Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Vacation time is here! Finally finished and submitted my project last night around 9:30, and can finally take a week off. Will be mostly doing stuff around here, painting a couple of rooms and getting ready for winter, but you can be sure some peaceful time multitabling will figure in there.
Had to uninstall my old 888 software and install the new one. The old one had developed a bug limiting me to four tables, and when I looked it up I saw other people had the same problem and resolved it by upgrading to the new one. So far not bad but I do miss the old look. Basketball practice soon for my son where dad gets 30 minutes on the court with him before the real thing starts up. Love playing b-ball. Is it too late to make a run at turning pro?
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Well my week of vacation has come and gone. I managed to get a lot done, but still so much to do. Luckily winter is late in arriving, but next week I will be in Toronto for a course so things here will stand still. Haven’t played much Omaha, my SNG game is going very badly but my cash game is firing on all cylinders. October 14 I was at $10, and now I am close to $1000, so pleased with that. I even survived an AA vs KK all-in preflop when he flopped trips, but the board went runner runner flush for me. First time in five showdowns with AA vs KK where all in preflop AA wins. Playing very safe bankroll management and having lots of fun, learning to leave the table when tilting or not playing well, and even folded KK when I felt my opponent had AA and the flop did not give me trips. I have never folded KK like that before, but the old poker instinct was talking and I listened instead of pushing and seeing the bad news. Bringing my big monitor with me to T.O., and plan on playing there as well. GL all
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Arrived late Sunday in Toronto, drove the last two hours of the five hour trip in darkness, so was pretty happy to get to my room and flop down. I brought my laptop and big screen, and so far so good, but starting to come down with a sore throat.
A couple of weeks ago I put $25 onto my Pokerstars account, and after playing cash a little bit here and there plus a few bad beats my bankroll was down to $11. I decided to play turbo 6 SNG, one at $7 and the other at $3.50 and figured that would kill my roll, because I have never done too well at PS. But instead I won! And am currently riding a five game streak of finishing ITM, so the roll is starting to roll Played some 7STUD-HI last night which I love, but plan on sticking with the SNGs for now. Once I have enough to play at least six tables of NL10 I will try cash again.
Time to go to class now, and no, the teacher doesn't look like the one in post #99 of this blog.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Hit $1000 earlier about four days ago when i was still in Toronto, and have continued to climb past that. My roll on Pokerstars is slowly growing as well, so pretty pleased overall and happy to be home again.
This morning flopped a royal flush for the first time ever. I have flopped straight flush four or five times in the four years I have been online, but this was the first RF. Ended up being a half decent pot too, for NL10 that is! GL mobsters.
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
Allways nice to read blogs, no matter its pro or micro, important is how its written. Good to hear your making money, most players dont realise how close they are for being a small semi. Perfect bankrollmanagement and 1 or 2 succeeded step ups and some players can try to the world of semi.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Posted by doomdy: Allways nice to read blogs, no matter its pro or micro, important is how its written. Good to hear your making money, most players dont realise how close they are for being a small semi. Perfect bankrollmanagement and 1 or 2 succeeded step ups and some players can try to the world of semi.
Anyway, good job, keep m going
Thank you for the encouraging words Doomdy. I consider you one of the leading posters here in terms of content and poker knowledge, so it means a lot. I have been considering semi as a goal to reach sometime in the next couple of years. If I go that route I will outline my overall plan towards the end of 2011, and for sure it would include a lot of work on strategy. Right now having a lot of fun.
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
Posted by mahdrof:
Posted by doomdy: Allways nice to read blogs, no matter its pro or micro, important is how its written. Good to hear your making money, most players dont realise how close they are for being a small semi. Perfect bankrollmanagement and 1 or 2 succeeded step ups and some players can try to the world of semi.
Anyway, good job, keep m going
Thank you for the encouraging words Doomdy. I consider you one of the leading posters here in terms of content and poker knowledge, so it means a lot. I have been considering semi as a goal to reach sometime in the next couple of years. If I go that route I will outline my overall plan towards the end of 2011, and for sure it would include a lot of work on strategy. Right now having a lot of fun.
Poker is a sick world. there are pros who just are pro cos they had 1 big shot, had a big sponsor and now basicly break even or losing but with the name they have they can go on for ages. Poker is skill but it helpes you (especially playing MTT) scoring that 1 big figure. Had so many talks on msn with donks/skilled/pro players, most have 1 dream to become a pro or semi, but so many fail cos tilt, bad BRM or just bad never ending cycle bad run. To keep winning and winning long run so you have income is so difficult and so many fail and fail again.
Anyway not to encourage you only say poker is a sick world
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Posted by doomdy:
Posted by mahdrof:
Posted by doomdy: Allways nice to read blogs, no matter its pro or micro, important is how its written. Good to hear your making money, most players dont realise how close they are for being a small semi. Perfect bankrollmanagement and 1 or 2 succeeded step ups and some players can try to the world of semi.
Anyway, good job, keep m going
Thank you for the encouraging words Doomdy. I consider you one of the leading posters here in terms of content and poker knowledge, so it means a lot. I have been considering semi as a goal to reach sometime in the next couple of years. If I go that route I will outline my overall plan towards the end of 2011, and for sure it would include a lot of work on strategy. Right now having a lot of fun.
Poker is a sick world. there are pros who just are pro cos they had 1 big shot, had a big sponsor and now basicly break even or losing but with the name they have they can go on for ages. Poker is skill but it helpes you (especially playing MTT) scoring that 1 big figure. Had so many talks on msn with donks/skilled/pro players, most have 1 dream to become a pro or semi, but so many fail cos tilt, bad BRM or just bad never ending cycle bad run. To keep winning and winning long run so you have income is so difficult and so many fail and fail again.
Anyway not to encourage you only say poker is a sick world
Def. agree with you on that one. I would never want to rely solely on poker for income for a number of reasons, but when I talk of `semi` I mean that it would be only part of the big picture. Anyways, my target date of readiness would be sometime in the last half of 2013, with lots of interim targets along the way. Like I said, more about this at the end of December 2011.
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
Posted by mahdrof:
Posted by doomdy:
Posted by mahdrof:
Posted by doomdy: Allways nice to read blogs, no matter its pro or micro, important is how its written. Good to hear your making money, most players dont realise how close they are for being a small semi. Perfect bankrollmanagement and 1 or 2 succeeded step ups and some players can try to the world of semi.
Anyway, good job, keep m going
Thank you for the encouraging words Doomdy. I consider you one of the leading posters here in terms of content and poker knowledge, so it means a lot. I have been considering semi as a goal to reach sometime in the next couple of years. If I go that route I will outline my overall plan towards the end of 2011, and for sure it would include a lot of work on strategy. Right now having a lot of fun.
Poker is a sick world. there are pros who just are pro cos they had 1 big shot, had a big sponsor and now basicly break even or losing but with the name they have they can go on for ages. Poker is skill but it helpes you (especially playing MTT) scoring that 1 big figure. Had so many talks on msn with donks/skilled/pro players, most have 1 dream to become a pro or semi, but so many fail cos tilt, bad BRM or just bad never ending cycle bad run. To keep winning and winning long run so you have income is so difficult and so many fail and fail again.
Anyway not to encourage you only say poker is a sick world
Def. agree with you on that one. I would never want to rely solely on poker for income for a number of reasons, but when I talk of `semi` I mean that it would be only part of the big picture. Anyways, my target date of readiness would be sometime in the last half of 2013, with lots of interim targets along the way. Like I said, more about this at the end of December 2011.
Yes its best to have targets, had targets in the past like $5K - check - easy, then target $10K - check - easy, next $25K - check - kinda easy, next $50K - check - kinda easy. But now i am stuck (also cos i have not so much time for poker), $50K wot to do? Tried couple of times to step up and failed sometimes cos of bad run and chickened out, sometimes due to nittyness in game and not A game. So i can play the grind and build to $75K, $100K ect this wud be kinda the same as i did so doable but i loose focus like this and not really intresting cos in life i earn a lot more. So playing a bit for fun atm to keep a grip on the game kinda break eevn or small profit, roll is still roll must decide wot to do, stop or get coached.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Germany
Age: 31 (M)
Posts: 1859
What are you doing to improve your game? Are you getting coaching or are you member of training sites? If not,I can guarantee you you won't make it to semi pro,especially not at the end of 2013. The "air is getting thinner" month by month now in poker. Even the average fish knows by now that he cant always go broke with top pair,or know that KQ to a raise isnt all that great (at reasonable stakes where semi pro would even be achievable at least). To maintain your winrate or ROI you have to go with that trend and steadily improve your own game.
Idk I can be completely wrong and you do watch coaching vids. or use other sources,then I'm seeing a possibility in your plans,I simply find it hard to believe in your goal in poker that is still 2 years away,while we cant even know how hard the games will be by then (they will be alot tougher,thats just the way it goes),nor do we know what other countries will be regulated by then which will mean the good players moving to another country and keep playing and more fishes missing from the tables.
I kinda am pro/semi pro (whatever) right now because I'll start working in summer next year and do nothing atm (pretty sure I posted that somewhere before),so poker is my only source of income,which means I'm kinda dependant on it as well (at least for the next ~ 8 months). The hardest factor is definitely forgetting about the money factor involved. When I get on a losing streak of,say,losing 50 buy ins in SNGs (not rare at all in the games I play) then I know it's a completely standard swing,however it's still a decent amount of money that is lost. Volume is the key factor when wanting to make money off poker. If you put in enough volume then it's simply very rare to have a losing week,or losing month even. It also helps you with dealing with the swings involved. I remember when I started playing and busted 10 SNGs in a row out of money,I'd hit the highest cash table possible trying to chase my losses By now I expirience worse swings than this daily. I'd say by now I'm not tilting anymore at all,obv. I get pissed about running bad sometimes,but it doesnt affect my game anymore,nor my additude towards it. I simply keep grinding,knowing I'll win it all back,and more than that
I'm getting staked + coached from someone who will have supernova elite status in a few days,I can safely say I wouldn't even be close to where I am now in poker if I didn't take that oppotunity. It costs me part of my profits,but whatever,at least it's a safe investion in improving my game,and to remain a winning player for quite a while. Also it allows me to deal with the money swings a little better,and to play higher stakes than I would usually play (I just dont think I'd play $15 SNGs 20+ tabling,risking to lose $500 in a day,just not doable for me with my "own" bankroll).
Idk why I just wrote all of that lol,I just think it's a good topic to discuss in general. Poker is (or should be) a fun activity,but everyone also cares about winning if they can,some have the talent but most of them fail at making money from poker for above reasons
Edited by BeMyATMplz (26 November 2011 @ 15:36 GMT)
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Bemy, like I mentioned before, I have been doing a lot of thinking about a lot of things, and will write something at the end of the year which will make your post look short in comparison. But then, this blog is mine, and even if nobody reads it or comments on it I am already getting good value out of it.
A few things: 1. Thank you for everything you wrote. Obviously it took a fair amount of your time and you thought your position through, and I greatly appreciate that.
2. In the short time that you have been here, it is obvious that you have a good handle on the game, especially considering your years, so I have learned to pay attention when you write about poker.
3. What you consider semi-pro and what I consider it to be sound like very different beasts. Even if I won the WSOP ME I would not want to make poker the only thing I do. Again, at the end of the year I will pronounce myself on my goals, share them with the BRM forum members, and report on my HIs and LOs like I have always done. Jovica makes a living off of the game, and so fits the "pro" moniker, but even he seems reluctant to call himself "pro" for his own reasons. With a wife and two kids the decisions I make regarding my path in life have to consider their needs first. Honestly, they come before me and I would die to protect my family if that is what it took.
4. When I started playing four years ago online, after about a year I was able to play fairly competitively at the NL1000 level. Like you said, the game has changed, and often times while playing at NL10 I see guys I used to play against at the NL200 - NL1000 level, and I wonder what they are doing down there, and they are probably think the same thing about me. The game has changed, A LOT.
5. I have spent nearly twenty years building up my career from ground zero, starting in shipping/receiving department and cleaning the floors and bathrooms on Fridays to being quality manager for a mid-sized company. I am not ready to dump that but am instead looking to continue building on it, so poker pro I am def. not shooting for.
If you want to carry on this discussion please feel free, otherwise, like I mentioned, in a few weeks I'll post what has been going through my head, and feel free to give me your opinion.
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
dont wanna hijack your blog but just wanna share my thoughts here. i can understand your thinking here. i hav a gud job and great career ahead of me and i play poker mainly for fun. but still i'm trying to improve my game as i dont wanna this to be losing hobby. i know i'll never make semi pro/pro because i'll never be able to put hours required for it. playing just because you need to make your monthly income is def not for me.
but def respect for jovi and bemyatm and others guy doing that
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Been a couple of weeks. Got busy with preparing for Christmas and such, work is currently insane, so time to play has been somewhat limited. I don't recommend gambling but took $25 from my poker account a couple of weeks ago, ran it up on blackjack and then took it to roulette. After doubling it up and then hitting a triple up, I figured WTF I started with $25 let's roll! Hit nearly 2/3 of my triple up spins over the span of a couple of minutes before quitting. Took some out to pay for some Christmas purchases and put the rest back into poker which has allowed me to play pretty comfortably at NL50.
With JJ this morning raised and got called with the flop coming out A-8-4. I had a strong feeling I was outflopped but paid to see the turn card only to have J come out! What a sweet sight. The flop bets had been nothing crazy, but when I saw my opponents' bets on the turn I knew something good had happened to them too, and that I was probably out in front. Managed to get the bet amount just right on the turn to have them pot-committed on the river, and sure enough they both went in. Really sweet after some of the bad beats I have received recently. GL all!
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Posted by jovicakralj: Im glad to hear that you did good at black jack/roullete but please dont do that often! See ya around!
Thanks dude! What I left out of my story is that at 888, when you go to the casino, whatever you have in your roll is what you have in front of you, you can't choose lesser amounts. What I do to avoid temptation is chuck everything else onto a poker table where I am alone, and then sit down with $25 at blackjack or whatever. Anyways, when I was done I went to shut down the poker table (at NL2000), and there sitting at the table trying to play me HU is someone I have railed at 888 that would have ripped me to shreds. Scary player. Almost gave me the chills seeing him next to me. Brrr.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Another crazy week work wise, and another one to come. Looking forward to having a few days off through the holidays to think a lot of things through. One more post in my blog before 2012 to outline some general goals for the coming year, although the whole thing of semi-pro might have to wait. Too busy to feel like it is plausible to dedicate that amount of time.
In the meantime with my roll padded from last week's gambling windfall and gains at NL50, had one table open of NL100 last night while watching the news. One guy kept calling everything and was getting pretty lucky when: He flat calls UTG, I am one before the button, folded all around to the seat before me who raises to $3.50 and I reraise SUBSTANTIALLY with KK. UTG calls and the other guy folds. The flop comes out Kd-8d-7s, he checks and in case the lucky b**tard is flushing I bet 3/4 pot and he calls. The turn is another 7, now hoping for a flush he checks and I insta-check behind him. The river card comes out and with the pot at $60 he bets around $42.00 and I shove my remaining stack of around $62.00 in and he called. BABAM!
