Operation: Learning to Think - Eliminate The TAG-FISH in Me

hows the 100k hands going bro?

Originally Posted by hangchiong

hows the 100k hands going bro?

I'm only at 42k after having to pull back on volume due to epic run bad + play bad. However, if I pick things up I very well could get back on pace if I pull a couple 7k+ days.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

Amen brother. I've gotten really results oriented over the last couple of weeks, due to that prop bet I had going. If you just focus on playing well and making the right calls/folds/raises and don't worry about your results or BR, you're going to be so much better off. I've lost sight of that a bit and its good to see you hammering it home here. I'm going to go look up some articles in the BC Digest on tilt and not worrying about results. I need to get back on my game ASAP.

I lost sight too because I wanted to pull off a sick month in terms of money won so bad. But it's the completely incorrect way to approach it, and it looks like we're both learning this.

Yea same dude. I was trying make lolbank this month (you know why obv) and like you said, its just the totally wrong approach to take. Just need to focus on the right plays and not worry about the money. I seem to recall "running like god" when I finally learned this before boot camp, and I certainly could have been on a heater, although I also feel that I was playing REALLY well, and my winrate/BR showed it. I need to get back to that ASAP!

asdfghjklasdfghjkl

Another 7k hand day.

Be nice if I could do like 8-10k tomorrow..

Holy shit M2M, 4.4k month? Grats man, your operation is just crazy impressive and inspiring.

Thanks man.

So today I'm going to shoot for 8k+ hands.

Kaboom!

8000 hands today, BOOM

I decided to come up with a color scheme for my notes on Stars. What do you guys think? Would love some feedback+suggestions for improvement.

Yellow: Uknown/default
Green: Fish/donk (25-30+ vpip)
Light Blue: Soft reg (too wide of a gap from vpip/pfr, doesn't 3bet enough, passive postflop etc)
Medium Blue: TAGs I own in wars
Dark Blue: TAGs that own me in wars (or just ran hot )
Purple: Standard TAGs without history (10%+ pfr, 12-17% vpip)
Red: Aggro/SLAG/LAGG/TAG who plays aggro postflop/3bets alot
Orange: Mass tabling nit (vpip below 11, pfr below 9)

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I decided to come up with a color scheme for my notes on Stars...

I can't see how that's going to be anything but extremely useful, especially when multi-tabling. I didn't realize it was possible to color code notes on stars.

Originally Posted by al yell

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I decided to come up with a color scheme for my notes on Stars...

I can't see how that's going to be anything but extremely useful, especially when multi-tabling. I didn't realize it was possible to color code notes on stars.

They actually just released an update to their software recently which now has color tags for the note sign. It's not too bad, easy to browse the lobby now.

Can't see how this Your can be anything but +EV. Your colour scheme is all messe up to me since I take green to be nit and orange to be SLAG, but do what works for you, the categories seem good.

Originally Posted by Carroters

Can't see how this Your can be anything but +EV. Your colour scheme is all messe up to me since I take green to be nit and orange to be SLAG, but do what works for you, the categories seem good.

Carroters is either drunk, or tired lol. Possibly both.

Had just woke up lol, I wont edit it since the incoherence makes me lolz.

If that color scheme helps you, I say go for it. I do mine a little more straight forward. For any player I want to sit down with whether they are a fish, calling station, maniac, or whatever, I mark them as green because green means "go". If a player is a nit, tight regular, aggressive shark, or whatever and I would rather play against easier opponents, I mark them with red because red means "stop". Lastly, for true shortstacks who typically play push/fold pre-flop and/or leave tables when the double up, I mark them as "pink" because it's girly and feminine.

I don't use the other colors. I just want a snapshot of whether or not I'd like to play @ that table.

Yeah, my color scheme is a bit detailed and may be a bit too much for most of you guys that are putting in lower volume. For example Jason, your setup is great because its really simple and easy to follow without having to remember 8 catergories lol. I think my set up is ideal for high volume players - I put in a lot of volume so it's pretty customized to what I will be dealing with. Like I have many players in my database with 5000+ hands on them and extensive history so I can get a bit deeper into labeling my opponents. Whereas having say 500 hands max on any regular won't be much to figure out their true style, so a more general approach to categorizing villains is preferred.

I don't play tables that aren't 50bb min so I don't have to deal with short stackers, so this scheme is ideal for someone who is also playing these tables as I don't have a color code for them.

When it came to deciding the colors, I used green for fish because money is green (well in the USA it is lol) and I'd be happy to sit with them. I used red for someone who position rapes others because it will remind me not to sit to their right. I don't avoid these guys though, they're great to have position on because you can tilt the f--- out of them if you do all the things they do to people. Bullies don't like to be bullied. If I see a few red tagged players at a table, I'm not passing if I get a good seat.

As for dark blue, I like to pretend no one ever owns me, so I'm going to change it to 'Tricky TAG'. This would be defined as someone who's raising lots of flops light, is capable of making big bluffs on later streets, flats premiums preflop, all that kind of stuff. This is also someone I'd probably prefer position on and then just mess with them and put them in all the tough spots that they like to put others in.

As for nits being orange, I look at orange as sort of saying 'caution', like a constrcution sign haha. These guys are just so tight that I'd love to have them on my left, however if they end up putting money in the pot well we need to proceed with caution and slow down/re-eval a bit. If I see a table full of orange I'm joining because running 24/20 at full ring is fun.

In general though there's just passive players and aggressive players. Passive players are always bad, and aggressive players can be good or bad. So perhpaps the ideal color scheme would be green for pasive, red for good aggressive, and blue for bad aggressive.

You should hit up Muzzard, hes knows how to make the whole circle around the person's avatar the color of the tag you have on him, instead of just that gay lil notes box.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I decided to come up with a color scheme for my notes on Stars. What do you guys think? Would love some feedback+suggestions for improvement.

looks fine.
too cluttered for my taste though.
I use:
red - very good/dangerous/difficult reg (typically higher stakes players with a tendency to drop down sometimes - e.g. xx Q-Q Quads -Q-Q or whatever his name is on ft
green - default = nothing particularly outstanding, but typically reg-ish
purple - very dead money (typically vpip >30, also some heavy losing regs, basically players i should be sitting with)

yeah I go way into detail over everything lol

and this is why you've actually succeeded where most ppl puss out and give up after half assing it for 5 or 6 weeks.

Thanks man.

So the doctor at the gym took me through some workouts/evaluated me and came to the conlclusion I'm lacking core strength, my lower back is weak, and my legs are garbage. My foundation can't support my upper body apparently (I started going to the gym a couple months ago and my upper body got ripped but my lower body trailed behind). This is pretty much all my fault from 1) half assing my core routine 2) ignoring dead lifts 3) being a pussy when doing squats/leg press.

So he tried to sell me a private trainer, which is like $55 an hour...yeah right like I'm dumping that kind of money for someone to babysit me when I workout. I'm lucky I have my brother who is going to be there to keep me motivated and get me doing the right exercises, otherwise I may have been forced to go with a trainer. I know what I need to do to start seeing gains again, I need to focus my routine around my weaknesses while just doing enough to maintain my strengths. The process is pretty simliar to learning poker, and I think I can figure it out without dumping more money into the gym services.

As for poker I took a cruise through my database yesterday and realized that one of my weaknesses is paying off bad players on the river by calling their river raises too often. Perhaps a good aggressive regular will bluff raise or make a thinner value bet, but against really passive bad players, you often just need to bet/fold.

Your operation is motivating me in my operation ^-^

I just started grinding 25 NL yesterday and I won 5 buy ins right away then lost 7 buy ins.

Usually, this would be the end of my operation but I am maybe finally passing the point where I am able to acknowledge if I make a mistake instead of blaming all on variance....

Looking at your graph and ur positive attitude has convinced me to keep grinding and working on how i play! woot!

Glad to see my operation helps as sort of a blueprint or inspiration or whatever you see it as haha.

you don't wanna see this months graph though

but 1 month is meaningless, the long run isn't for well..a long time!

Don't sweat losing a few buyins, just do your best to get better and make more good decisions. Money will flow in later, gl man, and keep up the grind.

I decided to retract on my 100k hands in 20 days plan since my game took a bit of a nosedive and I had to spend some extra time on study and review to get back on track. So here's what I managed to grind out (see graph below)...multiple stakes ftw. As of right now my focus has shifted towards playing fewer tables and working hard away from the tables so I can hopefully move beyond small stakes into middle limit games.

I ended up dropping down to micros for awhile to burn off steam/work out my mental game along with a few theoretical leaks that have crept into play. I managed to turn it around and have learned a lotttttt in the process. With that said, if it weren't for making mistakes we'd never succeed.

42,789 VPPs till Supernova..its time to get this shit rollin bitches!

I be grindin'

No way in hell imo.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

No way in hell imo.

I'll show you

GOGOGOGOGOGO

Sick grind to hit nova. Man I really hope you do it!

Okay so no more fucking 50nl. The money is just meaningless to me now relative to my bankroll and all i do is tilt and spew out of boredom realizing im just wasting a ton of time getting a fraction of the vpps I get at 100nl. Playing cheeseburger stakes has also made me lose focus on my goals, makes it too easy to just call off stacks because oh well its only 'x' $ and so on. There's also other reasons but the main thing is just I feel like playing 50nl is pointless when im looking to move up to 200nl+ and am more interested in grinding 100nl/getting better/accumulating reads on regs etc then wasting my time trying to figure out what line of FPS each nit reg that willl never make it to 100nl+ (thus making use of building history of any relevance) is trying to own me with because they are weak and my avatar is soso tiltingggg (i.e. let's flat my 4bet with KJs oop and donk lead top pair 1 time)

cya later 50, I may be back if I'm busto, but as far as I'm concerned this gig is more interested making more money.

Hellz yea! Fuck dat fiddy enels. Go pwn homos for real manniez.

gl at 100nl! Remember there are still a lo of brainless retard nits around and they probably have what they're repping! Don't do anything fancy until you get to know the regs at your new level and what they're capable of etc. sya no to fps!

crush plz but don't move up to the 200nls kthnx

Originally Posted by badgers

gl at 100nl! Remember there are still a lo of brainless retard nits around and they probably have what they're repping! Don't do anything fancy until you get to know the regs at your new level and what they're capable of etc. sya no to fps!

crush plz but don't move up to the 200nls kthnx

Thanks man. I do have 30k hands in at 100nl though, so I've already got a grip on the game/reads on the regs . I've just been playing 50nl more often :/

And yeah, the nits always have it. And if one of those nits happens to be a tricky one and bluff raises, they do it with terrible frequency.

I'm taking your advice still, saying no to FPS!

Latest purchase with the poker manies: Blackberry Storm

sick phone.

Maybe it is the LIFE that is sick and the phone is sick by association.

Is that like an uncool iPhone?

:P NJ my friend.

Originally Posted by Jason

Maybe it is the LIFE that is sick and the phone is sick by association.

I stand corrected.

lol, I've had the same terrible brick of a phone for 3 years now. I was pretty happy to get this thing, it's a huge step up from my other pos.

Well this month has been super swongy but, I've been learning lots about poker and myself so hey, that's always good.

I'm about 6000 hands away from my first >100k hand month. I will finish this off by Sunday. Monday I'm going to Toronto for the night for a nice little break. Would have made sooo much more money if I just played 100nl..but I think my time spent back at micros for a bit has helped for the long term.

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving too all you American readers. Enjoy your turkey/ham/etc.

It's been a while Micro! Good to see you're doing well. Msg me your bbm pin and we'll bbm poker strats! Welcome to crackberry.

Alright here is the monthly. Completed my goal of playing more than 100k hands, so I'm happy with that. As far as total profit goes I probably could have doubled this if I didn't waste 2 weeks playing micro stakes but I felt my game had some holes appear and needed to regain confidence so I stepped down for awhile. In the end I think it was +EV for the long run.

Here is the graph:



Made about $650 in bonus, so that means:

Total ~ $3572.12

December goals:
[ ] 150k hands (@ 100nl+)
[ ] work on game enough to get my ass to 200nl
[ ] obtain Supernova status
[ ] manage my time to achieve the above goals while still making time for gf, family, friends etc - especially with the holiday season coming up.

*VPPs till Supernova: 36,211*

So, quick update. Been running really bad so far this month however I've been playing very well. Non-SD winnings have improved so that should tie me over until I stop getting owned at showdown. Hopefully I'll juice up the volume a bit this weekend as I'm behind pace a bit to start the month but knowing me I'll somehow breakthrough and achieve my goals.

Also I went on a short trip early this week and got my hotel room upgraded to what I would consider a baller suite. Trip report with pics to come in the near future. (Maybe later on tonight if I end up tilting or something).

*VPPs till Supernova: 33,379*

Pics tomorrow pls.

Well, I don't really feel like playing 4 more hours of poker, so I might just do one more session then post em. Not gonna tilt though .

Ever f***ing time I make a f***ing cashout I just somehow run like f***ing shit and so f***ing far below ev and get f***ing owned in every pot by fish and every f***ing time my blue and red line are both a f***ing trainwreck and I wanna stab someone.

/rant

Okay I realize that being upset about running bad is just pointless. I can't control the cards, so I'm best to just continue grinding and play every hand as best as I can, try to make the right decisions, and just keep putting in volume.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPbAuZJv0Yc

This cheers me up when I run like shit.

maybe it was the mood I was in at the time but this made me lol pretty hard..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcVWzxD5r9c

lol that is great, I'm whoring youtube for awhile before I grind today.

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

I hate posting graphs with only 1k hands but I had to do it because this is what I played at 200nl today and if you notice, I'm UP money. So ship it, feels good to book a winning sesh. I'll try to actually do volume tomorrow because it's Sunday and I'm going to try and get a good sleep tonight and make it happen.

The big dip is me felting KK pre...suppose I could have folded but w/e I'm not too pissed nor too happy about it to care.

I'm destined to be just another pathetic rakeback pro, fml.

Might as well make something out of breaking even - Supernova Elite 2010.

oh god seriously?

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Might as well make something out of breaking even - Supernova Elite 2010.

interesting

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Might as well make something out of breaking even - Supernova Elite 2010.

Good-bye social life

Originally Posted by badgers

oh god seriously?

yeah

Originally Posted by daven

interesting

indeed

Originally Posted by Jason

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Might as well make something out of breaking even - Supernova Elite 2010.

Good-bye social life

don't have much of one anyway, won't be missing out too much. my girlfriend said she's cool with hanging out with me and reading/watching tv while I grind so that is a huge plus. I also don't have to cook my own meals, so that saves a ton of time. most of my friends live 2 hours away and I don't see them very often so I'll have plenty of time to sit, and grind.

gonna be kinda fun, I think.

If you're serious, I wish you much luck and success - here's some tips, too On the other hand, don't underestimate the difficulty and level of commitment you'd have to put in to get that. 2,740 VPP per day is no joke and then if you take one day off, now you have to make 5,480 to stay on pace. Then, how will you handle downswings? For me, it's quite liberating to have the freedom to walk away for the day, but if September rolls around and you're a little behind pace and have a downswing, you wouldn't want to throw away 9 months of work, but not lose your roll either. Poker also seems more fun when I don't have to do it, but WANT to do it.

I'm no expert, but I think SuperNova Elite is the type of thing that's worth it if you can probably get it within your regular routine. It doesn't seem worth it to kill yourself to get. And many of the extra benefits or so called extra rakeback seemed heavily weighted towards tournaments and tournament players. There's a good chance you won't grow as a poker player during that time, either, because it's so grind minded.

Granted, I'm no expert - just throwing out some food for thought. There ARE a lot of great benefits if you can get it. I also think the prospect of going SuperNova Elite is a good topic and something worth discussing - maybe not here, but possibly a new thread or existing thread.

Good luck whichever path you choose.

If you don't have college or work then it's probs gonna be ok, but just from being on the pace for ~1 month last year it's stressful and not a lot of fun. You have to play when not feeling great due to tilt/tiredness or other factors just to keep up with the pace and unless you're ridiculously good at keeping your emotions in check while at the tables it's a real problem. It was for me anyway...

Good luck. Are you planning on doing this mostly at 100 or 200?

Originally Posted by Jason

If you're serious, I wish you much luck and success - here's some tips, too On the other hand, don't underestimate the difficulty and level of commitment you'd have to put in to get that. 2,740 VPP per day is no joke and then if you take one day off, now you have to make 5,480 to stay on pace. Then, how will you handle downswings? For me, it's quite liberating to have the freedom to walk away for the day, but if September rolls around and you're a little behind pace and have a downswing, you wouldn't want to throw away 9 months of work, but not lose your roll either. Poker also seems more fun when I don't have to do it, but WANT to do it.

I'm no expert, but I think SuperNova Elite is the type of thing that's worth it if you can probably get it within your regular routine. It doesn't seem worth it to kill yourself to get. And many of the extra benefits or so called extra rakeback seemed heavily weighted towards tournaments and tournament players. There's a good chance you won't grow as a poker player during that time, either, because it's so grind minded.

Granted, I'm no expert - just throwing out some food for thought. There ARE a lot of great benefits if you can get it. I also think the prospect of going SuperNova Elite is a good topic and something worth discussing - maybe not here, but possibly a new thread or existing thread.

Good luck whichever path you choose.

thanks for the link and the support. I think getting the routine down is the big thing. I already have some plans for it, in a nutshell, I will be following a strict sleeping schedule to avoid burnout, and going to the gym at least 3 days a week to keep in good shape. nutrition is also something I'll be working harder at, specifically reducing my sodium intake, cutting caffeine (which I am actually already in the process of doing) and yadda yadda. I'll release more details on my plan later, but for now I'm gonna take one big look at my life next year and figure out if this is going to work.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

lol that is great, I'm whoring youtube for awhile before I grind today.

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

The guy with the glasses looks like most of the people I work with.

SNE nomnomnomnom

It's pretty simple. First of all, go for it. There's tons of thinking about it you can do now, but until you're a month in or whatever you really won't know anything, so anyone who suggests stopping before you start is foolish for doing so. I'm 100% positive you can do it, would never even consider taking action against you, and think it's a good idea, assuming this is something that is necessary or beneficial for your life plan. School will always be there, but the chance to make one hundred thousand dollars doing something you know you're capable of doing will not be.

Originally Posted by badgers

If you don't have college or work then it's probs gonna be ok, but just from being on the pace for ~1 month last year it's stressful and not a lot of fun. You have to play when not feeling great due to tilt/tiredness or other factors just to keep up with the pace and unless you're ridiculously good at keeping your emotions in check while at the tables it's a real problem. It was for me anyway...

Good luck. Are you planning on doing this mostly at 100 or 200?

yeah, I think this will be a real test of me, not just as a poker player but as a person. whether or not I finish with success or failure isn't so much a big deal, but I think just experiencing what I have to do to get this done is going to hopefully make a positive impact on my life and make me learn something about myself I guess.

stakes is a toss up..I'm just breaking in to 200nl right now, but I'm getting coaching and hopefully speeding up my learning curve so I can be comfortably regulating there by Jan-Feb. if I feel I'm +EV at 200nl I'll play it as much as I can but when things go sour I'll just drop to 100nl and take it from there.

I also have no job and won't be in school till september, though if it looks like I will make it at that point I'll either go part time or push it ahead a year because it would be the sensible thing to do given that I'm not even sure I want to do what I am applying for.. and of course the time invested the rest of the year playing etc..

I also won't be taking bets or anything on it, it's just added pressure (and given my current BR I can't afford to make bets large enough to be motivating enough) and also, people are playing like a million hands a month and going for 2million vpps these days so I wouldn't get action anyway lol.

Gl dude! I'm with Ill on this, you're definitely moto enough to get this shit done, no problem. You got grind on the mind, and I LIKE IT! I won't be getting SNE next year, but I'll be sure as fuck going for 200k+ VPPs.

Originally Posted by Illfavor

It's pretty simple. First of all, go for it. There's tons of thinking about it you can do now, but until you're a month in or whatever you really won't know anything, so anyone who suggests stopping before you start is foolish for doing so.

I like this attitude. If you don't try you;ll never know. If you end up bailing in march or whatever, then so what! at least you gave it a shot.

Yeah, that's true, you can always go for it and change your mind or do something else. I just think it's smart to have a good idea of what you're getting into because it's a major commitment that could have major implications on your game for the good or the bad. So, if you've researched it, thought it out, and have both the time and game to do it, I say go for it, too. Good luck.

http://www.pokertableratings.com/sta...ch/setzermason

If you need inspiration... go check out Setzy's thread (it's buried here somewhere...)

He and I were on the same path for a long time, and then he hit the success button (e.g. hard-work, study, skill, etc.). But he made SNE in 2008, and has been hitting it fairly hard this year... idk if he's going for it again or not, he had originally planned to spend a lot of time off.. but those 5x feeps are just so sweet!!

I've never even had 2x feeps.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

Gl dude! I'm with Ill on this, you're definitely moto enough to get this shit done, no problem. You got grind on the mind, and I LIKE IT! I won't be getting SNE next year, but I'll be sure as fuck going for 200k+ VPPs.

thx man


and yeah, as far as the plan goes, I'll be doing alot of planning over the next few weeks to figure out how I'm gonna get this done.

and of course if by the middle of spring or whenever rolls around and I just can't do it, it's not the end of the world. but as soon as the clock starts ticking for this challenge it's unlikely I'll be giving up unless unforeseen circumstances arise.

o and I have around 28k VPPs left to hit supernova, and plan on doing some big time volume over the next few days.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I have around 28k VPPs left to hit supernova, and plan on doing some big time volume over the next few days.

STD VOLUME AMIRITE?

Originally Posted by Bbickes

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I have around 28k VPPs left to hit supernova, and plan on doing some big time volume over the next few days.

STD VOLUME AMIRITE?

Super standard you might say - it's only 56% of the daily pace required for SNE - 1555 per day versus 2740 per day.

haha, I'm pretty much slacking this month compared to what I have in mind for next year. but yeah, if I somehow don't hit supernova this month then there's absolutely no way SNE is gonna happen, lmao.

Just placed my order for the Belkin n52te.

For those of you who don't know what the fuck I am talking about, here is a pic:



Hopefully this will turn out to be a good investment and boost productivity/reduce fatigue etc.

Wtf is that thing....

I had no idea what you were talking about before I saw the pic. I now have even less of an idea.

It's basically a number pad with a cool ergonomic design.

You can rest your hand nicely on it I guess, as opposed to hovering it over a keyboard. The keys also appear to be sloping away from you. More comfortable I imagine.

I use hot keys to reduce the number of clicks I need to make (still end up using the mouse too much) and currently I'm using a shit keyboard, so I'm looking forward to getting this thing set up.