Vertek's Poker Blog: Adventures of a Luckbox

Update

2011-05-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, online poker in the US is mostly dead. Unless things change in a very dramatic fashion, I'm retiring from poker to spend more time on my investment fund. Check it out if you feel so inclined.

The market meltdown of 2008 created too many bargains to ignore, so my business partner and I decided to pool some money together and jointly manage it. Results were fairly strong for the past two years and this past January, we opened up the fund to outside investors. We are still looking for new investors to join the fund for the 2012 fiscal year. Please feel free to contact me with any interest or questions.

Circles

2010-08-18T01:41:00.000-07:00

A virtuous circle or a vicious circle is a complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop. A virtuous circle has favorable results, and a vicious circle has detrimental results.

Vicious cycle
Since Vegas, I've been on a breakeven stretch. I had fairly healthy (delusional) expectations and as a result my confidence in my game was shaken. Hard to describe, but I was definitely out of the zone. Felt like I was floating in space when I played; didn't know where I was at with ranges, etc. Desperate to win again, I prob started adopting random pieces of other people's games. I also developed a defeatist attitude that the games had become unbeatable. As a result, I didn't want to play at all. Started dabbling in other games, which can be a good idea but in my case, was just starting over at the bottom of the learning curve.

Virtuous cycle
More lately, I've been expanding my poker network to surround myself with people who have similar goals, work ethics, and approaches to the game. Hearing others' thought processes, as well as having to explain / defend your own thoughts really strengthens your game. I went over some "golden era" vertek HHs and that definitely reminded me of what worked for me before. I definitely have an idiosyncratic style and timing to my game, and for the most part, have good reasons behind why I do things. I hate talking poker with people that assume things and rely on certain standards. Obviously they are already playing perfect poker and don't need to think about things. On the other hand, I need to continually think and adjust to the changing conditions. You're only as good as your last game.

I've also stepped up my HH review game ten-fold. Everyday before I start my session, I go over the previous night's HHs. At the very least, gives my brain time to get back into poker mode. Shout outs as well to portlypig, yx32mike, and chip210 for helping to sharpen my weapons. There are two times when you need to go over your HHs: when you don't think you're playing well, and when you do.

ALSO:
Special thanks to Daleroxxu (world's best poker blog) for hosting his NLO H/L Hyper Shoveament Freeroll, which I was lucky enough to take down for 1st place. Video highlights and commentary here.

June Results

2010-07-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

Profit: +$4647
Rakeback: +$636
Games: 1961
Hours: 190

Hourly: $27.81 / hr
Per Game: $2.69 / game

Ran hot for first half of month. Hit some turbulence for the last week or two. The importance of daily routines / schedule cannot be stressed enough. With that being said, I'll be looking to experiment with a few changes this month. GL me!

Also, sorry for late responses in comments section:

I don't use a HUD because I've never figured out how to, or what the stats even mean. On the other hand, playing HUD-less has forced me to pay attention to player tendencies and whatnot, so I usually try to avoid auto-piloting.

The link to the 2+2 thread referenced in the prior post can be found by hovering over the words "thread on 2+2" in the same post. I guess the link text color was too similar.

I Got A 33% Raise!

2010-06-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

Not in the traditional sense, but in poker terms I did. I was inspired by this thread on 2+2, so now I'm 16-tabling tiled continuously on dual Dell 30"s in portrait mode. Took a bit of time to find some Torx wrenches, but it was fairly simple to get them standing up without having to buy extra mounting equipment.

This should increase my volume and hourly rate. I'm probably too nitty to ever use a stacked setup, but I'm ok with that. I've been playing well lately and the results are strong. I've ran a mile or two in the mornings a few days / week and that has definitely helped a lot. I have tons of focus and energy. I want to strike while the iron is hot, so I'm looking to set some volume records this weekend. My first 15 hour session, and 200+ games in a day for Saturday and maybe Sunday if I'm feeling particularly randy. Wish me luck!

A Tale of Two Graphs

2010-06-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

April 1 - May 9

May 10 - June 7

So for 5 weeks, I got in 1700 games at $10 / game for a grand total of $17 K. Then for the next 4 weeks, I got in 1200 games at -$2 / game for a grand total of -$2.4 K. If a magic genie had appeared to me back at the beginning of April and told me I'd play 3K games at $5 / game, I'd be fairly pleased with myself. Instead I spend a few weeks feeling like a poker god and then a few weeks feeling like a total loser. And even though my wins totally eclipse my losses, the emotional impact of those losses is far greater. I've played a fairly consistent game throughout both periods, but shit just happens. Deep down, I am still a good, thinking, winning player.

Swings suck, but if we peel the onion back another layer, we reveal another aspect of grossness. I've been really examining my game and have finally figured out that I've developed some pretty major leaks. These leaks began in April, but I kept on winning DESPITE these leaks. So the "upswing" further reinforced my leaks and made them worse. Lesson learned, and none too worse for wear. I'm just glad that I'm continuing to improve in ALL aspects of my game.

May Results

2010-06-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Profit: +$4309
Rakeback: +$630
Games: 1620
Hours: 143 .5

Hourly: $34.42 / hr
Per Game: $3.05/ game

I ran pretty well for the first week, and then blehh for the rest of the month. All in all, the results were decent, but I'm still disappointed because I had aggressive goals and high standards for myself. Ended with a long streak where I was cashing a decent % of the time, but they were all mincashes which are basically negligible. I'll go over a bunch of HHs today and then get back to work. This month's goals will be simple: work hard, play well.

Quick shout-out to msusyr24. He's currently 23rd in the WSOP Event 5 $1.5K NLHE. He was chiplead for a large stretch, but took some tough beats to get knocked down. If anyone can come back, he can, so GL today!

Week 3

2010-05-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Profit: +$1115
Rakeback: +$78
Games: 323
Hours: 28.5

Hourly: $41.86 / hr
Per Game: $3.69 / game

Finally broke out of my downswing and got the ship righted again. Last week's poor results were definitely the result of poor play and not variance. My A-game is a subtle mix of aggression and caution, so it doesn't take much for small shifts in my style to throw me off. Had some life distractions, so blehh volume. Before I sign off to crush the Sunday crowd, will leave you with this piece my friend posted on his FB. Original here.

You can’t change your entire life.
You can only change your next action.
—
You can’t change a relationship with a loved one.
You can only change your next interaction.
—
You can’t change your entire job.
You can only change your next task.
—
You can’t change your body composition.
You can only change your next meal.
—
You can’t change your fitness level.
You can only start moving.
—
You can’t declutter your entire life.
You can only choose to get rid of one thing, right now.
—
You can’t eliminate your entire debt.
You can only make one payment, or buy one less unnecessary item.
—
You can’t change the past, or control the future.
You can only change what you’re doing right now.
—
You can’t change everything.
You can only change one, small thing.
And that’s all it takes.

Week 2

2010-05-16T06:40:00.001-07:00

Profit: +$308
Rakeback: +$87
Games: 396
Hours:34

Hourly: $11.62 / hr
Per Game: $1.00 / game

Started off hot last Sunday with a $36 180 win, and then have mincashed my way down since then. I can definitely say that I've been making some superthin calls lately, so will go over some HHs to look for spots to improve / avoid. Have also spewed a number of times at early levels, which was totally avoidable.

Surprises come when there are differences in expectations and outcome. I've been running so well lately that this week feels like a losing one. Just have to remember to view things in totality. The most important thing is to align expectations and effort.

Week 1

2010-05-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

Profit: +$4,184
Rakeback: +$216
Games: 545
Hours:50

Hourly: $88.00 / hr
Per Game: $8.07 / game

I'm about on track as far as profits go, and a little bit behind on volume. Healthy ROIs (50-60%) at 12s and 36s. I was a lil concerned that the daytime crowd would be tougher, but haven't noticed too many differences. 6-8 hour sessions are definitely my sweet spot. 2-3 hour sessions are a waste (load-up / wind-down) and with 10+ hour sessions, I start to get hungry and lose focus. I also hate playing with fewer than 150k ppl online since load times are unbearable.

Thoughts have been running through my head of getting a personal assistant. Someone to clean, do laundry, handle mail, emails, shopping, and errands for like $15 / hr. Would definitely be worth it if they can free up more time for me to get games in. My MO in life has been to suck at most things and do a few things really well. Specialization / division of labor and all that jazz. Also need to start working out again regularly.

April Results

2010-04-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Profit: +$11,249
Rakeback: +$255
Games: 1075
Hours: 103

Hourly: $111.69 / hr
Per Game: $10.70 / game

Has been an interesting month. Set a new personal record for monthly earnings as well as a new daily record (3.6K). Cracked top 200 for the monthly TLB so got a lil bonus for that. Was able to take down 4 $12 180s in a day and took down my first $36 180.

I ran at expectation for $12s (40% ROI) and ridiculously well at $36s (280% ROI). Only played 65 $36s, but managed 3 1sts, 2 2nds, and a 3rd so GG me.

Much of this month, I've played in the "zone". Hard to describe and sortta mystical-sounding, but I'm 100% in the moment, just reacting to situations. I'm paying attention to everything but afterwards, I can't really recall the details or outcomes of any individual hands won or lost. Plus if you consider yourself a poker player, bad beats should be boring to you. It's like I sit down at my station, and stand up 4-8 hours later after I get really hungry or the games are loading too slow. In an NLP sense, I 'd like to think I've reached the level of Unconscious Competence.

1. Unconscious Incompetence (we don't know we don't know how to)
2. Conscious Incompetence (we know we don't know how to)
3. Conscious Competence (we know we know how to)
4. Unconscious Competence (we do it without knowing how we do it)

Also rewarded myself for having a good month by buying myself a used Aeron chair. $340 but long overdue and well worth the price. Super adjustable and feels like you're sitting on nothing.

For May, I have very aggressive goals. 3K games and $15K profit. No excuses.

Can We Do It Again?

2010-04-16T16:57:00.001-07:00

$36 180 Win!

2010-04-11T15:59:00.001-07:00

Pretty nice considering $1800 was what I used to earn in an average month at poker. Special thanks to MI_Turtle for being in my corner and railing me to victory.

Epic Win

2010-04-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Due to a super active table and me being an ICM nit, I found myself HU at a 180-man at 1.5/3K with 12K to his 254K. I pulled out all my luckboxing tricks and 19 hands later, it was all over.

New Daily Record

2010-04-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

Profit: $2,365
Rakeback: +16
Games: 91
Hours: 9

Hourly: $264.56 / hr
Per Game: $26.16 / game

I'm BACK, bitches! I took a few hours this weekend to go over some vintage vertek HHs. My game is back to its tablecrusher style, instead of whatever the hell happened last month. Today's session started off alright, but I ended up winning 4 $12 180s in a row at the end. GG me!

March Results

2010-04-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Profit: -$1,238
Rakeback: +107
Games: 850
Hours: 86

Hourly: -$13.15 / hr
Per Game: -$1.33 / game

This was my first negative month in online poker. Welcome to the club, I guess. I was out of town 2 weekends, so I probably made up for that with more volume, and less focus. But to put things in perspective, 850 games is small. Gotta get back to focusing on those few things I can control. People can be such mindless lemmings.

“Learn how to ignore the examples from others when they are wrong, because few skills are worth more having.”

-- Charlie Munger

One Year Anniversary

2010-03-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

Few days ago was the one year anniversary of my 1st blog post, and when I began taking this game seriously. I played and read books before then, but this was the beginning of respectable volume and reliance on poker to supplement my income. I was inspired and had a few coaching sessions with vers. He was killing every $12 45-man back then and his blog opened my mind up to how much money could be made. Another thanks to all those who have helped me along my journey, including reasons14, wbmustang, msusyr24, mi_turtle, johnnyhilldo, and chip210.

$26K, 18K games, and hundreds of hours later, I feel like I've proved some amount of skill. Looking back, I could have definitely progressed faster if I had signed a coaching deal or used a training site, but I'm pretty damn stubborn. The experience definitely helped me develop my own style and I've learned a ton by running into every tough spot imaginable. You can tell on the graph where mi_turtle stepped into the picture, and I'm looking forward to getting better and better.

If you're wondering where I got "vertek" from, it actually was my bboy name back in the day. I used to be in shape and vibrant, haha. Trip down memory lane...

Bruce Lee side-by-side comparison

On a set for a music video

The infamous VerTek boombox courtesy of Totem2

February Results

2010-02-28T23:24:00.001-08:00

Profit: +$4734
Rakeback: +140
Games: 747
Hours: 73

Hourly: 66.77 / hr
Per Game: 6.52 / game

This month had a great ROI & hourly rate, but lower than desired volume. I'm very confident in my game and my ability to hang with the good 180-man regs. I'm even more proud though, of the developments I've made in my mental game. I don't think I've tilted once this entire month. If you look at my graph for this year, it's almost a straight line. Some people talk of running good, or running bad, but I just need to keep running.

Last bit of news, Chip210 and I will be coaching a few students in the Rainman School of Poker. My initial plan is to feed them raw meat until they develop a taste for it. After that, they're expected to eat what they kill. We choppin' necks!

Cracked the Leaderboards

2010-02-23T06:12:00.000-08:00

Inspiration II

2010-02-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

"True nobility isn't about being better than someone else. It's about being better than you used to be."

-- Wayne Dyer

I was chatting earlier today with chip210 today, and ended up dropping some knowledge on him. Figured it would be useful to share all around and create a sequel to my first "Inspiration" post. That post helped get me into the Rainman School of Poker. This post will be a lil more involved than the 1st one, but also richer. If you are a lifetard, do not waste your time watching these.

Knuckle Up

2010-02-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

Things are moving really fast these days. Here are my results YTD. Over a small sample size, I can now say I am confident with $12 180-mans. The ROI is respectable, and the graph relatively low-variance. I've been 12-tabling so far to learn the games, but will now ramp back up to 18-tabling so I can achieve industrial strength. $36 180-mans have been kicking my butt, but over a negligible sample size. I have noticed some fear creep into me during lategame $36s. That is totally unlike me, so I will do my best to bludgeon it out of my brain.

If I really want to achieve my near-term goals, these results will not cut it. It truly is insanity to repeat the same things over and expect different results. The key concept in economics is opportunity cost; life is made up of continual tradeoffs. I only average an hour of tv / day, but I can definitely let that go. If anything is newsworthy enough, I'll hear about it eventually. I also apologize in advance to friends / family for temporarily neglecting them. It can be really difficult communicating different mindsets. I wish more people in my family were entrepreneurial; would make things 10X easier.

I've also helped out a fellow student by reviewing some of his HHs. After just a session or two, his mindset has completely turned around, along with his results. They say you can lead a horse to water, but I will drag his ass into the damn lake. More news to come.

Finally, I'd like to leave you with some inspirational quotes. Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett's right-hand man, and the wisest person I know of. The second quote is one of my favorites. If you are going to bitch about anything, bitch about yourself. Really learn to hate your own bad habits, and then destroy them.

"The safest way to get what you want is to deserve what you want."

-- Charlie Munger

"Whenever you think that some situation or some person is ruining your life, it's actually you who are ruining your life. It's such a simple idea. Feeling like a victim is a perfectly disastrous way to make go through life. If you just take the attitude that however bad it is in anyway, it’s always your fault and you just fix it as best you can – the so-called "iron prescription" – I think that really works."

-- Charlie Munger

"I will eat variance and shit $$."

-- vertek

Random Happenstance

2010-02-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Saturday, I went to grab lunch at Red and Green Brazilian Steakhouse. I'm waiting around for my friends when I see this black dude walk up the stairs. He looks eerily familiar, and I stare him down for a second before walking up to him and introducing myself. Turns out, it's Chef Robert Owens from 2M2MM.

He lives in the ATL area, so we chatted a bit and I got his contact info. Oddly enough, I was researching getting a personal chef just a week ago. It'd be nice to save time getting food and avoid eating all the crap that I normally do. However I'm not baller enough to justify it...yet. Time to lunch and grind all day. GL all!

wbmustang: Oh shit really lol how much he charge that nigga better sing a song everyday

Game Reviews - E3 2010

Well-Rested

2010-02-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

Profit: +$1260
Rakeback: +10
Games: 55
Hours: 5

Hourly: 254.00 / hr
Per Game: 23.09 / game

I'm back, fools! Last month left me a lil worn out and sleep-deprived, so I ended up not playing poker for 4 entire days. Tonight I was super-focused and alert, resulting in 2 1sts, and 2 3rds as well as a new daily record. I can almost taste that propbet victory from chip210. This weekend should be good. Here's a lil something dedicated to all the fish that love to berate me. Don't give up on me guys, I promise someday I'll learn to play!

January Results

2010-01-31T22:24:00.000-08:00

Profit: +$3262
Rakeback: +418
Games: 1204
Hours: 106

Hourly: 34.72 / hr
Per Game: 3.06 / game

Including the results of propbets, I broke 4K this month. Had no real expectations this month, since a lot of it would be learning / adjusting to a new game. The first half of this month, I spent as much time studying / reviewing as I did playing. The second half was just trying to get as many focused games in as possible.

I feel fairly comfortable with the 180 format now, and with the resulting swings in $12 / 180s. +$1500 or -$500 are possible in any given session. For a while there, I thought I could pull off a 6K+ month, but the poker gods had other ideas. The past week has been slightly losing to breakeven. Not fun, but inevitable. Perhaps I've gotten too cocky, gotten too scared, gotten too unfocused, regs are adjusting, or just natural variance. The only solution is to act on these things in my control. Nose to the grindstone, ride out the storm.

One last life leak that I gotta correct in my development is my stubbornness, and ego. So hard to change or let go of ways that have had some level of success. Reminded me of this zen story:

A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

Prop Bets

2010-01-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

As of Jan. 23rd 2 PM EST, I have $20,038 in lifetime SNG profits. Not great, not bad, but enough to win me the 20K lifetime earnings prop bet with wbmustang. We made the bet back in fall '09 when we were both sitting on 15K earnings. It was a great idea by him to push the both of us forward. Almost thought the bet was over in December when he went on a 5K upswing, but then followed it with a 3K downswing. Ughh gross, but I know wbmustang's a winning player and will play through it.

Also started another small prop bet with chip210. The bet is $100 to whoever can win 3 $12 180-mans in a single 24-hour period. I've gotten close with 2 1sts and a 3rd, while has has had 2 1sts and a 2nd. Should be a good challenge since he's pretty damn good, and I'm pretty damn lucky. When I first met him, he was a scared little bitch that would only play aces. But now, he's making moves like a cagey veteran.

GL everyone!

Rainman on Mediocre Poker

2010-01-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

Interview with Nick Rainey:

Part 1 Here:

Part 2 Here:

Pretty good interview overall. My favorite part of this interview:

Interviewer: "And I know you talk about the secret. What the F@** is the secret?"
Nick: "What's the secret to life?"
Interviewer: "I dunno"
Nick: "Hard work, right?"

I definitely know that when I have children, I will teach them to love knowledge and love hard work. Will be handing them keys to the kingdom.

I'd like to end on one video clip that I've really enjoyed. I think Nick would approve.

New Daily Record

2010-01-10T01:37:00.000-08:00

Profit: +$818
Rakeback: +11
Games: 84
Hours: 7

Hourly: 118.43/ hr
Per Game: 9.87 / game

Not too shabby for a miserably cold Saturday. 180-mans are predictably swingy but fairly profitable. Special thanks to my coaches for believing in me and opening my mind up, and my sparring partner for helping me figure out why I do the things I do.

Holidays and New Beginnings

2010-01-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

Warning: long post, lots to cover. First the customary monthly summary:

Profit: +$1488
Rakeback: +175
Games: 2056
Hours: 107

Hourly: 15.54/ hr
Per Game: 0.81 / game

Was about breakeven for the first half at the $12 & $27 45-mans before reverting back to my comfort zone. The last few months, I've been plugging volume without progressing skill-wise. Definitely working on addressing that. I'm making an effort to run at least a few games through SNGWiz after every session. I'm about 90% with their actions, although we do have philosophical differences. My main thing has been always to avoid confrontations, whereas they advocate taking every conceivable edge.

Santa was also nice enough to get me this Bing Blang Blaow shirt, which includes a fitty on the titty design.

Biggest news of the month was that I became a coached and staked player with Nick Rainey. You can listen to his interview here. I've been learning/transitioning to the 180-mans. Took me about 100-200 games to get the feel for where the pivot points are, etc. The variance is insane as expected, since you only get a handful or so deep runs in a given session. But I honestly feel the bubble and FT are where my biggest edge as a player are. $2 games are full of droolers and the $12 are a decent challenge. I was able to take down my 1st $12 win tonight, so that was nice.

Watched the Leatherass interview at MediocrePoker. Definitely inspiring so I instantly bought his book and read it in two days. Highly recommended.

The man is truly inspiring. Incredible work ethic and discipline. He 20-tables 6-max $5/10 cash games for a living, which requires incredible amounts of focus and thought. Prob banked $1M+ last year, without the glory of winning $500K pots. The book is 1/4 strat, and 3/4 poker optimization. Things such as diet, managing tilt,
and adjusting relationships to deal with a poker professional lifestyle. Has motivated me to at least eat better and exercise more, to get some oxygen to this aging brain.

2010 Goals:
Made 5K in 2008. Made about 20K in 2009. Started out 2008 4-tabling, 2009 12-tabling, now I'm up to 18. Definitely have a much better grasp on stack-size shoving and calling ranges and FT dynamics. Let's see if we can at least double the profit this year.
If $12 180s become my regular game and I can achieve 25% ROI and 15 go off / hour, then I could settle on a $45 hourly. If I can average 100 hours / month like I have been, 4.5K / month X 12 = 54K for the year. I think that's a realistic goal, but we'll see.
I think I can also get SuperNova this year. Was about halfway there last year. At the very least, it's a nice way to get me to push volume. www.fpppro.com has a nice pace calculator.

20K Lifetime Profit Prop Bet Update:
vertek: 17.8K
wbmustang: 16.5K
I was able to eke out a small lead on him when he was out over winter break. If he hits another heater, it's game over.

One last semi-poker related note. Almost finished reading "The Alchemist".

Highly recommended as well. One of the biggest themes in the book is this quote:

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

November Results

2009-12-01T09:02:00.000-08:00

Profit: +$1623
Rakeback: +160
Games: 1732
Hours: 98

Hourly: 18.19 / hr
Per Game: 1.03 / game

This month had lower volume, since I was out for a few weekends. I got upset over my own nittiness, and decided to start playing higher stakes near the end. Feeling comfortable at the $12s and still sorting out a few leaks at the $27s. Because the higher stakes don't load as often, I don't have to open as many tables and can actually start thinking again. Those FT bubble / short stack exploits are so key. Working on some other developments to take my game to the next level. Can't wait to start hitting 5-10K months.

Congrats to msusyr24 and mi_turtle for having 60K and 40K months respectively. I staked some of msusyr24's action, netting me about 2K from several of his large cashes.

Also working on the propbet with wbmustang. It's $500 to whoever can reach 20K lifetime SNG profit on SharkScope. I'm currently standing at 15.6K vs 13.0K due to his downswing this month. It's a classic case of the tortoise vs the hare. My wins have mostly been small and steady, while his are larger and more variant.

October Results

2009-11-01T21:39:00.001-08:00

Profit: +1967
Rakeback: +170
Games: 1969
Hours: 107.5

Hourly: 19.88 / hr
Per Game: 1.08 / game

Ugh, same pattern as last month. Tilt for half a month, and play well for half a month. Was out of town a few weekends, so had lower volume than I would've liked. Started learning PLO, and it's really fun and interesting. It's my break from the mental grind of SNGs.

Inspiration

2009-10-23T23:29:00.000-07:00

One of my friends posted this on FB and I ended up watching it a dozen times. Most poker blogs are fairly moody, dependent on recent results. I need to develop Will Smith's indomitable spirit and work ethic. No more complaints, just continual progress.

Also started reading "Deal Me In", about various player's beginnings. There are continual themes of studying the game, especially with other like-minded individuals, as well as the spirit to repeatedly take higher shots and go broke. There are also themes of avoiding major life leaks of casino games, drugs, women, etc. I've taken a few higher shots, but I need to work on that more and continue to develop my game.

Bing Blang Blaow!

2009-10-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

The final cut of "Bing Blang Blaow" is available here:
www.bingblangblaow.com

Here's an article on the origin:
"Grinder's Anthem - Bing Blang Blaow Poker Song"

I think I like the original better, although that might just be familiarity. The new verses are pretty tight, though.

I finally broke into the black today for the month. Seems like I always have a breakeven week or two before I remember how to play. I think it's some form of tilt where I see aggro regs get rewarded for plays and I get jealous. Must develop tunnel vision.

September Update

2009-09-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

Profit: +2284
Bonus: +548
Games: 2342
Hours: 130

Hourly: 21.78 / hr
Per Game: 1.21 / game

At the very least, I'm proud of this month's volume. I ran hot and then tilted for 2 weeks in the middle. I had become a massively spewtarded aggro. Chatted with msusyr24 a bit, and it helped to recenter me. Congrats to him and vers for having monster 20K+ months. Now that I've calmed down again, I can leisurely handle 16 tables and will soon experiment with 20 and 24-tabling. Enjoy this documentary on the Dang brothers, two high stakes online pros.

August Update

2009-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Profit: +466
Bonus: +0
Games: 1022
Hours: 56

Hourly: 8.32 / hr
Per Game: 0.46 / game

Kept on tilting for a bit, before I retooled the formula and remembered how to win again. I can now successfully handle 18-24 tables, although 18 is my current hourly rate sweetspot. Volume was really low this month. My shoulder / arm have been hurting / going numb when I'm at the desk. I've heard it might be a pinched nerve or slipped disc, so that killed some volume. I bought a new ergo mesh chair and massage attachment, and plan to start working out again so hopefully all of that helps. Poker injuries would be embarassingly weaksauce. Hopefully can put in 1500-2000 games this month. BTW, reminder to everyone to take advantage of the PokerStars September cash bonuses!!

July Update

2009-08-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Profit: +286
Bonus: +0
Games: 1176
Avg ROI: 6%
Hours: 104.5

Hourly: 2.74 / hr
Per Game: 0.24 / game

About the only good thing that happened this month was that I got Platinum Star. But it was expensive. Took a bunch of shots at the 27s, 38s and 60s. It was a good and humbling experience. 6s, 12s, and 27s were the only ones with positive ROI. I was up 1500 quick one weekend, but gave it all back plus more later. Some life-tilt issues definitely had me down, as well as my computer failing which forced me to grind on a laptop. Vers is definitely right about the games changing. Everyone is shoving AND calling light, so it's hard to find spots at times. I think I'll stick to 6/12s on weekdays and maybe 12/27s on weekends once I get settled. August goal is just to build my confidence back up.

Prop Bet Update

2009-07-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

This prop bet has been a curse for both of our performances. As you can see, Reasons14 is up $721 versus my $717. We are both running below expectation. On a personal note I struggled with some life-tilt issues for a bit before catching up to him. This month I've also mixed in some higher buyins with encouraging results. I'm also close to PlatinumStar, so will have to grind a decent amount these last few days to close out the month. Here's to a better looking 2 weeks for the both of us.

July 4th Shots

2009-07-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

Profit: +621
Games: 98
Avg ROI: 33%
Hours: 9

Hourly: 69.00 / hr
Per Game: 6.34 / game

I figured this weekend would be ultra-soft due to the American holiday. Since $12's are loading too slow, I started experimenting by mixing in $27s and even a few $38s that were ready to go. My overall results were swingy, but I managed to luckbox a win in the 2nd $38 that I've ever played. That really skewed the results for the entire day, but GG me. I don't think the 27s and 38s are as hard as I'd imagined, although my ROI is only so-so over the $12-$38 range. I've seen some regulars with ultra strong ROI's and need to improve my game to get to that level. I guess today is also a new daily record for me. Next goal, $1K day!

June Update

2009-06-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Profit: +2293
Bonus: +554
Games: 993
Avg ROI: 19%
Hours: 78.5

Hourly: 36.27 / hr
Per Game: 2.87 / game

This month featured my lowest volume and highest hourly. But I am now confident in my ability to crack the $12s. For the first half of the month I ran like Forrest Gump at a 44% ROI and then a 3% ROI for the remainder of the month. I think I've been nitting it up too much at the FT and settling for a lot of mincashes. Hopefully I'll have some free time this July 4th weekend to play, although I'll want to relax some in preparation for the upcoming prop bet with Reasons14.

Prop Bet: Reasons14 vs Vertek

2009-06-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ladies And Gentlemen, Boys and Girls

Welcome to the 1st Small-Stakes SNG Grinder Exhibition Bout. In the red corner, we have Reasons14. And in the blue corner we have Vertek. Winner will be determined by max SharkScope profit between July 13 and August 13 and will receive the $400 prizepool, to be escrowed by Vers.

Let's examine the tale of the tape.

Reasons14

This young reg frequents the 18 and 45-mans, ranging from $6 to $27 stakes. His ability to 16-table combined with his 10-15% ROI makes him a formidable opponent.

Vertek

This $6/12 45-man player regularly achieves a 20-25% ROI while 12-tabling. He especially enjoys getting berated by all the fish that lay in his wake. His fulltime employment will limit his hours, but will force him to remain focused at all times.

In high school, I went jogging with one of my friends. We planned on going about 2-3 miles, but didn't really know the route well. Since this was the first time we ran together and neither wanted to look weak to the other, we ended up going 8 miles instead.

I dreamed up this idea because I wanted to really push myself. I was looking for another reg in the same league as me. We've both averaged about 2K / month and hopefully we can get up to the 3K & 4K levels. The matchup is a classic tortoise / hare. I have higher ROI, but he should get 2-3X as much volume as I do. I'll try my best to provide weekly updates. Wish us luck!

Mid June Update

2009-06-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Profit: +1916
Bonus: 0
Games: 388
Avg ROI: 43%
Hours: 34

Hourly: 56.35 / hr
Per Game: 4.94 / game

Last month, I misplaced my rungood juice. To make up for it, I decided to activate BeastMode this month. I also got past my nittiness and made the transition to exclusively playing the $12s. I'm fairly surprised that my ROI increased after moving up to the $12s from the $3s and $6s. Maybe I've finally got my entire game down solid. It is hard to keep more than 10 of them going at once. I might need to take a few shots at the higher levels to keep my 12-set full. I am proud that I was finally able to achieve a "vers"-like hourly rate. Now I just need to learn to 24-table as well, and I should be set. Only problem is that I'm hesitant to mess with a formula that works. Volume was a lot lower than normal since I've been busy with the job and personal life. I'll definitely fix that in the second half of the month and hopefully hit 6K+.

May Update

2009-06-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Profit: +1368
Bonus: +274
Games: 1320
Avg ROI: 16%
Hours: 95.5

Hourly: 17.19 / hr
Per Game: 1.24 / game

This month ran about half expectation. I started off a bit too blindly aggressive at FT, which reduced my ROI, which in turn reduced my hours. Vicious cycle, I'm considering mitigating that by only recording weekly results, instead of per session. I salvaged the month by playing smarter / more patient at the FT. I'm going to try to put heavy volume at the $12s, but might have to mix in a few $6s to keep volume up.

As far as the Vegas trip goes it was a mixed bag. The BAP is down 10% and I'll ship the money soon or write you a check when I see you. It was hard to get volume in so I mostly did the small dailies or SNGs. Even the SNGs would take 30-60 mins to fill, and during one of the most tilting moments of the weak, 10 players were ready for an SNG to start and had to wait because they didn't have any free dealers. The competition was so weak with lots of limping and stacking off during L1-L3. I dominated the tables but I got 3-outed so many times. It's understandable considering how aggressive and poor my image was. I'd definitely be interested in another Vegas trip, but this time I'd want to devote an entire week to poker with no distractions. Thanks again to everyone for the vote of confidence.

Backer	Shares
vertek	5
CNguyen	4
cvle3	3
AAgrawal	3
vers	2
heronbrand	1
TNguyen	1
MSwanson	1

Vegas Trip: Update 1

2009-05-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

There's so much going on in Vegas. There's the usual roster of Vegas daily tourneys (courtesy of allvegaspoker.com), but there are also 3 tourney series running during that time as well (not counting WSOP).

Daily Tourneys
AllVegasPoker Spreadsheet (xls)
AllVegasPoker Tourney Schedule

Tourney Series
Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza
Caesar's Palace Mega Stack Series
Binion's Poker Classic

I want to get the most volume in, so that might favor the 30-50 person tourneys over the 100-300 person tourneys. Getting in 3 2-3 hour tourneys versus one single 8-9 hour tourney would help reduce variance. Will publish the final roster as soon as I learn more about our schedule for Vegas.

Backer	Shares	Profit Share %
vertek	5	50%
CNguyen	4	16%
cvle3	3	12%
vers	2	8%
heronbrand	1	4%
TNguyen	1	4%
MSwanson	1	4%

MTD, I'm running pretty below expectation. Such is life. At least I'm not losing, I suppose. I think I've sacrificed some EV in order to reduce variance, but I'll fix that soon enough.

Profit: +865
Bonus: +250
Games: 964
Avg ROI: 19%
Hours: 73

Hourly: 15.27 / hr
Per Game: 1.16 / game

Vegas Trip

2009-05-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Vegas in two weeks for one of my friend's bachelor parties. Since I'll only be there for an extended weekend, I won't really have time to play any MTTs. There are a few places that offer $70, $110, and $200 SNGs. There are cheaper ones, too, but the rake is killer. The places I'm looking at are Mirage and MGM, but lemme know if there are any others.

I was interested in scraping together a few backers and already raised over $1000 from my personal network. In total, I'm probably looking to raise $1500-2000 in order to have 10-20 buyins at least. Shares are $100 each, with 70/30 backers favor. Lemme know if you are interested in that as well. I'm primarily a $6 and $12 45-man turbo player on Stars, but I can adapt to STTs. I've made a lil over 13K after a year or so of playing poker with an average ROI in the neighborhood of 25%. The structures of these events is fairly poor, but that should just turn into an advantage for me with my PF game and knowledge of ICM.

Backer	Shares	Profit Share %
vertek	5	55%
CNguyen	4	20%
cvle3	3	15%
TNguyen	1	5%
MSwanson	1	5%

Mental Coaching & NLP

2009-05-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

As I slowly delve deeper into the poker world, I'm understanding more and more how dangerous tilt can be. If an amateur tilts, no big deal. Poker's just a game. They are playing with chump change. And they end up losing just a little bit faster than they would've expected. If a pro tilts, its easily 10X worse. Their livelihood is at stake. And given the volume they do, the effects can be multiplied over many more games. Plus, it's such a tough situation to mentally reconcile positive expectations with negative actual results. As someone in a forum said, "Poker's a great second job, and a horrible first job."

There's been some discussion about mental coaching, with Tommy Angelo being the most famous of them. I definitely appreciate the value of that, given that a majority of poker plays are standard and mathematically optimized already. Seems like emotional and bankroll control probably do a lot to separate entire classes of players.

I can't really afford the services of a mental coach ($100+ / hr), so I figured I could do a good bit of legwork on my own. From my experiences with the pickup artist community, they've greatly stressed the benefits of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) for self-help and behavior modification. I picked up an audio book and have been listening to it today. Here are the 5 basic principles.

The map is not the territory.
Experience has a structure.
If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it.
The mind and the body are part of the same system
People have all the resources they need.

All in all, it sounds very self-reliant and empowering. When they say the map is not the territory, they refer to our emotions and perceptions, which are not reality. If we can learn to change our experience of a situation, then we change our reality of it. Success therefore becomes emulating certain habits of others. It does seem a little more New Age-ish than I'm used to, but I'm definitely open to self-improvement.

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

-- Lawrence of Arabia

April Results

2009-04-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

Profit: +2679
Bonus: +97
Games: 1410
Avg ROI: 29%
Hours: 105
Days: 23 / 30

Hourly: 26.44 / hr
Per Game: 1.97 / game

I got close to my profit goal of 3K, but had about the same volume as last month. I was busy with work projects and due to family time also missed some key weekends. Mid-session, I can definitely tell if I am playing well or not. Most telling is the Ace-rag EP shove. After I eliminated that and got into the groove, the rungood juice definitely kicked in the last week and I ran at about $60 hourly / 60+ ROI. Just need to remember that feeling and stick with it. I also had my first 8-hour session (unprofitable), and am looking forward to experimenting with 12-hour sessions.

Also, I created a new setup for my monitors. They're now vertically arranged with a ghetto styrofoam packaging setup so that I can 16-table tiled. I still prefer tiled because I do make a fair number of reads on my opponents and want to keep track of my recent table image, whereas I lose that with stacked tables.

New Daily Record Earn

2009-04-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

I made $414 over the course of 7 hours for a $59 hourly rate and a 70% ROI. Unsustainable, but I'll take it nonetheless. I really was in the groove, letting +EV situations and monster hands come to me instead of forcing them. It's chump change to all the other players, but gotta start somewhere. Looking forward to when I hit the $600 and $1000 daily records.

I also discovered SNG Nick's blog, which is included on my list of links. He recently won a prop bet and set a world record by playing 16,000 SNGs in a month and profiting over $11K. Some days, he cleared 1K SNGs by 16-tabling for 20 hour continuous sessions. Granted he was playing a lot of STT super turbos. Unreal!

Mid April Update

2009-04-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Profit: +954
Bonus: +56
Games: 441
Avg ROI: 27%
Hours: 36
Days: 9 / 15

Hourly: 28.05 / hr
Per Game: 2.29 / game

No bad habits developed this month. Volume is a bit lower than I'd like since I've been busy with work-related projects and big Easter weekend with family. Also started making attempts to move up to the next buyin level, where I'll try to stay exclusively for the rest of the month. I'm such a life-nit, the pain of the dollar lost is truly worse than the pleasure of the dollar gained. I'm also trying to figure out a way to arrange my monitors vertically so that I can tile 16-tables.

Also cashed for $100 in the $22 1R1 NLHE SCOOP event. There were 9600 runners and I was knocked out in 900th place. I was happy with my play, building my stack from 2K to 50K while only having to show hands down 5-6 times. Made a lot of strong bluffs and resteals to pick up easy chips. I was average stack with 900 to go when I made an overaggressive play followed by a hero call with mid-pair against a tight player. I guess my patience had run out after 6 hours.

Online Traffic Report

2009-04-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

I just found this site that tracks hourly, daily, monthly traffic for major poker sites. It's mostly confirmed what I've heard about peak hours. Hopefully this helps fellow mass-tablers increase their hourly by filling tables more quickly. Cheers!

http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse/online-traffic

Poker Stars Daily Traffic

FullTilt Daily Traffic

March Results

2009-03-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

Profit: +1937
Bonus: + 250
Games: 1516
Avg ROI: 22%
Hours: 102
Days: 22 / 31

Hourly: 18.99 / hr
Per Game: 1.28 / game

This was my first full month as an SNG grinder. I'm fairly happy with the volume, although it feels like I took off too many days. I'd like to average somewhere around 25-30 hours weekly, so I'm in the neighborhood. In the middle of the month, I developed a major leak ( overconfidence -> overly loose ) which lasted for a week and resulted in my breakeven stretch. I'm glad I was able to persevere through it, and finally fix it myself. If not for that, my profit would probably be closer to 3K at an hourly rate of $30. My goal for April is to get in 1800 games and clear 3K profit. I just want to maintain consistency and I definitely have room for improvement in that area as well as my FT and bubble play.

Breakeven Slump Busted!!

2009-03-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

Had to seriously re-examine my game and realized that I've been making moves too often when I didn't need to. I suppose I've gone on a winning tilt. Just because I've become more knowledgeable about the game and that I'm a winning player, DOES NOT entitle me to win every pot. All that matters is my finish at the final table, and not necessarily how I got there. Outplaying opponents, or folding my way there are equally valid.

Despite making one major mistake late in the tourney (villain1 mid position raise, villain2 shoves behind, I call with JJ and busto against QQ), I still ran at my normal hourly rate. Time to maintain this discipline and salvage the rest of the month.

Breakeven Week

2009-03-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

After the mid-month update, I wanted to put myself on a serious schedule and get some volume in so that I could hit my monthly goals for March. 430 games later, I am slightly below even. It's been pretty damn frustrating to say the least especially since I've been cruising along so smoothly for the past few weeks. Each day's session has been close to breakeven so it's not like there was a huge swing up or down. Feels like I've lost any edge I might've had in these games.

It's such a mind fuck. I'm trying to decide whether it's just the nature of variance, I've been playing too loose/tight, I've become too predictable/exploitable. I must maintain faith I suppose since it happens even to the best. If this trend continues, I might even step down a buyin level and hopefully start winning to rebuild my confidence.

On the positive side I achieved GoldStar VIP for this month and should be close to clearing out a $250 deposit bonus as consolation prize. Also I finished both "Kill Phil" and "Kill Everyone" so I feel my knowledge has improved a decent amount.

Overemphasis on ROI

2009-03-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Before this year I used to place great emphasis on having a high ROI. It's nice bragging rights and results in pretty graphs. However in doing so, I neglected some basic economics, namely that the most valuable resource is the one that is most rare. If there were a fixed number of trials, then having a high ROI is probably the most important thing. Examples would include playing a tournament series that runs 6 tourneys for a week, or Hellmuth's quest for bracelets given that he only has a certain number of years and opportunities to accumulate more.

However for most of us outside of poker and especially within online poker, TIME is the most valuable resource. We should aim to make each unit of time spent playing online poker as efficient as possible, which would imply maximizing our HOURLY RATE. Really, nothing else matters. And there are only a few variables in computing the hourly rate that we can adjust.

HOURLY RATE = ( ROI / $ BUYIN ) X ( $ BUYIN / GAME ) X ( GAMES / HOUR )

Basically, we can adjust our ROI or skill level, our average buyin, or the number of tables / hour that we play. As mentioned before I was quite a perfectionist, only 4-tabling so I could maximize reads and taking lots of mental breaks. I could've gone one step further, just playing one table a day to craft the best and highest ROI, but that would've gotten me nowhere.

This especially applies to the new / old school debate about single table focusing vs the mass multitablers. Perhaps my play isn't as optimal as someone single tabling, but my argument is that their play isn't 12 or 24 times better than mine. In addition, I get the benefits of diversification and lower volatility for free, as well as rarely going on tilt. I welcome your thoughts and opinions.

UPDATE

Here's my mid-month update. I'm up about $1340 / 672 SNGs for this month, so I'm confident I can hit 3-4K this month. This includes the fact that I've missed about 7 playing days so far and will make all attempts to heavily increase the volume for the rest of the month.

Hello World!

2009-03-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start blogging about my poker journey. This is mostly for myself to keep record and sustain motivation, and perhaps to get feedback from interested and more informed parties. I've played poker since 2003 as part of the WPT boom. For a year or so, my friends and I played a .25/.50 game 4-5 nights / week. I had a dozen stints playing online at Party Poker but with mixed results due to bad bankroll management. I had some more experiences playing at larger live 2/5 games, but with my tight style, I did well in the loose gambling games, and was outclassed everywhere else.

I didn't play much for a few years since I was devoting time to school and career. I would play a handful of times / year with friends but not much else. During the final spring 2008 semester of my MBA career, things were starting to slow down so I deposited $100 into a PokerStars account. I started playing small $3 45-man turbos and quickly built my bankroll up to $300 through a mix of cautious play and good timing. I switched to $6 / 45s and quickly built up to $1200 before switching to $12 /45s. I 4-tabled them in sets, so that I wouldn't get too bored and tempted to do something stupid, and so that each tourney would be at a similar stage of blinds / antes. With the 45 turbos, I felt that it was easier to navigate a final table that paid top 7 instead a normal SNG that paid top 3.

At the $12s I went on my first downstreak of $600 (50%). This forced me to revisit my game. I discovered the Harrington tournament series as well as online software to track opponent stats. I went on a strong streak building up to $5-6K (30% ROI) over the course of the summer. I continued to 4-table and had to mentally prep myself each time. This approach resulted in high ROIs, but low volume and moodiness. In other words, I was being too much of a perfectionist.

In fall of '08, I had my first prolonged 100 buyin downswing. My game had become too tight and exploitable. This was a vicious cycle in that it killed my motivation to play which killed my volume. In early February of this year, I discovered vers' blog and read the entire thing. I adopted a more automated aggro style and moved down to the $3 tables so that I could experiment without hurting myself. I began 8-tabling and then 12-tabling continuously so that I could ramp up volume and sample size. I made about $700 in a week with this method and made another $1000 at $20 / hr before moving up . At the $6's I've been averaging about $35 / hr. I made about $900 in February and expect to be up about $3000 in March. I'll be highly confident when I can clear at least 5-6K monthly.

I had my first coaching session with vers a week ago. It seems like I have most components of my game down. It was a huge confidence booster and I feel that my current strategy can scale up to the $27's at least. In the meantime I'll have to prove myself and my consistency.