Hey guys,
I know it's been awhile since my last post, that's because I've had nothing really interesting to write about. The past week has really been slow and monotonous. For the most part, I've just been getting all my papers/appointments in line for the big move.
If you didn't read my last post, next Friday I plan to move to Oakville for the next 4 months. I'm actually very excited for this for several reasons. Firstly, I'll be close to my girlfriend, the main reason for the move. But also, in life it's good to take on new adventures. I love Ottawa (when I do leave my house to see it lol), but I also love seeing other cities too. And from what I've seen and heard, Oakville really does look like a nice quiet place to reside and crush the heads up world while basking in the summer heat lol.
Up until about last week it looked like it was going to be an easy transition but obv no. So that's really what I been up to, calling a bunch of places, faxing a bunch of people etc etc yawn yawn.
Other than that, I was able to get out to see the movie Paul with a friend of mine. It was one of those times where your watching something with someone and they find it hilariously funny and you don't. Kind of awkward. I'm really more into the smart comedy when this was basically just cheap laughs/slapstick. It's all good though, that would hold nothing to what happened the next day.
Black Friday - the day online Poker changed forever. For those of you who have been living under a rock, a week ago the DoJ seized the big 3 Poker sites domain names due to some unlawful activities on behalf of the companies. This virtually removed the ability for all American players to play and withdraw funds. Even though it was only directly affecting the United States, it put a big scare in the players all around the world. The companies that were once seen as rock solid crumbled in a quick second. Suddenly getting the funds off safely became the majority of people’s concerns.
Alot has transpired in that week for the Poker world. The climate for players outside of the U.S. looks generally safe. While the DoJ has agreed to allow the sites to allow players from the U.S. to withdraw. This is a good look overall and ""the end of the word" mentality seems to have subsided.
I have read countless heartbreaking stories about players from the States now unemployed because of what the DoJ has done. I am fortunate in that, although this is my only source of income, I am still young and do not have any major financial burden that would pwn me in case this does go belly up.
Here is just one example of what I'm talking about: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=26104049&postcount=13
So much for the land of the free.
I've spent quite a bit of time contemplating the effects this will have on the game. It's too soon to draw any conclusions, but from a logic based perspective, the banning of U.S. players should be good for me personally. Most decent heads up regulars reside in the States. Also, because the States is no longer an accessible market, training sites will no longer be making videos and thus less and less people will be buying training site subscriptions. This is probably only until the U.S. opens it's own site though. Regardless, U.S. players are a lot more skilled in general just due to their exposure to the game.
Anyways that night I went to the Donkey Den (a local homegame in my city) in part to celebrate my sisters birthday. There was a mean supper barbecued: hamburgers and spicy sausages and everyone sat around the kitchen island discussing the events of the day. After the dinner, the $60 freezeout took place and luckily I was seated at the same table as the donk known as fishbones11 lol. Anyways I busted after blinding down but I still had fun seeing everyone again. I'm not entirely sure if it's the same anywhere else but in Ottawa the Poker community is like a small family.
The next few days I spent back at my girlfriends because she was finally done her exams. Than on the Monday I helped her pack to go back to Oakville. It was her first year in residence so maintaining her room wasn't one of her strengths lol. Her parents arrived at around 12:30 and they were there till around 4:30 packing.
On Tuesday I went over to my sisters with my Mom to see her new dog. I forget the breed but she named him Mac short for Macchiato. They got this whole M theme going on in their house. Marc, Mona, Maya and now Mac. I guess now they'll have to continue this trend with their kids just for continuity purposes lol. Anyways Mac is super cute and makes Maya seem big.
Mona made a wonderful lunch for us which included homemade lemonade. I was sceptical at first but with that shit she could open her own stand lol. After lunch we played some Sing Star (don't hate) and then I returned back home.
The days following I neglected boring chores and have returned to the grind. Returned to what I know, everything I said about the super turbos, scratch it. I'm taking it back to the basics, deep stack and regular heads up baby. I've also gone back to my winning ways being up close to $700 in the last 3 days.
There were many benefits to playing super turbos that I highlighted in my last post. But then I revaluated. In the coming months, I need income that I can depend on. I can rely on deep stack and regulars, they are ATMs to me. I can probably rely on super turbos too, but the difference is short run vs. long run. In the long run, super turbos are probably the right way to go. But really, you could go a whole month and be breakeven and then never lose the next month. With bills needing to be paid, travel costs that I will be enduring, I need a grind that will consistently earn me money. That is why I switched.
So yo if you ever want to holla at me, you know where to find me. In the $50-$100 HU deep and regular stack lobbies under the name OMGZ 200NL on FTP.
You can also check me out in the FTOPS Event #42 next Saturday.
Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend and GL at the tables!
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Back to the Basics
Labels:
DEEP STACK,
DOGZ,
HEADS UP,
HEM,
OAKVILLE,
POKERS,
REG FILLED,
RODDEY HARB
Monday, 11 April 2011
The V's of Poker
To christen the blog, I might as well get into the nitty gritty of it. Super turbos are absolutely nuts and if I am able to stay calm throughout the daily grind, I will become the Yoda of this shit. The difficulty of the supers is not the actual Poker, the level of play is equivalent to that of a $1 game. The difficulty lies in being able to overcome the variance of the game. Being able to swallow losing 6-7 games straight to a fish who has a -20% ROI on their Sharkscope. At present time I am struggling with this which is reasonable to assume since I went from grinding the lowest variance games (deep stack heads up), to the Go Fish of Poker.
I have discussed these concepts with many people and from it I coined a term. Poker has what I call "the perfect equilibrium". The game by nature allows losing players to win enough to think they are skilled, but allows the actual winning players to profit in the long run. Without this equilibrium, without this allure that the game has over the fish, the winning players would only be breakeven/losing (because all the fish would be broke and gone). So I have to remind myself of this, the fish has to win some too or else they will never come back.
Anyways, I labelled this entry the V's of Poker because for me to reach legendary status. Wait, let me correct myself. For me to reach Mersenneary status, the Michael Jordan of this super turbo shit, I will have to master these two concepts: volume and variance. Everyday I will aim to play 100 games. I usually two tables these and can get close to 20 games an hour so it'll take 5 hours of solid grinding to finish my day. Each one of my games has a rake of $1 so say I get 2600 games a month that's $702 in rakeback alone. At a 3.5% ROI over 2600 games I will be making $4550 so if I can bare the sufferring I will make over $5K a month clicking buttons. Seems worth it imo.
I think another obstacle that comes up when switching to a new game is questioning yourself as to whether you are playing optimally or not. It's one thing to be on a downswing in a game that you've been crushing and just chalk it up to bad luck. But it's another thing to switch to a new game and just lose. This can cause real confidence issues which in turn could create suboptimal plays. I haven't really experienced this yet but I can see it as a possibility in the future just by how swinging these games can be.
Enough about Poker.
This year has been pretty big for me in the sense that there has been alot of major things go down. In September I was lucky enough to meet a girl that has truely been a great addition to my life. Everyday she fills me up with happiness, and we connect perfectly like lego pieces. Anyone who knows me knows I took abit of a hiatus from Poker, and she was the reason why. I guess there are ways to actually take the degen out of someone without sending them to gamblers anonymous :P. Well, temporarily, I've taught her the game and she now holds a 36% ROI in the $1 deep stack hu games lawls. Next month I'll be moving to Oakville since that is where she resides in the summer. It should be a pretty sick summer since I'll also be sharing a room with none other than Amin the cash game legend.
I personally think theres no other type of motivation as effective as living with another Poker player. You bounce strategies off each other, you root for the other to succeed and it all just creates an environment that is usually boring into something positive and fun. Plus Amin's been my boy so you know we gotsta get that paper chyeaa.
Anyways I think that's good for my first post. Hope everyone is pwning and GL at the tables.
Oh yeah, my graph so far. Enjoy!
I have discussed these concepts with many people and from it I coined a term. Poker has what I call "the perfect equilibrium". The game by nature allows losing players to win enough to think they are skilled, but allows the actual winning players to profit in the long run. Without this equilibrium, without this allure that the game has over the fish, the winning players would only be breakeven/losing (because all the fish would be broke and gone). So I have to remind myself of this, the fish has to win some too or else they will never come back.
Anyways, I labelled this entry the V's of Poker because for me to reach legendary status. Wait, let me correct myself. For me to reach Mersenneary status, the Michael Jordan of this super turbo shit, I will have to master these two concepts: volume and variance. Everyday I will aim to play 100 games. I usually two tables these and can get close to 20 games an hour so it'll take 5 hours of solid grinding to finish my day. Each one of my games has a rake of $1 so say I get 2600 games a month that's $702 in rakeback alone. At a 3.5% ROI over 2600 games I will be making $4550 so if I can bare the sufferring I will make over $5K a month clicking buttons. Seems worth it imo.
I think another obstacle that comes up when switching to a new game is questioning yourself as to whether you are playing optimally or not. It's one thing to be on a downswing in a game that you've been crushing and just chalk it up to bad luck. But it's another thing to switch to a new game and just lose. This can cause real confidence issues which in turn could create suboptimal plays. I haven't really experienced this yet but I can see it as a possibility in the future just by how swinging these games can be.
Enough about Poker.
This year has been pretty big for me in the sense that there has been alot of major things go down. In September I was lucky enough to meet a girl that has truely been a great addition to my life. Everyday she fills me up with happiness, and we connect perfectly like lego pieces. Anyone who knows me knows I took abit of a hiatus from Poker, and she was the reason why. I guess there are ways to actually take the degen out of someone without sending them to gamblers anonymous :P. Well, temporarily, I've taught her the game and she now holds a 36% ROI in the $1 deep stack hu games lawls. Next month I'll be moving to Oakville since that is where she resides in the summer. It should be a pretty sick summer since I'll also be sharing a room with none other than Amin the cash game legend.
I personally think theres no other type of motivation as effective as living with another Poker player. You bounce strategies off each other, you root for the other to succeed and it all just creates an environment that is usually boring into something positive and fun. Plus Amin's been my boy so you know we gotsta get that paper chyeaa.
Anyways I think that's good for my first post. Hope everyone is pwning and GL at the tables.
Oh yeah, my graph so far. Enjoy!
Labels:
EXPECTED VALUE,
OAKVILLE,
RODDEY HARB,
ROI,
VARIANCE,
VOLUME
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Come on in!
Oh hai,
My name is Roddey Harb and I am a 22 year old University student. I am also a semi-pro Poker player that specializes in heads up.
When it comes to Poker, I have played the gambit but really found my niche last summer when I started crushing the high stakes deep stack heads up games. Perfecting every aspect of the game, I amassed close to $40,000 in just a short 3 months and was lucky enough to have the chance to play in the $5,000 Canadian Poker Tour heads up main event.
But being the ATM's that those were, all the heads up regulars from different sites flocked which eventually killed the game.
No longer being able to profit off these games, I looked for something else and have finally decided to settle on super turbo heads up.
This blog will be used to chronicle my journey into this new game and my life in general.
You can catch me playing on FTP under the username OMGZ 200NL. But don't sit me cause I'm running way above EV right now :P
GL!
My name is Roddey Harb and I am a 22 year old University student. I am also a semi-pro Poker player that specializes in heads up.
When it comes to Poker, I have played the gambit but really found my niche last summer when I started crushing the high stakes deep stack heads up games. Perfecting every aspect of the game, I amassed close to $40,000 in just a short 3 months and was lucky enough to have the chance to play in the $5,000 Canadian Poker Tour heads up main event.
But being the ATM's that those were, all the heads up regulars from different sites flocked which eventually killed the game.
No longer being able to profit off these games, I looked for something else and have finally decided to settle on super turbo heads up.
This blog will be used to chronicle my journey into this new game and my life in general.
You can catch me playing on FTP under the username OMGZ 200NL. But don't sit me cause I'm running way above EV right now :P
GL!
Labels:
A9 VS. QQ FIRST HAND,
ANOTHER BLOG?,
BLAWGZ,
EXPECTED VALUE,
FTP,
HEADS UP,
HEM,
NASH,
RODDEY HARB,
SUPER TURBOS
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