Booking July Prop Bets...

I have a couple other things to blog about, but for right now just want to announce the prop bets I'm looking for action on. My plan is to put in a sick month at 50pl/nl to show what can be done and then be finished with it, and I'm up for some side action. Both hand goals are records for me, and I've only hit 100k once, and 74k once. My usual month is 40-60k hands. Combining that with trying to maintain a high (3+) winrate is the challenge.

Full offers listed on FullTiltForum.com.


1:1 - I play > 110k holdem cash game hands

FWIW, my most hands played in a month was 100k in June. I have hit 70k twice. I crashed at about 97k hands and went on 10 BI downswing for last 2-3k hands.

3:1 - I play > 130k cash game hands

only willing to do this with sizeable action because it will probably be -EV or 0EV as far as profit goes from playing.

2:1 - I am biggest winner at 50pl (excluding HU players)

This will be 6m and FR tables only. I was either 1st or 2nd last month, but neither sleekest(family, he's doing 50k+ hands this month) nor el nino 1 (moved to Vegas, was without setup for almost 2 weeks) put in significant volume.

4:1 Highest WR at 50pl (HU players/tables excluded, 25k hand minimum)

Hard... very hard... (good competition + heater possibilities from lag shortimers)

x:y (open to ideas) Winrate > X over Yk hands

Current status will be updated semi-daily on the right side of the blog.

Last Month's Graphs (in ptbb)

Intense Coaching Experience

I spent 4 days last week with a student in Vegas.  Not hanging out, seeing the sights, and talking poker occasionally, but 14 hours a day of poker "work."  It was easily the most exhausting work I've done since the bar exam. 

The student and I had been working together for about a week when I realized that we needed to work on quite a bit of his game as well as get him up to speed playing online.  While working over Skype for a couple hours a day would get the job done, it was going to take several weeks and he wouldn't see a positive impact for quite a while.  I suggested that he get on a plane and come out to spend the rest of the week here doing nothing but poker.  After working out the details he agreed and booked a flight out for the next morning.

This guy wasn't a slouch at his regular 5/10 live game, but he'd developed some costly leaks and realized that he was also missing some fundamental knowledge about the foundations of his game and how it needed to flow for him to be profitable.  It's really easy for intelligent, competitive people to pick up poker and have positive results for a while just using their raw talent and desire, but sometimes the wheels come off.  It could be several beats in a row, it could be just realizing that some regulars in the game have figured out your basic game and are exploiting it. Whatever the reason(s) may be for "running into a wall" it happens, and happens even to the best.  

If you've spent the time pounding the basics into your head before you start going full speed you only have to have the discipline to fall back on those and retool the more advanced parts of your game. However, if you're missing some of those planks to step back on you can end up just freefalling and feeling lost.  I know, I've been there.

Anyway, I made sure I slept a good 7 or 8 hours the night before he came in so I could teach for the rest of the day. With that and plenty of snacks and Monster Energy Drinks I thought I would be good to go for as long as he could soak it up.  Wrong.  I managed to make it through the day and evening, but I was "tapped" by the end.  Fortunately, he hadn't slept the night before so he was ready for an early evening as well. 

I have a lot of teaching and public speaking experience, and I was cognizant of the fact that it was a draining task, but I underestimated how draining.  It was literally all I could do to drape myself over the back of a chair and keep talking by the end of the day.  Each additional day was easier as we picked up some momentum.  I felt like I was cruising by the last day, but I was still ready to crash when his time in town was up.

The great thing about playing poker for a living and living in Vegas is that when you're exhausted you can just shut it down and there is a world of fun to be had.  I checked out some new restaurants, watched some movies, and went up to Mount Charleston and had a blast, and now have plenty of rest.  I'm ready to go again.

Just a couple places of note: 

Article on Preflop Play

I recently submitted an article for Fox's Poker Coach List, and it was accepted and posted this morning.  Feel free to take a look (http://foxpoker.com/articles) and give me feedback!

The Games Are Dying

Or... maybe not. When we first moved to Vegas, the peak players on FTP was around 50,000, and now there are more than 70,000 players online almost every afternoon.

Here are two example hands from today of what I see multiple times almost every day, and this is just the preflop "gift" spew. The post flop play is horrendous is well.

Seat 1: MyAB212 ($125.15)
Seat 2: futbol426 ($200)
Seat 3: Virge ($218.15)
Seat 4: bzd104 ($102.75) -
Seat 5: yeepyeep ($113) -
Seat 6: SeanTayla21 ($127.30) -
PRE-FLOP:
yeepyeep posts small blind $0.50
SeanTayla21 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: Virge

RAISE MyAB212 ($2.25)
FOLD futbol426
RAISE Virge ($8.25)
RAISE bzd104 ($28.50)
FOLD yeepyeep
FOLD SeanTayla21
CALL MyAB212 ($26.25)
RAISE Virge ($115.50)
CALL bzd104 ($74.25)
CALL MyAB212 ($87)SHOWDOWN:
MyAB212:

Virge:

bzd104:

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $354

...

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: saymond ($151.40)
Seat 2: cobra440123 ($53.65)
Seat 3: merlicho ($123.30)
Seat 4: Igis008 ($68.70) -
Seat 5: Virge ($100) -
Seat 6: usmcsgt4 ($50.50) -


PRE-FLOP:

Virge posts small blind $0.50
usmcsgt4 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: Virge


RAISE saymond ($3.50)
CALL cobra440123 ($3.50)
RAISE merlicho ($6)
FOLD Igis008
FOLD Virge
CALL usmcsgt4 ($5)
RAISE saymond ($28)
FOLD cobra440123
RAISE merlicho ($50)
CALL usmcsgt4 ($44)
RAISE saymond ($151.40)
CALL merlicho ($73.30)
CALL usmcsgt4 ($0.50)
UNCALLED saymond ($28.10)
SHOWDOWN:
saymond:

merlicho:

usmcsgt4: