Stoxtrader is "In the Well"

[dying2win]

what do you think the games will be like in 2-3 years, and will there be more or less players.

[*TT*]

Stox - loved the book of course, its the first ground-breaking work on limit hold'em in years. I refer to it quite often, both for myself and as a teaching aid.

Have you thought about writing a followup "workbook" style short handed book? Think Harington on Hold'em or How Good is your Limit Hold'em as the model.

[stoxtrader]

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Hey Stox!

How do you think your former job has prepared you for becoming that good of a player and helped you to handle the step of going pro?

Did you ever have more than marginal psychological leaks? How did you get rid of these (doing yoga, reading books about psychology or s.th.)?

[/ QUOTE ]

trading stocks and playing poker have a lot of similarities, so I do think it helped. The biggest two reasons it helped though might be less common - I had the money to move up quickly without worrying about bankroll considerations, and I was used to 7 figure swings at my job, so whats a 5 figure swing? well, i guess one time its not my money and another it is, but I had plenty of experiences handling both big wins and losses and seperating luck from skill from clear decisions.

I think my mindset and risk attitude lends itself well to poker, if I ever did have any psychological leaks above say 5/10 LHE, I didn't know about it and still don't. My biggest leak currently might be playing a style in videos that I think makes for a better video but might not be the most +EV.

[stoxtrader]

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Het stox thanks for doing this, will you be writing a NL book and or another limit book?? A god thinking player who plays lets say 1/2 NL- 2/4 NL can expect to have approx what kind of ptbb?? Have games changed alot in limit and NL in the last yr since the usa ban?? Thanks

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As too the books - both are possible, though not super likely at this point. Mason has tentatively agreed to either, but 2+2 always reserves the right to veto anything they think is of subpar quality. I think this is one way they keep the reputation of their books so high, but hopefully I have earned some room because of WITHG, and I think I have.

The problem is, I have lots of ideas that I think are very good for a NL book/series, but as of right now I haven't really started, other than fleshing out a short article for bluff magazine, and writing a good/complete book is a lot of work. I learned some from the WITHG process, but unfortunately not really any spots where I can "cut corners".

estimating winrates depends on more than just the player's ability level, it also depends a lot on the quality/quantity of the competition and the rake. I would *estimate* that at those levels the top 1% in skill level earn 5-7ptBB longterm, but hard to say as almost all of those top 1% would move up.

games have changed a lot in the past 3 years for sure and they will continue to evolve but aside from some room consolidation and a strengthening of the average player I think the games are still good and plentiful.

[stoxtrader]

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what do you think the games will be like in 2-3 years, and will there be more or less players.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there will be a similar number of players with a similar player landscape. WE have competing forces of new players entering the market as they get older and lots of the world still growing, competing with US games slightly declining (my perception only, no idea if correct).

overall, I'm going to guess that stars will still be the leader and in 2 years will still have over 100k players online at peak times.

[stoxtrader]

[ QUOTE ]
Stox - loved the book of course, its the first ground-breaking work on limit hold'em in years. I refer to it quite often, both for myself and as a teaching aid.

Have you thought about writing a followup "workbook" style short handed book? Think Harington on Hold'em or How Good is your Limit Hold'em as the model.

[/ QUOTE ]

*IF* I write a book, I am more likely to get a NL book going because I think there is a bigger void there for the stuff I have to say.

[NNNNOOOOONAN]

top 5 shlhe players online today

also,

do you think that it's still possible to start at $1/$2 lhe and move up every 500bbs for each level and be able to make a living at $5/$10?
what do you think is the lowest level you could make a decent living at at LHE? assuming a $2,000 monthly nut.

[Ibanez8185]

What do you think the is key component to success? (other than BR management, tilt control, etc.)

[stoxtrader]

[ QUOTE ]
top 5 shlhe players online today

also,

do you think that it's still possible to start at $1/$2 lhe and move up every 500bbs for each level and be able to make a living at $5/$10?
what do you think is the lowest level you could make a decent living at at LHE? assuming a $2,000 monthly nut.

[/ QUOTE ]

SHLHE is tough to say, if you HU also counted I would have to include matt hawrilenko and thebryce in there. Other than that there really aren't any huge games that go with regularity, and I'm out of touch with the stars 100/200 and 200/400 games that i guess? are the biggest regular games on the net that include US players..

different people would probably definie "decent living" in different fashion, but if poker is your sole source of income I would hope you are pretty good at it. Making 2bb/100 at 5/10LHE means you make 20c/hand or 2k per 10k hands, playing 30-40k hands/month which seems reasonable + RB and bonuses you could make 6-10k/month, but you would need to be a very good player.

[stoxtrader]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you think the is key component to success? (other than BR management, tilt control, etc.)

[/ QUOTE ] there is no key component, but a mix is more important i think.

different players have done it with varyng degrees of strength in these areas:

innate intelligence
ability to tolerate/handle risk
work ethic
affinity for strategy games