gonores
10-24-2004, 12:19 PM
Someone asked me the “how’d you start, what do you attribute your success to, etc.” question a while ago, and I never answered it. Since my life is boring and I don’t feel like writing about anything else, this sounds like a good way to bail me out yet again from another strategy-based journal. (Please, forum vets, do not read the following paragraphs. All it will do is steal 2 minutes from your life)
The beginning to my poker career was very traditional. I wandered into a few dorm tourneys and “beat” (read: I was maybe above average) them with no knowledge of the game whatsoever. So I thought I was the second coming of Doyle, and when I caught wind of the presence of a card room in Minnesota that was open to 18-year olds, I hightailed it out there to play some 2/4.
On my first night out there, I ran up the score on the table. I think I won something close to $250. En route to victory, I played 60 or 70% of my hands, called too much, raised too little, and basically fit the roll of a classic calling station. In one pot, early in the evening, I won when my 25o (had to play it because it was Dorsey Levens’ number) caught a third two on the river. One guy at the table lost it on me and gave me the rundown. He told me how terrible my play was and how lucky I was to win. He really let me have it. Screaming, swearing, the whole nine yards. He left shortly thereafter, and I thought nothing of it after the first night, but on my second night out there, I began to realize that the guys who weren’t playing many hands were the ones that were winning. I realized this as I gave back my $250 and then some. Before I left Minnesota for Milwaukee, I stopped at Barnes and Noble and picked up HEP. I read it cover to cover while I drove back to Milwaukee.
Three months later, Winter Break rolls around and I am sitting on my broke ass trying to figure out what to do with the 153 hours per week that I was not spending at my job. I had played a few freeroll tourneys on pokerroom.com and finally decided to take the leap. I deposited $80 and started playing 1/2 at a minimal profit. Somehow, I managed to escape the inevitable downswing long enough to put together a slightly safer bankroll for 1/2. By this point, I realized I needed to study more if I wanted to get good at this poker thing, so I bought Carson’s book, Winner’s Guide to Hold ‘Em. I quickly became exasperated with the book’s inability to handle most of specific situations in which I found myself, and its inability to describe why one difference between two very similar situations would be so critical to the decision-making process. Ironically, I found, in the back of the book, a plug for twoplustwo.com (along with rec.poker and some other sites). I was too dumb to find my way to rec.poker (I couldn’t get the address right), so I came here instead. (Insert cheesy “the rest is history” line here).
I lurked for a month or so, sort of feeling my way around the boards. I got a feel for who knew their sh*t and who didn’t. I decided to spend five full nights reading every Small Stakes post make by five of the most respected posters: Clarkmeister, Dynasty, majorkong (who is now Ed Miller, for you newbs), Homer, and Louie Landale. Although I didn’t have much time to study poker as I was going through school, I was encouraged by positive responses by Clarkmeister and a few others (and one by Ray freakin Zee himself) to some of my posts. So once Senior year rolled around, I had a little more time to study the game, and basically worked my ass off at poker as I became disenchanted with the realities of the business world and the political games I would need to play to personally succeed in business. Poker was my way out of a business world that doesn’t have room for the super-competitive types. I turned pro in May and have done nothing with my time but play poker and do volunteer work since. I hope to one day find a job (perhaps through contacts I meet here at 2+2 or elsewhere in the poker world) where my poker ability will be seen as an asset. Until then, I am saving up to start my own business.
In no particular order, I attribute my success to:
- Poker Tracker
- My humility. I’m the most humble guy I know. I challenge any of you to a humility contest.
- An ability to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I don’t have a *great* grasp on all the fundamentals. However, I fancy myself to be quite the hand reader and I can get inside the head of a poor to average player better than most. Hence the reason I play shorthanded and heads-up instead of full ring games, where your opponents matter less.
- My learning:profiting ratio. This challenge is the first time I am almost purely driven by profit. Up until this challenge, I spent more time thinking/reading/talking poker than I did playing poker. I’m very proud of this fact and I highly recommend new players forgo a good portion of play time to try to think more about the game.
- Obviously, at the top of the list, 2+2 and the relationships I’ve been able to develop from it. I cannot stress how important it is to me to have a network of contacts that I can talk to about this, that, or the other thing.
On Day 52, I ran good with the exception of a few hands. I experienced three one-out suckouts (well, four one-out suckouts if you count a perfect-perfect as two). I took a break after suckout #2 and again after suckout #3, which severely ate away at my hours. I’m not sure what to think about me taking breaks after these beats. I’m pretty pissed off that I am letting them get to me like that…I’m not sure I would have been that angry about those beats if I experienced them a month ago. However, along the same lines, I’m somewhat proud that I could stop myself from playing and take a break instead of going on tilt. Anywho, Dougiefish was results-oriented and didn’t get enough hands in. Total for the day was $849 over 2000 hands.
Day 53 felt pretty damn good. I didn’t necessarily run great, but it was a nice, consistent build toward $2000. I wrote in my last journal that I am making more “good” plays than I used to, and that I am making more and more bad plays than I used to as well. An excellent example came up today. I raised a button limper from the SB with AJo, and the BB and button call. The flop comes 776r. I bet, and the BB raises. I’ve played with this guy long enough to know that he wouldn’t do this with a 7, with a 6, or with a draw. I figure it has to be a complete bluff. I debate over whether or not I want to call him down or push him off his bluff hand (which probably has 6 outs against me). I finally settle on calling him down, as I know he will continue with the bluff regardless of what happens. With him drawing to less than six outs (Because I may have dominated, I have to discount his outs), I decide it’s most profitable for me to let him do what he does. So I check/call when a 5 comes on the turn and when an 8 comes on the river (board: 77658) and beat his KT. No less than five minutes later, I piss away 6BBs against a slightly over-aggressive player with an unimproved AT on a 6 high board. Anywho, I put up a $2020 spot over 2000 more hands (why can’t I play 3000 hands?)
Day 54: Long story short, I played not enough hands to realistically reach any sort of goal. My fear of failure is slowly but surely being overtaken by my desire to recreate. Badgers Football was at home (must see). Badgers Hockey was at home (must see). Political buddies (both liberal and conservative) were in town, meaning we must see Team America: World Police (effin hilarious). I played 1500 hands over two sessions, and lost $133.
To anyone who bought into me saying I was going to do what I could to get to this goal: I guess I was bluffing. I’m not going to completely check out and stop playing though the 60 days, but the <1% chance I have to hit 60k right now is not enough to keep me stuck behind this computer for more than 2000-2500 hands per day. The thing is, my mind is not going to differentiate too much between coming up 15k short, 10k short, 5k short, or 1k short. I’m just not wired that way. Right now, I’m going with the football equivalent of putting in the backups. I’m trying to get to 00:00 on the clock without suffering any serious injuries.
Total through Day 54: $43693.92 ($10306.08 behind pace)
PS: I just did a vanity search on my name. Some of you people are wildly delusional about my playing ability. I’ve always maintained that I am not as good of a player as many of my contemporaries from the glory days of the HUSH forum. Don’t believe me? Check out some of my strategy posts over the past weeks and months…they aren’t that substantial. What’s more…the game in which I specialize, heads-up limit hold ‘em, isn’t something upon which I can thoughtfully expound. Heads-up just isn’t the kind of thing upon which one can write extensively. Just because I write about making 60k in 60 days (or whatever I end up making) doesn’t mean I’m the only one on 2+2 making that kind of money. I don’t have a problem giving out advice, and I’ll do what I can to help others out the same way many of you have helped me, but to hold my word above that of some of the other forum vets is simply ludicrous. If you are new to the forum, I beseech you to do your homework and figure out who really knows their sh*t and who doesn’t.
The beginning to my poker career was very traditional. I wandered into a few dorm tourneys and “beat” (read: I was maybe above average) them with no knowledge of the game whatsoever. So I thought I was the second coming of Doyle, and when I caught wind of the presence of a card room in Minnesota that was open to 18-year olds, I hightailed it out there to play some 2/4.
On my first night out there, I ran up the score on the table. I think I won something close to $250. En route to victory, I played 60 or 70% of my hands, called too much, raised too little, and basically fit the roll of a classic calling station. In one pot, early in the evening, I won when my 25o (had to play it because it was Dorsey Levens’ number) caught a third two on the river. One guy at the table lost it on me and gave me the rundown. He told me how terrible my play was and how lucky I was to win. He really let me have it. Screaming, swearing, the whole nine yards. He left shortly thereafter, and I thought nothing of it after the first night, but on my second night out there, I began to realize that the guys who weren’t playing many hands were the ones that were winning. I realized this as I gave back my $250 and then some. Before I left Minnesota for Milwaukee, I stopped at Barnes and Noble and picked up HEP. I read it cover to cover while I drove back to Milwaukee.
Three months later, Winter Break rolls around and I am sitting on my broke ass trying to figure out what to do with the 153 hours per week that I was not spending at my job. I had played a few freeroll tourneys on pokerroom.com and finally decided to take the leap. I deposited $80 and started playing 1/2 at a minimal profit. Somehow, I managed to escape the inevitable downswing long enough to put together a slightly safer bankroll for 1/2. By this point, I realized I needed to study more if I wanted to get good at this poker thing, so I bought Carson’s book, Winner’s Guide to Hold ‘Em. I quickly became exasperated with the book’s inability to handle most of specific situations in which I found myself, and its inability to describe why one difference between two very similar situations would be so critical to the decision-making process. Ironically, I found, in the back of the book, a plug for twoplustwo.com (along with rec.poker and some other sites). I was too dumb to find my way to rec.poker (I couldn’t get the address right), so I came here instead. (Insert cheesy “the rest is history” line here).
I lurked for a month or so, sort of feeling my way around the boards. I got a feel for who knew their sh*t and who didn’t. I decided to spend five full nights reading every Small Stakes post make by five of the most respected posters: Clarkmeister, Dynasty, majorkong (who is now Ed Miller, for you newbs), Homer, and Louie Landale. Although I didn’t have much time to study poker as I was going through school, I was encouraged by positive responses by Clarkmeister and a few others (and one by Ray freakin Zee himself) to some of my posts. So once Senior year rolled around, I had a little more time to study the game, and basically worked my ass off at poker as I became disenchanted with the realities of the business world and the political games I would need to play to personally succeed in business. Poker was my way out of a business world that doesn’t have room for the super-competitive types. I turned pro in May and have done nothing with my time but play poker and do volunteer work since. I hope to one day find a job (perhaps through contacts I meet here at 2+2 or elsewhere in the poker world) where my poker ability will be seen as an asset. Until then, I am saving up to start my own business.
In no particular order, I attribute my success to:
- Poker Tracker
- My humility. I’m the most humble guy I know. I challenge any of you to a humility contest.
- An ability to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I don’t have a *great* grasp on all the fundamentals. However, I fancy myself to be quite the hand reader and I can get inside the head of a poor to average player better than most. Hence the reason I play shorthanded and heads-up instead of full ring games, where your opponents matter less.
- My learning:profiting ratio. This challenge is the first time I am almost purely driven by profit. Up until this challenge, I spent more time thinking/reading/talking poker than I did playing poker. I’m very proud of this fact and I highly recommend new players forgo a good portion of play time to try to think more about the game.
- Obviously, at the top of the list, 2+2 and the relationships I’ve been able to develop from it. I cannot stress how important it is to me to have a network of contacts that I can talk to about this, that, or the other thing.
On Day 52, I ran good with the exception of a few hands. I experienced three one-out suckouts (well, four one-out suckouts if you count a perfect-perfect as two). I took a break after suckout #2 and again after suckout #3, which severely ate away at my hours. I’m not sure what to think about me taking breaks after these beats. I’m pretty pissed off that I am letting them get to me like that…I’m not sure I would have been that angry about those beats if I experienced them a month ago. However, along the same lines, I’m somewhat proud that I could stop myself from playing and take a break instead of going on tilt. Anywho, Dougiefish was results-oriented and didn’t get enough hands in. Total for the day was $849 over 2000 hands.
Day 53 felt pretty damn good. I didn’t necessarily run great, but it was a nice, consistent build toward $2000. I wrote in my last journal that I am making more “good” plays than I used to, and that I am making more and more bad plays than I used to as well. An excellent example came up today. I raised a button limper from the SB with AJo, and the BB and button call. The flop comes 776r. I bet, and the BB raises. I’ve played with this guy long enough to know that he wouldn’t do this with a 7, with a 6, or with a draw. I figure it has to be a complete bluff. I debate over whether or not I want to call him down or push him off his bluff hand (which probably has 6 outs against me). I finally settle on calling him down, as I know he will continue with the bluff regardless of what happens. With him drawing to less than six outs (Because I may have dominated, I have to discount his outs), I decide it’s most profitable for me to let him do what he does. So I check/call when a 5 comes on the turn and when an 8 comes on the river (board: 77658) and beat his KT. No less than five minutes later, I piss away 6BBs against a slightly over-aggressive player with an unimproved AT on a 6 high board. Anywho, I put up a $2020 spot over 2000 more hands (why can’t I play 3000 hands?)
Day 54: Long story short, I played not enough hands to realistically reach any sort of goal. My fear of failure is slowly but surely being overtaken by my desire to recreate. Badgers Football was at home (must see). Badgers Hockey was at home (must see). Political buddies (both liberal and conservative) were in town, meaning we must see Team America: World Police (effin hilarious). I played 1500 hands over two sessions, and lost $133.
To anyone who bought into me saying I was going to do what I could to get to this goal: I guess I was bluffing. I’m not going to completely check out and stop playing though the 60 days, but the <1% chance I have to hit 60k right now is not enough to keep me stuck behind this computer for more than 2000-2500 hands per day. The thing is, my mind is not going to differentiate too much between coming up 15k short, 10k short, 5k short, or 1k short. I’m just not wired that way. Right now, I’m going with the football equivalent of putting in the backups. I’m trying to get to 00:00 on the clock without suffering any serious injuries.
Total through Day 54: $43693.92 ($10306.08 behind pace)
PS: I just did a vanity search on my name. Some of you people are wildly delusional about my playing ability. I’ve always maintained that I am not as good of a player as many of my contemporaries from the glory days of the HUSH forum. Don’t believe me? Check out some of my strategy posts over the past weeks and months…they aren’t that substantial. What’s more…the game in which I specialize, heads-up limit hold ‘em, isn’t something upon which I can thoughtfully expound. Heads-up just isn’t the kind of thing upon which one can write extensively. Just because I write about making 60k in 60 days (or whatever I end up making) doesn’t mean I’m the only one on 2+2 making that kind of money. I don’t have a problem giving out advice, and I’ll do what I can to help others out the same way many of you have helped me, but to hold my word above that of some of the other forum vets is simply ludicrous. If you are new to the forum, I beseech you to do your homework and figure out who really knows their sh*t and who doesn’t.