It's been a while since my last blog post, and I'm going to save a full update for a couple of weeks when I'll do a review of the year. This blog is just to announce that if you think it would benefit you, I'm giving out hours of coaching, for free. I haven't been mad on coaching before, I think because the money doesn't excite me. The catch to get this free coaching though does excite me!

So what is the catch? Well hardly anything..... I just want you to watch a film/ documentary about the realities of the treatment of animals in today's society. This film can be found at www.earthlings.com and you can watch it for free.

So first come first served basis, and I'll be looking to do one every couple of days starting ASAP. I just need you to demonstrate to me that you have watched it by answering a few questions about it. Comment or PM me......

Dan

grogheadflow

The holidays are in full swing, and I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! I know for some this can be an especially difficult time of year. I think a lot of people forget about this. We recently had a friend, lose his mom unexpectedly. As a friend, its hard to know what to say or do, I wonder if any of you guys have been in this situation and or know someone that has, and if you have any ideas or what I should do to offer my support. For some reason I feel like our culture tends to isolate people in there greatest time of need, maybe its the competitive side of us that never wants to admit when were down or having a tough time. Family and Friends are truly the only thing that matters in this life, and the holidays are always a great reminder of this.

On a much brighter note, we decided to purchase a new puppy, we already have 2 smaller dogs, that my wife and I purchased a number of years back, when we were still renting. Now that we have a fenced in yard and own a much larger home, I have been contemplating purchasing a larger sportsman breed. I spend a lot of time on the river alone, and it would be nice to have some companionship. I ended up deciding on a Redbone Coonhound. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this breed, they are mostly well known for there role played in a very old movie "Where the Red Ferns Grows" I grew up with hounds, and have missed having a hound ever since. Redbones are great family dogs, good swimmers, extremely agile, good runners, have a beautiful voice and are very intelligent.

They are had to find, as pups and usually have to be reserved. Fortunately we found a litter from a breeder up in the finger lakes region of New York. So last sat. we took the 4 hr drive up, and were able to reserve the last one. We are eagerly awaiting Dec. 29 when they will reach 7 weeks and we will be able to pick her up. We have decided to name her "Storming Red Roxy". I have yet to decide if I want to hunt her or not. I have some reservations, due to the number of roads and high traffic in the area. This is always a very scary issue when hunting hounds. I also wonder if she would get confused when I decide to take her fishing, if she would dash out of the boat if we ever came across a coon trail. On the other hand, I feel that we all are happiest when we are doing what ever it is we are meant to do, or what is natural to us.

Here are some pics

My Hot Wife, I know some of you requested pics after the brag in my first post.



Roxy the pup we reserved!
4 week old female



A previous pup, from a previous litter, from the same breeder



Here is a pic of West Branch Susquehanna River, this is north of where I fish the most, but we spent a weekend up here this summer, and found it to be an exceptionally beautiful area.




I have been running really poorly ever since my 15-1 run. I am looking forward to this weekend though, I think it will be a good one. The only good thing about running like shit, is it pushes you to work harder and focus.

So far my Best Bet record is 1-1

This weeks Best Bet is:

Pittsburgh Steelers -2 @ Dallas Cowboys

I feel that if Pitt blows out SD last week, like they were supposed to, and Dallas loses like they were supposed to, this line is more like Pitt -4 even maybe -6. Dallas has been playing better and pitt had a let down spot. However I believe this is a let down spot for Dallas this week. They had a big win on the road last week verse Cinci, with an extra effort with the loss of there comrade in the car accident. I also personally feel that Cinci is a bit overrated therefore I am not all that impressed by Dallas road win.

Pitt on the other hand, had SD at home as a huge fav with Big Ben returning to the starting line up. Coming off a huge win and effort for the divisional rival win @ Baltimore the week before this was a perfect spot for the team to let have a let down. I would expect a much better effort and game plan going into this must win game.

Coaching match up, Tomlin crushes Garret, not only record wise, but just straight up literally could beat the shit out of Garret. Lets face it Garret is Jerry Jones personal pawn. Tomlin however is a true Bad ass NFL coach, that gets the wins when they count.

Gimme the better coach, with the better disciplined team, in a must win situation coming off a very poor performance, and I will lay the chalk.

Pitt as anything under the field goal favorite.

Lets get this win!

Maximus13

im a little self conscious posting this on a forum full of guys younger than me who are living balla lifestyles playing with limits were a few bb is equivalent to my entire bankroll. at the same time though i hope this brings up some nostalgia for those further up the mountain than me to see where they had to come from and reflect on the work thats gone in, and i imagine many posters here will have the perspective to appreciate the place i am in my poker 'career'

this is my 3rd blog entry, my first was a brief one just <6 months ago introducting myself: 4nl grinder with a $85 roll on goalwin...looking to put in the work on and off the tables and see how i progress. my last blog entry was a little longer and had some info on how i was getting on and what i was doing to achieve my goals. i mentioned an 8 week program called 'so fresh so clean' which i was following from. this blog is just a quick update now ive finally made the jump to 10nl. ive also concluded my first 8 week cycle of the so fresh so clean which was pretty succesful. im taking a 'down week' now (sorta) and am hoping to start this 'so fresh so clean' again next monday for 8 weeks...but ill post about that another time. anyway - here's the 4nl graph up to this point. i have a roll now that i hopefully wont have to drop to 4nl again.



obviously im not 'crushing' - especially when we account for ev but i still feel ive developed enough knowledge over this time to be able to take on 10nl, plus with bonuses im well rolled for it.

my 10nl graph since 23/11/12 up til now is



had a nice run there after having trouble hitting hands in my first few ventures into 10nl and breaking even recently but i think im playing suboptimally and still making some spewy mistakes but think its definitely possible for me to beat 10nl. im getting good bonuses still so hopefully i can play solid and hit a running streak at 10nl, and it wont be long until im bankrolled to move up to 20nl. obviously for now though im just going to not get ahead of myself and put in loads of hours on and off the tables to keep improving a a player.

aside from poker:

im unemployed after not finishing my social policy degree (got a diploma but didnt complete 3rd/final year so not a full degree due to personal problems) and currently living in the part of the uk with highest unemployment. i dont have any work experience as ive always been academically minded so having loads of problems finding work. after a year of unemployment (which i spent grinding and reading books - result) ive been put on a 'steps to work' scheme were they make me do work experience, if i dont do it they cut off my unemployment benefits.

im not entirely opposed to this - if im getting free money i cant really complain about working but there are several aspects of it i find really tilting. for instance you must work a minimum 30 hours a week, even though you only receive your unemployment benefits + £15 extra. so i will be getting £85 a week to work 30 hours which is only £2.85 an hour....seems seriously unethical to me.

i dont see why when the official reason for it is 'work experience' why i cant do work experience for 14 hours a week (which works out at the minimum wage of £6 per hour)...it seems to me like a way for the large corporations to get free labour. for example a friend of mine with lots of prior work experience who had been unemployed was made to work 30 hours a week in tesco were he got treated like absolute trash and made to do the absolute worst jobs available. even after he had got a starting date for a 'proper' job they made him work in tesco to receive his unemployment benefits - for what reason? the other thing to consider is that all of us unemployed they stick in companies for 30 hours a week takes away from them hiring extra paid staff, as well as taking away shifts from people currently on staff who may be looking for extra money.

i havent got a start date for this but am expecting it any day now. i have to do either a 26 week placement or 8 week. so what would you do in my position? im living at home with my parents and im relatively happy with my current situation. i dont have long term aspirations but i do enjoy studying and learning about as much as i can - i hope to finish my degree in september with 'the open university' and maybe do a masters at some stage.

ive honestly been considering quitting the benefits altogether and just committing myself full time to poker and studying once i get to a high enough level. i was thinking it would be possible once i get to 20nl and have a bankroll approx $1000...i only really need money for 'pocket money' and dont wish to become a slave in the system - i dont believe that this experience will contribute to helping me get a 'normal' part time job were i live, so really, im only doing it for the £85 a week benefits...is it worth it?

on other news, im trying to get back into music and recently bought a harmonica/mouth harp. it sounds great and ive fiddled about with it a bit but looking for direction to learn it properly so just purchased these off amazon





its unlikely - but does anyone play?

daveage

So today I've been living in Argentina for about 3 months, and on Friday I'm heading back to Norway for a few weeks of vacation!

My stay here has been amazing, both life wise and poker wise! I really enjoyed Buenos Aires during summer times, and I'm sure Ill come back one day. The city is beautiful! Green and tons of people walking in the streets. Tons of Cafe culture, which is something I really enjoy!

Since last post, poker has been still going well, one swing recently, but I think the standard deviation of HU poker is like twice as in 6max or something, so I think Ive come fairly comfortably out of it.

Had a few shots at 5/10 now, but I would say 70% of my action is at 3/6. Some 2/4 battles if someone wants to play 3 tables. There is nothing I enjoy more than playing the same reg over 3 tables for a long time. When you really get to see which strategy is the better, and who got the most balanced ranges in different spots. What counter adjustments your opponent makes to you, and what you make to him. Then what counter-counter adjustments we make and so one. Too much fun!

Perhaps my default game plan isnt as strong, since I think I start out like 80% of my matches down, but I think Im better at adjusting. My two strongest sides in poker is to not tilt and run quite good.

Will now head to Oslo,Norway for two weeks. London NYE and then back to Bangkok beginning of January, as I still have my place there. Will stay there for a couple of months and see whats next.

Here is a graph from my stay in Argentina. Which is also pretty much my lifetime HU grapth, part from a few k hands some months back



I also just started the book mathematics of poker, and I like what I've read so far. Definitely a recommendation for those who want to take their game to the next level.

Here is a picture from our roof top pool! Life has been very nice to us!





Ciao Argnetina! Sawadeekrap Bangkok

Kaarem

So Saturday night i ALLOW my girlfriend to spend the evening with me .
We went to a friend of hers house party . Loads of cool people and enjoyed the boxing and socially got involved .
Sunday same girlfriend and i hang out with some other of her friends and socially i had nothing to contribute . I know very little about the things they chose to talk about and felt like a duck out of water .
I need to learn how to make small talk about the American way .

Think its harder for the girl then it is for me . I kinda just sit there quiet and she try's to involve me but sometimes you just have nothing to offer .
Prehaps in the future il have to practice small talk somewhat . Outside of poker i don't really have conversations about everyday things .

Poker wise i had a quiet weekend. Took Saturday off and Sundays are slow anyways .

Just a few days until my 30th and i can't decide what to do to celebrate . Any ideas for good comedy shows in vegas ??
Im not really into shows generally but i guess i should try celebrate the milestone with some kind of memory .

salfi123

Looking for someplace to live in vegas from December 15th . Been rofling around vegas for 4 months and yet to find a mid to long term place to live.

Moving from one hotel to another takes its toll . Trouble i have out here is i dont know anyone and im
To lazy to travel and look for anywere . Also constantly have a differnt horse to cater for . Hopefully jonny comes out soon as i don't really want to be in vegas by myself . Really struggled to make male friends out here . I have a girlfriend but people who i meet at work /the strip are generally tourists so leave just as your getting to know them. Still find myself on Facebook everyday keeping an active social life but its not the same.

Wonder past the bellagio other day looking for a lil dave( a uk hero )
As i wondered around i saw lucky chewy focused and sat up straight . Think I spoke to him a few years back at a leggo party so its cool to see a face i kinda know without knowing final the wpt. Best of luck to him later .

Horses been knocking it in and my win rate is about keeping my finances steady .
Was working out if staking others has been proffitable or not so far . On paper i have the world in make up ( in reality im balls deep with 70 percent if my net worth tied up )
Im still rolled to cover my three punters/grinders but its becoming an additional stress daily when I have to deal with the moaning and the WHY ME type questions of how do donkeys make flushes every third hand . My answer is thats just the way it is .

Currently staying at the rio until my 30th birthday on the 15th December .

30 years old . Wow I've really made it this far . Dont seem two minutes since i got a bike for my tenth birthday or a play station when i was 13.
I've aged and developed in my own way over the last 20 years . One of my best friends dad fell down the stairs at age 48 last week and passed away . Not that I worry about death but life will be over before you know it . Death always makes you think about life and ask the question am i doing enough with it .
I feel like the answer is no but you can't throw caution to the wind and punt all your savings on a crazy vacation or whatever cause money is hard to come by somewhat . If we all knew we had a month to live would we truly live??
Im just rambling now . Thinkjng about death does that .

Im happy at the moment everyday im waking up with a purpose . I miss my son heaps and wish i had a better relationship with his mother to make my life perfect but it is what it is . My biggest worry is my boy thinks i don't care . I love him with all my heart . In case you ever read this Layton x x


Laters all . Just another blog and ramblings of a grinder in his 20s

salfi123

Yo guys!

Long time no blog, so thought as my first plo-vid is gonna be released right now, i would post some and tell u guys what ive been doing.

I have been putting in tons and tons of hours at plo, both playing and off the tables, working with propokertools, reviewing sessions and hands with friends, tilting etc

Have been playing some pretty sick sessions at the 200-deep tables (plo, this is), losing 18k in 2 days once this summer (cant remember my big wins, but they werent this big anyway).

So to get us into the mood, i thought i would analyze some plo-hands that i played, and i am gonna start RIGHT NOW (Leggo-converter doesnt work, my apologies for using a different product):

Full Tilt Poker $200.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 4 players - View hand 2030456
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $234.05
CO: $291.00
BTN: $264.00
Hero (SB): $375.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with 9 7 5 6
CO raises to $6, 1 fold, Hero raises to $20, 1 fold, CO calls $14

Flop: ($42.00) 5 Q 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $32.00, Hero calls $32

Turn: ($106.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $50.00, Hero raises to $256

I thought this hand was fairly interesting and could point out some misconceptions about handstrengths both preflop and on the flop.

- I much rather 3bet this hand against many playertypes than something like A Q 7 3 , both for some deception-value and playability. Especially vers guys who dont fold to cbets a lot i think having a hand like this in my range can be really good on a lot of textures, so connectivity rulez!

- On the flop i do have a wrap and a pair, but lets look at some equities before we get too excited:

• Against a random hand i have 54.9% equity
• Against AQ with an Ace-high-suit i have 48% equity
• Against a random flushdraw i have 40.6% equity
• Against 9TJ i have 46.1% equity

Just to get this straight: AQ42 (without clubs) has 56.5% / 35% / 42.8% / 50% in the same match-ups, and its clearly a hand that we dont ever get in with this SPR.

So equity-wise, we apparently dont really wanna get this in on the flop, but betting might still be the best option if a guy doesnt fold to cbets a lot (which is why i wanna have this hand in my preflop-range vers those types of players), because we can exploit his turnrange by jamming.


Against a lot of TAGgy regs though, i think check/calling is the best option, pretty much having them bluff at every card we hit, while repping something like weak Qx or a fairly weak flushdraw (which means that we might win the pot on clubs a lot). Also, because of the prospect of getting check-raised, their betting-range is mostly gonna contain strong made-hands, which are exactly the types of hands that we wanna draw against, and bluffs (which are exactly the hands that are gonna put in two bets incorrectly a lot).

Nuff said!

I was gonna post one more, but at second glance i dont like it anymore, so lets conclude by saying that the second plo-vid (coming out in 2 weeks) is gonna feature a live-session, while the first is a HH-review (I am never sure which format is better, for the most part i think that HH-reviews tackle the issue of people not thinking about hands in-depth enough).

Lemme know what you think, and farewell (The Hobbit will be released soon!!!!) !

flippity

Decided to try HEM2 after a fresh windows install. It lags unbelievably on an i7 w/ 8gb of ram and an SSD and is just all around garbage. If you haven't switched from HEM1 do yourself a favor and don't. That is all.

bw07507

Been listening to this remix of Levels lately, really enjoying it.

Last blog I stated I wasn't ready to play poker again, and since then I've pretty much only thought about poker. I threw a micro $100 roll on Lock and will likely become a weekend warrior sort of player. I'm just going to keep it as a hobby and not get too wrapped up in the money (or at least try not to). I miss a lot about poker, what i don't miss is the stress and the constant self-pressure to play every spare minute (and feeling like a shithead when I don't). So this time around it'll just be a side project and I'll try to make a few extra sheckles.

It will also give me a reason to keep my blog on here. I've been thinking of building my own blog website and keeping it there since I rarely blog about poker, however i enjoy the community here. On the subject of blogging, I feel like my writing isn't as strong as it used to be. This is probably partially due to being in Thailand for a year and not using my vocabulary as extensively (i noticed it difficult to have conversations with big words also). I still find myself translating stuff in my head to Thai, or trying to dumb it down so my Thai friends would understand. I also still throw some "thank you's" and "hello's" in Thai to cashiers. I also asked for a check in Thai last night. It's been lil over 3 months being back, so it's a little weird that I'm still slipping.

One other thing I've been trying to do lately is eliminate "Tv time". Normally when I get home from work I have a lot of things I want to do. However, I tell myself things like "well, i worked 10hrs today, i can relax and be ok with that". That's fine if i like where I'm at in life, but in order to move forward I need to work twice as hard. So instead of watching Tv right away, I only allow myself to do it right before bed. So far it's been working great and shit is getting done. I feel I'm learning quite a bit and at this rate I should be a pretty smart dude soon. On the subject of working hard, Rika started a Motivation thread which includes a lot of good videos etc, so be sure to check that out if you're feeling down or need a fire lit under your ass.

This is my 250th blog which i guess is a milestone. I never imagined getting 90k+ views on this thing, but it makes me feel cool . That probably sounds lame, but whatever, it's the little things that help boost my self-esteem . Thanks for reading everyone, or even if u just clicked saw it was too long and left I'll never know the difference... so thx

robbyd86

I'm in the dead middle of exam week at the moment. Things are going very well currently as I am getting everything that needs to be done....well....done.

I feel like I'm in kind of a weird funk where things I have been doing have been great, but something still feels like it's missing from my life. I'm not going to go too in depth here, but I still find myself longing for something that is just out of my reach. C'est la vie, I know it'll come soon enough.

I've been thinking about why it's seen as such a negative thing to be unhappy in our society. I know most people are not completely fulfilled out of life, but why does everyone have to act as if they are? To me it would make more sense to remain genuine in spite of "negative" emotions. I put negative in quotes because who's to say what's truly negative or positive? Such emotions are subjective. If you're happy, be happy, if you're not, then don't. Simple. This way you don't blind yourself to possible solutions in the midst of putting on a front. Seems like a pretty big waste of energy.

Speaking of energy, I've been thinking a lot about the power of productivity, momentum, and willpower. It's almost as if the willpower is what starts the productivity machine and momentum is what makes it so easy to keep a habit in place. (also why it's so difficult to stop a habit)

This also brings up the point of inertia. This goes hand-in-hand with momentum in the fact that a habit in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted upon by an exterior force. This means that if we let a force come in the way of our habit's path, then it is easier to be thrown off. (I'm not entirely sure what I mean here, but I think it has potential for a different blog.)

I'm gonna go study econ now.

0utplayed