The Well: SEABEAST

[Jay Riall]

Are you coming to London later this month for the tournies?

[Suwalski]

What do you think of Professional No-limit hold'em by Matt Flynn, Sunny Metha and Ed Miller? (If you've read it)

Have you had any coaching? If yes who? And at which point did you decide that you wanted coaching? And how did it help you?

And ye, post some sick graphs please.

[Speedlimits]

What's your monitor setup? Do you coach?

How many hands do you play a month and will you ever move up from 2/4?

[SEABEAST]

[ QUOTE ]
This is amazing. I've been waiting!

-Poker story?


[/ QUOTE ]

Hehe. Ok. This will be long... some of you will want to skip to the cliff notes.





I am pretty competitive and was always into strategy games. In my late teens I played MTG fairly seriously and was the #1 ranked player in my state for a couple of years. Around 2000-2001 a lot of the better Magic players started getting into poker after Rounders came out, and I followed suit. I was a huge nit, terrified of losing money, and I didn't fall in love with the game immediately like a lot of other people did... but after spending a lot of time playing MTG for virtually no money, as a student bum with no money living away from home, being able to earn cash for playing a card game seemed like a good deal, so i got a friend to buy me in for $50 on Paradise Poker and started grinding $.5/1 limit.

I 2 tabled full ring for hours, grinding out a bankroll. Some of the other better Australian magic players told me about 2+2, and I started reading the forums in maybe 2002-2003. Everything was very different then. Most posters were 30+, LHE was dominant, and the tone of reponses in most threads was play weak-tight (Sklansky style).

The forums have changed so much over the years. The increasing popularity of shorthanded play had a lot to do with it, young guns like Schneids etc started coming along playing much more aggressively and posting sick results. Then obviously Moneymaker changed everything, Party Poker became huge and there was a massive influx of morons with cash into the game. I had been steadily grinding along with my nitty styles, and in several years I had never had a losing month, but back then it was different to what it is now - it wasn't just assumed that the goal was to win X amount and then move up, rinse and repeat. I assumed everyone playing high stakes was sick good, so I mostly kept grinding out my 4BB/100 (yes at limit lol, games were quite good back then) at $.5/1-2/4 LHE for several years.

In a way this was a very bad foundation for me in the short term - because I had begun playing before the boom I was too hesitant to move up as soon as I could, when I could have absolutely demolished the 15/30 games if I just stopped cashing out and built up my roll instead. On the other hand this has had a very good effect on me a couple of years later, as I am able to really appreciate the money and therefore grind out a lot of hands while maintaining a high level of play, and avoid the feeling some other people get that playing MSNL is not enough.

So anyway fast forward another year or two of being an anonymous small stakes limit grinder who didn't really love poker but liked the money (back in those days I was still the envy of my student bum friends with my balla $50/hr $1000/week lifestyle) and it's now the end of the year 2005. I had been in a bit of a rut personally and I had a pretty harsh breakup with my girlfriend. I was 23 with no degree and no money, and I realised, wtf am i doing?! I can make so much money from this stupid game if I just resolve to build a roll and work on my play. So I finally stopped cashing out money and spending it on stupid [censored], and started grinding really hard.

Within about 2 months I was at 10/20 LHE taking shots up to 30/60, and I moved into a new apartment right near my local casino. I started breaking up my day into online session first, then walk to casino, play a session, then come home, play another online session, then sleep. This is a pretty brutal lifestyle but I had a singleminded desire to actually make something out of the opportunity I knew was handed to me on a silver platter - already being really good at strategy games before one of them became the biggest cash cow imaginable for someone my age. So I put in a ton of hours and built up a solid roll, by midyear I had over 50K, but I was bored and burnt out.

Near the end of June 2006 I decided to rekindle my interest by finally learning how to play NL. I had been reading the HSNL forum for fun for ages, since back when ElDiablo was Ulysses and Alex Jacob was posting a lot. This gave me an instinctive understanding of a lot of crucial concepts such as pot control, exploiting position, isolating weak players, taking down dead money, etc. Also when I switched to NL the MSNL forum was basically heaven, I swear CTS used to be one of the first 5 replies to every thread, and Krantz, Flawless Victory, and many other amazing posters were very forthcoming with their wisdom, before the legislation basically killed 2+2 strategy and made coaching much more relevant.

I started at 1/2 as I already had a solid bankroll and I won 8PTBB/100 my first month playing 26/16, never looking back after that. For whatever reason NL 6 max really suits me, I have improved a ton since then and am a lifetime winner at every limit up to 10/20, but my main games have always been and continue to be 600NL and 400NL. I have quite possibly been the biggest winner at 600 and below combined on Party over the past year, mostly because everyone else moves up while I just sit there playing vs vastly inferior players. Some might see that as cowardly but I make over $400/hr and bought a really nice apartment right in the middle of my city this year. I have a different perspective on the game than most of the younger guys who want to take on the world - I'm ancient now at 25 and just want to set up my future. Phew, sorry for the essay [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]





Cliff notes:

Ex mtger, good at strategy games
Started playing casually in 2000, half heartedly ground small stakes limit with success until end of 2005
Realised I was wasting my time and had a golden opportunity, finally started taking the game seriously, started crushing midstakes limit
Got bored and moved to NL, did well straight away thanks to having lurked 2+2 for so long
Opted not to move up despite considerable success, won many dollars



[ QUOTE ]
-How many tables do you play at a time on average?


[/ QUOTE ]

My PT for this month says 9.18, I generally like to play 11-12 at a time but I leave bad tables and am constantly closing/opening new ones so the average is a bit lower.

[ QUOTE ]
-What do you think makes you different from the breakeven/average player at SSNL/MSNL?

[/ QUOTE ]

Most obvious thing is that I play 400-600NL when I'm rolled for any game on Party and am probably experienced enough to beat 10/20, but also one other thing is that I am not afraid to look stupid, I don't care if a bluff fails, or I shove a bad hand preflop and get called. I make whatever play I feel is the right one even if I might look retarded if it doesn't work.

[Xanta]

For the record I think that it's sweet that you haven't moved up. It sounds like you have a pretty good perspective on the value of poker.

Any discussion on getting value in 3bet pots (either valuebetting, inducing bluffs, repping air, whatever) would be sick sick sick.

[SEABEAST]

[ QUOTE ]

serious question though, why have you stuck to msnl? you're clearly good enough to beat high stakes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Already sort of answered this in poker story but basically I want to minimise stress and maximise how long I can grind before getting sick of the game. I feel an obligation to myself to set up my future and I am looking to do that with the least resistance possible. I feel like the considerable increase in stress wouldn't be worth the relatively minimal increase in winnings, but I still chase fish onto higher limits because it's obviously massively +ev (and fun [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

[goofyballer]

SEABEAST I <3 U

Post lots of sexy graphs plz.

And just to add some content: What do you think is the biggest difference between playing on Party vs TAG-heavy sites (as far as your playing style and approach to the games)? Is Party being Party a big factor in why you crush the games?

[Lurker.]

thanks for doing this. can you give me your thoughts on this hand?

[hellmuth88]

lifetime graph plz plz plz

[SEABEAST]

[ QUOTE ]

biggest leak that most SSNLers have/how to exploit it?


[/ QUOTE ]

Leak is sort of a strange word for it, but I think the biggest problem SSNLers have is their approach to the game. A lot of people seem to see poker as a game of cards, like the way to win is to figure out hand strengths and the best line for each hand in each situation sort of thing. In reality it's more a series of situations which you are looking to exploit, and the way you make money is figuring out what the best way to take advantage of the current situation is each time it is your turn to act.

It's much less about how to play aces or ace king than it is about being able to identify stuff like: that your opponent will fold if you raise, that your opponent will call no matter how much you bet, that if you put in a raise here it makes it very tough for your opponent to continue out of position, etc. Stuff like that, look at the situation overall, not just the cards and the board.