Whiplash's Adventures thr

Previous blogs of my Poker Journey
Part 2: http://www.liquidpoker.net/blog/viewblog.php?id=1123363
Part 1: http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-foru...25/The_Poker_Life,_a_new_chapter.html

It's been awhile since my last blog! To be honest I wanted to make a blog when I am in the positive, but to that hasn't happened yet. Luckily I am down less than $100 over about 90,000 hands. Since my last blog I feel my skill in poker has increased by a ridiculous amount, and I am slowly graduating from the "beginner" stage of poker. Despite my results I feel more confident in my poker game than ever, and believe I can beat 5NL on Pokerstars. I did a lot of reading, video watching, stream watching, hand review, and sending hands to friends. Now a days more often then not when I watch a video/stream I find myself making very similar decisions to the broadcaster, and a lot of beginner content focused on the micros is beginning to feel more internalized in my play/brain.

The resources I found most useful while improving was nanonoko's 10NL video series on youtube, komododragonjesus's twitch stream, my friend Spencer's feedback/hand reviews, and of course playing lots of hands. Nanonoko did a wonderful job explaining how to play poker on the lower stakes, and komododragonjesus's stream is just so dam chill. It feels like he is un-tilt-able! I certainly look up to players like these as my poker role models. Big shout out to my buddy Spencer in Korea as well, he has looked over my hands more then any other person by far.

As for things outside the poker world, I've met a lot of great people in Toronto and will be moving closer to the downtown area at the end of April. I also plan to do a bit of Dota 2 broadcasting for some local tournaments. It's great that I can use my old skill set occasionally and prevent it from getting too rusty.

Unfortunately one of my roommates will be departing back to America at the end of the month as me and my other roommate Raddick move near the downtown area. He has not been doing too good in poker and had issues with bankroll management. He will most likely continue to play poker, but more casually in America. I suppose it is better that he recognized this was not for him sooner rather than later, and he didn't lose a lot more money as a result.

I have been experimenting with not playing on zoom tables, and trying out other game types such as spin and go's. Spin and go's are a lot of fun, but they certainly don't feel like a stable way to build a bankroll. I really do enjoy the heads up mind games though! As you will see in my graph, zoom games are where I've lost the majority of my money and indeed they feel a lot harder then normal tables. There definitely seems to be less fish in them as well. I decided recently that I was going to not play zoom tables and focus on standard 6max tables instead. Currently I feel that I can do OK at zoom tables, but I don't anticipate I'll make a lot of money from them.

As for things I want to improve on in poker, I feel that my greatest challenge currently is putting in the proper volume of hands in each day. This is something I'd like to make into a career, but it is rare for me to get in something like 3k hands in one day. I find its even harder when I don't use zoom tables and play 6-8 standard tables, I will only average at best 600-750~hands an hour. I believe in the end it will come down to discipline/work ethic more then anything else if I'm going to succeed in poker. I also seem to do better the less tables I have open, but I think that goes without saying. I will have to find the proper balance of tables/time over the next few months. I think I will start to take some real shots at 10NL once I get out of the negative, and possibly some very tiny ones before that. I'd also like to try and figure out more ways to exploit/play against fish, I'm sure there are a few cool techniques/tricks that could be added into my game. Probably the last thing I'd like to improve on is overall hand reading and putting my opponents on a more accurate range when they call flop/turn, and when it is a good idea to bluff/shove the river.

Here is my current graph and how I've done in the stakes I've played up to this point. Thanks for reading and I will try to post my next blog sooner than later ... now it's back to the tables!

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Part 1 of my Poker Journey
http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-foru...25/The_Poker_Life,_a_new_chapter.html

Hey guys and gals, I've been in Canada for a bit under 2 weeks now so I figure I'd give an update on whats up in Whip's world. My roomates and I got to Canada on Feb 1st and managed to find a nice place a bit outside of Toronto on our first day. We pretty much went straight to check out the place right after I got off the plane. It's on the countryside, which means no distractions as we grind poker. I got off the plane and started working immediately when I traveled to Korea, so I suppose this is some sort of pattern. We had to deal with getting Canadian bank accounts/depositing money/living expenses for the first week or so, so I haven't played much poker until last weekend.

I just borrowed 50$ from my roommate Everize to play with until I could get my wire transfer to Canada from my American bank. I played 2nl to get a feel for the games on stars since I mainly played on Bovada back in the states. The games were definitely more fun, people felt better on average and 3 bets all over the place! Eventually I got my wire and was able to grab a vanilla master card and used those to deposit 200$ on stars (but it was CAD... rip exchange rate lol). I started playing 5nl to see what it was like, since that's what I was playing over on Bovada. Everyone on 5nl seems to be better overall and play way more aggressive. It took a tiny bit to get used to it, but after my session today I feel like I've really got the hang of it and will most likely move up in a day or 2 to 10nl. I felt like playing 5nl allowed me to quickly improve in multiple areas of my poker game, it was an... interesting experience.

I've been playing a mix of 6ring NL holdem cash games and zoom (4 tables), with pretty comparable results between them (over a small sample size however). I also spent a lot of time recently working on my HEM2 HUD and memorizing ranges. I have a nice preflop ranges excel sheet which I have parts in my head, but I want all that information on a snap's notice so I can play more tables more efficiently.

I know knowledge wise I've barley scratched the surface of poker. I am taking it step by step, building on basic concepts and slowly getting more and more information. I'm still trying to get into a good routine involving the gym and playing more hours of poker, and playing/studying a bit more each day till I am comfortable with the amount of time I put in each day. I'll also post a pic of my cash results graph, I know its quite a small sample size and only around 10k hands... but at least it's a positive graph! Please scold me and tell me to play more lol.

Oh I'm also going to downtown Toronto this weekend to check out a Dota2 lan/tournament, and that also gives me an excuse to check out Korea town in the area so I can feed my KBBQ addiction! I am actually ridiculously exited about this, since there was nothing Korean related anywhere near where I lived in the States. I'll post another blog most likely when I am comfortable with 10nl and am looking to move up beyond that. Lets hope that blog is sooner rather than later!

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Hello everyone, I am about to go on a great adventure once again, and I figure it deserves a primer. This is the first blog I've posted since my departure from Korea, and I'd like to discuss what I've been up to and where I'm headed. I'll give a quick summary of my previous blogs for those who don't want to read my previous blogs.

Life in Korea blogs, read these if you want a more detailed look on the last 2 years of my life and what has led me to this point:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Finale

TLDR summary for the past ~2 years of my life: I loved Starcraft, went to Korea to cast proleague, it didn't work out. I lost my passion for Starcraft but gained it for Dota 2, and started casting it. Unfortunately that didn't work out as well (but I kept my passion). With no work, I had to return to the United States. I decided that I wanted to peruse a career path as a Poker player following my experiences in Korea.

I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to post this blog on teamliquid, liquiddota, or liquidpoker. I did start at teamliquid back during the Brood War days, so regardless of where I'm headed I would like to post the first part of this blog here. I'll post a mirror on liquidpoker (this is that mirror) and continue my future poker blogs there.

I'll start with my return to the US from Korea. It was weird readjusting to life in the States, but after about a month things were feeling normal. I moved back to my hometown of Naples, Florida to refocus, re-energize, and prepare for the future. My plan was to get a job and save money for poker, then move to Canada in early 2015 to play full time with friends. While in America I also wanted to get in better shape and eat healthier. I'm proud to say that I accomplished both of my goals; I saved up money for Canada and I lost around 30lbs + gained some muscle. I also put a lot of time and studying into poker over the past few months (surprise). I started playing on Bovada, watched a lot of videos from various poker sites, checked out a few books, and talked to many of my poker friends about the game. I've only begun to scratch the surface of poker but I am having a blast doing it. Naples has been a good place for me; I got to reconnect with old friends, physically and mentally recover from my time in Korea, and enjoy a much less stressful lifestyle. Alas, Naples is boring and I need to move on to grow as a person. It's time to travel to a new county and begin my new journey into poker!

There will be three of us total. Everize, his friend Riddick, and myself. We are moving from the US to Canada because poker laws are much less stringent north of the border. I will arrive in Canada February 1st to join them and we will begin grinding after we settle in. The plan is to play for around 5-6 months, get as good as possible, and evaluate where we stand around mid year. We all plan on playing/studying around 40-50 hours of poker per week. They are both a lot better at poker than me, and with Everize willing to help teach me I feel like this will be a great environment to quickly improve in. I have become fairly confident playing 2/5nl and I plan on moving up to 10nl when I get to Canada. Even if I run into some rocky bumps in the poker road, I have money set aside so I could play for 5 straight months without earning a single cent from poker, and that doesn't include the money I set aside as for poker bankroll. By mid-year I want to support myself entirely from Poker. It won't be easy, but I believe it is possible with a strong mindset and work ethic. If poker doesn't work out for me I can always go back to school, but I honestly can't see myself failing.

I'll write a blog after we've settled into Canada. We're moving to Toronto/GTA so if any fellow liquidians live nearby don't be a stranger! Thanks it from me, thanks for reading this blog, I'll talk to you guys soon.

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