coinflips: i love them

So I've decided to start a blog of sorts on here. Courtiebee is skeptical that I'll keep this going. Probably because I never really keep anything like this going. She's pretty much correct but we'll see how long we can roll with this.

Short(ish) bio:

I'm a 24 (25 in a few weeks) year old male who's originally from upstate redneck Pennsylvania. For those who aren't familiar, upstate Pennsylvania is the land time forgot. That area was majorly dependent on coal and steel and those two industries are just in the shitter.

My life was going in a pretty awful direction until I met my future wife on here. She is of course the famous mod courtiebee. I started talking to her on January 29th, 2006, met her on December 29th of the same year and we've been dating ever since. It hasn't been easy, it hasn't always been fun, but ultimate it's the most fulfilling decision I've ever made in my life. I chose to take a pretty tough path that has challenged me in more ways than one but I think has lead to improvement of my life and as a person. We're going to get married in June and I couldn't be happier about it. So now I spend most of my time in the Vancouver, BC area with her.

ONTO CONTENT OF BLOG AND CURRENT TIME STUFF.

I am a full time donkamenter in the low and midstakes level on Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker. dthorne04 on Stars, educated idiot on full tilt poker. Yes, my FTP name is mega douche but I was like 19 and thought it was cool. FML. Guess I'll have to become a red pro someday. I can join the cast of roughly 200 pros who are on there.

I start this blog at the worst statistical time of my poker career. I'm on like a -325 to -350 ABI downswing over 2k MTTs that started in October. It has not been fun. There were 10 day stints in November and December where I didn't play for the holidays/traveling etc.

I feel like it's kind of cool that I can start this blog at a time where one might think it's a low point in my career. However, I look at it as an opportunity to document the climb out of downswingville and the triumphant return to profittown. Keeping perspective is important as well because at the end of the day I'm playing a card game rather than working a job that does absolutely to further my life goals and provides me no fulfillment.

Courtney's en route to PCA so I'm going to just grind hard the next four days. Like 200 MTTs.

Also, I share a blog with her as she mentioned in her operation. donkeybrains.wordpress.com ftw.

BYE NOW

LMBTFTS

first

David Thorne 12:23 am
the fuck
LMBTFTS
lick my balls to fuck the shit
givememyleg 12:23 am
LOL
givememyleg 12:23 am
let me be the first to say

YouTube - Deftones - Passenger (ft. Maynard James Keenan)

<3 chino + maynard

YouTube - Thrice - Beggars - Live at Shock Sessions

probably the best rock band (imo ofc) that no one ever talks about, thrice

LMBTFTS
2nd

1) omg wtf why do u keep changing your avatars to honey badgers

2) omg why did you start this thread, now the wordpress blog will NEVER be updated

3) omg why do you keep telling ppl we're gonna get married when my dad doesn't even know yet

4) fu?

asian parents itt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mcatdog

asian parents itt

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Loled

I like this blog already. Many lols in the first 8 posts.

also +100000000000000000 to Thrice. Fucking love them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by courtiebee

1) omg wtf why do u keep changing your avatars to honey badgers

2) omg why did you start this thread, now the wordpress blog will NEVER be updated

3) omg why do you keep telling ppl we're gonna get married when my dad doesn't even know yet

4) fu?

---

Funny shit right there bro. Sounds to me like you're already married!

Honey badgers are so +EV

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by courtiebee

1) omg wtf why do u keep changing your avatars to honey badgers

2) omg why did you start this thread, now the wordpress blog will NEVER be updated

3) omg why do you keep telling ppl we're gonna get married when my dad doesn't even know yet

4) fu?

---

1)Honey badgers are the greatest animal out there. They tear off the scrotums of big cats and generally don't give a fuck. Also: YouTube - MUST WATCH: Honey Badger-The Most Fearless Animal on Earth

2)Because this one will be fun, I think. It will work side by side with the wordpress blog. You are wrong and I refuse to admit anything otherwise.

3)Because then you're culpable and if you back out then I have proof that we were supposed to get married. I KNOW WHERE MY GRAVY TRAIN IS AT

4)no u

Thanks for the replies guys.

Time to vamo.

YouTube - Thrice - Come All You Weary

Song of the day. So awesome.

o hey i like thrice too.

YouTube - Thrice - Silhouette

gl with ur donkaments

ty good sir. have you seen them live before? probably since you're from cali and so are they. they are the stone cold nuts live, saw them with courtney in a small ass club. was sick. silhouette live is just wtfawesome. it's crazy listening to their old songs live now because dustin doesn't sound like a teenager anymore and all the songs sound vastly better now than they did then.

made a small FT, got 8th after losing a flip for the CL. OOPS. only got in 30 mtts today, just wasn't feeling great today. I think it's really important to be honest with yourself and cut a session short if you're not playing well/your best/etc. You have to be really familiar with how you play when you're playing well vs. when you're not playing well. I chose to cut it short by a fair margin and I feel good about it. It's rare I do that, but I didn't sleep too well last night. Took a pretty crappy spill outside last night (slick from snow etc.) and my whole right side is sore. Really uncomfortable to sleep on.

vamooooo

Congrats you crazy kids

thank you sir.

question, how old are you? i've always wondered this. if i had to guess, late 20s.

random thoughts of the evening:

i really love a cold beer and a hot shower. super super relaxing.

i'm pretty confident with the volume i'm starting to put up and with how i'm starting to open up my game in certain spots that i'm getting more and more equipped to rip off a really really good run. all i can do is keep working hard and working on my game in the mean time, though.

got tickets for the deftones show in vancouver in april. they're playing back to back nights (monday and tuesday, my off days woot. going tuesday night though) really surprised they're playing the commodore ballroom, though. it's a super nice club, the best in vancouver and the most played by the biggest bands. i guess they couldn't sell out an arena here on their own. they were here supporting alice in chains in october with mastodon as well but i'm not really a fan of arena shows so meh. mastodon is pretty awesome though.

looking forward to the rumored UFC show that's supposed to be here in June. It's supposed to happen one week after our planned wedding date and is rumored to has Lesnar - Dos Santos as the main event, winner gets Cain after he's healthy.

sleepy time now. gonna register tomorrow from 8 AM PST to 3:35 PM PST. good luck all.

I'll be 34 in August. But I have no kids which takes off 7-10 years.

you are my hero, I can usually only make myself reg for 3 hours unless it's FTOPS/COOP time. How many tables?

arthriticboy itt

generally i'll start off with 4 or so, then as the session rolls on i'll have upwards of 10-12. 10 is probably what i feel like is my nut best right now. if i start to make a lot of runs in stuff i will start to pull back, get rid of stuff from later in my session + late reg rebuys etc. For the most part I genuinely enjoy long sessions. Who knows, going back to the gym soon so as my stamina gets better I might go even longer. I've really started to enjoy the MTT grind over the last few months. I started grinding harder/more around WCOOP time as the midstakes tourneys became freaking awesome, had a good 45 days or so then it's just been rough since then.

I'm shooting for roughly 7-8k mtts this year so I don't really want to slack.

How's your significant other take your MTT grinding? I never really had a super serious girlfriend before Courtney but she gets 'it' obviously. I'm fortunate that if I want to grind a 15 hour day, she'd probably be fine with it.

Planning on having youngin's?

no to kids, believe it or not "vasectomy" is on my to do list. Next week I'm making the appointment! hopefully. We do have 3 dogs.

mostly it is OK with the wife, I spend 2-4 hours in the AM with her Friday - Sunday before heading to play, then we usually get at least one evening where I've run bad, sometimes 2. She doesn't work on Fridays which helps. She'll often end up bringing dinner down stairs on those days which is super awesome of her and which I assume she'd quit doing if she secretly resented it. Then Mon-Thurs nights are mostly with her, I usually only play one shift those days, maybe get some plo in when she goes to bed. I'm sure there are spots here and there where she wishes I was around but tbh we probably spend too much time together more than not enough.

I got in 2200 ments last year plus enough plo hands to get to nova, I think I am shooting for 4k this year but I'm using Jan to judge before I set a goal. I have this disease where i hate playing in stuff with a < 5k prize that I am trying to cure myself of. Work about 20 hours a week at the 'real' job.

Thanks for answering my questions drmc. Dogs are the nuts. :)

Sounds like a pretty good setup you have. How's PLO overall? I notice you tend to crush PLO MTTs.

Yeah I mean where I'm at I need to grind those non glamorous MTTs. Variance killers and such. Definitely don't love them but just how it goes, I guess.

Do you mind if I ask what your real job is?

Today was overall great success. Woke up around 7 AM, started by just before 8 AM. Registered about 40 MTTs up until 3:35 PM. Had a ton of runs.

And:


PokerStars Tournament #350348426, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.30 USD
1123 players
Total Prize Pool: $15810.00 USD
Tournament started 2011/01/14 11:45:00 PT [2011/01/14 14:45:00 ET]


Dear dthorne04,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 2,846.25 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Gonna go to bed a little earlier tonight and hit it hard again tomorrow.

Oh. Also, courtiedonk is grinding that shortstack in the womens donkshow. 20 bbs last i heard. got 96 entries.

woooo nice score

i work from home doing programming for a really small company. it's a perfect poker job, more or less set my own hours.

PLO cash is good for VPPs and has really helped my overall game, I don't think I'm up more than 10k over 3 years or so, maybe less. Every time I try to play 2/4 I tend to lose 10 BIs and decide I'll drop back down. Mostly I don't want cash losses to keep me from playing big coop/ftops. plus I sometimes read the BBV HSPLO thread and the graphs posted by guys way better than me turn my hair gray.

Thanks trips.

Bustobee is busto. THE DREAM IS DEAD

If nothing else the VPP whoring is nice. Stellars ftw. How many VPP did you accrue last year?

HSPLO swings seem absurd.

Job sounds absurdly perfect for a poker player.

Thanks again for adding all this insight. Mucho appreciation.

SLEEPY TIME, MOAR VAMO NECESSARY

something like 115k. most of that was by mid October, I was pretty lazy post 100k

congrats on the score, yo.

That's a lot of VPP drmc.

Thanks carrrrrrrrrrrlest of carls.

PokerStars Tournament #402010466, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $25.00/$2.50 USD
360 players
Total Prize Pool: $9000.00 USD
Tournament started 2011/01/15 10:45:00 PT [2011/01/15 13:45:00 ET]


Dear dthorne04,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 1,755.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

hi

boom

Live Reporting | 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure | Main Event | Huge Fold Keeps Hall Alive | PokerNews

http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/q...r-troopers.jpg

From the button, Galen Hall raised to 450,000 holding the http://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/8c.gifhttp://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/4h.gif. Chris Oliver defended from the big blind with the http://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/da.gifhttp://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/2s.gif and the two were off to the flop. The first three community cards came down http://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/5d.gifhttp://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/3d.gifhttp://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/2c.gif. Oliver took the lead with the best hand having flopped a pair of deuces. Hall added an open-ended straight draw. Oliver checked and Hall fired 575,000. Oliver made the call.
The turn brought the http://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/2h.gif and paired the board. It also gave Oliver trips and took away the bottom end of the straight draw for Hall. Oliver checked his trips and Hall checked behind.
Jaws dropped and eyes popped from everyone watching the feed as the river hit with the http://www.pokernews.com/img/cards/as.gif. Hall had made his straight, but Oliver had him notched with a full house. Oliver got sneaky with his full house and checked. Hall fired out a bet of two million and had walked right into Oliver's trap. Oliver thought for a little bit and started to cut out some chips. Then, he moved all in to go for max value and try and end this thing right here. Hall didn't snap-call. He tanked for a few minutes holding the wheel. Eventually, Hall gave it up and made one the best folds we've ever been witness to. Oliver scooped the pot and little does he know how very close he was to winning this thing right here.


Read more: Live Reporting | 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure | Main Event | Huge Fold Keeps Hall Alive | PokerNews

Hall had 50 bbs behind, jam after pot sized bet was a pretty massive overbet. Goddamn.

"I suck postflop so I play tournaments"

-dthorne

:h:

i firmly believe i'd say that but i don't believe you :cool:

uhh easy fold, what is going on

In theory, yes. In game, much harder.

Sunday trip report: It fucking sucked. Got 20th in the turbo 54 KO out of like 1k+ runners, got super coolered for CL (actually got there, then he re got there) then three outered twice.

Then 89th in 3r, and 32nd in that new Multi Fifty on FTP. Prob shouldn't have played it, super reggy field. Ran pretty decent, played pretty well overall. Unfortunately KK didn't hold vs. FTP pro's 44 for the chiplead.

It's dumb to whine, though. I still had a really great weekend overall. I really do need to detach myself from the emotional highs and lows of Sundays, though. It's really easy to be like that, but it's not good for my long term growth as a poker player. It's just the nature of the Sunday beast and I need to accept that.

Pats lost though. :D

http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com..._spl120299.jpg

ez game

the only multi entry I played was the turbo 100, was in 4x, it was not a good choice either.

Yeah. If I had looked at the field before registering I would've been like NO TY. But I didn't and made a fun run. I can only imagine how reggy the turbo 100 was. I think during multi entry week I'm just going to hit a few MTTs on FTP on the lower side of my buyins. No fucking clue what I'm going to do on the Sunday. How do I not load up like four Double Deuce tables?

lol I had same thought but did not start playing until after 6 est and missed it.

I agree on dbl gtd week, I will be rocking the 24s and 10 rbs of the FTP world (I predict I will be in the 10 plo rb for more than 3 rd place money negraneau style). Totally not sure what I will do for the mutli FTOPS - I mean for sure no on the 100rb or the ME that I can't really afford anyway, but something like the 120 it's going to be tempting. Also I lol at the ME rush tourneys, who can play 4 rush tables with anything else going? crazy internet kids.

Two month bump.

I tend to not want to write too much when poker is going terrible. That would explain why I haven't written in my shared blog with Courtney or in this one in the past two months. Poker is fucking brutal. I once underestimated the variance in MTT poker. Never again. After watching just how terrible it went for Courtney in her first two months of playing MTTs a lot (which was followed by utter rape of variance by her) and now how badly it's gone for me.

Short background: I used to be very, very bad at MTTs and I became profitable after meeting mcatdog through spenda. After that I made a lot of basic changes to my MTT game. (mostly push fold) I was fortunate to meet him because he's one of the most brutally honest people I've ever met and with him being one of my best friends in the game it was really lucky for me because I learned a metric fuckton. I was very consistent from mid November 2008 to about mid October 2010. That's when I was planning on playing $109 FOs more consistently as well as $22 rebuys with a solid amount of volume which would probably result in me doing 1.5k-2k in buyins per day, minimum.

Welp.

http://s1193.photobucket.com/albums/...rrent=WELP.pnghttp://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/...rne04/WELP.png

What have I learned in the meantime? Variance can be astounding and soul crushing. In no way, shape, or form do I believe I've played my best game every day. At times, the downswing has definitely affected me negatively. It's hard not to. Some days you just feel like a giant pile of shit and it affects every decision you make.

That graph is at about $30 ABI. Also, in before quit FTP. Fuck Howard Lederer though. That cocksucker.

I've also learned that just because you have a high expectation in something (or you believe you do) doesn't mean you should play it. I think myself and a ton of others don't think of the volatility and variance involved in playing many MTTs. I've taken a few MTTs out of my schedule and at times have thought about quitting Sundays. Probably won't do that though. :)

I do regret not making changes earlier. I definitely let my pride get in the way. I can definitely beat the games I play, almost certainly all of the ones I've been playing in the past five months. That doesn't necessarily mean I should play them, however. The sheer amount of deep runs I've had in the last five months is staggering. The shots at massively ROI changing money have been there. Time and time again. Again, won't say I played perfectly but holy shit have situations just gone awry.

The gist of this all is that it can always be worse. Relative to the stakes I play I don't know if it can get much worse than this and that's comforting in a very weird way. I know I'm not anywhere close to what my current run would reflect. I will crush this game once again. I'm fortunate in the fact that I have a really awesome life and I'm marrying a truly amazing girl in just a few months. My life could probably use some more balance, but as with everyone else it's a work in progress. I however am sad I haven't written more about this while it's been going on. If nothing else it'll help me keep things relative down the line, I'll have something written down somewhere reminding me just how bad it can be.

In closing: MTT's are fucking brutal. You better love what you're doing it or it will fucking eat you alive.

</TL;DR>
http://s1193.photobucket.com/albums/...rne04/WELP.png

That graph is painful. But it looks like you're pretty close to one good win from fully recovering from your downswing.

In before binks a 15k score!

gl

Ouch, hope things get better soon. Seems like you still have a good attitude which a lot of people wouldn't be able to say. SCOOP's almost here, just win one of those


Here's a blog post about MTT variance:

Life as an Online MTT Pro by the Numbers (It’s Hard) | NoahSD&#039;s Awesome Poker Blog

Depressing but worth looking at

thanks for the kind words callmenuts.

thanks as well, fjuanl. i'm really fortunate to have the people I do in my life who've been insanely supportive. courtney has been helping me stay positive the whole time. the gist of it for me is that I really love MTT's. I'm willing to adapt my schedule but i'm not willing to play any other form of poker. I really love MTT poker.

yeah, i read that and the one after. it is possible to be a huge winner and lose over an extended period of time, which is a bit horrifying of course. hence why i'm changing my schedule a bit, trying to work in some more small fields. i'm trying not to get lured in by massive payouts and huge fields as much as i used to. in one respect, yes my ROI in it is huge. in another, how fucking long am i going to have to play to realize said ROI and is my time better served by playing a small field $22/$26/$55 etc. it's hard, though. with massive MTTs rolling out more often it's hard to not get sucked in.

full tilt can go fuck itself imho. i don't want to play 2k+ fields on weekdays for all my MTTs anymore. i realize i can abstain from FTP but meh. it kind of grinds my gears that we're paying these idiots a fuckton of rake every fucking double guarantee MET week but yet their support is about as useful as AIDS.

haven't played the last few days because of a stupid sinus infection that's lasted all of march. it may have messed with my results this month and i definitely played less sessions because of it. it finally got to the point where i wasn't able to breathe out of my one nostril and i couldn't really sleep well. lesson to be learned: don't mess around with sinus infections. go to the doctor and find out if it's a virus. if it's not, you'll get it taken care of faster. i was one miserable son of a bitch this month.

gonna start waking up around 6 AM PST (if not earlier) and get my grind on shortly after. i dream of the day i don't register past noon. in one respect yes, it's insanely early. on the other, i'll be done by 3 PM or 4PM on my average, and then i can still go out and it's sunny. idk. courtney's coming back from scotland on thursday and she'll be ready to sleep early and get up early. we'll try it out.

back to the grind tomorrow. vamo, etc.

gl

Quote:

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Relative to the stakes I play I don't know if it can get much worse than this and that's comforting in a very weird way.

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alarm bells

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drmcboy

gl




alarm bells

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ty @ gl.

elaborate please @ alarm bells.

it can always get much worse. Re reading, you even said that! So maybe I just don't get what you mean.

saying it can't get much worse feels like you're thinking "Hey, I've been running terrbile so I'm due to run good!". You're due to run and that's it. If you run bad for another two months will you still be comforted? If so I guess it's kinda OK to think like this, but my concern would be you'll be even more tilted because you stuck this random post in the sand and called it the 'worst'... and then it got worse.

That was rambly - cliffs are where is that comfort coming from? I don't think it's a good place.

I think it's great you don't post when things are going badly. Writing about how bad things are just enforces the idea in your mind that it's some sort of conspiracy against you. When I know you know in reality running bad is what makes poker profitable. You can't run bad at chess.

That said, if you are not posting because you're ashamed of your results, that is another clue that you are not looking at things the right way. Everyone has to move down now and again, or if they don't, fuck them.

I'm not saying you need to have a party to celebrate the fish taking all your money. It sucks. But whenever you find yourself thinking something like "This is my worst downswing ever" it's an indicator that you're thinking about the results too much. I mean, who cares if it's the worst or the 3rd worst? Did you make sure it was the worst in terms of $$ AND ave BI lost? What about ITM%? Hourly $$ lost? It's all just a bunch of dumb numbers. Spend that time thinking about how to get better or doing something fun.

One gift we get as MTTers is that you're only a (Sun)day away. Cherish that. If you're down 50 BIs at 1/2 you're not getting 'even' this week. Plus, when you play cash you expect a win every day. MTTs you know when you sit down you'll probably be down when you stand back up.

It's been said before but the key to happiness in poker is to forget that magic all time lifetime high number. I remember in Vegas Renton told me that he had no idea what his was +-50k. I was amazed. I'm not that guy and I won't ever be, but it's something to aspire too.


Small fields are great. Most of the smaller ones I play are omaha and even though tourney omaha is lol swingament the overall effect has for sure been more steady results.

Sometimes when I'm feeling like it's just a grind I'll dial back and just play 2-4 tables instead of 8-12. Don't do it to get get better, although if that happens by accident it's OK. Do it to remember this is a game that most people play because they think it's more fun that doing whatever else they would have been doing. Laugh at bad beats. Chat with people. Get in something cheap and play 60/40.

PS I can't say you'll run good, but I can say I know you'll play good and game select good. Celebrate those things and then try and let the rest take care of itself.

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/1233928590...20clapping.gif

I definitely should've clarified how I felt about that statement. I more mean that as in how poker affects me, it can't get much worse, or something to that effect. I dunno.

Anywho, not going to dispute anything else because what you wrote was really good. Thought out and well written and I really appreciate you taking the time to write that. I definitely appreciate it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drmcboy

One gift we get as MTTers is that you're only a (Sun)day away. Cherish that. If you're down 50 BIs at 1/2 you're not getting 'even' this week. Plus, when you play cash you expect a win every day. MTTs you know when you sit down you'll probably be down when you stand back up.

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I don't want to derail too much but this is great doc. One thing that has always bugged me about playing MTT's even though I really enjoy them was the long slow losing graphs with big bumps that may or may not get you back to even. I wonder how hard it would be to embrace this thought and truly believe it enough to make MTT's a bigger part of my game.