Stakes: 1/3nl

Hours Played: 3

Rate of Play: 3/10

Synopsis: I lit a lot of money on fire today. My head was not in the right place and I definitely made a lot of obvious mistakes. Here's a perfect example of pure spewage.

5 or 6 limpers, I raise SB to 28 w/ KcQh, get 3 callers

Flop J98dd(110)

I lead 60, UTG jams 190, fold, short stack call, I call it off vs UTG's 98s and shorties 88. Obv betting is fucking awful and I get it in terribly. I think c/f>shove>bet and I especially hate my bet sizing. I'd rather just bet like 90 and pot stick myself vs UTG or not bet at all. I think betting 60 where it's so marginal between a call and fold was the worst possible sizing if I was going to bet.


After spewing off 200 there, I spewed off another 90 vs a short stack who flatted KK preflop and donk/called 994r flop, I bluff shoved KQo vs her donk lead. I feel like my play is slightly less spewy than the previous hand but still pretty bad.

And last but not least. It's just embarrasing how poorly I played this hand.

7 handed, mp limp, I raise KQhh 15, co fold btn fold sb calls bb folds limper calls

Flop Kc Th 9c(45)

ch ch I bet 25(obvious check back here I'm never getting 3 streets and if I get c/red I'm supposed to fold. This is such a standard ch back and go for 2 streets), SB raises 50 limper folds I reluctantly call

Turn 9d(145)

SB bets 50, I reluctantly call(hey maybe he's got a flushdraw :/ )

River T(245)

SB bets 100, He's only betting KT/T9 or quads, some draws missed ok I call

He obviously flops over KTdd. I insta quit after that hand.

Results: -1bi

I feel like this session was the textbook example of when stupid mistakes make you have a losing session. Had I not made these spews, I would have actually turned a small profit for the session. Fortunately, I recognized that I was playing terribly and quit early for the day. I'll be taking Wednesday off becuase I can tell I'm just not in the mood to play right now. I might as well take advantage of the freedom poker allows me to have.

TJ

Date: 10/21/11
TStakes: 2/5nl 1k max

Hours Played: 5

Rate of Play: 6.5

Synopsis: I feel like I made a couple of fundmental/technical mistakes in a few spots. Partially becuase I was slightly scared money playing higher than normal, which is weird for me because in general I have little to no value attached to money. It's probably because I had a tough month last month and I'm still a bit gun shy(though I think overall I am playing much better).

I have a ton of interesting hands that I played last night, but I'm going to post this one hand quickly because I think it's a great example of how to not be result oriented.

2/5nl 10 btn straddle Eff stacks 1700. 8 handed

SB calls(fish 2k deep), BB folds, I raise to 45 w/ 75ss

My reasoning here is that the players behind me are relatively tight and I want to iso the fish here. I have only gotten 3bet once the entire session so I don't think opening light here is too bad. The one BIG problem I see with opening here is that I'm going to be forced to run some multi street bluffs and for some reason I did not feel like going crazy bluffing this day. I felt uncomfortable about it for some reason(thought that hasn't stopped me before).

2 folds, MP(1300 solid reg) calls, 2 folds CO calls(1800 Loose/spazz/bad player. We have some pretty intersting history. To keep it short, he thinks he's God's gift to poker and knows I usually don't play this high/thinks he can own me and I'm scared money), BTN folds, SB calls

Flop 766r(190)

SB checks, I check

Originally, my plan was to c/f vs MP, evaluate vs CO and if it checks around just go w/ my plan to get to SD cheaply, evaluating whenever I get bet into.

I feel like this is incorrect logic and my best line is to c-bet here for a few reasons.

1) I want to fold out hands like JTdd/Q9hh etc, hands that could potentially bluff the flop when checked to and will have a lot of good turns and rivers to barrel off on. OOP I'll get owned too much especially vs MP who is decent.

2) In some sense I am turning my hand into a bluff as I plan on barreling a lot of turns and rivers, hoping to fold out hands like 88-TT as well as better 7s.

3) There is value to be gain from the fish who is peeling this flop w/ plenty of worse. In addition to that, folding the two players who have position on me out and getting called by the fish will be a great result.

While I don't think checking is terrible, I think a bet is likely better. But I'm going to ask two of my live friends about this because they're both better than me at live.

MP checks, CO bets 85, SB folds, Hero calls, MP folds

So, CO's sizing really stuck out to me as weak. So far he has barreled 100% of the time it's been checked to him. Additionally, he does calculate pot size so I know he knows that there's 190 in the pot and he's only betting like 40% pot. Given what I know about CO, I think that means his range isn't super strong. Like he never has 6x, never has 89 or 45.

Turn 8(360)

I check, CO thinks for a bit and bets 185

His turn barreling range in this spot is kind of polarized. I don't think he would bet a hand like 89 here, and probably not even a hand like 99 or TT. However, I do expect him to continue betting his A9o/QTo/A5o basically any of his gutters or overcards. So vs that range I think I'm good enough to call here. Plus picking up the extra OESD equity helps.

River J(730)

I check, CO thinks for a bit and bets 260

So, on the river, I do not think he is betting a hand like KJ for value. (He should be vs me, but I don't think he is) Additionally, I had already ruled out 6x and straights from his range, or discounted them significantly. So, basically that leaves a bunch of air in his range. Now, given that plus my overlay I think this is a pretty easy river call.

Hero calls, Villain shows 42o and I ship the pot.

Results: +2 bi


Quick story about my degen-ness. After the game broke, John, some kid with dreads, and I decided to do some flips of PLO. We started off doing 50 a piece. Then 100, then 300, and eventually 500 a flip. I was crushing so hard up until the 500s. After losing both of those, I ended up down 200 on flips. It was so much fun though, there was a huge crowd standing around the table watching us like we're all insane. It was a lot of fun, and if it'll give people that I'm a degen spewtard, and won't cost me anything in the way of EV, I'm all for it.

Time to go watch world series game 2. Go Cards!!

Stakes- 1/3nl

Hours Played- 5

Rate Of Play- 8.5/10

Synopsis- I made some great adjustments to my game as a whole. Doing HH reviews with Nick has helped me plug some huge leaks that I had in my game. Basically, I've finally gotten myself out of the whole "I have to be balanced everywhere" mindset. That has been a huge improvement in my game, simply because now I'm free to play a style that is based on maximally exploiting my opponents leaks without regard to balancing my own game. I have realized that keeping myself balanced is not as important as I once thought, simply because I know exactly what they are going to do if they do start exploiting me, and once I see them doing that, I can instantly change that area of my game in such a way that I have a) balanced the thing they are exploiting, and b) adjust to exploit their adjustment.

It's really intersting approaching the game like this. It opens a new door of strategical possibilities available to me as well as opening the door for me to incorporate more creative lines into my game without being worried about being exploited. (I still look for my opponents adjusting to exploit me, but most of them never do.)

Tilt Control- 9/10

Interesting Hands-

1/3 10 Handed 550 Eff stacks

UTG folds UTG+1 limps, 2 folds, CO(nit) limps, BTN raises to 15(station/fish), SB folds, I call BB 2c2h, UTG+1 folds, CO calls

Flop Ks 9c 2s(45)

Hero leads 35, CO calls, BTN folds

Turn Qs(115)

Hero leads 85, CO calls

River Js(285)

Hero checks, CO bets 100 quickly, Hero folds, CO shows T9ss.


1/3 10 Handed Eff stacks 250

UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 10, On Hero with AhJs who?

So, the players behind me are incredibly loose so I expect that if I flat, 5 or 6 players will come along behind. That's such a shitty result for my hand. I feel like my best options are to 3bet or fold. My issue w/ 3betting is that this player has been playing pretty snug and likely has a pretty strong opening range, and his range that continues vs a 3bet has AJo crushed. So, given that 3betting sucks and calling sucks, I fold.

Simple spot but somewhat interesting. I think Fold/3bet>>>>>call.

Results: +2.5 BI

Hand 1: 1/3nl Eff stacks 350

Reads: UTG-80+vpip fish. He doesn't play terribly postflop but is obviously way way way too loose pre.

MP-Passive live fish. He's capable of leading out with his semibluffs, but doesn't ever raise a bet w/ them. He's made some poor call down with bare fd's or sd's w/ no showdown value at all. He's capable of making folds when boards get scary. I think he's a bit afraid to get involved in big pots w/ me.

BTN-loose and probably one of the more aggressive live players at the table. He's an older gentleman who doesn't fold much and is capable of turning hands into a bluff.

10 dollar btn straddle

SB folds, BB folds, UTG limps, 2 folds MP raises to 25, 2 folds, Hero looks down at AJss and calls from CO, BTN calls, UTG calls

I don't think I have any other options preflop vs MP. He's a pretty tight opener and AJs is near the bottom of my calling range vs him. I would probably fold AJo.

Flop Ad 8d 8c(100)

UTG checks, MP bets 100, Hero calls, 2 folds

Flop felt very awkward for me. On one hand, his sizing should really scream AK/AQ to me, however I feel like a lot of live players c-bet big on this flop with hands like KK and QQ way too frequently here. I'm not saying those hands are in his range, but I'm not discounting them completely. It's obviously a terrible bet, but I see it atleast once a session.

Turn 6d(300)

MP checks, I check

Basically I fell like it's a WA/WB spot.

River Td(300)

MP checks, Hero bets 200 after thinking for 15-20 seconds. MP flips over AKhh, thinks for a bit and folds.

Basically, I feel like he is shoving his AKd/AQd/KKd/QQd here every single time, so I think his range is either KK/QQ/AK/AQ w/o a diamond. Basically I feel like a shove here folds out everything so that's what I did. I think I can still rep hands like AxKd,AxQd,AxJd


Mistakes:
1) I think the flop is an absolutely gross spot and maybe I'm incorrectly adding hands like KK/QQ into his range to justify a bad call. I honestly do see that happen all the time from live players, but I'm honestly not sure if this player would do that or if he would either bet smaller or simply check/fold. I feel like after the flop the hand plays itself.


Hand 2: 1/3 9 handed Eff Stacks 250, Hero covers

Reads: Villain is an older gentleman who is one of the few players at the table capable of running big bluffs. His calling range in position is too wide and postflop he seems to call flop pretty wide but folds a lot of the weaker areas of his range on the turn. He will call down two streets with bare flushdraws, open enders, pair+gutter, etc.

Hero: My image is that of an aggressive internet kid. I'm winning a bunch this session and I've recently started opening a bit wider than before but I wouldn't say he's noticed that yet.

Folds to Hero in the Hijack who rasies QTo to 12, Villain calls from CO, BTN folds, SB folds, BB calls
Flop A 8 6r(35)

BB checks, Hero bets 20, Villain calls, BB folds

Turn 2r(75)

Hero bets 50, Villain calls

Seems standard up to the turn. I would probably give up here a lot but I feel like this player folds any pair 8x or worse, calls with 99+, and calls with his open enders(97s/97o, 75s,75o, 54s,54o)

River 8(175)

Hero checks, Villain tanks for a good 30-45 seconds, I say check again because I wasn't sure if he heard me or not and he insta shoves, Hero tanks for about a minute and calls.

Alright, so I think my river thought process is somewhat obvious. I feel like he rarely has an 8, he checks back basically every single one of his Ax's. I had a read that his river value betting range is incredibly narrow. There was a hand earlier where he turned trips, bet for value, and then checked to check call a blank river. He just is not value betting AJ when I check the river. So, based on that I felt like he had one of those busted straight draws a huge % of the time. Not only that, but I also felt like he is someone who is capable of making a big bluff in this spot. Additionally, I felt like his timing made him come off as very weak.

Using poker stove, even giving him a couple of 8x hands in his range, it still is a pretty easy call.

equity win tie pots won pots tied

Hand 0: 64.000% 64.00% 00.00% 48 0.00 { QdTc }

Hand 1: 36.000% 36.00% 00.00% 27 0.00 { K8s, Q8s, J8s, 97s+, 86s+, 75s, 54s, 97o+, 86o+, 75o, 54o }


Unfortunately, villain showed down A3o and won. I asked him if he was value betting or bluffing, and he said "I don't even know, I figured you had a better ace so I'd try to get you to fold it." He then proceeded to ask me if I had pocket kings...

Mistake: I feel like my logic and thought process was very sound, but I just got a bit unlucky that he decided to turn a hand into a bluff that's just completely idiotic to turn into a bluff. Obviously he's supposed to check back and win there a decent % of the time, but he doesn't know that and thought he could get me to fold better. I think the way to go on from here is to make a note that he is capable of plays like this and adjusting accordingly.


Well, those are my two interesting hands from last night. Before my session, I grabbed dinner with my buddy Nick who crushes the 5/10 game(I'm 2-0 in credit card roulette vs him, ship it!). We talked about general concepts for live poker. It was incredibly helpful, I feel like I learned a ton from our hour talk. Everytime I discuss hands with him I feel stupid because of how intellegent of a person he is overall. He a very very bright kid and I'm so grateful that we are friends and he really wants to help me improve.

I'm feeling a bit sick again today which sucks because I thought I was over it. Never the less, I'm going to try to put in a lot of hours today. I haven't been putting a ton of work in the last couple days, so I'm going to try to get a lot done tonight and tomorrow. If you guys play, gl at the tables and I'll make sure I get some more interesting hands to share w/ you guys.

TJ

What's up guys. I've been stuck at home the last 3 days with the flu so I have not done really anything at all poker wise since last week besides watching lots of movies. I've watched Back To The Future 1,2, and 3, Cyrus- a movie staring Jonah Hill as a 20 something who lives w/ his mom and hates her mom's new boyfriend so does everything in his power to break them up(pretty funny), Snatch(classic), V for Vendetta(quite possibly one of my favorite movies of all time. I love the Wachowskis(sp) brothers. Coneheads, and more. While I enjoy the down time, it does bother me that my productivity is near zero.

Because of that, today I decided to attempt to get some things done. I got a chest and bies workout that went alright. I felt pretty crappy the whole workout but I was still able to put up decent weight. I also played a 2 hour 8-10 table 25nl session on Merge. After about 1200 hands I ended up winning slightly over 4 buy ins. I feel like I played pretty well for the most part. I really toned down my preflop aggression, especially in the beginning of the session, simply becuase I was getting played back at incredibly frequently. I think my 3bet stat from the blinds is like 25-30% over a pretty significant sample. Obviously the best regs at this level can adjust to that decently so I've had to adjust a bit.

I ran at 35/30 with a 15% 3bet. It seems really damn loose but I really felt like I was playing pretty snug the entire session. There are just so many more opportunities to open wide at these stakes than you'll see at 1/2+.

I can't believe how much fun I had grinding micro stakes. My grandma is in town this week and while she was watching me she said "wow, you really miss this don't you." I mean I really don't care about the money, I'm just playing for the love of the game. I don't need to play, but I really felt like it. I think those are the times when you play your best.

I know this is alread y getting long, but I'll post a few quick HH's of my biggest winners and losers. I'm not going to go too in depth as far as my thought process but if you have questions about certain hands feel free to ask.

Losers:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231723 Felt a little owned here. His line confused me and he looked sort of eratic and bad.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231724 Std for both of us.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231726 I'm going to go a bit in depth w/ this hand. I'm sort of unsure about my flop line. Villain was sort of loose/bad, not a ton of reads on his play. I prefer to just c-bet w/ my entire range and continue from there, but I decided to mix it up this time esp because I didn't want to bet and have him bluff raise me w/ a ton of worse on this board. I thought by c/c on the flop I get a stab by a ton of gutters/bluffs and I have a lot of good turn cards that I can continue on. I think his flop bet sort of justifies why he's bad. I don't think I can fold turn when I pick up so much equity+will be ahead a decent bit.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231729 I'm fine w/ my line here up to the river. This guy's incredibly polarized w/ his flop c/r turn bet range so I think he has QJ/spades or a bluff when we get to the river. It's certainly possible that I should have folded river. However he was spazzing hard vs me and I felt like if he does have a bluffing range in this spot at all, he'd definitely barrel off w/ all his air at this time in the match.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231733 Fine w/ my line. Top of his range, oh well.



Winnars:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231735 EZ game. I hate villain's line.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231736 Good vs everything here. I think pre is marginal for a lot of people but I think I can show a profit here. Yeah, I'm that guy :)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231737 Standard.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231738 Coolered him but he played it bad imo.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6231739 Value towning the fish.


Those are my 5 top winners and losers. If I'm feeling better tomorrow I'll probably make it out to the casino, if not I'll put in another session. I might play more tonight but i'm gonna take a break and eat dinner right now. This weekend I'll definitely play some live. Since I'll probably play 25 hands/hour this weekend I'll try my hardest to have one or two hands to discuss on here.

Deuces.

I haven't done one of these things in a while, basically because of my own laziness. So, here we go.

Poker Goals:

1) Play 120 hours of live poker at 1/3nl.(~30hr/week)
2) Spend 30-40 hours of off the table study(video/forums/theory)
3) Play 20-30 hours of 25nl online.
4) Play a few WSOP Circuit events in Hammond and 5/10 cash.
5) Find out exact costs of moving to various places to play online again.

Health Goals:

1) Workout 5 days/week.
2) Cut out drinking to no more than once a week.
3) Get outside and enjoy the fall weather more.


Other Goals:

1) Live a more balanced/happy lifestyle. Don't get caught up in distractions and avoid responsibilites in life. Do work. Get er dun. etc.
2) Read 1 book on a subject you know absolutely nothing about.


That's about it. Time to hit the gym and put some hands in online tonight.

TJ

I headed down to NIU to meet my step sister Thursday late afternoon to see a dj named pretty lights. It was an hour and a half drive because of the traffic. Apparently 55mph means go 45 and 30 mph means go 40. I arrived around 5:30, unpacked my one small backpack and jumped in Erika's Tib to go get some Jimmy Johns. I did the #11 with extra turkey and ham, sprouts, and no mayo. It was tasty. After eating, Erika drove me around a bit, showing me where the concert was, and random places around campus. We got back to her house around 7. I was ready to go in about 15 min but had to wait another 30 for her to be ready. Standard for women.

Around 7:45 Erika brings out a bag of molly. She bought 60 dollars worth and we decided to split it. I was unsure of my tollerance so I started off doing pretty small lines to make sure I didn't freak out. After our 2nd line the room started spinning and I got a really intense feeling all over. Eventually it subsided and we finished about half of the bag. We got in the car(she drove, I was rolling so hard already) and drove to a neighborhood that was near the concert. We did the rest of the molly(which took us a 2nd trip back to her house to get the rest) and then walked into the show.

At first I was slightly nervous that my eyes would give it away. My eye's were basically all pupil. We made it through the ticket scanners and got into the show. We walked up to the stage and met up with a few of Erika's friends from school. The dj was playing some killer beats and putting up a great light show, but I was only obsessed with feeling girl's hair. I'm not sure why but their hair felt so good going through my fingers. So I spent the first 20 minutes or so dancing and running my fingers through random girls' hair. I was also a little worried about Erika, she had sort of a sad face on. I kept asking her if she was OK and she said she was. Must have been the molly.

Then out of nowhere, I turn around and see the hottest blonde girl I've ever seen. She was probably 5'2 tops, had these big blue eyes, bright blonde hair, and cheekbones/jaw line that I can't even explain but made her look incredibly attractive. She was wearing a pink bra with a black tanktop/swimsuit and the shortest yoga shorts ever made. I smiled at her and she smiled back, giving me puppy dog eyes. I turned around 3/4 of the way to her, and noticed she was grinding pretty hard on another girl. She turned around and gave her friend a kiss and my jaw dropped. I wanted to cry for joy and sadness at the same time. Aside from the fact that I was so turned on by her, I also realized that she might infact be a lesbian. I never confirmed this 100%, but I'm thinking it was a legit possibility(I know for a fact that the other girl was a hardcore les because she was like grossed out when I started feeling her hair, but the blonde was all for it when I did hers.) I went back and forth between dancing and trying to talk to this girl, but it was tough w/ the music blasting and people everywhere. I just remember her blowing on my back because I was sweating so much from the molly and dancing around 500 other people.

Eventually we were forced to move to another section because some psychotic looking guy was creeping on Erika and making her nervous. Also, he had some issue with me not having a shirt on, even though ~1/4 of the people in the place didn't have shirts on. Instead of making a scene I decided to move our group to another area.

We chilled over on the other side of the stage for a while, dancing, throwing glowsticks, watching people give lightshows. When I was invited to this I didn't think I was going to be going to a rave, but apparently I was wrong.

The djs played for 4 hours or so. I eventually went back to the other side of the stage. People were being rude as hell and making a huge issue about me and Erika trying to get through to the other side. They must have been coming down or something because people were chill as hell before. Somehow we made it back to where the blonde and her friend were dancing. They were right infront of my dancing on eachother and it was awesome. I was never really all into that whole love at first sight thing, but I think I was about ready to marry this girl after ~2 minutes of seeing her. We danced a little more and decided to go meet up with Erika's friends since the show was about over.

We all left together and started walking through a big field to get back to the neighborhood we parked in. Erika wanted to go to the bar so I drove over to there. The place was pretty dead, but I had met the door guy a few weeks prior when he was helping Erika move into her new house on campus. I talked w/ him for a bit and basically tried relaxing and getting myself to start coming down. It had been almost 6 hours and I was still going hard. He said he could tell I was rolling because I kept rubbing my arms and my eyes just looked crazy.

The bar closed at 2 and we headed back to Erika's house, after stopping to 7-11 for snacks ofcourse. We bought like 3 packs of gum becuase we couldn't stop biting down, 3 gatorades, and a green tea. We got back to her house around 2:30 and chilled for another hour or so. Erika found out someone broke into her house so she was sort of freaking out about that the rest of the night. After taking a leak about 9 times in an hour, I finally ended up falling asleep around 4.

The next day, I wake up around 11 and take my time getting ready. I'm finally into my truck ready to hit the road around noon. I pull out of her parking lot and all of a sudden hear air leaking out of my tires. I pull over right next to her appartment to check and I see that my front right tire is completely flat. Erika calls up AAA and I get it changed. The AAA guy is about to leave and I start driving of and as soon as my tire starts rolling, I hear air shooting out of it. Now I realize that my left front tire was flat. Basically, I found out that both of my front tires had been slashed. I drive over to the Caseys, initially planning on filling the front left tire up and trying to make it back, but there's no way I'd make it. We call AAA back and I get it towed.

All in all, a 58 dollar trip turns into a 600$+ trip, since two tires for a 2003 dodge ram cost ~225 a pop. I finally get on the road around 3:30 and make it home by 5. Overall, I had an absolutely great time. It was definitely one of the top 3 best nights of my life. I had so much fun just dancing around w/ random people, meeting Erika's friends, possibly meeting my new wife, and listening to some awesome music.(They played some awesome dubstep). Even though I had a few minor speedbumps on the trip, I'm really happy that I went. I feel like this was a great 'end of the summer' experience for me.(yeah I'm a little late, oh well).

This will probably be one of the last party trip report blogs that I post because I've made the decision that the rest of the year I'm going to strictly focus on poker. I had a great summer, spent a ton of time having fun and making new friends and growing. For a while I was really disappointed in myself for not focusing enough on poker and spending too much time going to bars or clubs/hanging out w/ friend, etc, but in reality that's what summer has always been about for me. I'm not upset at the things I did this summer or the things I chose not to do. I did what I really felt would make me happy. They were definitely not the things that I should have done, in terms of productivity, but never the less, they are what I really wanted to do. And you know, I think at the end of the day, that's what really important. Doing what is going to make YOU happy. No body else.

I'll end this lengthy trip report with these quotes:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. " Steve Jobs

a€Ž"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."

-Steve Jobs

Deuces.

I was just going to reply to this on Sauce123's blog, but it got a bit lengthy so I decided I would write my own post about it following the whole 'steaming consciousness' style that has began on legopoker blogs.

Here is sauce's blog post: http://www.leggopoker.com/blogs/sauce123/occupy-wall-street-10486.html


I'm going to write this as if I'm replying to his post:


Sauce, I've done a bit of research online about this group because a few of my friends are really into it. They're thinking about doing one in downtown STL in a few weeks and they want me to come with them. The thing that really bothers me is like you said they just do not have a definitive strategy or goal for what they are doing. They're basically standing around complaining about how bad wall street is. (Sort of like Woodstock or the hippies episode on south park)
Steel brings up some good points about why 1 is in fact true, or at least makes it highly likely that they had a big hand in it.

Also, I think your poker analogy is spot on. However, the issue that I have with translating that to the stock market is that in poker we make bets with our own money(obv there are staking deals going on in the poker world but they generally involve 2 or 3 people, not thousands). In the market, large firms dealing with pensions/mutual funds/other investments are essentially making bets with thousands of other people's money(and for the most part, guaranteeing that there will be a positive ROI). Is it OK for a large firm to lead people to believe that they know and want what is best for the customers, when in reality, they're only concerned with their bottom line? Are we supposed to just say well the investor was dumb for not doing more research on the company, firm, or the investment and shouldn't have put all of their faith in what a firm tells them?(This brings up another point about the equal opportunity for information. In poker everyone has equal access to all available information, they just have to look. In the market, the average Joe investor rarely has equal access to the information that the top execs at Charles Schwab have. That is another big issue). I mean isn't the firm supposed to be the authority on the subject? Should it be OK for a firm to, in some cases, outright lie to the customer in order to raise their revenue?
This is my biggest issue towards Wallstreet. Why are they allowed to, even motivated to, decieve people in order to increase revenue? Is this just the whole bluffing aspect of the market? Is 'bluffing' in this way be acceptable behavior coming from the authority figures of the stock market?
I definitely enjoyed the post though, keep updating!


TJ

Just wanted to take a quick second and thank everyone who sent me a PM about discussing live poker. I'm going to be busy tonight, Monday, and Tuesday, but Wednesday and Friday I should be available to talk over skype. I will message a few of you later in the week.

I'm on my way to the casino. I'm going to try to start off October in the right direction and put in a few hours before I head to Chicago for the week. Talk to you guys soon.

TJ

What's up guys. Before I get to the topic of this post, I quickly want to touch on my last post. I've spent the last few days basically trying to keep my life as simple as possible, and only do things that I really feel like doing(and only doing them for as long as I feel like). Basically, my goal was to reduce the amount of stress in my life, while figuring out what I want.

Well, I can't say that I am entirely sure of what I want to do with my life, but I can say that I have realized what my problem has been. Basically, I'm on life tilt. Basically, this came about from problems occuring in various aspects of my life all at once, and instead of managing it in a healthy way, I ended up letting it effect me emotionally, and in a negative way. If we were to look at my life decisions for the month of September, I think we would all see that I am basically a spewtard. My decisions are the root cause of this high variance roller coaster that I am currently on.

I can name plenty of things that have resulted in this, but a) I'd rather not get into some of the personal aspects of my life, and b) I'm more concerned with finding ways to solve these problems, rather than focusing on them even more.

So, the way that this post I'm about to write ties in with all of this, is that: I finally am starting to feel that urge to get my act together and improve myself, not only as a poker player, but as a person. I want to improve the quality of my life more than anything. I want to do things, have experiences, that will make me a more intellegent, well rounded, worldly, and happy person. I don't want to spend my time around people who are very negative and have nothing going for them. I truly believe that the types of people you surround yourself with and interact with on a daily basis, have a very large effect on your overall quality of life.

Now to the main point of this post. I would like to know which CR members have, or currently are, making the transition from online poker to live poker. Or, have been playing (and winning at) live poker for a long period of time. (Please be honest here). Ideally, I would like to find 3-4 winning players who I can bounce ideas off of/discuss hands, theories, concepts, adjustments....anything at all that is related to live poker.

I have come to accept that more likely than not, I will spend fall and winter griniding out hands of live poker. Because of that, my only option is to become the best live poker player that I can. So far, I have not been making the types of adjustments that I need to in order to be successful. (Even though it's tough for me to admit that, the results don't lie. I have been getting my ass handed to me the last two months so I must be doing something wrong.) However, I am willing to do whatever it takes to beat each limit available to me, starting at 1/3 and going all the way up to 10/25.

If you are currently playing live poker weekly as your primary source of income, and would like to discuss some hands(I would like to think that I can equally benefit you as well) over aim or skype, send me a PM or comment on here w/ either of your SN's. I would be willing to start tomorrow if you are interested.

That's all I've got.

TJ