Demondoink

Tarantino method video

The Tarantino Method

I randomly stumbled across a video about this a month or so ago. I guess I had been watching some random self improvement videos, hence why I was recommended it in the first place.

Usually these types of videos can resonate in the moment, but by the next day you have completely forgotten about the idea. However, for some reason (perhaps its simplicity), the 'method' stuck in my mind.

At the time I was wasting so many hours in the day. I had become stuck in several aspects of my life, and had a long backlog on my to do list just waiting to be completed.

So I done what the video suggests- wait until the dead of night, write down a list of the things that you are doing wrong (in my case watching too much Youtube/Instagram, not reading enough, bare minimum Duolingo, being too passive in dating, looking too scruffy when I left the house etc) and then wrote out in the column next to them how to rectify these issues.

I am not going to lie and say my life has completely changed since then, but I have definitely noticed some forward trajectory and inertia in aspects of my life that I had kind of just put on the backburner. In the end I didn't write down 100 things (as I felt that was a little too much) but instead wrote down 25 things that I was doing wrong. As a result, this has brought these issues to the forefront of my mind and made them conscious- instead of unconscious thoughts pushed to the back of my mind in an attempt to ignore and forget about them.

Suddenly my problems are real and are staring me in the face, but so are the solutions!

I just got back from Poland yesterday. I was very lucky as they actually moved my outward flight forward 24 hours, meaning that I was entitled to a full refund for both flights. This was perfect as I only wanted to go for two weeks instead of the original month. I will likely head back out there in a month or two (or perhaps some place else) but I felt that two weeks was more than enough and now I can get on with fixing up the house and getting it on the market.

At the moment there are several key areas in my life that are in a state of flux- where do I want to live (Scotland or abroad), am I going to continue with poker or shift my focus elsewhere. Work and living destination are two of the biggest and most important aspects of anyone's lives, along with relationships (which I am also working on). So I guess it's a little overwhelming and daunting having literally no idea where I will be this time next year, and also what I will be doing.

Anyways my immediate focus is on the house and then I will take it from there. I will continue to focus on my Tarantino list and make my life as good as it can possibly be in the meantime, before I decide what is next for me in terms of living and working.

In the midst of chaos it is good to have some constants. Despite being on holiday I was able to get in two outdoor workouts per week. I would stumble across (and sometimes look up) outdoor gyms, and do sets of pullups, dips and pushups. Sometimes my mood would start to dip and then I knew it was a sign that I needed to workout. Then, after doing so, my equilibrium would be restored for the next couple of days at the very least.

I am excited to get back to the gym again, back to playing golf again and perhaps even playing some poker. The sessions are likely to continue to be sporadic.

I remember always questioning the likes of OTB and Educa poker for just seemingly upping sticks and quitting poker, despite being crushers and at the top of the game. However now I can understand where they were coming from.

Sometimes your passion for the game just slowly fades away. You may still love the game, but you just want to do something else. The urge to sit down and play is slowly replaced by a sense of dread and trepidation. You realise that this is not an occupation suitable for long term physical and mental health, it is more a means to win a lot of money in the short to medium term and then move on to do something else.

Of course there will always be exceptions, there will be guys playing online for 20-30 years at the same stake, making a consistent income and being able to balance a good social life while maintaining their physical and mental health simultaneously.

But then there are other guys like OTB, on top of the world and the best player in the world. All he needs to do to make millions per year is sit down in front of a computer and crush. He will never make anything like this sort of money in any other career that he chooses to go down.

Yet he stops showing up online. Every now and then you see him hopping in to the 500z pool. Why is a guy who was just playing $200/400 now playing a stake roughly the same as one of his big blinds at $40knl?

Because his love for the game remains, but his passion and drive has faded. He has made his millions and now he wishes to do something else in his life. Perhaps that is retire in Mexico on the beach, or perhaps that is to go back to University to study. Perhaps its to start a family or to become a full time bachelor- spending some of those Ivey millions in the process.

Then if all else fails, he can always come back to the game. He has developed a skillset that will always be replicable in the game. He might build up some rust, but he can always get back to the top and make millions again, if needs be.

Yet he doesn't.

He stops showing up in 500z. Maybe it's not only his passion for the game that has died now, but his love for it too. Maybe he has found a new game or career to put his heart and soul in to, and he is battling the proverbial Phil Ivey there as we speak.

Or maybe he is lying on the beach, margarita in hand and millions in the bank, living off his interest.

Who knows...

Dddogkillah Hey mate. Well pre flop it's not even a 3bet in these positions and at this stack depth. Even at 100bb it's only 3betting around 10% of the time (assuming a 3bet/fold strategy).

On the flop (assuming we take the 100bb ranges) then his raise is fine, but vs click back it's just a mega punt call. He has T high, no draw, OOP. He doesn't have the equity nor the position to call, even vs click back.

On the river I think he can jam, but the solver seems to think otherwise. Reason being is that I am supposed to just jam my hand ott lol. Doesn't really make much sense for me to jam my hand tho, as I basically just get called by better.

Anyways he is never supposed to have his hand past the flop so the hand kind of goes off the rails from there. I guess betting or checking otr are both fine.

Funny thing is my exact combo is almost pure click back on the flop :D His hand is losing 5bb as a call, so a very big punt.

Edit: Maybe I input slightly different stack sizes etc, cos before I am sure A4dd was only clicking back a quarter of the time and now it's almost pure. Anyways the main takeaway is that it's a good click back, regardless if it's almost pure or only sometimes.

IP clack back range

OOP continue range

RunItTw1ce Actually if you give IP the option to click back it does so with my exact combo around 20-25% of the time. So yes it is theory approved.

We can just call with the bdfd combos as they want to keep in his dominated bdfd's. So A4hh wants to keep in his random JThh etc. But my combo doesn't play very well ott as a call so I can click back as a pseudo value/bluff.

Good luck in Poland!

Thanks mate! What are your plans for this Summer?

Going for max value

Genuinely the worst line I've seen all year from a 'reg'

Guess I got max value here too :P

Playing sporadically

This month has been a bit random. I am attempting to change some of my routines (mostly playing earlier and waking up earlier) so there have been some days where I will start playing at 2-3pm without eating anything and grind until 9pm- when I quit and I can finally have something to eat! Then there are other days when I start grinding at like 11pm and play for a couple of hours.

In some ways I am happy about this. My daily routine was getting so predictable that I kind of new what to expect before each new day had began. At the moment everything is so up in the air that I don't really know what each day will bring.

I go to Poland in around 1.5 weeks time, and I will be on holiday there for a month. In all honesty I kind of regret booking to go for so long, I think two weeks would have been long enough, but it's done now so I'll just go with it. If I wanna leave earlier then I guess I'll just book an earlier flight home, or go to another European country for a week or two.

Regardless, I am still very much looking forward to going. I have been to Poland twice before, once going to Krakow and Warsaw in 2020, but me and my friend literally had to flee the country and go to Germany because the borders were getting closed for Covid lol.

Then I went again two years ago in the Summer of 2023, where I started my nine country 'holiday' in Krakow, before ending up in Athens a month later.

I really like the country and I like Polish people. It's funny because even in Inverness I often find myself getting on better with the Polish people that live here than the Scottish ones lol. Plus Polish girls are very attractive.

Anyways, I doubt that I'll play poker while I am away, so I'll try to play a decent bit before I go away- though I'm going to visit my brother this weekend so I'll miss out on most of this weekends grind.

This year I feel like my money is just going down and down. I am around $35k below EV and I've spent a lot of money on fixing up the house, as well as on my holiday to Australia. It's quite unusual because I am used to withdrawing quite consistently and spending less money than whatever amount I withdraw- as I don't tend to spend a lot of money.

Obviously I'm far from being broke, but it is better to see your bank balances go up than go down!

I've also been spending some money on therapy. In the past I thought it was pointless as you can just fix things yourself with meditation, self help books etc, but I realised that there were some things that I was simply unable to resolve on my own. It's going well so far and even though it's another expense on the tab, I am certain that it will be worth its weight in gold for the mid-long term!

It is admirable when we try to do things on our own, but at some point it is simply pig headed stubbornness, and ceases to be admirable.

For example when we look in poker, most of the top guys in the game have groups of other top players that they study/discuss hands etc with. Sure we can do a lot by ourselves (probably more than we think) but at some point it's important to accept outside help, outside opinions, outside perspectives etc. Otherwise we will just continue to look at a problem from the exact same angle, instead of from a completely different angle or perspective.

I have seen big transformations in some of my students from my poker coaching, so that kind of woke me up to the fact that other people may know much more than me about many different things. Now I am trying to chat with people all the time on things that they are better than me at- whether that be a therapist, a person at the gym, a poker player, a golfer etc.

This year I have improved my golf swing massively just because I got fitted for new golf clubs, and because my brothers coworker is a tour pro who was able to give me some tips on how to fix my big slice- like changing my grip and slightly altering my swing path.

I have bumped in to Luke Stoltman in the sauna/steam room (a top ten in the world strongman) and asked him questions about weight lifting etc, even tonight I done the same with another guy who I seen benching 140kg for reps. My first sentence was 'how did you get so good at bench'. People love questions like this because to get to that level you have to be so dedicated, as anyone who goes to the gym knows that to be able to bench 140kg for reps in pretty insane.

The more you know, the more you don't know.

Even if my poker bankroll decreases this year, my social skills, confidence, knowledge of weight lifting, golf swinging and yoga stretching will have improved substantially- and you can't put a price on that!

GG.

Exercise

For the past couple of weeks I have had almost no motivation or desire to play poker. I have played the odd session, but this was mostly when I just forced myself to sit down and get in a few hands.

However, on a plus note I have been maintaining my study, doing so almost every day for around one hour. I try to vary up my study and cover different spots (focusing on some spots that are easy to constantly overlook).

6max poker is such a complicated game that we shouldn't be striving for perfection with our study, but we should be making sure we have a decent idea on how to play most situations- whether that be bvb, 3bet pots, 4bet pots etc.

Once my desire comes back I plan on increasing my study time, but at the moment I still get a lot of value from that hour of study, and I think that it's much more important to do one hour every day, than five hours twice a week. Quality is more important than quantity, and consistency is just as important too!

This week I have been focusing on exercise, and building my days around that, for the most part. On Monday I went to the gym, on Tuesday I went to a yoga class, on Wednesday I played golf, on Thursday and Friday I went to the gym, on Saturday I had a day off and on Sunday I went on a run- only my second run since moving to Inverness over 1.5 years ago!

It's funny that after you do a marathon it can become quite easy to just quit running and very rarely run again.

Nowadays I prefer other sports like lifting weights, playing golf and going to yoga classes, however I want to start adding in cardio once per week- so I'll aim to run 5-10k on most weekends.

You also get the runners high, which I kind of forgot about. I am still feeling the effects of it, despite the fact that I got home around five hours ago.

Saturday was the only day that I didn't exercise, and tbh I felt like crap. Part of that was because I was just lazing around the house wasting time watching Youtube etc (as my friend was plastering the bathroom so I couldn't even have a shower), but it was also because it was the only day of the week that I didn't do something physical.

But having walked through the meadow, recalling his impressions of
mowing, he was now almost decided that he would mow. And after the
vexing conversation with his brother, he again recalled this
intention.

'I need physical movement, otherwise my character definitely
deteriorates,' he thought, and he decided to mow no matter how awkward
it was in front of his brother and the peasants.

Excerpt from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, p248.

This is exactly how I felt today. Yesterday my mood was garbage as a result of lying around and doing nothing physically, but today I decided to paint the spare bedroom (which took 2-3 hours) and then go on a run in the evening. What was the result?

A great mood!

I think as poker players it can be easy to think of things in terms of EV and hourly rates.

Why should we bother painting a room when we can earn much more money by playing poker, then just use that money to pay for a painter to do it instead? Why sand a floor when we can grind and then pay someone to do it for us? Why cut the grass when we can hire a gardener, and fire up some cash game tables as he gets to work?

If we look through the EV perspective only, then we are almost always better off playing poker and paying someone else to do the work for us.

However, when we talk about our mood, our lust for physical work (which is essentially bult in to our species) and the capacity to learn new skills (for example painting, sanding floors, stripping wallpaper, cutting grass, assembling furniture etc) then these are not only enhancing our character and making us a more rounded person, but doing these things can also boost our mood and keep us humble- for we are never too well off or important to snub our noses at some wallpaper stripping or pulling up weeds from the garden.

This is exactly what is being discussed in the excerpt from Anna Karenina- Levin gets in to an argument with his brother, and seeks difficult physical labour to release him from this negative mindset. He works amongst the peasants, despite being a well off man who has absolutely no need to be working with them in the first place.

But his desire for difficult physical work goes beyond money or status- he does it for his mood and for the soul. He knows that physical work and physical exercise is the key to a good mood and a positive outlook on life.

The longer Levin mowed, the more often he felt those moments of
oblivion during which it was no longer his arms that swung the scythe,
but the scythe itself that lent motion to his whole body, full of life
and conscious of itself, and, as if by magic, without a thought of it,
the work got rightly and neatly done on its own. These were the most
blissful moments.

On Wednesday the weather was amazing, reaching peaks of 23c which is quite insane for the North of Scotland at the end of April! So I decided to play a golf course at Boat of Garten, which is ranked 30odd in Scotland in terms of the best golf courses. It is quite a short course (less than 6,000 yards) but it is aesthetically beautiful, situated near the Cairngorm mountains and requires accuracy from the tee but also in to the greens, which are very tight and slopy.

I was messaging my friend about playing this course (he is also in to golf) and he said something along the lines of 'think of me in the office when you are out playing golf in this weather'.

Sometimes it's easy to overlook how lucky we are as poker players. Sure the variance can suck, and it's not easy money with players constantly improving, but if we want to we can just take the day off and go play golf in the sun.

And on other days we can take the day off poker to paint some walls and go on a run. After all, we are never too rich or noble to drop down and do the work of the peasants!

Plus we'll probably be in a good mood by the end of the day too :)

IAmNeo Thanks mate!

Yeah it's a tough one because most of us want to get as high in poker as possible, but the reality is that when we are presented with such an opportunity, most of us just settle down at a certain stake and then just grind that for most of our poker careers.

For some people that is 100nl or 200nl, for others that is 1k or 2k, or perhaps 5k.

It takes a certain mindset to be striving every year to play higher and higher, while being able to accept swings of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For the majority of people, even if they had the skill level to play these stakes, they wouldn't be able to deal with the variance and the swings.

Personally speaking I'm not sure if I have the required mentality either, but I have been probing a little to see how I react. I am naturally quite risk averse, and have historically moved up very slowly- even when being more than adequately rolled for the next higher stake.

I hear stories of guys like Owen Messere and to me it seems like the money hardly bothers him. He was aggressively shot taking $5k iirc despite being under rolled to play it, and kept on coming back until he started to beat that stake.

Anyways, these are merely observations as I haven't put in enough volume at these stakes to be speaking from experience.

At the moment I don't have much motivation or desire to play poker, but I am sure that will return again at some point. I'm basically just bum hunting $5k+ whenever I play it atm, so the games are easily +EV and then it just comes down to being able to accept the variance. I don't battle these stakes so they are probably easier than most $1k games I play cos there is no rake, some bum hunting regs and then a fish/whale.

Obv $5k/10k is a lot different when you are reg battling though.

Chow Yes I agree it's a great film, and I will definitely be watching it again at some point! I think there were lots of other important lessons from the film too- for example most of us likely have some sort of mental leaks/issues that are holding us back in certain parts of our lives.

We probably just shove these concerns to the back of our minds and try to forget about them, instead of seeking something like therapy, mental coaching etc.

As someone who 'took the big corporate job' I ended up circling back
to what I really wanted to do.

That's great to hear! Do you mean that you circled back around to becoming a professional poker player?

RunItTw1ce

Lots of fun in that! One of the few that has the skill and opportunity
to compete at those levels.

Thanks mate! Unfortunately I have lost motivation to play poker for the past couple of weeks, so been focusing on other things instead. However, I am sure it will come back again soon enough :)

I think I like the regs bluff with AK. Quite interesting because its
so hard for you to have the Kh given the texture and preflop call.

Yeah I like his bluff too, even tho in solver land it wasn't really bluffing AK and was sticking to hands like A5/A4s iirc. Either way its good as I'm gonna fold hands like sets, two pairs etc otr and even a random weaker flush is in a horrible spot.

The AK call down on QJ8 is something. What are the bluffs ATs/KTs?

The AK call down is obviously a ridiculous call down on my part that is going to be nowhere near solver approved. However, against a fish then we have to figure out what they are up to and then adjust accordingly.

This fish is a weird one. Sometimes he is in a passive mood (prob playing around 40 wwsf style) and other times he is in an aggro mood, playing around a 53 wwsf style (perhaps he is drunk or something, who knows).

This session was when he was in one of his aggressive moods.

The first thing to note is that this guy loves to bluff in 3bet pots, especially when donking the flop. However, he tends to like to slow play hands- meaning we can heavily discount the top of his range in this spot and hands like straights, sets, two pairs etc.

If that is the case, then his value range is extremely thin here. Mostly just the odd AQ type hand that is too weak to 'slow play' by checking to me, and perhaps the odd random hand like two pair or something that he decided to bet this time instead of his usual check.

Then if we think about potential bluffs, what can he have? AT/A9/KT/K9 (including off suit combos btw).

That is A LOT of potential bluffing combos. So even if he did donk a somewhat balanced range (which imo he doesn't) it could still be a +EV call with AK, simply due to all of his potential bluffs.

I only really get fucked over if he has a random weaker pair that is bluffing, but from what I seen and his bet sizings etc, I don't think he would jam those hands otr. The only down side is that he isn't overly aggro otr, but on the flop I basically just decided to call him down (old school poker lol) after seeing him doing this random donk lead so many times otf with air.

I still like my call. The fact that he tank jammed AQ (it is pretty thin) also makes the call better, as that means he is almost certainly checking weaker Qx like KQ, QT etc.

I think my call down is winning, and probably winning quite a lot.

Reg turning top pair in to a bluff

Calling down a fish with AK high at $5k

Social Comparison Bias

In the book 'the art of thinking clearly', one chapter discusses the social comparison bias. Here is an excerpt from the end of the chapter;

Do you foster individuals more talented than you? Admittedly, in the
short term the preponderance of stars can endanger your status, but in
the long run, you can only profit from their contributions. Others
will overtake you at some stage anyway. Until then, you should get in
the up-and-comers' good books- and learn from them.

I was recommended to watch the film Good Will Hunting. I had often seen it advertised on Prime and swore to watch it one day, but had never gotten around to it. So tonight, as it was my day off from poker, I decided to give it a watch.

It's quite a powerful film and takes you on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. At one point the MIT professor is talking to Will (who has just broken up with his girlfriend). Will is in a bad mood and ends up lashing out at the professor, telling him how easy the mathematical problem was for him to solve, and how much better he is than his professor.

Needless to say the professor doesn't take to this too kindly, and seems like a broken man.

This is an example of the 'social comparison bias'.

If the professor truly wanted what was best for Will, instead of trying to fulfil his own ego, then he would revel in how easy the problem(s) are for him to solve. Instead of feeling threatened by his students excellence, he would admire it. He would have no issue when Will said these 'mean' words.

I have noticed that in poker I have often sought to go alone, for the most part, and not seek to make connections with players that are better or me, or who are playing higher stakes than me.

I think part of this is stubbornness- I quite like backing myself to go alone and get to where I want to be in the end, even if it will take longer doing it myself than with the help of others. But part of this is likely ego driven- I would prefer to be the best player that I know, instead of, like in Good Will Hunting, an inferior professor who is outshone by his student.

However, in recent years one former student in particular has gone on to achieve excellent results and will now easily make more money in a year than I will.

In some ways I can now learn from him- he moved to Vienna to be in a poker community and now has a big group of poker friends whom he regularly interacts with. He plays, as far as I am aware, several different sites and isn't just focusing on one poker site for the bulk of his volume. He puts in a lot more volume than I do, and treats the job as a full time profession instead of a part time one (which I'm culpable of).

Of cours I am happy to focus less on poker these days. This year I am prioritising my social life, travelling, happiness etc and less on monetary goals and poker volume. However, I could still do better. I could still play more often when I am at home. I could still improve my poker routine and have more of a consistent schedule. I could still add in more sites. I could still add in new ways to study.

And I could still become friends with people that are better at the game than I am.

With that in mind, in the past few days I have been sending more messages to my friend who plays nosebleeds (the guy who buys my action when I play $10k). I have been sending him random hand histories, and asking him about poker courses on Upswing lol (not that he has watched any of them).

In the past I bought both the Educa Poker course, and the Kanu courses from Upswing. I found a few nuggets of gold in the Educa one, but I found the Kanu one to be too dry and didn't really gain a whole lot from that in all honesty. I loved to interact with Sauce in the RIO comments section and get in discussions with him about strategy, the solvers outputs and adjustments we could make against opponents at 500z.

Unfortunately I feel like Sauce has never been replaced since he left, albeit it would be extremely difficult to do so of course.

When I was moving up in stakes I found it the most beneficial to watch players better than me on RIO, and pick their brains in their comments sections. I never really cared about watching some other random guy playing 200z in my pool, unless I wanted to see how he played and get some reads from him. I would prefer to watch and learn from the best, instead of guys at a similar level to me.

I am now wanting to focus on getting as good at this game as possible. I am playing more heads up and I am battling 3h/4h etc, as well as playing $5k and $10k when it's running on Stars. My results so far this year have been rough (I'm up in EV but running $35k below EV), but this is what happens when you play anything from $500nl-$10knl.

I could have had another year of fairly consistent profit. A year where I put in part time volume and achieve part time profits, but instead I have decided to take a much riskier line- to play high stakes game when they are running and be at real risk of (for the first time in my poker career) having a losing year if I run bad at them.

Sure I could keep playing $500-2knl for the rest of my poker career, but where's the fun in that? I know I can beat those games, and while I also know I can beat $5k+ (cos I am game selecting and there is almost no rake) I don't really know how well I can handle the swings there.

This year isn't a year of going through the motions. It's a year of being humble, of learning, and of taking risks to see what happens.

And at the end of it all, do we take the high paying job that Will is offered, or do we follow our heart instead and drive off in to the distance?

Both are risks, we just have to decide what is more important to us.

RunItTw1ce

Vulnerable over pair flop jam. Some times simple is best.

Tbh in game I just thought his play was bad. There is no need to jam this hand because I will x jam a ton of hands on this flop. For example my combo is a pure x jam vs a small cbet from IP.

Also, there is an argument that I could exploitatively fold this hand if I think that his jamming range is too imbalanced towards JJ/TT type hands and not enough AKo with a spade. So potentially he takes a hand that is supposed to always stack my combo and turns it in to a hand where I (sometimes) will hero fold. That's an absolute EV disaster from his perspective.

Also it significantly weakens his small cbet range when he plays similar spots in the future, meaning I can x raise small or x jam much wider as he has taken out the JJ/TT portion of his range from his non all in cbet sizing.

I checked in the solver and he is supposed to range bet for small. Even with the option of jamming alongside small bet, it never does it.

If we can be available to play whether its 6 max or heads up and be
grateful for the adversity we face, I think our careers will go a lot
further and our mental game will be a lot stronger!

Yes I completely agree! Plus it forces us to think in different ways, which is good for our intellectual growth.

I wouldn't worry about playing Pot / X on AXX hu or being correct in
HU ranges. I would just focus on playing the bet size you are
comfortable with. Several nuno videos in the past he has showed some
HU battles with players that typically play 6 max. Whether they use
25/33% on the flop instead of 40% or use B75 instead of B100, doesn't
seem to make a difference.

I get your point, but I prefer to have a more theoretical framework that uses good frequencies, sizings etc and then if I wish to deviate I can do so within that framework. So I'd much prefer to be using accurate flop sizings in a 3bet pot instead of using inaccurate ones that are merely aimed at making my life 'easier'.

If we simplify everything and dumb everything down, we aren't really maximising our capacity to learn the game. Also, while we make fewer mistakes with simplifications, our opponents will too. As soon as we put them out of their comfort zone (just think of Stefan in his prime using 200% flop sizings etc) then BOTH of us will make more mistakes- but if we are more accustomed to this strategy then we will make fewer than our opponents and thus gain EV, compared to a battle of simplified strategies.

So it's not always about limiting mistakes, sometimes it's about merely making less than our opponents. In a game of such complexity like poker where we can gain an edge in so many different ways, then (at some point) shifting away from simplicity to complexity seems like a good way to go.

Please call- oh wait he has jammed!

The 'I have a vulnerable over pair' flop jam

Learning a new game

This year I have been playing more heads up, usually in the $1k zoom pool when it is running, typically around a fish. However last night I just felt like battling and I played against a reg for an hour or so. It's likely that I am losing against him, simply due to the fact that I am unsure in so many spots what to do;

What is my precise pre flop opening range? What hands do I defend against 2.3x compared to my usual 2.5x? What cbet sizings and frequencies am I supposed to be using on the flop in a 3bet pot? Am I over folding to T cbets as a result of me misconstructing my flop cbet range?

I think that I do some things well in heads up simply due to the fact that I am an aggressive player who is willing to make light call downs. I can be very creative and find bluffs in weird spots, and while I do tend to stick to theory, I will deviate when I have the urge or inclination to do so.

Of course sometimes these adjustments and exploits blow up in your face and you look dumb calling a guy down on the river with a pure fold, but even if your intuition allowed that 0EV call to increase in EV to 1 chip, then you made a good adjustment- even if the rational part of your brain tells you off for making such a moronic call, especially when you simultaneously rolled passive!

In the past whenever a 6max game would break and it would get to heads up, I would instantly sit out for fear of playing. I think it is easy to stick in your comfort zone (for example 6max cash) and never try to learn another game.

You know what sizings to use on the flop in a 3bet pot, you know what kind of hands to check back on the flop so that you can defend against T probes, you know to play raise or fold on Kxx when facing a cbet in a 4bet pot.

Your game becomes more about refining than learning.

However, when you start playing a game like heads up, then all of those heuristics that you have built up from 6max go out the window. Sure you can still use your post flop skills to bluff, bluff catch etc, but now when it comes Axx in a 3bet pot, what do you do?

You open the solver and notice that instead of your brainless 25% pot cbet with range sb vs btn, now you have to play pot or check!

When you look at the top guys in 6max, at one point or another the vast majority of them have transitioned over to heads up as well. That's not the say that they stop playing 6m, but more so that they realise that adding in a new format is not only good for the mind (we have to reenter the learning phase instead of the refining phase) but it is another means to get an edge on our opponents.

Perhaps a guy is better than us at 6max due to his solid nature and lack of spew, but how would he fare playing in a two handed format that requires a constant battle for every pot, and where avoiding bluffing is going to lead you to winning far too few pots and thus obliterate your win rate.

Anyways, today I decided to go back to basics. I brought out an A4 notepad titled 'poker' that had been left in a drawer for almost exactly a year (as I checked the date of the previous entry). I loaded up GTO wizard and I started from the basics;

3bet pot cbet strategies on Axx and Kxx.

Tbh I already had a decent idea how to play these boards, but after looking through a few different textures now I have a much clearer picture.

By no means am I saying that I will transition to this game any time soon, but I think that adding another string to your bow, so to speak, is a worthwhile endeavour.

When you log on to Stars you will see one or two regs playing the same game all day every day. They will hop on to some 500nl tables and grind hundreds of thousands of hands per year. Each day will blur in to another as the monotony of 6max ante-less cash hits home. They have managed to forge a good win rate, so why change things now? Why go back to the learning phase and suddenly become -EV in a format, when you can simply continue to play the same games each day and print?

I think it's important to remember why we started playing poker. Sure some of us may have just seen it as a means to an end, as a way to make a consistent, predictable income each year (like a normal job) so that we can pay our bills and put food on the table.

But is that really what we dreamed of in this game? One big lifelong session of 500nl 6max?

Or did we dream of high stakes, of nose bleeds, of watching Isildur donk off millions at PLO and then win it all back.

Perhaps online poker is dying, and we are entering the final phases of our careers. If that is the case, then we might as well go out with a bang and make it a memorable experience. After all, we can always make $50k a year in some other random job, but at our new office job we won't be able to donk off a stack at heads up cos you are completely lost in a spot and resort to some random button clicking in the hopes that your opponent will respond incorrectly.

There will be nothing else that compares to the sweat from your opponent as they tank in to the timebank when you are either praying for a fold with a bluff, or praying for a call with a value hand.

Now back to 3bet pot cbet strategies!

Hey man, great series! I'd like to see another series for matches like Linus v Prodigy, for example.

Also would be cool to review at least one or two hands per video in the solver. This format is very good, but I still think looking at a sim or two per video to review the most weird or interesting hands could be beneficial- though I guess it's a little difficult cos both players seem to be deviating (Linus especially) quite a lot.

I think people will read anything that adds value to their life; poker
forum or not. If you're reading poker blogs on the internet, you're
likely looking for something you can take away, whether it be
inspiration or insight.

I think that is true, but at the same time this is a poker training site so the vast majority of people have signed up to RIO with the goal of improving at poker and on moving up in stakes as opposed to reading about travelling or achieving spiritual enlightenment. I am sure there are much better places to read about these sorts of topics than on RIO.

Which is why I also try to have some sort of balance in my blog of life/travel/self improvement stuff but also poker focused posts as well as hand histories.

So ultimately, no, they don't care about your graph; they care about
their graph.

They do care about your graph and results though. If you look at the most popular blogs on RIO (Freenachos, Neo, Demondoink, CD9 and Onklebs before us) then these are also the guys that are playing the highest stakes and have at one point or another shared graphs, results and hand histories.

Now you could argue that these guys are simply the best writers, or have the best ideas, but I know people more intelligent than myself (for example the guy I used to study with who played 200nl) who likely wouldn't get a fraction of the readers were he to start his own blog on RIO.

The fact that you shared a picture of your poker profits gives you the credibility to share your thoughts and have people believe that what you are telling them is the truth, or at the very least is pointing in the right direction.

If someone playing $50nl makes the exact same blog, comments etc but is down $10k lifetime in cash games then he will get almost no interaction, and even if he does, it will likely be tinged with distrust due to the nature of his poker results.

The poker players in this thread trust you to help them to move up in stakes simply because you have shown to be a crusher in poker.

That's why my blog is written in the way it is. I'm doing my best to
speak directly to people actually reading it, and I don't feel like I
really need to share my results aside from post 1, which only really
establishes my credibility.

But doesn't the fact that you titled the thread 'making ten million' suggest that you will be sharing your poker results throughout the thread?

It's quite a fun style of poker to play every so often because it essentially becomes a game of chicken and a bit of a levelling war. For example, lets say that you think that your opponent won't react appropriately to your over aggression, then you can just raise or click it back a bunch and print.

Conversely, if you think that your opponent will react too aggressively (as in spazzing every time you click it back) then you can actually just do it for value and allow them to level themselves in to thinking that you are bluffing.

I throw in these plays every so often just to keep my opponents honest, or if I think that it will work too well in a vacuum. It just makes you a bit tougher to play against and essentially throws the solver out of the window for this one hand.

RunItTw1ce

None of the journals are sharing anything in terms of strategy, so
putting journals behind a paywall doesn't make sense.

There is more to poker than simply discussing hand histories. You can be giving away information in so many different ways- for example showing or suggesting to people how to study more efficiently and on what tools to use, telling people your daily routine that optimizes your performance for each poker session, discussing how to achieve an elite level poker mindset etc.

All of this information is extremely valuable and is part of becoming an elite poker player. Strategy is merely another aspect of striving towards poker mastery.

I am not saying that I will put my blog behind a paywall (like I said my blog atm is more about my life/travels/thoughts etc), but at the same time I think Sam's suggestion was very reasonable and more importantly we should not take for granted the advice of elite level poker players (like Neo) who have absolutely zero obligation to share anything with us.

For example, if Linus or OTB said that I can sign up for a poker blog for $100 per year where we can discuss everything except from poker strategy, then I would sign up for that in one millisecond. The information you would get from that blog would easily 10x whatever you spent, even if you aren't discussing actual poker strategy.

Also didn't RIO reach out to you about making videos and you passed? I
thought this was a year ago?

I just checked my Skype, I was asked once almost four years ago. Obviously I passed at the time, but I'm just highlighting the fact that you'd assume guys posting blogs on RIO and playing high stakes would be hounded in to being coaches for the site. If I were asked now I'm not entirely sure what I would say tbh, I would have a think.

I am able to pick your brain here and there about strategy, but you
have to admit its very limited on what you are willing to share.

I'd say I've been pretty good over the years at discussing hand histories/strategy etc, especially when Sauce was around and I would talk a lot about strategy in the comments sections on those videos- as well as on other videos too.

I do agree that in recent years I've not really continued this, but that's more so because I don't really watch many RIO videos. If Sauce came back then I am sure I would go back in his comments section again, but that seems unlikely to happen!

Even in this thread I have responded to your questions on certain hands. I also do private coaching, so if someone wants a more precise description of my poker and study methodology then I will explain it all there. Obviously it doesn't make any sense to write that all out on a RIO blog for free. After all I have to pay bills too and I've spent hundreds if not thousands of hours staring at a solver and trying to figure out the logic behind it's outputs.

Australia trip and the line a day journal

Prior to this trip the longest flight I had taken was around six hours when I flew to Toronto in the Summer of 2019. A couple of years ago I downloaded an app called 'skratch', which allows you to select the countries that you have visited, and then shades them in on the map to give you a good visual representation of the places that you have travelled to.

It's funny that you don't even really realise how unconscious you often are when selecting a place to go on holiday. If you are from the UK then you are likely to default towards countries in the West of Europe like France, Italy, Spain etc and shy away from ones in the East. After filling out the countries I had visited, I realised that there was a gap in my travels in the East, so I decided to book a trip through the Balkans- which was a great experience!

Nine different countries in one month, and all done via public transport- in this case the bus! Many times the drivers of the buses would block off the toilet and say it was out of order, apparently so that they didn't have to clean it post journey. That meant, at least for me, basically not eating or drinking anything throughout the bus journey. Some of these journeys could be eight or ten hours long!

Looking back now, it's not something that I would rush to sign up for again. Rushing from place to place spending only a couple of nights in each country and long bus journeys without a toilet isn't exactly top class travel, but it was an experience and one that I am happy to have had.

The Australia trip was more of a socially focused one, as opposed to one where I was determined to do a bunch of sightseeing etc. My brother moved out there several years ago now and I was long overdue a visit- plus it was a bonus to visit a third continent, having travelled to around 50% of Europe, and visited North America once for a Canada/US trip.

My brother lives in Melbourne, and a friend from school lives on the east coast near Byron Bay.

First up was Melbourne, where I spend around a week living with my brother and going to the gym, going to the (golf) driving range, going on walks and going out for food. He was working some days too, so on those days I would do my own thing and head in to the centre of Melbourne via Flinders station and have a wander, often ending up in China town for some food.

We then went to Tasmania and done a road trip from Launceston to Hobart, going to a couple of national parks in the process and seeing some Tasmanian devils at a nature reserve. It was also fun to feed the kangaroos, and pretty surreal given I have seen them so often on the TV, but never in person. Kangaroos are a lot more rough when eating out of your hand than a Wallaby is!

After that my brother went back to Melbourne, and I continued my travels to Sydney and then on to Ballina Byron where my friend picked me up and I spent six days on the East coast, hanging out with him. We spent a night camping in Byron Bay, before he went to some hippy bonfire thing and I decided to just crash at a hostel in Byron instead, as it wasn't my cup of tea. We went on walks along the beach and spent a lot of time grinding a remastered version of crash bandicoot- managing to complete the first game before moving on to the second one. We also got through most of the LOTR trilogy, before I finished it off myself on the flight home to Scotland.

Then it was back to Melbourne for the last week or so, where I would play golf with my brother a couple of times at Yarra Bend golf club, which was a surprisingly nice course, given how cheap it was ($50 for one round and $33 for another as it was 4pm). We also had a night out with some of his friends, which was fun.

Early on in the trip I went in to this little store and seen a 'line a day journal'. Last year I bought a daily journal, but I would go long periods without filling it in, and ultimately gave up on it. This, however, seemed much more manageable, as the purpose of the journal is essentially to just write down one sentence (or perhaps even a word or two) to do with your day.

I liked this idea as I feel like writing down something about your day focuses you to be more conscious of your day. You don't want to write down that you just done the exact same thing ten days in a row. The eagerness to write a different entry to what you wrote yesterday, forces you to be more present and thus live a slightly different day to the one you had yesterday.

I have managed to fill it in every day since I got it, and I often catch myself thinking 'how can I make today different' throughout my day, as I am eager to write a different entry at the culmination of each day.

Overall it was a great trip. I met lots of cool people, got out of my comfort zone (asking out girls etc), seen some cool animals, hung out with friends, got PR's on bench/squat/deadlift and visited a third continent. When I look forward to the rest of the year I feel a sense of excitement. I have literally no idea where I will be in six months time. I could be in Europe, I could be in Asia, I could be in Oceania. I could be single, I could be in a relationship. I could be playing nosebleeds or I might not even be playing poker.

I have realised that, at least for now, I thrive on novelty. Routines and repetition are on the backburner. I want to go headfirst in to the unknown and see what happens.

Now, what to write in my daily journal...

RunItTw1ce

Luke Johnson created a journal on 2+2 and also a youtube channel. I
strongly disagree with this stuff being behind a paywall. I think this
is the approach Josh is going towards.

I can understand why he would say that this should be behind a paywall, I mean is there any debate that Neo's thread is of more importance than a random RIO coach making a play and explain?

These guys are getting paid $500 per video for information that is of much less importance than Neo's, and to a lesser extent my own (as I talk a bit less about poker strategy).

I honestly think it's a decent idea. Sure the viewership/interactions would reduce, but if you got 100 guys signing up for $100 then they could all post a bunch of questions and pick the mind of a guy playing high stakes. Then that $10k would motivate the guy making the thread to give their all, post/respond consistently and to share things that they may not be willing to share, on a free, public platform.

Realistically this won't happen any time soon, but it's honestly quite a good idea.

You can't tell me that paying $100 per year to have access to the mind of a high stakes player isn't great value. I mean a monthly RIO sub costs $200.

That way you could also leave a thread like my current one up for free (as there isn't enough poker strategy to charge a fee) but one like Neo's or my old 500z challenges behind a paywall where members can interact with one another, ask direct questions to the OP and see behind the curtain of high stakes.

Cos realistically people will never reveal a ton of poker strategy with free content. I would argue that many coaches are even holding back a bunch during their RIO videos, so that they can attract private clients and then reveal all then.

A Youtube play and explain may be a good means of getting students in the door for a coach, but making a free training course on Youtube makes literally zero sense, unless you just don't care about attracting students or making money.

Sam Crowe Hey mate. Tbh I have considered stopping the blog for a while. My intention was never to have one and was more just to do my own 500z OTB style thread a few years ago. I just kind of ended up doing a new one at the start of each year, even though for the past couple of years I have strongly considered not doing one again.

Anyways I think that if I start one I should finish it. Perhaps I won't bother with one next year, or maybe I will feel a burning desire at the beginning of 2026 to shift my focus back towards poker again and I will do a OTB/Neo style challenge thread again. We shall see.

Either way I will continue with this thread until the end of the year, and I'll share more photos etc so that the thread looks a bit more interesting for the casual who just wants to flick through once in a while to see whats going on.

I'll just go back to the weekly entries. However, when I am away then I'll likely not post at all- like what has happened since I've been in Australia. I am back in Scotland now though, so I'll be posting again!

P.S: I agree about the access to these journals and have thought about
it before. I think journals should be paywalled, if Phil could make
that happen. This stuff is personal, and valuable to readers, and
should be reserved to members of the community

Do you mean as part of the RIO monthly memberships?

I guess it would be weird though, cos then you would think that the authors of each thread should be entitled to some form of compensation, if that were the case. Arguably they should be (for example free annual membership if you get x amount of likes/comments/views) because the more interactions in the forums, the better it is for the site. They pay coaches to make the most mediocre videos imaginable, 30 minutes of play and explain every couple of weeks, but then you have guys like me, CD9 and Neo who all play high stakes (though they play a little higher than me) putting hours in to their journals and not getting a penny.

I would argue that these journals, especially poker focused ones like Neo's, are much more beneficial for the average RIO user than some crappy play and explain from a 200z reg.

Anyways, RIO will continue to employ large numbers of mediocre coaches, and consistently overlook the guys right under their nose. They should have pushed the boat out to get at least one of us to make videos. It's quite baffling honestly. I have been contacted once about making videos, and that was years ago, having been a member for 8/9 years.

This is why I've been considering for a while to make my own training site. I know I could make a much better one than RIO currently have, at least in terms of training content. They have literally zero structure to their videos (no training path) and are saturated with so many coaches, most of whom are mediocre players and mediocre coaches. I'd much rather watch a site that has 3-4 very good coaches creating a clear pathway on how to improve.

Instead they have 'elite' coaches that are playing 200nl.

You have a lot to offer, but you have to remember as you mentioned
above people are focused a lot on short term results. If short term
results like graphs gain more views and likes, then you should post
them. Even if 90% of the crap you don't believe in or in your words
you find disingenuous where people can challenge your credibility, the
10% that actually matters will be found by someone and have an impact.

Thanks mate I appreciate that. I think that in the future I may focus more on poker again in a blog, but for this year at least that isn't my main priority. Don't get me wrong I will play poker, share hands, study, coach etc but what excites me most about the upcoming year and beyond is to meet new people, date, travel, have new experiences etc.

Sure it would be nice to crush the nosebleeds, but that wouldn't make a big difference to my daily happiness and fulfillment in life. Once I have the other areas of my life in order, then I'll likely shift back towards focusing on poker again- or perhaps even start a coaching site or shift careers entirely, who knows!

Your view on what poker players provide to society was an excellent
take and pulling babies out of a vagina had me rolling!

Haha thanks man. I think that we can do lots of little things in our daily lives that make the lives of others better. For example last year I cut my elderly neighbours grass for them. I also carried one old lady's bag to the bus stop as she looked as if she was struggling. Obviously these are just small things, but people appreciate them and you also never know that your interaction with them might make their day. Often elderly people can be isolated and lonely, as their husband/wife may have died and they live alone.

So even if our actual job may not be the best for society, we can still be vital cogs within it by being good people in our day to day interactions with others. Then in the future we may decide to switch to a job that gives back more- such as being a firefighter or a tradesman.

The other facts like Australia having 38% gamblers was mind blowing.
I've played with quite a few at bellagio here in Vegas. They are
definitely very fun to play with!

I'm pretty sure that was the number that I heard being quoted. They seem to be the biggest gamblers in the world, in terms of percentage of population. I'd imagine that the live poker games could be pretty juicy, I guess I'd just have to figure out that rake structure to see how worthwhile it is to play.

Please post pictures of your travel! Also if you want more coaching
opportunities graphs are very important!

Thanks for the suggestion, I will post more pictures again! I am going to continue with the blog after peoples positive responses, as well as their feedback on what I can do better, and on what they are enjoying etc. I might not share a ton of poker grapsh (though my 500z one is likely coming soon) but I will continue to share cool hands and pictures from my daily life, travels etc.

IAmNeo

In terms of reach, social media is way better of course, but it's also
a different format. You're more beholden to the algorithm and need to
create content that stops people from scrolling with click bait /
trendy topics / pretty pictures.

Yes I think that's why I don't really like using Instagram, at least for poker and advertising coaching etc. I like Insta for my own personal profile, as I only have a small amount of followers on there (I deleted all my social media accounts a few years ago and Insta was the only one I got back). It's a good way of keeping in touch with people that I meet through travelling etc, and seeing what they are up to. Where as on my poker account its just all poker, and it just feels like a mosh pit of people self promotion, bragging about results/lifestyle etc.

Anyways I will post sometimes on Insta and may use it more in the future, but I can't see myself using any other social media platform as one is enough.

You're mulling over some pretty high-minded topics in your blog, which
will never be as sexy, but it's always here and people can come back
to read it and take something away from it.

I agree, I don't think that most poker players, and especially the casual readers, care that much about reading about mindfulness, happiness, self improvement etc on a poker forum, they would much prefer to read a poker blog where results and graphs are shared, and especially one that involves some kind of challenge- like your $10m goal!

People loved the OTB blogs back in the day, myself included, and I think they probably stand alone as the best ever poker blogs posted online. Both in terms of motivation and in terms of his own progress throughout them.

Obviously your blogs are sick as well, but I think we can relate well to the guy grinding 500z (essentially mid stakes) at the start of the challenge, and then ending up battling $5k or $10k short handed towards the end of it. Eventually culminating in that epic $200/400 battle with battle with him Ivey and Kanu before disappearing off in to the sunset with bags of cash.

Anyways maybe I'll do more of a poker focused blog again in the future, but for now my main focus is on my social life, travelling and spirituality/happiness.

Thanks for your response and I'll see you over on your blog too!

Hey Matt. I'm going to get back on to the poker grind in the next couple days, and I'll slowly work my way through your blog.

I look forward to reading it and to interacting in the thread. Good luck on the grind and on the sick challenge!

rhalala

Hey, first of all, thank you. I find myself in a similar situation. It
seems to me that blogging hasn’t evolved much, and I feel it could be
a lot better with it—simple things like having a view count for each
post, the ability to edit old posts and keep discussing the same topic
over time (while somehow notifying your audience about updates),
emails when new posts etc etc.

Hey mate, thanks for the comment! I agree I think that adding something like a view counter would be a big improvement, cos I know people who will read a blog but won't even log in to a RIO account while doing so- meaning no likes and no comments, both of which are essential for the OP to know they are actually interacting with others and aren't simply talking to themselves.

I am rethinking about cancelling the blog, but at the same time this format is kind of dying a slow death as people much prefer Instagram, Youtube, Twitch etc to interact with other poker players and hear their thoughts. I do enjoy writing though and find it good to be able to articulate my thoughts and explore different ideas.

Twitter could be fun, or even just writing your own journal on a piece of paper might be good enough? I have started a daily 'line a day' journal, and have been really enjoying it so far. It forces me to become more conscious of each day, as I want to write something new in each journal entry, instead of writing the same entry every single day of- went to gym, played poker, ate, went to sleep.

I hope to find you in a new format that fits you better!

Thanks, good luck to you too!

RunItTw1ce

Pictures are worth a million words. When you scroll through this
journal there is only one picture. People honestly don't want to read
a bunch of stuff. That is why Insta and youtube shorts are so popular.
If you want to reach a large audience I would suggest one of those.
90% of people are simple human beings. The key is not to be shocked by
how dumb some people can be. If you are not shocked, then you are not
irritated by it.

Yeah I agree I think that Instagram etc are much more popular ways of communicating to the current generation, however I don't really enjoy that medium as it feels a bit fake and disingenuous. I just feel kind of dirty when I make a post of there sharing some random results or trying to promote coaching or whatever, but obviously I should be doing this because coaching is a side hustle where I make a form of revenue, and the students that I coach tend to improve quite substantially meaning its a positive for the both of us.

I do agree that I should post more photos in there though. Obviously I do share hand histories, deep mtt runs via the hyperlinks, but I should post more photos directly to the blog that can be viewed by simply scrolling down through the thread.

I have considered doing Youtube for a while, but I'm not sure what direction I would head down with it- whether it be poker podcasts, discussing hands with other online regulars, theory, commenting on random TV/streamed hands etc. I think I'll be more likely to start a Youtube channel at some point and focus on that, compared to positing regularly on Instagram, but we shall see.

Post graphs, more pictures of places you are traveling to, pictures of
your house, maps of places you do your running / marathons, big names
of people you play against online, maybe some pictures of casinos you
travel to.

Thanks for the suggestions. Personally I can't see myself posting graphs very often on here. I prefer not to focus on short term results and I think poker is more of a process anyways, so short term results don't really matter. Also, whether people admit it or not, short term results can impact the credibility of the poster. The average viewer cares way too much about short term results than they should. If they see x/y/z player has gone on a big downswing, they now think there is a good chance that they either suck at poker, or were just running hot before then.

At the present moment I am focusing much less on poker this year (treating it as more of a part time job) and much more on my social life, fixing up/selling the house and travelling/moving abroad.

I don't think that adding x amount of money to my bank account or poker bankroll would improve my happiness atm, but I think that some of these other aspects that I mentioned would be able to.

Obviously people would much rather read about a poker blog chasing $10m in profit (as profit is the focus of the game) compared to one that is more presently focused on happiness, fulfillment, spirituality etc.

At the moment I just don't really care that much about chasing poker profits.