hey galvin, i dont really know much about stocks, but like you, i took some stabs though under my friend's recommendation.
i asked him about that share, but he's not too sure about that one. i guess problem with shares is that there are too many out there to monitor.
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withdrawal from FTP
money still stuck, FTP sucks at dealing with cashouts. Pokerstars has handled it really nicely after Black friday. too bad can't shift to other networks yet...
SCOOP
i really wanted to play some MTTs but last day is 16th may and I still have to study. pinowww says he's selling action and from what I read on his blog he seems really good so maybe I'll try to buy a bit of action???
I found 3 20$ tickets in my casher at FTP. apparently FTP gave them to me together with the 500$ so I decided to play some NL50 (3 tables) + NL200 (3 tables) of Rush. Busted all 3 tickets after losing some flips. I probably can't clear them anyway (you need to earn 500 FTPs for each individual ticket and that would take me forever at NL50).
Exam
Finished my elective on Working in the 21st Century. It is really a big waste of time. I have never written so much BS in my life for an exam paper but at least I feel ok after the paper. With enough people who will "tank" the bell-curve for me because they are only aiming for a pass (you have the option of having your electives not contribute to your cGPA), I think I have a decent shot at an A.
Yesterday + today's session
Played 1h+ at FTP. I ended up playing 5-6 tabs at some point but I quickly cut them down to 4 and below. Ended up checking my session stats, up 1.5k
Today I played 20-30min at Merge. I had to config my HUD again. Looked at my session stats halfway thru the session (bad habits coming back again 
)
but anyway merge was so nice to crash on me and I couldn't reconnect.
Forex
The hardest part about getting started with dealing in Financial markets is that you just don't know where to start.
i will finish reading
http://www.babypips.com/school/
by May. and the warren buffet book that I was supposed to finish a few weeks ago
Played another 1h20min at Merge and lost a bit
I was really active vs this guy (Reg 1). I had some problems understanding how he was playing. At first I was playing aggro vs him. Then his stats seem to tighten up from 22 VPIP to 19
1) I jammed AJ BU vs CO and he had QQ. So I knew my image was really bad.
2) After that he spiked a straight on the turn and I had a flush so I c/r and barreled my stack off. He was tanking really long on the river but I 4bet/folded vs him on another table so he thought I was FOS and called
3) Sucked out KK vs his AA. I was feeling upset but I prayed for a King after the flop and it worked!
At this point in time, I realized his 4betting range was super wide. I already cut down on my 3bet bluffs vs him cos he was fighting back so readily. But I just felt he might be having an unbalanced range.
4) 5betjam 55 vs his 99. So now I have the read that he's probably using a balanced 1:1 value:bluff ratio. which means I have to use a 1:1 value:bluff ratio too when I'm 3betting him
5) He raises with KTo and checks on QT6r board. I figured I had the best hand with KQ and snap 3barrel him about 75-80% pot to look bluffy
Another guy Reg 2 was pissing me off a little. I had the read that he likes to induce or play a little more passively. I don't remember playing vs him before so I have no idea how he knew the best way to get more money from me since I'm a spazzer ♠
1) He calls my 3bet with 73s IP and I have A8s. Board comes A94r6J, (we both picked up backdoor flushdraw). I bet flop c/c T and c/f to a 40% potbet on the river. I thought it looked like AQ going for a thin bet but he shows. Of course I'm emo-ing over this but I knew that was his intention: to get me to spew more money and also wreck his own image so he can vbet me so I forced myself to play a bit tighter and more passive for a while to regain my composure.
Conclusion: Merge still doesn't seem that tough, but i think a lot of my losses can be attributed to my risk-loving attitude/style in poker. need to work on that.
i dont seem to run good at Merge so I will go back to stars for a while. today's games in the morning seems fine. the traffic is quite similar to pre-Black Friday times so maybe I shouldn't move away.
a couple of interesting hands
1) I was very tempted to shove the river. I usually did in the past but it took a lot of self-control and restraint not to do it. And I turn out to be wrong. it's a pretty standard c/f for villain, i don't know wtf he is doing. I was thinking that he would probably take this line with a hand with a flushdraw so it has more playability but maybe I'm wrong? some people do take this line to potcontrol and wait for a blank turn before putting in more money.
Poker Stars $400.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1306158
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
BTN: $534.10
SB: $462.70
BB: $699.20
UTG: $462.00
Hero (MP): $400.00
CO: $103.50
Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is MP with 8 
T
1 fold, Hero raises to $12, 2 folds, SB raises to $40, 1 fold, Hero calls $28
Flop: ($84.00) 4 
J 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $40.00, SB calls $40
Turn: ($164.00) 4 
(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $68.00, SB calls $68
River: ($300.00) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks
Final Pot: $300.00
SB shows K A 
Hero mucks 8 T
SB wins $297.00
(Rake: $3.00)
2) I wonder if I'm getting the right odds to call. I think Ace high wouldn't be donking very often so I'm beating JX and TX type of hands. I can safely assume he never has T9/AT so I am ahead of T8/T7s and J9/J8/J7s.
Maybe it's a fold, I'm not sure. many of his TX/JX hands are broadways and he would have me beat.
Poker Stars $600.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1306160
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
BB: $600.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $600.00
Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is BTN/SB with A 6
Hero raises to $18, BB calls $12
Flop: ($36.00) K J Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $24.00, BB calls $24
Turn: ($84.00) K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
River: ($84.00) Q (2 players)
BB bets $57.00, Hero calls $57
Final Pot: $198.00
BB shows J K
Hero mucks A 6
BB wins $199.90
(Rake: $-1.90)
3) mistake to barrel the fish. u'll never know what they are thinking when they check
Poker Stars $600.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1306161
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
BB: $803.45
UTG: $968.20
CO: $600.00
Hero (BTN): $600.00
SB: $722.00
Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is BTN with K J
UTG raises to $18, 1 fold, Hero calls $18, 2 folds
Flop: ($45.00) A 7 A (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $27.00, UTG calls $27
Turn: ($99.00) 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $96.00, UTG calls $96
River: ($291.00) 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $289.00, UTG calls $289
Final Pot: $869.00
UTG shows J A
Hero shows K J
UTG wins $867.00
(Rake: $2.00)
played 6 tables this time. was up at the start but got into so many shitty spots. I almost hero folded 2 hands cos I had a very bad feeling and both times my gut feel proved to be right, but I lacked the discipline to lay my hand down. breakeven for the month again.
1) f0|2h4yl3y , known by 2p2 midstakes forum as a bum hunter. from what i know about him he seems like a straightforward TAG.
I doublefloat with a backdoor flushdraw and hit on the river, board was J46sJK. I bet huge on the river and he insta c/jam. Of course in my mind he has a boat almost 100% (his value range) and I'm not too sure whether he's capable of doing this as a bluff with a busted draw but i got stubborn.
2) another reg, has laggy stats. I c/r him with 98 on QJ board and spike on the turn. turns out he floated me with AK with the A of club (backdoor FD).
this same guy 3bet (BB) vs my constant 80% BU steals with a very high frequency. I defend with J7s which is of course super questionable (TLN already said it was bad a couple of times) but I was pretty sure his range in this spot is 25-30% at least and I would think that people are defending it in HU matches all the time + I can flop a couple of gutshots.
I had some gutshot + backdoor flushdraw on the flop and I went to stab at it but I got checkraised. I think the fact that he was a lag (and the fact that he knows I'm a lag too) should make him have a c/r range to combat my steals and I should be checking back more often.
sigh
i can't balance my poker ranges
i can't balance my accounting equations
when this is over, i will come back, ready to grind min 6h a day (hopefully 8-10h)
my friend is going to play in some Pokerstars Macau tourney so I might go there with him, leech off some free lodging for 3 nights at the Grand Lisboa :f_biggrin:, maybe play some HKD 50/100 (NL1250) cash games there.
I think one major turnoff for me past 3 months is my setup. Monitor's fine but the table really sucks. I'm moving out of school end of this week so I'll bring home my better computer and probably can start grinding with good sitting posture and lower table
one more day, acct paper went surprisingly well.
i have no mood to study anymore. can't wait for freedom. I'll go do some research on Macau. It seems quite silly to go there and play NL 50/100 (NL 6/12), maybe I should play 100/200 (12/24) but I don't wish to get raped by the spread from the moneychanger. I also duno if I should change my SGD to HKD in Singapore or in Macau. i bet when it's over i will be quite demotivated for a while to grind
Yesterday i managed to watch another samoleus video. he still shows a lot of crazy moves like cold calling 33 vs some aggro guy. basic recurring concept is that we should have a very great understanding of how our opponents would play in various spots. Up till today, if any coach asked me during a coaching session, "what do you know about this guy?" I'm almost always not going to be able to answer the question well, besides the very generic stuff like "oh he's aggro preflop and 5bets a lot"
preflop stats will always show in the hud so it doesn't take a genius to know that. also noticed that samoleus doesn't really take too many notes (or maybe he just doesn't want to show it in the video) but he can talk so much stuff about his opponents' tendencies without even looking (i assume he isn't looking).
Goal for June 2011: understand how the top 20 regs at NL400/600 SH play and find ways to exploit these leaks.
gd luck to me and gd luck to the rest of you
@TLN: i think i forgot to reply ur mail, when are you free to resume coaching?
Hey mbml I'm trying to reach you on skype/msn for some coachings but u seem to be off everywhere..
abt Macau its quite a good idea to play 50/100 cause everyone buyins for 200+ bb and constantly there are stacks flying around so u get 3/4bi deep in no time. just prepare cash before u go there cause it is really hard to withdraw from atms /silent
@v3rc3tt1: have u added me yet? i know some guy added me on MSN yesterday but i blocked him cos I didn't recognise the name lol. i don't think i have u on skype though, try adding me on MSN again
@evgeniqq: ah ok i see, thanks. what do you mean by "its difficult to withdraw from atms?" care to elaborate?
4 more hours to start of final paper. can't wait...
The Plan
I think in order to have a successful 2 months break, I should have a rough plan on what I would like to achieve.
20-22 May - Bumming around a bit, Play at least 5-6h of poker per day. Bring back my newer computer and make a nicer set-up so I can play more comfortably and play better.
23-25 May - Short trip to Malaysia (Tioman)
26-30 May - More grinding. I will start to analyse the NL1k database again.
31 May - Hopefully end up going to Macau for a week, play the cash games. Train my patience and try to A-game, don't run bad and come back with 5k+ profit.
6 Jun - Start reading up finance stuff, procrastinated this for so many months. every month i waste results in a loss of future profits
Daily Schedule - Most likely end up deviating from it but it would be great if I could push myself to stick to it
i don't wanna sleep too early of cos esp since games are soft at euro times but sleeping at 4-5am is bad for health
10:00 Wake up
10:30 Play 4-6 tables at Merge OR Rush Poker/12-tabling grind
12:30 Lunch + break
13:00 Play/Slack/Read some finance stuff
16:00 Analyze+watch daily poker videos for 1-2h
20:00/22:00 Play for 4 hours
02:00 Sleep
gives me 6h of playing time per day, can be ramped upwards esp on weekends. This schedule will give me 200h months which is the intensity needed for me to try attempting to become a big winner at 2/4 and 3/6.
Goal 1: Become top 10 NL400 grinder at Stars in June/Jul
Goal 2: Become top 5 NL400 grinder by 2011
Goal 3: Train my mental focus - be able to simultaneously look at all tables on my screen at once and absorb 75-80% of the info there instead of 30-40% and having to look at the replayer all the time, remember reads without having to write them down, especially when I'm usually too lazy to check my reads before playing turns/rivers
at this point in time, the top 2 NL400 grinders have earned 100k which roughly averages out to 20k+ a month. The 10th best PS grinder has earned 36k which averages out to 8k a month. Of cos they probably play a mix of stakes
Originally posted by mbml
@evgeniqq: ah ok i see, thanks. what do you mean by "its difficult to withdraw from atms?" care to elaborate?
there is some type of international restriction and u cannot withdraw more than 3 or 5k HKD per day depending on which atm u use
I like ur time schedule
U ve kept urself a buffer which is necessary indeed. I think u r on a good track.
Originally posted by mbml
@v3rc3tt1: have u added me yet? i know some guy added me on MSN yesterday but i blocked him cos I didn't recognise the name lol. i don't think i have u on skype though, try adding me on MSN again
Well you've probly blocked me..
I have you on my skype for probably a year but you're off lately or you've blocked me there too lol
@v3rc3tt1: send me an email, it's probably the best way
galvin_bay@hotmail.com, and readd me to MSN if possible, why not write ur contact address here and I'll add you back
@theshade: yeah hope it works
i played for 45min and I get the post-exam doom switch like in Jan. FFFF
made some ill-disciplined call and snapped some delayed c/r T bet R without much thought. not going to play for next 1-2 days I guess
Also made some stupid tiny vbet and the guy said TY in chat and shoved super quickly. I had to call off 70$ more to win back 300$ but it was a clear fold cos he always had the flush. need to learn how to stick to the plan which was to bet 50 into 170 and fold to a shove (I had KJ on Q9XK).
staying up super late for past 3 days (sleeping at 5-7am) and I've been quite tired + i am resting after exams so I haven't touched poker too much.
i've been coaching v3rc3tt1 (2 sessions so far), seems quite alright. another student also sent in a request.
i do have much more experience with reviewing videos now after I made the 10 part series, definitely after past few months with TLN i can safely conclude that it's probably the best way to spot leaks as quickly as possible and it's the most efficient form of coaching. Main drawback about it is that it's super time-consuming for the coach.
I have no idea what happened to my "Plumber" series though, it's supposed to be uploaded some time soon but well I don't see it happening.
And for the rest of my time I'm really just sitting at my computer feeling lost and empty inside. this always happens after some sort of thing is over (like exams, army). during the final stretch you get really excited and pumped up about the freedom after everything is over but yeah it always turns out to be boring 
still have my database of the NL1k hands, I duno when I will push myself to analyze it.
So I'm going to Tioman tomorrow and returning on Wednesday. Then I'll have a coaching with Somnius and probably book a session with TLN too. Try to force myself to grind out some days before Tuesday (31st) where I should be going to Macau for a week. I haven't booked the tickets yet but I think a return trip on Tiger Airways should be the cheapest
that's all for this update. Still staying away from poker until next week. I shall enjoy myself for the next few days and get myself fully rested
