Poker & Music

Poker Musings and Legit Music.

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Is This The Begining of the End for the Anti-Online Poker Lobby? - Growing Poker 2017®

Recent results show online poker increasing interest in gambling and growing the casino market. Will anti-online poker lobbying effots give in to new revelations?

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Poker is taking off in India and with a population of over billion, it has the potential to be huge. India's on the rise and that is great news for poker.

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NOW AVAILABLE! #JustaLittleGIrl is a new memoir you won't be able to put down! Near death, angels & faith. Go now! http://thndr.me/rlXsIP

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Week 2/3

It’s been 3 weeks since I started my 30 day poker challenge and I can’t believe it’s almost over. At this point, I barely feel like I started. But at the beginning of last week my new friend Graham, the guy who does the Twitch stream Nit City reached out to me and offered to coach me. Since I had just watched his stream that weekend, I was really impressed with his play and really excited he made the offer.

A while ago I got to know Graham’s friend John on Twitter. We started talking and I honestly don’t remember how long ago we started. But regardless, he and Graham run the Twitch stream together. So really, it’s all thanks to Twitter! We had our first coaching session last week and he has given me lots of great advice to help me improve. With his help, I have a clear path forward to accomplish any goal I have with poker. 

Right now as I think I’ve probably said in previous posts, my goal is to play as many hands as possible. Graham has opened my eyes to the best way to do that: Sit & Go’s. They are low variance, inexpensive online, and they allow you to see allot of hands for very little risk. Another plus for me is that I have played Sit & Go’s in the past and have been very successful. 

All of that said, I’ve been running like dirt for these past 2 weeks. While I’ve cashed in 3 Sit & Go’s, they haven’t made up for the number of times I’ve had 9-9 while my opponent had 10-10. or had someone flop quads with A-7 against my Q-Q. It’s been pretty terrible. But I think that streak just ended because my AA just held up against two short stack all-ins. I’m playing my last Sit & Go for the night and am second in chips with 5 players left. 3 of them are severely short stacked so I've got pretty good odds at  not busting out of the money.

With my final week of the 30 day challenge ahead, it’s time to start looking ahead at what’s next. Naturally, the whole point of my 30 day challenge wasn't just to play poker for 30 days and then quit. The 30 days was meant to build the habit to keep working at it no matter what. This week I’m going to focus on my goal for the next 30 days. This time playing poker has really encouraged me to discover what I can do with poker.

[faitesvosjeuxriennevaplus]

Small game with a lot out drinking tonight #pokernight #pokergrind #pokertable #stonerpoker #nocasinohere #chipstack #poker # [email protected](Websta) http://websta.me/p/1243996795125369428_1986877817

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One Week of Poker & Perseverance

Today officially marks my first week of playing poker every day. I am just now winding down after pulling an all-nighter in a heads up session. Most of the week was pretty straightforward, the usual ups and downs, nothing too crazy. But a couple of days ago I hit a bad run and picking myself up and playing the next day was a struggle. But I watched a few twitch streamers play for a little while to get myself pumped to play.

Watching Twitch streams this week have played a huge role in improving my game. It is great to get to watch someone playing and talking through their thought process in a hand. Plus, after a bad run, I can always find a great Twitch stream to watch if I want to take a break from the table for a bit.

There was one point at the end of my week, where I played like a complete idiot. I knew exactly what my opponent had, but instead of folding like I should have, I went against my read. At that moment, I was feeling like I’m really not cut out for this. But as I have learned as I am working to learn Dutch, you have to keep going. In my quest to learn a foreign language, there have been more than one occasion where I just feel like giving up. But each time, I just keep practicing and I am always surprised at how little effort it takes to get over whatever hurdle I experienced. The key is just not to give up. I’m sure that will not be the only time I feel like giving up in this project and each time I just have to push through.

I have really been having allot of fun playing heads up this week. I busted someone a few days ago in a 3 hour session and just got done with a 6 hour session early this morning. My 6 hour session was not a profitable one, but I knew I had the edge on my opponent. He was running like God for quite a while which was frustrating. And he was a huge nit choosing his starting hands very carefully, even though I was raising every hand on the button. Villains hand selection was textbook for a full ring game and naturally, he was catching lots of flops because he was being so selective. I am very much a small ball type player, and like to see lots of flops for cheap. Making big raises pre-flop is out of my comfort zone, but in order to beat this opponent, Making large raises with hands where I am likely to be a 50%+ favorite was the only way to take this guy down.

I was down for much of the game but I know I was driving him mad because he couldn't get rid of me. I had his game exploited to the max, but unless I flopped better hands, which is unlikely since he was being so selective, it was nearly impossible to extract value. The best way to get it done, was to shove against his pre-flop raises. Once I began doing that, I began to get ahead. I had about another hour left in me, but he was done after 6. Honestly, I would have probably kept going until I busted him. The game was allot of fun and the challenge was really exciting. 

If there is one thing that I learned this week, it’s that I really want to play poker. I woke up yesterday and it was the first thing on my mind. Just by forcing myself to play every day, I have improved my game a great deal. Now after just finishing the longest session I’ve ever played, I am pumped to keep working harder to make this happen.

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Nit City Twitch.tv Hand Analysis

_Yesterday, a poker friend I met online a while back tweeted me his twitch channel that he and a friend of his started. I made an obligatory click on the link, but ended up watching it for the better part of the day. The stream was of a Bovada $60 buy in tournament. 

Our hero, @ hoboinsomniac on twitter, was up and down in the top 10 for nearly the entire tournament until the later stages where he finished in 9th. I had never before done anything like this where I was able to actually watch an entire tournament, and it was awesome to see and hear him go through his decision making process as he played a hand. It was allot of fun to watch and it is great how much you can pick up from watching just a few hands. While undoubtedly a strong player, there were two plays I completely disagreed with while he was playing. The one that sticks out the most, was a triple barrel bluff that cost a significant portion of his stack and probably cost him a higher place in the tournament.

**While I don’t remember the exact details, I will try my best to represent the situation as best as I can**

Hero calls a raise UTG with KJ off suit, a player who had been playing very few pots calls.

The flop comes 9-9-10.

Hero bets a little under half the pot. Villain calls.

The turn is a 3.

Hero bets again, about half the pot. Villain calls.

The river is an 6 

Hero bets about 3/4 of the pot. Villain calls.

Villain turns over AQ off suit and takes down the pot.

First off, I really didn’t like the flop bet here. Hero made it because villain had not been playing many hands and he wanted more information. That’s fine, but with a made hand here, hero would likely check to give villain a chance to catch up on the turn. So a check here instead, would have kept the pot smaller and villain may have given him credit for a bigger hand. 

That said, what I do like about the flop bet here is that hero takes control of the betting in a situation where we know very little about villain’s play. That said, I would much rather call Villain’s flop bet and make the bluff on the turn and river trying to represent a hand like K10. 

I must give props to villain here for sticking to his guns. It was definitely a great read on his part calling down with Ace high. In this situation, I probably would have put hero on a small pocket pair and folded. 

The Nit City Twitch steam will be live pretty much every day. You can follow hoboinsomniac or _trapartist_ on twitter to keep up to date. They’re working to create a community of US poker players to collaborate. There will definitely be more hand analyses from their twitch stream in the near future!

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Nit_City

Poker from the New Streaming Office!

My friends just started a Twitch stream. @hoboinsomniac on twitter is crushing a tournament on Bovada, currently in 3rd place.

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Day 1: The 30 Day Poker Challenge Begins

The first day of my poker challenge has come and gone. I got off to a great start and am looking forward to the next 29 days. I am really excited to see where this journey takes me. 

My focus, as usual, will not be on the money, but simply on improving my game. Once my 30 days are up, I expect to have improved immeasurably and be more confident in every part of the game. While I have put allot of work into poker in the past, I have never quite made a commitment like this one. This is something that will force me to improve and learn as I go.

[amoilafortune-deactivated202112]

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Controlling Your Emotions

As any poker player can tell your, the player who can be emotionally dead at the table has a huge leg up on the competition. Personally, emotions have been a challenge for me. Whether I am behind or winning big time, I have had to walk away in both instances due to my emotions.

The time that sticks out to me the most was a live session at the casino near my house. I was playing NL and had a great table, lots of fish--and one in particular with lots of cash who was calling long-shots and paying off made hands. I watched him and played for about an hour before my spot came. I played a big hand against him, ended up shoving, and he paid me off big time.

After my hand, he went back to his wallet, pulled out another $200, and bought more chips. I was reeling from my win and excited to see that he was pulling out more money. The only problem was, I realized really fast that I was too emotionally compromised to continue. I was just so excited from my win, I knew it was time to go. I had trouble even counting the chips correctly because my excitement was getting the better of me.

I probably should have gotten up to get a drink or taken a bathroom break, but my emotions were totally in control here and my fight or flight instincts were kicking in. I had to get out. Knowing that I was all but useless at the table, I cashed out, leaving a game that I should have continued playing.

One thing I have come to notice about live sessions is that it is so much harder to get a hold of my emotions. The atmosphere just lends to so much excitement and it is something that I battle every time I step into the casino. Over time however, I have grown accustomed to it.

Just today I was watching a Youtube video of poker pro Gaelle Baumann. It was every single televised hand from her run at the 2012 WSOP main event. As I was watching her, I was getting really involved in her hands, rooting for her when she was on a draw etc. That’s when I realized this was a great exercise to help me control my emotions. I tried to watch and while still rooting for Baumann, take my emotions out of the equation. This is something I plan to do allot more of and hopefully, it will help me a great deal when I am at the table. 

Want to try this for yourself? Here is the video I was watching to help you get started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC1GAgZ_Ox8

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30 Day Poker Challenge

A while ago, I read an article that stated it takes 30 days to build a habit. Just recently, I have done this successfully with language learning. With the Duolingo language learning app, I began learning Dutch. Now nearly 90 days later, I am well on my way to learning the language.

Setting aside time every day to practice Dutch has become part of my daily routine and since starting, I have yet to take a day off. Last night I got back online and played poker for a little bit. It was a great feeling to be back at the table. 

It was pretty late at night, but the mood to play just hit me. Since I was already getting tired my session was really short, but immensely satisfying. Of course it helps that I ended up running good too. Right now I am very confident in my decisions at the table and they are very focused and calculated. Whenever I feel as though I have made a mistake, I am sure to take note of it and further hone my play.

This carefully calculated playing has really gotten me pumped and has inspired me to so this 30 day challenge. In the past, I typically go on these great poker highs every few months or so, play allot and then end up falling off. But this time, I am going to approach it with a real and very easy goal. All I want to do is play every day, even if it’s just for a half an hour. This will help to improve my game immensely and help me stay focused. 

I will be posting regular updates here and in 30 days, I hope this will be just what I need to help me get my game going for good. Want to join me on my challenge? Tweet me @myeclecticself

[amoilafortune-deactivated202112]

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I'm writing a poker themed novel this year for National Novel Writing Month this November. I am trying to get some inspiration and feedback from...

I just created a Reddit feed in /r/poker to help me get inspiration for my poker novel. Feel free to comment with your ideas & stories.