Lately i have been spending too much money, even though i am spending well within my means i still feel i'm spending too much. I used to be such a nit when it came to stuff like that, like as i've said before i didn't spend anything until i had like 60 grand, but now unless its more than like 2 grand i don't even think about it when i buy it. Again this isn't gonna break me, but it is a very bad habit to get into and i'm gonna try to put a stop to it now.

Since we are on the topic of spending, i am going to aruba for the Ultimate Bet donkament on monday. It should be pretty good, and i may try to make a blog post or two while i'm there.

cheers,

bmxicle

Just so i can shit talk lee jones

That is all...

yours truely,

bmxicle.

Alright so someone asked in my comments thread about how i got to where i am today, and what separates me from other poker players lower down on the food chain. Basically it comes down to one thing, and i know i am one of many (though far from a majority) of very successful poker players that suffer from this to some extent, i suck at life. No i am not going to write some long drawn out emotional tirade about how i hate life and suck at it, but i seriously believe this is why i am where i am today with poker. I have actually always been quite happy to just suck at life in my own weird way.

Basically i have always been a very quiet person, i suck with girls (though it is interesting how money can change that), i'm often akward socially and am just introverted overall. I also have always enjoyed things where you can progress in skill level, thats why i mountain bike, bmx, ski, snowbaord, sail skateboard etc. You can keep learning new things and progress which i always enjoy. So if you look at it, poker was something where i didn't need to be put in awkward social situations, i got to progress in skill (and in level of play) and with the chance of huge--tho i far surpassed what i orginally thought was "huge'--financial returns. So basically poker meshed perfectly with my personality, and i became very motivated. So motivated infact that i didn't spend a single dollar of it until i had about $60 000 american, which when i look back is a little absurd.

I also have a very even temperment, and don't get angry (tilty) easily, which was very important to my success. Not spending also allowed my skill level to correspond (rather than exceed) my bankroll; so many new players cash out at 25nl while making 10 dollars an hour, when if they save for a bit they can be making hundreds an hour at higher levels.

I really don't believe i am that much more of a "natural" player than most people. I have always been good at card games and the such, but this advantage only played a minimal roll in my success. It was my motivation to progress, my personal traits and discipline that made me succeed. Its not neccesarry to suck at life to be good at poker, but doing so certainly allowed me to focus on poker more than a "normal" person would.

cheers,

bmxicle

So on saturday i decide i need to get out and play some live poker. There is a sweet 10/20nl game about 45 minutes away from me, so i head out there around 4:30. I get there and the waiting list is pretty long, so i screw around for a little while. I go get an early dinner at the buffet which was pretty tasty. Then i decide to see why people like slots so much cause i'm so bored. So i somehow lose 20 dollars at FIVE CENT slots in like 2 minutes, which just increased my passionate dislike of gambling games in general. So i go out to my car to grab my ipod and fiddle around for a bit, the poker room somehow calls me while i am out there and i get taken off the list i have been on for liek an hour. So i'm really annoyed right now cause i lost a big blind gambling and i have to go on the list again. So i decide to just leave. Well i somehow get lost in surrey, which is a terrible place to be lost in. I swear the only things i saw were jiffy lubes, midas, kal tire and shitty malls. So since i have very little idea where i am, the obvious thing to do is to stop at a movie theatre and watch little miss sunshine. I'm glad i just impusively did that cause it was a really awesome movie. So i come out of the theatre around 11 and decide i can't just go home cause it was such a waste to drive out to the terrible place that is langley/surrey and not play some poker. So i go back to the casino, get into the 10/20nl game and make like 3 grand and stop at like 6am. I drive home so tired i can actually feel my brain inside my head. It was a weird night. OH and at some point i get pulled over for speeding in surrey and before the officer can give me a ticket she gets a call about some crime and screeches off in her cruiser, so that was kinda sweet.

the end.

ps. gg paragraphs

Ok, so I obv don’t have bipolar disorder, but poker is definitely screwing with me a little. For example today, I go out get my haircut, get the flat tire on my car fixed, come home and clean up a little and work out. I always feel great after working out; unless I forget to eat all day—which is often the case—then I just feel very light headed and hungry, but anyways my point is that, at this time of day I always feel great. I can get up when I want, work when I want, I have the whole day ahead of me to do whatever I feel like doing. This is why poker is so awesome, I have complete freedom to do whatever I choose, I love when I’m going out with friends or going out with a girl I can just say, “yeah, we can do that whenever, I am free basically 24/7”.

its after I have played poker for 3-12 hours—with more emphasis on 3 hours, I’m so lazy—that I start getting bored with everything. It might be 2am and there is absolutely nothing to do, and no one to talk to or anything. This is when I really start hating playing poker professionally. I can be up $5000 on the day and it really won’t matter that much to me, I’m still bored out of my mind. It isn’t depression, i’m so well grounded that I’m almost not well grounded; in other words, It takes something really bad to make me depressed or angry, which is both a good, but can make me seem kinda harsh at times even though I’m not. Its just that after a long session I really dislike poker, and when I wake up in the morning I am usually relatively happy with poker.

Why does this happen? I mean gambling doesn’t excite me at all anymore, but maybe I am coming down from some kind of subconscious gambler’s high that I don’t even recognize in myself. I really doubt that as I am really not a gambler, I really only ever liked poker cause I could make money at it. I think I get bored like this because I don’t have enough to occupy myself. So I need to find some thing to do, like a project or a new hobby. I may try writing something bigger than a blog (there is a reason why the majority of my blog posts are written in the wee hours of the morning), and I think I may try to join a hockey team or start sailing again, or something to that’s fun to pass the time and meet some new people, as poker has to be pretty close to the worst profession for meeting people.

So yeah, just let this story be kind of a warning to all you aspiring poker professionals. I mean life is awesome right now, and I wouldn’t be doing anything else other than travelling and playing poker right now. However, poker has even managed to mess a little with me, and I think my personality is pretty much perfectly cut out for playing poker.

Cheers,

Bmxicle

Ps. Midas requested in my comments thread that I should post a pictar of my control centre. I have had multiple people say “I expect to see a plane take off or something” when they see my computer. So here it is:

http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp2690small1cb.jpg

Just copy and paste it cause i don't know html

[ more.. ]

The bottom line in poker is expected value, whichever move gets you the most of it is the best one. Obviously it isn't that simple though. You don't know your opponents cards, therefore it is impossible to make the most +EV decision every time; pretty simple. However, a situation i've been thinking about recently is whether what initially looks like a +EV call or play is actually +EV because of the need to deal with later streets-- the turn and/or river. I will give an example, i am not going to get into the exact math of hand ranges because it really isn't relevant. One must have a feel for their opponent and his/her ranges, cause it is impossible to do the math every time.

Say an aggressive opponent raises 4x in the cut off in a 6max game and you call on the button with 99, everyone else folds and its HU.

The flop comes 2d6s qh

This flop isn't great, but against an aggressive opponent it is often correct to assume that you hand is good here. So he c-bets and we simply call because we know we are ahead of his range (it is usually inccorect to raise as that eliminates all hands you beat). So in a vaccum this call is good and correct. However, one must also consider what your opponent will do on later streets. Will he fire the second barrel with nothing ALOT? will he even fire the third barrel for all his chips? These are all important questions to ask your self before calling. An uncountable number of times i have called in very simmilar situations like this only to fold to the 100% second barrel frequency of a hyper aggressive player, thus spewing alot of money on the flop unneccesarily. Also, when working in very marginal situations like this, it is important to figure out if by calling the flop, you are currently making a correct call, but will be forced to make bigger (as the pot is obv much larger) mistakes on later streets thus making the overall hand -EV.

This is relatively advanced theory, and what i have said may not all be entirely true, but its certainly interesting to think about.

I will try to come up with some more concrete examples of this some other time, and if i'm feeling really adventurous i could do the hand ranges math.

Cheers,

bmxicle

ps. tell me if that made sense or not

I'm gonna try to post my daily results, just so i have a bit more accountability. So here is today.


Heres something i wrote on the plane, i don't feel like editing it at all so it may be a little incoherent cause i was fricken tired when i wrote it.

Translating poker theory into poker play

To a certain extent, I think this issue plagues all poker players. Brilliant people, who have a great understanding of math and poker theory aoften are terrible poker players. This is counterintuitive, however it is often the case. This happens because there is so much more than just "knowing" the correct theoretical move in a certain situation. You also have to go through with it and carry out that move, and actually carrying out the correct play is often much harder than thinking of it. So many things can influence this action: your mood, how you have been running, your perception--or in many cases misperception--of other players, whether you are tilting, whether you are a passive or aggressive player overall. I mean, I definitely run into players that just mystify me with their play (they are either very bad or very good), however most of my mistakes, and I believe most mistakes that poker players make, come from knowing the correct decision, and then making the wrong one anyways. For example, one of my favorite mistakes to make, is making a blocking bet against a passive player on the river, planning to fold to their raise, they then proceed to raise or go allin, and I somehow convince myself to call anyways. So what makes me make those mistakes? I think its because I want to win every pot, I mean winning money is obviously preferable to just giving up on money, so by thinking in the short term, it makes sense that I would want to call, so I can win, rather than lose the pot. So its important to really think of longterm expected value, rather than trying to satisfying my short term want of winning the pot. If one really focuses on the long term, it will almost definitely help oneself as a poker player. So how does one do this? It certainly isn't easy, but I have thought of a few things that can help:

1) Don't look at the cashier, I mean you will always have a general idea of where you are at the day, but if you don't know the specific number of how much you are up, or more importantly down, for the day then how much you are about to win or lose in the next pot will likely affect you less. Its always a surprise as to how much money you have won or lost in a day when you check after you are done playing. Also, it is just one less distraction for you while you are playing.

2) learn how to deal with running bad. When a poker player runs bad, this is where one usually doesn't carry out the decisions that we know are correct. There is no magic solution to this, but playing at stakes you are comfortable with and conservatively bankrolled for are a big help. If this means simply not playing once you are down X amount of dollars in a day then so be it. It will prevent you from putting in the long hours, but putting in 8 hours a day where you were tilting during 5 is usually much less profitable than playing 3 hours of solid poker.

3) You are playing poker for the very, VERY long run. Really learn this and focus on it. One cannot force making money, one can only facilitate it with good play.

Me r not able to tink of anything else now so that is all.

cheers,

bmxicle

So yeah, tomorrow i will be getting home from a sweet vacation in maui. This august has probably been the month that i have played the least amount of poker since i started playing. However, when i get back to reality--which for a professional poker player is pretty unreal to begin with--i will really be playing alot in the next months. Fall is the most useless time of year where i live, and people will be going back to school, so i intend to play alot in the upcoming months. I will be playing a live donkament at the end of september in aruba which will be good, but thats about all i have planned, so i hope to play alot. I would be happy with playing about 400k hands from now until january 1st, but we will see how that works out.

So yeah, just a random rambling update, i will try to write something useful when i get back to unreal reality.

cheers,

bmxicle

I keep thinking of stuff to write, and have time to write it, but don't expect me to keep up this pace.

Poker gives me huge amounts of freedom, i can play when i want, for however long i want and pretty much do whatever i want. However, with great freedom comes alot more responsibility--or some cliche to that effect. It is important to find balance, i mean i need to play alot to make alot of money, which is important, but i also need to not play too much so that i don't get burnt out, and leave time for other activities. I have mismanaged my time on both sides of the spectrum. A few months ago i was playing like 60 hours a week, making boatloads of cash, but just ignoring everything else. It didn't leave me with time to even spend the large amounts of money i was making. Now that it is summer, i have gone to the other extreme, i rarely play, and when i do it is usually unenthusiastically in short spurts. I'm certainly having a good time, but i also really am not making alot of money.

So really it comes down to discipline--as it almost always does in all aspects of poker--to find balance i have to be disciplined in controlling the amount i play. I could set up a strict schedule and follow it, but that defeats one of the main advantages of playing poker proffessionally, so i don't think that is the best way to approach it. Instead, i think a better approach is to just manage my time on a day to day basis. I have to decide, and balance, each day between making money and enjoying life. I always need to ask myself if what i am doing is worth my time (though i think it is a very bad idea to think of your time as an hourly wage rate) and always be trying to do something i consider to be usefull--ie. not making quippy posts about nothing on ftr .

So yeah, i don't really know how to end this post, i was just kinda rambling on about how i waste time.

cheers,

Bmxicle

I arose from a refreshing sleep at approximately noon today, upon which i completed my standard morning (or in most cases the time at which i wake up) formalities. I then proceeded to play poker in a way in which i would best define as 'ripping shit up' for a few hours, it was the first time in a long time that i really wanted to play poker, and i think that definately was reflected in my play, i only made $416 dolluhs, but i feel like i played very well and concentrated very well, which is something i haven't been doing lately.

After a few hours of poker i had a dentist appointment which sucked, but then i went shopping to buy a universal remote and an ipod itrip car thingey. Unfortunately buying useless shit i dont' really need has become somewhat of a hobby. I then went and had a delicious sushi dinner with a lady friend, however we didn't order enough sushi, and by the time i got home i was almost hungry again.

So after screwing around for a while at home trying to solve my hunger problem i decided the best place to get a midnight snack was the local gambling establishment. I often attend my local gambling establishment with little motivation to play poker, but an insatiable desire to find tasty food. So i arrive at said gambling establishment, and sit down with the other gentlemen at the table whom i exchange pleasantries with. Second hand in i am dealt kk, and my favorite fish raises. Some other shenanigans go down, and i take a 1000 off him cause he can't fold his 99 on a queen high flop. As i am racking my chips my delicious BRBBBQ chicken pannini arrives which finally satisfies my hunger. The game breaks shortly after and i get home satisfied at being paid alot of money to eat a tasty sandwhich, and then make this rather pointless blog post.

fin

I guess to add some content, i realized today that it is so important to always play your A game, and the best way to do this is to think of when you are running well/playing well, and then replicate everything you can remember about it. What i mean is, you play the same, you sit the same, you listen to the same music you think the same, you concentrate the same and you maintain the same amount of confidence. So even if the cards go badly, you can still have confidence in the fact that you are playing well, and that confidence will in the long run turn into great results.

cliff notes cause i'm not very clear: a day in the life of a pokerpro, and copy exactly what you do when you run/play good, and it will help yer game alot.

Hey,

I got this blog a long time ago but i was having password troubles and that was clearly too tall a mountain to conquer so i gave up, but the other day i got the urge to write a blog, so i figured out my password and now i'm set. So i guess i will introduce myself.

I'm Rob, i'm a 19 year old professional poker player. I play mostly cash games on Party Poker at stakes anywhere from 2/4nl-10/20nl, though currently i am mainly playing 3/6nl. I started playing poker about a year and a half ago, where i started with $150 dollars and have since built that into 6 figures +, over about half a million hands. I don't really know what i'm going to put in my blog, but it will likely mainly just be random poker topics that i need to consider, and by writing about them in my blog hopefully i can help others out too.

cheers,

Rob