Operation/Blog : Big Bets, Babes and Booze

[Evilpopcorn]

Intoduction

Alright so i have ALOT to say to start of this operation/blog. If at least one person reads and enjoy then i will continue to keep it going.

Part1: My Poker Story (Very TL;DR)
Part2 : The Grinding Begins.

I will then continue to update every monday with operation progress and in between i will be rambling on about poker related issues.

Evilpopcorn

[Evilpopcorn]

Part1: My Poker Story

Alright so right back to where it all started. April 2006 engineering student at University of Pretoria (South Africa) and pretty much flat broke most of the time. Spent most of my free time drinking, studying and playing “Magic The Gathering” card game. Had recently being introduced to poker my some mates which lead me to grinding freerolls. I must have had like 10 different accounts open that I would go freeroll hunting on. Got some small cashes here and there with the biggest one being $20. That “big” score actually came in a private freeroll hosted by Wass Poker that I ended up winning it.

So I donked around on the cash tables at Pacific Poker running the $20 up to $40, but eventually going busto and feeling quite gutted about it. I can’t even remember what stakes I played, but what I do know is that in hindsight I had no clue about poker strategy. Being a student with very little disposable funds my natural style was to be supper nitty which I don’t think is a horrible place to start, and served me pretty well in freerolls.

Having lost most of the motivation to play freerolls I decided that I would deposit R100 (+-$12) a month into a local online poker room for entertainment purposes. Poker was very new in South Africa back then and the poker room had only being open for about a year, two at the most. The site not having a lot to offer the players in the regards to mico bank rolls meant I played the smallest stake being R100NL. I lost my 1BI stake (surprise surprise) playing 20bbs a shot with my natural super nitty style. Busto again and waiting for the next month till I deposit again.

Next morning I wake up and pleasantly surprised I find another R100 in my account. Turns out that there was a first deposit promotion for R100 once u have raked 100 hands. Also now giving the poker rooms website a bit more of a read I see there is a R1000 bonus ($125) after u have raked 1000 hands (refer a friends bonus).

I then proceeded to unlock my R1000 bonus with my 100bbs obviously running really good. Playing one table marathon sessions of easily 6-7 hours a day almost every day with my supper nitty style. I referred some more friends and got more promotional money and continued to run good and after 2 months more or less I was at a bankroll that I was comfortable moving up to the R200NL game.

When I say I was running good I don’t think I was really running above expectation it was just more a function of how EXTREMELY soft the games were. Poker back then and still is for the most part in its infancy in the country and was the reason for very uneducated and inexperienced players. Those R100NL tables if I had a HUD back then probably would have showed tables VPIPs of 40+ most of the time with a very lose PFR and little aggression. Coincidently my playing style was perfectly suited for the poker environment.

Continued at R200NL just playing poker how best I knew and things continued progressing nicely. I eventually started two tabling and got very comfortably doing so. Was still playing marathon session only really taking breaks to sleep and eat. Had stopped going out so much and was definitely now obsessed with the game.

I do believe that I have a naturally obsessive personality. My normal pattern is to get interested in something, get obsessed with it and “burn” myself out on it and then move onto something else. My previous obsessions were golf, action cricket, programming (C++ and HTML), Magic The Gathering to mention some of the bigger ones. Poker however was the first obsession that had monetary reward and thus reinforced my obsession in a way like never before.

Sure enough I hit my bankroll mark for R400NL after about 3-4 months. Taking a bit longer to beat R200NL than it took to beat R100NL mostly because I was a bankroll nit. Add in that I had started to spoil myself a little as well, eating a lot more pizza and other junk food.

R400NL proved to be the stake where I finally got introduced to poker strategy and my game started to evolve. It would also be the stake I would spend a very long time at this level as the next stake that had traffic was R1000NL. I got involved on a tiny local poker forum which leads me to start making connections with other poker players. Started talking a bit more and thinking more about poker, and this obviously did help my game. I got hold of PT (yes not through very legal means) and for the first time had a nice way to keep track of my winnings. Previously I had a little notepad document open where I kept track of my wins and losses. I now also had a bunch of statistics that I didn’t have a clue of how to interpret. I remember that I was playing a 22/7 game which at the time didn’t mean much to me.

Continued playing at R400NL and doing well and very hesitantly bought me a subscription at Card Runners after it being recommended by another winning poker player. I was hesitant about this purchase as it being $ based. This meant that I would need to invest 2BI on a signup fee and the also .5 BI every month on the subscription. Feel very silly to think about it now, but back then that was probably the most expensive item I had bought for myself excluding a guitar I bought in high school after saving up from a job. Six month later it would become my most expensive purchase taking into account the accumulated subscriptions. Also factor in that in South Africa bandwidth is very expensive. Costing me about R70 per gig.

The first video series I watched was the legendary SSNL series by Brystmar. From the video got some basic understanding of what some of the numbers meant in Poker Tracker and finally got myself a HUD (GameTime+). This is where the first step in the evolution of my game took place. My game became much more positional aware, got my PFR up and played more aggressive postflop. My game style now became 15/12, nitty but far better than 22/7. I continued watching lots of Taylor Cabby and Bryan Townsend videos, but mostly from an entertainment perspective. Sure some of the stuff they talked about must have sunk in, but I was more of a passive listener than an active one.

R400NL continued to go well up to around Feb 2007 where I hit my major downswing losing about 15BI. This obviously was very demoralizing and for the first time in ten months I took my first official poker break by not playing a hand of poker for two weeks.

After the break things went pretty well again consistently winning and feeling good about poker again. Then life outside poker brought my bankroll to level out for about a month. I and another friend had recently being informed that we would need to study an extra year due to a technical reason. We had failed a subject that in previous years wouldn’t hold you back, but this year they had changed the rules. This lead to probably one of the most expensive party month ever in my life as we came to accept that we were going to be forced to study at least another year extra. Don’t get me wrong I love varsity life but there come a lot of expectations from your parents, other close family and yourself. I was still playing decent amount of poker, but all the profits were going into alcohol, strippers and clubs. Had an absolute crazy road trip that I could write a few paragraphs about, but I won’t as its not terribly relevant. I do think that a part of me was craving this partying and social interaction as for the previous 10 month since I started playing poker there was not very much.

Eventually got my focus back (a pain on your side where your liver is will do that) and started the grind again. Upgraded my poker setup purchasing myself a nice 19” Acer LCD which felt amazing compared to grinding on my 15” laptop screen. A friend convinced me to play a R2000NL live game. I had never played a live poker game that was bigger than R50 in my life and I was nervous wreck before and during the game (free beer and food helped though). Ended up with the biggest score of my career pocket R2000 (yes only a single BI). Was an experience I will never forget.

Ran really good and by April 2007 (a year since I started, funny that) I was now ready with R25 000 (+-$3000) in my poker bankroll to move up to the mid stakes R1000NL. I was extremely nervous making the jump from R400NL to R1000NL as this was now serious money, and I don’t mean serious money for a student I mean serious money as 2BI is a lot of peoples rent money.

So I jumped into R1000NL and proceed to have the sickest month of poker to date. Winning R36 000 (+- $4000) in the first month and following that up in the second month with another R20 000 (+- $2500) score. Not all winning were from the cash games as I had began to dabble in the tournament with some success as well. I would say about 70% of wining were from the cash games. As you can imagine there was plenty of celebrating and naked women on my lap for those two months. To go from R100 to R75 000 in a year totally blew my mind. To say I was stoked would be the underestimation of the millennium.

Now this is where I started to believe that my studies were now very much my backup plan and that all I wanted to do for the rest of my life was play poker. This now was obviously followed to comparison to the previous two month a very slow next 5 months. Growing my bankroll to about R130 000 (+-$16 000). Yes I should have moved up to R2000NL but I was in such a comfort zone on R1000NL that I only took stabs at R2000NL when I saw a recognized whale at those tables. At the time a part of me really hated myself for not moving up testing myself at the next level with the rewards being huge. I would later actually be happy and realize that in fact I was not a very good poker player and it was a good thing in my opinion that I didn’t move up.

Nov 2007 and the first legal poker room in South Africa was opened at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg which was about 40min drive from where I stayed. Even longer walking as I did not have a car! This was then that I decided to now make my biggest purchase to date and buy myself a car. I decided to put down a 25% deposit. My main justifications for making what everyone know is a bad “investment” was that the games were SUPER SUPER sick soft with slot machine, blackjack players etc learning this new game a R2000 a pop on the R1000NL tables, and I had to play in these games consistently. Secondly I thought that at least if I went bust now I would have something to show for my 18 month of grinding. Finally I think I had this desire to prove to people that what I was doing was for the good, and by making a purchase like this would prove to them that I am good at what I do and put a lot of the negative vibe I got from a lot of people to rest. Also I still get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking of when I drove my car off the showroom floor and thinking, “Yeah… I didn’t pay for this! Other people did!”

Got in my “poker mobile” with my new bankroll of around R100 000 and played a lot of the R1000NL (deep) live games at Emperors for 4 months. The first month went really well and got my roll back up to R120 000. The next 3 month I made a small profit that was mostly eaten up by partying, car insurance, car payment and other expenses. I still played online poker but it was in the minority with respect to hours.

I was feeling quite warn out from it all at this stage. Decided that the lonely life of live poker was not for me and proceeded to spend 90% of my time playing poker online. Things went well and within two months I decided that I had enough to pay my car off and have 40BI for the R1000NL online games. Great not to have that little monthly car payment anymore and this was sure enough followed by more alcohol, strippers and pretty much anything degen excluding drugs.

Right after paying my car off however poker did not go well at all with my bankroll quickly dropping to R30 000 from R40 000. Found myself once again very unmotivated and the dream of playing poker full time after my studies losing its appeal quickly.

I had recently became a moderator on the local poker forum, although to be honest I did little, as well as getting a mention in our first local poker magazine (Bluff – SA Branch) in an article titled “Young Guns of SA Poker”.

This was when a poker friend of mine decided to lay down a sort of prop bet amongst ourselves. We had both dabble a little in the $ sites but never really tested ourselves as the local games were so soft and we were in a comfort zone. The bet was that we had to deposit to turn $150 into $5000 in about 9 months playing non local sites. To win the bet u had to make the $5000 and not just make the most. The loser would have to grind out 10 000 hands of 200NL in the local online game and donate all profit to a charity of his choice as well as host a live poker game for the winner and his friends in which he would be the dealer, bar tender, waiter etc. This was just the motivation I need to get me to want to play poker again!

I first started playing 10NL on Poker Stars and was a small winner. I then found nice cash in a $10 freeze for $400 on Titan poker. I then jumped into the 25NL games and broke even for 30 000 hands. It was during those 30K hands that I started making my first hand posting on the Card Runners forum and was starting to realize that in fact I was pretty bad at poker.

Feeling unmotivated again I decided to mix it up and teach myself a new game in hopes of finding some passion for poker again. I decided I would teach myself Fixed Limit through the poker strategy website. Started grinding 20FL full ring all the way up to 100FL full ring on Poker Stars and getting my roll over the $1000 mark after about 3 months of play. During those months I replaced my 19” LCD by selling it and using the money as a down payment on a 26” Samsung T26 so that I could 12 table. Quite a funny moment was when Poker Stars checked to see if I was a bot by asking me to type a few letters in the chat box. I almost didn’t even see the request 12 tabling! Unfortunately I managed to blow my roll all the way down to $600 in the following month and was back to kinda hating poker.

Decided I had enough of FL and move onto SNGs after watching Jackals SNG series at Card Runners. As I was learning about SNG strategy I started at the real bottom with $1 SNGs even though I was way over rolled. Beat the $1, $3, $5 and $10 SNGs all non turbo. I then decide to move over to the $16 turbos. At a stage my roll hit the $2000 mark, but alas I went on some sort of life tilt/downswing and lost $1000 in one month. It was around Arpil 2009 at this point and I really did believe I was done with poker and had made it quite publically known that I quit. My plan was to enjoy my poker moneyz and live very comfortably at varsity in my final year and start work early 2010. Withdrew all my poker accounts and even cancelled my Card Runners subscription.

In the last two weeks when I decided that I would put at small deposit into one of the local poker rooms and play the R50NL games which were there new smallest stake. My intentions were to play casually and pass the time while making some extra beer money. Crushed the games winning 60BI in 40 000 hands in the first 4 weeks. Moved directly up to the R200NL games as there was no action at the R100NL games. Lost half my bankroll and was back to that place I never wanted to be again after I “quit” poker.

Second week of May 2009 after finding some motivation I deposited $250 into Poker Stars, started grinding 10NL and realizing that I do in fact suck at poker I started posting hands on FlopTurnRiver.com…………..

TO BE CONTINUED ……

[Carroters]

Good luck sir. I didn't read anything you've posted so far because huge massive essays disturb me. Please correct you're title though, it makes you sound a lil' like an annoying free troller imo.

[Evilpopcorn]

Any suggestions ?

[Carroters]

That works!

[Micro2Macro]

I actually read this story because I had about 10 mintues of free time in between waiting for my dinner to arrive and finishing off a grind.

Very interesting poker experience you've been through.

I think you have the potential to get what you want out of this game, since you seem like you're willing to put in the effort.

[golfguy37]

Sounds like a fun few months!

[Evilpopcorn]

Sounds like a fun few months!

Yeah if you call 36 months a few month lol. Definitaly have had an adventure so far. Although if i have it my way there is plenty more to come.

I actually read this story because I had about 10 mintues of free time in between waiting for my dinner to arrive and finishing off a grind.

Very interesting poker experience you've been through.

I think you have the potential to get what you want out of this game, since you seem like you're willing to put in the effort.

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Glad you enjoyed the read.

Hmmm so seems like at least one person will read my dribble . Means i will be continuing this for the near future. Will try write up part 2 tonight.

[Carroters]

Wow man, just confronted my fear of huge essays by reading your post. I know what you mean about the obsessive personality, I'm a bit like that myself.

If you're going to be successful though I think you need to commit yourself to the game for good (Like a year or something at least) without deciding to quit when you run/play bad. Every poker player in the world plays or runs badly or both at some points of his career so you need to acknowledge the swings as part of the game and cut your mind off from the relevance the money has to life outside poker.

Sounds like you've got real drive and potential man so if you're serious about the game, stop withdrawing your roll every time you get scared and run bad!! I used to do this, and while it's a comfort to know you've banked some safe cash, it simply breaks up your rhythm and hinders your progress as a poker player. Suck up the bad times, enjoy the good times and grow your BR to a level where you'll eventually be able to make something awesome out of the game.

I'll be following your progress, GL.

[Evilpopcorn]

U say obsessive i say addictive .

You know the major influence in why i got the "i wana quit" feeling is mostly that deep down i really believe that i am not terribly good at poker. This leads me to easily losing confidence in my game and get "scared".

Let me get started on Part 2 with my operations update. All good news so will be nice to share

[Evilpopcorn]

Part2 : The Grinding Begins.

Operation Get to 50NL April Report

Start of the month BR : $250
End of the month BR : $610

Had a killer start which was just what I needed to get the confidence levels up and running. Had a further three heaters, consistently grew otherwise and then unfortunately ended the month with my worst session (-$38).



Here are my best sessions for the month :



Then the ones that cost me quite bit of beer money.



Thoughts About The Month

Almost 40K hands in 3 weeks I am pretty happy with the volumes I put in and was rewarded with my silver status at Poker Stars.

Started off 4 tabling then expanded to 5 tabling when I had won $200, and two chase down silver I put in about 6-7 sessions of where I played 6 tables. My feeling is that 5 tables is my optimal table number allowing me plenty time to think about the current hand, planning for the table dynamic (where are the nits, lags and droolers etc), able to jot down hands and thoughts in notepad and be able to listen to music. I also found that 2 hour sessions were about right. I did experiment with 2.5 hour sessions but found I got very bored and lazy near the end.

Made $336 in the cash games and got $24 in the instant cash bonuses. Seems HEM missed some hands as it has me with $4 more profit.

Interesting that my best session came in very few hands and i did play 2 hours. Must have had a lot of regular speed tables going i guess.

Really feel like I made some shocking plays during the month also and for the most part got punished appropriately. Get quit angry with myself when I make a lazy plays or just something plain idiotic. I am beating the game pretty well so far it seems but I can do better!

Here is my office :



Have taken off poker till Wed evening to recharge a bit as I was feeling a bit worn out near the end of april and kinda forcing myself to play to make silver. Having a full month at poker in June I am looking to get to $25NL within two weeks (need $140 more) and then making silver will be easy and even possible gold if I can get to 25NL say within the first week if I run good. Will be posting a lot of hands under the beginners section over the next few days that I have noted I need to look at.

Come on June ! Come on 25NL !

Evilpopcorn

[Micro2Macro]

Nice setup.

What size of monitor is that? And is it hooked up to your laptop or is it linked to its own pc?

I'm looking to upgrade from my little laptop screen but I'm not sure where to start.

[Evilpopcorn]

Its a 25.5" Samsung. If i remember correctly the model name is T260 Syncmaster.

At the moment i have it linked to my laptop as well as a desktop and then i just toggle between the two.

[Micro2Macro]

That is pretty sick.

So I take it you can adjust the resolution of the secondary monitor to be able to fit more tables? I was sort of under the impression that if you hook up a larger monitor to your laptop you can't fit anything more than what you could on the laptop screen but I guess it's different. Also, on that size, does your HUD overlap alot or is it pretty clear?

[Evilpopcorn]

I have an ATI graphics card in the laptop and the software allows me to have different resolution running on my primary screen and the secondary one. When i am toggled onto my laptop i got 1900x1200 on the secondary monitor and on my laptop 1400x1050 in an extended desktop setup.

When toggles onto my desktop i also run 1900x1200.

Well i use HEM which allows me to drag my hud information exactly where i want it.

[Callmore]

How am I suppsed to think of poker with that avatar of yours in front of me ? The blood drains away from the face and brain....lol.

I'm looking forward to reading about your progress on 25nl. I plan to be there in about two month's time as well.

Good Luck !

[Luco]

April 2006 engineering student at University of Pretoria (South Africa)

Oh wow, this place?

[Evilpopcorn]

@callmore : Alot of things are just so much more fun if you dont think about it . Hope we can do battle soon at 25NL

@Lucothefish : Hahahah i lurv family guy!

[Olddog21]

Good Luck on your race...and thanks for the view!

[Evilpopcorn]

Operation Get to 50NL June 1st Week Report

Didnt really put in the volumes i would have liked this week, but i "blame" this on only starting my poker week on Wed and then on the weekend my friends tricking me away from the tables with beer, braai (barbecue), and pool. The coming week i would like to put in at least 10K hands and ideally 12-13K.

Spent a little more than three quarters of the week in red and then had a very strong finish in my last session today scooping up 4BI which left me feeling much better. $EV says i am running quite shitty with my allins so i can take something from that.



Off Topic

On saturday me and my friends took part in a beer challenge:

Rules:
1. Beer must be drunk at a pub or bar
2. Light beer and ciders do not count. Spillage and beer left in bottle/ glass not allowed
3. A bottle of beer or draught (no cans) must be consumed on the pub/ bar premises by the challenger
4. Challengers must travel a minimum of 1km to pub/ bar (not necessary to cross a traffic light)
5. May travel on foot or by bicycle, motorbike, skateboard, rollerblades or car
6. No laws may be broken
7. Challenger must drive him/ herself
8. Photographic evidence necessary
9. A witness must witness the whole attempt but may not assist challenger in any manner
10. Challengers may try multiple times
11. Each attempt must be timed from moment challenger leaves gate of dwelling to moment they return to that exact spot in the same mode of transport
12. The pub/ bar may in no way be warned/ bribed/ told or paid off beforehand
13. You may suggest other rules or regulations

Me and 3 of my other friends decide to make our runs with the record at the time being 5m55s in a car. Also to show up our friends we decided that we would down two beers instead of one.

Well i managed to beat the previous car record with a time of 5m30s, but was the worst time amongst our group for the day with the best time being 4m48s.

Here is a funny video of one of the attempts that were done earlier during the week. http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.ph...=cOLF7&u=f_j7_.

Doing this sort of fun makes me already thinking of next year and missing varsity life !

Anywayz good luck on the tables !

Evilpopcorn

[OP]

Whats is trying to be accomplished in the beer challenge?

[Evilpopcorn]

Operation Get to 50NL June 2nd Week Report

Closing off this week early as i hit my bankroll mark for 25NL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Started the week pretty horridly, but then was able to turn it around going on quite a nice heater near the end.



Decided to take tonights session off so that i am well rested to start my attempt to being a winning player at 25NL tomorrow.

Reflections on 10NL and 25NL expectations

Well 10NL is where i think i fixed a lot of my biggest leaks thanks to the guys in the beginners threads where i posted a decent amount of hands. Big thanks to guys like iopq, XxStacksxX, bigspenda73 etc who took the time to point out how bad i am at poker . I still got a tons of leaks and still think i am pretty bad at poker, but at least i feel i am good enough to beat 10NL.

Actually feeling really chuffed with myself! Turning $250 into $750 in the space of just over 4 weeks. I am such a luckbox lol.







My general approach was to be quite obsessive about finding tables with good dynamic and playing very tight out of the blinds. I wonder how much i may need to adapt my game to be a winner at 25NL. I would like some thought on the differences between 10NL and 25NL and what are the possible adjustments i need to look at making. Anyone?

I am gonna drop one table and 4 table 25NL untill i have won 10BI and then will add on my 5th table. Also i will be giving myself a 6BI stop loss before moving back down to 10NL and grinding it back before taking a shot again. If all goes well and i am able to settle at 25NL i will make an attempt to achieve GoldStar by end of this month, but will require some serious grinding. Would need another 25K hands by end of month.

Off topic i am decided to come home for a week or two as i have not being home this year. Am fortunate at the moment that my final year project is at a stage now where i do not need to be in the labs so decided to take the oppurtunity. Kinda nice being home and leaching off the parents

Anywayz wish me luck guys !

Evilpopcorn

[Illfavor]

GL. 10NL=25NL.

[Evilpopcorn]

From the first 6k hands i have played the games do seem tighter and more aggressive to me.

I found myself playing like 18/16 at 10NL but with the table dynamics at 25NL it allows me to play 20/18 and have gotten my 3bet up.

Even when i am table selecting i dont often find table that have player to flop % of above 40. Where at 10NL i found quite a few. My default at 10NL was to sit at tables with at least 5 players, not more than one <60bb stack, average pot $1+, and Player to flop % of at least 35. At 25NL everything is the same except i lower the player to flop % to 33 and average pot $2+.

Going thru my session and taking players notes tho i still see some shoicking plays and thus i am pretty sure i have an edge. How big the edge is will wait to see.

[Micro2Macro]

Nice work on the move up.

I think Illfavor is pretty right about 10nl=25nl, with the one exception of the regs being slighty more taggy. Fish are still fish etc, and the reg's still suck.

[Evilpopcorn]

Operation Get to 50NL June 3rd Week Report

Well what a rollercoaster start to my career at 25NL. Started of playing solidy ran almost to 6BI up. However i was consistently getting more spewy aggressive and pretty much threw away all that. Took two sessions off and did some thinking. Started with a new approach which was similar to my 10NL approach just a little more aggro. Feeling much more solid about my 25NL game now and condidence is quite high. Pitty it took like 10K hands to figure it out!



Need to play another 11k hand the rest of this month to achieve my GoldStar status at PokerStars. Will be nice to bump up my "rakeback". If i can grind really hard i can make my status level in time for the 200K reward freeroll. Otherwise needing 1.1k hands per day for the rest of the month i am pretty sure i will make it by months end. Also really hoping they have the $160 instant cash bonus next month again as that is killer for a 25NL roll.

Just need to a little over 6BI and then i will be able to add my 5th table. Adding 20% onto my volume will be great. Maybe i can play and run good this week!

My approach to 3bet and 4bet pots is where my skills improved this week a lot. Here is the thread:http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ts-t86436.html

Still home with the parents and actually feeling really comfortable for a change. Playing a lot of poker which i think keeps away the boredom, although i will need to get back to Pretoria for some binge drinking soon with my buds . Seeing that the pools are closed in Winter here i have started mountain bike riding. Its much harder than it looks !

Good luck to you all on the tables for the week coming,

Evilpopcorn

[Evilpopcorn]

Operation Get to 50NL June 4th Week Report

Feeling really solid about my 25NL game. Booked a nice 10BI week, and achieved GoldStar in time for the 100K loyalty tournament
AND.....





Woohooo !

Am taking a little poker holdiay till next month to just re-energise after a hard months grind and as well as to put some work into my final year project. Got a meeting on Wed so gotta make sure i have enough progress to show. Back in pta so i also expect some binge drinking in my near future

Really looking forward to playing 5 tables again and chasing 50NL.

Bring on July !

Evilpopcorn

[Evilpopcorn]

Operation Get to 50NL July 1st Week Report

A decent week booking overall just a little over 8BI in 13k hands. Happy with my volumes particulary as i started the week of slow due to my poker holdiday. Was meant to only play from Wednesday, but couldnt help myself and put in a single session on the monday and started grinding hard from the Tuesday. Played 20 hours this weekend and felt for the most part focused and confident.



Need a little over 10BI before i complete my first operation that is to get to 50NL. If i run good i could do in it in the week to come, but as i said i would have to play and run good. I expect to hit my 50NL mark within the next 10 days. Have now won 20BI over 38K hands and am 100% confident that i have at least a 7bb/100 edge on the game as my game stands.



Thanks to PokerStars for changing there VPP structure which meant that my not so legal Hold Manager stopped working. Was really irritated for a few hours and eventually decided fck it and i went legal buying the small stakes version with intentions to upgrade later as necessary.

Interesting about the new VIP system at PS. The little i have read poeple seem to think that it benefits us micro and low stakes grinders the most. At the moment i seem to be getting about 10% more VPP over 12k hands which make me happy. Lets hope they stick to this new system.

Talking about VPP i am only 40VPP away from securing my SilverStar status for next month and at the moment and cruising to renew my GoldStar requiring just over 1800 more VPP. At 25NL that would take about 18k hands. As my predictions stand i should move up to 50NL pretty much just before or at GoldStar. Now assuming it takes me 18k hands to get to GoldStar and 50NL i would then need to play another 22.5K (A little less with new VPP system) at 50NL to make platinum. If i can move up in the coming week i am pretty sure i can makle platinum. Every day after that tho its start becoming very tough. It would be so sick to move up to 50NL and get PlatinumStar this month. Ah but we can dream

Off Topic

Travelled back to Pretoria previous sunday. Great to be back at varsity and amongs my buds again. For a change i actually enjoyed being home. Mostly as i had a good routine going that helped me not get bored too easily.

Great thing about being back at varsity is that i can swim again in an outside pool. One of the most enjoyable parts of swimming for me is lying and being lazy in the warm winter sun. In a gym pool you cant do that. Also at the gym the pool is only 25m and the water taste horrible !

So i am back at varsity for one maybe 36 hours and we end up going drinking and before the night was done ended up throwing a friend out of our commune who was behaving like a lunatic. Its really hard to throw someone out of a place when you trying not to hurt them. Took me and a bud a while to drag him out and its not like we are small guys. Monday night drinking is never boring .

My final year project is going well. I am not the only one who thinks this as well with my co-study leader also remarked that i should finish early. Would be great to finish everything say a month ahead of time and then just do what i really wana do and play SICK amounts of poker. My project means i play about 10 hours less of poker a week. Another 40 hours of poker would be great for my volumes.

Also i kinda got a job (shock, horror). My co-stud leader is giving the 3rd module Software Engineering and needed a teaching assistant. It was actually quite funny when he asked me if i do anything to make money...."Ughmmm i have some hobbies that bring in some moola". When he told me that it was only 6 hours per week and during the day i accpeted as i dont play poker during the day and the job is really chilled with me basically being avaialble for questions during practical periods and looking over them when they write exams.

Well that is enough rambling from me for this week!

Good luck on the tables for the coming week,

Evilpopcorn

[Evilpopcorn]

Operation Get to 50NL July 2nd Week Report

Wow what a contrasting week compared to last week and most of the ones before. Maybe i was due some negative variuance? Yeah i prob was, but i dont think i deserved SUPER BAT FCK CRAZY negative variance. Take a look at the graph...



So yeah close on 16BI down the tubes in the first 7k hands. Thank goodness i was and am still over rolled for 25NL. Now first thing that comes to mind is that i must have being tilitng like a mofo. So i went through those session. 10 losing ones in a row.

Big losing hands :

KK villian donks J57ss 2xPSB and i ship and he flips over set 7s. Standard

A9s flop a flush draw cbet it get min raised and thrid player flats. Flat it and make my flush draw on card that pairs board. Turn checks through. River puts 4th suite on board and the rest goes in. Villian has boat. Standard

Stack off with QQ on T93r against 60/30 player. Standard

Get min 3bet preflop out of blinds and flat with AQo. 3 players to the flop QJ4ss. Min 3betttor check pot to me and he and other villian both call my bet. Original min 3bettor then donk turn small. I raise and get it in. This hand i think i may have played bad. Min 3bet preflop, and then the odd line normally means a very big hand (in this case set Js). I am gonna say i could have saved $15 in this hand flatting the turn bet and find a fold on the river. Kinda Bad Play

21/18 with 9% 3bet raises my MP open with QQ. I flat and see T94r flop. He leads i flat. Turn 5c and he c/r me and we get it in. My turn bet meant i had so much in the middle i couldnt fold. I posted this hands and stacking off here was the right play. Standard

Run KK into AA preflop. Very Standard

Get it all in preflop with KK vs QQ and lose. Very Standard

BvB vs a villian with aggression factor of 5 with raise Cbet of 40%. Stack of with KK on J342r. i c/r all in on turn after flatting his flop raise. He has set 4s. Standard

Raise KK preflop in MP and get 3 callers. Flop 987ss. 71/18 donks, one villian folds and action is to me with another player left to act. I ship and donk better calls with flopped straight. Played right according to forum members Standard

Week Reflections Continued

So that is 9BI i lost where i think i could only really save 0.5BI some of the time. Then factor in i wasnt winning a lot of big pots and then some semi tilt. By semi tilt i mean cbetting some spots where i should out of pure frustration etc. Find myself on the friday stuck 15BI.

I actually skipped a few session i would normally play just cos i didnt feel like playing. Feeling of fear that i may start to tilt and also just all round unhappyness towards poker. When i started playing poker "seriosuly" again i said i would only play when i felt like playing. So i kept this philosophy by skipping some sessions.

Luckily the weekend i ran 7BI up over 3k hands even losing a 120bb stack to AQ all in preflop vs my AK. This upswing cut my loses for the week in half which made the week not a total disaster. Just mean that after two weeks of the month (20K hands) i am break even. Frustrating but not the end of the world i guess.

Kinda funny that last week i made predictions of being at 50NL within 10 days, where now i am just happy i didnt need to move down to 10NL and would be really pleased if i get to 50NL by months end. To go from supreme confidence and a decent winner of like 80k hands at 10NL and 25NL to believing that maybe i am unable to beat the game. Its totally illogical and just my emotions getting myself into a panic. Sillyness but understandable to feel rattled.

My VPP count is sitting at 2250 and cruising towads confirming my GoldStar status for August. PaltinumStar is most definitaly out of the window for next month. Unless i win like 18BI in the next 3 days at 25NL. lol

Read through IOPQ's two operations during the week looking for some inspiration and it did help. Specially two links that he posted in his one.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...-graph-286574/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...w-ahud-338578/

I mean if i could beat the 400NL stake then i am making SERIOUS money in my country with the 8 to 1 exchange rate. Nice to dream and inspiring.

See the WCOOP is coming at PS. Would love to try satellite into an event or two. Donkaments are the rock and roll of poker imo ! I will only play sats tho if i am a winning player at 50NL. So lets hope by Sept i am that.

Off Topic

Spent most of the week sick, and in my rattled state wondered if it was effecting my play. IMO i dont think so. After going through my sessions i am 80% i was just getting cold decked WAY more than i was supposed to be. One of the most frustrating part for me when i am sick is that i am quite an active person. Mostly i swim lengths at the pools and relax in the warm winter sun. I know for a FACT i get grumpy if i do not and thus is -EV in life which must filter through to my poker. I am 90% recovered now and looking forward to hitting the pools again.

In my previous post i mention about getting a chilled past time job as a teaching assistant at university. Well i start that next week. Have to attend the first two classes (English and Afrikaans) to meet my victims....err i mean student . I am actually quite excited about it. Not really sure why. Before i started playing poker i did teach Science and Mathematics to final yeah high school students for about 6 months and i got a lot of pleasure out of it. If teachers were not paid such crappy salaries its something i definitely would consider.

Went out partying on friday night after a session of poker ofcourse. My friends have got use to me pitching up 2-3 hours late to parties due to "work". I was told we were going to play lots of pool and was a little dissapointed that we did not. I got a decent pool game and it is great fun being challenged by random people. Still drinking at a bar and ending up at a club for a short while is never a bad night.

Experience something very unusual between poker session on saturday night. Walked to the cafe as i often do. Enjoy the fresh air and its only about a 2km walk there and back. While in the cafe a beggar asked me for R2 ($0.25). The guy had a loaf of bread in his hands and i was feeling a little gernous so i gave him R5($0.70c). Now standing in line to pay for my goods he was in front of me. He paid and then put some of his change into one of the chartity tins. Now this BLEW my mind.... the guy can not afford bread, but he will donate to charity! Then my poker brain kicked in. I am thinking that he knew i was behind him, and that i would see him make his donation. This would in turn set me up to alwayz give this guy money when he asked me. +EV line. I mean i almost gave him R50 ($6.50) on the spot but i resisted. So something that starts off leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart ends up with me feeling like i might be getting conned. lolz @ pokerz

Alright that is enough dribble from me. Here is hoping for a good week of poker!

Good luck on the tables,

Evilpopcorn

[BlueBull]

Play more imo... come sit at my tables!!

fuck you for tiling 16 tables ;__;
I can only fit 9

[Evilpopcorn]

@bluebull: u trying to kick a man when he is down ?!

@iopq: i could 16 table but i only play 4 tables...... 4 really big tables lol

[Evilpopcorn]

Going to be spending the next 4 weeks on my final year project in an attempt to try and finish it so that i can play poker for the rest of the year. So no poker/blog updates for the next 4 weeks.

Wish me luck !

Evilpopcorn

[BennyLaRue]

It's been two months. Apparently, OP title should not include babes, imo.

[Evilpopcorn]

lolz so u wana hear about my trip to the strip club last wed after golf with my buds ?

Quite a funny story, but too lazy to tell it now.

[Callmore]

"Bump"

Hey bud, pls dont tell me you quit again... . I have started 20nl. Common, dont let me get to 50nl before you....

[Evilpopcorn]

Hey bud!

Final report due 5th Nov, and final project demonstration 12th Nov. Till then i HAVE NO LIFE

Nice tourney score the other night ! Yes i lurk the nuts still

[Callmore]

Good to see you have you priorities right. I trust your project will work out great.

Hopefully we can swop 50nl war stories next year.

GL bud.

[kardmania]

At what point does a player need to know they are playing too many tables?