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Poker
Poker posts and stories
I have to visit Immigration tomorrow/today to extend my ED Visa. Rather than waking up at the butt crack of dawn, I decided to stay up an extra hour later than normal and go then. I'm not really looking forward to it, but I guess it's better than having to leave the country and re-enter like most people do. Everything should go smoothly, my school prepared all the documents and helped me fill them out.
The last few days have been decent. I took Monday off because I needed a break, and got some real life things done. Yesterday I re-examined my game/approach, and decided to make a few more changes. Instead of setting skype to "do not disturb", I log out completely. It can be very distracting, and sometimes even tilting having conversations while playing. Also, no more web browsing. Only reason I should have it open is if I need to use PTR or some other poker tools. I'm also experimenting with no music, but I think I might bring that back. It's probably -EV to listen to rap, rock etc., but smooth jazz and related genres are fine imo. To sum up, I'm one-tasking to maximize EV.
I'm also considering moving away from Stars. I can get solid flat rakeback on other sites, and I've heard the games are softer. The downside is not as many games running, almost 0 during my daytime, and worse software. It would take some pressure off from having to meet a hand quota everyday. It gets tiring playing 5+hrs/day, and sometimes I don't realize when I'm burnt out. However, I think the VIP system keeps me motivated to play more, knowing I have to reach a certain level. I know that's exactly what they want, but it's also what I want. It's like trying to beat a video game, and you have to keep leveling up to get more stuff. Idk, sounds retarded and fish like, but regardless I'm still playing on Stars for now because I'm happy with it, and there are soft games 24/7.
Non-poker wise I've finally started using my 1TB external hard drive I bought 3yrs ago along with my computer. I've used it once and always thought it was a marginal purchase. It's proven to be very useful now that I'm "traveling" (not sure if I'm allowed to say that, so far I've just moved). Instead of hauling around a bunch of movies/tv shows, I can just throw em all on there. I'm always looking for movies to watch, but I feel like I'm at the bottom of the barrel. Once in a while I'll come across a decent flick, but I've seen so many that it's hard to find something new.
I'm not having much luck finding new TV shows either. I'm a man who enjoys a good sitcom, and those just aren't around much anymore. I got into Modern Family and breezed though that in a week. I'm caught up on everything else, and most of the drama/action shows everyone loves I can never get into. Sopranos is good, but I can't sit through 1hr a lot of the time. It's the same with most the other 1hr shows, they're just too long. Sitcoms are quick, funny, and I can bang a couple out in between sessions... and also watch the show  .
I will have a lot of TV to watch soon though. The mother fn NBA is back baby!!!!!! I'm buying a season pass on NBATV and can't wait. This will likely cut into my poker time, but I don't really care, NBA is my second love. I haven't followed the offseason b/c I was too sad, but I'm sure the Bull's will make another run this year.
That's about it for now. I'm going to eat some "breakfast" and head off to the Immigration office. I'm not even sure what time they open b/c their website is terrible, but I want to get there early so I can hopefully get out early. pz out! |
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Stars is down for me right now for some reason. It's pretty tilting b/c I had a plethora of fish at my tables, and was just starting an epic 2hr Saturday night grind. Games have been crazy good on Stars. I'm still putting in 5+ hrs/day, and my results are slowly getting better. I'm having about 1 session per day that I run terrible it seems. It's frustrating thinking I'm going to put up big numbers, and then my last session cuts my winnings in half. It hasn't been from lack of focus or burnout, I've been extremely motivated and have enjoyed playing a lot. I should hit gold star tomorrow (would've been tonight if it didn't crash), and I'm nearly 2 days ahead of pace to hit platinum now. I've put in 24.6k hands so far which I'm pleased with.
I hit 5k posts on Leggo the other day which is somewhat cool, but sad. I'm closing in on Vitas for #2 all time, but Probability will probably always remain ahead. He has .11 more posts/day than me, and has been around much longer. I've been replying to just about ever HH in the Micro forums, and also posting ~2/day myself. I've noticed a few new ppl contributing, along with some returning members, and coaches. If you're a micro player, you should def get involved. Who knows, Aejones might even comment on your hand (he's been posting a few times as well).
Aside from poker I haven't been doing much. I am planning a trip to the islands in late January. Matt and Jordan are going to meet Kesky down there, and it seemed like a good opportunity to see some stuff. Right now it sounds like Phuket, Railay, and Phi Phi are on the agenda. That's also about the time I need to make a career decision about poker. I'll be running low on cash, and I pretty much told myself if I don't make money over the next 80-100k hands I'm going to quit. That won't happen though.
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I made silver star which is obv pretty lol, but then it occurred to me that it was the first time I've ever achieved it. I always forget that I never had a decent sized bankroll on Stars. Unfortunately I was a Full Tilt grinder  . I am slightly ahead of pace to make platinum star this month. It's hard to do 4-6 tabling 25nl, it's around 5 hrs of play/day. I've put in ~6hrs for the 3 days of December. I've been able to stay active with my HH review as well
Playing on Stars has been a lot of fun compared to Party. Other than having to set up Placemint to auto arrange my tables, the rest of the software is soooo awesome. If you play on Stars and don't use Placemint I highly recommend it. It's pretty tilting having to keep manually tiling and arranging every new table, but Placemint does it for you. I've been playing 1.5-2hr sessions with ease and I think it's mostly b/c of the software. It's weird how much of a difference it makes.
I turned down a tempting offer to go drinking tonight in order to grind. I've only grinded 1 weekend since I've been in Thailand which seems so sad. It's by far the best time to grind so I'd be better served going out on Monday or Tuesday (or never). It doesn't make much difference, the night life here is always hopping, and most my friends also don't have real jobs. For some reason I always go out Friday-Saturday, and am too hungover to play on Sunday. I've been getting better lately and hope to continue my drink free weekends.
As far as results, I'm down about 2.5 bi's for the month. I played awful for one session, and ran terrible in another and WHAM!!! There goes the winrate. I think I've played much better today, but also ran a few bi's under EV and ended up down about $10. The games are sick good on Stars, and I think way softer than Party from what I've seen so far. So all I need to do is keep playing straight forward, look for spots to exploit ppl, and not do anything stupid. |
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I am finally able to play on PokerStars again! I was able to purchase a small cash credit on Party and I won about $200 in 4 sessions right before I left. Overall for November I think I only lost a couple hundos which is a relief compared to how bad it could've been. I transferred all my money to Stars and will start playing there tomorrow (December 1st). I figured I'd take one more day to watch videos, relax, and have a lil fun before I start grinding hard. VIP wise it just makes more sense to start grinding at the beginning of the month imo. Going to try and hit platinum, but more importantly just want to build my roll up so I can play 50nl again.
I've been working on a lot of small adjustments (and some large) to my poker game/attitude that I think will help immensely. Just taking more time to make decisions instead of auto piloting is the biggest leak I had. That was evident in the leakfinder Grogheadflow did for me. I'm also attacking poker with a much more perfectionist attitude. A lot of times I might review hands or study, but it was always with a laid back sort of approach. Imo it's way more beneficial to pick a couple spots and really break down math, what u do on different board textures, break down ranges etc. Plenty of other bad habits I noticed, but I've talked enough poker for now.
I've been grinding some TV in my down time. I knocked out 2 seasons of Modern Family in less than a week. I wish there were more seasons out, but now I'm caught up. I wouldn't say it's an amazing show, but it's pretty solid, and I'm always craving new comedies. I'm starting to re watch Big Bang Theory. I always liked that show, but for some reason the last year or so I've enjoyed it even more.
My music has been changing on a day to day basis it seems. One day I'm rocking out to Girl Talk, next day is Sinatra, then some Flogging Molly, O.A.R, and just all over the place. My itunes library has probably doubled in size the last month. Most people say that they will listen to whatever, but if you follow my posts in the What are you listening to thread I think it's safe to say I listen to a wide variety of music.
That's pretty much all the randomness I have I think. November was a crazy month. I tried a lot of new things, ran about as bad as I ever have at poker, and still turned out ok. I've made it to 2 Thai classes in a row, and plan on continuing that streak on Friday. I had to write an entire page about myself today in Thai (well, English Thai, not actual thai characters) which was kind of fun. My Thai is awful overall, but when I take the time to think and write it's pretty damn good imo. I guess that can be said of my English as well . |
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I haven't played much poker the last week or two. This is mostly due to logging in and getting stacked once or twice almost immediately. I had a few other projects going on and I just had such a negative outlook that I decided to not play unless I really really wanted to. That only happened one time and I ended up frying a fish for ~6 bi's.
I sent even more documents into PokerStars to prove my address change. They wanted to see my lease and wondered how long I would be relocated for. I expected this would be a long process, but it's going on 1 month now and starting to get real annoying. I'm not sure how much more proof they need, I've sent in every piece of paperwork available it seems.
I'm a bit hurried to get Stars unlocked now. I want to hit platinum star in December to get my fpp multiplier @ 2.5:1 before January hits. I'm going to try and hit 200k vpp's next year. It would take about 4.5-5hrs/day of 6 tabling 50nl, but if I move up to 100nl at some point it would only take 3hrs which is fairly easy. I think it's ~$10k rake back which is fairly close to what I would spend the entire year living in Thailand.
I'm going to continue playing on Party until my account at Stars is unlocked. However, I'm not going to play too much b/c the software is too tilting and I need to relax a bit. I still have like $350 of my deposit bonus left, but I'll probably only get about 50-100 of that. It doesn't bother me though, I'd much rather just get off that site and on to better software. I still have a lot of countries I could potentially get in the "world domination" promo so maybe I'll bink one (not counting on it).
I'm feeling fairly motivated to play poker again, so I think I'll take a crack at it tonight. I just wish I could be more motivated on the weekends when the games are so much softer. It seems there is always something going on that intrigues me and takes me away from grinding. All in all I think I'll be ok though and I plan on staying in Thailand a while  |
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I wrote a pretty detailed TR on my other blog which I'll just xpost here. I played about 10 minutes of poker the entire trip, but I felt very relaxed. I think I won't play again until tomorrow night. I'm pretty tired and sunburnt from the trip. I just feel like eating good food and being lazy for a day.
Quote:
I just got back from Chiang Rai (not Chiang Mai where I live). Overall it was pretty fun. I rented a motorbike and drove with my friends Matt and Jordan. We were told it would take 1.5 hours to get there, but that was a lie. It took about 3 hours of driving, and with stops took us a little over 4 i think. It was an easy drive with very little mountain roads, and few sharp corners/steep hills etc.
We ended up leaving a little bit late and didn't get into town until after dark. It was fairly easy to find our hotels, just had to ask one guy and he told me in Thai-English "it's on this road 1km down on the right hand side." I was staying at a hotel well below my normal standards. However, it was relatively clean and and I didn't see any bugs, so it wasn't too bad. Matt and Jordan stayed at a nice Resort. It had a really good looking pool which we didn't have time for unfortunately.
After unpacking, showering, and of course setting up internet, we headed out for some food. We went to the Night Bazaar, which is a street market at night basically. It was fairly big, but I don't think quite as large as Chiang Mai's. Despite my hotel being two blocks away, I got a little lost on the way back. Somehow I got turned around and ended up taking a night tour of Chiang Rai. I wasn't overly impressed by it to be honest.
The next morning we had to wake up early (10am) because we scheduled a day trip. We went to see White Temple and the Golden Triangle. We hired a driver because we had no clue where to go. It was quite nice to be in an air conditioned car most the day. It's only the second time I've been in a car since moving here, so it felt a little weird sitting shotgun on the left side (where the steering wheel is supposed to go). Our driver was cool and spoke English fairly well. I tried to practice my Thai, but didn't too much.
The White Temple is fairly self explanatory... it's a gorgeous white temple. We were not allowed pictures inside so I'll do my best to explain it. The walls were covered with superheroes like: Superman, Batman, Neo (from the Matrix), and a bunch of other random things. Other than that it was pretty standard on the inside I think.
The Golden Triangle was where a lot of the illegal and legal (depending on the era) opium trading went down. It was about a two hour drive there, but since we had our driver we could just relax. We went to the Opium Museum which also didn't allow any pictures. Since I didn't want to get stabbed or thrown in jail I respected their wishes. It was one of the largest and nicest museums I've ever been in. We walked through fairly quick and it took us about 1.5 hours. There were no free samples given out, but it was still a fun experience . After the opium museum we went to a couple view points and were about done for the day.
We got back from our tour around dinner time. We went to the mall because we decided it was the best place to find American food. We weren't thrilled with the Chiang Rai cuisine to that point, so we figured McDonalds would be our best option . It was a pretty low key night after that and we headed back to Chiang Mai the next day (today).
The drive back was a lot easier since we knew what to expect. We only stopped once each for gas so we made good time. I was super soar since I was carrying my laptop in a shoulder bag and other things in my normal backpack. It felt so good to get home and shower.
Chiang Rai was fun, but I wouldn't want to stay for an extended period of time. It seemed like a smaller and less appealing version of Chiang Mai. I think it's a fine place, but I've been spoiled by all the things in Chiang Mai. I know where my favorite food spots are and how to get around. That's about all I have to say for this trip, hopefully I will take another one soon. TIME FOR PHOTO'S!!!!!!!!!
clock tower by night bazaar
White Temple
left side of White Temple
action shot
entrance to white temple
still the entrance to White Temple
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Not to be confused with Chiang Mai, Chaing Rai is not where I live. It's like 90 miles northeast of here or something. Not really sure of things to do there, but felt since I bailed on Pai, I should probably go check this out. Going to motorbike it with Matt/Jordan. I'm going to bring my lappy with so I can still grind at least 4 tables at night. Of course that depends on the internet quality at the hotel, i'm guessing late night it should be decent.
I returned to Thai class today. It was nice to get back into it. I ended up learning/refreshing a lot of words. I'm going to miss Fridays class b/c of the Chiang Rai trip, but I will likely go to most of them from now on. I still think I'm fine with what I've already learned, but it gives me some structure and keeps my brain occupied on something else aside from poker. Plus, there is a new girl working at the front desk who is super cute.... game on
I developed an exercise routine w/o having to go to the gym. In between poker sessions, instead of watching tv, I'm going to go outside and walk around a bit. Then at the end of the night I walk up and down the stairs of my building which is 11 stories. I'll implement some push ups/sit ups from time to time and I should be fine. Obviously it's no gym membership, but if I keep doing this everyday it should help me sleep better at least. In fact last night I slept uninterrupted so it seems to be helping.
I'm going to try and stop drinking as it seems I lose 2-3 days of good grinding. I usually barely play at all the next day, and I'm still kind of fuzzy headed/sleep deprived even beyond that. I'm sure there will still be some nights of drunkenness to look forward to, but will hopefully cut back a bit. That's it for now, i'm going to grind a bit and eat some food. pz out! |
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I can't sleep so I'm just going to blog again. I ended up being too tired to play much tonight and went to bed at 11pm. I woke up around 2am wide awake. I've been having so much trouble sleeping the last week or two. It's like when I first came to Thailand I probably slept less than 4hrs/night. For a while there I was getting 8-10hrs no problems. I guess maybe I have a lot on my mind again, or it's just time to exercise and wear myself out more during the day.
I played a super annoying poker session a lil while ago. One where every turn and river card is the last card in the deck I wanted to see. It resulted in me desperately calling off half a stack just from tilt when there was less than 20% chance i was good... then I knew it was time to stop. Villain had just took a similar line vs me where I folded the river (after 4 flush hit obv)), so i guess I just wanted to look him up. In reality, my hand was very face up, he's a decent reg who can hand read, and it'd be extremely foolish of him to bluff in that spot (wouldn't be the first time a reg was foolish i guess). It's a spot where i have trips, it's a good hand, but vs his range it's really kind of garbage.
Another thing that has been tilting me lately is the "World Domination" promotion on Party. If you're unfamiliar, basically every 10pp's you get a city. If you get all of the cities in a certain country you get cash, and some individual cities are worth some cash etc. I've got 5 countries that I need one city for and I get some nice payouts. Obviously after doing a lil research they are the rarest ones, and I will likely never get them. If I did hit, I could have anywhere between $250-850 extra monies per country. I'm 4 cities away from conquering all of South America which is a $15k prize. Hey, a kid can dream right? I stopped worrying about it the last couple days, idk why I got so caught up in it. I figured maybe I'd run bad at poker, but luck box at this.... apparently not.
Back to non poker stuff. I'm debating (as I do many times before i go to sleep) whether I should go grab some food or go to bed. There is a highly recommended spot 3 mins from my door that is only open 5am-11am (currently 4:50am here). I've nvr been there since I go to bed between 4-5am usually. It sucks b/c I'm not that tired, but if i stay up I will fall asleep at around noon and my sleep schedule will be ultra f'd up.
I have not been to language school in almost two weeks now. I ditched the last two classes b/c I didn't feel well.... actually one of them i just didn't feel like going. I've become a little bit less concerned with learning Thai lately. Honestly it's kind of pointless. It's fun to talk with ppl, but really all I need to do is point, smile, and say thank you. It's whatever I guess, as long as I get my student visa renewed that's all I care about.
My a/c isn't working again. It's the second time the cleaning ladies have turned it off and the second time I can't turn it back on. I'm never here when they do it so i'm not sure wtf they do, but I have wait til tomorrow to get it "fixed". Luckily, Chiang Mai is nice and cool at night right now so I can just crack a window.
I have rambled on long enough now so I will spare you from even more details. I think I might be tired enough to go to back to bed soon, so I will do that. Perhaps I'll watch a boring poker video from a competing site to put me to sleep . |
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I grinded quite a bit over the last few days as expected. I put in about 5-6hrs per day and played ok. Had 2 sessions I thought I did terrible, but the rest I was playing my A game. I won a small amount of money, but it's a start at least. I'm going to continue playing 25nl until I feel comfortable losing a few 50nl buy ins. That will probably be when my roll gets back up to ~$1300. I've had a few ppl reach out to me in the Leggo community and help me with my game. It's a nice feeling having friends that want to see me succeed and will help me on that path. Thanks to everyone who contributed or sent their well wishes.
I finally got all my documents together to send into Stars to change my address. It was an expensive and long process getting everything together and translated/notarized. I'm fairly confident it will be enough to unlock my account, but who knows. I'll be grinding my party bonus until the end of the year anyways. I'm pretty sure the deposit bonus is worth about 25% rake back someone told me. I'm not sure if that includes the party points I accumulate or not. If it doesn't, that's another 15% rb for the cash bonus I'm going to get at the end.
I took last night off from grinding, and will go easy tonight as well (2-3hrs). Tomorrow I'm looking forward to getting back on the 5hr/day grind. I still have a lot of ground to make up, but I think I can do it. I just have to continue to work hard, but still go out and enjoy myself once in a while. After all, I'm 25 and in Thailand, I'd be a fool to spend everyday grinding . |
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There will never be an easier date to write than 11/11/11 (except 100yrs from now obv). Unfortunately, I don't write dates anymore except on the computer and it auto fills for me. It's whatever though, I can still write 1's anytime I want to make myself feel better.
So anyways, poker has sucked lately. I posted a graph about a week ago and was all like "i'm running bad but i don't care, i'll get thru it". Yeah, that didn't really happen. I dropped another 5 bi's the next day and continued to forget how to win for the last week. I don't think I even had a winning session all week, def not a winning day. Despite that, I felt I was playing well (most of the time) and knew I was +EV in the games.
Eventually I reached my point of insanity and degened it up for a while. I had a couple epic nights of drinking and other things 25yo's do. It was definitely fun, but it came at a cost. I was feeling really depressed. A lot of it had to do with poker, some of it from the hangovers i guess, and some of it from missing America. I'd say 85% of it was from poker though, which I'm sure everyone can understand who's been through a nasty downswing.
At this point it's going to be tough trying to make enough money to survive just on poker. I've got to make a decent sum of money in the next 1.5 months or so and it's going to take some run good. I'm looking into other options to stay here, but really if I'm going to work a normal job I'd rather just go back home.
So that's where I'm at. It's the reason I haven't blogged, or been in the forums quite as much (although still been posting a fair bit). It's also the reason I didn't go to Pai as planned. I know I need to get my ass in gear and grind like a mofo. If anybody knows any rungood dances or rituals I can perform hit me up |
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