Carrotz and Boog's Summer Ballin' Thread

[Keith]

ironically , the person who could make the most use of reading that last post is Slevin.the differences between you is that you can self analyse and have the technical ability, gary just has a goal in mind of playing 1000nl and being a pro/playboy type character with no idea of the amount of work and study he will have to do to get there and tries to take the short cut so that the dream comes quicker .

The first paragraph I have exploited in WW to tilt you, I've no idea whether your opponents on the tables have ever realised that you can be tilted , probably not online , but i guess playing live with chat at the table phrases you use , things you say , the way you say things could be used by the better players to subltly tilt you into making bad decisions.

[speedcake]

You never answered the question regarding how many hookers you have fucked...well?

[CBAT]

Still think you are better than Negreanu?

[Carroters]

CBAT - online yeah - he's a tard. Live it would probably be closer....

Keith - Yep, I've been watching a video series about what causes tilt etc. It's basically an emotional reaction to an interpretation that goes on in our brains when an event occurs. So usually the interpretation is irrational and is what leads to the irrational emotions and behaviors so the trick is to intercept the process at the interpretation stage. If you spout nonsensical accusations at me in WW I shouldn't interpret it as "this guy is a dick, he's so stupid and thinks he's right, this threatens my position and pride" (animalistic pack animal response) but I should interpret it as "This guy is wrong. That is all that's happening" and then a more appropriate reaction will be generated. Same goes with poker and how we react to a situation.

For example my issue about playing terribly when pots get big is caused ion the same way.

Event: Pot gets big and I'm faced with a non obvious decision.

Interpretation: This is going to affect my money situation, I don't want to be down money, if I fold I'll have lost money for sure.

Resulting Emotion/Response: Fear, anxiety, adrenaline fast and inaccurate thoughts.

So this interpretation is what causes the bad play. My limbic system and whatever the even more instinctive survival brain is called are taking over and the neo cortex doesn't get clarity to reason and come to the best decision. Therefore I need to alter the interpretation by preemptively practicing thoughts like "big pots mean more important logical choices need to be made" or "Big pot means I need to analyse and concentrate now" Once this is fixed the emotions that are resulting and causing bad play in big pots will be disabled and replaced with a concentration. It's all about programing the brain like it's some kind of computer and telling it which programs to run. It's pretty interesting shit and I believe this is how I eliminate this leak in my game.

[BooG690]

WTF? Why is there so much fucking poker talk in this thread?

I seriously need to get my ass over there to save this fucking thread.

[Carroters]

Because I have to stop sucking ass at live pokers ldo.

Just came 16th out of 100 in the Venetian $120 toruney. Played really well imo, but wasn't to be. It's an awesome tourney though compared to the others I've tried since I've been in vegas.

[Petulie]

Go baby Go baby GO!

Some extra motivation: ‪Counting Crows - Holidays in Spain‬‏ - YouTube

[rong]

Counting Crows are cool. I think Mr Jones is the best song in the world ever.

[rong]

Ahhhh, I've gone on to a counting crows marathon now. Anna Begins is so cool too.

Also, I have no idea why I'm sharing this here.

[Carroters]

I fucking love Anna Begins. It chills me out immensely. "I am not worried, I am not overly concerned." Mr Jones used to be my favourite, but Round Here, Anna Begins and Long December have to be my top 3 these days. My threads are always an appropriate place for counting crows talk!

In tourney mode currently, trying to focus and practice taking my time and not doing dumb shit. Gonna play the Stratosphere 11pm tonight again - man it's such a soft field. I have to run the gauntlet of dodgy ass characters to reach the casino, but hey, haven't been raped so far -that's prolly cos BooG isn't here till Tuesday!

[Vi-Zer0Skill]

good luck in the tourney tonight! I know Vegas will be totally under your thumb once you stop being your own worst enemy at the table.

I'm pretty sure that annoying reg I was thinking of was bleurain. however he seems to have stopped playing on black friday as well..

I'm reading and wishing you great success this summer with poker!!

[Carroters]

good luck in the tourney tonight! I know Vegas will be totally under your thumb once you stop being your own worst enemy at the table.

I'm pretty sure that annoying reg I was thinking of was bleurain. however he seems to have stopped playing on black friday as well..

I'm reading and wishing you great success this summer with poker!!

Thanks dude, much appreciated! Played a lot better last night but bustoed when I was left with 6bb and jammed K2o b vs b and ran into AA. The douche flipped them over and was like "SERIOUSLY??? YOU WANT TO GO ALL IN????" I was like well I can hardly see your fucking cards you moron. Then he starts flipping out asking the dealer if he can give me back 1 big blind to just take the pot, such morons some of the people here.

Venetian $120 tonight, the prize pool for this tourney really excites me, not a huge amount of play though unfortunately.

[Carroters]

Just took 6th out of a 110 strong field in the Venetian $120. Only scored me $575, but I played really fucking well imo, first time I've seen my A game since getting to Vegas. Kinda sucks that my tourney game live is 5x as good as my cash game right now, but hey I'll just grind loads of tournies, they're more fun and less stressful anyways!

[Carroters]

The internet is so fucking bad here it's just tilting the shit out of me right now! It just deleted this post as i posted it so here goes writing it again.

Basically a hand from the tourney I just busted out from. be good to hear some opinions from anyone who knows a thing or two about live tournaments.

Here's the situation. Blinds are 400/800 with a 100 ante. There's like 12 minutes left in the level and the next level is 600/1200 (100). I have 9200, UTG has me covered, MP1 has just been crippled and has like 900 left.

I'm dealt JJ in the CO. UTG opens to 2400, MP1 sticks the 900 in. UTG is a tight player who's built a stack early but done next to nothing in the last 2 hours or so. His opening range is likely very tight here. I'd say like TT+ AK for sure and then we'll see 99/AQ some amount of the time. I don't know how often. I defo don't expect to see anything worse than this. I have a decent image, I'd expect him to fold stuff like 99/AQ a good amount vs a jam and maybe call with TT, defo call with JJ+ AK.

I have plenty FE ahead of me so have options in late position in the future. There's also a guy to my right who's been limp calling jams with loads of shit including 56o b vs b and seems reckless and retarded - good double up options here.

Blinds are getting huge though in a few hands time they'll be threatening loads of my stack and I'm short of time to wait for better spots with these 20 minutes levels. Jam or fold spot basically. I don't love this spot, i expect to have like 40% vs his getting it in range at best, and I think I get folds fairly rarely. The question is though, do i have to accept this is likely my best opportunity and jam? Top 5 get paid fwiw, we have like 21 remaining.

Thoughts?

[rpm]

i don't have a ton of live tourney experience, but i'm jamming here. closer to the bubble with potential for busting (which this situation has, as UTG has us covered) i may find a fold, but given there are still ~16 bustos which need to occur, and 20 minute levels probably doesn't translate to very many hands in a live tourney, i'm happy to get it in with what is likely damn close to a flip (with antes and 1bb stack AI juicing the pot a bit) to win a pot which could potentially see me through to the final table barring any complete spew or coolers. also, i think "40% at most" is a conservative estimate of our equity when called. i doubt this guy is capable of folding any of TT+,AK (against which we are 42%) 10bb deep, and it may go wider than that. and if he is ONLY calling with say JJ+ and 8 of 16 combos of AK, then we likely have like 30-40% fold equity because he is surely not open folding 88,99,TT or AQ UTG. then again, there are potentially influential factors which only having played the tournament myself could determine for this decision, ie if the players to my left were basically auto-fold nits who were folding their blinds 90% of the time each to minraises, maybe i'd pass on the JJ all-in, content to steal blinds to keep my stack afloat.

despite attempting to justify why i think it's a shove, i'm still not an MTT player, or even a decent cash-game player. so it may be prudent to disregard the content of this post.

edit: my estimate of what the average stack would be would at the time of this hand being played would also influence the decision. the higher the average stack in comparison to hero's - the more happy i am to stick it in and "gamble" with JJ. and the lower the average stack in comparison to hero's obviously has the inverse implication. though that's pretty intuitive.

[Carroters]

Thanks for the input man. I'm also pretty sure jamming is best in this spot. More often than not at this stage we just don't have the time to expect any better situations frequently enough to pass this up. A flip or even near flip to double up here with incentives is better than a desperate short stack struggle when we're not even close to the money and blinds are about to get damaging as hell.

[supa]

Sucking at all things poker I'm prolly the worst at late stages in tourneys. But with an M of like 5 I'm pretty sure you have to jam here.

Hopefully I'll know today when I can get out to vegas. Id'd like to maybe play a tourney out there (think you said the venetian was plenty soft?) but other than that be prepared to drink way to much jack.

[rpm]

i like your style, supa.

[BooG690]

See you tomorrow sir!

[Carroters]

Just split the Ceasars 7pm tourney 3 ways for $945. I played pretty excellently in my humble opinion and am tempted to say I didn't put a foot wrong. Having said that I ran very well and flopped 3 sets out of 3 pocket pair mines in the first 3 levels. At the final table I very very nearly bubbled. With 6 left and only 5 getting paid I jammed Ah4h on the BU vs a semi tard and a nit. Standard as shit jam since the blinds were about to destroy my 9bb stack. The SB snap insta fist pump calls me with 55.....I'm like wtf that's 2/3rd of your stack with a shitty PP, pretty awful call imo. Anyways, so board comes down KJ3 all clubs (he has the 5 of clubs) The turns a red 8 and at that point I accepted in my head I'd just bubbled. BAM! Ad falls on the river and I go into a rant about how the Ad is a fucking beast and I love that card and that it's my friend etc. I double up to the chip lead and hit some card deadness which sees me 3rd with 3 left. An equal 3 way chop sounded just about awesome at that point and so we did.

[x] Live tourney game is getting pretty strong
[ ] Live cash game is that of a non fish
[ ] Gonna play mainly cash from now on
[x] Gonna play lots more pokars and try to makes miwwions of dowwas.

BooG will be waking me at the absurd time of 12 noon tomorrow, FML.

[Carroters]

Sucking at all things poker I'm prolly the worst at late stages in tourneys. But with an M of like 5 I'm pretty sure you have to jam here.

Hopefully I'll know today when I can get out to vegas. Id'd like to maybe play a tourney out there (think you said the venetian was plenty soft?) but other than that be prepared to drink way to much jack.

[x] Down for drinking mucho jack!

[Nekrogovner]

Nice job luckboxing there.
So, giving up cash games for now?

[supa]

Sittin on the couch do nothing so decided if I don't do it now I'm not gonna do it. Be in vegas sometime early tonite! Be ready.

Bringing the family, kids know they're pretty much on their own and the wife can out drink all of us.

Challenge goes out to any FTR'ers within 1000 miles get out there and make a party of it.

[rong]

Bringing the family, kids know they're pretty much on their own and the wife can out drink all of us.

I love this bit

[supa]

Yes, we are model fucking parents!

[rong]

Haha, awesome.

Have fun man!

[BooG690]

Haha oh jeez. This is gonna get interesting.

I'm messaging you my phone number since that'll be the best way to get in touch.

[supa]

You betcher ass this is gonna get interesting. Don't be scared, prolly nobody will get hurt and we might not even end up in jail. Just kidding, good clean fun, maybe some pokahz.

Give you a call when we get there, hopefully by like 9. You guys still at the wild wild west?

[BooG690]

No. Imperial Palace.

I'm going to the Bellagio now to play some pokarz.

[DoubleJ]

sorry guys, but the more of this thread i read, the more i see this...

supa, BooG & Carrotz

[supa]

Kinda feels like that right now tbh. Just got home and the trip is a big blur. To tired to formulate any real thoughts about it but I wanna say that both carrotz and boog we're awesome. Wish I woulda had more more time to hangout with you guys. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again sometime.

[Carroters]

Was awesome hanging out with yourself and your wife aswell supa. I'll defo make it out to Vegas again in the not too distant future I hope!

Guess I better update this since I've left it to the others for the past million years. I guess having regular company has killed my online time a bit. So on the social front things have been good hanging out with that moron BooGer. He's an impatient new yorker who says "caawfee" but I guess he's not the worst roommate in the world! We've had a really fun time so far via drunkeness, epic meals and poker. I even learned how much fun craps is while at the same time learning to stay the hell away from it!

Pokerwise things are pretty good right now. My game has come on absolute shitloads. I'm not playing what I consider to be my A game in every live session and feel way more comfortable and confident at cash. Had a +4 BI day today at MGM where I ran like god for the first 4 hours then suffered a few brutal coolers to take the euphoria from what was at one point a +6 BI session. Still, thrilled I'm playing well and just understanding how to crush this game now. It'll take time for me to become awesome, but I'm defo on the right tracks and just know what to do without panic much more than I did a week ago. I'm also getting more creative and finding some spots to grab fold equity pre and post flop. Finally, I'm getting better ar reading players, picking up tells regarding their frame of mind, and talking a lot more at the table so as to find out about people's games, make them like me so that they let me take more pots than I should/see more of their holecards than I should, but it also just makes grinding a more fun experience. I much prefer talking to people at my table than I do listening to my ipod all the damn time. Fish suck at poker, but some of them are interesting in life I guess.

Having an earlyish night tonight to fully recover from all the drinking and grinding. Gonna grind by day tomorrow then we're checking out this bar that some girl at my table recommended last week. I miss some stuff about home: my girlfriend LDO, my flat, the fat cat, the cool breeze, but it's been an awesome trip so far and hoping it'll only get better!

[Carroters]

Ohh yeah, +$1600, back on pace (sorta) at least I'm not a busto fish anymore!

[CBAT]

grind grind grind some more, then - move up to 2/5 imo

[BooG690]

Weird. I still haven't really checked into this thread.

First of all, Supa and his wife are both awesome. His wife basically shoved Jack Daniel's in our face (which I barely drink) and would probably run laps around me drinking-wise. As Supa said, we didn't get to chill as much as we would like to but there'll always be next time.

The first night I got here, Carroters took a break from the grind and we drank ourselves silly. Good times. The night after, Supa came down and we hung out with them after grinding at the Bellagio. After some drinks in the hotel room, we go to a busto casino where I introduce Carroters to Craps (btw, I did the same thing to Kiwi when we went to Vegas). I think I lost about $200 at the Craps table and wasn't too happy about it. Meh, shit happens.

The next day, I grinded a bit at the Bellagio and ended up around 2 BIs overall there. I fucked up and forgot to track my sessions on my phone.

We moved to the southern end of the strip and are pretty much exclusively grinding at MGM from here on out. Yesterday was a bit swongy...I started up ~2BIs, went to dinner, then sat at a table with a couple of drunks (one of which ran like God against me). I lost the 2 BIs I won in the first place and ended with a breakeven day.

Today was a lot better. Basically, I ended up 300bb deep to the direct left of the biggest fish there ever fished. He opened the CO and I called the BU with QJss. Miracle flop comes QJJ. He bets pot, I call. Turn comes X, he bets pot, I raise to ~4x his bet, he shoves, I win moneys. Twas lovely.

I ended up ~5BIs today so I guess I'm up around 7 BIs this trip (I sure wish I tracked those Bellagio sessions). Anywho, gonna get dressed and head out. LATER FTR!

[kiwiMark]

FIVE DORRA CRAPS, SHOW ME THEM SIXES

[BooG690]

Played a 8 hourish sesh yesterday. Luckboxed 3.5 more BIs.

[BooG690]

K. So I'm back home from Vegas. I've tracked most of my sessions (remember I forgot to track a Bellagio session or two). Also, these numbers don't reflect any breaks I took (I didn't pause the timer when I took a break, went to the bathroom, etc.).

Game played: $1/$2 NLHE
Hours played: 74h 11m
Money made: $2,816
Hourly: $37.96

I'm sure that hourly would be a bit above $40 if I counted breaks, remembered to track Bellagio sessions, etc. I ran real well during this trip and played real focused. I tried my hardest to build a loud/fun image for myself to make it seem as if I'm a loose player. I don't know if any of that had anything to do with it but it DID give me something to focus on while card dead. Also, I'm cool with wearing headphones at the table now. They're almost necessary when card dead since live poker is so slow.

Anywho, I'm off to Atlantic City tomorrow. MORE POKAR!

[bikes]

FIVE DORRA CRAPS, SHOW ME THEM SIXES

lol

[Guuhhyy]

Hey carrotz, hows it going? not had an update in a while. hope thats just because your so invested at the tables and that things are going well??? let us know how ur sitting next time you have a chance.

[Carroters]

Sorry guys. I guess I got lazy with updating this thread. Back in San Fran now where I'm gonna spend 2 more days hanging out with my friend here, and then it's time to fly home. Can't actually wait to get back and see my girl, my friends people I've missed and get on with my projects and ambitions for the next year.

Vegas was awesome. Had loads of fun, enjoyed getting better at live pokers and the new experience that grinding it was for me and meeting new people, hanging out with FTR folks, taking in the city. Things have been disappointing on the poker results side of things, but in the scheme of what I'm used to, it's a smallish sample size and I played pretty poorly for the first couple of weeks. My tourney game has improved fuckloads and I'm definitely going to play more live tournies back home and expect to do pretty well. Ended up with a measly profit of like $1200 from pokers for the whole time, which is basically what I was up on night 1! I ran so badly overall that I expected to lose every flip, pot I played. This defo didn't help my game and I didn't have the work ethic to grind sick volume of cash games to overcome this and to be honest, I think I'd have been pretty tilted if I'd tried. Online we 6 table, 8 table, 24 table, and get like 7x more hands per minute per table due to how fast everything is. It made the negative variance I ran into live feel a lot rougher and harder to deal with. Like being trapped in a hole you can't just grind out of (unless you're BooG and play 18 hour sessions every day!)

In spite of not making it as a huge balla, I did some ballin stuff, stayed in some ballin and some less so ballin' places and have had a great trip overall. I'm defo coming back to vegas, preferably during WSOP time to grind tournies, and yeah I love it there; time flew. Can't believe it's been so long.

America is cool on the whole. The culture's actually a lot more different than I expected it to be compared to what I'm used to, but mostly not in a bad way. The leeching bums of California and the scary ass black guys that try to lure you into side streets on the bad end of the Vegas strip are the negatives you'll find in different forms everywhere. The people on the whole though, are really friendly, helpful and easy to get along with. At times it felt far more human to be in places where people actually socialise and mingle with one another, soberly and naturally, like any social species should. In the UK we have these ridiculous closeted boundaries and there's a stench of awkwardness and auto pilotting fake behaviour in the air. It's definitely going to make me more friendly and open and yeah, just more real when I get home. Fuck sitting on a train staring at your feet, ignoring anyone who talks to you because you're a british victim of the "i-pod nation"

I'll likely be churning out a more work/project/poker orientated operation when I've settled back into life at home. There's lots of stuff I'm determined to do this coming academic year, a lot of it with Petulie, so it's going to be good that we can motivate each other and stuff.

Anyone who loves poker and fun and hasn't been to vegas needs to go! Anyone who loves pot, weirdos and talking to everyone they see needs to go to San Francisco!

I'll see y'all in my next operation and in the BC. Will be back coaching shortly and will bump details in the BC very soon for anyone that's interested. Thanks for following my blog.

Good luck becoming ballin' poker players and ballin' people.

[Petulie]

"Don't even think about talking to me - I'll turn up my music, pretend not to hear
Eye contact is a total taboo - we're all looking' down or up, don't wanna be rude"

I was going to say it may not be a phat BR you're coming home with but a wealth of experience. Eff that - experience don't buy me no presents!

Haha, well done!! See you soooooon!

[rpm]

Will be back coaching shortly and will bump details in the BC very soon for anyone that's interested.

shotgun first