So I have a 80 hour prop bet going this month, to play 80 hours of poker. Pretty sure our agreement was intended for all Heads UP, so that's what I am doing. We didn't exactly specify, but I know for a fact that thewillofD is only going to be playing HU so I might as well do that as well, plus 6m would be a bit easier haha. So far I have 2.5 hours logged and am up a little, but nothing spectacular. This prop bet was an idea that I had after I did one of these a long time ago for full ring , a volume prop bet. But since at HU its so hard to get volume sometimes, I think hours counts a bit more. Especially because some people prefer to 1-2 table (me cause i'm a fish), and others can 4-6 table (WILLOFD WTF).

Anyways, didn't play much poker in January. Been looking for a job. I have a few leads coming up this week and hopefully I can luckbox a job (lol). I'll post updates of my results as the bet goes on! Stakes are 100nl and 200nl.

I was sidelined for the first 5-6 days of the New Year with food poisoning, it wasn't a fun experience especially in a foreign country. This year in poker has been, well, slow. I started dabbling in some 100NL 6max just to take some variance out of the life of the HU grind, and while it is consistent so far (in terms of a nice solid winrate and lower variance), it's definitely not as glamorous as the HU lifestyle, winning stacks and having stacks flying back and forth. I don't know which one I prefer, honestly, I like both forms of games and I can see myself pursuing either one. However, for now I am just playing 6max and when I get the urge to play HU I'll play some of it there as well.

After playing 100NLHU and getting coaching for it, I realized that I've improved sooooo much as a poker player its unbelievable. Less than 5 months ago I was struggling to beat 50NL 6max and full ring, now I'm starting to even think 100nl 6max is a joke. Most of the regs have lines that are so transparent and with little handreading skills I can pick apart their game and just exploit them. It's a good feeling definitely. Of course, there are still some regs that are tough, mainly the ones that 3bet me a lot in position, but I don't really have any adjustments vs them, I just fold pre usually unless I have the top of my range, and it works out fine. It's also crazy that my 100nl6m stats are nitty, since I'm coming from a HU background and usually when HU players play 6max they go nuts and play like 40vpip. I'm running at around 16/13, 3betting 4% and still winning at 10bb/100 or 5BB/100. It's pretty astonishing what a tight, solid, game will do for you even at the 100nl limit. Back in the day at 50nl6m I was playing 24/20, 3betting 8% and just getting my shit handed to me left and right. Plus, playing such a nitty style allows me to multitable a bit more (6-8 tables) and gets my hourly up. I like the fact that in 6max you can have an hourly, versus Heads up it is so dependent on the player you are playing.

I still think heads up is the best way to improve at NL poker, hands down, and will probably look to get back into playing HU this month, as well as mixing in 6max. I think it's important to play both, for variation, and also to keep action going when it's slow at heads up.

In other news, I'm gonna be picking up final fantasy 11 again, just to mess around with. Final Fantasy 14 is slated to come out this year, and I'm a huge sucker for MMO's (played WoW for way too logn), so I want to get some FF11 in before FF14 comes out, partly for nostalgia (since I used to play in high school off and on), and partly because I have an addiction and serious need for playing role playing games lol. Hopefully it won't get too much in the way of my poker game, I won't let it.

I also am starting a running program, one that was recommended to me by a cross country runner that should have me starting at around 6miles per week, then gradually moving up to 25/week over the course of 8-12 weeks. I am looking forward to this, as I am a little bit out of shape and like to exercise. I am also starting to job hunt, even with the shitty economic times, I'm giving it a shot. I graduated last May with a Finance degree, so we'll see if I can land one.

Alright, that's all the updates for now. If you have any opinions on whether or not I should play both 6m and HU, or just focus on one, please leave a comment :D GL to everyone this year at the tables

What up everyone! I just shipped (chopped) the 24+2$ 10K GTD Deep Stack on FTP for about 2300$. Is probably my biggest day to date, and definitely a BR boost :)

Since I mainly play HU cash, this was a LOLament, that I just decided to play today. Tourneys are my weakness, I just like to play them to get some variety in my game. Luckily I ran good and even with some costly mistakes early on in the FT I was still able to pull ahead to chip leader 4 handed.

Thx to willofD for railing me and helping me in some sweet spots at the FT. :)

What's up all, I just wanted to slide a quick update in here since I haven't in awhile. I got that annoying custom title removed, and now my blog is back to its squeaky clean boring title. Fine by me.

This month has been going well in poker, I had a bit of a dilemma the other day, I've been trying to figure out my tilt issues and my fix some of the results oriented thinking I have about poker. In the past I would get pretty upset about losing a couple buyins, or winning a couple buyins...and since I play HU, that was basically every day. LOL.

I'm trying to take a different approach to poker these days, and focus on whats important, ccccccrrrrrrushing. I try not to check my PTR page (I was obsessed with it for awhile) and I also am making a huge effort to not check my cashier balance, or my HEM session $. Usually I'll start HEM and try to block out the $ amounts I've won/lost (with my hand over the screen), and bring the hand review dialog box all the way to the top so it's covering my results. I think that's a bit better to review sessions. TBH I don't review sessions often enough anyways....hmmm should really work on that as well.

I started off Dec with losing, but I've gone robusto and hopefully I've made some ground on building my roll. Even with about 60 buyins for 100NLHU, I think I'm not going to be 100% comfortable until I hit 100 BI's. I'm a BR nit tho.

Anyways, does anyone else think miley cyrus is somewhat hot? I saw her newest video on youtube like a week ago and have to say she is lookin good for being jailbait. YEAH, i said it. You heard it here first. Also, I was checking PTR today (don't worry, I didnt check my own page), and I saw this amazing flow chart of how some $ has been floated around amongst high stakes players.

http://www.pokertableratings.com/blog/2009/12/isildur1-the-poker-economy/

It's here, you gotta check out the third flow chart. I was thinking and talking with a friend about this exact concept a few days back, but I'm glad PTR or someone started to actually put it in visual form. However, they really branched out. I was merely thinking about the money that Isildur has been trading, not so much about where his main opponents got their money, and so on.


In other news, I've also been watching the big bang theory (funny show), and I'm almost caught up. If you like nerd-ish humor, you'd probably like it. It's like...Friends but for geeks..

Ok anyways, gl at the tables every1. CRUSH. Do it.

Also shoutout to my friend Kate, its her birthday on the 15th.

So I changed the title of my blog when I first created it, to "Reft's 50NLHU Blog". Too bad now that CR has approved it, I don't even play 50NLHU anymore. Now I can't change it. I think I'll email CR supoort about this and see what they can do.

Haha, maybe I'm destined to be a 50NL FISH!

YES

Seems like whenever I get something going these past few days, they all end pretty terribly. I was just up 3 buyins in my current session and then just happened to run into some sick coolers and a couple hit n runs and there goes my work for the day. Sitting looking at -30$ in my HEM isn't terrible, but considering everytime this month I've gotten some momentum in the HU area, I can't seem to end a day in the black. It's a little frustrating, but I'm hopeful that in the next 28 days that I can string together some winning sessions and post some good numbers. It's just sucks when you start off a month with great goals and what not and to get slapped in the face.

Oh well.

At least my volume goals are going well

3k hands in 3 days @ HU mostly 1 tabling (lol). Trying to get some more 2 table matches going and 2 randoms at the same time, but often I can't just get any action. My PTR is really shitty as well. What's the deal? :D

So this month was my real attempt at Heads up play. I used to play quite a bit of Full Ring and basically was pretty marginal and breakeven in those games. It was always been my goal to be a HU player, and I was trying to build my roll @ FR games to play Heads Up. Originally it was my plan to play Heads Up at 100NL and skip 50NL entirely because of the terrible rake. But I gave up in mid-late October and just transitioned to HU entirely. I had good results this month at 50NL HU, but my 100NL HU results were swingy to say the least. My goal in November was to make 2k in profits, which to me would be my biggest month ever - especially since I've been mostly breakeven in the past and I have a hard time putting in volume (I have a huge case of winner's tilt, which I'll get into). This month didn't go exactly too well at 100NLHU. I had 2-3 big losing days in the last week where I lost about $1k total (550, 350, 200), but have slowly made some of it back. My total profits this month were about $1350. That figure should be slightly over 1500 with rakeback.

I have been getting some good sweats and theory talk from mr ladrao, and he has been improving my game quite tremendously. He is a solid coach and I would reccomend him to anyone trying to break into the 100NL game, or someone looking to crush the low stakes games. After a couple sweats with him, I realize the potential of profit there is from spewy bad regs who will tilt off massive $$ to you. It's also a lot more fun to play someone like that HU , instead of just bumhunting and getting tilted when you get hit/ran over and over. Nevertheless, it is poker and egos aside, I think you should always be looking to do the most +EV thing. So table selecting to play those idiots at 50NL who just hand you money on a silver platter is always good in my eyes. Check out mrladrao's blog, and he has some updated coaching prices. Not pricey at all for what you are getting. Even with my downswing I am learning a huge amount about heads up, and it is awesome. I am really eager to put in a lot of volume in december and attempt to start to break into the 1/2 games next year.

Another good blog to check out for heads up updates and the vegas lifestyle is knox828. He is also a great HU coach and any player looking for help with their low stakes games can seek him out. He is looking for a few students.

Last blog to check out, for pure entertainment and awesomeness is Jason's, aka thewillofD. Longtime poster on the forums and also posts some great numbers every month at heads up. This guy is nuts, he'll play 4-6 tables of HU, sometimes 2-3 tabling one opponent and has 2 other opponents on 2 other tables. I don't even know how you can focus on so many players at the same time, especially at heads up. He's pretty much the grinding machine.

::Blogs::
http://blogs.cardrunners.com/mrladrao

http://blogs.cardrunners.com/knox828

http://blogs.cardrunners.com/thewillofD





Anyways, without further delay, here is my graph this month, albeit a little ugly.


I have a few new goals for December, which will help me focus on my heads up game overall and hopefully avoid winners tilt.

-Volume: 30K hands at LEAST at 100NLHU. On sessions where I have more than 2-3 hours to play, the goal will be to hit 1000 hands during the session. No making a buyin and going "I'm done".

-I want at least 5 people I'm two tabling to quit me. That means they'll probably be decent/bad regs who will accept a 2 table match from me. I want to destroy them so bad that they quit me because I'm too tough to beat. This month I had 1 person quit me, and a bunch of bums quit me obv (cuz they just quit if they win a buyin or if they lose one). I hope it doesn't come off as arrogant, I just want to crush a little ;)

-In terms of profits, I think I'll shoot for $4000. A lofty goal but it's better to fall short of a hefty goal then set such a small one and then barely make it. Higher goals means better results hopefully. Lol. :)

So Winner's Tilt, it's a big issue for me. Sometimes I play a couple hands (under 100), make like 2 buyins and decide to quit. But when I lose like 2-3 buyins I keep grinding and sometimes it's not even me playing good poker. I should be lookign to maximize the EV I gain when I'm playing well, so I think putting some volume goals per session will help me get over this. I've also slowly started to try to separate myself from the money value of my buyin. Meaning, when I lose a buyin, I don't try to think about what I could have bought with that 100$ I just lost, rather, I'm going to think of it as just a number, part of the game. And my goal is to make that number as high as possible, losing is part of the game, and it will happen. Obv this is easier said than done. Haha.

I also made Ironman bronze this month, apparently Full Tilt points are really tough to accumulate when you play HU 100NL, it takes like 1k hands just to get 50-60 ironman points, which is retarded cause I play 500 6max 50NL hands and I'm at 100 Ironman points. Lol. They really need to up the amount of full tilt points you get for playing heads up.

Well, happy December everyone (soon to be), and I hope you guys are all crushing the tables.

Also, if there is anyone that wants to get in touch with me and talk about some HU hands (preferably 100NL players or better) feel free to contact me. Just send me a PM and perhaps we can get in touch via aim or something! :D

Peace
Reft

What's up every1, I just wanted to blog and vent some frustration from these last couple of day's sessions at 100NL HU. I'm down about 10 buyins in the last 3 days of play, and just when I thought it was going better today, some megafish sits at my table and starts open raising to 23bbs, firing flops for 30bbs, and ultimately being a fucking retard. I catch TT vs this crazy maniac from Belarus and he just ships it with A3cc and of course he hits his ace. Then not many hands later i get dealt AKss and what do I run into all in pre...AA. Just retarded that these types of players get rewarded for doing stupid shit the whole match.

Anyways, I've been getting some sweat sessions on and some help from mr ladrao, and it's been improving my game quite a bit. I'm starting to play decent regulars more often, and often play 2 tables against the same opponent. It's been good for my game and my development as a poker player, however I have a long way to go. I lost 6 buyins in one session against another crazy player from russia, where I just ran into the top of his range EVERYTIME preflop. We had an intense 4betting dynamic and he was basically 5bet shipping stuff like A6o. I got dealt 99 3 times in the match, which were all happily get it ins vs this player and he showed up with JJ, JJ, and TT. Then I got dealt JJ 180bbs deep and we got it in, and he showed up with QQ. It's been that kind of week I guess. But I guess this will just be a test to see if I can keep playing and hang in there no matter how fucking ugly it's getting.

Sometimes it just sucks when you know exactly how to beat your opponent but the luck of the draw etc doesn't happen to fall your way. Would that be called running bad? Oh well. My HEM session page is really ugly atm. My measly goal of 2K profit this month is probably out of reach. Currently I'm at 854. 850$ of that profit coming from 50NL HU bumhunting, and this month at 100NL I'm breakeven. Not bad I guess, but not comforting either!

Oh well, I'll try to keep optimistic and keep the grind on.

What up everyone, wanted to take some time out of my Sunday to blog about one of my favorite passions and hobbies, video games. I wanted to talk about some of my favorite games of all time and perhaps get to know some other CR members that are really into gaming.

Warning: This is long.

Here's top 10 list of favorite games of all time, in no particular order:

1. Earthbound

2. Final Fantasy 7
3. Counterstrike
4. Diablo II
5. World of Warcraft
6. Starcraft
7. SubSpace
8. Final Fantasy 11
9. Redmoon
10. Halo 3

Going over this list it's pretty apparent that my heart in gaming lies in First Person Shooters and Role Playing Games. I got into gaming pretty young, probably in my infant years playing Mega Man on NES, of course I sucked completely, jumping into a pit over and over again. I just wanted to talk about these games and what about them I really like.

1. Earthbound

Earthbound was one of the early SNES RPG's that really got me into, well, RPG's. It was cartoony and the storyline was amazing. 8 bosses and each boss would give you a piece of the puzzle (Sound Stone), so that you could save the world from evil Pokey and Giygas. Of course, most people just recognize that Earthbound contributed "Ness", the character found in Super Smash Brothers 64 as one of the "secret" characters. Few people have actually played this game, as it wasn't very popular, compared to other games available on the SNES, ie Mario Kart. I recently (last year) bought the original Earthbound box (which was supersized to contain a full strategy guide and some other goodies), and guide on ebay. It cost me over 200$US but that's my passion for this game. It's a game I've beat 8 or 9 times through, just simply because it was fun to replay. I still have the different town songs stuck in my head. This is probably my favorite game of all time.

2. Final Fantasy 7

What can I say. This game was amazing. I found it so complex and it had a lot of depth. So many different side quests you could do to improve your characters, and overall it definitely reinforced my love for Final Fantasy games. I remember playing Final Fantasy 2 and 3 (4 and 6 respectively in Japan) on SNES and loving those as well. I'm a big fantasy game geek, and this is just the type of fantasy gaming I like...somewhat realistic, but not like dinosaurs are walking around talking and casting magic, and bullshit like that, normal humans that just have some special abilities, that's my type of fantasy game.

3. Counterstrike

Ahhhh CS. I started in Beta 2 and played all the way to 1.2. I quit in 1.2 simply because I had to focus on school but when I did play it I dedicated a lot of my time to it. Playing for 8hrs+ a day for 2 years was my life back when I was like 12, but I loved every second of it. I joined a bunch of great clans and was invited to the first CPL in Texas but I think I was too young to attend. My handle was "Avenger", was the name of a Star Destroyer in Star Wars (lol I played the trading card game). If anyone played CS, if you know [DCK], $iK, or [W.E.W], give me a shout, those were some of the clans I belonged to.

4. D2

I got into Diablo 2 after a CS clanmate of mine (bl00dsh0t - I think he's on E.G. CS team still), told me to go and buy it the day it came out. Knowing it was a Blizzard game, I knew it was gonna be good. We spent the first couple weeks all as barbarians maxing out Leap Attack (wow we were noooobs) and generally just having a fun time in our off time from playing CS. I really liked the customization and online aspect of the game, knowing that you could party up, have fun, and get great items to show off in the chat lobbies. Of course going hostile was great too. I loved trading as well...being able to trade 1 shitty item for a better one, then trading that better one for even better ones, it was great. Diablo 2 had its own little economy, and I loved that.

5. WoW

I wasted too much time on this game. This is where the name Reft comes from. I originally wanted to name my character "Rift" but, Rift was taken so I went for Reft. I started playing this game my freshman year of college, and the guy that lived next door to me in the dorms at University of Washington, was already level 60 when I started and in a hardcore raiding guild at the time, "Insomnia" on Tichondrius, I was on another server though - but soon I would join him and raid with Insomnia. I remember watching him play and Insomnia's raids of Molten Core and thought how fucking awesome it would be to be in such a hardcore guild that looked to be the best. I was a night elf priest (LOLLLL for u guys that have played WoW, Night Elf racials blow...Shadowmeld? Haha). Anyways I raided pretty hardcore for the majority of my time of my first 2 years of college that I missed out on a lot. I always crave to be the best at any game, and WoW was the ultimate time-sink. I remember my freshman year there was a kid in my hall 6 tabling poker on PartyPoker (this was 2005), and I remember someone telling me that he paid for all his electronics with poker money. I thought about getting into it (god I wish I did) but then I just didn't, since I was addicted to WoW. Nevertheless I found out that he still plays poker off and on today. His name is LOLWHODAT on FTP if anyone knows him. Sometimes I wonder if I started playing poker back then if I would be in a better spot in my "Poker" career than I am at now. Probably, but nothing is for sure. Anyways, back to WoW. I transferred servers to join another raiding guild when I felt like Insomnia was slowing down on their progression (mostly due to the good players quitting and getting burnt out). I joined "Forgotten Heroes" on Black Dragonflight, and things were great. We took down the 4 Horsemen, Sapphiron and Kel Thuzad in Naxxaramas and I remember having a lot of fun playing during that time. However, not all things stay great for a long time and I eventually quit WoW...only to come back during the BC expansion and play a Shaman for a PvP team on BDF with Azael, Radikal, Odd and Dez, we ran a 4 DPS 1 Healer setup and generally did pretty well for awhile. But just like the first time, I quit after awhile again -- got bored and realized I spent way too much time on the game.

6. Starcraft

I was never really amazing at this RTS, but I still loved playing multiplayer and playing other people. I have the beta key for Starcraft 2 and I'm just waiting for Blizzard to stop delaying it and just fucking release it soon already. I'm sure the Koreans feel the same way. I am a Blizzard game junkie so I'm sure I'll definitely enjoy the gameplay of SC2 when it comes out. The updated graphics look amazing as well.

7. Subspace

This was the original game that got me into online gaming. It's a primitive 2D (top down) view of a spaceship that you select and you join a server and play different variants of games. It was this game in 97-98 that really got me into the awesomeness of online gaming (omg forget consoles!!) and ultimately this game led to me playing Counterstrike, which led me to play all the subsequent games. Anyone ever play this? It got renamed to "Continuum" later on.

8. Final Fantasy 11

Ahh yes, this was the precursor to WoW. I never got the highest level (75 at the time), but I remember loving this game since it was basically like Final Fantasy themed and you could spend HOURS upon hours here. The music was great, the virtual world Vanadiel was fucking huge, and their professions (crafting) was really complex and intense. The virtual economy was actually an economy, and I remember it being so complex and in depth that you could spend a lot of time discovering everything / achieving everything. I really enjoyed this game a lot although I didn't play it nearly as much as I did play WoW. The leveling system was gay, you had to have a party to level up, and when one of your partymembers is a moron, it's tough to get anywhere. Also, the game stressed equipment too much, you needed to have the best equipment to even level at an efficient rate. The game itself is quite merit-based, but a meritocracy sucks when you start off with nothing...It's hard to get going when everyone else has already established themselves. Starting from scratch when the MMORPG has already been out for awhile is very tough.

9. Redmoon

Lol, this was a korean RPG with a Diablo 2 type of view that had 1000 Levels of leveling. Of course, the levels from like 1-100 are pretty easy, they don't take long at all. I'd say leveling from like 59 to 60 would take like 20 minutes tops. But once you got to level 500ish, each level took an hour or so. At level 900, the level would take 4 hours. And then once you hit 901, the exp needed to level to 902 was such a giant leap that it would take 10+ hours of just straight killing stuff until you got to 903. This was the ultimate grinding game. I remember looking at the players who were level like 950 and just thinking that they were crazy. My highest level was probably 560 or so. I got pretty tired of this stupid game. You would get a new skill every 100 levels (with the exception at 50), and there were 7-9 different classes you could choose from. If you didn't have an AOE skill, the grinding would take you forever.

It was in this game that I chose the name "Rift". One of my friends in game was named Schism, and I thought it was a cool name. So when I created a character, I looked for synonyms to Schism and "Rift" was one of them. I was known as Rift for awhile - until WoW, of course.

10. Halo 3

I was pretty good at Halo and Halo 2, but Halo 3 was really good to me. I got it a month after it came out back in 2007, and I remember getting from rank 1 to 47 in a weekend. I thought I couldnt get any higher so I just stopped for awhile, but in January of 2008 I decided to go for level 50. After a couple weeks I got it. I felt pretty accomplished, seeing as how there weren't that many level 50's around. It was a good feeling to be a "general" lol, as when you entered a social playlist, a bunch of 12 year old kids would go "OMG A GENERAL!!!", and then sometimes when I let my friends play on my account...people would always talk shit to my gamertag saying that I "bought" my 50 -- apparently you can buy them on Ebay? Lol. Anyways, I played this game for a good year or so, but I loved the fact that I could put it down whenever I wanted. I didn't feel an obligation to my "Guildmates" or something like that in a game such as WoW or FFXI. So whenever my friends wanted to hang out, I didn't have to make up some bullshit excuse as to why I couldn't go out from the hours of 7pm to 11pm, lol.

It was during 2007 that I fucked around Poker for awhile. And 2008 I tried a serious attempt at 100NL FR. But I failed, miserably. I gave up poker for awhile longer, and then in Feb/March of this year, started to get back into it. But that's another story.

Hope you guys got some enjoyment out of this. Some of you might think I'm a complete nerd but....that's cool.

GL @ the tables this weekend
Reft

Results so far:

Hands: 12338
Earned: $870.65 (823 of it is 50NL HU, and 91$ is 100NLHU). Lost a little donking around 50nl 6max.

So we are getting deep into November, and it has been about a week since I last posted my move up to 100NL HU.

I've played about 4000 hands there this month and I've won some big pots, lost some big pots, and generally it's been swingy...not going the way I had hoped. The fish there don't stack off as light as they do at 50NL...at 50NL they practically hand $50 to you on a silver platter, but at 100NL I feel like the fish make you work more for your $, of course, small sample and I haven't played that many people yet. I have had a few reg-matches in which I get dominated, so basically I am focusing on getting better as of late, as well as game selecting well and earning some $ as well. I think confidence could be an issue as well.

My goal this month was to reach 2k profits. I think I can still make that if I just stick to 50NL, but I think long term I need to start getting myself better at 100NL and up so that I can make the bigger profits in the future. So who knows, there's still 11 days to get my grind on. I really want to be studying as much as I am playing though, and also improving my game should become a priority.

Anyways, more updates to come, probably at the end of this month.

PS you should check out the Isildur blog post by INTERNETPOKERS, or Haseeb Q--however you spell it, it's a work of genius.

Reft