I really have to take some time to thank all of you who are reading my little blog. First I started it just for my bad beats, but I saw more and more people reading the blog, I started posting about pretty much everything in my life. I still didn't think anybody would be interested, but after I started getting a few emails a week, I realized that it's always fun for people to get to know a guy who you see every day at the tables and who is doing pretty good in MTT's. Of course there are a lot of haters, who would call me fish and I can win only bcs I'm lucky, but I don't really pay attention to them. Also they would start some crap about my blog... Why the fuck you are coming to read it then? Get the fuck out.
Personally, I don't think I am that great. In poker there is so much to learn. And I think I'm just starting learning. There are so many great players out there. Sometimes I'm flattered and confused when I get emails asking how do I do it and what I do right to keep winning the tournaments and always stay on top of MTT Leaderboard. Honestly, If I would know exactly, I would tell you. I think it's just mix of a little bit of knowledge, craziness, knowing when to fold the second best hand and of course luck. But I can tell you, luck alone can't make you a winning player. So, for those who say they are unlucky and this is why they can't win I can tell you one thing- stop complaining about the website or other bad players and start improving your own game. You never saw me complaining about the Random Generator or dissing the poker website. That's poker. I have seen in real life so many bad beats happening to me or other players that I don't really ever think about websites setting up hands and stuff like that. I have a lot of friends in real life, who think internet poker is total setup, but only bcs they simply can't win online. Maybe they play differently, maybe too lose, maybe too tight. Maybe every time they get sucked out they think it's only bcs it happened online and in real life it would never happen. Hell yeah it happens. In real life I have sucked out with one outer a few times, I have been on a losing end aswell with only one card and one out to come... And lost... For all those skeptics I can tell you one thing- online you see about 4-5 time more hands than in real life during the same time. So it means you will see 4-5 time more suckouts than in real life games. Simple as that.
To answer to those guys/girls who are asking how I keep winning- I don't know. I can tell you how I started and what I did to learn the game.
First I saw WSOP on TV. I thought, that was damn too easy and I started playing play money on poker.com. Pretty much every 5 way all ins and waiting extra 4 hours in order to reload. Didn't really like it, so decided this is stupid and started playing a bit more cautious.
After I started beating play money games so easy that I thought I'm that good and I can start playing for real money, I made my biggest mistake- deposited and started playing way over my bankroll. So, I deposited a few times a week and thought, damn I'm so unlucky. Couldn't even admit to myself that I sucked that bad. But realized I needed to change something. I saw a lot of offers for books, poker calculators and stuff like that. But I thought I'm too good for that and I would never pay for some book or calculator. But after one more losing month, I decided to buy couple books (I won't name them here, sorry) and to buy Texas Hold'em Calculator. It didn't work on poker.com, so I started playing on Absolute poker. I would say the calculator stopped the bleeding. It gave me more insight on pot odds and stuff. But I still was total fish, since the calculator would say "you have the nuts" and I didn't even know wtf that meant. Even though calculator was a great tool and great investment, I didn't have patience to do exactly what it advised to do. I was way too aggressive for that thing...
And then I read some books. Best move ever. Lucky me, I read couple great ones right at the bat and finally won my first tourney. Still remember, I had like $40 left in my account and I registered for last two tourneys. Was thinking, if I don't cash, I will have to buy some new books, change something, but lucky me I got first. $900. That win started me going. If you would look at my sharkscope graph, it's right around 500 games. After that, I didn't go lower $0 in profits and finally around 1650 games I started going up on the chart. (I didn't post my graph, so ppl would not think I'm bragging. If you want, you can find it yourself). Currently at around 4700 games I'm pretty happy with my chart, especially that this is ONLY my PDC chart. I don't play on Carbon anymore, but if added that one, I can say even to me it looks pretty good. I play some on FT and PS, but those are huge tourneys and you might go without cashing in those for months. For some reason I prefer less players and I'm ok with winning less money. Have cashed in couple PS and FT tourneys, but even if I got to 13th or smth like that I didn't get enough money to be interested to sit for 7-8 hours again and just bust out outside final table and get as much as I can win on pdc pretty much every day. so, I'm choosing PDC.
As you can see, I learned to play poker the hard way. I was depositing way too often and pretty much wasn't withdrawing at all. Now I can say it flipped upside down. I don't need to deposit and I only withdraw. That's a good side of poker. I paid my dues.
For those who just started playing poker and asked me what to do, I can give a few advices.
-Don't be afraid to invest in poker. Books, calculators DO help. If it will not help you to win too much, at least you will stop losing. I can tell you one thing- it will pay off in a long run. I learned that myself. I didn't want to buy anything, but I'm glad I did. Do some research, which books are the best, which calculators work best. Then buy one. You won't regret it.
-Go to some poker sites/forums. Talk to friends about poker. Try to absorb as much info as possible. Don't be afraid to ask what you did wrong in a hand, if you lost a huge pot. There are no stupid questions, there are only stupid answers.
-Learn to control your tilt. If you had a bad day, take a break. Read my blog and make fun of myself getting bad beats. Whatever will make your mind get off the last bad beat.
-Don't be afraid of poker training sites. I always check them out. Sometimes you need to invest in order to get results. Of course, to pay some money for info is always painful, but I can assure you, it will come back. At least it did pay off for itself for me. There are a few good ones with real stars. I like watching their lessons. It's good to know, what an actual pro is thinking in the hand and you can compare, what would you do in the same situation.
-Know your leaks and fix them. Maybe you are too aggressive, maybe you are too tight, maybe you don't know pot odds. So much to learn. Admit to yourself what you are doing wrong and fix the leak. It will save big money or you.
I can give you one book I think every single poker player MUST read. And this will only help to make you better. It's not about poker strategy how to play a game. It's about poker players mindset. One good friend of mine (great poker player) gave me that book for a few month to read. After I returned it to him, I bought one for myself. Go look for "The Poker Mindset" by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger. Read it and let me know if you liked it.
Also, I would recommend to check out
PokerVT website. It has some great pros like Paul Wasicka and Daniel Negreanu and they really have some great points...I like that website.
If you guys want to contact me, you can stop by in any of the tournaments and say hi. Don't think I'm ignoring you, if I won't respond. I might be playing in 4-5 tourneys at once and don't really read chat. But if I have time and I see that person wants to have nice conversation and not only bitch about things, I will definitely respond. Or you can email me to ltuflawless@yahoo.com with your thoughts or suggestions.
That's it. Wasn't feeling like playing more tourneys today, so I killed an hour posting here. LOL...
This is how I busted out from Deepstack. 5th. 3 get paid. All in on flop with nut straight. Runner runner full house. Congratufuckinglations.
All in preflop w AA vs QQ.
Flopped straight. All in on turn. River flushed...Deepstack
KK preflop all in vs JJ. Deepstack. Runner Runner straight.
With my luck today I even didnt re-raise just wanted to make sure A won't hit the flop. Sure enough, it did ...
Ok, I gotta talk about this hand in $1500 GTD and about idiots who simply don't know how to lose. In this case- MYBIGNIPS1. Even though the bad play was on his part and not mine, I was called a kunt, and all other nice words. LOL. Grow up.
For the third time this Year made to first place on MTT Leaderboard. Not bad. Still can't win a Grand Final though.