Pokerstars Tetris Spin and Go's Explained!

So last week Pokerstars released their promotion Tetris Spin and Go's combining the much loved block falling puzzle game with their lottery Sit n' Go's.

Despite their attempts at explaining how it works, I feel that their attempt was quite insuffiencent and so I'm going to explain it better here.

To start the challenge go to the Spin and Go lobby, pick the stake you want to play and click join. For each different buy in of Spin there are different leaderboards so you will have to join them seperately to enter each one. Once you've clicked join then you will be entered in the challenege each day without needing to join again.

As far as I know, the first games you play each day will count towards the challenge.

Start up a Spin and Go to start!

When the Spin and Go loads up you will see a banner which tells you how many line clears you will get for winning it.

So winning this Spin will earn you 4 line clears. 

Line clears are the lines in Tetris that disappear so the more you have the higher your level will go, and the higher your score will be. Your level goes up every 5 lines clears. You accumulate more points for being at higher levels.

Example of what the Tetris board looks like

You can view the Tetris board as a new tab on the bottom left of the game, where the chat and game info are. Here you can see your level, lines and current score. 

As far as I know, the board is just a graphical representation of your board, it doesn't actually drop Tetrimanoes like the game.

The lobby will also show the same board, but I've found that it doesn't update as quickly. Usually the most newly opened Spin should show the most current board.

I prefer the minimal theme but otherwise the table looks pretty cool with Tetriminoes moving around in the background;

This theme can be disabled via the "Table" dropdown on the top left corner where you can click the "Disable Optional Graphics" setting 

Depending on the multiplier and finish position you will get a certain number of line clears.

The score is calculated after each spin and it goes as follows;

The board will show its status of how filled up it is. There are 3 statuses, green, amber and red. Above it shows the green state. The more your board fills up, the higher the status it goes. Once it goes past red it is Game Over and the challenge ends.

Example of Amber board status

Red board status, nearly Game Over!

What the board shows once the challenge is over

Depending on the finish and multiplier, the board state will change accordingly;

Table showing how the status changes depending on your level

As you can see, the higher the level the harder it becomes to improve the board status meaning that you will Game Over much more quicker, meaning fewer bad placements can end the challenge.

The leaderboard tab will show your current standings in the challenge.

From my experience for the $10 stake, 100k+ points should land you in the top 50 for $50.

I managed to a top 10 finish already which was great, I absolutely ran like god winning every flip and then demolished my opponents heads up with double stacks. 

Getting this score took about 30 Spins. A colleague created a simulation and it showed that it

16 hours later, I came top 30th if I recall correctly for $50 which was nice.

The interesting dynamic that this promotion brings is that it gives more meaning to the 2x multipliers, which tend to be softer then the higher ones due to the fact that you can win more. So in theory, this should make the games harder as players will be tryharding more then usual in those games.

However this should bring more recreational players to the games, but from my one week's experience this hasn't seemed to be the case for me, it seems the same. This might be due to the lack of proper marketing for this promotion.

This strange video was the only main thing I found to promote this, and it doesn't really seem that related to Tetris at all apart from the number 4.

This promotion will last until the end of March, so check it out!

Spin and Go'ing during a global pandemic

Hello 2021, and I'm back!

I decided to move back home last month and work on my pokerings again after a long hiatus. The past 3-4 years I have been life skilling it up learning coding and working in that industry. Whilst there, I started playing again pretty casually about 6 months ago.

This month I had been working on adjusting a few things in my game and doing more studying. Last year's results have been poor and things really turned around this month. Surely its gonna be hard for 2021 to be worse than 2020 right?

60 Chip EV in Numbers

One of the frustrating things from researching Spin and Go's was to actually get some real numbers in relation to Chip EV. I am aware of SwongSim which is a Spin and Go simulator which gives you a good idea of the types of variance one might get. For more information I found this post helpful, as well as this video by Coffeeyay. So here's some real numbers...

I spent the first 9 days playing $5 spins building the roll, before taking a shot at the $10s. This was my 2nd shot and it went much, much better then the first time. One thing to keep in mind moving up was that the biggest daily downswing I had at $5s was 16 buy ins, so it was important to mentally prepare for that.

I managed to play just shy of 3k games in total this month.

815 x $5 Spins (7% rake) @46 chip ev

2163 x $10 Spins (8% rake) @66 chip ev

Hours played: 114

Total: $1650

1sts: 38.9% (HEM3 Says 39.3% not sure why)

2nds: 31%

3rds: 29.8%

Winning days: 23 of  30

Losing days: 6

Breakeven days: 1

Winning day streak: 11

Biggest winning day: 45 buy ins

Biggest downswing day: 14 buy ins

Highest ITM day: 50.4% over 113 games

Lowest ITM day: 23% over 65 games

Biggest Chip EV day: 170 chip ev over 96 games (16k)

Spin Challenge leaderboard cashes: Top 5 twice $37.50 each

Multipliers above 5x's: 

• 3 x 25x
• 8 x 10x

Rakeback (Diamond chest): $700

• $325 in starcoins
• 15 x Free $5 Spin Tickets winnings: $125
• $250 cash prize wow

Max diamond chest gift on my last session of the month!

Final total: $2425

Soooo yeah I ran pretty good lol. Not that I didn't work hard at it, I've been studying a lot of spots and also been using ICMizer daily to make sure I'm not missing end game heads up shoving.

These changes to my game have for sure changed my non showdown winnings, which is debateable in the Spin community as to whether it makes a difference or not. Either way, I do believe that getting these extra folds leads to a bigger stack, which in turn should give you the lead more often then not.

This month's Chip EV

Terrible 2020 6k game sample 

3k games is a small sample, but hopefully things can continue. I'm aware that I ran good, and am pretty scared for when that variance happens. Would really like to reach the $25 stakes.

I hope that this post will help others see what kind of variance and money to expect. Money will be completely dependent on the frequency of high multipliers you get and ship though, so its always best to look at the Spin God stat CHIP EV to get an idea of how well your playing.

Happy grindin' peeps, have a great Feb and for the love of God let this pandemic end soon...

Late New Years Resolutions 2012

Well its 2012 and every year traditionally for the last 4 year's I've made some "resolutions"... but they're more like goals really. I think its a really good thing for everyone to do, stating some goals for the year and to look back on them to see how you've done. Here's what I wrote last year;

1. Move out. [x]
2. Take care of family. [x]
3. Travel more (Thailand, Vegas, Japan, Vancouver are likely candidates) [x]
4. Bboy more. [X]
5. Get moving on RSD. [ ]
6. Make friends, socialize! [x]
7. Visit my nephews more. [ ]
8. Study more poker. [ ]
9. Study more philosophy and anthropology. [ ] Not so much as well haha, not enough time is my excuse
10. Love Puyan!! lol [ ]

I think one of the weird things about the goals I set last year was that they were so freaking vague! Not so helpful in terms of making small goals to reach a bigger goal. Anyways, so I'm gonna state my goals for 2012;

1. Play more Poker. Play 2 sessions most days, one being a VPP based one in 18m's, and the other being a 180m/MTT session when I have the evening free. My target is to play more then ever before (soooo lazy last year in comparison to the previous year), and achieve Supernova Status.
2. Go to more international breakdance events and enter the competitions. The standard is so much higher outside the UK, and I will learn so much more. Train more, Cypher more, and Battle more!
3. Visit cousin in Vancouver. Maybe hit up some poker heads there too while I'm there.
4. New York is next on the list.
5. Save up some moneysssss! But yeah, some of my previous goals are gonna kinda make this goal hard to do. Maybe just have to earn more money then?
6. Date more! More being more then zero! She's out there somewhere, right?
7. Blog more! Yeah, sorry guys I should do this more... and plus its so therapeutic.
8. Get to Platinum League in Starcraft 2 (man I have a long way to go haha)
9. Learn XCode for Mac Iphone Apps
10. Be POSITIVE!!

I might have to add a few more to these during the year I think, since I might have missed some ones out... I dunno. I'm trying to be a lot more specific this time... feels better that way.



Looking Back on the Big Two-Oh Eleven

This January, I've been playing a TON! A ton being liek 70odd hours so far... which probably is like totally standard for all you pros out there. Last year, I totally bailed on my game man, just didn't commit as much at all.

After moving out, it took us ONE MONTH before we got internet. It was possible to play on my dongle, but it felt uneasy having 18 tables up and a little stick powering it all. The fact that the flat that we rented was a new build worked against me coz that added to the time of installing the internet.

Once we got it, I was itching to play. Aggressively. Opps. First 3 days pretty much lost all my roll, and only the saved fpps managed to rakeback myself up to a small amount to work on. It took me the rest of the month to win that money back.

As time went by involvement with SNG Protege grew on improving the site and helping Glitlr. This is basically how I have survived for so long here. But working on the site was my own excuse to basically not play. Well, not exactly, not play, but to do such newbie things like "Playing when I feel like it!". There really was no structure or plan at all. On top of that, my studying faded and my jugging of other commitments took more of my time then playing.

So that is basically why I have totally sucked in 2012, despite being totally a better player. In fact, I'm pretty sure I made the same amount of money playing in 2010... when I was mass playing $3 Super Turbos on the RIP Full Tilt. lol

My mind was the to do the bare minimum/even less in terms of putting in the time to playing. In fact it should be the opposite. I should be playing more then ever before. I look at other pros and really realise that hard working mentality is mainly what makes them win, not just the talent and skill. So that is what I intend to do.

In terms of bboying, travelling, moving out and making new friends and stuff... that was all gravy man! I had some really cool experiences up here in Manchester, and I still love this city as much as when I moved here. Its the best city in UK! But totally 2012 is the year of making money for me. I'm gonna totally commit to this and give it my best shot! Time to step it up!






SOPA Off!

It really totally pains me, to see my friends in USA have to keep seeing unbelievably unconstitutional things like this. I mean, what good is having something written when eventually the rich who wants to protect themselves find ways of ignoring it?!

The land of the free? Just seems like there are a small (but powerful) number of people who are trying to stop this from being that anymore.  The Stop Online Piracy Act, if passed, will block and limit certain access to illegal sites. All links or anything to do with those sites will be blocked. The American Internet will not longer be fully open anymore. If you are an American please support anti-SOPA.

Enjoy this hot chick from my new favorite educational yet sexy site, Facts and Chicks.

Its really shocking at some of the policies that has passed in America. Especially during the Bush era. How extreme is it to say that America is a country that is taking policies moving towards fascism? Naomi Wolf explains how in "The End of America", its a really shocking documentary;

Are You Practicing Efficiently?

I was reading an interesting blog forwarded about how a famous Piano player practices. He admittedly puts in less hours comparatively to his counterparts. Just shows that sometimes its not the quantity of time put in but the quality of how you practice.

[quoted from here]


Strategy #1: Avoid Flow. Do What Does Not Come Easy.
“The mistake most weak pianists make is playing, not practicing. If you walk into a music hall at a local university, you’ll hear people ‘playing’ by running through their pieces. This is a huge mistake. Strong pianists drill the most difficult parts of their music, rarely, if ever playing through their pieces in entirety.”

Strategy #2: To Master a Skill, Master Something Harder.
“Strong pianists find clever ways to ‘complicate’ the difficult parts of their music. If we have problem playing something with clarity, we complicate by playing the passage with alternating accent patterns. If we have problems with speed, we confound the rhythms.”

Strategy #3: Systematically Eliminate Weakness.
“Strong pianists know our weaknesses and use them to create strength. I have sharp ears, but I am not as in touch with the physical component of piano playing. So, I practice on a mute keyboard.”

Strategy #4: Create Beauty, Don’t Avoid Ugliness.
“Weak pianists make music a reactive task, not a creative task. They start, and react to their performance, fixing problems as they go along. Strong pianists, on the other hand, have an image of what a perfect performance should be like that includes all of the relevant senses. Before we sit down, we know what the piece needs to feel, sound, and even look like in excruciating detail. In performance, weak pianists try to reactively move away from mistakes, while strong pianists move towards a perfect mental image.”

So why do we instinctively practice without these strategies? Because its EASY.

Easy things means you don't have to think, you just blindly do it and hope for the best. Kinda like religion I'd argue, but that's for another discussion maybe later on.

We can apply these strategies to everything we do... or well want to get good at. Its strangely quite scary to do them actually... learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and accepting it.

I can definitely say that my last 6 months I haven't been practising efficiently. In fact, I've had more of a bias towards playing, rather then "practising" (altho I haven't been playing as much either lol). Meaning, studying off table. Relooking at HHs, and evaluating certain spots. Its easy to think of the game as being something that is solved. 

I like the analogy of looking at what I do as a sport. In professional tennis, a player has to practice and has to play. Practicing keeps his skills up to par when performing. But he must do both all the time, he cant leave out one or the other. Competing is not practice and just practicing is pointless without the experience of playing. 

Does Poker Need An Image Change?

Happy New Year everyone hope you all had great celebrations. 2012 is here and omg... isn't it freaking weird? Back in 1999 I thought everyone would be having butler robots and flying cars or something by now. Wait... I think I might have been highly influenced by something to think this way?!

So I've noticed on Pokerstars that they have a campaign named "We Are Poker". Check out the advert;

Well to some of us this might seem like a bit of a random campaign, but it really does seem like the timing of this is quite significant. Poker has had a bat rep in 2011. Black Friday on April 15 causing online poker to be banned in USA as the government swooped in unannounced and decided to make a statement that they will fight against online gambling. Of course, from our points of view, it seemed like an overly aggressive move, as all big online poker companies would have complied anyways.

The scandals of Full Tilt Poker emerged, as players credits were not banked, and we all realised what a badly run company it was. This did not help the cause. Run by not just poker players, but gamblers who could loan money as they pleased and sell rakeback Red Pro Accounts.

The truth is that because the internet was such a new thing, there had been no regulations in place to cover the scenario of online gamblnig. It did not exist before. On top of that, governments did not even think that it would become as big as it has, and didn't think it would be worthwhile for the tax dollars to contribute.

However, since Moneymaker's WSOP win in 2003 the people who play poker has changed. From smartly dressed casino gambler, its now the average Joe, and now moreso online mathematical [young] geniuses who essentially are gamers playing this "video game" for money. But this is not a worldwide image.And the old stereotype of a poker player being no different to a roulette or craps player is still in the forefront of most people's minds who have not seen any poker recently.

Unfortunately, most of those people with the lack of understanding about online poker and just what the current scene in poker is in general... are people in power. And now, regulations are blindly being put in all around the world, regardless of real understanding of the subject. So Pokerstars' campaign "We Are Poker" is something to hopefully change that. I'm not saying that the ads or the advertising campaign itself is good/bad/effective etc... still to early to say... but its *something*...

The Community

I hate to always harp on about Starcraft/Online Poker comparisons, but it truly is a contrast between what I see as 2012 the booming year of Starcraft (and eSports) and the opposite for Poker.

One thing I notice is the complete positivity and openness to the improvement of everyone whatever skill level. On top of that there are fantastic people who are influential in the community, who all pretty much started out without money/fame on the mind... but for the pure love of what they're interested in. These people, who most are casters, are involved in the big tournaments, the changes to the scene, and are in constant feedback with the community. It seems everyone is on the same page for wanting to improve the scene and make it bigger and better.

Now lets look at the poker comparison. Who are these influential people? The Poker Pros? Not really... They're just... well famous? Do they add anything into the community from their own free will? Or are they paid by poker sites to promote them or have some other money ulterior motive?

Poker is a very "selfish" game in that we think about no.1 first. Us. Me. Money for me. You have to pay to learn... asking questions on 2p2 means you have to deal with many many people who aren't good players and berate lack of knowledge. Day9 uses the the positive slogan of "Be a better gamer"... but we don't see anything like "Be a better poker player" anywhere, or any kinda show like his for our community. 

Maybe the money has gone to our heads. Bad players are not learning newbies or maybe the less serious casual players, but labelled as FISH, the ATM machines for us. Maybe the money has ruined the community for we are simply people who enjoy a game for what it is... a game and that's what it should be. In the Starcraft community its clear that they like the game and that is the one clear motivation for why they play. In poker we are all dreamers... thinking of the glitz and the glam, the bundles of cash, the sponsorship, the "respect" from the community (judged by your ROI%)... it cant be healthy for us as normal people, it cant be good for the community.

I can see that this is a little blast into the poker scene. It may be that I could be wrong. But this is just what I see and feel. Is our community a welcoming community to all new players regardless of skill level? Are we just HAVING FUN? These are questions that I feel like we need to ask ourselves. The new players coming in are declining... we cant just blame Black Friday. This is something where we can conclude, as we look at winnings of each previous year going up (ironically my hypercritical way of judging the traffic of new players). Where does this leave is now... and the future? Only time will tell...

I just hope that we all remember, that this is a game that we should play because its FUN. We should encourage others to play it, because its FUN. We shouldn't berate other players because they are having FUN. For gods sake stop being so damn elitist (even if its valid) and encourage people to play. We need them... or our favourite card game will slowly die out from our interest.

ALL IN!

What is ALL IN?

Its when you put everything on the line... all the money is in the middle and there's no turning back.

As 2011 comes to an end, I can pretty much describe my pokering as pretty disastrous. Compared to the previous year, I had come nowhere near what I had expected to make, let alone even matching it! Many things have probably contributed to this... most notably Black Friday - The banning of online poker to Americans, meaning that games are now tougher and has less players.

Strangely enough I achieved a lot of my goals I set so quickly, I kinda didn't know what to do after 6 months. I had visited my friend in Thailand, made enough money to survive, and moved out of my home to Manchester. I'd improved in my breakdancing a lot, and kept social. On top of that, I've had a huge interest in Starcraft lolz. So with all that being said, maybe my scheduling hasn't been great. Actually... its been pretty shit tbh...

In Starcraft, they also use the term "all in" to describe a strategy that has no backup. I kinda feel like that was my poker strategy this year. Well, actually no strategy whatsoever. In fact, its come to my realisation that my work ethic has been nothing but atrocious. Not only have I been playing less, at random times, and worst of all; "When I Feel Like It" (zomg what a fish), I've been expecting to crush the mid levels without any work at all. Mentally, I've been pretty bad too... as the breakeven/losing sessions keep coming, the more my expectation to get a rush continues... yikes.

Well, its all to change. I'm gonna put in the hours like I did in 2011. Freaking waking up in the morning! wow. On a full day I will do 2 sessions, one 18 man or 9 man session, then in the evening a MTT/180 man session. My strategy for the new year is going to be to achieve 7500 VPPs per month, but I will have to see if that's possible... so its probably gold star status for now. I do wanna get Supernova back actually... but I think I'll have to see how the first few months go. What's for sure, is that I'm gonna be playing more then ever... and I should be doing that in the first place!


Macbook Air 4 meeeeeeeee!

Merry Xmas Puyan! I decided to finally get my mac and I'm loving it! Its a Macbook Air, one of the lightest around... and its great I hardly notice the weight of it in my bag. I'm also loving the OSX Lion Operating System, using three fingers to swipe the touch page to scroll across various desktops.

Some people has asked me why I bought the Macbook Air over the Macbook Pro even though they're similar priced. Well, mainly coz I'm planning to use my laptop for more casual things like blogging, surfing the net, maybe some music editing. Also, I plan to travel quite a bit, so I love the fact that its so light. If you ever have to decide between the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro, just ask yourself what you're planning to use it for... if its more intensive stuff, or if its gonna be a substitute for a desktop, then I'd say get the Macbook Pro.

I'm literally gonna be playing all days,  maybe take New Years Eve off? Haha... lolz course I will! Hope you all have a good one!

Do You Consider Yourself Lucky or Unlucky?

I am a huge fan of Derren Brown. He is essentially a magician but combines a whole bunch of techniques in suggestion, hypnosis, misdirection and showmanship to achieve his results.

One of the biggest reasons why I like him is because he is an atheist and openly shows that he can manipulate the same techniques as those achieved by so called psychics, fortune tellers, religious fundamentalists, and others. Therefore solidifying that they do not exist.

I watched a recent episode (sorry non UK guys if you cant watch it) of his about luck. Its a kinda interesting question especially that we play poker, but he asks you;

"Do you consider yourself a lucky person?"

In the show, Derren creates a rumour of a lucky dog statue, of which self professed into actually making the village seem lucky. The show documents a few people around the village, some who consider themselves to be lucky and others who consider themselves to be unlucky.

The unlucky guy essentially is a person who doesn't take opportunities, choosing to say no. This was in  comparison to the "lucky" landlady who helped a person fix his tires on his car, who happened to be a comedian who ended up offering to do a gig at her pub. Consequently meaning that she had a great night in which more people turned up to see the comedian, and ended up making a lot of money from the big turnout of people buying drinks.

There were some situations in which the unlucky guy was set up, in which if he took the opportunities then good things would happen to him. One of them was that a 50 pound note was literally right there on the road on his walking path and he didn't see it.

Just comes to show that if you consider yourself as an unlucky person, it basically means that you are a "safe" person who chooses to say no more often then not. Not getting involved and not looking for opportunities means that you don't get those "lucky" chances that lead to other things.

For sure I have believed that I was unlucky, especially in comparison to my brother. But in reflection, I really do remember saying no a lot more in comparison to yes. Being closed and safe and given me less opportunities and made me feel like I am unlucky.

In poker we always judge our plays based on the long term plays, but one could argue that our reluctance to spew in some spots means that we lose the experience of understanding those spots better. I certainly think that I have had a bias towards folding in certain close spots in which I've had because of the fear of spewing.

The reasoning for saying NO, because of the fear of things going wrong when saying yes... ultimately is a losing "unlucky person" play in the overall scheme of life!

My Most Minus EV Cash Game Ever

A while back when I first moved to Manchester, I met up with a fellow poker player that I played with back in the early STT days who went by the name of NJD77. We had a drink and a chat after he finished work.

He said that later on in October he was gonna organise a "twoplustwo" meet with some other guys and invited me to come. Of course even though there is a big chance of losing money and more embarrassingly the chance to show how much I suck in comparison haha. Since I never use that forum I actually have no idea who most of the people are. 

The players in question were; 

Derby (or Dreuby?) - A Dutch cash game player who has an unorthodox play should we say lol 

NJD77 - A former fellow STTer now turned cash game grinder

Buffyslayer - An MTT grinder, and newly added SNGProtege Coach, who strangely enough for me lives in Milton Keynes... My hometown 

Entim - Former SNGProtege coach, 18 mans specialist and now complete baller killing live tournaments and staking. 

The game moved to my house and we had some dominoes to start the night off. We watched Entim run retardedly bad vs a fish in a few HU SNGs, which unfortunately proceeded to spill over into the cash game.

Derby who we now decided to call Deurdy due to IPhone's auto correcting, took it upon himself to have a 100% pre flop VPIP folding only a few times to some 3 bet shoves. 

Was a great night and it was awesome meeting some real life legends! haha. I'm sure that they're all gonna be humbly saying they're not. But none the less it was an experience, and I hope that I can meet more people in the future.






A 180 Man Fail

With my continuous involvement with SNGProtege as well as breakdancing, starcrafting, and going out and staying social, it has been increasingly difficult to be able to commit myself to a 5/6hrs of grinding the 180ms.

So I've decided that I'm going to have to play more shorter sessions, involving my old favourites the Single Table Tournament 9 mans, and maybe some Heads Up stuff. When I can find the time I'll throw in the odd 180m tournament, but for now my priority will be getting those VPPs/FPPs again and my status up again (I'm Bronze Star again woohoo!)

I really do think that even though they are not as profitable as before, I should still be table to make a decent amount in them, especially with the fact that a lot of players are still stuck in shove/fold mode. I'm a big believer now in relearning the game straight up, and harnessing your skills by getting lots of post flop experience.


Additions/Changes to SNGProtege

I'm aware that some blogs end up being very "advertisy" and I'll try not to be like that. This blog is always gonna be about what I wanna write about and no one can tell me otherwise!

SNGProtege has expanded now. We've got a new MTT Coach, Buffyslayer1, and has 2 new students turned coaches Bigniux and Whyme270483! Congratulations to all!!

We've also added all videos to be accessible from the forums, as well as the webinars that happen every week. The videos and webinars have evolved from simple push/fold ranges strategy, to now understanding the game from a fundamental hand reading level. Here's the titles of our webinars to date;

1. Invention Value
2. Raise/Folding <10bb Stacks
3. <6 True bb Shoving
4. Isolating!
5. Calling Shoves; Thinking Beyond EV
6. Flat Calling
7. Bluffing Lines
8. Fancy Play Syndrome
9. End Game Short Term Memory...

If you are interested in being staked in low stakes SNGs and MTTs, please feel free to apply here.

Time For A Break

I really haven't been playing all that much and have been dabbling around here and there kinda with some half arsed sessions. Feeling guilty for not "working", its become apparent to me that my hunger for the game is slowly dissipating. I've been in this situation before, and what I did was take a break and hit it hardcore when I got back... So I'm gonna not play poker at all until next Tuesday...

The P-log Changes

Well its apprent to me that this blog is pretty empty. In some ways I guess it reflects on my mood as such. My mood is effected on whereby I am making money. So therefore there has been less blog posts...

As chirped on in my previous posts, full of optimism and tips for positive thinking, and not being results orientated, I accept that I am totally not following my own advice on those as my lack of success is certainly getting to me no doubt. Hey, I'm only human (or am i??!)

But life has gotten more complicated, in that I have one! lol. Back home living with my parents it was easy to concentrate on poker, just coz I didn't have much of a social life, and in a way I kinda wanted it to be that way. Concentrate on learning this game, and make sure I play since I have nothing else to do.

Upon moving up to Manchester (my fave city... in UK ha), I'm juggling various things I wanna do, such as breakdancing, playing Starcraft (zomg), and staying social with my friends. I'm also helping with Glitlr's amazing site SNG Protege, in which my coach has certainly turned amany zeros to cash machine making heros.

Because of this, I have removed the description of this blog from being "A Puyan P[oker] Blog" to simply "A Puyan Plog". I just don't want, or need this to be a blog about poker only. I mean, it basically isn't really, I've talked about various things that aren't poker related anyways. It all comes down to the fact that I just simply don't think that poker is a huge percentage (lets statistically say) of my life anymore. There are other things going on, and I want my blog to reflect that. Plus, I'm hoping to blog more about other stuff anyways, I've forgotten how therapeutic writing this stuff down is...

Please have a look at www.sngprotege.com and see if your interested in backing and coaching in low stakes SNGs. We're now accepting applicants that are interested in playing Scheduled MTTs, with our new coach Buffyslayer! I'm pretty psyched as this weekend I'm gonna be meeting a bunch of amazing poker players including Buffyslayer, for a poker filled weekend of which I am blatently the fish lol.

Rules DONT Rule!

Rules rule!! Err... nah. Rules suck lol. But it is true that we need rules to a certain extent, but to live by them is another thing. Rules aren't necessarily there to be broken (as the saying goes), but in the other extreme case it doesn't mean that we don't need any rules at all.

Case in point;

Killing is wrong. If you kill you go to prison.

Woman kills a man, she should go to prison, coz that is the rule.

However, what if it was in self defense? What if she got attacked and her only way of surviving led to her killing him?

Do we stick to the rule that is written in stone or make an exception for the individual case?

Well I hope you choose the latter, coz the truth is that Rules are GUIDES.

Some people stick to the rules regardless, whether it defies logic or common sense. Why? Because its easy. Because you don't have to think. If the woman killed, and the rule was that you cant kill then she should go to jail straight up... because that's the rule. Maybe there'll be a few individual cases where there should be exceptions, but statistically, overall, the rule will be beneficial and justified percentage wise.

In poker, there are a lot of "rules" to help you. There are things like "be the pre flop aggressor", or "shove 10 big blind stacks blind vs blind" or "never open limp". These are good rules, they help a lot, but at the end of the day, they are guides.

I think I have been playing by the rulebook way too long. Having rules makes everything easier. You literally don't have to think. You don't have to think about the "exceptional" case. But playing by the numbers is not maximising value. You are not adjusting to the game, the game is controlling you.

Don't just blindly follow rules no matter what - Think for yourselves! (Image roughly relevant lol)

Goodbye Steve Jobs

Well when talking about breaking the rules, there's no better example then Steve Jobs. He was the mastermind of not just innovating products, but actually the idea behind making us want things that we didn't think we did. There's no doubt that he is one of the most influential people of our time, and how he turned around Apple is an inspiration to us all.

Apple has released their long awaited new phone, the iPhone 4s. Many people were speculating that this was gonna be number 5 coming out, but I had my doubts, since they brought out the 3G before the 4. Why change a successful pattern?

Just like the 3G, there wasn't an amazing amount of changes. Basically they buffed up the 4 with more faster processor and a better camera. They introduced something called Siro which is a voice activation task manager, but honestly are we all gonna be going round the city talking to our phones? Would be pretty weird. I mean, how much little time do you have where your gonna need to be talking into your phone your text messages? I dunno...

What has happened with this update is that people aren't impressed with it. But in all fairness it just hasn't lived up to the previous new changes that Apple normally brings in. People will (and have) still buy it, and I still think that the iPhone is a damn good phone/ipod/movie player/camera/GPS/app utility...

The iOS5 has also been released this month, which is the software for the iPhone. I am very impressed with this update, it has some cool stuff like quick notifications, and my favourite one being a quick way of taking photos (using the volume button as a clicker too). There are a lot of other features such as photo editing (taking out red eye and light levelling), reminders app, automatic updates without needing iTunes, Twitter integration, and automatic backing up using iCloud which is free. There are actually loads of features that they've tweaked and you can check it out here.

Test of Will

I'm getting to that point of where my will could be broken. That being said, I feel that I have quite a big resistance, but recently things have not been going as well.

I have a certain amount of expectations of which I'm not reaching. That in turn, is effecting my confidence in my plays, and I'm still finding out a lot of leaks even at this stage of the game. I'm a perfectionist. So maybe I'm emphasizing the leaks as being something that is bigger then it actually is.

That being said, last year I pretty much did shit until the last quarter of the year. So hopefully this year can be the same. I have basically tripled what I've earned every year of being a poker player, and if that happens these last 4 months are gonna be epic.

Maybe Jarad Tendler will say all these negative thoughts are not helpful. I love the idea of learning in a process orientated way, rather then through results, but there comes a point where [as a human] we cant help but think of what could have been.

I'm not one to be secretive about my results. In fact I'm a big advocate for free open source mentality over protective secret money patent shhhhh mentality (Wikipedia wins over Encarta all day). But I'm pretty damn embarrassed tbh;

Yes, you've played me and said "Oh, thats Puyan the B.E player. How the fuck did he get a star??lol"

I guess its going upwards... kinda?? lol. My excuse is that I'm learning, I suppose. But how long am I gonna be learning for geez? Note that the first 5k games are STTs. I'm actually shocked at how bad my hand reading skills are, even to this day. That's what I get for simply finding a mathematical shoving "theory" and applying it mindlessly.

If I didn't have other sources of income I would be in big trouble right now. But I cant keep doing this for long, the pressure is on! I did actually move for this reason, but didn't expect such a bad turn of events. Hopefully things will pick up. I've realised that I haven't actually played over 1500 180m in a month, so I'm gonna try and reach 2k by the end of the month, which means 600 games in 4 days.

I know I'm better then this. In fact I have a few coaches who said that to me. But lets see if the results flow... only time will tell. I'm hoping that I will get my love for the game back, because in all honesty I'm struggling badly to get up and want to play.

GG

GG = Good Game.

In Starcraft 2, it is what is written when you surrender, so whoever GG's first is the loser. I lost the prop bet, but ended up, so strangely enough I'm actually happier then when I did the last prop bet, because I felt like I put in higher volume, and won money lolz. But I could have done better, however my friend from Thailand doesn't like forsight so she randomly told me she was visiting and I couldn't play for a few days...

Here are the Results;

Total Games = 1000 games on the dot!
Days Played = 8 out of 14
Running Profit = $617 (Average buy in $7)
Final Score = 1085pts


Whyme's Results;

Total Games = 849
Days Played = 13 out of 14
Running Profit = $3543 (Average buy in $10)
Final Score = 1651pts

GG indeed.

Tbh I'm quite happy with my volume considering I only played 8/14 days. I was really hoping to play something within the region of 10-12 days, but when I found out that I had to take some days off I adjusted and played longer sessions of around 120+ games when I did play.

What was frustrating was that the first 4 days I was like totally breakeven. Like literally 450 games worth = $30 haha. But that's why they call it a grind! These games can be really annoying, so many close calls, and the bad beats that cost you so much potential $$$.

But I guess you have to run pretty good at these to win, and Whyme totally did that. I got skooled, and congrats to him he deserved it. I probably didn't put in my A game, with the longer sessions I do find it harder to concentrate. But at least it wasn't an epic fail like the last bet I had where we didn't make any money.

Whyme has "designed" an avatar for me that he thought was funny;

However, he probably forgot that avatars are tiny so no one can actually read the text;

So apparently I've decided to change my avatar to Bart Simpson singing something that no one can read. It could be waaaay worse lol, so I'm pretty happy with that. I can totally think of way more embarrassing stuff then that. Whatever tickles Whyme's fancy... I don't get German humour lol.


EPIC SHOWDOWN OF THE DAY

Gave me a heart attack!!


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 3.5 Tournament, 6000/12000 Blinds 1200 Ante (3 handed) - PokerStars

Hero (SB) (t176305)
BB (t179109)
Button (t444586)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 10

1 fold, Hero bets t72000, BB raises to t177909 (All-In), Hero calls t103105 (All-In)

Noooo I'm LOSING!!!

Flop: (t353810) Q, Q, 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

YESSSS I'm Winning!!! Full House Baby!

Turn: (t353810) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

NOOO Freaking Way?? Zomg Q Vito'd my T! House over house zomg!!

River: (t353810) 10!!!!!!!!!!!!! (2 players, 2 all-in)

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH CASE TEN!!! QUADZZZ!! MWAHHAHAHAHAHA!!

Total pot: t353810


Annnnd I lose HU. Aw well, cant win em all...

Let Battle Commence!

Round 2... Fight!

Ok, since I'm Asian I guess I'm Ryu and Whyme is Ken =D

I'm doing another prop bet! Its basically the same as the one in May vs Bigniux. I did win that, but it was a hollow loss as our volume sucked basically, and we both lost... with me being the victor by being the one who loss less lol. 

Anyways, new bet, new guy... I'm against the amazing German player Whyme270483 who has been absolutely crushing the 18 mans working hard with SNG Protege. It will be a good motivational challenge, for both of us... and tbh all I really care about is getting decent volume in really... not the mockery of the last bet. I'm hyped tho! Should be good...

So using the PortlyPig idea we will be using a points system and the winner is the guy with the most points at the end of the 2 weeks starting from Thursday 1st September to end of Wednesday 14th September.

1 pt per game
1 pts per profit/average buy in = buy in up (we're playing different stakes)
200 pts if 3 ships in a day (100 pts per shipz after that)
100 pts going from 9/9 to ship
25 pts for going into FT 1/9
-100 for coming 9/9 after going to FT as CL
50 pts per KO'ing each other (-50 for being KO'd)
-50 pts for "Bubble of Shame", for coming 19th.

As sharkscope is dodgy and HEM doesn't record 3r properly we'll use the cashier before/after our session to track our profits. Winner gets money of course, but more importantly pride in the fact that the loser has to change his avatar to whatever the winner chooses for the rest of the month!




August Report


Yeah August was my first fully broadbanded month as a Poker pro, but I totally got kicked in the nuts straight away. Ouch. Its weird because normally I'm so good at bankroll management, but for some reason I'd been waiting so long for the internet that I basically felt like attacking the tables aggressively and was too overconfident, so my money buffer wasn't enough.

So in a crazy 3 sessions of losing $2k and nearly going broke, I had to swallow my pride and go back to the $2s. As well as this, I've been learning a lot more with Glitlr and trying out different things and working on my heads up. So yes, I did fuck up my potential first month of being a pro, living off my winnings, but on the other hand I've learned new things and will probably never ever do that again ha.

Looking forward to September, putting in some good volume and hopefully continue to get some results. Always remembering to learn and never say that "I have this game DOWN"!

As far as my overall goal is concerned, yeah I totally have gone a bit off course by a few months lol. But hey, it happens... learn from it. It is really annoying actually that it took so long for internet to come, and a bad start, but as with the nature of these games, I know that any heater can bring me right up. Hopefully with the help of this bet I can hit that Godmode and crush!

The Fantastic Five (Almost Sexy Six)

Wait... Isn't it mean to be Fantastic Four?? Hmmm

I've been working hard at my game these days. Adopting a strategy of less straight out shoving, but a lot more min raises and playing pots. As strange as that sounds, being a STT grinder before had gotten me into a mathematical shoving mentality. The fear of losing hands where I *could* have won by shoving pre flop.

As previously blogged, I had been losing a lot of money, so this month had been about dropping stakes and regrinding that money back up. I also saw this as an opportunity to relearn my game and also work on my heads up play.

So even though at one point I had been grinding the $15s, I had to swallow my pride and go back to the $2s. Last night I played around 90 games, and won 5, came 2nd in one (1 river card away from making it a perfect 6!). I can move up from $2s now!! ^.^

$2 180m only! Who would have thought you could make this much from such small stakes!

SNG Protege Webinar

The first SNG Protege Webinar was a great success. Please have a look at SNG Protege and apply if your interested in being coached and staked to play low stake SNGs. Here is a preview of the webinar;



Hope all is well with everyone, esp the East Coast guys! GL@TT & Peeeeace!! :P

Anarchy in the UK

Broadband Arrives! Getting Crushed  D=

There's something funny about losing money. It feels so much worse then winning money. Why? Because its the feeling of losing something that you had, where as winning doesn't have that comparison.

Ironically I waited so long for broadband, and the first few sessions I got smashed. The worst I've ever been smashed tbh. I had the biggest losing day of losing $1000. 4 figures, from only $15 max games. Not just once, but twice within 3 days. $2k gone.

But its not simply variance. Probably played bad in certain situations, and I had also ignored basic bankroll management rules which I'm normally really good about. And now the pressure's on. I am dangerously low on money and pretty much shitting myself. However, this is what I moved out for, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do under pressure.

I am going to move down stakes, and do some reviewing. The $10k month looks like it'll have to wait for now...

I'm a FISH!!

When Capitalism Rules Over Public Services

My blog has always been pretty light hearted, but in recent light of the rioting in UK I really wanna talk about this subject in a serious matter.

Lets first be clear about what is actually happening. Last week a man was shot in London by the police which sparked a peaceful protest in North London at the police station to demand answers for the man's death. As no answers had been given or even acknowledged for that matter, things started turning ugly. Soon that area started full out riots and looting. But we must note that it was not the protesters who were rioting, but the youngsters. This was merely an opportunistic crowd jumping on the situation.

What has followed (we are on day 5) is continuous looting by the youth gangs all over London, systematically targeting shopping districts and burning some of them down. Over the last day or two, "copycat" rioters have started trouble all over UK. Looting has become an opportunity that these youths has jumped on, fulling knowing that the police are fully stretched and unable to deal with the situation. In many instances, even though the police had riot gear, they were clearly outnumbered by the gangs, and therefore unable to do anything until suitable backup had arrived. This meant that sometimes they had to stand afar and watch the looting happen to the shops.

This is the week where the hopeless, unemployed youth of UK has their power. Through BBM (Blackberry's anonymous messaging service) they are able to easily organize and gather together and raid parts of the the towns around the UK. Last night, a building next to ours was set on fire, but it was empty luckily. Cars are set on fire, and a lot of shops have been smashed up. But strangely enough, it is not as dangerous as it seems. The looters are not targeting the public, they are basically fighting against the police or anyone who tries to stop them.

So why is this happening? Well no one really knows. It was a spark waiting to happen. But in the age of cuts to public services and higher taxes, the youth knows that their future is tough, if not non existent. With the mindset of nothing to lose, this is an opportunity for them to rule over the streets and get what they want. Something that isn't normally gonna happen.

What happened in the recession a few years ago has been sparked by the mindset of an endless supply of capitalist greed. Companies thinking that every year can out profit the next. Bankers being allowed to have their strict rules relaxed and they dipping their inexperienced hands into other fields to make a quick buck. Bending and creating new systems that are confusing or just basically don't make any sense at all, so that people who shouldn't have gotten loans did.

What kinda western society are we nowadays when privatised capitalism companies rule over public sector jobs ... the ones that we need? Our best minds of the country, graduates of the best universities prefer to be bankers/lawyers/stock traders rather then teachers/doctors/police. What are we saying about society when those jobs that we really need are badly paid, long hours, and have bad long term prospects.

Obama's struggles in America of creating reform are a great example of a country ruled by capitalism gone mad. Despite the over growing deficit of the country, the CEO's of past companies in the Senate refuse to accept to tax the richer. Money > Government.

So how does this link back to the UK's rioting? True, we cant excuse them for their behavior, but with a society with no hope, it seems that the risk they take isn't as bad in comparison to what the future holds for them anyway. Cuts in UK include many public services, including many youth centres which help the youths have something to do, and have good role models... and give them hope and belief!

Now I'm not suggesting that capitalism should be like ousted and we should switch to communism. (As if China isn't embracing capitalism anyways, which is a contradiction to what they represent?) But there needs to be some kinda cap or boundaries that they cant cross. When companies have so much money that they can influence the government in some way then that is a big problem (More so in America then here).

Also on the flip side, public sector jobs needs protection and respect. After all... we NEED these jobs to exist. Imagine if we had a society with amazing schools/hospitals/police/transport? It would effect the people, and therefore the future economy and prosperity of the country. When capitalism is involved with those jobs, its not just about helping people anymore... making money becomes the priority and that itself puts it into contempt. Examples of that are like schools that have contracts with companies to sell school dinners to their students (despite being unhealthy), or medicine that people need being made expensive for profit, or private companies to handle security. What are we saying about those public sector jobs when there are no limits to what companies can do to them.

Those jobs that really matter just don't really matter to today's society. Relying on the goodnees of your citizens to choose them because they *want* to do them isn't enough. There needs to be incentives. There needs to be long term economic investments into these sectors. There's no doubt that these jobs make a big difference for everyone in society... can we say the same for powerful branded capitalist companies?

The events of UK are certainly inexcusable... but history says that riots like this happen when people are pushed to the edge. It does seem we are at that stage now...

L8 Half Yearly Report! O_o''

So its nearly August now and by god its gone fast! It has been an eventful half year so far... (sorry for the l8ness lol).

Of course, we're mainly talking about the shocking way poker was cut off from the US players with no warning from Black Friday. A blatant "attack" from conservative groups to fight against not just online poker, but online gambling in general. From that, followed the fall of Victory, UB, Cake... and eventually Full Tilt, who's lack of organisation has damaged their reputation to no end, and it seems I for one am probably never gonna play on that site if it survives. Americans are still not paid back to this day... and its almost 3 months since Black Friday...

But its not all doom and gloom (still pretty bad tho). Pokerstars is the one main hope that things can be done right. They managed to let American players cash out within 2 weeks, and had everyone's money in credit. Something which all the online poker sites should have done, but didn't. Their expanding of the site to players around the world, has allowed it to survive without the Americans, and although traffic is still lower, it still reaches around 200k players during peak times which is still good.

Whatever America decides to do within its slow regulation of online gambling, it seems that despite all other sites falling, Pokerstars is gonna be here to stay. And it looks like its gonna survive and wait to see what happens. I really do hope that USA does not follow Italy and France in making their players only play against each other within their own country. I don't buy the argument that the U.S player's economies are losing out to the foreigners and therefore leaving the country. Yes, that can be true to a certain extent, but on the flipside they are also forgetting that money is coming into U.S from the outside as well... there are tons of great U.S players. Anyways... we trade stocks worldwide, couldn't one use the same argument for that as well??

"Gimmie 1000 shares of that guy's nose!!"

Half Year Life Report!

Personally it has been an eventful half year for myself as well.

- I spent a great month in Hong Kong in January, hanging out with one of my best friends from Australia and had a blast in my favourite country!

- I then proceeded to spend 3 weeks in Bangkok, which I promised my friend I'd check out and that was sick. A great contrast to Hong Kong.

- Moved from 9 man Single Table Tournament SNGs to 180 man Multi Table Tournaments. A big thing for me, after specialising in 25k of those games! (Still sucked lol)

- Got addicted to Starcraft 2. Thanks Day 9 geez U_U''

- Moooooved out!! After moving home with 2k debts, finally I'm able to sustain my own income and be independent again! Manchester has been great so far, but I like the feeling of needing to push myself to work otherwise I cant pay my rent. Not the typical path I had imagined for myself, but for now, its good to save for whatever I could choose to do in the future!

And wow, still 6 months to go! I'm still deciding if I'm gonna do a megatrip again really... I probably will but not for such an epic length of time this time... mainly coz I've run out of friends' free places to stay LOL!! :D (<--- cheeeeep). Methinkings New York/Vancouver sounding cool. But I will try and save some dosh...erm... apart from that Macbook Air I have my eye on ;)


1/2 Yearly Pokerz Results

So despite my random ranting on here, I do actually write this blog mainly for myself to look back on. So here's my results so far...

My *Awesome* 9 Man Single Table Tournament Run. Goodbye red line!

Multi Table Tournament Results  - Mainly 180 man tournaments with a dash of 45 mans. Note I started by playing $2 MTTs in the beginning and moved up.

Total Results including STTs and MTTs.

And FYI, I also took out $3k in 2 bonuses on April 15th so add that to the total as well.

Profit - $5472
Rakeback - $3000
Games - 8359
Hours - 483.6
Total - $8472

June/July has really slowed me down as internet is taking foreveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer (that many e's). In fact, as we speak, I STILL DONT HAVE PROPER INTERNET fml lol. Its coming on Thursday *apparently* but I'm not holding my breath. Its been slower then a snail trying to outrun a treadmill... literally going backwards at some points.

Honestly I cant complain about my results so far. As far as I'm concerned, I literally made most of my money in May and June... June I was really lucky coz my volume is terrible... great timing as that's when I moved. But considering that I had switched games in April, left myself $400 roll to play $2 180 mans, my progress from that original roll is pretty awesome. If we count that this month I've hardly played, and 2 months of STT stupidness, you can pretty much null out 3 months.

But I plan to crush the next few months with a lot of dedication, hard work, and focus. I always try to have a process orientated mindset in everything I do now, and ever since then I've been more emotionally cool about things as everything is always a learning experience.

*Note - Sharkscope has been pretty inaccurate ever since BF, so HEM is better, although it has some inaccuratecies over some rebuy tournaments.


WSOP November 9

The one thing one everyone's minds this year was, unfortunately, how Black Friday was gonna effect the most prestigious live poker event. As for sure, it was probably had the least number of online qualifiers (at least from USA), and therefore patched advertisings, for a long time. However, as if nothing had changed, 6800 still entered, so it seems that Black Friday hadn't effect it at all in terms of numbers.

I didn't really follow it as closely this year, but the major notable thing about the final 9 is how internationally mixed it is. A few years ago, the final table would be mainly Americans, but now it has a great mix, which is good imo for poker.

Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) 40,175,000
Eoghan O'Dea (Ireland) 33,925,000
Matt Giannetti (USA) 24,750,000
Phil Collins (USA) 23,875,000
Ben Lamb (USA)20,875,000
Badih Bounahra (Belize) 19,700,000
Pius Heinz (Germany) 16,425,000
Anton Makiievskyi (Ukraine) 13,825,000
Samuel Holden (UK) 12,375,000

Another thing to note is that the stack sizes are not as heavily skewed top/bottom heavy compared to the previous years. With 3 players in the 20 mils, and 4 in the teens, its just not as clear cut as who is favourite to win.

Of course all eyes will be on Ben Lamb, who is the current WSOP Player of the Year with an amazing 6 final tables out of 8 cashes including a bracelet. Over shadowing Phil Hellmuth's amazing WSOP run where he was top of the list if Lamb didn't make a deep run in the main event. Wow.

All best of chums but come November will they still be friends with all that money on the line? lol

Who is gonna take that $8.7 1st place prize?


MADE ME LOL USERNAME OF THE WEEK

I wonder if its number 4 coz there's 3 other ones??

Btw Rotterdam breakdancing event was pretty dope man, gotta love the Dutch! So chilled out! Enjoy one of my fave battles of the event!!

Sorry for the lack of posts but honestly I just haven't been playing all that much at all so that's the main reason. But its all about quality, not quantity surely... although that being said I do write posts that are like the length of the bible lolz...

Peace!!