Amplifyd - Journey to the highstakes

Ugh, I feel like shit - yeah the inevitable happened - a few beers whilst watching the football turned into drinking like half a bottle of vodka and a gazilion jagerbombs

Originally posted by fruktpuff
If you don't mind me asking, how long'd it take to put in 10k hands with 24tabling?

Erm I can't give you an exact figure since I'm playing on two different laptops atm, and i cba to merge my databases. ~7h though

@purplefizz: thanks and you're not ruining my blog - it already sucks, yea i did knda fall into an abyss regarding balance but imo am sorting it out well now.

This piicture pretty much sums up my life for the last week

Next week I am going to get my head down and griiiind.

more grinding plz

So i not updated this blog in ages.

In short, stuff thats happened since then pokerwise :

Grinded a bunch of games - played HU, CAP games, SH cash games, MTTs, SnGs - pretty much everything. Result - Around even.

So now I have decided I am going to just grind the games I make profit in - which is obv MTTs. Since my roll is only about $1,4k now I'm going to start at the 2s - although I'm pretty sure I can beat the 8s but this time I want to be really deep rolled so I don't give a shit about swings.

This blog is going to suck a bit since I'm basically only updating it for a few days, then its going to go about a month without an update again. This is because I've like not been to university or done any work in like a month and a half lol - so I'm going to have to griiiiinddddd through the course before the exams start in about a months time.

Going to make things interesting this weekend though, I plan to really degen these 2s hard - started regging just now and I'm going to play for about 14 hours right now, then going to play a live poker tournament for a few hours - sleep till sunday then wake up and grind like another huge session. This should get me volume, and hopefully results.

Good luck. Will you sell off some action again?

Not this time, maybe when i move up to the higher levels I might consider I don't know yet - but likely wont be till the new year

Got dealt into a milestone hand, $400 free lololololol luckbox [x]

Is it +EV to always flip? Like I think the winner gets more? I didn't know lol.

what the fuck, i made sure i was playing cash through every milestone the past few days and u bink so fkin luckbox

And yeah flip coz winners prize is doubled

Originally posted by amplifyd
Got dealt into a milestone hand, $400 free lololololol luckbox [x]

Is it +EV to always flip? Like I think the winner gets more? I didn't know lol.

[x] Confirmed luckiest luckbox ever!

Well played though

Hi all,

Took a break from poker for a few months (at least only playing very low volumes) and probably ain't going to start playing again properly until I have got rest of my life sorted out

Feel like making this whine post just to help myself more than anybody else tbh - if you don't like boring, whiny posts go away ♠_biggrin:

Since barely any of you would read this (I wouldn't myself) there is a summary at bottom

Basically am coming up to exam time on my course. For anyone that doesn't know Im in 2nd year of a maths degree.

I alw did well at school (straight A's bla bla bla - mostly coming from a good memory imho) so was natural I wanted to go to university. I thought I was good at maths - at least I was good at a-level maths and passing exams and all that so I chose to study maths. I also applied to cambridge for Maths and got an interview and also had to do STEP to meet my warwick offer which is like a "taster" for university mathematics if you will. Because of poker basically I flunked both of these, but just told myself it was a lack of preparation blablabla and I probably could do it if I wanted to.

So eventually went to manchester - 1st year 1st semester went well I had stopped playing poker so much, and was going to lectures doing the work etc - I kinda enjoyed it - but I have a feeling this is maybe more because of the good results I was getting - I have always being quite insecure academically and certainly very results oriented.

Near the end of semester I found poker again and ofc crammed for my exams - I managed to pass though likely because 1st year did not require so much work and you could 'learn how to pass the exam'. After my exams I had like burnout from studying and so started doing other things again like going out more, playing poker, smoking weed etc - all really just to put off having to study - though I knew if I was to get through the later years of my degree I had to put work in and start to learn the subject, rather than the exams. If I completely honest though I was just sick of all the studying I have been doing for the last 10 years or so and I also began to realise that my interest in Mathematics probably wasn't as sincere as I thought it was - and likely was more due to the fact I was good at it.

Again though I crammed for my exams, and although I didn't get as good results as the first semester I got through to the 2nd year with an above average mark - I said to myself this time I would go to the lectures etc.

So come back for 2nd year - for a month or so everything is fine go to all the lectures, then I start to skip the odd couple - just because they litreally bore me so much and I also stop doing the problem sheets etc - like I don't get any enjoyment from doing them and also I am doubting if I am good at maths anymore (it is getting harder) and also thinking about what a degree is really going to get me etc and that I don't just want some boring 9-5 job that you get from the graduate schemes - like even if it does pay $50k/yr tbh I would really hate it and I would defo try to make sure I don't end up in a job like that - then I think well then you really got to be self-employed and then degrees aren't gonna help you and its only ever really a back-up plan.

So I like completely stop going to university, do no work etc - I flunk the midterms but I did last year and I am just like "well I can do what I did last year". So now I am at this point and I've realised now that it's not gonna work. If JBPatzer reads this - yes you did tell me to do some work etc. but to be honest with myself I can see why I did not do the work - because I was sick of studying, and I had no motivation myself to get through the work and get a degree.

All in all I am sooooo confused about what to do. Although I am going to try and get through this work for this semester (at least say for 1/2 the courses) I think realistic outcome is I will fail these exams. This basically leaves me with 3 options (I think - need to ask my tutor)

Retake the exams in the summer alongside doing next semesters work - this is by far the choice that is going to require the most work, and I know I have problems with enjoying maths etc and litreally am going to hate if I have to do this and force myself to do the work.

Or I can potentially change course and start afresh in september. I am thinking of changing to a business/accounting/finance course - I'm 100% sure I would enjoy this much more than a mathematics course because it's much less abstract and I'm not just learning stuff for the sake of learning it (this is what maths feels like to me atm) and I'm also gonna have much more assignments to do etc so I couldn't effectively 'drop out' without feeling guilt for missing these assignments etc. I mean I am really one of these people who is just getting a degree cos it helps improve my career prospects, and I'm really just using it as a backup - I plan to play poker/make businesses etc when I leave.

Final option is I can just leave and start to do what I would of done after university which is pretty much play poker - begin to start up some small businesses (I have a few ideas that I could defo start on so it's not just me saying "yea at some point I'll set up businesses" it is more realistic than this). Like I'm not looking to play poker for ever, only for a few years and then with the finances I earned do other things. But with this idea there is the problem of if poker becomes unbeatable for me and I have to go find a job - then I have no degree or anything so it's gnna be v v hard for me to get a job that pays as well as I could of got with my degree.

Argh I am so confused as to what to do - my gut feeling is that the best line for me is to change course (because if I got big motivational problems with maths now in 2nd year its only going to get worse) and get a degree in something else so I still got a degree for my backup, and I can begin to start on the poker/business stuff at uni (it's def possible and with a degree course I am gnna be more interested in/motivated to study it's also going to be 1000x more possible to do both)

SUMMARY

I am gnna fail my exams this year because (in order of how much they contributed) I pissed about too much/don't like my subject/don't really have clear motive to get my degree

Got 3 options really :

Double my workload for the next 6 months and stick out the maths degree.

Change course to a degree I am gonna be more interested in and more willing to do the work.

Leave

If anyone wants to give advice then its welcome - though I'm pretty sure if I can I will change to a diff course and go back in 6/7 months time hopefully with a much better view to studying etc. Like I don't think I want to do a maths degree anymore, but between now and when I would go back I need to decide if I want to do a degree anymore so if I set up everything for a change I still have both options where if I just leave then thats it.

I realise this is probably the most boring blog post in history. For sure though one of my goals this year is also when I have sorted out my academic life is to come back and play poker more seriously again (I mainly been pissing about playing out of BRM, drunk etc last few months and I am gnna stop that so expect some serious hands/strategy posts in my blog - probably be even more boring but at least it will be about poker :f_biggrin:)

But poker has probably put me in this mess because it's shown me a way I can make money easily without getting a job/degree and it's also been what I have done instead of studying. Like if I didn't have such a degen hobby I would prolly have got bored and just studied out of boredom.

Poker is evil.

1) Picture where you want to be in five years time.

2) Work out what you need to do to get there.

3) Do it, and stop fannying about.

At the very least, change course. Maths doesn't get any easier in the third year.

hey! Long time no seen

About the degree:
well I failed my studies too and since I wasnt 100% sure I can make enough living with poker I gone to a regular job. 6 months passed and I realized that I rly hate that I failed at something, so Im restarting studies in February.
Donno how its with you, but for me something that I cant allow myself fail at anything and Ill take as much time as I need to get there.

It might be waste of time, but I have my aim - get degree at the thing I started.

If you didnt find anything interesting in this, then just do what jbpatzer said. Just wanted to tell you this so you dont waste 6 months of your life to realize something like that yourself

Thanks you two for your responses.

I spoke to a lot of people past few days about this - family, friends from back home, friends at uni and few people from ps. Also spent a lot of time considering it myself.

I am v annoyed at myself because maybe if I had tried a bit harder this year I would of been okay - cos i am 60% sure now my dislike for maths comes because it is hard and pretty much impossible for me to pass these exams now . So maybe by saying I just want to change course I am looking for an easy way out idk - tbh these things I need to discuss with my tutor if it is possible to somehow continue maths. Though in the end I think regardless of why I am not liking maths it is better to try to transfer to something else, I mean if I feel I don't enjoy it now its probably not going to change anytime soon and it's only going to get harder and I think to get through a degree you have to enjoy it.

Also annoyed at myself because of when I picked maths. I was arrogant when I did a-levels etc - I never did any work till the last minute and still got As. So I just assumed I was clever and just picked maths mostly out of it being hard and I thought I enjoyed it because of what I got out of just being able to solve the hard 'puzzle and games'. Maybe I should of considered it harder.

Poker has probably also played a much bigger part than I have let on. Like I do accept I have an addiction (sure made some $$$ but being addicted to anything isn't good) So one thing is for sure is that if I do another degree and get another chance I don't mess it up - and I won't because I realise I messed it up big here and from my family's reaction I can tell I let them down a bit. And so although for past two years poker>university I need to shift this balance to university>poker. Even if this means having to stop playing it completely because I got enough $$$ now to put myself through the living costs of uni at least. Think I might have to hide my $$$ on some poker site somewhere though so I still get a grant

I think though I might need to stop playing completely at least during termtime at uni or when I have serious amounts of work to do because I have such a seriously sick addictive competitive personality. Like there was one time when I got "into" academia and education and was getting top marks all time etc. Then I got into competitive gaming and was playing this game like 10h a day learning all the good spots/tricks etc. Obv got into poker some time and spent a lot of my life last 2y on this game (likely justifying it to myself just by the $$$) but now I realise I have let myself and family down (cos has always been ambition since I was young to get degree) and just need to put degree>poker - even if it just for a few years then I can play poker and do other things etc afterwards but I should really get one otherwise I will kick myself later in life.

So yeah I will probably update what happens about university etc sometime soon and I daresay I will be playing poker a bit (maybe not as much as I was) when I transfer/withdraw from university just because it is more financially sensible than any other option but I also need to have at front of my mind that degree has got to come first when the time comes.

But anyway I realised I made some big mistakes and now I 100% want to learn from them. IMO the saying 'learn by your mistakes' is probably the most important thing to remember when you strive to success in anything. Obv not always get a 2nd chance but I think if you do and it's something you want you should do everything within your capability to succeed in it. Guess this is kinda what you kinda said sufix too.

very common problem you face.
some long discussion in my old blog with TT if you havent read it yet.
1 singaporean poker player + 1 cute gold fish and 1 summer monkey

lets simplify things into decision treee

option A: backup plan first, then do whatever you want aka school first then poker
option B: poker first, school later when fail

so assuming poker is successful for you:
option A will take you Xyears for school, and then Yyears for poker.
total time to achieve success = X+Y
option B will take you Y years for poker
total time to achieve success = Y
assume poker isn't successful for you
total time taken for option A will still be X+Y
however total time taken for option B will now be X+Y too

hence considering all outcomes, option B is superior to option A.

ofc this is extremely simplified and certain assumptions maybe made that may be wrong for your situation. but i just wanna share this perspective in case you miss out on this.
good luck with your choice!

Thanks supey yeah I mean I already considered this prospective but it is not that simple for me - in that if I did option B I would probably lose my parents support and idk it will make things hard and maybe even make option B have less chance of a success.

I also want to get a degree to just get a degree, I know it's sad that society works like this but it is good for your status in society if you have a degree and I have always being a bit socially insecure in that I just like people to like me and I do care about what other people think about me - blablabla not the best quality but its one that makes up me and certainly can't change it.

So like yea I guess if we look at the stuff really simply just in like a sense of which is most +EV financially, time usage etc. then your conclusion is obv right, but just for me it's not.

You still need to think about what you want to be doing in five years time so that you can decide what degree to try to get.

It sounds to me like you could do maths if you put in even a bit of work and enthusiasm. You should consider transferring to my University, because,

1) You're obviously smart, and we want smart people here,
2) You could do a third year project on poker with me,
3) You could talk to me about your balance between poker and work without me making you feel like a sicko, degen gambler. Mind you, it does sound like you are a bit of a sicko, degen gambler, but you get my point I hope.

If you need to talk about it, just add me on Skype.

and ofc unveil JB's identity ♦

Originally posted by supeyrio
and ofc unveil JB's identity ♦

Somehow don't think he would appreciate that Besides he wouldn't be a proper superhero if he didn't have a secret identity. ♦

So if anyone cares, I thought about my decision for a long time and decided I am going to change course tbf (whether I can go back this year or I am forced to take a year out depends but that's just logistics)

So went to see tutor tday - they pretty much said 'yeah ok - go and see business school if they'll take you and then come back and i'll either give you this form to transfer or this form to withdraw' so pretty simple

I guess the good news is now my POKER blog about POKER on a POKER forum will be about POKER not my boring university situation

So as promised a post about poker. I have been playing a bit this year so far, I decided this year I am going to concentrate on cash games for forseeable future - I mean I may play a few MTTs and I am gna defo sat/play a few live mtts this year.

I am starting at nl50, hoping I can get to 100 by the end of this month. I am gna move up to 100 at 50 buyins and drop back down if i lose 10 buyins cos I really don't want to have to grind a lot at the limit before if I drop down - probably gna follow this BRM if/when i reach 200 then just grind there for ages I guess and try to beat it.

I am pretty lazy when it comes to studying - i've probably watched about 5 training videos the whole time I played poker, and I daresay I'm not really going to watch that many more this year. I just don't like the format - I mean most of time you are learning to replicate someone else's game not yours. I mean I look at hands and discuss them and stuff - and this is defo something I am going to try to do more this year - I may get some coaching at some point at 100/200.

That is the graph so far (it is mostly nl50 with a few hands of 100) - last 5k hands were today. Last 2k hands I should of defo not been playing - I was making some bad calls but at least I stopped now. This is defo a huge leak of mine - just grinding till I start clicking buttons. I mean it probably comes from playing MTTs and like there it is OK because you are playing so simple and not really thinking but at cash games you have to think a bit more so I think I will impose some kind of 3k hand limit a day now.

$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Holdem
PartyPoker
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Tomski88 ($37.50)
CO mayotacker ($68.34)
BTN Welho ($55.89)
SB frb010 ($147.50)
BB hero ($102.54)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75, 5 players) hero is BB 5♦ A♦
1 fold, mayotacker raises to $1.50, Welho calls $1.50, 1 fold, hero calls $1

Flop: 8♦ 8♥ 6♥ ($4.75, 3 players)
hero checks, mayotacker bets $3.16, Welho folds, hero raises to $8.69, mayotacker raises to $19.50, hero raises to $101.04, mayotacker calls $47.34

Turn: J♣ ($172.63, 2 players)

River: 9♥ ($172.63, 2 players)

Final Pot: $172.63
hero shows
5♦ A♦
mayotacker shows
4♥ 4♠

I shoved over his click back because of history - thought when he called I had got my hand stuck in the cookie jar and been owned but tbh I am fistpumping when he does that.