Watch me fight some AI baddies in VR Boxing in my latest post

@AN: Raising 5BB is more ideal with premium hands like AQ+/TT+ because it is necessary to thin the field. A 2-3 BB raise from UTG almost guarantees a 3-4 way pot in a live game. A 3BB raise suffices in a NL100 FR Pokerstars game because everyone is nitty, but not in a live game. And people like to make "chain-reaction" calls. Once the fish gets hooked, everyone will make loose/speculative calls with weaker hands like Q8s and then the next person's pot odds become much better.

about my grammar: I'm trying to use a consistent tense here but I keep switching between past and present tense. Grammar Fail lol...

On to some actual hands

5/10

I actually ran "hot" here, with a top set and a royal flush. But in both hands, I had the board crushed pretty hard and wasn't really able to extract too much value.

Lineup:
The lineup was pretty diverse. We had 2 Indian nationals (I think), a Russian nit who was on holiday with his family (a miracle ♦), a fat Singaporean lady who was trying to teach me to be more passive, a Chinese guy with a Western Accent (probably from the States), some Indian/Middle Eastern/Turkish guy, and 2-3 other local middle-aged "uncles".

1. I opened 77 from MP1 to 4BB, MP3 (tight Indian guy) 3bets me to 8BB. I made a pretty quick call.
Board was low, I check and he jammed for 12BB more. I was like :O. The decision to check-call was pretty easy on a low board, but I would definitely have considered folding pre had I realized that he was only 20bb deep. He shows KK, and I suck out with a runner-runner 1 card flush

2. I raised to 5BB with 99 in similar positions. Same guy made a min 3-bet to 10BB and he had a 40bb stack. I found myself in the same situation as before. Feel like 99 was just too strong to fold. He bet 15bb into 20 and I check-jammed. This might seem like a pretty standard spot but I might have been able to fold at some point. Maybe preflop? Given that I did choose to call the PF min 3-bet, I don't think I have any room to fold on this nice board.
I would probably have played my hand more passively had I used a smaller PF raise size of 3BB which would result in a higher SPR and that would have given me some room to call F fold T. He shows AA and scoops the pot.

3. I raise to 4BB with A:hJ:h and I get 3 callers behind. Board was T:hT:d4:h7:d. I bet 12bb into 17BB and got a single caller. Villain had a pot size bet left on the Turn so I jammed without thinking too much. The caller was loose-passive preflop, but seemed to be more conservative postflop.

a. Was that really the best line? Would he have enough 66-99 or 4X hands which he would fold vs the Turn jam? I would think that jamming JJ+ here for value would be pretty standard, which would mean that villain would have to call with plenty of worse hands.
b. Check-calling allows me to induce bluffs from lower flush. But if he's bad enough, he would call the Turn jam with lower flush draws despite the bad pot odds. Maybe a Turn check-call might have been better if there were some straight draws as well. I've seen some 1k regs at stars use the turn c/c line w nut flush draws a few times and it does make sense, since Ace high does have some showdown value and it's good to protect your check-call ranges with some flush draws.

Don't really think that my jam was a huge mistake (is it even a mistake in the first place)? Villain shows 44 for the flopped boat and scoops the pot.

4. Indian fish raises 2 limpers to 6BB, I 3bet with A:sK:s to 17BB in MP, he calls. Board was J2346 with a turn flush draw which missed. I check the Flop and Turn, and called 30BB on the River pretty quickly. He shows 57o.

At this point in time I wasn't too sure how loose/bad he was.

5. I call a 4BB raise from the BB with 55. It was 5 handed? Pot had ~20bb and I had a decent flop (244). Was strongly considering leading out for 1/3 pot just for protection purposes (very good chance I had the best hand, given how loose the others were) but opted to check instead. Turn brings a blankish Ten, I lead out for 7bb and some middle aged Singaporean raised to 200. I tanked for a while and folded.

This guy raised to 5BB 24o from UTG earlier which probably meant that he had some aggressive tendencies. At the same time the Turn did not bring any new draws and it wasn't a spot where people were likely to make pure air bluff raises. He claimed to have pocket tens (TX or TT? people like to use the term pocket sometimes even with a 1card pair)

6. One of the earlier hands in the session
The fat Singaporean lady on my left posted her BB (She was UTG in a 7-max game) and she was a new addition to the table. There were a few limpers (6way?) and I check in the BB with 92o.

Board was Q:s7:c8:h9:c3:s, I made a blocking bet of 20 into a 60$ pot on the Turn. Fat lady called and Russian nit called. Russian nit was caught slowplaying AA twice but he was also limping a fairly wide range.

River was a blank, with TX and clubs busting. Fat lady bets 20 again, Russian nit folds and I call. She shows T6o for the straight.

10/20

As mentioned earlier, I ended up with the worst seat at the table. I had the boss whale on my direct left, and 4 of the 5 biggest nits at the table on my right. My human brain mental HUD is still pretty crappy. I am not that good at keeping track of people's frequencies. All these years of playing with a poker tracking software has crippled my ability to focus well.

This is my best guess at how each of the players were playing, based on VPIP/PFR. It seemed that a few of the regulars actually knew who I was, despite me not having played against them before. Some of them were even discussing my plays with one of my friends (some guy who plays nosebleeds at Macau) who wasn't present.

I was playing too loose, and my buddy was probably playing too tight. IF we had swapped positions, I would have done much better, having postflop position on the boss. The boss loves floating a lot but didn't really bluff raise flops with pure air. When he did, he would usually have some sort of draw.

About the boss
The boss was really rowdy. He was talking a lot of crap, definitely the most talkative at the table. He could definitely feel an "us-vs-him" atmosphere, with most of the regs knowing each other and whispering. He even heard his name mentioned once when 2 of the regs were whispering some bad stuff about him. It was obvious that he was the mark at the table but he probably wanted to play against Singapore's "top players". There was a lot of friendly? (with a tinge of passive-aggressive-ness) banter between him and the other regs. He was god-moding for most of yesterday and clearly the others weren't too happy, having lost a fair bit of money to him.

The boss seemed fairly intelligent, as with most businessmen with enough money to splash around in casinos. While he was just trying to flop random shit with his 59o, he had reasonable hand reading skills. It was hard extracting value from him and he was definitely picking up on the fact that I was betting huge whenever I was strong. It didn't help that he was always acting behind me, as he did mention a few times that he would have bet himself had I chosen to check and trap him.

7. BTN raised to 2.5BB, I 3bet to 10BB with A:hT:s, Boss coldcalled the 3bet in the BB, and BTN folded.
Flop was J:cT:h8:h, I check, he bet 10BB, and I called.
Turn brought the 9:h, giving me a 1-card nut flush draw. I check-called a small 10bb bet again.
River brought the J:s. We both checked and he shows J:d3:d

Don't think there's much to say here. Flop check-call was clearly the best play. I was definitely receiving great pot odds to justify the turn call. I was honestly thinking about pulling off a turn check-raise bluff and represent the flush but decided that it was too spewy.

8. I limped UTG with 55, the boss raised to 6BB, another reg called and I call. Effective stack sizes were at 175BB.
Board was T8493, the boss bet 10BB, reg called, I called. On the turn, he bet 30bb, I raised to 60bb, he called and I jammed the River for another 75bb. I flipped my cards quickly, ready to scoop the pot. He made some weird hand gesture and I thought that I was gonna win. I was a little afraid of the straight getting there but it turned out that he was slow-rolling me a little and flipped over TT for top set.

At this point I was getting really frustrated, having wiped out the initial $5k SGD which I brought to the table. My buddy was also very disappointed (since he had half my action).

9. I opened to 4BB with KQo, the boss and one other guy called. Flop was J985, I bet 2/3 pot. The boss called, the other reg folded.
Turn was a pretty interesting spot. I was basically presented with 3 options
-Triple barrel huge. This would allow me to get a second call from his 2nd/3rd pair with straight draws and then push him off those on the river. Perhaps I might even get a weak Jack to fold, but I wasn't too sure about how big of a station he was at this point in time.
-Bet Turn check River. A pretty poor choice vs a standard reg's tight range. A standard reg would have mostly middle suited connectors or broadways and my turn fold equity in this spot would probably be 30% or less. On the other hand, this guy was really wide. His range would comprise stuff like K8o or 92s and those hands were likely to fold to a turn barrel.
-Check Fold Turn.

I had a slight inclination towards the first option but I wasn't too sure. But then I picked up upon the fact that the boss was counting his chips and placing them slightly closer to the middle of the table. I had the feeling that he was trying to feign strength, even despite his actions being slightly more subtle. He wasn't trying to stare me down. Anyway I bet 2/3 pot and he mucked pretty quickly. I showed my hand.

10. I raised to 3BB in the SB with 67o, and the boss called.
I actually managed to open-raise in the CO/BU/SB at least 6-7 times within a span of 4 hours, which goes to show how tight the players on my right were playing.

Flop was Q:cT:c3:c
I had no draws at all. My two options were to
-Check/fold: Good choice vs balanced opponents and if you had a balanced image. I expected the boss to stab really often if I did check. I wasn't really balancing my checking ranges vs him to include stronger hands. Probably should have slowplayed more.
-Bet/fold: He is playing 100% of his range here. I do expect him to miss, and it will also be extremely difficult for him to float a hand like A:s2:s on this particular texture. A half pot bet offers me a good risk/reward ratio.

Turn brings the A:s and I check-fold
-I guess there's the third option of firing twice. I probably should have considered this option. I initially thought that the Ace was a card which might favour his range more (He has plenty of A:cX and AK/AJ/KJ type of hands). Now that I think about this spot, he probably has any TX and 3X and 1:c type of hand. The Ace is actually a really good barrel card for me against his super wide range and despite having 0 equity, a 2/3 pot size bet should give me at least 40% FE here IMO.

11. I open-raised K9o in the Hijack to 5BB. The boss called, everyone else folded.
Flop: 855r (21BB)
At this point, I was getting the feeling that I was getting floated a lot. Maybe this wasn't true, perhaps I should have stuck to single or double barreling but I wanted to mix up my play. I felt that he was also stabbing a lot IP when checked to.
Boss bet 20bb, I check-raised to 50bb and he called.
Turn: 4 - I check to give up.
River: He showed 74o and scooped the pot.

12. Boss limped UTG, reg on his left limped along, reg on my right limped as well. I raise to 7BB with KTo and the first two guys called. Effective stack sizes = ~300-400BB
Flop (22BB): J98r - I bet 15BB, Boss calls, reg raises to 50bb, we both call
Turn (172BB): K - I checks, Boss checks, reg bets 100b, we both fold
Boss shows KQ, reg shows JT

Boss: Will you show me if I fold?
Reg agreed pretty readily.
I wonder if that's a possible verbal tell. I will read up more on the topic.

13. BTN reg (300BB) raises to 2.5BB, I (400BB) 3bet to 10BB with QQ, Boss (500+BB) calls and BTN calls.
Flop (30BB): T:d9:d5:h - I bet 20bb, both players call
Turn (90BB): 6:s - I bet 50bb, Boss makes a comment about me having AA and folds. The reg thinks for a while and jams for 125bb.

I seriously doubt that the reg would jam something as a semi bluff. I was probably blocking some of his possible semi-bluffs as well (Q:dJ:d) and the straight did get there, so I had a pretty easy fold. He was playing so nitty that he was bound to have a set or 78s.

Was I overplaying my hand? I'm still not sure. The boss was playing so loose preflop but everytime I had a hand, he was not paying me off. Maybe it's just my luck that he was able to pick me off at my weakest and fold when I was at my strongest.

The rest of the night wasn't too eventful. I wanted to leave at 0530, the boss offered to swap seats with me so I decided to play for another 30 min. I didn't really want to sleep too late as I found that sleeping at 6am affected the quality of my sleep greatly. After 15 min, another bigger China boss joined the table as well. It was pretty ridiculous seeing how all the regs were blatantly swapping seats, trying to seat on the boss' left. About 4 of them were moving around and he ended up seating 3 seats to my left which basically destroyed my positional advantage on him. But he told the other Chinese boss to seat across the table from him so that all was fair for everyone at the table ♦ ♦ ♦

I got into a few more small headsup pots vs the first boss and taking them down with flop cbets on low boards.

14. Final hand of the night
The new boss raises to 2.5BB and he tells me to call him. I respond with a 3bet to 10BB with KQo, the original boss calls and the new boss calls.
Flop: J87r, we both check, the original boss bets and we fold. He shows 45o for the gutshot straight draw.

I guess this marks the end of my super long reflection post. Can't believe I spent 2-3 hours typing this out. I'll probably link this page to some of my friends for discussion and we'll see how I can improve on my live play before I start playing 100/200 HKD in Macau more regularly.

Originally posted by mbml
@AN: Raising 5BB is more ideal with premium hands like AQ+/TT+ because it is necessary to thin the field. A 2-3 BB raise from UTG almost guarantees a 3-4 way pot in a live game. A 3BB raise suffices in a NL100 FR Pokerstars game because everyone is nitty, but not in a live game. And people like to make "chain-reaction" calls. Once the fish gets hooked, everyone will make loose/speculative calls with weaker hands like Q8s and then the next person's pot odds become much better.

Yeah I know how it works for the chain etc.
And yes with premium hands like those certainly 5BB is ideal.
But you were talking about hands like 98s or 77, which, given the amount of usual callers, are played mainly as speculative hands, and considering your low fold equity against such people, you want to have more callers or at least keep the pot small.
It's easy to lift it up once you hit anyway due to indeed the stations and multiple people involved.

I'll read the rest of your post later, gtg now!

Have you done any calculations regarding the rake in Macau? It's quite massive for the 50/100 (10% capped at 350 per hand iirc). I did very well in those games over ~50 hours of play but obv don't have enough hours to say if the rake makes the games unbeatable on 50/100. Based on my experience, the right strat is to play quite tight pre in most of the line ups and spewy/maniacal post. I almost solely played in Wynn, so can't say much about other casinos. I'm not sure you've realized that ALL the chinese old guys collude like there's no tomorrow, so keep your eyes open on that.

Originally posted by Shevtshenko
Have you done any calculations regarding the rake in Macau? It's quite massive for the 50/100 (10% capped at 350 per hand iirc). I did very well in those games over ~50 hours of play but obv don't have enough hours to say if the rake makes the games unbeatable on 50/100. Based on my experience, the right strat is to play quite tight pre in most of the line ups and spewy/maniacal post. I almost solely played in Wynn, so can't say much about other casinos. I'm not sure you've realized that ALL the chinese old guys collude like there's no tomorrow, so keep your eyes open on that.

Shouldn't it be easy to just play around CREV and put in 10% rake. I imagine a huge whale losing at like -50+bb will make it worth it even with the huge rake.

I think games are definitely beatable. I have a couple of Singaporean friends who grind there pretty regularly, with winrates ranging from 600-1800 HKD/hr. I am going to play in the Wynn as well, that's where I have been playing on my past 2 trips there.

Rake at 10% capped at 350HKD? That's weird, from what I remember it was 10% capped at 100HKD or 200HKD but maybe things have changed. I do know that people say the rake in Singapore is the highest (5% capped at 50 SGD which is around 300 HKD). I definitely have to agree with you about being tight pre and aggro post.

Anyway I head for Macau tomorrow afternoon, looking forward to playing some live games soon. I'm trying to finish at least 1 of Elwood's books.

An interesting excerpt:
Someone who is bluffing is afraid of being found out. He is feeling the same anxiety a guilty criminal might feel when being interrogated by the police.
On the other hand, someone who has a weak hand and is waiting for his opponent to act is more likely to feel a different type of fear. He feels threatened, defensive, wary, rather than guilty.

Good luck with ur hunting in Macau!

Seems u have experienced relatively much more downswing in 2014, comparing to ur previous game. Actually I found some players who can get 2-4 bb/100 in NL50-100 in 2013, and have been crushed in 2014, especially in the second half of the year. Do u think the game is changing a lot in 2014?

Sry about my English as it's my 2nd language. I am a international student from China and living in Australia right now.

@deakinsjt: yes games are getting tougher every year, it's no different this time round. I also think I fell behind to some extent in 2014 because I didnt bother studying much (mostly in Aug and Sep only). I will make sure I address this in 2015.

I just arrived in Macau with daniel. It's a small place but I could live with it. The interior looks like a hotel and is pretty sweet. I also bought an Aftershock PC last week and it arrived yesterday. Really solid desktop replacement costing 3k USD

Much as I wanted to slack off during the first 2 months of the year, Pokerstars decided to issue us all the Ultimate Challenge. Is it worth it trying to earn a $1000 bonus for 150K VPPs? I already had 2 weeks of rest, but it means I would be repeating the "hell" I endured in Nov and Dec. Hmmmmm.....

Originally posted by serverm07

Originally posted by Shevtshenko
Have you done any calculations regarding the rake in Macau? It's quite massive for the 50/100 (10% capped at 350 per hand iirc). I did very well in those games over ~50 hours of play but obv don't have enough hours to say if the rake makes the games unbeatable on 50/100. Based on my experience, the right strat is to play quite tight pre in most of the line ups and spewy/maniacal post. I almost solely played in Wynn, so can't say much about other casinos. I'm not sure you've realized that ALL the chinese old guys collude like there's no tomorrow, so keep your eyes open on that.

Shouldn't it be easy to just play around CREV and put in 10% rake. I imagine a huge whale losing at like -50+bb will make it worth it even with the huge rake.

In my experience, there aren't very many players with -50bb/100 winrate. Definitely not one per table.

@mblm:

Regarding rake: take a look while grinding, since the rake info is available on every table next to the dealer. I hope i do recall incorrectly and it is less than i think.

i did check out the games at the Wynn.
It's 5% capped at 200 HKD at the lower games, 5% capped at 300 HKD at the higher games.
At 2PM on a Saturday afternoon, there were
1 500/1000 HKD, with 7 players on the waiting list
2 100/200 HKD tables
4 50/100 HKD tables
25/50 tables were removed (they were there in 2012, and 10/25 tables were around in 2011). Funny how much everything has changed in a few years.

I briefly glanced at the 500/1k players, I think there were only 2 chinese guys and 7 white guys. I don't recall seeing any Chinese middle-aged men (which is a bad thing)

I really need to keep myself on a leash Sometimes I just completely ignore my default preflop gameplan and 3b really shitty hands like T8o/T9o/92s vs UTG.
I played a total of 3 times at the Wynn. Really sucks that I lost all 3 times. Mostly playing 100/200 HKD
1) -200
2) -20k
3) -17k

I still have not finished the second Zachary Elwood book (Verbal Tells) but I'm starting to put some of those to good use. Here's a really interesting hand where I hollywood-ed myself to victory.

3 limpers in front, I limp 74o in the BTN.
Flop is 6way (1200): 9:d 6:d 3:h - 4 checks, Fat Canadian Chinese reg bets 600, I call.
Turn (2400): Q:d - He checks, I bet 1400, He calls.
River (5200): J:c - He checks.

At this point, I'm definitely putting him on a 9. Before this hand, I pulled off some suicide bluff on another reg. I felt like he would give me no credit if I attempted to rep the flush with a huge bet so I opted to halfpot instead, representing a wider value range of possibly some lower flushes and some 2pairs.

I know he's a reg and probably has a ton of experience playing live poker. I recalled the chapter on showing confidence and appearing relaxed so I showed a natural smile/grin (closing my already small eyes) and talked to him, asking if he had a 9.

He was like "you must have it, how are you ever bluffing? I would call if you didn't talk to me." He was discussing the hand with another reg after he folded and the other guy agreed that I surely had the goods there.

"But I have 74o!"
"You're such a bad liar"

:P - Thanks Zachary Elwood ♦

I guess I should blog a little about my current lifestyle as well. I have been here for a week, my Ikea table/chair have not arrived and I have absolutely no mood to grind online.

Average day in my life.
Sleep at 0600
Wake up at 1300 or 1400. Eat some noodles at the noodle shop
Spend a few hours working on Yolosaurus Goes All-in
Waste my time watching random shit on YouTube
Head to the Casino at 2200
Play a couple of hours
Rinse and Repeat

Hope I can somehow break this routine on some days and do something interesting. I am hoping for great things when I can finally start grinding online again and regain the motivation to crunch some numbers, run some sims and do some analysis with GTORB.

Originally posted by mbml
I guess I should blog a little about my current lifestyle as well. I have been here for a week, my Ikea table/chair have not arrived and I have absolutely no mood to grind online.

Average day in my life.
Sleep at 0600
Wake up at 1300 or 1400. Eat some noodles at the noodle shop
Spend a few hours working on Yolosaurus Goes All-in
Waste my time watching random shit on YouTube
Head to the Casino at 2200
Play a couple of hours
Rinse and Repeat

Hope I can somehow break this routine on some days and do something interesting. I am hoping for great things when I can finally start grinding online again and regain the motivation to crunch some numbers, run some sims and do some analysis with GTORB.

Aw man I'm sorry you are having a hard time with this stuff!
Glad you are working on Yolosaurus tho <3

Awesome hand (and scene) btw

Hey what's your advice for learning how to adapt to different stacksizes? I feel like 110-120bb stacks play really differently already especially in UTG and MP. I don't really understand how to adapt so I usually leave the zoom player pool and start new entries, but I feel like theres a lot of edge to gain by playing well when it gets deep

@AN: Glad you enjoyed the hand.

Have not been playing much in the past few days. Falling sick, not having my tables arrive yet (2 more days to go) and just eating crappy food (noodles or macdonalds) everyday seems to be affecting my productivity.

Doomsday
The day of reckoning has finally arrived.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/websites-that-promote/1621262.html

Came sooner than expected. I was hoping that they would announce it later on in the year. This means that I can no longer grind back in Singapore when my visa stay of 30-50 days expires. Evaluating some other options for now.

Announcement for yolosaurus goes all-in
The premium content for season 1 has finally been finished. Now daniel is trying to finish up the editing and I am working on the problem sets after each theory lesson. I'm opening up the course for Beta-testers now.

In my extremely Unbiased and Objective opinion XD, I think that this is by far the most advanced beginner course ever created. And it's available at a super cheap price of $99! Send me a PM or drop me an e-mail at galvin.bay@gmail.com if you're interested to join the course as a Beta-Tester.

Course Outline
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y2vx8Kol3NX6Ty8IexPIXZrsZDr1WKfUtQ_IQDdJzAk/edit?usp=sharing

Daniel's Progress

It was kind of a slow start since we weren't really doing coaching consistently. But after providing him with a very solid framework to approach poker, and helping him to develop robust gameplans for common situations, I think he is starting to get a really good grasp of how to tackle NL2. A week ago, he tried some NL5 shots prematurely and ran super bad ($100 below EV). I guess he might not have been ready as well. Now he should be ready to move up when his bankroll exceeds $180 (>36BI)

Target Audience
>NL2-NL10
>Live regs who play purely by feel and want to increase their technical knowledge of the game

Initially I started building this course, with the "not-so-new" beginner in mind (>100 hours of exposure to poker either via playing or watching poker shows/training videos). I tried my best to make things as simple to understand as possible. At the same time, I wanted to avoid the pitfalls of most beginner strategy material, which tends to be overly "dumbed-down" and will probably become obsolete fairly quickly as the student moves up higher in limits.

You will probably LOVE this course if you ...
>Slight inclination towards Math and Logic
>Love systems
>Have an appreciation of how things work
>Are willing to put in some effort to improve on your game

Daniel was an extremely good fit for the way I conducted my lessons and was able to reap the maximum rewards IMO.

You should not buy the course if you ...
>Are looking for quick tactics and Magic Bullets to solve your problems
>Are not willing to put in effort to improve
>Are completely hopeless at Math

The course involves some Algebra and Math (nothing you shouldn't be able to handle if you didn't flunk High school math). Math is pretty important as it provides the logic and reasoning behind many standard plays, which is something people don't often think about.
After the end of every theory lesson, there is some homework to do, which will help the student learn how to apply the knowledge to real-life examples.

So yea, Cliff notes:
>Best course on fundamentals ever
>Super good value at $99
>Join the Beta Test!

P.S. I'm aware that I have been a little too "salesy" on my blog in recent times (mostly promoting my Youtube and site and courses), especially since I don't post too much strategy these days and there's not all that interesting stuff going on in my life at the moment. I want to write about something more interesting and I have a few topics in mind. Come vote!!!
1. Highly specific advice on live play
Hey, I'm down 40k HKD, lost 4 out of 4 sessions XD. But maybe you're willing to hear my thoughts about the subject?
2. Why many poker players fail at live, and why they should plan for the future
I really like giving advice to others and helping others out, even when people like to ignore what I say fairly often ♦. But I think this is something I feel very strongly about. Why do poker players screw up their finances and futures so badly?
3. Business/Entrepreneurship
I'm no expert on the subject matter. But I'm also very passionate about entrepreneurship. Nothing gets me going like a good discussion on the next profitable business idea to tackle. Maybe I can share some experiences and advice about starting your own business. Always good to diversify your income.

Originally posted by Riverdiver
Hey what's your advice for learning how to adapt to different stacksizes? I feel like 110-120bb stacks play really differently already especially in UTG and MP. I don't really understand how to adapt so I usually leave the zoom player pool and start new entries, but I feel like theres a lot of edge to gain by playing well when it gets deep

Hi Riverdiver,
You really think basic strategy plays that differently at 120bb? I beg to differ. You should definitely learn to play up to 150bb. It's going to be a huge hassle to leave everytime you 3b and cbet and take down the pot.

My adjustments will be very slight. 3betting and calling ranges preflop will remain almost the same. Preflop raise sizes will probably remain the same. Maybe stack off a little tighter. So for example, if you typically 3bet/5bet TT/AQ+ for value in SB vs BTN, perhaps u might want to start flatting AQ/TT vs a 4bet at 120bb instead. You don't necessarily need to always aim to stack off postflop. Let's say you only have top 2 or bottom set. Perhaps you could raise/bet X$ on each street such that you end up putting in only 100bb into the pot instead of 130bb. No one said you always have to push all-in when you are raising the turn or river in a single raised pot.

Ok thanks.

I vote for subject 2, if you mean "why poker players fail at life":f_biggrin:. Its pretty interesting

how much will the course cost after the beta period?

eagerly following your blog, I did a similar thing back in 2009 following my coach to Macau (didn't end up too well), hope this goes well for the both of you!

are you guys living out in Taipa?

Originally posted by mbml
1. Highly specific advice on live play
Hey, I'm down 40k HKD, lost 4 out of 4 sessions XD. But maybe you're willing to hear my thoughts about the subject?
2. Why many poker players fail at live, and why they should plan for the future
I really like giving advice to others and helping others out, even when people like to ignore what I say fairly often ♦. But I think this is something I feel very strongly about. Why do poker players screw up their finances and futures so badly?
3. Business/Entrepreneurship
I'm no expert on the subject matter. But I'm also very passionate about entrepreneurship. Nothing gets me going like a good discussion on the next profitable business idea to tackle. Maybe I can share some experiences and advice about starting your own business. Always good to diversify your income.

Can I vote for all of them? ♦

@Riverdiver

Oh yea, wrong spelling haha ♦

@gobby88

I have no concrete plans to raise the price as of yet but I'll monitor the demand after release. I had some arguments with Daniel over the pricing (he gets a 20% cut for editing the videos). I initially planned to raise the price higher because I strongly believe in the value that the course provides and he wanted to sell it at $50 because he didn't want to alienate the beginner player who is typically wary about spending money on poker education.

We are in Macau Peninsula, living near the ruins of St Paul. That's where the locals are living I guess.

@Kooort

♦ I'll try to get down to writing the articles soon.

Now off to grind some live, hopefully I have more interesting hands and stories to tell.

That news about PS about to be blocked sucks, have you had any thoughts on where you'll relocate to?