This blog has moved to http://rolledontheriver.com

As you may or may not have noticed my blog has been merged with Skelm’s, the reasoning is twofold, firstly, we want to create a fun and engaging blog that combines his technical expertise and my overwhelming bullshittery. Secondly, we have a little announcement:

We’re writing a book.

Around the time Dusty Schmidt was finishing up writing ‘Treat your poker like a business’, he contacted Skelm to see if he could write an article for the book relating to Rakeback and Affiliate deals, upon completion, the cogs started turning in Skelm’s entrepreneurial little skull. People didn’t know much about rakeback, it takes a long time for everyone to learn about affiliate deals and VIP schemes. Coaching site and staking knowledge doesn’t come instantly, you don’t just pick that sort of information up from a book… yet. Professional Poker – Away from the table, the concept was born, a book about everything ELSE, no strategy, no tips and tricks for taking down a pot, a book about the community, the resources available, the tracking software, HUD’s, scripts and the like.

He sat with me in KFC as we were discussing prospects for writing something that would be worth reading, we know a guy who has just self-published a book, through Skelm’s position with StoxPoker we know coaches for all stakes and game types, designers, programmers, software authors, representatives for various sites and products, the foundation was there all along, waiting for us to take the initiative. In addition to this Skelm has also worked for Hold’em Manager Support helping him have a grasp of the areas people struggle to learn early on.

We aren’t known for squandering opportunities, and this one came begging, small enough to turn over in a few months, large enough to destroy anything that could resemble a social life, but important enough to cause a sick feeling in the stomach at the thought of letting it pass by waiting for someone else to pick it up. Within a couple of weeks the idea picked up momentum and we presented it to Dusty who agreed that it needed to be done, and we were the right guys to do it. A day later we were on a call with Scott Brown of Imagine Publishing creating a work schedule and debating the terms of a contract.

It’s been a little over a month since that fateful Toasted Sweet Chilli Twister Combo meal (Pepsi Max, I’m on a diet, thanks), and we’re getting stuck into the meat of it, we’ve invited a few specialist guest authors to write articles about their forte, but kept the bulk of the content for ourselves. The table of contents list has changed twice, and we’re having new ideas for articles every day, so it’s hard to pinpoint an exact release date (however it will be in the next few months), but we’re well on our way with most of the people we needed to contact having responded positively. We’ve got at least 15 people contributing or assisting with the project in their various fields, and clocked well over 10,000 words of writing so far.

In addition to all of this my handle has been changed from pkr_padawan to Dutchin to represent my symbolic coming of age in the wide world of poker, though I’m still a fledgling apprentice, I hope I can step up and be worth my weight in information for this monster of a project. Watch this space!

Dutchin.

This blog will now be closed – but I’ll still be writing (more regularly too) over at http://rolledontheriver.com

I haven’t had much time to play poker lately, with work shutting down for Christmas, apparently lots of people want their powerlines up and ready to go for the silly season. This has lead to 18 hour shifts, 7 day weeks, and all the drama that comes with that. I decided to stay home for the holidays and work on my game, as well as a few other little things, and one secret project, which I hope comes to fruition since it’s been something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, and should net a decent amount of money, which is helpful.

My ratio of study to play, for a few reasons, has been unhealthily skewed, I suppose time constraints have given me grief in this department, but It’s been 90:10 study:work, which is always a bad idea. Being able to implement strategies you’ve learned is so important, and yet I’m failing miserably. I’ve taken comfort in the fact that I had my first sleep-in for two months last night, and I LOVE sleeping in, so other forces must have been at work in regards to time restriction.

I’ve been reading Dusty Schmidt’s ‘Treat Your Poker Like A Business’, and so far (I’ll reserve final judgment for when I’m finished, of course..) it’s pretty frikkin’ sweet. The moral is ‘you reap what you sow’, but the level of depth is awesome, the different perspectives make the book a worthwhile purchase. I’m a big girl when it comes to reading books, I’ll do anything to procrastinate or get out of study, it’s one of the faults I’ve been working on since the beginning, not getting distracted. So when Skelm gave me the book and said ‘here, read’, I didn’t know what to expect, previous books that have been shoved in my face tout ‘over 200 hand examples’, and as such, chip away at a portion of my soul, but this book isn’t like that. It’s refreshing, well, so far anyway.

The target came flying at me, my reflexes kicked in… I stumbled and it slapped my hand, hard. Enough force to soar beyond my reach from the rebound against my stinging flesh, but then the agreed rule played over in my head, a voice that called: ‘One hand, one bounce’. In my dress shoes I launched my body forward, stepping with the power and tenacity of an enraged Spartan. I eyed the objective in slow motion, it moved so effortlessly away from the earth it had just kissed, another touch of the ground and it was all over. I dived, soaring through the field, tucking my head for a roll, knowing that all calculations had been made, the trajectory plotted, my hand on an intercept course for victory.

My grasp was firm, my resolve true. I had caught the ball.

I met up with some friends of Skelm at the APPT poker tournament in Star City, I didn’t participate in any events, but was more there for the networking, getting to know some of the local talent, making new friends. They all stayed in Sydney for a few days, in a hotel room for the duration of the tournament, drinking, grinding, and generally having fun. The group composed of LacieK, Newmanni, Eurekakid, Petteytheft, Skelm, Ponchoco and myself, with a few others who we met along the way. We all got drunk and played a rotation game that turned into a crazy shove-fest even though we were playing mixed games we wouldn’t have much of a grasp on when sober, let alone drunk. I was there for 3 meals that were paid for via credit card roulette, with Petteytheft losing one, and Eurekakid losing twice, freeroll, baby!

On the last day we had a game of cricket, Petteytheft being American had no idea what was going on, but somehow showed great potential, and bowled Newmanni out, we played a rotation, with whoever took the wicket got to bat, and all ended up with a pretty fair game. LacieK got injured and sat down in his fielding position, and snatched the ball out of the air when it was belted towards him like a true champion. But it was late in the day, when we had all decided to call it quits next wicket, when I spied my objective screaming towards me at mach 3, and it was on.

50NLHUNLHE

If you tried to pronounce it, people would think you were having a stroke, act FAST.

Hmmm, while typing that last line of text, I realized something. The national stroke foundation (like most disease prevention companies these days) has designed an acronym to help the public see the signs of the relevant disease.

Facial weakness
Arm weakness
Speech difficulty
Time to act!

This is all well and good, but as a guy writing a blog with at least one active viewer, I generally do a google research on what I’m talking about, and it got me thinking, how many people have left ’stroke fast’ ’stroke, arm weakness’ on their search history while trying to remember the acronym’s definition. Add me to that list.

Wow, what an eventful post! Its good to keep it casual, I guess, though if I got any more casual, I would probably stop breathing.

Heads up is going good, most of my sessions and sweats have been up, I’ve been reading some books and articles, as well as watching a few of DOGISHEAD’s HU videos. I’ve also been working on a couple of little side projects and doing some part-time work like a good little all-rounder.

My next blog will be soon, and I’ll make sure it’s interesting, well, more than this hunk of garbage…

Ok maybe not, but at least it will have a subject.

I promise.

Really.

Heads up is going well, I don’t believe in karma or luck balancing out, but I’ve been running like the sun, and it’s about time. If I hadn’t been reading the books that explain variance in relationship to sample size, I would probably have quit by now, resigning myself to being unlucky.

This is no more.

I was watching Skelm play an interesting heads-up match, he explained the reads he had on the player, how his 3-bets came in succession. A value 3-bet in a hand, followed by a few bluff 3-bets was this guy’s game, and Skelm caught onto it pretty quickly. His play was exploited, and it was clear he was unable to adjust, or even identify the leak. This cost the guy $800 at 100nl heads-up.

By the time he realized his mistake, he was already down a significant amount, and knew that he was being outplayed. This is where it gets interesting, in the chat box he then offers Skelm $200 for an hour worth of coaching. He thought it in his best interest to lose another $200 to find his weakness and learn how to plug the hole. Skelm gladly accepted, and gave the guy his coaching, and all was well with the world.

It’s just an interesting way to look at how a human thinks about poker. He obviously wanted to play better, knowing that he’d been exploited, an turned to the person who was there taking his money. Apparently he was quite happy with the quality of coaching he got, and thinks the money was well spent. An expensive lesson for him, but cheaper than it could have been.

I don’t really have a heads-up ‘game’ so to speak just yet, it’s basically Skelm telling me what he thinks the right decision is, and me following it, questioning it, and attempting to understand the rationalization behind it. I wouldn’t expect to see half of what he sees in an opponent if I was left to my own devices, which is expected since I’m new at the game. Every decision in NLHU is tailored to the opponent, whereas full ring can incorporate a lot more static play based on combinatorial math and statistical analysis.

I’m enjoying it, you are an integral part of every hand, and your opponent is there, waiting for you to figure him out, you aren’t waiting to take a shot at a fish with 7 other regs, hoping to hit something a little better than what he hits while in position. This is much more fun, less robotic, more psychological, and for me, over my small sample size, more profitable.

While I in no way think that I’ve accomplished all I’ve wanted to accomplish at small stakes full ring no limit hold ‘em, I’m having a little bit of a change anyway. Skelm’s focus and training has switched from full ring to heads up and he discussed with other coaches, and decided that I should also divert my attention there. A game of psychology where the style of the opponent determines the correct play more often than the cards that fall. I’ve noticed, watching Skelm, that he only plays one table at a time heads up, and yet it can still produce a win rate comparable to full ring, therefore he is able to play one person and win as much as the sum of playing 96 people (8 players by twelve tables). This should be read as swingy and emotionally taxing.

Guess I’ll give it a shot!

Ok, so I’m sitting down at the 200nl table at the Venetian in Las Vegas, my first live cash game experience. I was advised to play nitty and get a feel for it, so I did, but that coupled with being completely card dead left me sitting there folding most of the day. In two days I got pocket tens once and 89s once, it was horrible, but still pretty fun. So by day 3 I was looking forward to putting my skills to use still. As I get to the table the button just passes my seat and I sit in the cutoff.

I get dealt Ad Ah
Cool!
Someone early limps in, a few callers, I bump it up to $16 (which is too small I’ve since been told), and two call, the rest fold including the button. I’m in with the SB and a MP player. Both with 100bb stacks.

Flop: 4d 6c 10s

Pretty sweet I’m thinking, in position, dry flop with decent cards.

SB Checks, MP Checks.

I’m about to throw some chips in when the dealer says ‘wait’, leans over the table and touches the 10s card, and realises she’s dealt 4 on the flop, there was another card under it. Everyone just stops and stares at the flop for a second. The dealer calls a staff member over they decide instead of burning the extra card, to just re-deal the flop, everyone seems pretty content with that and she shuffles the deck.

Flop #2: Qs 10s Js

OMFG… loaded much?

The action starts again at the SB, he throws in half his stack, $50, and the HJ Snap calls. I hesitate for a second and fold my aces. I folded my first live pocket rockets. /cry

Turn: Ac

SB Shoves, MP Calls.

River: 3d

MP Shows: 9s 8d
SB Shows: As Ks

The dude ended up flopping a royal on a board that was never supposed to happen, and I got out about as good as I could have, dodged a freight train.
Was worth it happening just for the bad beat story.

I have the answer to all three of your questions.

No, the Padawan is not dead.
Yes, referring to myself in third person is pretentious and I won’t continue to do so.
And finally no, I won’t continue making self-fulfilling prophecies in question form on my blog causing conundrums and enigmas and the like.

But it’s fun to do so once.

Skelm decided to take me on a little holiday in Vegas to network, play some poker and have a break from life, and being working class, I’m not one to turn down a free lunch. It was my first time out of Australia and it was a blast, 7 days of drinking, gambling, and seeing the sights of the city.

It was also my first live game experience so it was quite daunting dealing with American accents, working out how the hell tipping works and trying to balance a decent poker game. I came out a little bit down on chips, but ended up with an awesome bad beat story that Skelm puts in the ‘epic’ catagory, it was so incredible I’m going to dedicate a whole post to it.

Anyway, I’m back on track with the learning, again.

Feet don’t fail me now.

I took some time off to finish a flash animation for a competition and head away for work, where I had no access to the net, hell the town only had one phone. But now I’m back in suburbia, and I’ve been reading Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em again to refresh and get my head back where it needs to be. Not much to update really, competition gets judged on Tuesday, though I know I won’t win it, there were entries that were far better than mine, and that’s not even being modest, oh well!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I have a diploma in digital media, which doesn’t mean much, but it does mean I’m pretty handy in making cartoons, comics and animations, which is a hobby of mine (I made the little Cake Poker advertisement on the right hand side of the blog). I promised myself, after many half completed projects that I would make a submission for Madness Day, a flash animation competition run by Newgrounds.com with cash prizes. The entries are due on the 22nd of september (10 days), and I realised I’m heading away for work on the 20th. We have to run powerlines through some hillbilly outback town, a job which we have to live away from home for a few days, and won’t have access to the internet.

So after setting myself up with a huge project it dawned on me that I had little over a week to do roughly 80 hours of animating so I kinda freaked out. I’ve made myself unavailable for any afternoon overtime at work, and requested to put poker study on the backburner for this time period. So you’ll have to forgive me if my blogs are spaced a little wider for the time being.

If anyone is interested, I’ll link my submission when it’s submitted.