A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

As some of you know, I've spent the last 9 months backing and coaching several players. I have cut back to a single backee and am no longer coaching anybody due to time contraints, but my last student was quite exceptional. I'm sure many of you remember SuitedSixes' tale of learning the game and going pro, and I am happy to report another player's inspirational story:

In February, I received a PM requesting coaching that contained the following segments:

[ QUOTE ]
I assume you've recieved a couple hundred of these PMs but I honestly feel like I have a shot at becoming a real solid player.

I don't need a bankroll, but would LOVE to work out a deal for coaching. I've played 140 $5 SNG's with an ROI of 31% ITM of 45%...

I consider myself a decent player, but I have a ton to learn. I can happily play the 20s, 30s, etc whever you have an opening, though I was planning on securing a 30% ROI over 200 10s before stepping up.

[/ QUOTE ]

I reviewed his hand histories and prepared his first lesson. He was a very solid low-limit SNG player, and I felt like he could probably beat the $33's with just a little work. I figured he'd be quite happy with that, since he was a $5 player at the time.

Well, this guy worked on his game harder than anybody I've ever seen. He wasn't really multi-tabling, so he would disect every close decision and send me a detailed PM describing his thought process and options. I would give him some suggestions and he would send me a few more HHs from subsequent games to make sure he was employing the tactics correctly.

He was a fantastic student because he worked hard, was naturally talented, and was extremely coachable. He was very much like SuitedSixes in these respects.

He moved up gradually from the $22's to the $33's to the $55's to the $109's to the $215's, and then settled back at the $109s where he is currently beating the piss out of everybody.

He quit his job and is taking a year off to travel around the world and play poker... starting with the STTF-HUC where I hope not to meet him until the finals.

Besides being a great player, his poker mind is sharp and his instincts are great. He is always thinking about what his opponents are thinking and has become an expert bluff-snapper.

If you want to get for free what this player paid thousands of dollars for (my fee was a percentage of his profits, which worked out quite nicely for me,) read all of his posts from the past several months. He posts interesting hands, with thoughtful analyses, and his responses to others' posts are always dead-on.

He would be a great coach, though I have no idea if he is interested in that type of thing. Again, I have stopped coaching, so please don't interpret this post as an attempt to recruit students because I am not taking any.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate and compliment Unarmed. He is one of the best SNG players on this forum, at any limit, in my opinion.

Irieguy

PS- He also doesn't make spelling or grammatical errors in his posts or PMs. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

I am not sure anyone could receive a higher compliment from a more respected 2+2 member.

Congratulations to both of you!

-----------Jeff

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

I was going through the archives a couple weeks ago, and was schocked to see Unarmed posting $5 hands last fall. Very nice job moving up, man. Most impressive.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
PS- He also doesn't make spelling or grammatical errors in his posts or PMs.

[/ QUOTE ]

You mean "other" than his original PM to you ?(only 2)

In all seriousness...."Grats" to both & nice compliment

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PS- He also doesn't make spelling or grammatical errors in his posts or PMs.

[/ QUOTE ]

You mean "other" than his original PM to you ?(only 2)

[/ QUOTE ]

That was before coaching. I told you he's come a long way.

Irieguy

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Congrats to both of you. Unarmed has done what I have been trying to do for months now. Maybe finally I'll break through and become more than just an above average 33 player.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Dammit, Irie retired, and Unarmed is gonna get a shitload of PMs now.

Anybody else looking for students?

by the way, GJ Unarmed [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
PS- He also doesn't make spelling or grammatical errors in his posts or PMs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unlike "OP" ? [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img][ QUOTE ]
contraints,

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Congrats to both!

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Congrats to Unarmed. It will be interesting to see in the archives how his questions/advice have improved over time.

One question for either Irie or Unarmed, what areas do you think you've improved upon the most? I ask this as a player who's winning but looking for holes in my game. When Irie says you were a solid $5 player who needed some work to improve to the $33's, in what areas did you improve? I would guess that a solid $5 player knows when to push/fold on the bubble, but doesn't extract enough value in other phases of the game. Any general thoughts you'd like to share?

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
e wasn't really multi-tabling, so he would disect every close decision and send me a detailed PM describing his thought process and options.

[/ QUOTE ] I usually find myself 4 to 8 tabling the limit cash games for more money. However, I find myself lacking any reads, and it's harder to improve when you can't remember specific details about any hands.

Now I want to get into learning NL SNGs (and eventually MTTs). I'll probably be playing on Stars, b/c the Party games seem to have extremely low stacks vs blinds. How many tables do most SNGers play at a time? I was thinking play two tables: concentrate on one (review the hands from there) and play blind on the other.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

He indeed posts interesting hands.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
e wasn't really multi-tabling, so he would disect every close decision and send me a detailed PM describing his thought process and options.

[/ QUOTE ] I usually find myself 4 to 8 tabling the limit cash games for more money. However, I find myself lacking any reads, and it's harder to improve when you can't remember specific details about any hands.

Now I want to get into learning NL SNGs (and eventually MTTs). I'll probably be playing on Stars, b/c the Party games seem to have extremely low stacks vs blinds. How many tables do most SNGers play at a time? I was thinking play two tables: concentrate on one (review the hands from there) and play blind on the other.

[/ QUOTE ]

HOLY HIJACK BATMAN. AND FOR A QUESTION THAT IS ENTIRELY EASILLY SEARCHABLE FOR.

citanul

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
HOLY HIJACK BATMAN. AND FOR A QUESTION THAT IS ENTIRELY EASILLY SEARCHABLE FOR.

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]
I do my share of searches. I think it's okay to ask a question once in awhile.

ps. your caps is on

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]

I do my share of searches. I think it's okay to ask a question once in awhile.

ps. your caps is on

[/ QUOTE ]
yeah, its ok to ask a question, but its usually better recieved if its not a blatant hijack.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
ps. your caps is on

[/ QUOTE ]

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

its in the faq dude

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
HOLY HIJACK BATMAN. AND FOR A QUESTION THAT IS ENTIRELY EASILLY SEARCHABLE FOR.

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/batman-10045332.jpg

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
Congrats to Unarmed. It will be interesting to see in the archives how his questions/advice have improved over time.

One question for either Irie or Unarmed, what areas do you think you've improved upon the most? I ask this as a player who's winning but looking for holes in my game. When Irie says you were a solid $5 player who needed some work to improve to the $33's, in what areas did you improve? I would guess that a solid $5 player knows when to push/fold on the bubble, but doesn't extract enough value in other phases of the game. Any general thoughts you'd like to share?

[/ QUOTE ]

The escalating blinds, payout structure, and tendency of opponents to play too many hands in SNGs creates a game-theory model approach to the game that works:

Fold early, push late.

So most players on this forum do exactly that. The difference between winning and losing is knowing exactly when to push/fold once the blinds are high. We even have a mathematical model (ICM) and a tool kit (Eastbay's) to help with that.

But, people who think that you can fold early/push late, quit their job and 8-table the $215s for a living are delusional.

A good poker player is able to find spots to pick up chips where others cannot.

A great poker player can sit at a table with 9 opponents who are going to push/fold perfectly and still beat the game. In fact, while I avoid some players at the $109's, the easiest SNG to beat is one with 3 or more 2+2ers at the table: I get every chip that goes into a pot for the first 3 levels, and have great folding equity at the end.

What Unarmed did to become a great player was master a few key skills that are not discussed very often on this forum:

1. Playing the blinds for a profit
2. Playing good hands for value
3. Inducing and snapping-off bluffs
4. Manipulating pot size and betting impetus to minimize the risk of going broke while extracting adequate chips in +EV situations.

These things are discussed, just not very often.

It is commonly assumed that you can only beat SNGs if your 10th place percentage is less than 3%. But I've seen players have >10% 10ths and still have a positive ROI. That speaks to how dynamic SNG strategy can be, and therefore how dynamic your game has to be in order to beat SNGs under a variety of conditions against a variety of players.

And stuff.

Irieguy

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Unarmed posts g00t, and postflop play hands no less [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Congrats, man.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Adam West says congrats to you and Irieguy

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

btw, just wanted to chime in on this thread:

I only started talking to/pming/etc Unarmed about a month ago I guess. Prior to that my only interaction with him was on the board discussing hands or just reading his posts.

Not only is he a good guy, and a talented poker player, he is clearly a student of the game in a way most are not. He takes time and care to make sure that he conveys what he is thinking is both eloquent and what he intends. This is a skill that is in some ways more important that always being correct. It makes people more likely to respond to you, more likely they will respond to you with care, and makes it more likely that people will read your posts in the first place.

He is amongst the few on this board who are constantly trying to push the level of the conversation, particularly in hands where the stacks are deep and there is post flop action to consider, and he is one of the few I can honestly say have made me and made me make myself a better poker player.

That poker, sngs, and maybe even something he may have learned from me in a tiny way, have made it possible to basically do whatever he wants with his life in the upcoming year makes me happier than he knows, just because he's a terrific person.

Congrats Unarmed, hopefully I'll meet you sometime.

citanul

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I do my share of searches. I think it's okay to ask a question once in awhile.

ps. your caps is on

[/ QUOTE ]
yeah, its ok to ask a question, but its usually better recieved if its not a blatant hijack.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise a ruckus. I didn't know that interjecting someone else's thread with a question was bad procedure. Anyhoo, congrats to Unarmed.

ps. Am I the only one who doesn't get the Batman/Adam West thing? nm, I'll do a search [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
Congrats Unarmed, hopefully I'll meet you sometime.

[/ QUOTE ]

i assure you that it's not as rewarding as you might think. in real life, the conversation with Unarmed is weighted much more heavily towards how wonderful asian chicks are, as opposed to post-flop play.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

We could all use a little non poker talk every once in a while I'm sure.

The topic of hot asian chicks is a nice enough diversion I think...

citanul

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

in that line, since yugo isn't here:

(i'm not as good at finding hot chick pictures as yugo, meh)

http://www.bullz-eye.com/gnd/2003/05Iris/Iris-02.jpg

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Hey I'm a pooh-bah. Right on!

To put it bluntly: Irie is the man. That's pretty much all there is to it. Before I met my poker career consisted of 125 Stars SNGs and some drunk strip poker, so he's basically molded my game from nothing. (note to the 452 people who PM'd me: I still have a looong way to go and am way too inexperienced to even be considering coaching someone)

I really don't think anyone needs to go slogging through my old posts, but if you haven't read everything Irie has ever posted (except that Star Wars ish on OOT) you have some work to do. He's been playing poker longer than some of you have been alive, and we're all pretty lucky that he bothers to post here.

Anyway, thanks for all the replies everyone, I'd still be f*cking around at the low limits if it wasn't for this forum. I'll give a shout out when I take down my first EPT event. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Oh and special thanks to Cit, Apathy, and Yugo for putting up with my IMs while you're 8-tabling. Excerpt from last week:

Unarmed: Yo Apathy how do you like this line?
Apathy: It's fine. F*ck I just lost 4k. I gotta go.

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

EDIT: NH CITANUL - YOU'RE HIRED!!!

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
We could all use a little non poker talk every once in a while I'm sure.

The topic of hot asian chicks is a nice enough diversion I think...

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

it's a less appealing topic when he's banging them left, right and center, and you're not.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Well thought-out response! Thanks :)

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Hey, that's better than our usual exchange:

U: Hey, what do you think about that hand I posted?
C: D-uh, I dunno.

citanul

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

[ QUOTE ]
(note to the 452 people who PM'd me: I still have a looong way to go and am way too inexperienced to even be considering coaching someone)

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't tell if you're exaggerating that number or not... but damn there's a ton more lurkers than I suspected.

[ QUOTE ]
if you haven't read everything Irie has ever posted (except that Star Wars ish on OOT) you have some work to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was going through some of the archives last week and came across a post of his from almost exactly a year ago where he said he had 9-12 OOTM streaks and thought he had seen "the worst of it." I thought that was a little funny.

But yes, his posts are typically a goldmine of reflections on topics well below "the surface".

so skipperbob.....
 

where did Irie's whole anal compulsive thing about spelling and grammer come from, there has to be some interesting childhood tales here.

Steve

Re: so skipperbob.....
 

considering it's likely no one can read his handwriting, it's funny he is this compulsive about spelling and grammar.

Re: so skipperbob.....
 

[ QUOTE ]
there has to be some interesting childhood tales here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Craig's most meaningful contribution to the "family unit" was to sit immediately to my right-rear in the van on river trips and hand me cold "bevos" when so requested.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Thanks for the detailed response Irie.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Meh, you do need practice.

Congrats bro. Here you go.

http://www.geocities.com/isura21/12.jpg

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Unarmed,

You certainly have come a long way. I've really enjoyed going over hands with you and hearing how well you've been doing and how much you continue to improve, [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

My contribution:


http://69.93.50.122/wonderfulgirls/p...062950B7A0.jpg

Yugoslav
Who is gettin' slammed at work today and may not be up to snuff...

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

Best thread ever.

Re: A Nice 2+2 Success Story
 

IMO, I think unarmed's threads are some of the best in this forum.

He comes up with interesting hands, and doesn't just play ABC.
Congrats.

Edit: and I was planning on saying this before you got your own thread... just I am a lazy bastard who hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Re: so skipperbob.....
 

[ QUOTE ]
where did Irie's whole anal compulsive thing about spelling and grammer come from, there has to be some interesting childhood tales here.

Steve

[/ QUOTE ]

ZING! i dont spell good or use good grammarr and i dont end sentences and i spell stuff wrong and thats what i do but i think its ok because its not really that bad unarmed plays goot im gonna pwn him hu in vegas but thats ok cuz he plays goot still and whats with all those racial movies with white guys i mean there is the mexican with brad pitt theres the last samurai with tom cruise and i have a good idea for the next one call it the last real nukka alive starring tom hanks ship it holla