December 2008 RotM - TYJohnRambo

Congrats TYJohnRambo on your victory. My stars avatar will soon be dedicatd to you, and i may occasionally wield the deadly 60 bb stack (albeit no where near as effectively as you).

Enjoy it and I look forward to seeing you at the tables.

Bounty is Over

Hey,

I originally said the bounty would be for the rest of the year but ive had a couple issues that have come up that im going to have to end the bounty now. Ive got some players i need to teach heads up, and also im going to be traveling a bit. You cant really 24 table fr on a small laptop so im going to need the ability to play hu. Sorry it didnt go on longer but I definetley could see myself doing one in the future again. =p.

~Doug

An issue with Range Polarization in Full Ring

In Full Ring, Ive got a problem. And ive got it bad. The main problem I find is that in full ring in a lot of spots, peoples ranges are RIDICULOUSLY polarized. Full Ring players are just terrible overall, unable to value bet thin, and their range for raises for value is ridiculously tight. So what happens is I level myself into thinking that because their range for value is so thin, that they have to be bluffing at a high frequency.

The sad thing is, they really arent.

I have far too many calls where I really should of folded but I think well they really can only have x, y, or Z. They cant be raising for value with less so im going to call. Ah dammit, they had Z. (Who saw that coming). I think I could really help my winrate if i would stop being a station in so many spots, especially given how loose I play. However thats almost bad as well because if you play loose people are going to expect you to not have hands in as many places, so they should be more likely to bluff.

But its full ring, and they arent going to. Sometimes the games are just mindblowingly nitty but I think its something that would help out of i just started to fold more often.

Anyway on a more fun note, from now on I am going to dedicate my avatar on stars to my "reg of the month". Each month I will pick one and make my avatar dedicated to them as well as on my blog for a post. The first reg will be a special treat, You get to vote! You get four options.

Wobbly_au - This asian/australian manbeast owns 2/4 and 3/6, and owns me pretty hard. He used to play Warcraft III as well as I did.

Kiwikaki - I have been owning him recently, but we have had some pretty sick hands. Lots of bluffing and lots of hero calling(incorrectly I might as add). He also played Warcraft III and is from the dreaded canadia (afaik).

rytoast - One of my personal favorite regs, jammed 180 bb over a 5 bb open, then trash talked me after. Not to mention after calling me cockbreath, asking me about my workout routing and complimenting me on my results. Admist 25/50 hu challenges, this reg spews pretty solid and gets a choice in the list.

TYJohnRambo - Master of the 60 bb stack, he wields it more effectively then any other 60 bb stack I know. He may seem like a fish, and type like a downtown new york gangster, but this reg is definetely (probably) a winning(ish) player. Also owns me in flop color betting.

Ill have the poll up ASAP. Vote for your favorite reg for reg of the month!

Life Update

Hey guys, LOT of stuff been going on recently so this will probably be a long blog post. But thats good because if im only updating it once a week you should at least get some quality content =).

Lets start with poker again, afterall this is a poker blog so its probably a decent place to start. Lately I have been playing ONLY FR cash. In fact, I am offering a bounty. My Pokerstars Screen name is WCGRider and my FTP name is WCGRider. If you catch me playing anything but either Full Ring No Limit Cash or Heads UP No Limit Cash then ill ship you $1000.00. Id say only FR No Limit Cash, but occasionally there are douchebags who challenge me to heads up or something and i cant not be able to play them. Offer is only good on the first person to catch me, but i dont think ill have to worry about being caught because i doubt ill do anything other then fr cash.

So you guys might be wondering, I am a good 6m player why would I do something like this. Well after looking at the data, my hourly is BY FAR better in FR then in 6m. In fact, my winrate at FR is only slightly lower (2ptbb/100 vs 2.5ptbb/100), but i can play 24 tables without it suffering and additionally your rakeback is so much higher. The point in poker is to maximize how much you make and it just makes good business sense to play fr. Plus i hop around too much and im hoping to gain some consistency.

Ive been running pretty terribad, breakeven over my past 180k hands. Im down an absolute heap of money in equity, but again i decided to take a new direction with my blog and thats not something i really want to get into. I took a few days off and have been doing better recently and have a fresh (or perhaps shifting?) perspective on the games. Hopefully I can become a good Full Ring player and make SNE next year, but we will see.

Recently I decided to move into the MSNL Orlando House. Its going to be Me, Fees, Fees friend Vince, Croz, and Mdom. Im really looking forward to this and im sure its going to be a really awesome enviroment to be in. Id live there for at least all of 09 and then go from there. Its just so awesome to be around other poker players. It helps you deal with swings, helps you grind more, and gives you people who go through a lot of the same thigns to talk to. We arent completely sure on the house yet and fees is flying out to check them out tomorow, but hopefully we can come to a good agreement on something.

Part of why im glad to do this though is for the change. I mean its a state I havent been to much (and even less outside of spring break haha), and a city ive been to never. Also ive never met any of these guys in real life, so its pretty much a leap of faith. Ive known fees online for over a year tho and he seems like a nice guy. Plus fees+me+croz all play warcraft 3 so we will always have that. However I foresee plenty of degeneracy and drunken antics but hey I mean thats what its all about right? Should be good times.

I think im like 90% going to go, however a very small part of me thinks I should maybe go back to school and possibly stay in this area. Getting your degree can never really be a bad thing, plus ive already got like ~40 credits, would be a shame to waste them. However at the same point I know if i went back I wouldnt really take it seriously. Sort of funny but when I first started playing NL 100, I would think man how can i take today seirously i wont or lost $y last night, this is totally worthless. Except nwo that i play 400-600 with some 1k and 2k games when they run, its more like man how can i take this seriously when i won or lost $y times 6 lol. I know its valuable but in the day to day consequences it feels so worthless I know I Wouldnt take it seriously and that is never too good.

From a health standpoint, im in the best shape of my life. This morning I weighed in at 203 (was @ 245 in mid august), and last monday i ran FOUR MILES on the treadmill. Before that the farthest I EVER ran was 2.5 miles, and i almost collapsed after. It was the wierdest feeling when i realized I had hit 3 miles, and i still didnt feel too bad. I mean man my best mile time in high school was like 9 minutes or something, And I ran 4 of them in 35 minutes n the treadmill and was ok when i got off (The next morning however, not so much). It just feels so good to have come this far, but I have a long ways left to go. I want to get to at least 190, but id be happier @ like 180. The only problem is I actually have a fairly wide body build, and im 6'3, so getting to like 190 but more muscle would probably be better. Regardless im going to keep eating healthy and working out and try and get into really good shape. Maybe if i get to the point where I want to be some day ill do some before and after pictures =p.

Im fairly sure i commented on this last time but its fairly boring here in San jose atm, Im not really in a good enviroment to meet people. However I met a girl on a flight into vegas, and we ended up exchanging numbers and went out for dinner last night. We ended up bowling as well and bowled a tie lolll what are the chances of that. Anyway she is really a sweet girl and im sort of sad im moving but idk what else I can do about it, sort of a tough spot but I guess ill just play it by ear as it goes along.

So thats pretty much my life atm, sort of boring i suppose but overall life is pretty good despite being 40 buyins under equity or whatever, so im happy. It has to turn around eventually right? (hint: it doesnt).

~Doug

Pokerings

Hey guys, sorry for what seems to be the spurratic updates, I really should post more and im going to try to do better when it comes to that.

Lately ive really been hitting the tables hard. October was a really rough month for me and november started out on completely the wrong foot. In fact I was sort of angry, I lost a bunch playing heads up against a fish in the last couple hours of October, but holdem manager will only let you view your month according to EST, so it was officially November, So my month kicks off with a huge downswing. Doesnt seem like much but I really wanted a fresh page so to speak. Regardless I knew I wanted to just grind it out lower more and sort of make profit over time, which I have done quite a good job of since. Played a ridiculous amount of volume but hey thats sort of what I do and its working so why not keep it.

A few hours ago i was going to go to bed when i saw some good 10/20 games running, so I thought meh why not Ive been doing well lately and Ive got the roll to play in it why not go ahead and play it, so I ended up 3-4 tabling it on ftp and stars and just trying to play good. Did ok but was a complete cardrack, but just didnt get action. Oh well happy to be up from it and it was a good experience.

Ive also been playing a bunch of plo. Its definetely a learning experience, Ive got a friend who is quite good at plo that I talk to a bunch. Really analytical guy so it really helps give you a good base of understanding for the game. Still a ton to learn though for this but i have no rpoblem dedicating an hour or two a day to take care of it.

On the final poker related note, Ive been staking people agian. Staking is sort of an interesting deal, in theory, and usually in practice, it is profitable. Hoever sometimes it seems like people downswing and its very difficult for them to be motivated to play, which is bad for you as the staker. Weve had a few guys recently go down a bunch at 1/2, so overall im actually down a bit from staking. That said I really enjoy working with these guys on their games, and as long as they stick with me we will work it out and im sure we will get somewhere.


Anyway so off of poker, Ive been really getting healthy recently. About halfway through August i got back from Europe and I weighed in at 6'3 245, which is pretty heavy imo. Ive got a pretty wide body structure so its not THAT bad and most people normally dont think im that overweight so its something that never bothered me too much. Regardless, I decided I was going to change it so i ran every day and cut out the carbs and the pure amount I was eating. Since then ive been running or to the gym almost every day (would honestly say 9 out of 10 days[with the exception of trips ie las vegas and barcelona]), and have a much cleaner diet. Today I weighed in at 210, so im down 35 pounds and I would imagine have gained a lot of muscle out of. Im proud about my gains frankly, and its something I really should have gotten under control earlier then now but there is no time better then the present.

I had a log going in the health and fitness forum, where I tried to get advice, and to say the least, it was very confusing. People often disagree with each other and I sometimes disagreed with people, but there were a few posters who i managed to get something out of that have really helped me out in aspect of my life. However the reason i stopped posting was because I decided I didnt really want to go the route that was being recomended to me and I didnt want to update my log every day saying, hey guys still not doing what you wanted me to. Sort of mean to ask for advice and then just do something else anyway. My goal, and what has been recomended to me, is to get into lifting ASAP, but I have a few problems. First, i am extremely unflexable atm, which is tough for some of the lifts. Second, some parts of my body dont seem to work well (my shoulders just dont get far enough back to rest the bar well on them for a squat, my wrists always feel sharp pain when i bench, I cant do pull ups or chinups yet without help) etc etc etc, so i decided to get a personal trainer to help me get to these goals.

This is obviously a controversial issue but im happy with the decision I made, like my trainer, and he knows my goal is to eventually get on starting strength. I like the workout routing and on the off days i just do running and biking at the gym, so I think regardless ill be fine as far as how healthy I am. Always feels good to drop weight and start to look better in the mirror =p.

On another note, I feel my life is sort of one dimensional atm. Basically every day consists of playing poker, working out, and then playing more poker until I fall asleep lol. Its sort of nice because it allows me to save up money and get into good shape, but honestly it gets sort of boring some days. I dont really know anyone well in this area (San Jose just fwiw), and I dont know what I am going to be doing as for school or not next semester. Either way, the only real days i do something different is when I travel out to the indian casino with some other 2+2ers or travel somewhere. Ive been playing more guitar lately which interests me but I need to find friends who arent 8 hours + away from my location imo.

Finally I am not sure what I want to do about school yet. Frankly 0% of me wants to go back to school for any reason that is education related. Of the part of me that wants to go back to school, 10% is for the degree, 20% is so im doing something productive with my life, and 80% is because I want the social intereaction. I dont see myself giving it any sort of real effort and would expect to barely pass my classes and just try to earn a degree. Thats not really what I want though, I would rather be a lawyer. Thats always been my life goal, and it was hurt by me only getting into my safety school. Now I have a messed up college gpa, a meh hs transcript, and no want to really even do law.

What else would I do with a degree? Nothing. You see something I have learned, is there isnt only 1 path to make money. I mean I always wanted to be a lawyer, lets look at why.

1) You make good money. Not that im amazing at poker but I think they are comparable and within a couple of years poker would take the lead without me becoming an exceptional lawyer.

2) Its challenging and there is competition. This is something I really enjoy. I love playing against other people to try to win. Hard to explain why, I dont fully know myself. I just like winning and it drives me to do my best.

3) Its prestigious. Poker playing isnt nearly as prestigious, but it comes with its own set of connotations, one of which is money (however some of the others arent so glamorous).

4) I never thought there was anything else I could do that would fulfill the first three.

Thats sort of the funny thing, in this year and a half journey poker has put me on, I sort of didnt realize waht I was losing during it. You lose what ideals really mean. I mean I can say I made xxxx and i can expect xxxx and this has xxx value all day in poker. Every day ONE NUMBER matters. How much are you up or how much are you down. Thats how you view your day. Thats victory or defeat.

When your playing micro stakes, IE when i doubled through somebody at "the deuce" (1c/2c) over 18 months ago, it felt so ballin to make $2 playing poker. I had $60 to my name lol. My real life networth wasnt rolled for NL $2. I was 18 and had no idea about anything financial related.

That feeling is gone. Because $2 will never be something significant again, in the same way $200 will never be what it once was. In the same way $2000 wont be etc etc.

So what it does to you, is you sort of forget why traditionally high profile positions are even valuable. Because if its about the money why not start now? Education costs money, and it will take years for you to make the money you want. So what should you do?

The answer, Is whatever you want to do. So what do I want to do?

And i can say without any doubt that I have absolutely no idea anymore. I will say I enjoy playing poker currently and I enjoy becoming healthy. People like to ask what will you be doing 10 years from now, well frankly it doesnt matter. I dont know and if there is nothing I want to do why should I let other people decide? For now, im gonna just keep doing my thing and go from there.

~Doug

A New Direction

Sorry for the lack of updates, id like to say it is because I havent had the time, however that would be the most inaccurate of any excuse i could come up with. In fact, ive had too much time, far, far too much time, but i suppose thats alright.

The blog is taking a new direction, its never going to be a "hey today i made xxxx amount, im trying to make xxxx this xxxx, hopefully to reach xxxx this year, with a side goal of trying to make xxxx at xxxxx".

Not going down like that anymore.

Why you might ask? Because its not interesting, quite frankly. Who cares how much i make today, lose tomorow, or whatever. I think there are certain subjects to talk about that are much more important for the devolpment of my blogging experience here, and maybe for my life in general. Maybe this will help give me some new perspective that i seem to be lacking, and perhaps this will set a good tone for the future of the sessions i play. Then again, maybe it wont. Regardless the blog is going to be much more thought related and much less results related and hope that you (the reader!) are going to be ok with that.

So lets address a few of my goals this year, its the least ive done after blogging so much this year.

1) Make SNE

This was only a goal recently, its jut not going to happen. It would take too much time and its just not healthy to grind 15 hours a day of breakeven poker to try to be a rakeback pro. Not gonna happen. However next year it may certainly be on the table we will see.

2) Win my prop bet

Obviously this didnt happen. Was really tough for me, worked really hard but it just didnt fall into place. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they dont, and sometimes you sit in a chair grinding nl 25 for 16 hours a day. At least after winnings and my stars fpp package i didnt do too terrible here.

3) Make $100,000 at 1/2 over the rest of the year.

Not going to completely rule this one out but i think it would be fair to say its quite unlikely given the current scenario and the fact im swinging pretty hard.

So its not all bad right? What have we done this year that was good? Lets go back in time to the start of 2008.

With a fresh bankroll in the upper 4 digits, I hit the streets 24 tabling nl 200 fr and trying to grind out my moneys. What were my goals at this point? Make moneys. Well i probably did do that.

1) Make Moneys

Yeah probably made around 80k or something this year after rakeback and bonuses and etc etc w/e else. Is it amazing? No, obviously not. Especially given that i spent way too much of it because i didnt ever have any money before and wasnt prepared to handle it well actually having a little bit. But at least this wasnt extremely unsuccesful

2) Switch to 6m

This happened, but i may switch back, I honestly dont know at this point. I would say my 6m game is probably my strongest suit but I end up playing too many tables which is much more detrimental then in fr. However I did switch over well and make money playing which is all you can ask for i guess.

3) I became a Cardrunners Guest Pro

I guess this would be one of my more proud moments, obviously being invited to do videos for them is something im really happy about.

4) I played a major live donkament

This actualy is something I always wanted to do, and despite only busting 1 person (vanessa roussou though, at least i made it count), and being knocked out in around 100th, I did have a good experience.

So I hope I can put most of that type of stuff behind me now, I may talk about it more in the future, I may not. But the primary objective of this blog is going to be much less poker summarizing and much more theorizing about life and poker in general, because thats where my mind has been recently.

Id like to talk about downswings and the poker mindset. A good friend of mind recomened I read the elements of poker, so i decided to take him up on that and just ordered it from amazon. Hopefully its a good read, I really need some help with this at the moment I think. I end up taking too many shots into higher games, always seem to run bad, and then try to stay there too long when im probably negative ev and it costs me money. Honestly if i just played the game I sohuld be playing and didnt take shots I would have so much more money now, but thats just how it goes sometimes. People often ask me why I do that, and I tell them because I guess thats what i think I should be doing. It certainly feels like you sohuld right? Win money, move up, win more money. Easy game. However the mental and emotional state of winning and losing larger amounts of money really can get to me I think, and oftentimes when I have big down days it really gets to me. I had a particularily bad day yesterday, and it just starts to feel like I have to start all over again. No one likes that feeling, but its one ive had to deal with a lot. Because regardless of how much ive won or where im at given my start at nl 2 with $20 in May 07, Ive played a ridiculous amount of hands and should be farther then where I am.

Dont get me wrong, I dont think there is anything wrong with how ive done or where I am at. I just feel like with the amount of time and effort ive put into it, it really hasnt been as awesome as I thought it would be. It certainly is more difficult then I anticipated moving up through the limits. As at least a semi intelligent person (then again I suppose I would like to think this), finding periods of time where you cannot seem to break through seems extremely frustrating, especially when compared to the scope of the success of many of the players that surround you. I mean its not to difficult to find a ton of extremely talented succesful players, and then I look at myself and think, wow why cant I be that. What seperates this 25/50 reg from WCGRider? And the answer, other then proably a few hundred thousand dollars, is simply he has better adapted to the games then myself. Even if hes played for a couple years more then me, it would be pretty unlikely hes played as many hands. Ive played >1.5m hands in my 18 month career, thats a lot of hands. My winrates when i play a lot of tables are small, as almost anyones are, and you just grind out that hourly.

For the past half a year, especially post prop bet, that is something I realized I really didnt want to become. I didnt want to become the sick grinder who plays low stakes 24/7 and makes ends meet through massive hand volume. I wanted to be good, I STILL want to be good, and ive put a lot of time working on my game recently in order to be better at games like heads up and 3 or 4 handed games in six max.

But the results havent been there, and thats frustrating. Well some sort of results have been (except HU, which i seem to be quite the fish at), but certianly not to the extent I would like to have them. Of course this is always the catch with poker, no one ever wins as much as they would like to, and the future is always greener then the past, the present always dull to the flavour of oppurtunity.

So for now im going to be playing 1/2. Its sort of ironic becuase im currently staking a bunch of people for 1/2, but there is no rush. I am fine playing lower in a game im way overrolled for in order to just make some money and try to improve. I may play more fr and grind the rest of the year, I may just 4 table 6 max. I dont know, and no one really will know for sure. There is one thing I do know though, that regardless of what happens I will always give it my all, because that is the only thing i can gurantee.

~Doug