To Make Change on Yourself

This will be last post I will be making to you I hope you can count this x3 post as I was first envisioning to give you 14 posts total. The reason for that is because I just came to realize what I overplayed my hand based on my read without much of consideration of others and lost my motiviation to write anymore post on this as I don't feel necessary as you have already heard my message on changing yourself can't possibly occur in a short period of time.

I figured out that the whole motiviation of starting this for you was simply just to help you out and you insisted that you are trying very hard to change yourself. It was obvious from the beginning that I can't entirely change who you are and figure things for you as I consider you as an adult and also because I resepect you at the same time. It is something that you have to change yourself. Let's just say I felt something on you that motivated to start putting this effort to help out one of pretty good friends if not best.

One day you confessed me how you are capable of projecting such an image to people and I have to admit that you are really good at it. Now I am thinking back and this is probably why I decided to write this for you and started feeling really close on you. I took that really positively because you are already smart enough to know that people can take it two different ways. However, you also said people can also be too smart for their own goods and that is the feeling I am getting now. Thanks for the advice damn it!

It was double edged sword thing that you said to me and let's just say that I called your bet. If you even tried to adjust your betting size and not going all in like that, I wouldnt even have called your bet.

The only different with other people I really felt on you is that I really felt like how you are being honest to yourself which is the same feeling that I get to consider the catagory of choosing the best friend and I take many things into considerations. It is not necessary someone who is rich, smart, or talented but the true goodness of the heart is what I have felt on you. Just like how I like Mike Matusow although he is rude to Phil Hellmuth or whoever at the table. I sometimes feel a very strong color on people and I feel really sad if it's filled with dusts.

I turns out on today's conversation that I was doing the entire thing just to help myself out so it helps me to feel that I (at least) tried to help you and not feel bad about not helping you. To be completely honest, we have known each other for a short period of time and became I consider pretty good friends if not best.

It was really traumic to me to see you struggle and it became very evident what the real generic problem is. I am not saying this because I want to be little an angel or saint for my own sake and I feel like the reason for myself to be where I am today was because of my selective aggression on yes/no. Once you say yes to yourself, you never say no to yourself and do not ever look back on your decision as long as you are capable of drawing lines to set the limit on yourself.

I really felt like I am definitive person but found out that I am still imperfect and need to work things out on my own. I almost felt like I am not ready to give you this type of advice but as LuxuryMaster said: All or Nothing. Since I started this with my imperfect read on you, I will be responsible for finishing this up so I will say it anyways:

"Habit is something that one needs to rigorously trying to change within themselves with a proper set of disciplines based on your goals"

I believe people still do things that others might consider bad habits with the self awareness and it is not something that can be changed quickly because we are improper and not the machine. I have to tell you that finding the true identity of yourself by looking back on yourself and setting a meaningful goal is the best way to live our daily life happy - Well, it does at least to me.

I strongly feel that this is lack of self control and it is something that no one can or should fix for anyone. It should be the just a level of strong and short awareness and not to a point where it forces people to change. I call this concept respect to others.

I am very lucky in that sense as I was forced to go through the incidents that I never intended to or wanted to. This resulted me to have my own color and discipline. Looking back these incidents just makes myself to drive my gears forward and feel strong on myself. In conclusion, this is exactly why I felt the writing this blog was turned out to be a failure.

Power of Tight and Selective Aggression

I define myself as a tight and selective agressive player. I posted you a blog a couple of days ago about the timing. I would like to further elaborate my thoughts on this.

I, however, am not trying to persuade you to select the style I prefered. I believe tight and selective agression style is definately winning style is a lower stakes I would say up to $1/2. I explained to you why this before - there is no point of trying to pull a bluff against calling station. You simply play straight up! It is all about EV and how you profit long run. Once you start playing $2/4, you will realize that having just solid tight and selective agression style will not make you become a consistent winner.

The reason behind in this is I believe $2/4 is the point where you need to decide whether you decide if you want to poker for living or not. As I have stated on my blog, I consider myself making good amount of money on my job. I have made my decision to step down myself from $2/4 although I was winning solid money and wrote that it was just stress of losing pay check in 5 minutes. I didn't mention on my blog but I will mention it to you here. I also did not know how exactly I should mix it up with LAG style of play when I was playing $2/4.

It is not to say I never tried 3 barrel with air anything but its just about your mental strength on your read. The higher stakes you play, you will see people playing more LAG and loose - they aren't stupid, they play for living, and they make money on their read: not on the run of cards.

Playing LAG I mean is not just complete mindless bluffing against tight player. There are more things to it. How you build your image on the table, how you played certain way against certain hands, I mean there are way too many things to consider. However, I believe you should go with your read all the way if you are bluffing (Selective Agression) and fold your hand ASAP if you think or what not (Tight).

You should never second guess yourself on any part of the hand (flop, turn, and river). Just have a solid perception of your opponent, your read, and the image that you have projected to your opponent. I am sure the variance will start occur once you start doing this but you will start winning a lot more as you perceive it on you and this is where having stable bankroll comes into play to back up your read and the style you defined. Look at my graph from May - August and you tell me if it was pure luck or good run of cards.

I am tempolarily taking a break from playing poker as I have completed the blue print of my future career path and chose not to pursue as poker as my main career. However, it is not to say I quit playing poker. This is my timing to sit back, do other primary things as I defined my poker as secondary job.

When I feel like start playing poker back again, I will start playing $1/2. However, I will study the style of LAG on $.50/1 and play $1/2 again and I am sure I will eventually come back to $2/4 and higher (maybe) depends on how quickly I feel like playing again.

Taking a Day Off

I do not know if I had a chance to say to you how the stuffs that I have been through during the past weeks of my life has been revolutionary time for me. However, that doesn't mean I forget about posting a blog for one of my best friend. I am just brain dead due to too much stuffs going on but I will try to come back tomorrow with fresh minded.

"Impact of Positive Thinking"

Style Pursuit + EV Maximization

I have decided to talk focus more about specific hand examples to teach you some new perception to have you gain better understanding on the most optimal style you should pursue since yesterday. I am not teaching you to pursue the same style but I know you are smart enough to use own luxury magic to get your own solid style. Remember the key is adjusting.

I just sat down on this table. Sitting left of this loose aggressive player. Table was playing overall tight and I raised a lot of hands from SB to this loose aggressive player's blinds like 3 times in a row or etc. Now lets look at this hand:

PokerStars Game #20650024762: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2) - 2008/09/24 1:39:51 ET
Table 'Kypria III' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: ratpat999 ($250.75 in chips)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster ($198 in chips)
Seat 3: johnyslant ($317.40 in chips)
Seat 4: Chisness ($259 in chips)
Seat 5: locoo20 ($200 in chips)
Seat 6: JizzleSmitts ($197 in chips)
LuxuryMaster: posts small blind $1
johnyslant: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Kc Kh]
Chisness: folds
locoo20: folds
JizzleSmitts: folds
ratpat999: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $6 to $8
johnyslant: calls $6
*** FLOP *** [4c Th 4s]
LuxuryMaster: bets $12
johnyslant: raises $24 to $36
LuxuryMaster: raises $40 to $76
johnyslant: folds

What do you think about my 3 bet here? It is pretty standard but it was done without considering the history between me and him. He is probably got tired of me raising his blind and was looking for spot to play back at me. The board looks like an innocent sheep and he obviously decided to play back at me at wrong time. My 3 bet against him is -EV for the following reasons.

- He is likely to play back at me anytime soon
- Board is rainbow, looks so like an innocent sheep and he knows I c bet this board all the time
- More... but won't tell you (Your homework?)

The better move? I leave that to your own luxury imagination but if you ask me about it, I will tell you what it is =)

Knowing Your Opponents

After going through some crazy up and down swings on my recent life, I decided to play some sessions on PS $1/2 and ran into an interesting situation. I had AK on the button holding AKo, the guy from SB (40/7) min raises me. What do you do?

- Fold: Hell no!
- 4 bet -> Fold: sounds reasonable but why would you 4 bet against fish like that if you will fold his 5 bet AI
- Call: His raise seemed so fishy!

Anyways, I decided to 4 bet this guy and he moved all in and I called, he had AA and he took down my stack. Call would have been the best move for the couple of reasons

- I have a position
- He is fish, so I can outplay him post flop and fold easily without commiting much of money if I miss the flop
- If K high flop comes on, then I would be stacking him off but it isn't too bad
- If I miss the flop, I can just let him have it as he record indicates that he is complete ABC loose passive player

PokerStars Game #20650599721: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2) - 2008/09/24 2:30:10 ET
Table 'Polyxo' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: SuperJaz ($199 in chips)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster ($200 in chips)
Seat 3: jrjueco ($451.60 in chips)
Seat 4: McRoNiX ($401 in chips)
Seat 5: PokerGypsy ($90.65 in chips)
Seat 6: TESIK ($446.55 in chips)
jrjueco: posts small blind $1
McRoNiX: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [As Kd]
PokerGypsy: folds
TESIK: folds
SuperJaz: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $4 to $6
jrjueco: raises $8 to $14
McRoNiX: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $32 to $46
jrjueco: raises $66 to $112
LuxuryMaster: raises $88 to $200 and is all-in
jrjueco: calls $88
*** FLOP *** [Jd 5c 3h]
*** TURN *** [Jd 5c 3h] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 5c 3h Qd] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jrjueco: shows [Ad Ac] (a pair of Aces)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
jrjueco collected $399 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $402 | Rake $3
Board [Jd 5c 3h Qd 8d]
Seat 1: SuperJaz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster (button) mucked [As Kd]
Seat 3: jrjueco (small blind) showed [Ad Ac] and won ($399) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: McRoNiX (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: PokerGypsy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: TESIK folded before Flop (didn't bet)


On contrast, I ran into situation where I had KK on the button, the BB 3 bets and I decided to get tricky on this spot and decided to call. My reasonings were

- I have a position
- He is unknown, he might seemed like TAG but no info or stats
- If flop comes low rainbow and he c bets 99-QQ then I can raise and I thought he will commit himself

Flop comes Q98s he leads out and I raise he shoves and I have insta call. Turn 9, river blank. He takes down the pot with quads. My pokertracker has a little bit of delay but it later showed that he is (20/18). This type of player is thinking player who is capable of 3 betting out of position w 99 because he knows that I can raise any 2 cards on the button. The correct move here would have been 4 bet and polorize my range with air here often.

PokerStars Game #20650565722: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2) - 2008/09/24 2:26:55 ET
Table 'Polyxo' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: SuperJaz ($199 in chips)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster ($203 in chips)
Seat 3: jrjueco ($453.60 in chips)
Seat 4: McRoNiX ($200 in chips)
Seat 6: TESIK ($449.55 in chips)
jrjueco: posts small blind $1
McRoNiX: posts big blind $2
PokerGypsy: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ks Kh]
TESIK: folds
SuperJaz: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $4 to $6
jrjueco: folds
McRoNiX: raises $16 to $22
LuxuryMaster: calls $16
*** FLOP *** [Qs 9h 8h]
McRoNiX: bets $28
LuxuryMaster: raises $40 to $68
McRoNiX: raises $110 to $178 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $110
*** TURN *** [Qs 9h 8h] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 9h 8h 9s] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
McRoNiX: shows [9d 9c] (four of a kind, Nines)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
McRoNiX collected $399 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $401 | Rake $2
Board [Qs 9h 8h 9s 2d]
Seat 1: SuperJaz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster (button) mucked [Ks Kh]
Seat 3: jrjueco (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: McRoNiX (big blind) showed [9d 9c] and won ($399) with four of a kind, Nines
Seat 6: TESIK folded before Flop (didn't bet)


You might say I am saying something result oriented but you have to realize the opponent you are playing against and be able to adjust accordingly. I ended up losing about 2 BI at the end of the sesion but it was worthwhile learning experience.

Priortizing and Concentration

Today I want to share my story on priortizing. I have a professional Warcraft III gaming background where I played over 300 APM (Actions per minutes, which means I input over 300 any key strokes and mouse click consistently from the beginning of the game until the end of the game), sponsored by AMD and getting salary.

When I first started playing, playing like 4-8 tables was really boring so I played 12-16 tables going crazy. I was consistently winning but I was not the best winner and thought about why I started winning so much as I reduce the number of tables I play and win more.

Let me give you more concrete example. You are very patient in person (at least I saw how you play). However, I see you playing somewhat medicore once the pot starts getting big, I saw you executing just huge bluff without much of plan and later you told me you thought the guy would fold. I believe those plays are straight out of your greedy + ego and not much from your critical perspective thinking on your opponent.

When I was playing that many tables, I was playing cards - not the men. I am now at a level where I know how to exploit people's weakness but if you straight play cards and do not pay attention to the exploitable reads that people are offering you and not taking advantage of it. I figured out that you are actually losing more EV by not exploting them. That is why I don't play more than 8 tables when I play my sesion. Think about it and see if this makes sense to you.

P.S: The dates on the blogs are completed messed up, I even changed time zone but it is still doing it wrong. I will forget about the date from now if it is one day difference but you will get 14 posts for sure by the end of this perspective blog from your luxurymaster.

Rounders + Bankroll Management

Today, I watched the movie rounds (1998) again. I know you watched it so I won't go to details. It is a story about a law student, who is really good at poker, goes to KGB's place for $30,000 and gets busted then gets busted again for backing up his best friend's gambling debt. He finally pulls it off with the money lended from his law professor and pays everything and go to Vegas.

If you watched the movie carefully enough, that guy never played anything wrong. One of the interesting thing is him and his best friend goes for 60 hours session and he loses for the first time at the game with golf club guys. If someone who doesn't know poker watch that scene, he just got outplayed but he didn't. He read his opponent hand perfectly, executed bluff at the perfect timing but the guy who played at the golf range just out bluff him with more money out of his ego. It was so clear that his best move was to fold and his best friend dragged him out of the table but I bet if he had stable bankroll to keep playing with that guy, he would have taken all of his money.

I believe we all should play in a style where we go with read and very affirmative about all the actions. You might fail to bluff or got bluffed but one should never play with ego - It is just about how much you gain on each session and how much you lose on each session. It is not to show everyone who good you play and how well you can read them.

Hidden Skill Perceived

I just realized one aspect today why I became more successful than most of the players. Let me see myself.

- Mathematical background? yes
- Computer science background -> and making educated guesses based on analytical thinking? yes
- Enough hands played while reading hands using above skills? yes
- Win consistent? yes, over 3 years now
- What else?

I am fully aware that you have already reached a level where you can read/guess people's hand correct and use your strategic mind to make the most +EV play out of your hand. You often told me how you made such a good bluff and your opponent called you lost. You are also aware that you can't do that bluff against a fish which I don't think is the opponent you executed that bluff against.

Now, before you read further, try to guess the answer to this question. Because I really see you are struggling with this. It is based on my perception which I might be wrong but I see you having a very freedom type of nature in yourself that is often back fire to you. I believe that discipline with proper timing is something where you draw a line to yourself and just do it no matter what. The good example would be having a plan on your hand. Try to draw a 3x3 matrix on your head consisting:

- flop play: raise/fold/call
- turn play: raise/fold/call
- river play: raise/fold/call

However, What I have figured out on myself is that there is something called timing which I think is really important on poker. Have you experienced the situation where you tend to make loose calls when you are tiling where if you were in normal mood that you wouldn't have? I wouldn't define this as tilt but its more to your psychological aspect.

You can apply this analogy to real world where you want to tell someone a big message. If you try to tell that message to that person in a loud bar with a lot of people, he will still hear it but he wouldn't be able to fully grasp it not because you aren't loud enough or speaking clearly, but the distractions and just environment in general around the person who you are trying to send a message to. Now, try to imagine the same in quite place with a hard liquor, nice chair, face to face, and alone. Imagine the gravity of the impact on 2 different scenarios.

Now figuring and applying to yourself is homework I give to you and leave that entirely up to you. I do not know if I am making any sense to you on this but let me know if you have any questions.

Taking A Day Off

Yesterday, I mentioned how important taking break is. It is also not bad to apply your new knowledge right when you learn it so you start getting habit on doing things - just take it as my excuse. Today is one of the day so there will be no post on poker or life =) I just realized how the dates on the post is kinda messed up. I posted one each on every single day and look how 09/18 has two post and 09/19 has one post and 09/20 has NO post. Funny - however, I haven't broken my terms and conditions yet.

Also two remind you, you mentioned a deal which that we both agreed upon that while driving that we will share 10% of the net profit on that Denver tourny that we will be participating together.

Above and Beyond - Emotion Control and Productivity

Today I went to hang out with some of my CU friends, approximately group of about 20 people. We had a meeting, ate dinner at some bar, then went to bowling in 4 lines, seperated into 4 groups. I haven't done much of bowling in my life that I suck I mean I really suck. My score was like below 100 but we were kinda chilling and no one there was pro or anything. There was a little punishment for the team who finished the least score to buy like drink for everyone and etc. I bowled terribly on my team I mean like trash. My score was like 25 on 5th round where people were like 50 (Yea, they weren't good either). On the final round, there was an interesting situation where the total score were like 340 for us and the other worse team had like 352 and I was the last person to bowl. I felt so much of gravity on my shoulder with people cheering and giving so much attention to me. I felt overwhelmed but also felt some responsibility on our score. I decided to just completely detach myself from the score and focused. I hit 9 of the pins, and managed to spare then hit like 9 pins again to add 19 to score. Everyone goes crazy and wild congrats for the comeback but I wasn't exactly happiness from winning the competition it was because I was happy to just find some interesting aspect on myself.

I mean, I was there to hang out with my friends and chill but it was really interesting what I was capable of doing when I was fully concentrated and just play my game. It was surprising to see what I could do if I am fully concentrated versus when I am just chilling and doing something. I sometimes feel same way on my job where I just didn't feel like working. I then immediately sit out from my desk and come back later like smoking cigarette or etc, clear my mind, sit back again, then focus on what I do. Just little change on your mood is so important because I felt like its really important to perceive when you are over doing something or when you playing your best. I see a lot of my friends who is always out of time and live so busy. When I ask them why you were so busy during the day, they usually tell me a little thing that can be done in a lot shorter period of time. Taking short break seems waste of time if you are fully concentrated but people often do not realize exactly when they are there. Knowing yourself is pretty much my thoery today and if you will have this situation in your career where you feel more productivity in your life - just do not forget your mood. This applies same to when to stop playing poker too.

When I was playing poker, if I win really a lot in a short period of time, I keep playing until I make a single mistake on my play. I then sit back for a little, think about my mistake then coming back depends on how good your game is obviously. Today's situation simply reminded me how concentration affects your productivity far beyond than you prolly expect from yourself.

Taking First Step Into Your First Career

My first real job in the United States was washing dishes for $5/hr during my summer vacation while I was in high school. It was physically very hard and but I managed to buy myself my first car afterwards which is what I am driving and paid about 2k =). I was never happy with my with job but having consistent cashflow for what I had done was certainly rewarding experience.

If you want to become professional on poker, you have to understand and perceive that not everyone reached to that point from the ground up. I started with a bankroll of $50 or $100, deposited into Pokerstars, lost a couple occasions then tried again with my last $100 and I have never looked back ever since. I saw people playing levels like $25/50 with like $100,000 on the stakes and was surprised how quickly they can throw money like that but you have to understand that you are getting there.

Detach yourself from other players or friends who are doing well or who is playing higher and make more money. Also, please be aware that they have worked their way up to that point and it didn't just suddenly happen and change their situation.

What you need to understand and perceive everyday is that you are making a very baby step into that whenever you grinding, it doesn't really matter what stakes you play and etc. Just relax yourself and focus on the game. Money should be just your way of keeping score. The reason for me to say that to you is because you already know how to play your best and you are already solid player and the reason for this blog is not to discuss how to play your aces to get the maximum value out of your hand.

First Day Blogging For You

Dwain,
Surprise surprise! One thing to remind you - I am not gay. Please do not treat this as a present from your friend where he spents 2 weeks folding paper birds and give you as big surprise. I have decided to start this blog just to help you find your path. My goal is to keep it up for 2 weeks and give this to you as a present. Honestly, I have never done this to anyone before or will do this someone like who is already professional. I also have to give you straight up that I am the type of guy who can leave the party alone if I don't like it but willing to stay up until the dawn if I enjoy the party. You will laugh at my English while reading thorough this but you tell me and I will learn from you.

I told you about killer instinct and I definately felt like you have the potential and I think I have a very good idea on how to help you. I do not even know if I can keep it up even for two weeks as I am not even professional poker player myself. You have probably seen one of the my friend pro's blog I showed you (http://duckslayer2k.blogspot.com/). I am not forcing you to keep it up like him but consistent improvement, and consistent discipline are definately key successful mental approach you must have and be able to as I see that as one of your the most huge leak for you at the moment for you to seriously become a professional poker player and I would like to start it for you to help you out. It is up to you whether to continue or discontinue on this. I am providing you this as a personal gift to you to help you find your career path. The goal of this blog is simple

• To share the entities to that I think you should acquire make you become professional one

1. Mentality Set
2. Bankroll Management
3. Prioritizing

• I am start writing for you for two weeks without missing a single day and you can decide to continue from there or not. If I ever miss a single day, the whole thing will be just meaningless effort and I will try my best not to.