An ROI of Undefined

What does that mean?

I won a freeroll live tournament in the casino the other night. Meaning I invested zero, and won a few hundred quid... so working out this shit mathematically its prize/investment (=0), which as I'm sure you guys know will make your calculator freak out and say that you cant divide by zero. And as poker players are obsessed with ROI, I'm gonna say that the ROI is undefined.

So lets do some math to make your head explode!

5/0 = ?

Translated to real life English its 5 things divided by nothing.

Logically if we divide 5 things by nothing its 5?

5/0 = 5?

But remember that 5/1 is also 5!

So like wtf lolz how can 5/0 and 5/1 both = 5? (Head explosion)

If we use this 5/1 = 5 in written form it is saying that it is dividing 5 into 1 parts.

So we should try and divide 5 into no parts... which basically isn't possible.

To fuck with you even more we could go algebraically;
6/0 = x
so 6/x = 0
give x, say = 2
if x=2, then 6/2 = 0 (which isn't true), and therefore 6/0 = 2?
6 = 2????????? wtffffffffff

ANYWAYS............. DONT MESS WITH ZERO!!


lols anyways, I digressed a little haha, but I actually really love the quirky shit like this in math(s for the English, but in this instance I actually think that the American way of saying it sounds better).

My friend had visited Manchester for a few weeks and he wanted to play some live poker so I took him to a few tournaments. Unfortunately he didn't have much time so we ended up just playing in a freeroll tournament, which wasn't ideal as normally they're pretty terrible as a structure. But its a freeroll so you could probably let it off.


CASINO FREEROLL TOURNAMENT LOL xD

Entry - Free
Starting Stack - 5000
2 Rebuys = £10 per Rebuy for 10k Chips Each or 20k Chips for Double Rebuy
Rebuy period finishes after 3 Levels

13 Minutes Blind Levels
Starts at 100/200
200/400
300/600
500/1000
800/1600
1000/2000
2000/4000
etc.. and it is never capped LOL


I won £365 for 1st place after making a deal 5 handed. Tbh was probably the easiest cash I've ever made in live MTTs, I ran decently good and players are just really bad as u'd expect.

Strangely enough despite being into poker I'm just not that much of a fan at reading other poker players many hand analysis' coz a)too lazy probably since most other poker blogs are mad long with them b)don't believe that there is ever a definite right/wrong way to play poker c)most are like poker players complaining about other bad players/luck etc and that itself is boring.

What I do remember generally is funny shit... seeing how bad the players are;

1. During rebuy period MP guy limps, I squeeze raise it up w/78s, BB calls and original limper calls as well. Flops is K7T I think. They check to me pretty quick so for that reason I cbet. They both call. Turn is like a 2 or something, but it gives me a flush draw. So checked to me, I think that my line is pretty strong and they're quite defensive so I shove. Limper guy tanks for ages and calls with QJ for an OESD (open ended straight draw) and river blanks and I win lolz.

2. Guy limps in UTG during like last 3 tables with big stack and I shove with 88. He tanks for freaking ages and folds JJ face up. He asks me what I had and I refuse to tell him lolz.

3. Same guy keeps limping UTG and I had like hands to shove on him like 2 or 3 times later. Each time he tanks for ages and then says that he has to fold. Literally lost his big stack by doing this continuously until he bubbles by shoving his A9 into my AK.

4. Final table other huge stack girl who is terrible limps UTG then calls a shove with J4 thinking that its AJ, of which his opponent has... and then hits river 4 lol

An interesting thing happened 5 handed when it was myself and another lady who basically had 2/3rds of chips in play, and she suggested to give me a 1st place deal that was evened out a bit to her 2nd. She was pretty terrible and tired and wanted to go home. We originally agreed £380 to £300, but her fucking boyfriend came over and interfered, saying that was shit. This pissed me off a ton, coz he's not involved and shouldn't be fucking interfering the bastard lol.

So here's the lowdown of the deal that happened;

Chip Stacks

Myself - About 650k
Tired Woman - About 600k
3 Other Guys - Like wavering about 100-150k

Blinds are 14k-28k and go up every 13 minutes and never caps.


Original Payouts
1st - £410
2nd - £290
3rd - Dunno lol

Final Payouts Ended
1st - $365
2nd - £320
3rd - 5th £125

Now looking at the numbers that looks pretty shit, but let me explain some of the other factors that influenced my decision;

- I actually wasn't as big a chip lead as she thought. I think we were really close, and I was probably ahead by something like 50k and she literally couldn't be bothered to ask for a count.
- The blinds are huge, and even with these stacks we're not guaranteed 1st/2nd. Variance worried me a bit.
Main Reason---> My best friend was leaving in the afternoon the next day (technically the same day) and I guess I had enough as well. Had 4 hours sleep the day before T_T

I guess I am thinking of what could have been for that extra £50. I definitely was the best player at the table and had the momentum. She was terrible and tbh her guaranteeing 2nd place was really good for her. But at the end of the day I made £365 from the straight up freeroll stack so it cant be all bad lols.

I really should play more live, I only really play it when my friends wanna play. The thing is, I just really find it boring one tabling, and some of the (fat, smelly, idiotic gambling retards that think they know what they're talking about) characters are basically just annoying as hell. However, on the flip side I can see that when you are playing it feels like an experience, like your own little journey towards winning - just like what I wrote above there are situations that stick out in my mind.

The Eighteen Kay

Holy shit it has been a long time since I posted about some success in poker but things seem to finally turning around. More importantly I'm understanding why things have happened the way it did, and why I'm starting to get results. My game is more complete and I have a better understanding of what to do, and what happens when you make certain plays. Going through this whole process will hopefully be beneficial to me in the overall scheme of things.

One of the biggest challenges I've found is mentally handling the losses, and not getting results that I want despite the fact that I feel that I've been improving as a player. This is something that every poker player has to come to terms with, the fact that you will always get that bad beat, and lose to a worse player... poker has that element of luck in it that gives everybody a chance to win. Without this, poker would only have skilled players and the edge would be minimal and probably not worth it.

Since switching to my new coach/staker we've worked hard at going back to basics and working on getting my game fundamentally strong. I think its interesting that I've come full circle liking certain "weird off the wall" plays, and now incorporating more of a KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) style. On top of that, I've added more of a aggressive style with a lot more rejamming, which is something that wasn't in my game enough.

Below are some graphs/stats of my results since Feb when I got my staking deal;

Its been a struggle but BOOMSWITCH ftwwwwwwwww!!!

Another thing that is cool is that I'm a lot more happy with the distribution. Coaching and talking to many players has really confirmed that I'm moving in the right direction and it's helped with my confidence a lot.

This is my distribution graph for 180ms, I'm happy that I'm getting a lot more 1sts then anything else which is the way it should be. In fact I'm also getting more 1sts then anything else in my STTs as well, although my overall percentage itm is a bit low (should be around 37%)

Eurocultured

I've been rather busy with a visiting friend and a festival with breakdancing competition going on. Which is why I haven't been able to play much poker these days. I took part in a breakdance comp as part of Eurocultured Festival in Manchester, which was fun. Despite the rain, I had a really good time and was really glad that my friend visited during this time, as I got to show off the best of Manchester.

Its one of the really cool things I love about this city is the fact that there's always stuff going on, and everyone is really up for it in this city!



This is a trailer from 2011, 2012 was mad rainy!!



Goodbye House MD

One of my favourite shows finished recently, and I'm sad to see it go. I've never really had much of an interest in medicine but since watching this show its given new life to it. I would say to a person that has never watched it before, its a cross between CSI and ER, where the focus is on solving the mystery and the drama that happens to the characters, of which Dr House is a very logical, smart guy, but on the other hand personality wise he is a pessimistic, miserable git! The fact that he is always right and treats every personal situation into a logical one makes for some funny situations.

Its such a super addictive show! I remember watching one episode, then the rest of that season [3], then downloaded seasons 1 and 2 and literally spent 3 days going through them all!

One of my major critisms of the show tho, was its inability to allow any permanent changes to the main character. But none the less, its really good and if I was to recommend one show to anyone it'd be this one.







One Year On...

Its been a little over exactly one year since moving to Manchester. The choice for me to move outta home as soon as I could afford it was made easier from my experiences of living independently in London for University and a year or so after that as well.

I can say that it has been a great learning experience and I don't regret my decision at all. I have a really good group of friends here, there is a good breakdancing scene, and I love the city. Things haven't been easy, but from my experience that's totally expected. How you react in those situations is the only thing you can control and get on with.

I have been totally lucky that I got to work with Glitlr on SNGProtege, for one thing it has taken a lot of the pressure of needing to win at poker. As shown above it has been a long break even stretch, making it more of a mental challenge more then anything else. Hacking it at this game gets easier in terms of learning what to do in more spots, but as time goes on it becomes harder to mentally take the strain of losing when you know that you are the better player.

Strangely enough I feel that Manchester is somewhere I'm happy to call home, even though I have spent many-a-more years in my hometown Milton Keynes, and my birthtown London. What a strange feeling!

See you guys at the tables, and GLHF (Good Luck, Have Fun) as they would say in Starcraft!