Ask me Anything - mbml

What in your opinion are the most common leaks you've observed in
NL10/NL25 players?
NL50 players?
NL100 players?

Originally posted by maritsula
I remember that a few years back you were switching over to PLO.

What happened in the end?

played it for a while, decided that it was a complete waste of time to expose myself to more variance and relearn a new game.

Good decision to move back to NLHE

Originally posted by metza
What in your opinion are the most common leaks you've observed in
NL10/NL25 players?
NL50 players?
NL100 players?

1. Preflop game sucks - Too value heavy, typical players don't 3bet/4bet as much with air as they should
2. Flop game sucks - Too high of a Flop cbet, not enough check/raises and check/calls as the Preflop raiser
3. Turn/River game sucks - Not enough bluff raises to balance air combos

What is your opinion about 3betting a merged range and making it about 2.5x-2.7x or so as a default vs unknowns until we get info?

Originally posted by DrDunne
What is your opinion about 3betting a merged range and making it about 2.5x-2.7x or so as a default vs unknowns until we get info?

1. Merged range - What does that achieve? You just make your life hard, with no guarantee that you'll get called by worse. 3-betting AJ in BB vs CO would be pretty bad without reads IMO. It should be bad vs most players.
2. 2.5X-2.7X - Hmm I do that in position and against MSS players. I don't think it's good to use such bet sizes OOP vs full stacked players

What is your opinion on having a flatting range from SB?

Originally posted by mbml

Originally posted by DrDunne
What is your opinion about 3betting a merged range and making it about 2.5x-2.7x or so as a default vs unknowns until we get info?

1. Merged range - What does that achieve? You just make your life hard, with no guarantee that you'll get called by worse. 3-betting AJ in BB vs CO would be pretty bad without reads IMO. It should be bad vs most players.
2. 2.5X-2.7X - Hmm I do that in position and against MSS players. I don't think it's good to use such bet sizes OOP vs full stacked players

I asked because I've been experimenting with it lately and I've had some interesting results so far. OOP I'm making it ~3x but IP it is smaller. Over about 200k hands my 3bet success by position is never >45% and is roughly 39-42% on average, which is why I experimented. People are calling a ton with lots of crap anyway and when I reduce the size they are calling even more.

If I get some villain who likes to call OOP (which seems to very often be the case) then having a stronger postflop range means I get to put more pressure on their ranges than if I 3bet some random trash. At least thats my assumption ♦

Originally posted by metza
What is your opinion on having a flatting range from SB?

I stopped having one for about half a year. I started re-incorporating a flatting strategy in the SB, but this mostly involves fish being around, or having a tight BB in the blinds vs a min-raise.

Originally posted by DrDunne

Originally posted by mbml

Originally posted by DrDunne
What is your opinion about 3betting a merged range and making it about 2.5x-2.7x or so as a default vs unknowns until we get info?

1. Merged range - What does that achieve? You just make your life hard, with no guarantee that you'll get called by worse. 3-betting AJ in BB vs CO would be pretty bad without reads IMO. It should be bad vs most players.
2. 2.5X-2.7X - Hmm I do that in position and against MSS players. I don't think it's good to use such bet sizes OOP vs full stacked players

I asked because I've been experimenting with it lately and I've had some interesting results so far. OOP I'm making it ~3x but IP it is smaller. Over about 200k hands my 3bet success by position is never >45% and is roughly 39-42% on average, which is why I experimented. People are calling a ton with lots of crap anyway and when I reduce the size they are calling even more.

If I get some villain who likes to call OOP (which seems to very often be the case) then having a stronger postflop range means I get to put more pressure on their ranges than if I 3bet some random trash. At least thats my assumption ♦

very dependent on postflop skill of each player. If they play weakly postflop then sure by all means keep their ranges wide. But any good player who is skilled at playing as the caller would use his position to destroy u. I'm not of the opinion that you should make super huge 3bet sizes to make things easier (like 2BB->9BB) but at the same time it shouldn't be too small either.

hey nice thread sir. i do think average household cost can be alot more than 2-3k.
consider housing mortgage or rent at 1k$/mth(already low end), cost about $10/day/mouth so a day(no restaurants) costs $40 => 1.2k$/mth.
then include cost of transport and we easily hit 3k. goes way up if household has to support a car. then u include groceries, utilities, maybe a maid, insurance, education, entertainment, etc etc.

1)anyway im interested to find out if you exercise?

2)do you have plans to get a gf/wife/married? expected time line

3) do you have plans to create other streams of income? if so how do you plan to achieve them?

4)ever considered living abroad? macau? maybe thailand?

Are you left-handed or right-handed?

Originally posted by supeyrio
hey nice thread sir. i do think average household cost can be alot more than 2-3k.
consider housing mortgage or rent at 1k$/mth(already low end), cost about $10/day/mouth so a day(no restaurants) costs $40 => 1.2k$/mth.
then include cost of transport and we easily hit 3k. goes way up if household has to support a car. then u include groceries, utilities, maybe a maid, insurance, education, entertainment, etc etc.

1)anyway im interested to find out if you exercise?

2)do you have plans to get a gf/wife/married? expected time line

3) do you have plans to create other streams of income? if so how do you plan to achieve them?

4)ever considered living abroad? macau? maybe thailand?

well we are talking about average right (mean? median?) Of course an upper middle class lifestyle requires more than that. Or maybe the average is now 5k and i have no clue.

1. sometimes but not regularly. i go downstairs to swim, it's basically the most convenient and relaxing

2. no plans, if it happens it happens

3. not at the moment. given how much I'm making from poker, I think it would be a waste of time to do other stuff. I rather hone my poker skills and make as much money out of poker as possible while I still can. Who knows when the government may ban poker? Maybe i'll learn how to invest in stocks next year. A good friend of mine spends a lot of time researching undervalued stocks and I could learn from him. I actually loaned him a sum of money for 2% interest since too much of my assets is in cash.

4. I don't want to live in Thailand, it doesn't appeal to me. I wouldn't mind staying in Macau for a month or two to grind live/online.

-Do you think that at the stakes you are playing the HUD is necessary or not? I remember you saying that yourself sometimes are trying to mix your game and tighten up/loosen up for a number of hands. Could the HUD lead sometimes in making some wrong assumptions?

-Are you satisfied with the quality of your books? Do you have any information on your next book (release date etc)?

-Do you have any tips/tricks for playing more and putting more volume?

-Do you think it is necessary for someone looking to move up in stakes and reach midstakes/highstakes to study about more advanced concepts in poker and GTO?

Btw, great thread! It's really nice that you are doing this!

do you still play bnet TFT or just garena?

i tried laddering on lordaeron and kalimdor cant find games :/

Originally posted by Phgrinder
do you still play bnet TFT or just garena?

i tried laddering on lordaeron and kalimdor cant find games :/

I dislike garena and I just use bnet. are you using a high level account? If you make a new one (which I always do), it's pretty easy to get games, especially in team games (3v3).

Originally posted by mbml

Originally posted by Phgrinder
do you still play bnet TFT or just garena?

i tried laddering on lordaeron and kalimdor cant find games :/

I dislike garena and I just use bnet. are you using a high level account? If you make a new one (which I always do), it's pretty easy to get games, especially in team games (3v3).

i dont have a high level due to inactivity lol im just smurfing around during poker breaks. i cant seem to find games on northrend even on smurfs but i can on kalimdor. 1 level vs level 22 lol but its all good rather than waiting for 5mins per game on us west

Originally posted by mbml

Originally posted by Phgrinder
do you still play bnet TFT or just garena?

i tried laddering on lordaeron and kalimdor cant find games :/

I dislike garena and I just use bnet. are you using a high level account? If you make a new one (which I always do), it's pretty easy to get games, especially in team games (3v3).

I used to be a die hard fan of TFT back in the day. I read somewhere you were a pro, what was your SN ?

Originally posted by acetbfish
-Do you think that at the stakes you are playing the HUD is necessary or not? I remember you saying that yourself sometimes are trying to mix your game and tighten up/loosen up for a number of hands. Could the HUD lead sometimes in making some wrong assumptions?

-Are you satisfied with the quality of your books? Do you have any information on your next book (release date etc)?

-Do you have any tips/tricks for playing more and putting more volume?

-Do you think it is necessary for someone looking to move up in stakes and reach midstakes/highstakes to study about more advanced concepts in poker and GTO?

Btw, great thread! It's really nice that you are doing this!

1. Without a HUD you are going to get destroyed in my opinion. Way too much information for a single human brain to keep track of. A HUD could mislead you but there are things like session stats and VS Hero stats so if the HUD becomes a crutch for you, it's your own fault.

2. There is certainly much room for improvement but based on the amount of effort put in and the amount of sales revenue generated, I'm extremely satistifed with how things turned out. I could definitely have created a website, create better payment processing options, get the book edited/formatted by a professional. But when I weighed the various costs involved (time and money), I decided it was better just to retain total control of the whole thing and do it myself. I sure learnt quite a bit about publishing my own stuff now.

I also wished I were better at art. I used to spend my Primary School days drawing comics and selling them to my friends. I think I made close to $50 which was a big sum of money when you are 10. That mostly involved making fun of my classmates (everyone had their own cartoon character and nickname) and they were constantly battling with the teachers. I do think I have above average art skills but the average person is pretty terrible at art anyway and maybe I'll look towards learning how to polish my art skills in the near future. Not because I think I can make a lot of money with it, but only because it's one of the things I enjoy doing.

I actually was considering getting another person to do the illustrations but then again taking into consideration the costs I felt it wasn't worth it. I would require sales in the hundreds or maybe even 1000 in sales figures to justify hiring someone else.

3. Different things work for different people. It's easier to put in huge volume if you can play longer sessions but I find myself unable to do that these days. So I just play 3-4 sessions per day and take lots of naps in between. Watching shows could help with the boredom if you are good at multi-tasking and concentrating on various things at once but if you are not good at that it may affect your play quite a bit.

I have experimented with quite a few things so far if you have read my blog.
-LOTR: I don't even recall half of the things which happened when I was watching it.
-Audiobooks: I think it's pretty easy to listen and play at the same time. Non-fiction is bettter than fiction. I got a decent grasp of the Gladwell books but I don't remember 50% of what happened in the Hobbit.
-Documentaries: Much like audiobooks. Watching the video isn't too important, what's more important is the audio.
-Podcasts: Like audiobooks, pretty good
-Comedies: Pretty easy to focus on playing and watching at the same time

In short, audio > video, and non-fiction > fiction. For non-fiction, you don't need to absorb everything, just the gist of it.

How else to play more? I think Zoom is your best bet if you want to aim for high volume. 8 table Zoom is way easier than 24 table, allows you to focus better, and is also much easier to start and stop your sessions. So if you are playing anything above 10 tables, I would just recommend switching to a fast fold format instead. Unless you are playing midstakes at some small Euro site.

4. Of course. Sometimes people say GTO play is irrelevant at lower stakes but in my opinion that's not true. Knowing the optimal play is important, so you can also understand how to deviate your strategy properly from it, and exploit your opponent better.

For example, vs a half pot 3rd barrel bet on the River, you are supposed to defend top 66% of your River bluff catching range. If you don't know what optimal play is, you may just randomly set the cutoff point for bluff catching. But if you know that villain is a nit, and you know the optimal play is to defend top 66%, maybe you can adjust in a more appropriate way. Say, you defend only the top 40% instead of the top 66%. It's still a much more refined and mathematically-sound approach to poker.

There are many natural poker geniuses out there who can win the game by reading gameflow and just feeling their opponents out. I'm not one of them; I play using my strengths in Math and Logic.

Originally posted by Phgrinder

Originally posted by mbml

Originally posted by Phgrinder
do you still play bnet TFT or just garena?

i tried laddering on lordaeron and kalimdor cant find games :/

I dislike garena and I just use bnet. are you using a high level account? If you make a new one (which I always do), it's pretty easy to get games, especially in team games (3v3).

i dont have a high level due to inactivity lol im just smurfing around during poker breaks. i cant seem to find games on northrend even on smurfs but i can on kalimdor. 1 level vs level 22 lol but its all good rather than waiting for 5mins per game on us west

maybe northrend is completely dead, i don't know cos I lag hard on europe/us east servers. Kalimdor is the best in my opinion. I get the least lag there and also because you have the most players left.

Originally posted by booomm

Originally posted by mbml

Originally posted by Phgrinder
do you still play bnet TFT or just garena?

i tried laddering on lordaeron and kalimdor cant find games :/

I dislike garena and I just use bnet. are you using a high level account? If you make a new one (which I always do), it's pretty easy to get games, especially in team games (3v3).

I used to be a die hard fan of TFT back in the day. I read somewhere you were a pro, what was your SN ?

I wasn't a pro (pro-gamers play fulltime) but I was winning local competitions and represented Singapore in quite a few of them (WCG 2007 Asian Finals, ESWC 2006, KODE5 2006, WCG 2005 Grand Finals)

SN was gosubay. I was writing some strategy articles for MYM in 2008 so if you were following the scene then you might have read some of my news and strategy columns before.