So I’m off to Petaluma, CA for a week to visit with Noel and Dodgyken. I’m very excited as it’s the first traveling I’ve done in quite awhile and a place I’ve never been to. I may make a few updates along the way, but if you’re actually interested your best bet is checking dodgy’s blog as he’s been documenting his most recent American adventures pretty regularly.
I’ve been reading a decent amount lately and I came across this very interesting quote from Reminiscences of a Stock Operator on page 114 which I think is very relevant to most poker players, myself included, who tend to play longer when stuck and shorter when winning.
“The speculator’s chief enemies are always boring from within. It is inseparable from human nature to hope and to fear. In speculation when the market goes against you you hope that every day will be the last day–and you lose more than you should had you not listened to hope–to the same ally that is so potent a success-bringer to empire builders and pioneers, big and little. And when the market goes your way you become fearful that the next day will take away your profit, and you get out–too soon. Fear keeps you from making as much money as you ought to. The successful trader has to fight these two deep-seated instincts. He has to reverse what you might call his natural impulses. Instead of hoping he must fear; instead of fearing he must hope. He must fear that his loss may develop into a much bigger loss, and hope that his profit may become a big profit. It is absolutely wrong to gamble in stocks the way the average man does.”
check out the rofl brothel(click on the image twice)
I’m not just talking about poker but anything. Say you want to become the next Tiger Woods, Lebron James, Alex Rodriguez, Warren Buffet, Phil Galfond. I’d argue that work ethic, practice and sheer time spent working on something is the main thing holding you back and chances are, you’re not catching up anytime soon. I don’t just mean sheer number of hours doing something either, I’m talking about quality practice.
Take poker for example, can you really think of anyone that’s critically thought through more hands while playing them than Phil Galfond? I mean sure plenty of people have played more hands, more hours even but Phil literally thinks about every decision of every hand and every possible decision he will have to make later. He does this for every single hand he plays. Nobody I know who plays poker comes close to having done this for anywhere near as many hands as Phil.
I recently read an article in the WSJ(I can’t find it, I looked. It was in the personal journal section I believe though) saying something along the lines of the only difference between the average joe and Tiger Woods is hitting a golf ball a million times (it didn’t give an exact number, which is irrelevent btw, but let me explain). It went on to say that the typical amateur golfer goes to the driving range once a week and pretty much just mindlessly smacks 100 golf balls. It’s relaxing to him and afterwards he feels good about himself because after after all that practice he’s just done he’s becoming a better golf player. Fact of the matter is, the study found that if you are not critically thinking about everything you do before, while and after you hit that ball (which should be very mentally exhausting if you’re doing it right) you’re probably not improving. Now, surprise surprise, can you think of anyone’s who’s probably done this more times than Tiger? The dude’s been doing it since his father was coaching him when he was five. I’m sure critiquing everything about his swing. Just look at his routine before he makes a putt. It takes him 5 mins of prep time to gauge the green surface, wind, get his feet set, etc etc and make sure everything is exactly right before he hits the ball. He’s been doing this every day for about 30 years. Now, anyone can probably become just about as good as him if they take the time to put just as much mentally exhausting practice in as him (about 30 years worth), but the fact of the matter is, nobody is going to because people are lazy. They are going to become mentally lazy, physically lazy, burnt out after so long, or past their physical peak by the time they have the experience.
Now, I hope you can see the parallels to the typical pro poker player who mindlessly puts in 20 hrs a week 8 tabling. There’s a reason Leatherass and Phil have more money than you. They work harder and longer than you. This brings me to my next realization. I’m a lazy mofo. I’ve put in less than 10k hands this month. I’m coming to the realization that I’m never going to become that elite player playing nosebleeds or even a sick grinder like Leatherass because of my laziness and I’m okay with that. Fact is, I don’t like working very hard. I’m perfectly comfortable enjoying my free time doing other things and only playing when I want to work. I don’t want to be on call 24/7 or 12 table 8 hours a day every single day. Do I want a million bucks? Sure just as much as the next guy, but the fact is I don’t really have what it takes to make it quickly like those guys. A lot of people say they want to become like their idol who’s risen to the top of their profession, but before you make that your goal, truly ask yourself “Are you willing to do what it takes?”
PLO PokerTracker
PLO Graph
NLH PokerTracker
NLH Graph
Ended up losing about $2500 this month, only ~$1000 if you count rakeback. Not too terribly upset about it actually, I took at shot at moving up to 5/10 plo and it didn’t work out. This month though my main focus is going to be making some dough mostly to pay off the huge downswing that is taxes. I plan on playing more midstakes nlh to make sure this happens. In May, it’s very likely I’ll have another shot taking month and if that ends up breakeven/losing well so be it.
I’ve been working on my ATM Business a decent amount trying to get it off the ground and I’m making some good progress there. I got my LLC registered with the state (costs $215), opened a bank account in the business’ name, some paperwork filled out with my processor, business cards printed, and scouted out some good locations I plan on approaching some time next week. It’s kinda exciting and a good break from poker. It also makes me feel like I’m slightly contributing to society by providing people with a minor convenience where as poker is just a straight up drain/waste/leech on society. That’s about it for updates, best of luck at the tables to you in April!
Super nice customer service rep called me first thing this morning and offered to reimburse my courier fee, pay for an immediate wire transfer, and freeroll me in their sunday major 200k guarantee this Sunday. Pretty happy with the result actually, if you have similar problems in the future I’d recommend you
a) contact him directly if their normal customer service reps aren’t responding/helping you out. His e-mail is alonso@ultimatebet.com
or if your problems are with a different site or still not getting solved
b) go public with your complaints much sooner than i did
Can you solve the pinocchio paradox?
As if you need more of a reason not to play on these sites after the super user scandal but take this as my own personal PSA. It has been nearly 5 months since I decided I wanted my money off of these sites. Below is the timeline, mostly just me whining if you don’t want to read I totally understand just skip to the end and watch the youtube vid, I’ll have a better less whiny update come the end of the month. x-posted in this thread
11/25/2008 – I request cashout for my account balance which nets to $7978 after I paid them the $35 “courier fee”
12/10/2008(estimate) – two weeks later I receive checks, at this point I’m in no hurry to cash them so I wait awhile
1/5/2009 – I attempt to cash my checks for $5000 and $2978 and am told my checks are no good. They were issued by Chevy Chase Bank which I believe went under so I have to have new checks issued even though these checks are <45 days old 1/20/2009 - I email them explaining the situation 1/23/2009 - I email them again with the same explanation after getting no response in three days. 1/23/2009 - New checks are issued 2/5/2009 - I email asking when I should receive my checks they reply Thank you for contacting us. In regards to your email, The Stop payment was confirmed on the 23rd of January. You should be receiving your mail check for the amount of $7978 by the 16th of February. Please keep in mind that mailchecks can take up to 15-17 business days for arrival. We appreciate your time and understanding in this matter. 2/7/2009 (estimate) - I receive and cash my check for $5000, still waiting on $2978 check. 2/17/2009 - I email them inquiring about $2978 check they reply Today is the 17th business days, however there was just a holiday Presidents Day in which the US postal services don not delivery mail. Therefore if by tomorrow you have not received your check we will place a stop payment on your check and reissue a new one. 2/25/2009 - I inform them that I never received the $2978 check. They reply In regards to your concern, this is the message we are receiving from USPS: "We returned more than one result based on the information you provided. This could be because you didn't enter a street number, the street number you entered has more than one unit associated with it (e.g., apartment building) etc". That is the reason why you have not being able to received your check accurately. We suggest you to update the information on your profile including the street number. 2/25/2009 - O rly? 3 checks have been received at this address from them and "suddenly" they are getting problems from ups with the 4th one. They reply with the following. We kindly inform you that a stop payment has been placed on the check, we suggest you to change your address into a valid one since this is the second time that a check hasn't been delivered. 2/27/2009 - I update my address and request a new check for the 3rd time. 3/5/2009 - They reply Please note that as soon as the stop payment has been confirmed, 7 to 10 business days, the checks will be reissued to the new address reflected in your account. 3/12/2009 - I inquire as to the status as I still haven't been paid. They reply: We kindly inform you that a inquiry on this check has been done since the time frame for your stop payment has expired we will let you know as soon as we receive their reply 3/16/2009 - I again ask about the status - they reply Thank you for your email. We know that you have been extremely patience with this issue regarding your check. Your email has been forwarded to the Reprocessing team and they will contact you as soon as they are informed from the processor the status the your check. 3/26/2009 - I threaten legal action hoping to speed things along. If I do not receive an e-mail indicating that a new check has been issued to me in the next 10 days, by April 3rd, I am going to sue your company. I had original checks issued to me in November, nearly 4 months ago. I have bills to pay. 3/27/2009 - They reply Thank you for contacting us. Please be advised that we processed two checks to be sent via regular mail on January 24th, TID 999999 - $5,000 and TID 99999 - $2,978. Note that these payouts were sent to following address, as it was displayed on your profile: xxx old address xxx However, since you have not received your funds, we could place a stop payment on both checks. Once confirmed, we could either reissue a new check or placed the funds in your poker account. If you wish to request a new payout, we would be sending your funds to the following address: xxxx new address xxx Please let us know as soon as possible in order to proceed with the stop payment. Also, we kindly ask you to change the state displayed on your profile, currently Washington. Looking forward to your response. Best regards, Sergio Payments Department AbsolutePoker.com 3/27/2009 - I reply 1. I already cashed the check for $5,000 and I never received the check for $2,978. 2. I already requested a stop payment to be issued and you replied on March 5th with the following e-mail. Dear Andrew, Thank you for your email. Please note that as soon as the stop payment has been confirmed, 7 to 10 business days, the checks will be reissued to the new address reflected in your account. Best regards Fernando Payments Department UltimateBet.com 3. I already updated my address in my profile to the xxx address per your request. You are quite clearly just plain stalling. I paid you a $25 courier fee which is pure fraud in my opinion. You have 9 more days before I will begin pursuing legal action.
So poker has been pretty bleh lately, I think I’m stuck like $8k for the month mostly from failed shot taking but such is poker. It’s important to keep things in perspective and realize that life is pretty damn good for me right now and I really shouldn’t be concerned with short term results of the game. I work <30 hours a week, I make my own hours, I vacation whenever I want (just got back from a weekend trip to the cascade mountains and had a pretty good time) plus I'm already up a pretty good amount for the year so far. Recently I've been spending a lot of time researching purchasing ATMs. If you didn't know individuals could even own ATMs you were just like me about five days ago. They seem like really good investments as they only cost like $4k and the payback period on them is usually 6 months - 1 year. Inventory is cash, which is obviously vastly superior to something like vending machines where you have to purchase all different kinds of food and keep it stocked, and profit margins are bigger. The hard part is finding a good location. If you want to find out more about the business you can read this free HOWTO and/or purchase this e-book. Both have been very informative so far.
Sometimes I get in strange obsessive moods and google/read everything I can find on a subject. Recently that topic has been the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. I found a very cool podcast on it if it’s something you’re interested in learning more about (I just read the 30 page transcript). It talks about a lot of things like the Drake Equation, what would happen if we did have contact, why we haven’t had contact yet, what the definition of life is etc. Very cool stuff imo.
Just got done listening to the second of Tommy Angelo’s free podcast on DC, it’s episodes 7 & 8. Below is the notes I took while listening to it. Hope you find it helpful. I know I will review them before I play live in the future. I’m a big fan of anything this man does and am looking forward to his video series.
Episode 7: Part 1
-sit up & focus on breathing
-focus on the present & what is going on – mind wanders to past & future
-when getting overconfident, playing too loose, he cuts down on vpip by folding blinds in marginal spots more
-complaining about few # of hand dealt live is negative thinking, accept the fact that if you choose to play live you are going to be dealt 30 hands/hour and that is the way it is
-the best way to improve your poker game is to improve your life and let poker rise with the tide
-in superbowl players are just as fresh at beginning and end of the game, your goal in poker should be to stay focused entire session and not lose any stamina just like professional football players
-live, each time dealer deals, flip one chip over
Episode 8: Part 2
-to stop autopiloting, train the mind to focus on focusing, concentrating on the moment
-if no new information is gained by how a villain makes a play(timing tells, live tells, betsizes, etc) you should always be anticipating how you are reacting to a villain’s raise after making a bet at any point in a hand
-being shameless improves tiltlessness and improves table image by vaulting you above other players at the table
-happiness EV is always a variable when making decision (eg shot taking)
-sitting still (google zazen) not giving off tells, relaxing muscles
-on ethics: there is no “right” or “wrong” only people’s opinions
Update your links! Well it took awhile to get migrated over here, but I finally finished it up and got it all together. My images are still a little messed up and hosted on my old blog but whatever, if someone wants to go back through my posts and fix them make me a $$ offer and I may take you up on it. Also, my offer still stands for ANYONE that would like to trade blog links let me know!
Random updates…
Coaching session – went well. Definitely picked up on a couple things. Didn’t have any huge epiphany or anything, but definitely got some questions answered and picked up on some betsizing stuff.
March Madness pool – Btimm has informed me that he’ll be running a pool. I believe the buy-in is $20. Get in contact with him if you’re interested. The blog for it will be here
Watchmen – saw it in IMAX Sunday. I won’t spoil it for anyone or anything, I’ll just say its by far the best movie I’ve seen in awhile. Go see it if you haven’t already I definitely plan on getting the dvd when it comes out.
Pokerwise I would be having a great month so far if I never touched 5/10 plo, down 10k there so far this month. Luckily I’m still up 2k for the month right now and in all honesty I’ll probably take another 5/10 plo shot as soon as I get up 5k I just hope it doesn’t take me ~1 year to be able to consistently beat 5/10 plo like it did for 5/10 nlh. That’s about it for updates it’s uber late and I’m pretty tired from setting this site up, hope you like it!
So the last day of the month was quite a grind. I woke up pretty hung over as I’d just attended an all you can drink charity event the night before but I still needed 1900 vpp points on stars til the 10k mark for the month so some grinding had to be done. I ended up 6 tabling 2/4 plo for about 1300 hands and then finished the night 10 tabling 1/2 nlh. I had some good results and ran well for the day, I was actually really surprised how easy I found 9 tabling hold em to be, once I got to 10 though it was too much and I started making some mistakes but I only crossed the 10k vpp mark at 8:55 PST (stars runs on EST) with 5 mins to spare so 10 tables it was. Overall, it was a very good day for my bankroll padding $4300 or so but REALLY unpleasant grinding lots of tables for quite a few hours hungover which I don’t recommend to anyone.
Below are my results for February
Hold’em
PLO
Tournies I lost $550 or something on the 6max plo ftops so really ended up at like $22.3k. I was a shorstack at the time but here’s the bustout hand if you’re interested.
I’m obviously ecstatic about last month’s results. In march I’d really like to put in more volume however. I can’t expect to run this good every month. Things accounting for my low hand volume are
-I was 1-2 tabling high stakes plo a couple days chasing a whale
-PLO is much more taxing on my brain at the moment, I really have to think about hands hard when I play, in hold’em a lot of stuff is just really “standard” or simple. As I play more hands of plo this should go away or at least decrease, I’m already finding it easier to play longer and more tables at a time. (If this doesn’t make sense to you let me elaborate – I’m still learning what correct preflop strategies are in certain spots, as this gets easier and I get more experience I won’t have to really think about preflop it will just be automatic, after this comes flop play, then turn, river etc so the more hands & experience you get the faster and easier grinding becomes)
-I was sick for about a week
-February is a short month
But anyways, enough excuses, bottom line is I was lazy on a lot of days and slept in longer than I should have instead of waking up early and grinding. In march I’d like to grind out a lot more hands of 2/4 and if I have another good month I should reach a major personal milestone as well as feel comfortable taking a shot at moving up to the 5/10 plo games. I’m actually anxiously awaiting my next plo downswing as I know it’s coming, I don’t want to tilt off a bunch of $$ senselessly during it and I want it to happen at 2/4 not 5/10. I guess it sounds stupid to be looking forward to a downswing happening and losing money but I honestly am at the moment!
Three final things I’d like to mention:
1. I was running out of hard disk space recently and had no idea where all my space had gone. I found this cool utility called CleanUP! that saved me 8.5 gigs out of my 40 gb hardrive by deleting temp files I never use. Perhaps you will find it useful as well. I also installed a free windows folder size utility which lets you see how big each folder is in the explorer window which I found helpful – I don’t know why windows doesn’t come with this as a default.
2. I’m excited about my first plo coaching session tomorrow
3. I’ve been working on moving my blog over to it’s own standalone domain. That should be happening soon but it’s proving more difficult and time consuming than I first imagined. I like it though as it gives me something to spend my time in the evenings on that is semiproductive as opposed to browsing 2+2 or CR mindlessly for hours.
Been sick the past couple of days with the flu or something so haven’t been playing much. What little I have I’ve been doing well though. I stumbled upon this thread last night and it’s amazing. The site is xtranormal.com Be sure to post your funny vids in my comments if you choose to make one, I’ll be sure to watch! My favorite two are below with Aejones’ tribute to david benefield probably #3.