The Well: BobboFitos

[BobboFitos]

[ QUOTE ]
A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Tuesday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer" .

The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on Tuesday? and the voice from in the well shouts back: Because on Tuesday, it’s your day in the well

[/ QUOTE ]

I am going upstairs to eat dinner. I'll post some background in a minute, then I'll answer any questions for the next 24+ odd hours. Hopefully this is a good one.

[carnivalhobo]

hey, i like your posts.

can you give a poker history, breakdown of #hands/lvl and a little bit of you take on the current environment post legislation.

[gimmetheloot]

bobo, i abs love your posts and will be back to ask some questions. thank you so much for this.

[willw9]

What would your advice be for a thinking/winning SSNL player who just feels like they have hit their "poker potential ceiling?"

[BobboFitos]

[ QUOTE ]
What would your advice be for a thinking/winning SSNL player who just feels like they have hit their "poker potential ceiling?"

[/ QUOTE ]

1. no one ever hits their poker ceiling. even the best players can get better
2. try something new; not necessarily a new game, but a new strategy. you'll find that mixing in unusual stuff may get you to think of your standard play as incorrect/not optimal
3. if you truly think you cannot get better, and are winning, play higher. higher does not necessarily mean better opponents, but it generally does. they will test you, which in turn will make you play better.

[RiverFenix]

Aha moments are the best. Care to post one more? Perhaps last one you had?

How is your coaching broken down - some sweating, some theory, some review, etc?

[BobboFitos]

[ QUOTE ]
bobo, i abs love your posts and will be back to ask some questions. thank you so much for this.

[/ QUOTE ]

No problem, it's my pleasure. Hopefully this is a good well/people get alot out of it.

[Green Kool Aid]

GO MONEY

[BobboFitos]

[ QUOTE ]
GO MONEY

[/ QUOTE ]

GO MONEY

[BobboFitos]

[ QUOTE ]
hey, i like your posts.

[/ QUOTE ]
thank you =)
[ QUOTE ]

can you give a poker history, breakdown of #hands/lvl and a little bit of you take on the current environment post legislation.

[/ QUOTE ]
Poker history -

I started playing the summer before my senior year. So, roughly 4 years ago. I played with my friends from high school - a few post here, including Green Kool Aid (highest on my FLB) and Sk00lb0y.
We played NL25 with .5 and 1 dollar blinds. Yes, incredibly short stacked. We also believed in tells - my first poker book was Caro's Book of Tells. lol, no joke.
Dave (Green Kool Aid) showed me poker room and poker stars play money, where he would just shove all in every hand and laugh. I was immensely intrigued.
I realized the only 2 ways for me to get money online (since I didnt have neteller, or any real money aside from what I had saved from my summer job, which was a special cares counselor - not even 1k) was to win a free tournament (I tried very very hard, and final tabled a few of the 3k pools and stuff.. although, if you final tabled, you only got into the sunday 150$ tournament, which you then had to final table. sadly, the tournament route just wasnt going to cut it!) or sell play money chips. So...
I began playing play money on pokerstars and amassed several million play chips - obviously I was terrible, but I took it seriously, and no one else did. Somehow, and this was the breaking point, someone bought my chips for 10 bucks. Later someone told me I could've gotten like 50$ or so, which is truly mind boggling.
I bought a ton of poker books throughout this, including super system, theory of poker, advanced holdem, etc. I have read each of those books atleast twice, and super system probably ~5 to 10 times. (The no limit section)
So, I lost half the 10 bucks instantly playing 1c/2c. Since it was still the summer, GKA was with me, and we opted to use the last 5bucks and change on a sit and go. He remembers that vividly, saying I made a big semibluff on the bubble or something, (I dont really recall) and obviously I got lucky and hit it and won the tournament.
From there, together (we shared my account) we played 1c/2c until we had a bankroll around ~50. Sometime my senior year (still playing in home games, too, where the big buyin was 20 bucks) Dave and i played a 3$ tournament where we won-1st was ~900. We decided to split it, and finally play separate accounts.
I then for the rest of my senior year played 4 tables of .5-1 and 1-2 LIMIT holdem. (full ring of course, they didnt have shorthanded that long ago!) I didnt have PT, and was a marginal winner. I also played alot of stud; .25-.5 through 1-2.
During our spring break (March sometime) I went to turningstone. This was very exciting for us; (Went with sk00lb0y and GKA) I even made an ultra gay itinerary. My sister went to Syracuse, and I had some friends there, so we were able (for the ~4day long trip) stay in my friend's Rollie's girlfiend's dorm room, (he stayed with his GF) which was awesome for us bc it was an all girls floor. Turningstone, then, did not run any no limit games!!! So, Wes and GKA played 1-3 spread, and I was the "Baller" playing 2-4 limit.
Anyway, including live play with friends, I finished that year with a bankroll around 1,000. During the summer I played every night after camp (I was a counselor) and logged insane work days (I have no energy nowadays so I wonder hwo i did it; id get up at 8, work in the hot sun until 430, workout w/ Rollie until 6, sometimes go out and party, and play poker from whenever i got home until 2 or 3, then sleep 4 hours or so). I played mainly MTTs and limit holdem-I liked no limit but just (crazily) felt you needed to "see someone to get a read on them." At this time I discovered 2p2 thanks to a friend, Evan Naismith. (Luckycharms on 2p2). I started posting ridiculous advice, pretty much quoting good old doyle about not going broke in limped pots and such to small stakes. Back then 2p2 didnt have high/mid/small, and i remember i was v v v intimidated to post anything in higher stakes. good thing i didnt, i was awful.
When I went to RPI, I strangely believed tournaments were the way to go. I didnt make too much money over the summer, maybe 1k tops from poker? So my roll was less then 2k. I played all the micros, 5$, 10$, rebuy etc. i could. (I won a few small ones) Quick funny anecdote: I skipped a math lecture and won a 1$ daily tournament or something for 250$. Dave (GKA) laughed and broke it down how much the lecture I skipped likely cost me; it was more then the 250 i won. I skipped actually alot of classes, and became technically a part time student. mainly because i was failing so much because it was so so hard and i played poker so so much.
the cool thing about RPI is its close to turningstone; i would go often there w/ several friends, including "Mehndamassah" and luckycharms (who went to union).
My first lesson about BR management: Mehndamassah (who does not post on 2p2, and is not a good player, but was a big tournament guy on pokerstars for a while) picked me up and we planned on going to TS for a week. We planned on playing the 1-2 NL game, 100$ buyin. How much did each of us bring? 250 dollars.
So, we booked the room for a week, and went brkoe the first day. I'll never forget playing MDM heads up for red bull since we had no money for food. We had to call a friend to put money in MDM's bank accuont so we could "win back our money." (and called a friend to come pick us up...)
During december break, i contemplated not going back to school, but my mother urged me to try for another semester. I went to visit Williston (my boarding school) along w/ a friend named Jay and Dave (GKA). Somehow I had some party poker money (maybe 50 bucks or so? I dont really recall) and one night while up there dave and i could've gone to a party, but chose to play a 30$ MTT. We got lucky throughout; we both remember having 99 on T x x flop, pushing all in, called by QT, and spiking a 9. that was lovely. We wont that for a 6k score.
We split that down the middle, and now with party money, I decided to reenergize myself with cash games. I played a mixture of limit (up to 30/60, which i beat for a good margin) and NL. I think by this time they had shorthanded tables, but I'm not positive.
ANYWAY - I went back to school, and promptly withdrew by march. That is when I chose to go to boston and become a "professional" by multitabling NL100+ games on pokerstars/party, where I lived at Tufts w/ Gary Stevenson. (we became v good friends, he was my friend from HS, nathan's roommate). gary and i played largely the same games then - it was v funny, 2am through 8am or whatnot, us back to back with multiple tables. i loved chatting about hands (and posting on 2p2...) and he did not like talking. i woudl SHOUT (and wake nathan) about good/bad beats, he would just make the "shhh" motion and tell me to STFU.
That was also when Gary (real name, Alex) and I would take the T to braintree/around boston for underground games. That was fun. We would discuss hands/situations together, and that was probably when I improved by leaps and bounds. At that time I also was getting coached by a 2p2er who never posts anymore named BK (brian Kennedy) who, at that point, was a top poster/player (although more in limit then no limit) and I benefitted immensely.
As "fun" as that sounded, though, alot of elements lacked, and after a month I returned home. My mother made me promise not to play poker, since she blamed that as the cause of me failing out. So, I picked up my 2p2ing and that was when I decided to coach. She was pretty pumped about that, as it was a small business. I charged 40$/hr at first, LOL.
Anycase, the allure of poker was too strong, and I started playing on several sites, including FTP, jetset poker, true poker, and good old party/stars.
That summer my bankroll was very veddy nice, and I remember how much of a "baller" I was then; i bought a new car (special edition civic which was really cool) as well as went to TS for the tuorney week and played the "big game" (WHICH WAS 5-5 NL LOLOL) and the big tourney (1.5k buyin?) that was somewhat of a highpoint, as my car tore up the BR (20k of 30k or w/e)
At Fairfield U I coached more then I played (Several clients would always ask me why i didnt play more..) but i did play live quite a bit. (it was fun going into NYC; Gary, who took a break from Tufts, went with me from time to time) that was when I met TWP, Mikech, voltron, etc.
At that time, I asked Cero Z (my favorite person on 2p2) if I coudl get coached by him. I thought there wasnt much i coudl gain anymore from reading 2p2 since people (then) withheld so much information. (The very good players) He agreed, and that was great. (I'd consider him a friend at this point) He improved my live game and shorthanded game without a doubt, since he knew how to REALLY think.
I got into an arrangement w/ Chaostreezie (~Staking) on a really soft site (Empire, which was at that point not a skin; it had become separate) on a 50/50 deal. He said the games were too good for me not to play (the highest was 10/20) and he was right. people sucked. I obviously for that time (maybe a month?) never went to class and played every table I could. (which wasnt many) Without a doubt I was the best player on that site.
Until... one day, v groggy, waking up at 5pm, i played and lost an insane amount of money (most of the winnings) I (then) was a huge tilt monkey.. some of my plays included 3handed cold calling/ then calling reraises with 83s, A4o, etc... it was really dirty. i do remember alot of bad luck too, but thats apart of poker.
Josh freaked after that, which I dont blame him, and we cancelled the deal. I was kinda shaken at the large sum of money i made/lost, and decided to take a long break from poker. unfortunately, world of warcraft hooked me in at that time. so, i didnt play (nor write my book) for a solid ~7 months or even 2p2 (that was when i took my break, iirc).
then i moved out to california, slowly weaned myself off wow (finally completely quit mid jan of this year) and slowly started playing again.
What do I make of the post legislation environment: I miss Party alot. I really am unhappy I never put in a ton of hands, aside from the 1 month in boston where I played an insane amount. My friends and I regret not focusing, since then we thought we would always be able to do it. I still believe the games are very soft, but thats bc i have an inflated self opinion of my game. (although results do back up that opinion)

Hands/level: My PT database has been lost so many times. I used to play (finally bought a new sick laptop a month ago) on a thinkpad. I loved my T42, but I lost all my PT data (each time of like 50k to 100k hands)

if i had to guess, id say ive probably played 80k hands of micro stakes(penny stakes to NL25), 300k of small stakes (NL100 especially and NL200) 300k of mid stakes (2-4 and 3-6, what im playing now) and 20k of high stakes.(10-20) including live.