I'm going to offer an hour of coaching of 100NL or below (HU, FR, SH, w/e) for $25. I will then buy $25 worth of dog food and take it down to the county shelter. I thought about doing it for free but then I realized that $25 is still pretty much free and I might as well feed some dogs after that hour.

There is a catch though - if you want to be considered, you have to pick a NLHE hand, including suits, and post your pick in the comment section (be sure to check that someone didn't already pick your hand before you post). Next Wednesday, I'll shuffle a deck at home and pick two cards. I'll pick the winner based on the following hierarchy:

1. Correct pick obv
2. The actual hand, with the most # of suits. If two people have the same hand (like T9), and both have one suit, then I'll flip a coin.
3. At least one of the cards with the correct suit. If multiple people have the correct card with one suit, then if you have the other correct suit you take it. If no one does, then I'll flip coins.
4. Both suits.
5. One correct suit.

I hope that covers everything. If the above process is in some ways flawed, let me know potential problems and I'll try to fix it so that it's working well by next Wednesday when I draw the cards out of a shuffled deck.

If you are too good for my coaching but want to participate anyhow because you are feeling lucky and love to gamble, you can still play. If the winner decides not to ship for the hour, I'll just go right down the line until someone collects.

It's amazing how quick I forget that poker is a long term game. On Saturday, I dropped $1,000 in about an hour and was super steamed. I mean ... I couldn't win a pot. Get it in good, lose. Get it in bad, lose. Get it in thinking I'm good and find out I'm bad. And lose.

I quit at the right time:



Nothing good would have happened if I kept playing. This I know from experience. My mindset was one of a hurricane.

Then I stepped back and loaded up my "All Hands" graph which is covers about 430K hands of 100NL, 200NL, (and maybe a few of 400NL) dating back to May of 09, including rakeback. I highlighted the said Saturday:



It was the perspective I needed. So - whatever you do, don't tilt and just think: long term, long term, long term (saying it mostly for my own benefit).

I think it's pretty clear where I did tilt in that graph though. So dumb, but as I discussed early last month, it will serve to better me as a playing in the long run.

Besides - I'm a much better marathon runner than 100m runner, so it should feel natural anyhow.

I win/lose $100 - $500 pots online all the time. It's part of playing the 100NL/200NL games. It sucks to lose them and rules to win them, but it's completely standard. On the other hand, if something was to break with my car and the repair cost would be $350, it would hurt much, much more than losing a $350 pot. The same is true with the stock market. If my stocks lose $200 one day, I don't even pay attention. Yet, if I was to pay $200 for medical bills, I would be one sad verneer.

I feel like my online BR is somehow different from my Real Life bankroll. Yes, I realize I could cash out all my online money, but it's not really an option (since what would I do after that?) Same with the stock market - I could liquidate my stocks at any point and cash it out (except for the $ in the IRAs), but I just let it do it's thing.

Maybe it's because I associate the money in my bank and wallet as directly related to buying goods and services and the money I have online as serving a totally different purpose (money used to make more money). Yet when I stop and think, it should all be the same, right? Or not?

It's critical for the brain to make the disconnect between the money on the table and the potential goods/services you could purchase with it if you didn't choose to play with it. I know that this disregard for money is absolutely critical if you plan on playing the high stakes and nosebleeds. I am guessing a lot of this is acquired. I'm sure the first time Cole South lost/won a $10,000 pot he had a rush. Over time, this went away.

I think that as long as I don't have this disconnect fully in place between my online BR and IRL bankroll/needs, I am anchored to my current limits. Not that there is anything wrong with that :)

I'll admit - I think that I'm smarter than most people. I'm not fully sure what it means (there are all sorts of intelligences out there. For example, I think my overall emotional intelligence is average at best), but I have done very well academically and in most competitive situations which has over time molded my self image to be where it is.

I am around a lot of smart people, but seldom do I meet someone who just utterly humbles me on an intellectual level. Someone who is not just on another level, but I feel that they are on a whole different dimension.

So ... anytime I read something that Haseeb "INTERNET POKERS" Qureshi writes or discusses in a video, I experience this humbling sensation. To me, he defines intellectual genius. With some smart people, I look at what they did and think "yeah ... given their education and experience, I probably could have done with they did", but when I read one of Haseeb's blog posts, or listen to him break down a poker hand, this happens:



For example, I was discussing Rush with Citizenwind yesterday and we started talking about running good or running bad. We both agreed that the EV line isn't really that indicative of whether you are running good or bad. We discussed the obvious situations of getting a set-over-set and losing, as well as getting to the river in a cooler situation and losing. The EV line doesn't really reflect those situations. Obviously there is more to the whole "running good/running bad" discussion, but Alvin and I pretty much kept it on level 2-3 when talking.

I remember reading something a long time ago that Haseeb wrote about variance, and remember it being on a whole other level. This morning I decided to find that post and when I made my way down to January 26, 2009, I found it aptly titled "Poker is a whore." As I proceeded to re-read it, my mind busted a nut all over my brain. This was written on level one billion. Not only is he able to even think of relevant ideas the way he does, but he is able to articulate that to others.

There are other posts in his blog which are equally as insightful, deep, and generally mind-blowing, but I can't really read another until my mind reloads, which might take a few days.

Over the years, I've been tweaking my computer setup more and more to optimize it for playing poker. I'll post two pictures and explain why I have what I have:



Specifically:

1. Two 24 inch Samsung 2494 HM LCD Monitors. Ordered using my FTP Points from the FTP Store. Love them so far.

2. Logitech LX8 Corldless Laser Mouse. Very fast, feels great in my palm, but sometimes will lose connection which is why I have (#3) below. The mouse sits on a Fellowes Mouse Pad.

3. A backup wired laser mouse from Dell.

4. RSA Security Tokens for PokerStars and Full Tilt.

5. Chair from Office Depot. Not sure on what the brand name is but it was around $200-$300 and is very, very comfortable. I basically sat in a bunch until I didn't want to get up from one. That's the one I got.

I also have a regular Dell keyboard which seems to work very well for me.

Onto the more important stuff:



1. RodeoBlue helped me pick out my tower. We ordered everything from newegg.com and I put it together myself (well ... with Rodeo's help via Skype). Here are the highlights:

HardDrive: 3 OCZ Agility Series SSD's in array.

Motherboard: Gigabyte LGA 775 Intel

Processor: Intel Core2 Quad-Core

Case: Antec Three Hudnred Black Steel ATX

2. Fatal1ty Gaming Headset. Seems to do the trick, but def nothing top of the line.

3. Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 1TB Storage/Backup HD. One downside of having the SSD's is that I have fairly limited storage in my actual case. Since I make a lot of videos which take up a lot of space, I need to selective with what I keep/don't keep on the computer. This allows me to move files very quickly between the storage and my computer. Serves as a backup as well.

4. Charter broadband internet. Fastest I could get in Athens. Which isn't all that fast.

5. ATT DSL internet. Yes, I have backup internet.

I was browsing 2+2 and someone was bitching about something relating to CardRunners. Maybe the video they wanted wasn't up early in the morning due to technical issues or something. Whenever I read that, it astounds me how quickly people lose perspective of just how much $30/month is worth among the poker playing community. I can't help but think of the Louis CK interview in which he talks about how quickly people feel entitled:



Most training sites, including CardRunners, cost $30/month which I think is absurdly cheap when you think about how much money most people win/lose in a month of playing.

If you are looking to get 1-1 coaching, good luck finding anything under $50/hr ... and $50/hr is like the BOTTOM of the pricing range. Most coaches charge anywhere between $50-$100 to coach the micro stakes players.

So ... 1 month of access of TONS of resources - videos, articles, forums, etc, for $30.

One hour of coaching for $50-$100. From personal experience, I know that it's very difficult to really get a lot done in an hour, and that's even under IDEAL conditions, namely:

- Coach is already familiar with your game and issues
- Coach has a specific plan which he prepared to address those issues
- You and him are able to move at a good pace through this plan

This means that for coaching to really pay off, you need a minimum of 2-3 sessions and at least 4-5 hours of work on the coach's end. I'm don't know if people still do the "Let me watch you play and I'll tell you what to do" model of coaching, but I imagine that to be the least effective method of addressing the long term student issues.

For those of you that even watch only 2-3 videos per month ... the price of your education is so much lower than individual coaching. Now ... at some point videos aren't enough. Tons of coaches are pretty good about answering questions in the forums pertaining to their videos or even general questions. I don't think a lot of people use that resource.

Basically ... I continue to be surprised at how inexpensive a membership to a site like CardRunners is (hell - it's free if you play on FTP enough) in comparison to how expensive individual coaching is. The gap is astronomical! I am sure there is a supply/demand reason that CR/DC/Leggo/BF don't charge $35-$50/month, but I think plenty of people wold still be members.

Now - I totally get why good players charge what they do for coaching. Supply/demand. They have limited time and if someone wants to pay them x for their time, they are willing to do it, otherwise, they are not. I get it. If the demand exists and people feel like they are getting x amount of value from a certain coach, pay it (assuming the coach is honest about results/credentials and you are an educated customer).

What I am still trying to understand is why is CR so cheap? Is it because most members are recreational players who have a very passive approach to learning and play the low limits?

Today was round two of the Durrrr challenge and it didn't even last an hour. Jungleman once again looked to bust Durrrr's online roll (Durrrr started buying in for weird amounts < $40,000) and according to his Twitter (@junglemandan) won $173K in 7K hands. That puts him up $700,000 in 7K hands, but more importantly, gives him unbelievable momentum. Over that stretch, Durrrr has only won 37% of hands.



On the 2+2 High Stakes forum, the line before today's match was moving towards +150 in favor of Jungleman (So ... you bet $150 in order to win $100 if you want to bet on Jungleman). More recently, viffer is asking for +225 to bet on Durrrr.

Still, my impression from the first two matches is that Jungleman is just in complete control of the matches. Just as my respect for Dwan faded during the Isildur saga (because he wouldn't quit Isildur and it was sad seeing him lose his roll all the way down to one table), it's quickly fading again during these games.

First of all ... why doesn't he have more money on FTP? It seems like he is showing up to the games poorly bankrolled, and as his play seems to show, in a poor mindset. It's not like he is getting coolered left and right - he is calling Jungleman's value bets and trying to bluff Jungleman off hands in a match in which Jungleman seems very happy to go to showdown.

Some of the big pots towards the end before Durrrr quit (no audio ... I just did a ninja edit and threw them on YouTube):



I refuse to believe that it's just variance. Thus, the only two other explanations are:

1. Jungleman is just several tiers above Durrrr in terms of HU NLHE.

2. Jungleman prepared and continues to prepare for the matches much better. He is playing his A+ game full focused. On the other hand, this is just another thing for Durrrr to do and he is bringing his B game and going through the motions. Round 1 he played after a long session with other players and got crushed. Round two was very short and his bankroll seemed short. These are not marks of someone who really cares about the outcome of the match.

I really had higher hopes for this series. Unless something seriously changes, Durrrr is going to be out of at least $3,000,000. How does that not motivate him? I expected more.

Katy and I decided to buy a 2010 Toyota Prius (yea 50 mpg!). From what I understand, a new car is generally a really bad deal, so we decided to go through Hertz Rent2Buy and found one with 20K miles on it for a significant discount.

I have an option to get three types of warranties. All of them are 100,000 miles or 5/6/7 years - whichever one comes sooner. Katy and I don't drive much, so I expect that we'll get to 7 years before the 100,000 miles.

Basically, if we were to get the extended warranty, 5 years would be 11.1% of the car price, 6 years would be 11.8% and 7 years would be 12.5%.

Since I don't know much about warranties, I would like some advice: Are they worth it, or are extended warranties -EV? I've got a day or two to make my decision.

I just qualified for the FTP IronMan level, yet as soon as I did it, I shook my head and asked myself "what was the point of that?" For the last two weeks I pretty much got 200 points per day just to qualify. Yes, I could have stopped at gold, but I felt IronMan-committed.

I really, really hope that FTP unveils its new rewards program soon cause Iron Man really pales in comparison with what Stars has. For starters, I hate the fact that it rewards you for x # of days played instead of y # of hands played. I can KIND OF see why it does that, but meh.

I will probably try to get Bronze or Silver next month just to keep my status and get a bonus at the end of the year. Not even sure if it's worth it though.

Join in if you are around - I'll be there for the next 90 minutes or so.



For those of you that want to post hands, graph, or w/e, I started a discussion thread in the Swamp Forum. Check it out and ask about what I had all those times I c/r you (hint: it was the nuts obv).