tired but have a more wonky schedule.

Playing live for a couple of weeks solid completely fucked it. Haven't seen sunlight in a while now.

Moved back down after getting schmopped at nl100. Playing 4 tables of zoom and 3-5 tables on Sky. Graph is only of zoom where I've got a stupid win rate of 26 BB/100 at the moment.

Dip at the end is this

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/12512891_D25F9840E4

Forgot to put up my poker goals for the start of the year

Earn 10k
Be able to beat 200nl online

Long story short went on a >10 down swing as I tried to change my game a bit to win more at non-showdown. Tried to change it in play and just ended up playing terrible. Spewed off a tonne and called off some more. Turned it round a bit yesterday and then went through CREV for every position and saw I should be opening wider and folding a lot less in general. Today I genuinely felt like I played the best poker I've played in ages at times. Obviously still spewing here and there trying to get used to it, nowhere near as bad as I did before. Also, pretty much decided I'm not going to play live unless I have 30 BIs as I just keep doing my bollocks every time I go to a casino. Wish I was profitable in these games as they are a lot of fun but just sick of cashing out then losing a few 55/45s and 80/20s and end up doing everything I had in my pocket.

For live, is 30 buy ins not quite a lot? Due 2 it been so soft. It's something I need 2 get more into, have set aside 1k to play some live cash, like 5 buy ins lol am just going 2 take a low variance route built around value.

cant be that soft can it ?, or people wouldn't keep doing their bollocks

Depends where you play obviously. I think 20 is standard.

Still think 10nl online is the equivalent of 100nl live.

Yes, but because of all the fish just wanting to get it all in preflop or on the flop with 3rd pair - you want 20 buyins for variance. Live cash at low stakes is stupidly high variance :)

Really?

The times I've played (not much!) it has seemed really passive - limp limp limp limp, raise, call call call call lol.

And loads of folk buying in for the min - which isn't ideal, but should be pretty easy money.

Would think it would be low variance - in as the standard is pretty poor, and players are going 2 play face up.

Standard is very poor but it is definitely higher variance than expected from experience.

Cheers, I better just run good then:)

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/37/televised-poker/early-2000s-uk-irish-poker-documentries-1504576/

Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the people on here know a lot of people in these docs

Done a shit load in. Went on a downswing and it just hasn't stopped been playing bad and when I shouldn't be and I've paid for it.

Still have enough for 20nl, gonna start looking for jobs probably.

Hey bud,

Why not just play as and when you want to? See how it goes. By all means get a job, poker will always be there. And can be a means of just making another few ££££ when you decide to play.

 

At least I didn't have the under 24 bet on the superbowl. Can't really complain though most coaches normally take the safe and massively minus ev route of just punting and kicking a field goal on fourth down unless they have to, even if it laughs in the face of logic. Fair play Pete Carroll.

Yeah, I had to look up his name. And what?

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=63148.0

Grinded it back up at 20nl speed on ipoker to the point where I could play 50nl zoom gain. Played that until today and won a couple of buyins then got Russian PTR(http://www.whotfru.info/) which let's you see everyone's results since 2013 and looked up all the Supernova regs and saw they were all losers to break even, decided that sounded like a terrible life so now I'm back playing on Sky and probably will be until I have enough to play 200nl when I'll probably start playing live.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/12955152_2323025A2B

https://soundcloud.com/16yrold/growup

Have you considered mtts? I'd definitely be trying to forget stars for a while. It's not just about the quality of your play but about the quality of game you can find. Sometimes heading off the beaten track is very much worthwhile.

I have a lot of respect for anyone trying to grind it up at nlhe cash in 2015. Don't lose the faith, if you want it that bad and work hard enough for it you will get there.

Hey, been quietly reading this a while, I'm a complete rec at online poker, just can't seem to get on with it, the vast majority of what I play is live cash, mainly 1/1 some 1/2.  Imo you can't really put a blanket roll required amount up there.  Like has been said a lot of these are so high variance it's unreal, having said that you can sit nitting it up in them too.  It really does depend on your approach to them as to how much you need.  Playing a tight game with the right game selection it's plausible you could get away with 7-10 bi, but take an aggro approach on a table full of pure punters... You won't need a lot of run bad to kiss goodbye to 30 bi. 

Got to disagree here. I think live cash is one of the lowest variance forms out there. Played over 4000 hours lifetime probably and never downswung more than 30 buyins at 1/2 and above and never more than 22/23 at £1/1. And that's 100bb buyins when actually I buy in for 200-300bb and there's often a straddle etc.

I agree with the bolded bit. But that does not mean that in live cash games you should not expect much greater than 30x100bb downswings. It just means that Alex - great player though he is - has never yet felt the full force of variance in his career.

However, this does not mean you need to have ten gazzillion buy-ins in your roll plus 25 years living expenses in a segregated bank account in order to play! If you go broke it is not the end of the world. You are young, with no responsibilities. And plenty of time. Going broke might seem like an unimaginable disaster to you, but it is not. If it happens you can do something else for a bit, get a little money together and try again. Wash, rinse, repeat... eventually it will stick.

Get yourself in good games and play well. The money will come. Eventually.

When you do finally build up a decent bankroll - well, that is worth protecting. But a couple of grand roll is not really worth much and can be (relatively, in the great scheme of things) easily replaced. Nothing wrong with exercising aggressive bankroll management with a small roll. Just remember that when you do finally get a proper playing roll together that you then should to do everything possible to protect it.

A big roll is more worthy of protection than a small roll. Most people get this the wrong way round.

Just to add to the above... A couple of years ago I started playing in the softest NLHE game I have played in for many years; a private game running three times a week. It was the sort of game in which you would expect it to be impossible to go on much of a downswing - partly because my edge was so huge (there was not a single other competent player in this game apart from me), and also because it was full of loose passive cally wally types rather than aggressive players. This game was pretty much as high winrate/low variance as it comes. And I lost for 6 straight months.

I can't bring myself to go back through my records and work out exactly how much I lost during this downswing - but let me assure you it was way, way, way more than 30x100bbs! Never ever underestimate how bad variance can be.

Whilst I agree I've been lucky not to have a bigger downswing I really do believe that if you lose more than 3k in live 1/1 games then you're doing something wrong.

Having said that, I guess you (king push) do need more than that to play it because you are new to it so actually will be doing things wrong, so you're swings will be bigger.

Do you reckon 1k - or 5 buy in's - for 200nl is too little to say i'm going to take a punt at live cash?

And try and spin that up.

It sounds like a lot on paper £1k, especially if you equate it to wages or money earned. It's real and tangible, hand over your money get your chips and cash out for cold hard notes. Where as online the money you win or lose, it's almost not real, till your weekly/ monthly withdrawal hits your bank account.

Maybe a bit naïve. but reckon 5 buy in's is decent enough for live?

  

Did way more than this in very soft live games. It can happen.

/moan

Having said that over 3/4 years i rarely had more than a 10bi swing before that absolute nightmare few months. And i think 10 buyins is enough of a cushion to get cracking at live cash. Like Honeybadger said it's not like you won't be able to replenish that figure over time to keep shotting at it. You can build a roll relatively quickly in live cash if games are good where you play.

For shot taking purposes, if you got a bag aside that doesn't matter in the greater scheme, then crack in and have a go why not?   If you lose some then jump into 1/1.  It's plenty enough to get a feel for the games and give you an idea whether or not you want to play those games. 

I don't think 5 is quite enough long term but it's definately enough to have a shot with. 

Shot taking is what live poker is all about.  Just stick the till in and enjoy it.  You might change your life.  The vast majority of live pros have binked the world and just run ahead of the game at the start and live off that for a while and see what happens after that.  Survival bias is so under rated in live poker.  Sample sizes are never big enough for anyone to know how good they really are whatever they try to tell you.  The DTD all time cash list is pretty much proof of shot taking and it's advantages.  

Two of the best live cash pros in the uk have told you on this thread how big the downswings can be in low stakes 'soft' live cash games (if they are losing you can gtd 'bad' players will be winning) so you can go months winning even if you are an average/poor player then who knows what will happen after that. It's totally up to you.  I have seen with my own eyes a truely shocking live 1/2 player win for literally 18 months in a row in my local casino 4 years ago and delude himself into thinking he was an awesome winning gambler.  He still lives at home with his mum now even though he has had the heater of all heaters which he will never repeat again in his life.  If you don't stick it in and have a go you will never know.  If you are an average player in 2015 you have no chance making a living medium/long term playing online.  You probably have no chance live either but you can beat the variance more live than online so give up the online dream and take all your shots live.  gl

God poker is stupid!

Play Mtts mostly when I want to play but feel like I'm playing at 50%, think I've won 2 life time.


Still think you can get enough volume in online with a good rake back deal to be able to move up the stakes. People who are average are still making a living online. Definitely agree with shot taking though especially in splashy live games. Kind of wish I hadn't considering i lost about a bag playing them last month. When the shot goes well it seems worth it but when it goes bad and you're in the hole and you think I can just go online and win again and then you get in a hole there as well then it can be really demoralising. Depends how motivated you are to move down and rinse repeat I guess.

First time I've ever done a sort of schedule of mtts and bricking harder than Churchill on his days off.

2 sweats left. 30 bigs in hotter 11 and 85 in 11 dollar 12k gtd

Hope that in five hours you are referring to the above ^^ as a world-class moan it in post. GL!

Out of the bigger 11

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/13155242_16DF940163
http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/13155250_A64460863A

Do min cashes count?
http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/13156104_0ED0F8449F

Sky Poker literally couldn't have worse timing for maintenance.

This an de Villiers innings is fucking ridiculous. Never seen him bat before and never really rated him because of it but this is just something I've never seen before. It doesn't matter where you bowl as he's fucked off to point so he can clock you over square leg so then you bowl flat at the stumps and he stands still and punts you to cow corner. Who the fuck would be a bowler.

I assume you have never watched/ had an interest on cricket if you haven't rated him. He's basically BITB

[/quote]

I assume you have never watched/ had an interest on cricket if you haven't rated him. He's basically BITB
[/quote]

Yeah pretty much just watch England test matches and that's it.

Bustod out all my mtts early. Got in KK v AJs early on in the bigger 11 and lost. All downhill from there, wasn't giving it my full attention and was tilted cos of lack of connection and general illness.

Does everyone get in qq mp v utg(6max) with 40bb?

Lost 8 bis friday. Didn't play saturday and I've just grinded tournies today. Managed to win a seat for the sunday milly next week and got a few bowl cashes as well. Should I play the sunday milly or just sell it? It's only 4 bis for cash so probably just gonna play it, may as well just dream hunt.

Play it obv!
Then respond to my Skype msg...

Taken the last couple of days off but been grinding pretty hard and creving a shit tonne. Playing sunday mill and prob some other shit tomorrow. Normally play the storm the bigger 11 and then some rando stuff on sky and 888. Can anyone recommend some sunday tournies for 10-20?

Super hype for the milly anyway, biggest tournie I've ever played in and it should be a super soft field so I feel like with enough run good I can definitely get something going. Just looking at 1.2 mill up top is getting me hyped as fuck. 

Vamo

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/13471824_F60CCBA498

nah

Back to where my bankroll was at before January now been a long grind and was a serious struggle at 50nl at first. Don't think much of it was to do with how was I was playing but more the mental side really struggled to accept losing 600 quid was standard and often spewed off even more because of it. I was also scared of some of the better regs (tmt_the, ludacris, aj rockets) and Im happy to play all but one of them heads up nowadays.

That's as long as they don't button me. One reg who plays similar times as I do has done some questionable shit in my eyes but he claims his innocence so I'll try to male the story as balanced as possible. Tables breaking he's sitting on my left 3rd player leaves who's fun goes hu he opens button I 3bet he 4bets I fold he leaves. I ask him about it and accuse him of buttoning he says he's playing 12 tables and doesn't play hu v me. The day before this he'd abused me for not playing hu with him when table had broken. No hands were played hu. I understand what he's saying and thought I'd have been b/e at the time v him so let it go.

Today I was sat at 2 hu tables and some 6max. He sits me hu buys in for 80bigs and stacks me first hand trips over trips then says sorry didn't realise it was you and leaves. He claims he thought he was sitting another reg hu, he was sat at a different hu table fwiw. After he left he didn't sit the other reg just went and played 6max where I told him to fuck himself. Which was probably unnecessary but it felt needed at the time. Thoughts? Seems weird for him to do it twice in two days he said why would he play me it makes no sense for him to but even if he has by accident should he not just fold button or play for a bit longer after stacking me especially when its a cooler? He claimed he would have stayed if I had been bad beaten but that seems counter intuitive if he's leaving after a cooler.

It seems a bit nitty/buttoning to me. I wouldn't play him heads up again.

Although I never abuse players who have done it to me. It's just part of the game.

Yeah, I really need to learn to stop being annoyed by these things.

Went off a bit in the chat yesterday, need to stop doing that too. Always ends negatively.

Had a big week last week where I won over 20 Bis and now really struggling for motivation this week. Been ill and that but still not done enough work on and off the tables. Get way too complacent and just like the thought of locking up a decent month when I really should be pushing on to set myself up to play .5/1 next month.

Set myself a challenge to win 10 BIs by the end of the month, just to keep me grinding, will screen shot a pic of my balance in here in a bit and then will do one at the end of the month.

Interesting hand the other day, utg opened, I 3bet, mp calls , button shoves aa, utg shoves jj, I fold qq, mp calls with kk. Not sure what the chances of jj-aa being dealt in a row like that are but knew the chances of me binking the q on the flop were over 100% after I folded. Board ran out qxxxx.

Balance now

Good luck with your monthly target, I'm sure your'll get there. Are you only playing cash on sky poker? Or mixing some of the comps in as well?

cheers man. Rarely play comps just hu and 6max cash.

Had a hand at DTD, 6 players, AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 99 and 72o.
Three way all in between 99 (shoved first) KK and AA
Ran out xxJQQ

Grim.

Bricked a load of tournies on sunday when I shouldn't really have been playing.

Went and played live(.5/.5) tonight just to break up the online grind a bit and ran like fire. didn't really make mistakes that I know of but here are some of the hands anyway.

Btn opens for 1.5, I 3bet Qjo from SB, he calls.
Qttr I x/c
brick turn, x/c
brick river, x/f
Would x/back a lot better stuff here on the flop, Qt, weak tx, qq so think this is fine

second notable hand
open 75ss on btn 4 handed after a straddle to 3
769r flop
xx
7
he bets 6 I call
3 river
he bets 12 I think about shoving, think its bad and call, he has t8

third
straddle from player on my right, I open to 3 with aa, everyone calls
qtxhh
I bet 10 into 15, call call, fold fold
5x turn I shove, reshove call
river 6
I don't want to turn it over as I know I've lost but noone does either, button has kthh, sb has t5

fourth
j9hh in mp open to 1.5
call, call, call, fold
qhxxh
i bet 4 button raise to 6.5, floor makes it 8 everyone folds, I call
x turn
I donk 15 he calls
river ah
I shove, he snaps with k5hh
gg

Dunno if aa is a standard get in in the hand. Think it's the bottom of my range and definitely wouldn't do it with any qx but maybe I should live.

Didn't work hard enough or put in enough volume to get it done. No excuses really. Will be getting 450 in rakeback this month though which is definitely my highest ever on Sky. Gonna shot 100nl when I reach 2500, don't think it will be massively different as most of the regs seem to play both.

Earnt more than expected from rakeback and felt like I was beating .25/.50 for a lot so moved up. Up about 3 buy ins so far games are still good from what I can tell playing with a few screen names that I recognise which is weird, such as scotty77 and jakally. I don't feel comfortable there at all yet. Feel like I'm getting judged by the regs for my play and stuff and ,as i definitely take different lines to a lot of people, when I really shouldn't give a shit and should just focus on what I'm doing as that's when I play best. Noone seems to start tables either which is fucking annoying but I guess people are just playing on a load of sites so it doesn't matter to them.

What year of University are you in? (I think its final but not 100%)

I know a little of what Dave has told you and I would echo his own thoughts regarding backing. Grinding it up with your own sweat and blood is definitely the way forward imo. Backing has its place in certain games but I certainly think you want control of your own destiny and action as much as possible.

Do you still want to go pro?

Do you do any work on the mental side of poker? You seem to have quite a good understanding of ranges and how poker should be played but some of your posts hint at mental frustrations and ultimately these are extremely costly. Fixing all these sorts of leaks now is absolutely crucial. Each tweak in this area can save hard earnt cash as well as earning you some more so its definitely worth considering. I'm a  big fan of Tommy Angelos stuff for the philosophy side and I've always found his musings to be entertaining as well as educational so I'd recommend his work as well as the more standard Mental Game of Poker books 1/2 by Jared Tendler with a contribution from blondes very own DaveShoelace. (Sorry if I've played your part down Mr.Shoelace, perhaps it should be co-authorship) 

Have you ever experimented with any of the other games? It might not be as worthwhile now when your passion for NLHE is so high but some of the concepts will help develop your all round knowledge and can help when games throw up weird situations. Keep up the good work!

Finished uni and got a Desmond. Did better in my final year than all the previous ones. Currently just playing poker as a source of income. Would kind of like to be backed in games I don't normally play( live mtts and cash and online mtts) but don't want to be for my normal games.

Did a lot of work on mental game stuff earlier on but don't anymore should really start again. Suffer a lot from mistake tilt I'm a bit of a perfectionist which many wouldn't believe if they met me but any small mistake with my range that ends in a loss I can find it really hard to recover from in session especially if I'm not getting much volume. See where your coming from with the negativity though after reading back through. think I just post when I feel like I need help with poker rather than when everything is going well. Gonna try and get hold of mental game 2 cheers for the reminder.

Played like a 2000 hands of plo and a 1000 of deuce to 7. Think I'm terrible at both to be honest. Would want to get some sort of coaching and get all the software to try and learn the games properly before playing them for any sort of decent money. Its just not worth it for me at the moment.

Can I ask why that is, please, & why does it annoy you so?

The question is semi rhetorical, but I'm still curious as to your reasoning, & why it appears to make you so cross.

I'm not wearing my Next Door hat here, I'm just interested in the psychology of poker players.   

TIA, & well done on making a good few bob.

When I play poker I play. Generally I'll reg away with mtts then add in some cash games at the end when my table count gets low depending on whether I fancy watching tv or if there is any action. Sometimes I'll be in the mood for some headsup action and try and sit a few people at whatever stake I want to play at that time but its always a major hassle to get action from anyone.

 I imagine King's angst at the lack of table starting is just because he doesn't want to wait around to play. I have no idea how my friends who only play heads up cope just sitting around and waiting for action. I imagine its easier than it sounds due to the hourly these guys can achieve, some of my friends sit on 6-10 sites across multiple stakes and games just sitting and waiting. Sometimes on sites people are reluctant to play another reg to start off a game, in which cash the lobbys often have 3 full tables and lets say 4 tables with one person sitting on them. If noone is willing to try and get a 6 handed game going by starting off headsup with a reg then nothing happens.

How many hours a week do you play/study at the moment King?

I'm in the Desmond club too ^.^

I may have misread him, but I never got the impression he was talking about HU, I assumed he was referring to full ring, which, in the case of Next Door, is 6 Max. I get the HU thing, of course.  

I'm in the failed my O-Levels club. ^^

Would say I play 35-40 hours a week and study 5-10 hours. Depends on a lot of things though obviously and I'm guessing as Sky doesn't allow tracking software.

 Annoyance at table starting is just lack of tables. I normally like to play 8 tables of 6 max and then slightly less if I'm playing hu. Only seems to be 4 or 5 tables at any one time going of .5/1 which means I've started playing the deep .25/.5 tables where people min raise and I think they've limped and I start min raising 25s on the button v utg opens. I genuinely just find it strange too, if I see someone I don't know start tables I auto sit them and they are usually bad, I would have thought most .5/1 regs would do the same to me but everyone seems to just wait until I've started playing at least 2 people and then they all join. Maybe they are just looking after their bottom line a lot more than I'm used to. But if the fun players don't want to play hu and want to play, and they all want to do this instantly, then surely the regs should take a slightly -ev situation to allow a more +ev one? It's definitely down to there being less players in the player pool as well, which will realistically mean I'm going to have to start playing on other sites as well unless I move back down. If anyone has any recommendations on this I'm open to suggestions. May also just move to playing hu on other sites as well and just play the 6max games that run on sky as don't think anywhere else has better games. Will have to think about that a lot though as it's gonna take about 50 hours of work off the tables at least for me to be happy just playing hu.

Cheers for all the support.

Good luck with the poker now that you've finished uni.

It'll be a good way of making money until such times as you decide what to do in the future poker or otherwise.

Recommendations for sites to play .5/1 on? Not enough tables on Sky. Currently playing 100z but I'm well aware these games are pretty tough

I recommend the stars 50/1 ring games. Zoom is alot tougher than these. The PLO is soft at this level IMO too.

Ipoker/Microgaming probably decent bets.

games are good rakeback is shit


yeah just need betvictor to accept my money then I'm gonna try ongame

Just been on the phone to them. Turns out they allow you to deposit your net worth onto the gambling site part but not onto the poker side

Played a bit on Pokerstars 100z and normals and the regs are so much better than me. Need to do a load of work but struggling to find the time at the moment due to other stuff going on. Anyway gonna be playing a few mtts including sunday storm so hit me up if you wanna swap some.

On a big downswing don't think I've madE money since about ten days ago, a lot of these days I haven't played admittedly but yeah not winning all ins and not playing my a game isn't a good combination. I'm back grinding on sky .25/.5 lost a bit but I'm extremely confident that if I play my strategy to a decent level and for long enough I'll be back at .5/1 in no time.

Don't think it's any surprise to me this down swing happened though. Feel like I need to be minimum 90% doing poker to be successful at it maybe it'd be different if I was just playing the same games and not moving up or playing something where players are consistently bad but the variance in those sortS of games makes it pretty bad to make a living off in my situation to be honest.

As they say on 2 months 2 million. LOCKDOWN.

No two ways about it, I've had a shit month poker wise. I wasn't enjoying playing, mainly because I was constantly losing and I wasn't enjoying studying, mainly because most of the stuff I was looking seemed just top of value range v middle of value range, or stop over bluffing like a nutter v people who don't fold against you anymore.

Without bluffing though, poker for me is pretty boring, folding AK preflop and stuff just seems painful to me. The more and more I studied 6max though the more I realised I should tighten up, I wasn't a fan of this thought. Then I started watching the heads up challenge of man v machine on twitch with the best hu players in the world. Most of them seemed to be crushing the bot and some of them seemed to accidentally leave their mics switched on when they talked strat. All I'm going to be playing now is HU. When I play I feel exactly how I used to feel about 6max. I can play 5 hours straight without eating and whilst desperately holding in a piss until your next button, although poker is money if you don't feel like this what's the fucking point.

Been playing the hu zoom game on stars whilst waiting for people to sit me on Sky and trying to study as much as I can. Whilst I was doing this I got a message for Stars saying I'll be banned if I keep crEV open then I had to send an email saying I won't do it again. Weird as think it would be hard to implement any strategy other than specific spots by keeping it open but there you go.

Gonna smash it this month and end up at nl100 again fairly soon I reckon.

Goals
study 100 hours

Stupidly drunk bet pacquiao last night. Never betting against mayweather again in my life. Not fun to watch but he's the equivalent of Chelsea with Mikel and matic as your centre mids, you just can't get anywhere near em.

Didn't play yesterday but had really vivid dreams about playing poker. Remember isildur saying he has these after he's played a lot of hands and they turn into nightmares when he's been on a downswing. Anyone else get them? Mine was just playing online playing a shit load of heads up hands and sweating turns and that. Also first time I didn't play any mtts on a Sunday for a while this is partly because I was too hungover too or asleep but I normally force myself to play a few. Glad I didn't though saw someone say mtts were a bit like ringing your ex which is definitely something I agree with.

Oh fuck

GET IN THERE.

Just gave myself a shitload of breathing room. Glad I can now finally get my haircut.

Nice.... Now go and get a shave!

Playing terrible, running terrible and also having a lot of real life stuff to pay off which I hadnt foreseen has meant I'm back at 10nl.

Got really depressed about it and thought about giving up or just vamoing it all on something stupid but rationality/stupidity/stubbornness prevailed.
Been grinding crev for about 8 hours today and also reading jandas book and just changing loads of stuff.

In retrospect I got disgustingly lazy and arrogant and thought I could just rely on the golden goose to just keep laying them whenever I felt like it. Gonna keep working hard on my game and then rick trigg this shit back up to 100nl. Or its gg.

Right then, I'm back to the very start and currently grinding 2z 6max. Gonna start updating this more frequently as it doesn't seem like that much of a coincidence between me stopping writing this diary and starting to getting drunk and me starting to lose my bankroll either by spending it or losing it. Starting from now then I'm going to be updating this every day I play and also put up more graphs and shit.

Been playing a lot less frequently but at a lot higher quality. After to speaking to lil Dave he basically said to just be as aggro with my bankroll as possible whilst still feeling comfortable and that's what I've done. So I have been playing much fewer tables whilst paying much more attention. I can feel the confidence going back into my game again which is always good. Also got myself a new girlfriend which is always a decent motivation for making money. I've been playing a lot more sport as well. Genuinely feel like it's just a matter of putting in the hours now.

Played on friday and managed to find aa when utg had qq and mp had kk. With the help of that and some other pots I'm now having some shots at 30nl. Plan is to get the bankroll to 500 by the end of the month without rakeback. I've been way too tired to play that much yesterday and today and at this point I'd rather not play than not play well and concentrated. Gonna look through a few hands tomorrow then get at least 4 days grinding in the next week.

Do you not feel that you're playing under-rolled for 30nl?

I'm a bit of a BR nit, and even on 888 I wouldn't play 30nl without 25 buyins or more in the account. If you're on more reg-heavy sites like Sky, I would probably want £1k behind or so before I played 30NL.

You don't need to try and force your way up the limits, it'll all come in time. I've had to drop down limits a few times to rebuild, and the first couple of times I was more focused on getting back to playing the stakes I was used to rather than playing lower and trying to fix the leaks that caused me to drop buyins. No shame in grinding 10NL if in 6 weeks you'll be a more well rounded player and better equipped to attack the next limit.

Hate to reignite the old debate, but are you positive the juice is still worth the squeeze? You've worked really, really hard by the sounds of it definitely cannot begrudge you that, and i want you to come through but it's just so difficult to make it as a professional poker player from scratch nowadays and the idea of shot-taking 30nl at this stage sounds a bit grim. Can't imagine your intelligence and work ethic won't be far more productive to you in another field that also wouldn't result in ever increasing time out of your cv and and usually no acknowledged transferable skills. It's not a disaster now ofc but worth thinking ahead a bit if you want to discuss that.

It's a long road to being a pro starting at 30nl. I did it 7-8 years ago and people said it was tough then. Guess you could still do it, take a lot of work though.

I'd play a few sites and only the best tables. Rake is a killer at lowstakes, especially now with RB and good bonuses hard to come by!

Definitely under rolled, not sure it matters too much though as I'm trying to have the biggest hourly and as long as I'm happy to move down I should be fine. Wouldn't call Sky a reg heavy site either by any stretch of the imagination. As far as fixing leaks goes I study and use crev a lot which I think is much more effectove than playing. Also, have you gotta skype if you want to talk over some hands?


I understand this and I may have to put it on the back burner in the near future. I still want it though, bad.


Done it before, well aware it's no walk in the park. Agree about the rake that's why I'm shotting at higher stakes than most recommend.

Lost a couple of buy ins at 20nl yesterday. One really standard spot where I make the second nut flush on the river and he makes the nut one. The other hand was more interesting as I bluff shove over a bet on the river, I'll probably put it up on the analysis forum. May have been the nut hand I hand I have in my range to do it with but judging by hwt he turned up with I should have just folded. Can't be that bad though. Up a bit so far today.

I was wondering what everyone does when they grind online, do they watch shit? Do they listen to music/podcasts? Or just play?

Why don't you look at getting staked for cash games, if moneys tight in the real world?

100% agree with you on that.

Got up to 240 then back down to 180. Can't win at 30nl for some reason, don't think it's the competition so either it's mental or just variance maybe a bit of both. Weird though considering how I've been doing at 20nl but obviously not putting in a shit load of hands 2 tabling. Gonna look over some spots tomorrow and then hopefully grind hard. Problem with today was playing an extra session which I've just finished really need to learn the difference between when I should play and when I want to play.

Most people seem to think it's not worth it at the micros.

Up to 250, gained a bit at the start of the day and then lost a buy in and a half to a guy after kt lost to at on ttxx board after I 3bet utg and he called from the small blind. Then it came kxxss he check called xx s turn and he lead out on k river not sure I can do anything but call with kq here, he had aqss. Started going on tilt after these, notice I start calling rivers way too light and bet, raise and call a lot higher frequency and fold at a much lower one. It's weird that you can see all these subtle nuances which go unnoticed even if they aren't that subtle when you multi table.

Had a break and dinner and watched sons of anarchy. Felt much better and then started playing again and ran up one stack to 90 and one to 60 at the 20nl tables to get the BR to 250. Not playing tomorrow but will grind sunday, which I may punt in some tourneys, and I'll play a full day monday too.

Just read this. STOP right now.

Delete crev off your computer. Don't load it up until you get to 200nl. Small stakes is all about playing exploitatiely. Punish the fish and don't pay off the bits. You don't need to worry about protecting your range or doing this that or the other with your range.

It's a very simple game, make good hands and value bet and fold if somebody raises you on the turn or river and you have less than a set.

It isn't.

Patrick is 100% correct.

You are over-thinking it at these levels.

It's no good applying Level 4 thinking to Level One players.

People laugh at nitty play, no street cred & all that, but if you want to beat these levels, just play basic ABC.

Tilting? A terrible, terrible, leak. Read "The Mental Game of Poker" & it'll cure you, as it has cured thousands of others. Tilt is a really, really bad weakness.

Good luck.

This, probably the biggest leak in micro stakes poker is calling too many rivers. I know it feels exploitable, and I know it's not GTO, but they just have it like almost every time, it is not going to show a profit to call with bluff catchers vs the vast majority of the player pool. Yes, you want to be good at all the game theory stuff and there's no reason why you shouldn't, but at the micros use that knowledge to exploit people.

Would add ditto for bluffing river's too. Unless you have decent notes suggesting they will fold, they just call so much it becomes expensive

KEEP
IT
SIMPLE

:-)

Can be such an easy game sometimes

Up to 270 was up a lot more but then lost JJ v aa bvb. Not sure i should delete crev, its good for exploits and I don't understand how it can hinder your play, I understand that most people are very exploitable though.
Agree with this a lot.

Not sure about this think most "regs" understand the first part and so adjust to that. Pretty sure most overfold rivers.

Imo the main reason they're still at the micro stakes is because they haven't learnt that yet.

Not sure which part you mean now mate

Sorry, bit of a quoting fail, meant that bit. Basically I don't think the regs do adjust properly, and the ones that do aren't gonna be playing micro stakes for long.

Up to 440, started playing some 50nl and lost 2 BIs, first buy in was from bad play and was down to me just not being fully concentrated at the start of my session. the second buy in was jacks vs aces in a 4bet pot, which seems fairly unavoidable. Now at 340.

Getting jacks in pre on sky in most circumstances is usually a bad idea, hardly anyone bluffs enough or is ever tens for value. An example of an exploitative adjustment to make when playing vs most of the players on there.

only get it in v the button or the blinds

Up to 440 but withdrew 20 as not playing for a couple of days and going to see the trouble and strife. Playing really well at the moment, still need to work and get more comfortable about how my cbet flop range looks though.

Gonna shot 50nl when I get back, also be interesting to see how much I get in rakeback this month since I was getting comfortably 250/300 mass tabling.

Up to 620. Can't remember winning any amazing well played pots just people calling off too light or bluffing too wide when I have something at the top of my calling range or raising range. Did manage to run aces into k3o on 8233 when he opened then called in the co. Fair to say I didn't leave when me and him were the only ones left at the table.

KingPush    Small blind       £0.25    £0.25    £94.06
billytheki    Big blind       £0.50    £0.75    £55.61
     Your hole cards   
2
3
          
KingPush    Raise       £1.00    £1.75    £93.06
billytheki    Call       £0.75    £2.50    £54.86
Flop
         
5
10
6
          
billytheki    Bet       £2.00    £4.50    £52.86
KingPush    Raise       £6.88    £11.38    £86.18
billytheki    Call       £4.88    £16.26    £47.98
Turn
         
4
          
billytheki    Bet       £7.00    £23.26    £40.98
KingPush    Call       £7.00    £30.26    £79.18
River
         
J
          
billytheki    All-in       £40.98    £71.24    £0.00
KingPush    Call       £40.98    £112.22    £38.20
KingPush    Show   
2
3
billytheki    Show   
6
A
KingPush    Win    Straight to the 6    £111.22       £149.42

People overbet bluffing at 50nl, I told you it happened! Even if it is once in a blue moon.

Annoyingly sky are no longer doing rakeback deals with affiliates so as long as I can maintain some sort of decent win rate somewhere it no longer makes sense for me to play there.

Now playing on party. Never played on it before but software seems decent and it feels strange to have a HUD back. Lost half a buy in yesterday but made some mistakes and also went on a big zoom/rush/? Binge. I know my win rate will never be massive in those games but holy shit they are too fucking fun. Currently playing 100nl but will drop down when I need to pay my rent unless I go on a run.

now we're talking!!

All thanks to you mate, might still be grinding .05/.10p otherwise

God please win!!!

You ready with a staking deal and a mattress from a futon in your office if it goes wrong?

do as I say...not as I do ;)

When's the world cup?

Won a couple of buy ins today. Got lucky for both of my big pots. Aa v 98 and a7(?) On 98x came t then t. And had kk v 77 on kx7 when I checked flop and then he xd turn but we still managed to get it all in.

3 things I've learned while doing this spin up. I fucking love winning at poker, I love making what I know or at least think is the right play and I hate not knowing what the right play is. Girlfriend's gone back to Ireland for a week so gonna put in the hours and see if we can get to 200nl by the end of next week.

Worst I've played for a while. Just wasn't feeling it all day, probably something to do with the shit breakfast I had. Also did some really theoretical stuff when I woke up and then went in to play. Don't think this is a good idea as I can't really concentrate on playing in the moment as I'm over thinking everything and making massive changes to my game plan which is never a good idea. Think poker is  large amount of having the confidence to execute your game plan even if theoretically it could be -EV, how many times do we know we should shove or not better and yet still do the opposite? Also set myself a monetary goal for the day which in retrospect was a fairly stupid idea.

Withdrew and paid the rent and can still just about play 100nl, need to play a lot better than I did today though to stay there.

 rotflmfao

What did you have??? :D

I played you around a month ago at 2p4p, it's some going to be eyeing up 200nl this quickly.

gl.

My breakfast for the last month has been two 35p energy drinks and some jaffa cakes.

You'd struggle to do worse than me on that front. Can anyone really be arsed to knock up an omelette at 7am though? I have to use insane amounts of willpower to get the toaster out.

A shortbread footballer. Gl at 2p/4p. What was your screen name?


Yeah not gonna beat that. Although if you have enough Jaffa cakes the orange bit should probably count as one of your 5 a day, right?

It's not the cooking, it's the bloody washing up afterwards that's a pain in the ass  ;D ;D

Been going well online recently. Computer broke down yesterday though and then it took 3 hours to get windows 10. I hadn't played all day and so I ventured into a poker room for the first time in a while. Cliffs; I still run terribly in a casino, I still don't really get live poker, I sold my lighter for a tenner.

Not sure if I'm gonna be playing that much over the weekend gonna take a few punts over the football though. Probably on villa and Charlton. Shame van gaal has turned united into such a turgid team. Even though I hated Ferguson at least his sides were entertaining.

Decent day lads

Looks good mate. Please make any punts miniscule. You know how hard it is to get it. Got to do your best to hold onto it.

Did 8 quid on villa, nothing major. Punted a bit on alcohol/food instead though but you've got to enjoy it otherwise what's the point?

Played badly yesterday was up a bit and then lost this hand
***** Hand History for Game 14727661012 *****
$0.50/$1 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 17, 18:50:58 BST 2015
Table Kamyshin (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6/6
Seat 3: BassBCN83 ( $49 USD )
Seat 6: King_Push1 ( $117.04 USD )
Seat 4: PhoenixTom ( $118 USD )
Seat 5: SoplyBoy_ ( $100 USD )
Seat 2: Uchiha sasuke ( $41 USD )
Seat 1: collecor ( $137.67 USD )
BassBCN83 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
PhoenixTom posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to King_Push1 [  Jh Jc ]
SoplyBoy_ folds
King_Push1 raises [$3 USD]
collecor calls [$3 USD]
Uchiha sasuke folds
BassBCN83 folds
PhoenixTom folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ As, Js, 8d ]
King_Push1 checks
collecor bets [$4 USD]
King_Push1 raises [$14.34 USD]
collecor calls [$10.34 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
King_Push1 bets [$25.78 USD]
collecor calls [$25.78 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
King_Push1 checks
collecor bets [$39 USD]
King_Push1 calls [$39 USD]
collecor shows [ Ks, Ts ]a flush, Ace high.
King_Push1 doesn't show [ Jh, Jc ]three of a kind, Jacks.
collecor wins $162.74 USD from the main pot with a flush, Ace high.

Even though everything completes don't think I can fold, may even be a shove on the river.

Felt like my brain was working at half speed. Lack of sleep, too much alcohol, no real exercise all probably contributed. Only lost a buy in but just didn't feel right and was playing on through it which is always a terrible idea.

Went well today, gonna be shotting 1/2 tomorrow, possibly late tonight. Trying not to over think it. Never played it before online but played it a few times live so it may take a bit of time getting used to it.

***** Hand History for Game 14729587892 *****
$0.50/$1 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 18, 21:17:14 BST 2015
Table Gedser  (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6/6
Seat 2: Captain2011 ( $53.96 USD )
Seat 1: DonQuijotest ( $71.77 USD )
Seat 6: GoboRock ( $103.90 USD )
Seat 4: King_Push1 ( $105.67 USD )
Seat 3: MrArtek ( $137.33 USD )
Seat 5: delpitapita ( $100 USD )
King_Push1 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
delpitapita posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to King_Push1 [  6d 7d ]
GoboRock folds
DonQuijotest folds
Captain2011 folds
MrArtek folds
King_Push1 raises [$1.50 USD]
delpitapita calls [$1 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, 5c, 9h ]
King_Push1 bets [$2.85 USD]
delpitapita calls [$2.85 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Td ]
King_Push1 bets [$12 USD]
delpitapita calls [$12 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
King_Push1 bets [$32.02 USD]
delpitapita folds
King_Push1 does not show cards.
King_Push1 wins $64.04 USD


***** Hand History for Game 14729588659 *****
$0.50/$1 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 18, 21:17:37 BST 2015
Table Augusta (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6/6
Seat 4: AndrewHvorov ( $100 USD )
Seat 3: John_Matos ( $63.75 USD )
Seat 2: King_Push1 ( $139.88 USD )
Seat 6: MrArtek ( $104.92 USD )
Seat 5: delpitapita ( $100 USD )
Seat 1: mdqueen ( $100 USD )
delpitapita posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
MrArtek posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to King_Push1 [  Js Jc ]
King_Push1 raises [$3 USD]
John_Matos folds
AndrewHvorov folds
delpitapita raises [$8.50 USD]
MrArtek folds
King_Push1 calls [$6 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, Jd, Kd ]
delpitapita bets [$9.02 USD]
King_Push1 raises [$23 USD]
delpitapita calls [$13.98 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
delpitapita checks
King_Push1 checks
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
delpitapita will be using their time bank for this hand.
delpitapita is all-In  [$68 USD]
King_Push1 calls [$68 USD]
delpitapita shows [ As, Kc ]three of a kind, Kings.
King_Push1 shows [ Js, Jc ]a full house, Jacks full of Kings.
King_Push1 wins $198 USD from the main pot with a full house, Jacks full of Kings.

***** Hand History for Game 14729590354 *****
$0.50/$1 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 18, 21:18:14 BST 2015
Table Gedser  (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6/6
Seat 2: Captain2011 ( $53.96 USD )
Seat 1: DonQuijotest ( $71.77 USD )
Seat 6: GoboRock ( $103.90 USD )
Seat 4: King_Push1 ( $120.84 USD )
Seat 3: MrArtek ( $137.33 USD )
Seat 5: delpitapita ( $100 USD )
delpitapita posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
GoboRock posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to King_Push1 [  Jh Qh ]
DonQuijotest folds
Captain2011 folds
MrArtek folds
King_Push1 raises [$2 USD]
delpitapita raises [$7.50 USD]
GoboRock folds
King_Push1 calls [$6 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jc, Qd, Ah ]
delpitapita checks
King_Push1 bets [$11 USD]
delpitapita will be using their time bank for this hand.
delpitapita folds
King_Push1 does not show cards.
King_Push1 wins $27.15 USD

Look at the times of these, poor barstard.