This is a new site that opened Tuesday the 15th, High Pulse poker. They have a great deposit bonus, a ton of freerolls to build your roll and up to 50% rakeback from day one, but this isn't the reason i'm so amazed by this site. The goldmine is that it has the fishiest games i've ever seen, even at the NL25, NL50 and NL100 levels.
We're talking 2005 Partypoker fish, never folding an ace, calling reraises out of position with KTo and stacking off any pair, all that good stuff. I've played a couple thousands hands so far and I just can't believe it. I was playing 5-handed yesterday and it was me, 2 fish and 2 whales. After playing the tough games on Stars for the past 2 years, this is just a walk in the park.
I think one of the reason the site is so fishy at the moment is that they gave over 1 million euros in freerolls during the beta, money which was only released on Tuesday when the site went gold. This means all the fish that won a part of that million euro is now spending it on the site (and then some!). Perhaps their marketing has found a nice pond of euro-fish as well. Either way, it's all good :)
If you guys decide to take advantage of this opportunity, i'd appreciate it if you use this link to register, as I get a bonus for referrals. Simply use referal code "HTWOTF" when you sign up.Thanks and happy fishing!
http://highpulsepoker.com/cgi-bin/sc.pl?hpaffcode=HTWOTF
jeudi 17 novembre 2011
lundi 14 novembre 2011
M-m-m-m-m-m-m-monster year end session!
Another year, another Supernova. Lost it briefly in October (was at 93k VPPs when September ended) but after a few weeks of on-and-off, it was time to finish this Athene Grindmode Style!
YEAAAA!
My longest session yet, by far! My head is still spinning, but i'm really happy to get Supernova for the second year in a row. I'm even more amazed that I managed to finish the session with a positive winrate! (screw all-in EV, lol). Pretty happy I did it at 50NL instead of 100NL, or I would have most likely ended up losing quite a bit of money in the process.
I'm starting my master's degree in January so I won't have as much time for poker, but after a session like this, I know I can always get some monster sessions crunch-time near the end of the month if I need a little extra boost to keep Supernova going, so i'm not too concerned about maintaining it next year.
This pretty much closes the year for me. I still have about 28k hands to go to get my first 4,000$ FPP bonus (which was delayed over and over all year long!). It feels like i've been running after that one for so long, i'm very happy to have it as my year-end trophy for 2011. This year has brought a lot of ups and downs but i'm still pretty happy with how it all went down. Good luck to grinders still finishing the year, and here's to a pokeriffic 2012!
lundi 7 novembre 2011
Still in da gaimz!
Whew, feels like it's been a while since i've been here. After a pretty busy month life-wise, i'm ready to get back into DA GAIMZ! Starting my master's degree in January and i'm pretty psyched about it! This will mean poker will return to part-time, although it's not like I was getting that much more volume in playing "full-time".
I finished reading up Dynamic Full-Ring Poker : http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Full-Ring-Poker-Beyond/dp/0982402295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320681808&sr=8-1 and it is well worth the price tag. I feel much more solid now, and i'm playing great, but we'll see for sure after a healthy sample.
Unfortunately I lost Supernova (why it doesn't extend all the way to December if you maintain pace is beyond me) but I will get it back shortly (about 5k VPPs short atm). I'm very happy to get Supernova a second year in a row. This may not be a huge accomplishment for some of the mega grinders but I still think it's a status that differentiates the "serious" players from the amateurs so i'm very satisfied with my game in that regards.
So far the games at 50NL seem a lot softer than 100NL, with very solid regs far and few in-between. Things are looking great both in life and poker, and i'm looking forward to finishing the year strong. Happy grinding!
I finished reading up Dynamic Full-Ring Poker : http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Full-Ring-Poker-Beyond/dp/0982402295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320681808&sr=8-1 and it is well worth the price tag. I feel much more solid now, and i'm playing great, but we'll see for sure after a healthy sample.
Unfortunately I lost Supernova (why it doesn't extend all the way to December if you maintain pace is beyond me) but I will get it back shortly (about 5k VPPs short atm). I'm very happy to get Supernova a second year in a row. This may not be a huge accomplishment for some of the mega grinders but I still think it's a status that differentiates the "serious" players from the amateurs so i'm very satisfied with my game in that regards.
So far the games at 50NL seem a lot softer than 100NL, with very solid regs far and few in-between. Things are looking great both in life and poker, and i'm looking forward to finishing the year strong. Happy grinding!
jeudi 22 septembre 2011
Willpower is a finite resource
I just finished reading a quick Q&A with the author of "Willpower" over at the Freakonomics blog : http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/22/the-authors-of-willpower-answer-your-questions/ and one interesting question jumped out for me :
With my current pace, I should finish the year at about 120k VPPs, quite a bit less than I initially planned. Thus, it's time for a little introspection. After all, poker is all about playing the hand we're dealt as best we can, not the hand we wish we had. After two years of data, the conclusion I have to draw is that mass grinding isn't for me.
The good news is that I can still make poker work for me as a great second job, maintaining Supernova with relative ease playing 40-50k hands a month. Even by dropping from 24 to 12-16 tables, this is a pace that's fairly easy for me to maintain. This will free up energy I can dedicate elsewhere in life ; starting in January i'm going back to college and starting my Master's degree.
That little Q&A gave me some insight as to probably why my poker volume evolved this way. Although willpower is a finite resource, i've come to realize that different tasks drain it in different ways. Add/bpd certainly don't help, in that managing my mood drains a significant amount of energy, and poker only makes it that much more taxing. On the other hand, i'm very happy with myself in a lot of other vital areas of my life ; relationships, fitness and eating habits being the most important to me.
However I still believe I can do quite well with poker in the long run, since players like Mike Matusow have overcome these obstacles and went on to be very succesful. Thus, it's time to change my attack plan ; reduce the number of tables, play a bit less volume/month, but focus much harder on playing well. When you can't play more, the only way to make more money is to play better. I spent the last few weeks off the tables completely and going through Dynamic Full Ring poker, an excellent book.
Armed with extensive note-taking and study material, I should be back at the tables, sharper than ever, in about a week. I'm pretty psyched and looking forward to it! So take this for what it's worth, and realize that whatever your situation is, there's always hope for your game if you're always willing to get back up, no matter how many times you fall. Good luck at the tables (and in life)!
Q.Is willpower a single commodity (so to speak), or is there, as I suspect, a one type of willpower for, say, dieting, another one for academic study, another for this, another for that? -AaronS
A.No, there’s just one single resource (or commodity). There’s one source of mental energy for resisting temptation and performing other acts of self-control, and this willpower is also depleted by making decisions. What you experience may reflect the fact that willpower is limited and so people have to allocate it: they use it at the office to work effectively and diligently, but have messy homes and are short-tempered in the evening. Or people who show wonderful self-control at dealing with personal relationships but can’t seem to meet their deadlines.
This got me thinking about my own situation. As the year went by (and still goes by), i've noticed something rather stunning about my poker habits ; I played about the same volume this year, with literally no other work-related obligations, as I did last year, when I studied full time.With my current pace, I should finish the year at about 120k VPPs, quite a bit less than I initially planned. Thus, it's time for a little introspection. After all, poker is all about playing the hand we're dealt as best we can, not the hand we wish we had. After two years of data, the conclusion I have to draw is that mass grinding isn't for me.
The good news is that I can still make poker work for me as a great second job, maintaining Supernova with relative ease playing 40-50k hands a month. Even by dropping from 24 to 12-16 tables, this is a pace that's fairly easy for me to maintain. This will free up energy I can dedicate elsewhere in life ; starting in January i'm going back to college and starting my Master's degree.
That little Q&A gave me some insight as to probably why my poker volume evolved this way. Although willpower is a finite resource, i've come to realize that different tasks drain it in different ways. Add/bpd certainly don't help, in that managing my mood drains a significant amount of energy, and poker only makes it that much more taxing. On the other hand, i'm very happy with myself in a lot of other vital areas of my life ; relationships, fitness and eating habits being the most important to me.
However I still believe I can do quite well with poker in the long run, since players like Mike Matusow have overcome these obstacles and went on to be very succesful. Thus, it's time to change my attack plan ; reduce the number of tables, play a bit less volume/month, but focus much harder on playing well. When you can't play more, the only way to make more money is to play better. I spent the last few weeks off the tables completely and going through Dynamic Full Ring poker, an excellent book.
Armed with extensive note-taking and study material, I should be back at the tables, sharper than ever, in about a week. I'm pretty psyched and looking forward to it! So take this for what it's worth, and realize that whatever your situation is, there's always hope for your game if you're always willing to get back up, no matter how many times you fall. Good luck at the tables (and in life)!
lundi 8 août 2011
Always nice to have a little refresher
As poker adepts, we go over so much material, concepts and study that sometimes, we forget some of the stuff that helped us out in the beginning. With this in mind, here's a couple things that I had not touched in years that I went over recently and I felt helped me out.
First of all, "Playing to Win", basically Sun Tzu's Art of War for modern day gamers. I first read this and applied it to FPS & MMOs back in the days and going over it again sharpened my blade, so to speak. A very good book for focus, discipline and the proper mindset you need to develop to become a dedicated winner at your game : http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Becoming-David-Sirlin/dp/1411666798/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312830810&sr=8-1
What can a 2NL player teach you? Probably not how to balance your river check-raise range, but i've seen adepts lose sight of the more fundamental insights that serious beginning players have. Some of you may scoff at the simplicity of these clips, but getting this stuff right is so important (and to be honest, there's some days where I still misapply this stuff) that I feel it deserves mention :
Playing poker to learn, not to make money. Despite making good money, I still think that even after almost 2 years and a million hands later, seeing every single session as a learning experience is VERY important to keep improving (at least to me!). Even though I feel my game is the highest it's ever been, playing to learn is probably one of the most important point that keeps me going in every session as energized and focused on getting better as I can be : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-4-poker-nubs-play?id=2437628%3AVideo%3A42299&page=2#comments
Accept the realities of poker : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-for-poker-noobs
Poker is not about how you win, it's about how you lose : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-4-poker-nubs-3
Keeping your brain healthy for poker : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/how-to-take-care-of-your-brain
Last but not least is a classic and has been one of the pivotal tools in my poker journey : the concept of the week series in the micro FR forum. Every so often I like to browse a couple of those threads, just to make sure I didn't forget anything. I feel like I have a solid grasp on most of the stuff there, but every so often I find a gem I missed or that I had forgotten : http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-schedule-table-contents-397190/
Sometimes I get a little discouraged when I look at how much I still have to learn, but when I look back and see just how far i've gotten, it makes me pretty proud of my achievements. Finally, results-wise I should hit Supernova again near the end of month and finally cash in on my first 4k bonus, FTW! (should have been waaaay before but I blew a lot of FPPs on 650$'s and 1500$'s in the past). Currently behind pace for 200K VPP this year but I think there's still hope. Keep working hard, grinders, and good luck at the tables!
First of all, "Playing to Win", basically Sun Tzu's Art of War for modern day gamers. I first read this and applied it to FPS & MMOs back in the days and going over it again sharpened my blade, so to speak. A very good book for focus, discipline and the proper mindset you need to develop to become a dedicated winner at your game : http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Becoming-David-Sirlin/dp/1411666798/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312830810&sr=8-1
What can a 2NL player teach you? Probably not how to balance your river check-raise range, but i've seen adepts lose sight of the more fundamental insights that serious beginning players have. Some of you may scoff at the simplicity of these clips, but getting this stuff right is so important (and to be honest, there's some days where I still misapply this stuff) that I feel it deserves mention :
Playing poker to learn, not to make money. Despite making good money, I still think that even after almost 2 years and a million hands later, seeing every single session as a learning experience is VERY important to keep improving (at least to me!). Even though I feel my game is the highest it's ever been, playing to learn is probably one of the most important point that keeps me going in every session as energized and focused on getting better as I can be : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-4-poker-nubs-play?id=2437628%3AVideo%3A42299&page=2#comments
Accept the realities of poker : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-for-poker-noobs
Poker is not about how you win, it's about how you lose : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-4-poker-nubs-3
Keeping your brain healthy for poker : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/how-to-take-care-of-your-brain
Last but not least is a classic and has been one of the pivotal tools in my poker journey : the concept of the week series in the micro FR forum. Every so often I like to browse a couple of those threads, just to make sure I didn't forget anything. I feel like I have a solid grasp on most of the stuff there, but every so often I find a gem I missed or that I had forgotten : http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-schedule-table-contents-397190/
Sometimes I get a little discouraged when I look at how much I still have to learn, but when I look back and see just how far i've gotten, it makes me pretty proud of my achievements. Finally, results-wise I should hit Supernova again near the end of month and finally cash in on my first 4k bonus, FTW! (should have been waaaay before but I blew a lot of FPPs on 650$'s and 1500$'s in the past). Currently behind pace for 200K VPP this year but I think there's still hope. Keep working hard, grinders, and good luck at the tables!
vendredi 1 juillet 2011
Even Steven
Poker can be a humbling experience at times, and it certainly felt that way when I looked back on my year so far :
Fortunately, by 24-tabling I was able to maintain a decent hourly as a rakeback pro, which is certainly better than losing. I wish I could blame this on bad luck but over 300k+ hands, poker is a fair mistress and you get what you deserve. Laziness and wishful thinking brought me to this, and if I want it to change, there's only one thing to do.
I've had much better results in the past and looking back it's pretty easy to see what went wrong. I pretty much stopped studying altogheter, sat on my laurels and hoped the good times would still roll. Fortunately, with a simple decision, and a solid commitment to improving, one can change his poker results dramatically, and this is exactly what I plan to do going forward.
Even though i've faced this issue time and time again, it seems I have trouble accepting the fact that in poker, if you stop improving, you decline. I see now (and hope I will remember) that nothing is ever truly acquired in poker and you are never due anything. Nothing but constant hard work on and off the tables will bring success, up to the very last day you play poker.
Thus I post this now to remind myself of this simple poker truth. One of the things I love most about poker (unlike many "real" jobs) is that you get exactly what you deserve. Going forward, I will make sure I do absolutely everything I can to reach the level of success I know I can achieve. Good luck at the tables everyone, and stay hungry!
Fortunately, by 24-tabling I was able to maintain a decent hourly as a rakeback pro, which is certainly better than losing. I wish I could blame this on bad luck but over 300k+ hands, poker is a fair mistress and you get what you deserve. Laziness and wishful thinking brought me to this, and if I want it to change, there's only one thing to do.
I've had much better results in the past and looking back it's pretty easy to see what went wrong. I pretty much stopped studying altogheter, sat on my laurels and hoped the good times would still roll. Fortunately, with a simple decision, and a solid commitment to improving, one can change his poker results dramatically, and this is exactly what I plan to do going forward.
Even though i've faced this issue time and time again, it seems I have trouble accepting the fact that in poker, if you stop improving, you decline. I see now (and hope I will remember) that nothing is ever truly acquired in poker and you are never due anything. Nothing but constant hard work on and off the tables will bring success, up to the very last day you play poker.
Thus I post this now to remind myself of this simple poker truth. One of the things I love most about poker (unlike many "real" jobs) is that you get exactly what you deserve. Going forward, I will make sure I do absolutely everything I can to reach the level of success I know I can achieve. Good luck at the tables everyone, and stay hungry!
lundi 13 juin 2011
Quick update
Quick poker update, as i've not played or posted a lot lately. I've mostly been dealing with RL stuff, as well as spending more time pokering "off the tables", working on my game, my routine, optimizing my days, etc. In April I was logging in and playing 5k hands straight, which was burning me out pretty quickly. Spent most of May tinkering with that and I think i've found a pretty optimal setting (for me anyway).
I ended up dividing my play in 1h40 chunks, so I usually start playing at about 10am, play 1h40, 10mins break for walking around/exercice, another 1h40, about 45mins off for lunch, and another 1h40. (Optional additional 10mins break and 1h40 after if I have time/energy). Nowadays I can pull off days like that and still have solid energy for the rest of my day so i'm pretty happy with it.
The only thing I still have to stabilize for peak performance is sleep and food. I used to be a big night owl so going to bed at 10h30-11h still feels annoying but any later than that and my alertness & energy suffer the next day, which is terrible for poker. Food is also a big deal on game days and I have to make sure I eat a big enough breakfast with constant snacking/drinking during play & on breaks.
Even though i'm not playing a lot lately, when I do pull it all off though it works pretty awesome, and i've gotten to a point where i'm really happy with my game as well, although that's a never ending process. Coaching helped, but the amount of homework I need to do to truly get the most out of it is pretty staggering to say the least!
Only thing left to figure out is how many days/week I want to play and how to split them up. Other than that i'm really happy with my progress (should hit Supernova again in early July). The most important thing for me is to keep poker fresh, stay hungry and always being eager to play and play at my best when I do log in, and so far those goals have been going great and i'm looking forward for more!
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