Since launching, I’ve been kept quite busy. I’m now spending a good amount of time answering emails, coaching, talking to people on skype, and adding new things to the website in addition to the time I spend actually playing poker. So far, I’m enjoying the extra responsibilities and the time I get to spend teaching others. I think it will only help my own game.

Next month is gonna be a storm. In addition to all my new responsibilities, I’ll be shooting for 6,000 games next month. A big reason for this goal is to give the current students an idea of what kind of volume is possible in a given month. The other reason is to get myself set up financially for the holidays. I know it’s a bit early to be thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, but, if I grind hard this next month, I may be able to take an entire month off (or at least play really low volume) and spend some quality time at home.

wow, i just realized that i typed up this entire post using capital letters… i guess writing all those e-mails has had an effect on me. i promise it won’t happen again.

the next day i decided i was going to sentence myself to 1000 $10 games no matter what. well, i finished those 1000 games today, as seen below.

i’m not sure that i’m going to jump right back into the $20s just yet, but it’s nice to know that i can always move down in limits and still make almost $1/game + rakeback.

i’m going to attribute some of my success to my grind music from the last week. i got to hear rodrigo y gabriela at the greek theatre here in los angeles about a week ago and ever since then i’ve had them cranking through pandora while i play. if you’ve never heard of them before, make sure you check them out in the video below. they’re badass. here’s a link to my pandora station as well: http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh280559040645036880

hopefully we’ll talk soon…

i call it, ‘wearing deodarant.’

i know it’s lame, and i encourage you to laugh at me and leave comments about how dumb i am.

basically wearing deodorant means you don’t sweat boards while you play. real quick, for my non poker playing readers, sweating a board basically means that i would be watching every card that comes out while all my chips are in the middle to see if i’m going to win the pot or not. after you see what cards your opponent has made his move with (for note taking purposes), it’s COMPLETELY USELESS to watch the outcome. you can’t control what happens next so it makes more sense to focus your attention to other tables that require decisions.

so far it has worked for me over a tiny sample. when i bust, all i see is the message that pops up asking me if i’d like to register for another game, rather than the one outer that hit the river and watching all the chips being shipped to the donk that called me too light on a bubble for the millionth time. psychologically, it’s just easier to click the ‘ok’ button than watch the suckouts.

anyway, if you play a game that involves a lot of push/fold strategy, slather on some smell good and win some manies.

james

if i was just sneaking into 2nd with a tiny stack, i wouldn’t be so tilted, but my strategy is such that i typically get there with a healthy amount of chips. and i won’t claim to be god’s gift to heads up poker, but i like to think i have the edge over anyone unfortunate enough to face me.

here’s my last 500 games:

it’s costing me a lot of money so i hope my heads up tragedy dial (like a doom switch only more epic) gets turned back to the off position fairly soon.

and now, i leave you with a true life installment of ‘project badass.’

so badass.

edit: before i get flamed for how ‘easy’ this is, i’ll say a couple things. first off, i only play 6 tables at a time which means approximately 40 games an hour. if you do the math, that’s about 52 hours. secondly, i’m not exactly known for being a ’sick grinder.’ in fact, most will tell you the exact opposite, which is the reason for me doing this.

for shits and gigs, i’ll have a live webcam running while i’m playing.

Watch live video from yardle’s channel on Justin.tv

or

http://justin.tv/yardle

i’ll be updating soon with a post about a roadtrip i took at the beginning of the month. i have some nice pictures and some stories to boot so it should be a decent one.

so yesterday i had a ‘lovely’ encounter with a reg in my games and figured there was a little something that could be learned from him, hence, i’m posting. i’m pretty sure he doesn’t read this, and if he does, i don’t see it hurting me at all.

anyway, so i was watching the lobby for an hour or so while this guy registered for every game. i checked his sharkscope to see how many games he had played in the day and it was close to 400 already so i figured he must be at the end of the session and is either A) tired or B) close to quitting and maybe me showing up is just the motivation he needs to shut down. sure enough, almost immediately after i start loading, he disappears. good deal.

then he comes back.

immediately after our first confrontation he starts chirping at me. i think i called him light on a blind vs blind shove. he begins telling me that he was about to quit, but then he saw me loading and decided to get back in the games. i can’t remember if i responded at this point, but i knew the next hour or so was going to be more entertaining than usual.

so i call him light a few more times and he continues chirping. becoming seemingly more frustrated, he tells me to continue loading. i oblige, not because i’m looking to prove anything, but because it’s becoming clear that he’s unravelling and he’s the only other reg loading, so the games are still profitable.

he starts telling me how i’m easier to play than a fish and how he loves playing with me, blah blah blah. so at this point, it’s 100% clear this guy has quite the ego, which really isn’t a shocker because about 99.9% of poker players do.

i give him the benefit of the doubt and decide to do a little research to see if, in fact, he is doing well against me in the short sample of games we’ve played together. below is the result.

now, i won’t say that these results prove me to be the better player because the reality is that 149 games is way too small of a sample size to make such a claim. i could show some stats that suggest i’m doing a little better than him but the more i play, the more i realize that results are just bullshit anyway. besides, i’m not interested in claiming to be better than anyone else.

the point is his ego is getting in the way of him playing more profitably. no matter which one of us is the better player, the simple fact is that it’s better to avoid each other because neither of us is as bad as some random fish that would otherwise fill the seat. on top of that, his ego is blinding him from everything else that is happening on the tables. he chooses to chat me up, meanwhile, i’m picking up all sorts of information about my opponents and focusing on making good plays. sure i’ll chat back occasionally, but it’s only when i’ve dropped a couple tables and only to continue distracting him. afterall, he did tell me that the chat distracts him…

so what should you and i learn from this guy?

first, be confident, but don’t have an ego. if you just keep telling yourself you’re better than everyone, you’re going to miss out on a LOT of key information. you’re going to blame their ‘bad plays’ for your losses and learn nothing from them.

second, table select. it doesn’t matter if you’re better than two of the regs already in the game. if they’re winning players, or even break even for that matter, you can find a better game to sit in. and if you are sitting with a reg, do what you have to do to avoid confrontation with him. you make your money from the weak players, not the winning ones. don’t let your ego tell you otherwise.

so poker continues to go well for me, although the volume has dropped off immensely. it’s not a good thing, but i’ve just become so incredibly bored with the format of poker i’m playing now that it’s really a challenge for me to get my games in. i’m a little jealous of the players that have that higher tolerance to the boredom. lately i’ve been dabbling a bit in the $25NL full ring cash games, just to get myself into the act of playing. needless to say, that limit is incredibly soft and i’ve already shown a small profit in the very small sample of hands i’ve played. it will be interesting to see my results after i’ve played a more significant amount of hands.

anyway, i have a friend coming into town at the end of the month and we’ll be embarking on a very ambitious roadtrip. it’s important for me to continue the grind before taking a couple weeks off so i’ll try to remind myself more frequently that a vacation is right around the corner.

thank you for hacking my blog. you successfully annoyed me for about a day and half while i figured out how to bring it to life. your work is inspiring to us all and i congratulate you on a job well done. you may now retire and live out your days lying on a beach somewhere, with all of the other useless hackers, limed corona in hand, knowing that you did your little part to make our world a better place. i salute you and may you live happily ever after.

best friends forever,
yardle

so why did it take 4 months for me to get going? what do i owe this sudden success to? well, a couple things come to mind.

first, and least important, is variance. there’s no denying that i just ran very poorly at the start of the year. there’s also no denying that i ran decent in may (although i don’t think i ran above expectation much, if at all).

the biggest thing i owe this month’s success to is my roommate. he lent me some money on a new site i had no funds on to get started. he taught me how to beat a game that was new to me. he lent me his old monitor so that i could play more tables comfortably. once i started crushing he submitted my name to a leaderboard which, to my surprise, gave me an ounce of confidence; something i was completely lacking due to the prior months results.

so there ya have it. people helping people. thanks man. let me know when you feel like cashing in that free burrito.