I'm about to go to Ocean City for a couple days, so I'd better get my end of month blog post up now. Summer weather is sliiiipping away =[





Prettaaaay prettaaaaayy, prettaay good. Didn't get to 100k (good 25/50 could pop up tomorrow you never know) but still my best month ever.

I've been thinking and unless I wan't to continue grinding lots of 5/10 (which I don't mind at all) I'm gonna have to put more money on Full Tilt and probably lose another $40k there. That site is rigged. I might just stay on Stars and be happy.

New song I've had on repeat all week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2mQA...eature=related

Beast...I like the jumps the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQfTgqQBok


Anyways, no profound thoughts or poker hands this time. GL to everyone in Sept.

John

Not me of course. Don't get too excited. I just want to talk a little about two of the most useless devices in poker, as they're most commonly used. Basically, I think in most staking or coaching agreements, at least one of the people is getting ripped off.

Staking

I'm not talking about one-time stakes for big events or splitting action in a big cash game or anything, only about long-term tourney stakes and cash game stakes. If you're on or looking for a long-term stake like this it's for one of three reasons:

1. You got hacked or some sort of disaster struck and you lost all your money
2. You're a degen with no bankroll management
3. You suck but managed to convince someone that you don't

If someone wants to convince me otherwise they're welcome to try. I'm not trying to be a dick but it's something I have to be frank about because nobody seems to realize it. I just can't think of any reason someone would want to get staked to play something they aren't rolled for unless they've already played a bunch of it and they're a proven solid winner. Otherwise they're just giving away half their winnings in a game they probably shouldn't be playing.

If you're as good as you advertise to your staker, it should be really really easy for a cash game player to grind up a good bankroll playing 1 level lower for just 1 or 2 months. You make some loot while grinding lower, and now you get to keep all of your winnings when you move up.

The Turning Stone trip got me thinking more about this because half the guys who show up there are staked, low-mid level MTT players who are dead broke because they choose to get backed in the most high-variance form of poker while not grinding any SNGs or cash games. And that's not to mention the possible psychological effects of the staking agreement. Because of the way MTTs work, you're really likely to start out in some sort of hole. If the hole gets big enough, which it often does, you get to a point where if you spike a big score you aren't going to see any of it, and every day you don't spike big, well you just dug yourself a deeper hole. Seems like it would be very depressing.


Coaching

Pretty obvious paradox in coaching. Coaches usually charge less $/hr than their supposed playing hourly because potential students couldn't afford that hourly rate. If that's the case then my question is, why are they coaching in the first place instead of using that time to play, or talk with people of the same or higher skill level and make more money?

Another problem is that a lot of people are much better players than they are coaches, so the player seeking coaching also gets screwed a lot. I hope all you guys out there paying for coaching are getting more than just sweat sessions and talking for an hour. I'm talking long written reports on your play, homework assignments, etc.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that when a player gets staked & coached (for free) by the same person, it can work out well for both. I did something where I watched someone play for 3 or 4 hours for a week, commented the whole time, then at the end of the week I wrote up a long report on what he was doing right, what he was doing/thinking wrong, how to start thinking about those spots better, HH examples, etc. I probably invested 6 hours total and he made me $5k or something over the time i staked him.


Me

I didn't play all that much while I was at Turning Stone but I made $ online. Up $74k online now this month

Oh yeah, driving back from Turning Stone today on a rather empty section of highway in nowhere, PA, a stock (I think) Mustang decided he wanted to run. Smoked him getting up to 140mph, not close. Sick brag.

I'll be grinding the rest of the month so I shooooould be updating this more often. Peace,

John

Turning Stone



For those not familiar, TS is an 18+ casino near Syracuse, NY that has occasional poker tournament series. I'm 22 now so I don't really have any good reason to go, especially since the main event in this series is a $1500, but I get to hang out with some friends I don't normally see much and actually enjoy the hotel itself so why not. A typical day here is just waking up whenever I want, ordering room service brunch, playing poker live or online, maybe going to the spa or bowling or basketball, going to dinner, then drinking and seeing what happens. It's good times. I'll be playing a $750 tourney tomorrow and a $1500 on Saturday.

Last night I went to dinner at Wildflowers, the more upscale/pretentious (and also best) restaurant here, with 6 people including charder30 and PSUtennis. While at dinner they decided on a modified $500 last longer in the $350 tourney being run today. The conditions are that they can never fold preflop for less than 10bb at any point, and if they ever pick up a pocket pair they just have to open jam preflop. I was supposed to get in this bet too but backed out because of inconvenience. Just got a text...charder is still in and psu lost. Apparently Argentinaboy (online tourney player) found out the rules of the bet, iso'd psu to 10x, and psu tilt shoved over it and lost ahahaha


Online

I've played a couple sessions since I've been here. I don't use a tracker on my laptop since I'm an idiot, but I'm up 4k playing almost all 10/20 over probably a couple thousand hands.

Someone IM'd me a fairly interesting hand yesterday. I'm rooming with kingsofcards here and we ended up having a nice chat about the turn play. Here's the ghetto HH:

5/10 NLHE, 6-handed, UTG and Hero both have $2k effective

Hero is CO with KQ

Laggy but supposedly good reg running 36/25 raises UTG to $30, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls in CO, Btn folds, SB calls, BB calls

Flop (pot $120) - KJ6 rainbow

UTG bets $75, Hero calls, SB folds, BB folds

Turn (pot $270) - Q

UTG checks, Hero bets $180, UTG raises to $460...

me: seems like a good spot to c/r with the nuts since our turn bet range is like 2pair+

koc: yeah but then people fold to the c/r a lot because it's crazy to be bluffing there and 2barreling is just better since pair+straight draw and stuff that checks behind won't fold to a bet.

me: i guess it depends on how good everyone is, the guy who sent me the hand called turn without thinking much about it, not realizing KQ is middle/bottom of his range after he bets the turn. i guess good players fold turn with KQ and QJ but you don't see it that much. so i guess vs. someone whos play i respect i could 3barrel, and vs. weaker players i could c/r turn with sets or straights.

koc: true, i also think preflop is a 3bet or fold and calling is pretty bad there with KQo unless a fish is behind.

me: agree

Then we got into discussion about if we aren't flatting stupid hands like KQo and QJo preflop how many KQs and QJs are in our range compared to like 66 and ATs w/ flopped backdoor flush draw. Our turn betting range is so small and strong...it's probably even better to check behind QJ and KQ for deception against a good opponent, because it's not like they'll really c/c with worse after leading into 3 people on the flop and checking a turn that hits our range hard.

In the end, I think it's gonna be right to have a more polarized range and bet the turn with 66, ATs, JT, QT, KT, and check behind QJ and KQ because while UTG almost definitely has something leading that flop into 3 people, after he checks he's most likely getting scared with a weaker hand, or he just has AT or a set. So turning hands like JT and QT into bluffs where he'd expect you to check them behind seems good here. In the actual HH my buddy called the turn, then folded a brick river when UTG put him allin for $1500 into $1175 or something.


For the rest of the day my only plans are a massage and dinner. Hopefully something like 10/25 runs in the poker room but it's not thaaat likely on a Wednesday. I'll post in another day or 2 with $750 tourney and online/live cash updates.

So, I've had some rants floating around in my head lately. What better place to get views than my very own Leggopoker blog??

Short into for those who don't know me - I'm a 22 year-old from Maryland. Last year I decided to take time off from the University of Maryland to play poker even though I only have 45 credits left to complete. I like just about all sports and strategy games, poker and basketball being the top 2. I'm also somewhat into traveling and cooking, and i listen to a lot of emo, metal, and hip hop/pop. Pretty wide range . These days I play 5/10-25/50NLHE on Stars. I also dabble on FTP but I'm down 40k lifetime on that site and really despise everything about it. I rarely play tournaments online, but enjoy live ones and regularly use my FPPs for live tourney packages. I built my bankroll playing SNGs and consider myself a formidable tourney player.

I'll have some HH analysis and graphs and stuff in here, but the main purpose of this will be to get my thoughts out. Not sure how often I'll be posting...we'll see.



Thinking vs. Memorizing and Mimicking

I'm not in school right now. I have a competitive Magic the Gathering background. I live in a house full of poker players and very close to several others. It's safe to say I know a bit about card games and the people who play them.

I'm good friends with a lot of players as well, and they range anywhere from the casual SNG/MTT player, to the small stakes cash game grinder, to the high stakes cash and/or MTT legends. What I want to write about now is one of the major differences I've found between players of various levels.

This only really applies to people who have put some effort in to get better at poker. The casual player...who knows what their potential is like, they haven't even tried. But it seems like everyone has the friend who tries and tries but isn't really getting better at poker. For some people, it's not a matter of not trying hard enough, it's just a consequence of how their brains work.

I know two people who are perfect examples for this. The first one is 24 year-old graduate student majoring in math at Dartmouth. Obviously he is a bright fellow. It takes a lot of brains to do high level math. But ever since I've known him, he's been really bad at solving problems he's not familiar with on the fly. Since new spots come up all the time in a game like poker, he never really excelled at it. The other guy I'm thinking of just graduated from accounting undergrad at a decent school and now has a nice accounting job. He crushed school and crushed his accounting exam. But he'll sit there and 16-table breaking even at .25/.50 and never absorb any of the strategy he's told.

Now both of these guys are very bright and successful, but neither has shown any aptitude for poker at all. I think it's because of the way they think about things. These guys memorize and mimic. It's only natural; that's what you've learned to do in school your whole life, right? Memorize material, or a way to solve a specific problem, and then prove that you know it by taking a test when it's fresh in your head from class.

I believe that almost anyone can beat microstakes and maybe even small stakes by just putting lots of effort into learning how to play solidly. But to really excel you need to be constantly thinking about how to counter the other players' strategies and maximize your earn. There aren't any two players who play exactly alike and so you need to constantly recognize patterns and use your logic and math and reasoning to make good plays.

The bad news is that some people will probably never be really good at thinking like a poker player. The good news is that you can definitely get better at it, mostly through discussing hands with people who are better than you, asking why, etc. Every time you don't know what to do, copy the HH and put it into notepad and come back to it when you're done playing. Even if it's something as simple as getting 2barreled when you have 2nd pair. With unlimited time, you should be able to solve pretty much every hand. Just put people on ranges, do some math, think about how they'll react if you do x play, what's going to happen on the next street with what likelihood, etc. You can solve every hand like this. Of course, with experience you get better at putting people on accurate ranges and you get better at acting accordingly.


Staying Healthy

Since I got home from Vegas over a month ago, I've been in the gym every single day switching off between lifting and cardio. Also been eating a lot better - low calorie low carb on cardio days, normal calories and normal-high carb on workout days. I think I've only lost 3 or 4 pounds, but I'm in much better shape and feel awesome. I started at 5'11" 180lbs. or so, so I wasn't that huge to begin with, but it was a really fat and out of shape 180. If anyone's interested in some tips/tricks to stay motivated let me know.


Poker

Well, here's my August graph so far:



Yeah, must is. I think I'm playing really well along with running awesome. It's been more hours, less tables, and higher stakes this month and it's working pretty well. It's like 50% 5/10, 30% 10/20, 20% 25/50. Every time I move up, it takes a little bit, but I eventually realize the regs at this level also suck and the fish are just as bad. It's good feeling.

Somehow this is already my biggest cash game month ever, but I'm still aiming for the 6fig month. That would be fun. Anyways this post got really long, gonna sign out now.

John