Operation: $$ accumulation

no more emo rant
another day, another grind, blah blah blah poker.

lolpoker month is going just fine
can't seem to win flips mid-late stages of tourneys, but that's probably cos i suck at tourneys
the world is bigger than we imagine, so is music. Beer is tasty, life is tastier.
YouTube - Drifting - Salmonella Dub

month is a volume fail, a winrate ok I guess, a MTT lol (+$300 or so), and a bonus clearing hi-5! Won't finish clearing the $5k this month, but getting closer day by day. And then i'll have another $3-4k worth of bonuses available. Fun times.

that winrate is only "ok i guess"? boy do i suck at poker

Hey Daven. I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm a huge fan of your nomadic lifestyle. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what I said the first time we spoke. I truly respect that you go out there and live the way you want. I've recently been trying to do exactly the same.

With that, good luck in poker. Own it so you can continue to live on your terms.

cheers boog.

yesterday was a bit of a running milestone. I talked to a reasonably serious runner about what would be a good door-to-door time for a circuit I run (@mark if you read this = KEC on stuart -> moana pool -> queens drive -> ross creek reservoir -> laps of reservoir -> back the same way). He figured 1hr 10 would be solid. I smashed myself and came in at 58mins. Absolutely stoked with how my body responded between the 30 and 45 minute marks, although I still have a lot of work to do on post-hitting-the-wall. I'll head out for the first 2hr run of this training kick sometime in the next week, base is getting good so it's time to mix long runs in with some speed/interval work. Psyched.

poker is just fine. Made my monthly withdrawal and promptly lost a few buyins. Bankroll is still well north of where it was at the start of the month. I'm getting into some silly wars, last 10k hands I'm 54% fold to 3b, 28% 4b and it's time to calm that shit down some. I think I've made my point by now. It seems that I'm going to be clearing FTP bonuses forever. I'm getting through the $5k black card bonus, by the time i clear it I'll have two $600 ironman medal bonuses to clear, then the midyear $600 ironman bonus, and by then i'll have close to enough FTPs to get another $5k black card bonus. And so it continues. I'm mixing in a few MTTs lately, still haven't had a decent score but I'm getting slowly better - I need to do a bit of work on bet/shove spots in mid-game and on late game calling ranges. Maybe time to run a bunch of turbo sngs.

life's good. It's Saturday morning. It's raining outside. Maybe it's time to grind. 60k hands so far this month. My volume is laughable.

A circus freak friend sent me a cool link of some acrobalance madness, i'm impressed
https://www.facebook.com/video/video...42126&comments

no no no no no no.
dont get the iron man medal bonuses get the FTP pts with your medals.

Originally Posted by bikes

no no no no no no.
dont get the iron man medal bonuses get the FTP pts with your medals.

cheers for the heads up! I haven't bought an ironman bonus this year and haven't done the math on which is best (medals -> FTPs -> black card bonus vs ironman medal bonuses) - time to do that now!

edit: maths is easy. Bikes is right. Better to be converting medals to FTPs and using them to buy black card bonuses

Cheers for sharing that Bikes. Now all i have to do is figure out whether to use my FTP Academy points direct for tourney entries etc, or to convert them to FTP points for $$. FTP academy is probably worth a few dollars an hour if you're not already doing those challenges.

Month is drawing to a close. I'm playing better poker than I have before. I watched most of Haseeb Qureshi's vids during the last week (cheers to the suited aces blog for the heads up), and a few others that had the occasional gem. I have been running a few filters over HEM, and will continue doing so as these adjustments to my game get firmed up.

and $$ for the month so far. I'm up just under $2k at the tables. A few hundred from MTT fun. Close to another $1k from rakeback/bonus. I think that's it? not sure. 65hrs of poker for March to date. Today it's raining hard and should be a huge poker day. But my girlfriend has other ideas, and my car - so it's on my bike to ride out to the beach right now I suppose. It looks as though it could be a day off. Tomorrow I grind.

i'm getting good at playing one stake lower than usual if I feel there is a risk of being incapable of a-game. It's nice to have most of my swing sessions at lower stakes and my low variance winning sessions at higher stakes. Nice in many ways. As an example, the 4bi drop at the end is at 25nl, hungover - the session was net around even-ish.

Here's a March graph. Compare it to muzz's recent effort (100k hands in 2 weeks, +$2800 at the same stakes) and it's not that impressive for someone with heaps of time available to grind. But I'm not in the least bit unhappy with it either, well, I could take out some of those steep descents and make the upslope a little steeper - but it's far from awful!!

nh

Originally Posted by daven

i'm getting good at playing one stake lower than usual if I feel there is a risk of being incapable of a-game. It's nice to have most of my swing sessions at lower stakes and my low variance winning sessions at higher stakes.

now why didn't i ever think to do that? thanks for sharing.

today was the worst death run i've had in ages - by the end i was starting to feel uncomfortable getting it in pre with AA, flopping middle set on dry boards, raising runner runner flushes on unpaired boards, etc. All cos i'd spent all day learning that each of these things cost a bunch of money. So a short break later i fired up another grind, i mixed in a few tables of the hundies again to try and win it back. Turns out that those regs don't respect my raises either, but i was nit by then - good to run death at 50 and hot at 100 imo. Shame i played 6k at 50, and 1k at 100.

Enough moaning, a poker thoughts update:

I've been playing a lot of HU while starting tables with the winningest reg at 50nl. It has been good for my game, i'm sure, although apparently terrible for his:

Originally Posted by some 2p2 reg

Hey Man,
Wanted to explain why I wont play you hu. To be honest I dont feel like I have an edge playing you and therefore the variance just isnt worth it for me at the minute. My game sucks right now and wI feel my game is regressing and I need to be able to work on my game fundamentally and when we play hu it takes too much of my focus away from all of my other games.

it's a shame, cos i've been taking huge advantage by sitting at all his full tables while knowing the HU tables were taking all his focus. Oh well, it was profitable while it lasted.

Another reg surprised me by deciding to mix it up HU later on, but that only lasted a few buyins. I'm going to need to do a review of that match as he called a lot of my bluffs and i was net losing at showdown vs him yet somehow ended up quite a way ahead - pretty sure i've learned something from that madness. He started moaning about too many tables etc, i pointed out i was playing 12 others, 4 of which were short. He stopped moaning.

oh, and a funny hand played out while typing, the fold surprised me some. Villain makes an expert fold getting 5:1 NH sir.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($38.70)
MP2 ($53.60)
Hero (MP3) ($72.35)
CO ($62.10)
Button ($50)
SB ($100.40)
BB ($73.70)
UTG ($50)
UTG+1 ($178.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with xx
4 folds, Hero bets $1.75, 2 folds, SB calls $1.50, BB calls $1.25

Flop: ($5.25) 3, 3, 7 (3 players)
SB bets $5.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $5.25

Turn: ($15.75) A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11, SB calls $11

River: ($37.75) 10 (2 players)
SB bets $32, Hero raises to $54.35 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: $101.75 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero didn't show
Outcome: Hero won $98.75

something i haven't read yet, posting it here so i don't forget
500th post: Mental Game/Poker Mindset Manifesto + graphs + gambling short story (way, way tl;dr - Poker Beats Brags and Variance

77? AA?

poker sometimes makes me laugh - all hands from the same session obviously. 7k hands. Solid volume. Cleared some bonus. Lost some $$.
here's a cool climbing vid from a friend of mine, probably a better use of time than scrolling through the pile of hand histories below
Homage on Vimeo

session started out all standard spots lol-o-beats and coolers

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($50)
MP2 ($32)
MP3 ($56.20)
CO ($22.60)
Button ($148.80)
Hero (SB) ($54.05)
BB ($29.40)
UTG ($50)
UTG+1 ($48.15)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
5 folds, CO calls $0.50, Button bets $2, Hero raises to $7, 2 folds, Button calls $5

Flop: ($15) Q, 6, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $14, Hero calls $14

Turn: ($43) J (2 players)
Hero bets $33.05 (All-In), Button calls $33.05

River: ($109.10) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $109.10 | Rake: $3

Results below:
Button had Q, K (three of a kind, Queens).
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Outcome: Button won $106.10

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($85.75)
BB ($50)
UTG ($54.55)
UTG+1 ($51.35)
MP1 ($54.50)
Hero (MP2) ($50.75)
MP3 ($81.30)
CO ($40.95)
Button ($37.70)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, A
1 fold, UTG+1 bets $1.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $5.50, 5 folds, UTG+1 raises to $12, Hero raises to $50.75 (All-In), UTG+1 calls $38.75

Flop: ($102.25) K, 3, 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($102.25) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($102.25) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $102.25 | Rake: $3

Results below:
UTG+1 had K, K (full house, Kings over threes).
Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and threes).
Outcome: UTG+1 won $99.25

then i start to retardo bluff
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (3 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($50)
Button ($70)
Hero (SB) ($50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5, 3
Button bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($3.50) 4, K, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, Button calls $3.50

Turn: ($10.50) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $10.50, Button calls $10.50

River: ($31.50) 10 (2 players)
Hero bets $34.50 (All-In), Button calls $34.50

Total pot: $100.50 | Rake: $1

Results below:
Button had 10, K (two pair, Kings and tens).
Hero had 5, 3 (high card, King).
Outcome: Button won $99.50

so back to nit

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (7 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($50.85)
SB ($49.75)
Hero (BB) ($51.75)
UTG ($115.55)
MP1 ($65.40)
MP2 ($71.60)
CO ($89.10)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K
5 folds, SB calls $0.25, Hero bets $2, SB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4) 7, 9, A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($4) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3, SB raises to $6, Hero raises to $14, SB raises to $25, Hero raises to $49.75 (All-In), SB calls $22.75 (All-In)

River: ($99.50) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $99.50 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB had A, A (three of a kind, Aces).
Hero had K, K (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $96.50

cos nit pays

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 ($50)
Hero (CO) ($50)
Button ($17.50)
SB ($34.50)
BB ($60.20)
UTG ($50)
UTG+1 ($28.50)
MP1 ($117.40)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, A
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero bets $2.75, 1 fold, SB raises to $6, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $5.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $35, SB calls $28.50 (All-In), UTG+1 calls $22.50 (All-In)

Flop: ($98.50) 9, 8, 4 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($98.50) 5 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($98.50) 7 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $98.50 | Rake: $3

Results below:
SB had 10, 10 (flush, ten high).
UTG+1 had A, K (flush, Ace high).
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: SB won $12, UTG+1 won $83.50

and then it's time to mount a comeback
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 ($37.75)
Hero (MP1) ($97)
MP2 ($81.95)
CO ($59.80)
Button ($88.80)
SB ($21)
BB ($52.90)
UTG ($52.75)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, J
2 folds, Hero bets $1.75, 2 folds, Button calls $1.75, 2 folds

Flop: ($4.25) 8, 7, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, Button calls $3.50

Turn: ($11.25) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $3, Hero calls $3

River: ($17.25) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $15.75, Hero raises to $88.75 (All-In), Button calls $64.80 (All-In)

Total pot: $178.35 | Rake: $3

Results below:
Button had 5, Q (straight, eight high).
Hero had A, J (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $175.35

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($50)
Hero (SB) ($50.25)
BB ($50)
UTG ($31.35)
UTG+1 ($50)
MP1 ($62.60)
MP2 ($56.90)
MP3 ($70.30)
CO ($58.45)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, A
2 folds, MP1 bets $1, MP2 raises to $3.75, 3 folds, Hero raises to $9, 1 fold, MP1 calls $8, MP2 calls $5.25

Flop: ($27.50) K, 5, 4 (3 players)
Hero bets $9, MP1 calls $9, 1 fold

Turn: ($45.50) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $32.25 (All-In), MP1 calls $32.25

River: ($110) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $110 | Rake: $3

Results below:
Hero had K, A (one pair, Kings).
MP1 had J, A (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Hero won $107

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($50.75)
UTG ($50)
UTG+1 ($57.35)
MP1 ($74.60)
MP2 ($50.75)
CO ($106.95)
Button ($79.95)
SB ($17)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, J
2 folds, MP1 bets $1.50, MP2 raises to $5, 3 folds, Hero calls $4.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($11.75) J, 6, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $6, Hero calls $6

Turn: ($23.75) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $12, Hero raises to $24, MP2 raises to $39.75 (All-In), Hero calls $15.75 (All-In)

River: ($103.25) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $103.25 | Rake: $3

Results below:
Hero had J, J (three of a kind, Jacks).
MP2 had K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $100.25

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($17.65)
BB ($54.35)
UTG ($50)
UTG+1 ($50)
MP1 ($50.40)
MP2 ($38.80)
MP3 ($51.75)
Hero (CO) ($58.30)
Button ($60.80)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J, 9
2 folds, MP1 bets $1.50, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.50, 3 folds

Flop: ($3.75) 10, 3, 8 (2 players)
MP1 bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.75) Q (2 players)
MP1 bets $6, Hero raises to $54.30 (All-In), MP1 calls $40.40 (All-In)

River: ($101.55) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $101.55 | Rake: $3

Results below:
MP1 had Q, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
Hero had J, 9 (st

w
Moved up to get some respect sometime in the middle of all this, no action from full stacks but

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (3 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($233.10)
SB ($60.55)
Hero (BB) ($100)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
Button bets $3, SB calls $2.50, Hero raises to $11.50, 1 fold, SB calls $8.50

Flop: ($26) J, 8, 9 (2 players)
SB bets $4, Hero raises to $38, SB calls $34

Turn: ($102) 5 (2 players)
SB bets $11.05 (All-In), Hero calls $11.05

River: ($124.10) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $124.10 | Rake: $1

Results below:
SB had A, 7 (high card, Ace).
Hero had Q, Q (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: Hero won $123.10

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 ($84.90)
MP3 ($100)
CO ($115.80)
Button ($100.90)
SB ($61.40)
Hero (BB) ($100)
UTG ($271.50)
UTG+1 ($101.50)
MP1 ($112.95)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, 9
7 folds, SB bets $3, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6) 9, A, 6 (2 players)
SB bets $3, Hero raises to $9, SB calls $6

Turn: ($24) 10 (2 players)
SB bets $8, Hero raises to $48, SB raises to $49.40 (All-In), Hero calls $1.40

River: ($122.80) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $122.80 | Rake: $3

Results below:
SB had 8, A (two pair, Aces and sixes).
Hero had A, 9 (two pair, Aces and nines).
Outcome: Hero won $119.80

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($100)
MP ($109)
CO ($175.35)
Button ($54.25)
SB ($215.20)
Hero (BB) ($102.85)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, K
3 folds, Button bets $3.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $2.50

Flop: ($7.50) K, 9, 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($7.50) K (2 players)
Hero bets $5.50, Button raises to $14.75, Hero calls $9.25

River: ($37) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $36 (All-In), Hero calls $36

Total pot: $109 | Rake: $3

Results below:
Button had J, Q (one pair, Kings).
Hero had 10, K (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $106

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (7 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($101)
SB ($110.05)
BB ($41.10)
UTG ($184.35)
MP1 ($72)
MP2 ($206.25)
Hero (CO) ($100)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, 3
3 folds, Hero bets $2.50, 2 folds, BB calls $1.50

Flop: ($5.50) 3, 2, K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $4.50, BB calls $4.50

Turn: ($14.50) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $12.50, BB calls $12.50

River: ($39.50) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $19.50, BB raises to $21.60 (All-In), Hero calls $2.10

Total pot: $82.70 | Rake: $3

Results below:
BB had 6, 6 (three of a kind, sixes).
Hero had K, 3 (two pair, Kings and threes).
Outcome: BB won $79.70

I just finished playing the FTR 500 on stars as part of my continuing tourney education. Turns out I still suck at tournaments and timing. That's 4hrs of my life i'm not getting back, the finally getting to a final table and eventually placing 3rd (for lolwat $105) is outweighed by the discomfort of playing far, far longer than i wanted to. And what a waste of rungood. I needed that when i flipped out in 150th in the last ftops i entered...

Good (?) news is that the cash session I was grinding alongside was a little profitable even through the tilt of 'wtf am i still in this fucking donkament - i've shoved 6 hands in a row, someone just call ffs'. This happened shortly after i'd folded pre about 50 hands in a row. Some of this time i think i was accidentally sitting out cos i had a cash table from another site stacked on top, oops.

life's good. My girlfriend got her masters results back yesterday (Distinction ftw!) so she can sort out her visa stuff before we head to europe again. Anyway, now that this tourney is over we're off to one of my favourite 3 restaurants in NZ. Bon apetit

in position on a whale with 700bb. I'm 350bb deep. But sometimes you just have to bring a session to a close. After a 7hr grind i could easily get it all horribly wrong....

oh, and yeah, it's month-end. Up a few $k.

Super low volume the first weeks then upped volume and ran like death the last few days. EV is all to shit, moan, moan, etc
this is mostly at da fiddies, some 100, some 25.
Cleared a tonne of bonus, up around $500 playing mtts, etc.
April gonna be huge! although a week of it i'll be on a climbing trip instead of playing poker.
here's a funny vid of indoor youth climbing psyche! Go large YouTube - The Insiders

Awesome!! Nh!

april is underway. I feel like I'm playing well, although causing some drama on 2p2 by sitting HU with some guy everyone feels like allowing to have fish to himself, and somehow it's ok for him to seat hop whenever it suits. He finally snapped a couple of days ago, we got in allin battles, i was up 5bi according to the aiev, but ran a little bad to only be up a few. Dunno what's going through the nit's mind right now - waiting for his next pm.

Tomorrow I'm driving out of dodge, heading north to meet up with a guy i lived/climbed with in chile for a few days -> maybe a week. I'll take my laptop and grind if it rains i guess. Today my girlfriend and i booked tickets to europe (again, seems like an annual thing of late). Leaving end-May, June and July climbing around germany and france mostly, then back end July.

Life is feeling grand. I'm getting in decent running shape for the first time in ages and ja, pretty much all is good. Although I need to bink a huge MTT to make it even better...

here's april so far. I haven't figured out my rakeback % while i'm clearing this bonus and generating double/triple points, etc - but it must be pretty close to 65%. Running at EV means i must have made up for those HU suckouts somewhere along the way

the climbing trip was heaps of fun, as was spending about 50% of my time up there living back in chilean spanish again - it started coming back.
I climbed 11 pitches the first day, 8 the second then some bouldering, etc. Nothing super hard or anything, but loads of pump anyway.

I didn't take my laptop with me so it was five days of no internet = refreshing. Played my first session back this morning just in time for the ironman freeroll (min-cashed for about $45) and broke even at the cash tables while running pretty bad (KK<AA twice, 78<KK allin on 678J, etc). Happy with most of how i played, and feeling pretty good about poker. Less than seven weeks until i leave new zealand again, so i need to get some grind in! Seems that i'm close to organising climbing partners for Ceuse while my girlfriend spends a week at some conference. Things are good.

Niceness! Glad things are rollin for ya.

Your blog is cool. Keep up the good work. Im happy you are at FTP, for my own personal reasons, because I tend to start tables and sometimes play regs. Prob do poorly vs u.

!luck

cheers for the comments guys!

i've often scoffed at the ideas of writing notes advising good poker play and sticking them to your monitor..
however:
"before auto-bluff-raising rivers allin vs regs always remember to take a deep breath, pause a second, and at least consider folding"
is now rocking pride of place at my desk. Could have saved myself 7 buyins the last 3 days just by reading such a note. One reg did manage to bank right down before calling his second set (fwiw i put him on QQ+ overpairs, TT/99 top two sets), and this a reg who folds about 80% of the time he banks. Anyway, i don't think my image is clean enough among regs to be pulling that kind of shit so often. There was one crazy 1k hand session where i managed to shove 40 times and have negative showdown winnings (obviously) and barely breakeven overall. This is nit-ring ffs, and i'm a nit. Give it up.

In general i have been playing poorly the last few days, even splashier than normal, bet-calling my bet-folds, bluffing with too little equity, calling 3bets oop, bluff-shoving into strong ranges, etc. Good news is that i'm up a bit, not heaps of $$ or anything, but to be playing this spewtard and still be winning says something about something. If i figure out what these somethings are anytime soon i'll post my ideas.

anyway, hidden in the spew there have been occasional bluffs i like a lot, and then a few like this one where i have managed to confuse myself more and more whenever i look at it. Bikes was at the table, not involved in the hand. I should ask him to put me on a range here..

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 ($84.90)
MP3 ($74.10)
CO ($38.35)
Hero (Button) ($50)
SB ($41.10)
BB ($50)
UTG ($26.05)
UTG+1 ($48.75)
MP1 ($52.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, A
5 folds, CO bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50, SB calls $1.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($5) 5, K, J (3 players)
SB checks, CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($5) 7 (3 players)
SB checks, CO bets $1, Hero raises to $6, 1 fold, CO calls $5

River: ($17) 3 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $12,

edit sex appeal cocaine grind music

Originally Posted by daven

i have been playing poorly the last few days, even splashier than normal, bet-calling my bet-folds, bluffing with too little equity, calling 3bets oop, bluff-shoving into strong ranges, etc.

my poker life summed in a sentence

so i started referring to poker as gambling. So i started playing a way more gambool style. So i experienced some sick swings. So it's time to get back to work.

a link with some sculpted bodies, some orchestral metallica, some cool choreography, and i need to find out if the people who did this were at a movement workshop i taught at the european juggling convention in lille a few years back where i made people interrogate movement and balance on a medium (climbing wall) that they were unfamiliar with.

Beyond Gravity-Trailer on Vimeo

edit - here's the last couple of days of poker. I'm running pretty awful in cooler spots over this sample as well. Games are obviously good. Ahead a little after bonusclear etc. Blah.
a nice post from that other forum
***** 1,000th POAST - You are Gonna F*** Up!! **** - Micro Stakes Full Ring Games - Micro Stakes Poker Strategy Forum

Today i feel a little bit degen
probably something to do with all the drama re black friday, and the fact that i spent last night playing MTTs in search of overlay and managed 3 deep runs (29th, 54th, etc) and no final tables fml.
so i went lobby surfing to see what i could find. I found short-handed rush omaha-8. Awesome. 4-tabling this while 8-tabling ring for a while was lol-action

for better or worse i've withdrawn most of my roll since april 15th. First in a mad rush of withdrawals on the day, leaving a very thin 50nl roll online, then another $750 a few days later when FTP started freezing and their .co.uk site disappeared. And then i started running like death. Back to back to back losing sessions, 12bi behind aiev in one 3k hand session, my FTP roll dropped as low as $600... that kind of death. I've got about $1k across other sites, thought about moving it back to FTP but instead i'll just grind it out for the moment. Still going to stick to my no-deposit rule that i've kept going since about August 2007, but it might be tight to get properly rolled again for a while. At least my irl bank accounts are looking healthy - and will still be that way after i get back from two months of climbing in europe june/july.

Yeah, no poker for june-july. And a (weather dependent) climbing trip from friday this week for a while. Hmm, I got a no-deposit bonus from FTP, so now i have two bonuses to clear (net $1600 left to go now) - they won't clear concurrently. I have to clear them before i leave on may 26th. I'll go figure out how many hands that is at busto 25nl/50nl - about all i know is that it's gonna require some grind...

i got a cold earlier this week. I don't get sick. It has sucked. I have been grumpy. No running, no climbing, etc. Now it's time to be healthy again.
davenout for a while.

Dunno how much I'll be checking in - I haven't quite come to grips with not playing, but that's the decision for now. Just chilling and waiting for the final withdrawal (still not quite sure I believe it's gonna happen).

GLGLGLGL to you, Daven. I will try to check in when I can. All the best.

My legs are tired. I just got back from a five day mountaineering trip. Thing is, i haven't really done much on that front the last five years or so... but a friend called and suggested an objective and i thought 'why not?' - forgetting my rule of actually considering the answer to this question when it's my immediate response. As context, the trip we planned vs what i used to do vs what i've done lately is roughly similar to a poker player who used to beat 200nl for 1ptBB/100 on party pre-legislation (but hadn't played since) deciding in feb 2011 to go and start grinding 200nl on stars... short story = I got pretty scared after downclimbing a scary pitch from one ridge onto another at around 5:30am (dark obviously, it's May = late autumn here) without having taken the rope out of the pack. And it messed with my head. To the extent that we turned around on an exposed section a while later without having reached the summit. Was a good trip nonetheless, we didn't die, we had a good time, we both destroyed ourselves fitness-wise, a couple of nights sleeping out pretty high, getting back out we managed to find a reasonably simple descent route down some not too sketchy access slabs in misty and wet conditions (only 3 pitches of abseiling, the rest we managed to downclimb), and we got out before the panic-time we had given our respective partners (with 4hrs left up our sleeves!)

I haven't played poker for almost a week. Before i went on this trip i'd been grinding pretty seriously for a few days and managed to get my roll up to ok levels again, well, ok for 50nl with the occasional 100nl table thrown in anyway... And now it's three weeks until I head to Europe. And between earlier bought bonus and recent free bonus I have about $2k left to clear. That is going to take quite a few hands. So it's time to get on the grind.

also - cheers for the look-in robb - professorial gig sounds better than poker gig for you anyways!

poker is all about grinding out those bonuses at the moment. Today is a break cos i'm off to watch my girlfriend graduate/take photos then her supervisors and people who helped with fieldwork are coming over to my place for dinner and booze.
Europe is pretty damn soon! summer and rocks and maybe a festival or two...

this is what the trip to mount aspiring looked like, earlier this week:

1) first decent view of our objective - Mt. Aspiring from Beven Col, early on day 2 of the trip
2) stopping for a break cruising across the Bonar Glacier en route to the business
3) view towards the summit from somewhere up on the northwest ridge, about an hour or so after i'd got pretty scared

siiiiiiiiiiiiiick fucking pictures dude thats so awesome

25/5/2011 - my 5000th post

Poker and associated account balances as at 25/5/2011:
Full Tilt - $0
Party Poker - $0
Poker Stars - $0
Neteller - $0
other dodgy sites - $0

Time for a break. Tomorrow night I'll be eating Korean food in a restaurant in Seoul, the following evening I'll be buying beer in Germany. From then I'll be in and around Europe until the end of July, back in New Zealand August 1st. I won't be taking my laptop, nor playing any online poker along the way - although I may end up in a casino or two if they cross my path on the road.

Poker has been fun and I have managed to extract some $$ from the poker economy (thanks fish, rakeback, bonuses!) along the way. Somehow I even have more money in the bank now than when I quit work in May 2009. I'm glad to have managed to have several months of no poker during that time, and to have spent close to a year of this period outside of New Zealand.

I have learnt a lot along the way.
Was my approach to poker over the last couple of years intelligent? not really. Optimal? far from it. Profitable? not as much as it should have been.
Do I feel as though what I have found out along the way has been worth it? absolutely.

and what about when August rolls around?
well, I don't want to deposit $$ into poker - last time i did that was in August 2007 and why change good habits... But i have outs. I have enough FTP points (350k) and ironman medals (7k) to buy a few ring game tickets (perhaps $2-3k value? a little more?) and i guess a rakeback payment will turn up later this week. I can grind a roll from that if I choose to. Cross that bridge when it comes. Maybe I'll look for a real job - poker has been nice for a lifestyle but the paycut has been huge. If I decide to continue with poker as a serious component of my life and income then I'll be doing things a lot differently - more on that if i bother to keep on playing. By then the future of online poker should be clearer than it is now as well.

FlopTurnRiver.com has been awesome along the way, and i'll be lurking and posting around a while longer. Probably even post a photo or two of my travels.

anyway, i bid adieu to online poker for a while - it has been a blast

davenout

first few weeks in europe were loads of beer
now france and baguettes
had a week bouldering at fontainebleau (a holy grail of climbing) and now i'm in grenoble (southeast-ish france) after a week of hanging out among mountains in d'escrins where I saw many marmots. This morning i climbed long routes near the city? This afternoon we head to annecy (nice lake town surrounded by hills) for some time then onwards to chamonix.

poker - it appears that full tilt are in interesting times. I would like it to be sorted by the time i get back to nz; otherwise i may have to deposit $$ into poker. I'm glad i withdrew all my money

summer is warm, things are good.

when in doubt, leave your cash with pokerstars

and post some pics from your travels!

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

and post some pics from your travels!

+1

also, i nearly got arrested (if that's what they do to capture/detain "minors") last time i was in fountainebleau. i was out for a night-time walk listening to music when some cops pulled over next to me with lights on and jumped out with flashlights shone onto my face. after they established via my terrible accent on "je'nais pal pas francais. je suis desolee" (which i think translates loosely to "i can't speak french i'm sorry") they explained to me in basic english that there had been a break-in/robbery nearby and that i loosely fit the description of the culprit given by the victims (which was probably something like teenage/early twenties male with black hoodie, jeans, and a beanie on). after attempting to overcome a lot of communication barriers, and them potentially noticing me being clearly genuinely baffled by the whole situaiton, they decided to take my name and temporary address (i explained i was leaving in 4 days) and let me go about my night.

now i think about, you probably don't give a shit about anything in that story. but you mentioning fountainebleau triggered a could-soon-have-been-forgotten memory. have a blast on the rest of your trip.

photos and stories to come in a week or two once i'm back in New Zealand. For now i'm chilling in the Austrian hills, Zillertal It snowed last night and rained today so not much room to get any rock climbing done - fingers crossed for tomorrow

i'm not in europe anymore toto.

first couple of weeks were spent hanging out in and around bonn and aachen, catching up with friends + girlfriend's family. Plus a wedding that was somewhere in belgium i think (dunno, was a lot of drinking). Then it was paris -> hang out with a friend -> fontainebleau and a week of sandstone bouldering paradise. Next some time in Lyon. Somehow i don't have photos from this first part of the trip, i'm hoping the missing memory card is in germany somewhere... From Lyon it was off to the mountains near grenoble (just up the hill from la grave in valle de romanche). Spent a week chilling/climbing/hiking up there.

here is a picture of a mountain taken from my tent. I didn't climb it. A bunch of people died up there one day while i was drinking beer next to my tent . Drinking beer obviously >>> climbing mountains with french without a clue



here is my tent. I like my tent. I have spent over 500 nights in my tent. My tent is getting old and may need to be replaced soon.



this was the only beer we could buy close to where we were staying. A nice dog tried to steal it. Better luck next time buddy



I went for a walk. Saw heaps of marmots. Didn't catch any. Got a pic though



My girlfriend came walking too. I have a cool orange hat. She doesn't like it.



i saw a glacier and lake and mountains and stones



and cool flowers that look like cotton candy icecreams!

anyway, then grenoble and some climbing in criminal heat. Too hot. Up to Annecy for a planned short stay that evolved into almost two weeks. We went climbing about 20 days on the trip, and took pretty much no climbing photos - not sure how that happened. Here is my girlfriend and her shadow coming back down from a climb somewhere around annecy.



i saw this bottomfeeder and thought instantly of shortstacks back when they infested the 100bb games



then i took a photo of the bottomfeeder and baby bottomfeeder in the context of a cliche holiday photo in some european resort town next to a lake



time to move again, and best graffiti all trip, shame i was wearing my pack when i saw it and didn't think to take it off for the photo



Then we ended up with some friends in the Zillertal valley in Austria. Plan was to do heaps of climbing. It snowed while we were there, and rained. We got a few days in, but mostly ate and drank and complained about the weather. Here's some cheap organic austrian beer from a super-discount supermarket. In the background the ingredients to a classic french old-man-drinking-in-a-cafe-mid-morning drink, creme de cassis + cheap white wine = kir (second in popularity after pastis based on my observations)



then germany and another pretty flower, this time somewhere up the hill from an alpine botanic garden and a crazy bavarian wooden castle thing



the servants quarters from the old castle are now a restaurant, so we ate tasty beer and goulash and more



and then i found some playing cards, what's up with those queens?



from there it was back to munich, a train to frankfurt (arrived midnight), met some people (canadians), started drinking, stopped drinking around 9am to have breakfast, spent the day using coffee to stay awake while i explored frankfurt, off to the airport for my 8pm flight, 10hrs later i was stopping over in seoul, 3hrs later i was getting onto another flight, 12hrs later i was having problems at customs at Auckland airport in NZ, 3hrs later i was in christchurch. Fun ride.

and now, ten weeks since i left the winter and i'm sitting back in NZ. FTP still isn't up and running so it's time to try and remember my poker stars account details. I think there might be $50 sitting in neteller from a slow process test withdrawal after FTP -> neteller stopped working so well, otherwise i'll have to load up from life money.

Things are good.

so, turns out I had some money left online. One of the neteller test withdrawals i had been running every few days after black friday hadn't processed until after i left the country. So, I have an online bankroll of $50. I'll run that up on stars starting at the bottom. If i get bored doing that (likely) I'll simply make a deposit I guess.

watch out 2nl!

cool pics

must have been one hell of a trip

Watched this yesterday on fueltv. Prolly seen it but if you haven't you should check it out.

&#x202a;KING LINES trailer&#x202c;&rlm; - YouTube

Yesterday someone asked me to review a paper before it gets submitted to some journal. Right now i'm lost in a maze of moment generating functions, Markov chains, and a ridiculous lemma associated with some obscure 1940s paper from The Annals of Mathematical Statistics. Haven't touched this shit since the late '90s. Maths is good for my head.

Originally Posted by supa

Watched this yesterday on fueltv. Prolly seen it but if you haven't you should check it out.

&#x202a;KING LINES trailer&#x202c;&rlm; - YouTube

ja, i've got this on my laptop - now might be a good time to watch it again!

Originally Posted by rpm

also, i nearly got arrested (if that's what they do to capture/detain "minors") last time i was in fountainebleau. i was out for a night-time walk listening to music when some cops pulled over next to me with lights on and jumped out with flashlights shone onto my face. after they established via my terrible accent on "je'nais pal pas francais. je suis desolee" (which i think translates loosely to "i can't speak french i'm sorry") they explained to me in basic english that there had been a break-in/robbery nearby and that i loosely fit the description of the culprit given by the victims (which was probably something like teenage/early twenties male with black hoodie, jeans, and a beanie on). after attempting to overcome a lot of communication barriers, and them potentially noticing me being clearly genuinely baffled by the whole situaiton, they decided to take my name and temporary address (i explained i was leaving in 4 days) and let me go about my night.

now i think about, you probably don't give a shit about anything in that story. but you mentioning fountainebleau triggered a could-soon-have-been-forgotten memory. have a blast on the rest of your trip.

cool story, seriously (no bro added!). I particularly like that you spent your teenage years wandering around in forests in the dark in foreign countries exploring gay cruise spots

Originally Posted by daven

so, turns out I had some money left online.I have an online bankroll of $50. I'll run that up on stars starting at the bottom. If i get bored doing that (likely) I'll simply make a deposit I guess.

watch out 2nl!

i don't like the stars interface as much as ftp's. I started working on some mods, but realised that it's going to take far too long to be worthwhile. Anyone use the tiltbusters mods that have an increased font size?

I do like that stars isn't busto (unlike so many poker sites). $50 has grown slowly at da 2enelles, I moved up once i'd made 20bi at the stake. There is some promotion running that will mean i'll be platinum star in a few days which means i'll earn some fpps once i get a roll going. I haven't bought any bonus or earned any stellar rewards yet, but i'm playing 5nl well rolled and i guess i'll look at moving up to 10nl at $180? Supernova from $50 in 5 months? could be tight.
ahh, grinding a roll from the bottom. Kinda fun, kinda boring, kinda perversely satisfying.

in b4 "fucking nit, just deposit $2k and get on with it"

seriously? dont you think your time is more valuable?

are you playing predominantly 6m or FR, daven? or a mixture?

Originally Posted by bikes

seriously? dont you think your time is more valuable?

very good point. Once i decided to play stars i planned a few micro hands to sort out hud and table mods and stuff. And now that i'm playing those micros and beating them fast i'm enjoying it = like any other micro donk enjoys winning burgers. Cost-benefit i guess there's no $$ reason to do what i'm doing now, so unless there are benefits that are non-$$... like the ego kick of running it up again or the enjoyment of keeping to my no-deposit rule since 2007.

Originally Posted by rpm

are you playing predominantly 6m or FR, daven? or a mixture?

i'm playing full ring tables, but these mostly start out shorthanded as i'm not table-selecting yet. I'm going to take a run at 6-max in parallel, but only once i've got some roll back

I was thinking about heading into the mountains this weekend, then a friend suggested i check the weather warnings. Guess I'll be grinding. And heading out to go running in the snow as per last weekend, less than a month until the half marathon

Originally Posted by New Zealand Meteorological Service

ISSUED BY METSERVICE AT 12:30pm Thursday 11-Aug-2011

ANOTHER EXCEPTIONALLY COLD OUTBREAK TO SPREAD OVER NEW ZEALAND THIS COMING WEEKEND
MEDIA STATEMENT
Another very cold outbreak, rivalling that of late July, is on the way.
On Saturday, a low will move away to the east of northern New Zealand, allowing a progressively colder southerly flow to become established over the country. The first big dip in temperatures will come on Saturday night when a cold front moves onto the south of the South Island, bringing significant snow to sea level from southern Fiordland to the Otago Peninsula (i live here). This outbreak will then move over the rest of the South Island to reach the lower North Island by Sunday night.
Significant snowfalls along with bitterly cold south to southwest gales can be expected