Biggest bad beat I ever gave

Ok, I was looking over some poker forums and came accross this hand I played on the final table of the Sunday brawl last year, and just reminded me of how beautiful it was, unlucky to M_Hawk_1. The reason this is such a bad beat is because it was the final table of a Sunday Major not like I haven't given worse ones in my time ;).


Full Tilt Poker Game #22424481988: The Sunday Brawl Rush (169523900), Table 10 - 14000/28000 Ante 3500 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:51:40 ET - 2010/07/18
Seat 1: m_hawk_1 (945,205)
Seat 2: demonseed14 (678,159)
Seat 6: cmdnst (3,292,073)
Seat 8: MOCA CHOCA (1,393,563)
m_hawk_1 antes 3,500
demonseed14 antes 3,500
cmdnst antes 3,500
MOCA CHOCA antes 3,500
MOCA CHOCA posts the small blind of 14,000
m_hawk_1 posts the big blind of 28,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to m_hawk_1 [Ah Ac]
demonseed14 folds
cmdnst folds
MOCA CHOCA has 15 seconds left to act
MOCA CHOCA raises to 56,000
m_hawk_1 has 15 seconds left to act
m_hawk_1 raises to 157,766
MOCA CHOCA has 15 seconds left to act
MOCA CHOCA raises to 1,390,063, and is all in
m_hawk_1 calls 783,939, and is all in
MOCA CHOCA shows [Td Ad]
m_hawk_1 shows [Ah Ac]
Uncalled bet of 448,358 returned to MOCA CHOCA
*** FLOP *** [6d 9s 3s]
*** TURN *** [6d 9s 3s] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [6d 9s 3s Jd] [3d]
MOCA CHOCA shows a flush, Ace high
m_hawk_1 shows two pair, Aces and Threes
MOCA CHOCA wins the pot (1,897,410) with a flush, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,897,410 | Rake 0
Board: [6d 9s 3s Jd 3d]
Seat 1: m_hawk_1 (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Threes
Seat 2: demonseed14 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: cmdnst (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: MOCA CHOCA (small blind) showed [Td Ad] and won (1,897,410) with a flush, Ace high

Also would like to take this opportunity to say a shout out to all the hating fish who talked trash either behind my back (more commonly), or to my face about this/or any hand I have played in poker. Instead of concentrating so much on mine/or ne of my crews hands we play, why don't you take a look at the hands you play for once or are you too scared to open that door ;). But to the supporters, the genuine ones who actually like to see hard work being paid off, thanks for the support and wish you the best of luck in life.

Not going newhere

Just on the train with the man himself, 'Notgoingnewhere.' Chilling, sipping some beers and talking about shit.

I love when I get a chance to speak to Notgoingnewhere one on one about poker, we share many similar views and if we don't always agree we can generally appreciate the others opinion and agree that many things have more than one way of working out. I guess when we think about a situation, we both can put our minds in the bigger picture and see how each view could possibly work out equivalent or very similarly in the long term.

The foundation of our friendship comes from back in the beginning of poker. We were two fish with a dream of being baller poker stars. We both played some live poker in a poker club called 'the western' which also has computers their so you can play online poker if you bust their daily donkaments. I remember 'Notgoingnewhere' being somewhat popular amongst the regulars at the club but being a shy kid I never really had any interactions with him for a good few months. One day we both were playing online sitting on computers next to each other, and at this time playing 4tables at the club was deemed pretty sick I think we had both mastered 9 tabling at home by this point and was playing quite a few mtt sngs and stts and as fish do were talking about hands with each other. I noticed Notgoingnewhere had a very different/interesting view on hands to the regular fish at the club. Throughout our conversations we both mentioned we had joined online coaching sites, we shared information with each other about the sites we had learnt from and the main videos he had been watching were 'Jackals' sng videos on CardRunners and I had learnt from 'Beanmo's' videos on Sharkscope.com (now sharkscopers.com), this automatically explained why our thinking was on another level to the average fish. We both took each other with us on the next 3year Journey of being the mid/high stake heads up sng players from that day forth. We would ring each other up for months on end, saying how we busted yet another roll each couple of months, at times we both felt like quitting, the strain was a lot and the pressure from people around us was also becoming a lot we didn't know if we were just two deluded fish or if we had something unique and special. Then the day came where we both busted our rolls at the same time and this would be for the last time. I took a month away from poker, I don't think I played a single hand of poker in this month, but maybe some home games with friends, overnight I came home from a 9-5 shift in the office and got reading, watching and learning poker for about 4hours a night for the entire month. The quote from 'Pimpingdonks' which said something along the lines of, 'win the war before the battle begins.' This basically meant: learn everything you need to know about poker before you begin the grind. I came back with a plan and when meeting up with Notgoingnewhere it appeared he had almost given up on this poker success thing, I had some quiet words with him and told him to keep his chin up and that we were going to do it properly this time. I made my deposit of $130 and within 1month I had grinded the $5 $10 $24 sngs and my roll was around $3.5k I was in a very good mindset and decided in a 16tabling session I would also play $50 1r+1a tournament and a bunch of other smaller stake ones, I used to play the max amount FTP would allow me too which was 20games I think in total with mtts and sngs. I dominated the field massively in the $50 1r+1a to take the first place prize of $6k, this is what you call going robusto :). Notgoingnewhere had regained his confidence whilst watching this happen, he was really eager to rebuild his roll and do it properly, he had come across a site 'Husng.com' which was going to change our lives and make us more money than we could imagine. After his first deposit of $400 Notgoingnewhere had a robusto roll similar to mine in a month. Cutting to the chase… We have spoken strategy ever since that day 3years ago when we were 2 fishes swimming in shark invested waters, I have seen how both our minds have wondered since that initial day where our thoughts on situations were so basic but still so effective to now where our brains are commonly thinking a very high level of thought in every situation we are faced with and tend to come up with the same/if not an equally profitable lines in most situations faced with in poker.

So that's the history of us, I began writing this last night on my way up to 'Nottingham' to play a £300 donkament which we both busted out on first day of, we are re-reging for the tournament today and give it one more bullet, we are going to make our way to the tournament now so I will give updates after the tournament. I really enjoy live tournaments and I am pretty excited about taking a lot more shots at live poker. In my next post I will also give an in site to how I feel about FullTilt having their License suspended and $30,000 of mine being seized, I will have a plan of action of what to do in this waiting time and a longer term plan for my poker future, It's a hard time but I want everyone to understand that stressing about this will only cause a negative effect, thinking of a positive direction to target towards will be key.

WEST SIDE WHATTTT

 Just got back from a trip to California and then to Vegas, 3 weeks long and what a great experience.

The trip began with quite a few slip ups, I was half way through the plane journey when I decided take my laptop out of my bag and write my first blog entry for the trip but to my surprise my laptop was not in my bag, oh yeah my stupid, forgetful, over used, warned out brain decided to leave my 2month old Mac in the airport at security, well played fish, well played. (My brother managed to get it from lost property, few!) But it was not a good start given I was in a another country with out internet, I felt screwed. A few other things went wrong in the first few hours of our trip but I won't go into the details too much, lets just say I got bad beaten for $700 the minute I got of the plane with the car I had pre paid for just because I was under 25 :(.

So anyways first stop San Fran, nice town didn't get to do too much because of the laptop situation and not really knowing where to go or what to do, I did however arrange to meet up with HUsng pro 'Mersenneary,' I was pretty nervous meeting Mers for the fact that I wanted to make a good impression after the horrible one I left him when I first got speaking to him. Anyways the night consisted of a very nice meal (thanks again buddy) and ALOT of drinks after, to say I was wasted would be a good way to describe it. I am real grateful for the effort Mers and his Girlfriend Meredith put in and was a great night.

 

I spent a quick night in Nappa valley which was beautiful and then headed down to San Luis where I stayed in a nice hotel and spa and treated ourselves to some massages to de-stress a little. Whilst in San Luis I hit up a local bar and met some really nice people.

Next destination was LA baby and let the fun times begin, I really enjoyed LA, the weather wasn't as great as I expected but none the less I still managed to get sun burnt. I hooked up with a couple of friends I had met the previous year on my stay with oopa11 'Johnny and Matt' thank you for all your help guys and the Dub club will definitely get hit up if I go again ;). 

Next I went back to LA to go to Universal Studios the tour was really amazing and The Simpsons ride is so good. After spilling tomato sauce ALL over me I headed to a Dodgers game which was a little boring after the initial excitement wore off but really good experience. The next day I had a quick hair cut in the a really cool barber shop in LA which is actually a graffiti shop for ConArt spray paint which also has a barber shop inside it too, the barber was really cool and just wanted to shout him out on here, so if you go its on fairfax avenue and ask for 'Jayar'. I then headed to Huntington beach where I previously stayed with heads up pro 'Oopa11.' Gutting he was not in town but still took the opportunity to meet his house mate and have lunch. Whilst in Huntington I rented a boat which only went 5mph but was a fun experience just chilling out drinking beers and eating Pizza, this to me was actually one of my favorite memories of the trip as it not only was the most stress free situation you can imagine.

I headed to Vegas the next day and str8 away got ready and went out to XS on Friday night, pretty sick night, miss that club I think it could possibly be the best night club I have ever been to. The weekend consisted of pool parties and pretty much memory loss and brain cell damage. After recovering from the weekend I realized I only had a couple of days left, on one I played a deepstack event at the Venetian which I didn't cash in but really enjoyed the game and on the last day I went to the grand canyon by plane (omg best thing I have seen with my eyes) and also went to see a show 'Jersey Boys' which was a very good show I highly recommend it.

So am back in London now, back to the grind although my first week back consisted of a -8k week. I am actually really happy with how I have played in the few sessions I have played I just ran pretty bad in $500 games I can't really complain about that and I entered the 1million guarantee 6 times which comes to nearly 4k so makes sense lol. 

$200K POINT

Weeeeeeeee. Big mile stone :)

Finally a 1st place finish

Ok so I cheated, I made a deal with a really good opponent who I decided if I did have an edge against it would be pretty small and seen as I had just grinded the donkament for the last 7-8hours I was not really excited about playing the heads up out vs a solid player which would have probably been ev- in terms of my hourly and sleep needed so I decided quickly to take the ICM chop as the chip leader and claim my 2nd 1st place finish in online mtt's. $5,500 not a bad prize from the $120 buy in and bringing me closer to the $200,000 profit mark its getting exciting :). Anyways not a long post I will post something a bit more solid soon. Just want to give a big props to 'spaerk' who was my opponent heads up, he was a great player and hopefully will see more of him in the poker scene in the future. Also massive shout to the rail birds for the support.

Appreciate how lucky we are

If you can't be happy at the good times in life, how do u expect to get through the bad times in life. 

MOCA CHOCA ;)

BANKROLL MANAGEMENT

I read a post on 2+2 the other day and it was some trivia questions about heads up sng players, one of the questions read: 

  6.) who wrote: "I've run horrible in 3 sessions but it doesn't affect me as I'm now chillin w friends in the city just havin fun. Wow losing $ has no effect. Am I becoming primo?"

Someone's answer was:

6. moca choca i think, thought coffee at first but now i think about it the more i think its moca.

 First of all, it wasn't me who said this. I may not have said it, but this is exactly the kind off thing I would say. If I have 3 loosing sessions in a row, what the hell does that change. I am still going to be rolled for my stakes. I am still going to be able to buy anything I could 3sessions earlier, my financial status shouldn't have changed. If I feel like going out to the city and chilling out, I definitely will not let the loosing sessions be the reason I don't end up going, if anything this should be the reason to go out and enjoy myself. If your reading this and you have had 3 loosing sessions and you can't say the same then you are not practicing good bankroll management.

A lot of poker players go by different rules in bankroll management and depending on their situation everyone could use a different set of bankroll guidance rules. I will use some examples for this (all players in the examples have an edge on the games they're playing and consistently make a profit). 

Poker player 1: Works full time, has a passion for poker but only plays to supplement his income. Plays up to $30 sng's, and $50nl cash games.

Poker player 2: Studies at University (College for you Americans) and just wants to play some low stakes poker in order to make his experience more enjoyable, the types of games he would be playing would be 9man sngs at the $10, $20 levels, and maybe some $10-$25nl full ring cash games.

Poker player 3: Full time player but grinding the low stakes to build his bankroll, doesn't play more than $50 heads up sit and goes and never plays turbo or super turbo games. 

Poker player 4: Full time player, grinding all types of poker, mainly high variance games, super turbo HUsng's and MTT's, playing higher stakes and putting in a lot of volume.

Player 1: This player has love for the game and has an edge on the chosen games, he would be able to be a lot more aggressive with his bankroll, having as little as 15-20buyins online is fine for this particular player, he is playing relatively low stakes and if he does bust his roll he should (as long as his life bankroll management is good and he isn't a degenerate gambler betting on sports bets each week, hint hint to some of u) be able to replace it pretty easily and continue his poker journey, he may choose to take more conservative routes in future but he did nothing wrong by being aggressive.

Player 2: This player would be able to take a semi aggressive bankroll management plan. The stakes aren't high, the games he has chosen to play are pretty low in variance. He can't be too aggressive as he will find replacing even a small bankroll hard if he did go busto the biggest thing to take in to consideration about this player is he hasn't got money coming in from other sauces (unless he's a hustler, or mummy and daddy can front it :s we live in the real world people). So a recommended plan for this player would be something like playing a 30-40 buy in rule. This would allow the player to move up stakes and down stakes comfortably after sessions but doesn't keep him playing the busto stakes for overly long, as long as the player moved down stakes every time he went under 30 buy ins he would be pretty successful in not busting his roll and if he ended up busting it on tilt or something the $value of his roll was never that high that in the long run he wouldn't be able to get over it.

Player 3: Now this is where things change. This player can no longer take an aggressive bankroll management plan, he is now using all his money to invest in himself as a business. This player should still take some risks in moving up stakes, to increase the $ per hour he makes, as moving up too slow can keep this player grinding low/mid stakes for overly long period of time. I would recommend once a reg gets to $50 games he should have at least 60buyins at this level and be willing to take some shots at higher stakes when he has around 70 buy ins for the new level as it will be so easy to move down again if things do not go as well as planned, the games he is playing are very low in variance and if he is playing them well should probably never really have bigger than 20-30 buy in downswings. You may think well why would he need more than 30 buy ins if he probably won't take a downswing that will bust his roll. The main factor in this will be mentally. People need security, seeing more buy ins than needed will reduce the pressure and confidence issues a player will have in his poker journey, some people can do it better than others but. For those who get effected by downswings easily then I would suggest even a more conservative approach than this, after all poker is a constant mental battle no harm in coming with more ammunition to the fight.

Player 4: This guy has seen it all, had the downswings, had the upswings. He knows how he reacts to situations and how bad times can get in poker. This player is now playing for serious money and a single downswing could be a deposit on a house, he cannot take risks with his bankroll. For this player I would recommend he has AT LEAST 100buy ins, this may seem super nitty but believe me it isn't (I know many players who like to have at least 200 buy ins to play a stake). Why take the risks at this stage in you career. As a standard this player should keep at least 100-130ish buy ins in bankroll and even so this player should have some money in savings accounts by this point, this player now can have numerous downswings and unless its over 60 buy ins he can still play the stakes he is super well rolled for. This player has already created a super impressive business being able to roll himself for these stakes there really isn't no reason to put yourself at risks. The one thing this player is able to do with his enormous bankroll is 'take shots.' Taking shots is cool for a player at this level to do. He can move up to a higher stake game when they are soft or play a higher stake MTT than usual and then move down again if things don't go well in the shot take, it probably won't effect his bankroll too much if it goes wrong but if it goes well it can possible change his life for ever.

So to sum this up really, this is just guidelines to some situations in poker, everyone will have a different reason for having different bankroll plans, some good and some bad. As a standard following these guidelines will not be a bad thing.

 

Who fancies going for a chill in the city? ;)