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I'm curious what kind of plays in question you are doing that are causing this kind of reaction / response from ppl? haha.

I wonder if using some form of analogy would work? Like just asking them "If you owned a restaurant, and there was a competing restaurant next door, would you give them all of your recipes/trade secrets?" ... "No"... "Good. Now just think about that for a second.. and think about what we're doing here".

Originally Posted by griffey24

I'm curious what kind of plays in question you are doing that are causing this kind of reaction / response from ppl? haha.

I wonder if using some form of analogy would work? Like just asking them "If you owned a restaurant, and there was a competing restaurant next door, would you give them all of your recipes/trade secrets?" ... "No"... "Good. Now just think about that for a second.. and think about what we're doing here".

Its basically things that they themselves would 'never' do, but I do with some frequency.

Example is checking a hand twice in position that rarely gets checked twice (like 5% of the time) and having it get to showdown. Then the player will explain how I should 'never' check that hand twice - which is really just implying that he actually never, ever plays it like that which tells a lot about how he constructs his ranges.

One more is getting stacks in near the final table where ICM says fold - but there is a lot of misunderstanding about ICM when stacks get deep. People take ICM way to literally at the wrong times. The future edge gained from taking a gamble on a flip that will put in in a position to run the final table over often going to be massive when you can open twice as many hands from every single position.

MTT regs are bad.

I mean in general I think poker players have gotten a lot better over the years and you find some randos who are surprisingly creative in some spots but yeah

people suck at poker.

There is a lot of areas to work on. I think people underestimate how many different aspects of your game you can improve. This is evident by people claiming 'games are dead' and so on. Yes things have gotten tougher over the years. But often times, due to all the talk of GTO and such, the basics can simply be overlooked.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

There is a lot of areas to work on. I think people underestimate how many different aspects of your game you can improve. This is evident by people claiming 'games are dead' and so on. Yes things have gotten tougher over the years. But often times, due to all the talk of GTO and such, the basics can simply be overlooked.

I'm back on FTR, and it's good to see some of the old regs doing well. GLGL!! Glad to hear you played well in Barcelona.

Regarding "games are dead," it's interesting. I play cash, not MTT's or SnG's. But I'm seeing tons of 3betting, squeezing, c/r'ing flops. Totally different than 2007-era micros. But the money isn't going in good too often. There are big pots out there begging to be won by the patient, thoughtful player.

Unfortunately, that isn't me as often as I'd like.

Again, best of luck to you. I'll be following along here to see how things go. Cheers!

Big variance fest today at EPT Barcelona. Just busted the main 119th now at my room killing some time before my massive feast arrives.

Ran QQ in KK a few hours ago for 200k chips, Qxxxx board. Bumped up to 400k. Table breaks shortly after, sitting on maybe 300k at the time of break. Get ~140k in at 4k/8k blinds 3 way with QQ, run into KK and AK. No improvement. Few orbits later rip 20 bigs big blind vs button, double up to 300 and change. Few orbits later, squeeze JJ big blind vs CO/BU, w/ 40 bigs, CO 4bets. I rip - calls - cannot hold vs AQs.

GG Barcelona. Played a total of 6 tournaments, bricked all but main. Going to beach it tomorrow, work out, maybe catch some friends for dinner then prepare for my journey back home. Overall very happy with my play. I've had big bluffs called, flips lost, and in the 2k estrellas high roller I had my money in on the turn with 91% equity for ~3/4 my (large) stack and lost (not losing this would have nearly ensured a deep run given how close to the money it was) - but I never once let any of this affect how I played the next hands. I think some serious edge can be had just by getting a hold of that. Even if someone is technically better than you at certain parts of the game, if they tilt they just lost all that skill advantage they had coming in - and I have noticed a lot of players getting tilted over results, so there is clearly room to gain an edge in this area.

And of course I had my fair share of delivery in suckouts. Goes both ways. Accept what is and move along.

Next EPT stop = Malta.

Quick insert of a post before I'm back in Europe

I've been playing a lotttt of MTTs lately, and having said that a few things came to mind. If you are looking to improve your NLHE game and are playing at a reasonable level (i.e. you dont need to study what hands to play preflop out of big blind, etc) start here:

1) probing turn - this is the #1 leak of MTT players by far and its not even close. there are very few players who understand how they should approach probing the turn. Sizings, freuquency, and choice of hands are all seriously bombed in this aspect. Let's just say it will take a lot of study to get solid here, so I don't expect this to change anytime soon.
2) cbetting out of position - population is way too wide here.
3) stop raising sb limps 100%. I don't understand why the faulty logic of 'im going to raise the first limp 100% to see where I'm at or w/e came in to play but I'm happy that all my limp/shoves are about twice as profitable as they were before. Also, if someone is on a mixed strategy, you're better off playing less aggressively at first until you get a better idea of their ranges. Also don't forget what raising say 50% of hands does to your checking range.

Now some things a lot of MTT guys do well which is tough to do much about:
1) apply sufficient pressure during bubble situations.
- you will have to learn what hands you should open jam for 20 bigs if you want to learn how to not light lots of chips on fire
2) sniffing out suspicious lines
- because MTT guys are so off base with playing theoretically sound, if you are doing something that is an obvious exploit, if you aren't balanced you may be in touble as these guys have been trained to max exploit lines instead of playing ranges. obviously this can be used to your advantage, but often I think they are benefiting from it if you have some holes in your strategy.
3) exploiting fish - not much to be said here, they just do it better than cash game pro's usually if we must compare the two populations as a whole

Hey Robb good to see you drop in for post! I see you are back at it and I welcome you back with wishing the best of luck.

Cash games have gotten much tougher over the years, even at lower stakes. I can't speak for the micro's but I'm under the impression there are a lot of grinders compared to recreational players than there used to be. Accepting a lower win rate and working harder at game selection (and strategy) are both more important than ever right now.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Hey Robb good to see you drop in for post! I see you are back at it and I welcome you back with wishing the best of luck.

Cash games have gotten much tougher over the years, even at lower stakes. I can't speak for the micro's but I'm under the impression there are a lot of grinders compared to recreational players than there used to be. Accepting a lower win rate and working harder at game selection (and strategy) are both more important than ever right now.

There's an upside, however. You don't need 40 BI at 25nl to have fun against decent players. Just load up some 2nl and 5nl. For a recreational player, it's nirvana.

By the way, big gambling news here in GA, USA. The lottery that supports higher education is going busto. (Politicians spent surplus, then lottery revenues trended lower. All very predictable.) So there's a proposal to commission 6 casinos (river boats, Indian lands, etc). At least a couple of them would have poker rooms, according to the records published to date.

Be fun to play live without it requiring a 9 hour one-way trip to Biloxi.

your posts continue to inspire. nh sir

Originally Posted by daven

your posts continue to inspire. nh sir

Long time no update.

Have somewhat isolated myself into my lab for awhile and haven't been on forums other than a quick lurk.

I study a lot and play a lot of poker. I make an effort to play as many live events as I can, mostly for the experience and not concerned with it being lower hourly. Sometimes you just have to mix it up, and the social aspect is nice. I mostly play live tournaments rather than cash, which are pretty funny. The ego of tournament players is off the charts. Though I've had my days of steaming ego, so we are all just on a different point of the path of life really.

Poker is my calling, and will probably be what I do until it dies/I die. I'm pretty much just grinding 24/7 to get the last remaining dead chips out there before the bots take over. After that will probably do nothing but meditate and think/write/chill for a year, seek out new friendships and experiences, and such and explore new investment opportunities.

For now though, I'm in warrior mode. Back to the grind I go....

If you want to see something actually interesting, check out my hosuewiffs new blog about how she puts up with me playing poker for a living: https://king-queensuited.com/about/

Mad props to her for being very supportive of my lifestyle.

Hope you all are well, chow for now.

-Ryan

Congrats on the Marathon final table!

Originally Posted by The Bean Counter

Congrats on the Marathon final table!

details? congrats!

Originally Posted by givememyleg

details? congrats!

Here we go - stumbled upon the article whilst looking for an option to provide feedback (read: moan) about the Mini_WCOOP equivalent:
https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/o...k-163168.shtml

Cash game grinder with a 2+2 blog won it. He ran hot at the FT and knocked out M2M (KK>QQ).

The Tomatee river bluff with A3o is the most interesting line at the final table.

Nice score, good job!

awesome!

That was fun 8)

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

That was fun 8)

Glad to see you're doing well pal both in poker and in life.

Keep pushing to crush it all. Much respect.

Congrats!

Glad to hear you're grinding hard and have a girl who's supportive of the lifestyle. (I didn't even recognize you in that picture on the blog, haha.)

And kudos for you putting up with the pond scum that is live tournament poker players. Jesus Christ, I don't know how you do it. Don't let them break you.

Originally Posted by surviva316

Congrats!

Glad to hear you're grinding hard and have a girl who's supportive of the lifestyle. (I didn't even recognize you in that picture on the blog, haha.)

And kudos for you putting up with the pond scum that is live tournament poker players. Jesus Christ, I don't know how you do it. Don't let them break you.

haha that doesnt surprise me that you didn't recognize, ive changed a lot over the years in both my look and personality.

a number of live tournament poker players confirmed pond scum.... not all of them though, don't want to scapegoat, but yeah. Always try to stay vigilant when playing live.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Always try to stay vigilant when playing live.

yep. and when leaving live venues. irrespective of whether you have a box/use the safe

Thanks for sharing your story Micro, congratulations on your success