the Well: Jstill

[jstill]

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Have you ever had a downswing so bad that it seriously shook your confidence in your poker ability? If yes, what did you do to pull out of it?

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of course, practically always with every downswing.. even one bad day when u play poor makes u question everything... kinda sucks then u shake it off and think "ive been doing this for awhile it ll turn around it always does".... though now Ive switched to NL so I dont have thta security blanket.

what i always tried to do during a bad limit run was just post hands I played and respond to hands to get confidence that my thinking and decision making werent poor, just my results. U can easily run bad for a week, or a month even playing lots of hands. It helps to have a close friend whose opinion u can respect to keep u grounded in ur play either pointing out when u suck or letting u know the decision u made was fine even if it didnt turn out well. Somtimes during a bad run Id play more full ring cuz its less variance or be more picky about table selection just to ensure I had an edge.

results oriented thinking is so tough and what makes it so hard for people to handle this game. My younger brother is completely results oriented in his thinking, if he loses he should have folded, if he wins it was the right call. I was the same way in college, I try to snap him out of it (and myself) its hard though.

[jstill]

SO you went to school w/ Kyro? Can't you find a girl for his sorry azz? haha Kyro rejected me from facebook and I was in his homeroom for 3 years.. then accepted me after I called him out in BBV lol.

I dont know if I was a jerk to him in high school I dont really thikn so but I can come across that way joking aroudn Im sure esp back when I was kind of a teenage prick. I'm guessing if he came out in Portsmouth ever I could introduce him to plenty of females... Im kind of a local celebrity who knows everyone and ladies man hahaa jk... Ive never seen him out in any of the bar scene towns around where we live Durham, Dover or Portsmouth. Actually a few acquaintances of mine have recently been like "u are such a pimp u know every chick and theyre always all about u"... its not exactly true though, but I do fine.

I thought last I heard actually Kyro had a few dates with girls who were in my grade ( Im a year above him).

What do you feel is the strongest part of your game?
The weakest?
The part you have the hardest time working on?
For the above, why is it so difficult.

argghggh i hate these questions I have no idea... Ive always been a good hand reader, and could tell when peoples lines werent consistent or what they meant (even though I had never heard the term line) these were the talents that gave me success when I knew close to nothing. I learned to tighten up earlier than most though I think and Im pretty good at adjusting vs villains. Now alot of my edge vs avg players is just knowing baynesian analysis which 90% of players dont (which plays into hand reading since if u arent reading hadns well u cant apply it well), while most every generic tag plays preflop almost optimally now (atleast on wsex).

I think blind defense was the toughest thing for me to work on coming over from very soft loose passive games ot very aggro wsex games. I was leaking big time and its not easy to work on exactly. U just gotta post hands and find out what to do when vs whom... its a long process.

2 years ago, where did you see yourself compared to where you really are? I never saw poker going beyond a hobbey, and figured it would probably cost me money. I was gonna be happy if I just didnt lose my 100 deposit right away and could keep it going for a month or two to keep myself occupied while bored at work... duno why i ever quit that job? guess i just wanted a free summer last summer... it was fun tho for sure.

if u told me 2 years ago " you can play poker for a living and make over 50k a year" Id have said sweet sign me up I ll do thta for the rest of my life, even though in my mind it would be a pay cut for what I always anticipated in a career (hoping 100k+). Now I look at poker the opposite Id only want to do it if it could make me far and away more money than a regular job. Id like to get back to it being a hobbey and not have to worry about planning my finances months in advance and worrying whether I ll make any money in the next month or not. Hopefully I can ride out one more year of just poker as a source of income through this next year of grad school.

Where do you see yourself in 3 years from now? 3 years from now I ll hopefully have gone one of 2 avenues... Either I ll get my PhD and either be a professor or be starting a job in the Economics field or I ll have been working for 2 years at a well paying job (100k+ after 2 years anyways hopefully) with my Masters in Economics. Pokerwise once I have a job I ll be able to grow my BR again faster. Seriously now if I win more in a month or two period I dont have a larger BR I just did more things and bought more stuff probably. Theres always something I want to buy it seems like and not having a steady income makes that kinda treacherous. In the end Poker wise Id like to get to the point where Im a respected feared regular in the mid-high limit and no limit games. Winning a braclet or WPT tourney isnt really in my expectations ever but it woudl be nice to say wouldnt it? as would winning a nobel prize but... haha.

What playing tendencies of regular 2p2ers are the easiest to exploit and why? In NL I just cr or raise so many boards with air HU or in 3 way pots particularly after one folds. Doesnt come up a ton since u dont defend ur blidns often or need to pull these, but they work soososos often in so many spots. Not sure what anyone can really do to counter it. Ive stopped cr'ing real hands as much though since Grunch said not to so not sure how I ll be able to balance this (or if I ll need to?)

As far as limit goes everyone plays different but almost everyone sucks at something. U just gotta figure out what it is, where they have no balance or give away information so u can play perfectly against them in those spots or exploit their tendencies.

What made inferno so tough to play? His uber-aggression?
MJ and Guru were tough becuz they didnt need cards, they just took shots at me all the time and made like advanced/weird multi street bluffs and floats Id never expect cuz I dont try to pull that crap ( and they both went by their 2p2 handles) and they open weird hands as randomizers so putting them on a range is tough.

Pbob was very very solid, so maybe it was easier to play correct against his play since I expected him to play correctly with his range (this was before I even knew the guy Im thinking about was Pbob), but his cr'ing range was wide (optimally so probably), as was his turn raising range so its not like it was easy to play against him at all. I just avoided him after realizing he was as good as he was.

Inferno and me knew who each other were pretty early on so we never sat unless we pretty much had to and he was playing 30/60 and higher by the end of my playing at wsex (tho those games were rare). He was like a 30/20+ who played very well postflop he wasnt like a 3 af but like 1.5-2 with great balance and hand reading abilities. He just pissed me off basically cuz he played so well against me postflop and just 3bet me relentlessly pre. I think I may have gotten the best of him though technically in terms of money lost to or won from just from positive variance though, I coolered him far more than vice versa.

What limits are you typically playing for LHE and NL?

[/ QUOTE ] I play 3/6-5/T limit and NL50 and 100. I dont feel confident in my NL game yet to play 200 or higher and Im a BR nit I like to have atleast 700 bbs and 35 BIs just to make me feel fine in NL atm. Who knows maybe I ll drop that down at some point or take some shots at 200+... doubtful tho

[jstill]

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Absolutely brilliant !

I decided that I would not respond to posts after I came home after a few beers.

But, this is too good to not respond and say Thankyou for 2 excellent posts ! [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

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thanks, sorry it was so long and I basically wrote the same thing twice [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] just remember though even though I referenced mostly combos in those posts to describe how we were doing against his range and why we couldnt fold, its about equity ( I just didnt stove it or do that part out by hand), and implied odds factor in (but it wasnt very close I could tell in any of the decisions between call or fold where either of those issues would swing it, so I omitted that).

I always feel bad when I write so much but dont know how else to say what I think is important often when talking strategy... and planning it out to be concise is more time consuming for myself perhaps... kinda selfish to you all I know.

I had a few super long posts in the theory forum recently, a few responses were " that was great u totally cleared up the whole issue for me, that was exactly what I was looking for" or "great post, worth the long read" while others threads I got " you just totally confused the crap out of me Im gonna have to read that 50 times, all I wanted to know was "blank" "

Ive never done just a random theory post or an x post post or poo bah post but my "statistical rant" in theory is probably about as close to one as Ive ever done. Not sure its super useful but if anyone has time on their hands a bunch of new posters said it was great. Meanwhile no love from the regulars [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[jstill]

Im out for now.. Tuesday is Boozeday (funny how something like that applies for any day of the week isnt it)... leave some and i ll catch yall in the am

[bennyhana]

nice well. you are the longest winded poster I think I've ever read.

are you a real chatty guy in person or more introverted?

[icheckcallu]

poker career timeline pls///

[jstill]

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nice well. you are the longest winded poster I think I've ever read.


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yeah id say I might earn that honor (or shame)... I never understood how great players could just respond with cr/c. Guys like S_T and gehrig are some of the people whose responses I take to heart the most, but they rarely let you in on their thought process though its always cool when they do.

Anytime I see a hand a million thoughts go through my head and factors to weight (usually unless its easy), so I generally include them cuz thatll probably be more useful to lurkers and newbies to gain info on how to make decisions rather than just saying what I think is the correct action vs this villain after this action on this exact board. And like ILP has said I too kinda feel obligated to share my knowledge anytime I can since this is where I got most of it from. I also always like to figure out what the right action would be if the hand played out a slightly different way, if the board was varied, or the threshold where we would take a different action if our holding differed; so that makes for some long conversations.

If i could be any posters it would be ILP or Heisenberg, they give great in depth responses and formulate their thoughts much better than myself, and I'm guessing are better players overall as well. They definitely win more than me. I would have tried to emulate them from the get go though ILP stopped lurking I think like literally the same week I did and Heis registered a bit after myself.

Sometimes I regret my long posts sometimes I think they were called for, even if I could have maybe condensed it a bit better.

[jstill]

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are you a real chatty guy in person or more introverted?

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Im a pretty gregarious or social person. I also like to debate things (though I don't think I'm a dick about it like some people can be) and have serious conversations, or just banter about nonsense. Really though I'm the type of person who likes to go around and make totally random/ stupid comments cuz I think its funny. Just say whatever noone would expect for a response in that situation or come up with clever quips or play on words when people say stuff.

The good thing about talking to people in person though, is that I'm good at reading people (partly from poker, partly from doing sales for several years and partly naturally). So its pretty easy to gauge someones reaction about whether they're interested in what your saying (or think your story is funny) or whether you should wrap it up, let it die, or change the subject. Nice to be able to tell what people think of you at that moment or what your saying. Some people dont have this skill at all I've noticed. I can't imagine going through life without it.

I'd say I'm probably a bit more shy and introverted than any of my friends would describe me or perceive me to be.

[jstill]

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poker career timeline pls///

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its a couple pages back, not sure its worth the read tbh...

basically started playing NL tourneys with friends in college. Hated limit cuz u couldnt protect ur hand, hated online cuz u couldnt read people and u cant win if they dont fold (I was such a donk).

after college played more sparingly, just live with friends. Then got a new job managing a store for a friend with lots of freetime so a friend got me to read SSHE and I made a small deposit to bonus whore october before last. By May I quit my job after reading Ed Millers going pro articles (cuz I was going back to school so I had a fallback plan, and wanted the summer off and was making enough from poker). This was around the time I registered on 2p2 and began posting though I had lurked since reading SSHE. After the ban I switched to wsex and had to start posting even more to figure out all my leaks, then after they changed rake structure I switched to NL for something new. Hoping to not busto before I'm done my masters in may.

[mvoss]

What happened to the SSSH digest [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]?