This month is full of abnormal swings in my game. There’s absolutely no chance to start session without going down few buy ins. Same thing happened today and it was culmination of last three days where I’m running like crap.

Just a few today’s hands and this stuff keeps going on, session after session…

Can’t win with AA last three days

AA vs T3

AA vs T9

KQ vs 99

Flush is not good

Top set vs top donk

Top set = nuts?

So what’s the point of these hands? I’m not whining at all. I’m just happy that I’m tilt proof and there’s no downswing or bad run of cards that can stop me. It just can’t! I can bust numerous stacks with 90% to win – so what? I don’t give a fuck for that… After all – I’m the winner not those donks…

Today’s graph: 

I guess I need some really good run of few days without those kind of beats like in those hands above or I won’t reach $2K for this month. According to all in $ev line I should be on $985 for this month and I’m below that. Here are my stats for this month so far:
On top of that goes $430 in bonuses for this 14 days. And one more thing – my bankroll is $0.13. How? Well I cashed out everything except few cents as I’m moving to another site of the same network. For now I’m quit with bwin as they fucked some things badly like not giving reload bonus codes anymore, canceling loyalty status and stuff like that. If I want to continue to play on bwin my effective rakeback would be whooping 5%! WTF? It was 52% just to notice… I’ll take a break a day, maybe two and then it’s coming my grind time!

Fuckin’ unstoppable!

Watch Els hitting down on the golf ball for control and backspin. Mark Crossfield talks about how to strike an iron shot from the ground correctly so you can hit the ball with more spin.

Well what a month October was.  As for Real Fun .. well the last half of October that attitude took quite a beating!  I try not to bleat about bad beats and running cold etc … but seriously, I think I really, really ran as bad as possible towards the end after what was a really positive start to the month.  So often I made second best hand, I’d make trips on the river only for that card to make villian a straight.  I ran terribly in coinflips as well, and lost count of the number of times I got done with hands like AK vs AQ.  To demonstrate, here is October’s graph.  Take a look at results vs all-in EV….

It really was tough.  You go through periods in poker where you run well and it seems like an easy game.  Then you go through these sort of periods and you think will I ever win a hand again?  I went back through the database and was generally quite happy that I didn’t play many (I can’t say none) hands poorly or tilt.  The vast majority were genuine coolers or bad beats.  But of course it got me to thinking about how many hands do you have to play before the “luck” factor evens itself out and the skill edge begins to really show.  People talk about certain amounts of hands … whether it is 10k, or 50k, or 100k.  But doing some surfing, I found this excellent post and analysis that really tries to look at how many hands you have to play before you get within 1% of your true win rate.  Short summary:  MILLIONS of hands.  So who said poker is a skill game?  Yes it is, but the long run is really much, much longer than people think.  It always gets me steamed up when people try to say variance doesn’t exist and if you are down more than 10 buyins you are just playing bad.  Well it’s fairly clear that this isn’t the case, its very easy, indeed extremely likely if you play enough hands that you will have a run where you just get coolered and bad beat relentlessly.  For any serious player, I strongly recommend you take a look at the link and read the article through.  It really did help me understand the nature of variance and strengthen my belief that I just had to keep playing solid poker.

So here’s hoping November is a little more positive.  Still having fun, I’m now six tabling 25nl on a regular basis and really enjoying it.  The rakeback alone is nice, so break-even poker is quite profitable, although it would be nice to do better than that!  I’d like to get 50k hands in this month, and lets see if we can try and get that results line a little closer to EV   Good luck at the tables all.

Hit the golf ball with more power and improve your strike with Mark Crossfield’s downswing trigger.

“Face your golf ball at impact!”

I recently was lucky enough to spend a week at the annual Memorial Tournament (Jacks big show) down in Dublin Ohio. The opportunity allowed me the experience of working side by side with some of the finest instructors in the game of golf today such as Jim Flick, and Mike Malaska just to name a few. Our mission was to teach the corporate sponsor clinics for Mr. Nicklaus and his many major sponsors involved in making the event the success that it is. During the week I enjoyed some time during a practice round inside the ropes with Jim Flick and Tom Lehman. Jim has been Tom’s long time coach and it was interesting to listen to the dialogue between swing coach and PGA Tour student/star, not to mention walking the hallowed grounds of the great Muirfield Golf Club!

It seemed very evident that Tom started hitting the ball very well and after the practice round we spent some time on the practice range. It was there that Tom and Jim really worked well together and the main topic seemed to revolve around facing the ball at impact! It dawned upon me that much of what is being taught in the golf swing has moved away from this “Forgotten Fundamental” and has the average golfers struggling with controlling their ball flight with swing thoughts such as “clear your hips” or “shift your weight”. As Tom was striking his ball and watching each ball find its designated target with precision that put me in awe Tom mentioned to me that he was feeling that his chest and shoulders were facing the ball so well at impact that he was able to get the clubface on the ball consistently in a square position! It was at that moment that I realized how a simple thought like that could really begin to help players of all abilities even the very best players in the world!

I guess when reading all the numerous golf tips in publications from this day forward I might suggest that we as average golfers keep in mind that we should not focus too much on what a Tour Player is working on now, rather what that worked on to get to that point. When I heard Tom Lehman say to me on the range at Muirfield that this was one of his basic fundamentals that he grew up working on, and how the golf industry has seemed to forget about something so simple it propelled me to share this story with you readers!

So start today bay facing your ball with your shoulders at the moment of impact and watch your balls find their target more consistently!

Many Birdies!

Brian O’Neill

Director of Golf Instruction

Boyne Resorts

boneill@boyne.com

231.526.3011

I just played a set of 30 $16 SnGs on PS, not listening to music or fapping at any point. My ROI was 43% ($208.50 profit) and my cash rate was 47%. These numbers aren’t sustainable IMO but it felt good to be able to handle such a large number of tables. Thirty seems to be the point at which both my brain and my computer’s CPU start to feel the heat, ya feel me. But with the help of Table Ninja and an AutoHotkey script I use to send tables back and forth between my two monitors, I think multi-tabling at this volume will quickly become easier. My only complaint is that trying to run my HUD (heads-up display) while playing more than ~20 tables really seems to slow down my computer, so I may have to invest in a quad-core processor as a practical upgrade (it was a minor mistake on my part to purchase a dual-core back when I was building my rig, but oh well. Every other aspect of the machine is working excellently).

I’m going to visit a friend of mine for the Halloween weekend, and I think the trip will be a good way for me to relax after working hard to regain my PlatinumStar status this month. Aside from having a good time with a fellow aspiring poker professional, I plan to prevent a burnout (and downswing) similar to the one I experienced in early September after grinding myself out of my mind in August.

So far in October I am +$151.19 with 3,971.50 VPP. My goal is to play 70-80 $16s per day (excluding Sundays) between now and the 27th so I can chill during the last few days of the month. With me luck!

darq

After showing a profit for half a year, I finally had a losing month. Aside from bad play, I attribute the downswing to simply being burnt out from playing so much in August. Reaching Platinum & Ironman statuses while still being in school wasn’t exactly the most relaxing venture, and I never took a day off to recharge before barreling into the next 30 days. But at least I can identify what my problem was and fix it for the future.

September, 2009’s numbers:

• Time period: 30 days (Sep. 1 – Sep. 30)
• Events played (SnGs & MTTs): 941
• Total profit (before split): -$69.83

It’s a shame my plan of playing fewer tables seemed to fail miserably…it’s time to go for Platinum again.

Starting in October, when I’m finally finished with school, I plan to saturate my schedule with playing/studying poker and exercise. As an extra incentive to help me with the latter, I bought some new head phones and running shoes:

As a side note, I haven’t been playing nearly as many SnGs as I did in August, evident by the pressure I’m feeling to even make GoldStar on PS this month. In some respects my ego is pushing me to achieve this status as a minimum on a regular basis, but the 2x FPP multiplier represents an actual rational reason to go for it.

For example, 10-person satellites (which pay 4 people) into the Sunday Million run around the clock during the week and cost 5,400 FPPs. As a GoldStar I’d need to play at least 78 $16 turbos per day to accrue enough FPPs to give the satellite a shot once a week. Because the SM entry may be exchanged for T$215, such a plan is extremely +EV since it’s relatively easy to “cash” in the satellite.

I did this yesterday and played four $60 turbos, profiting $470 with solid play and average luck. Despite that, I’m still several hundred in the hole and I’m scrambling to show a profit for this month, but I’ve been in this situation before and somehow I always get myself out of it before the 1st.

P.S.: I’d like to congratulate my friend Josh (“kjoshua” on Poker Stars) for qualifying for a seat in a European Poker Tour event in London on October 2nd. A baller in the making IMO. gl!

Despite an awful last week of August (almost $700 downswing) I still reached my goals of Ironman status on Full Tilt and PlatinumStar status on PokerStars.

Check it out:

• Time period: 31 days (Aug. 1 – Aug. 31)
• Events played (SnGs & MTTs): 2,232
• Total profit (before split): $1,533

My low point in August was almost -$600, so things could’ve gone worse.

In other news, I built myself a new computer to multi-table more SnGs (and for better performance overall), but this means I can no longer use two monitors until I save money for another screen. Anyway, I am very happy with it so far. Here are the specs:

• CPU – AMD Phenom II X2 545 3.0GHz Dual-Core
• GPU – XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB
• Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
• PSU – Antec 550W ATX12V (modular)
• RAM – 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR2 @ 1066MHz
• HDD – 2 x W.D. 160GB 7200 RPM (in RAID 0)
• DVD – Lite-On 22x DVD±RW
• Case – Antec 300 ATX Mid Tower (3 intake, 2 exhaust)
• OS – Microsoft Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit

Those items totaled around $800, but pre-assembled setups with identical components can cost hundreds more, so I’m proud I saved a bundle and finally took the leap of building my own PC.

Speaking of which, the process of putting everything together went relatively well since I’d been researching online and I am decently tech-savvy as it is. But I seemed to be grounding myself several times a minute out of nervousness, so I’ll probably invest in an anti-static wristband for next times’ peace of mind (and just to feel cool in general). In the meantime I may explore overclocking…but every so cautiously since 3.0GHz processors don’t exactly grow on trees.

Back to poker (kind of): I used 25,000 FTPs, 10k of which I had to buy with Ironman medals, to purchase a football jersey which I will superciliously flaunt to represent my eternal struggle with the laggy, piece-of-shit rigjob of a site called Full Tilt. o_0 …j/k, I love you, Howard. ^_^

Honestly I am not sure if I will be able to maintain my Platinum status on PS this month without playing significantly fewer games on FTP. I only have one monitor right now and my TableNinja trial (read: crutch) expired, but this may be a good thing since my cumulative ROI (since late February ‘09) fell from 20% at the beginning of August to 12% at the end of August. For the mathematically less-inclined, this means recently I’ve been earning $1.28 less per $16 SnG, and this adds up when you play thousands of SnGs, amirite. The point is that by playing a lower average number of SnGs/day I will hopefully substitute a lower hourly rate with a higher return on investment (stated another way, I will work less for a higher wage). One interesting note is that if I can maintain an average ROI of 10% playing about 50 $16 SnGs per day from now on, I can make $15,000 before April ‘10.

Toning down the heavy multi-tabling might give me more time to play MTTs, but lately final tables are like UFOs: they are elusive as fuck and I seem to get a probe up my ass whenever I get close to one.

On that note, have a good month and ttyl! =]

A number of years all sound good: The number of Jews increased from 1989 from 28.000 to some 130.000, what is less than a quarter of the number of Jews living in Germany in 1933, when Hitler rose to power. Several Jewish Communities all over Germany were reestablished, some of them even occupied Rabbis, the first time for 60 years and … worldwide headlines  announced a kind of Jewish Renewal in Germany. Only some years ago German newspapers relished that the number of Jewish immigrants from Russia to Germany exceeded the one to Israel. But this was just a snap-shot …

 Julius Schoeps, historian and head of the Moses-Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam in view of declining figures of member in Jewish Communities in Berlin as well as Brandenburg suggested to pool them together in order to keep the Jewish Communities “alive”. In Berlin for instance last year there was a decrease of 121 people.  139 arrivals (immigrants, removals and births) contrasted 260 leavings (deaths, removals). The decrease is an underestimated trend for some years. In 2003 the Jewish Community in the German Capital had more than 13.000 members, now at the end of 2008 the figure shrank to mere 10.794 (that is a downturn of  17 % in 5 years). Smaller communities of course are affected by this trend more badly, the more so because there was a trend in recent years that Communities like Berlin advanced there growth by people moving in from surrounding localities.

The situation in Berlin and Brandenburg is representative for the situation of the development in whole Germany. The figure of immigrants decreased to less than one thousand a year – it was at an annual average of 10.000 a couple of years ago. Since a vast majority of the immigrants from former Soviet Union were elderly people, figure of deaths is exceeding nationwide. Especially in smaller communities there are few births, circumcisions or bar mitzvahs.

As few experts predicted the figures of Jewish growth in Germany had reached the point of culmination in 2004/5 and are decreasing since. The high rate of inter-marriages, the increasing leaning towards splitting up into sectarian “liberal” or “reform” communities as well as the current age distribution illustrate that the often acclaimed “normalization” of Jewish life in Germany merely was a kind of flash in the pan. You don’t need to be a prophet to predict that the speed of the diminishment will increase. Maybe as early as 2025 the figures of Jews in Augsburg, Bavaria and Germany again will reach the level of 1990.

uncertain future

After 11 days and 600 SnGs on PokerStars (not to mention over 400 on Full Tilt), I’ve achieved Gold Star status, which means:

• 100% FPP Multiplier (2 FPP accrued per 1 VPP earned)
• $285 VIP Reward Bonus (available for purchase for 25,000 FPP)
• Daily VIP Tournaments ($500/3x daily/10 FPP entry; $1000/2x daily/20 FPP entry)
• Weekly VIP Tournaments ($30,000/100 FPP entry; $75,000/FPP satellites available)
• Monthly VIP Tournament ($100,000/freeroll)
• FPP Buy-in to regular tournaments

I will utilize this last benefit by buying into the August 23 Sunday Million for 13,500 FPP. And by August 29 (or sooner if I play more), I will reach Platinum Star status, my major goal for this month. I’m also on schedule to attain Ironman status on Full Tilt: I’ve earned at least 200 FT points in 11 out of the 25 days required.

So far total profit for the month is $38.17, but this is actually a great result because I endured multiple $500+ downswings within the last week or so. My problem lies in my inability to play perfectly on the SnG bubble. Once my July check arrives, I am going to purchase a license for SnG Wizard, a program which calculates the best move (raise all-in, call, or fold) in an SnG based on my hand, opponents’ calling/shoving ranges, stack sizes, and tournament payout structure (the combination of which is known as Independent Chip Modeling, or ICM). My plan is to spend time every day using this program to essentially train my brain to automatically identify the right decision in any SnG situation, especially on the bubble. The harder I work at improving my “ICM sense,” the more money I will make.

In terms of meta-game / darq’s life, playing close to 100 SnGs a day, every day, has begun to sap my enthusiasm towards poker as a fun activity…it’s beginning to feel like a job, and I hate to love the game. I’m not complaining since I know it’s necessary to put in a hell of a lot of hours to reach my goals and improve, but I will definitely need to schedule a day off soon and get back to exercising if I am to continue to do this for many more months.

Other than that, I have fewer than seven more weeks before I graduate from my online university (associate degree in business) and I’m buying myself a new leather office chair to cushion my ass while I play these long sessions. ttyl

Mmm.  Xanax and smoking.  Mmm.  So relaxed and happy.

It might not be healthy, but if you were as close to being institutionalized as I am, you would swallow or inhale whatever you need to in order to keep functioning.  So hey, I’m functioning.  Get off my back.  Am I projecting onto you my own feelings of guilt and shame about my need to self-medicate?  Yes.  Do I care right now?  No.  Why, you ask?  Well, because I need to make it through the day.  I need to survive without breaking down and crying because I can still feel his hands, his hands, just groping.  And his weight.  That awful weight.  And his chilling whisper.  ”Fuck you.”

So, can you blame me?

No, answer me: Can you blame me?

I struggled from 6 AM to 1:30 PM to get out of bed.  At one point, I woke up, smoked, and finally managed a few tender hours of sleep.  Unfortunately, life being what it is, I was, soon after waking, reminded of the horror that occurs constantly around the world.  The idea has been pressing on me ever since.  I can’t allow myself to think for a minute.  If I do, I will certainly slip between my bedsheets and never come out.  I’m fighting that intense desire.  Depression is calling to me from the bedroom, and I’m begging no.

My head is killing me.  I can’t take Excedrin, though it’s the only thing that ever works on me.  Brw believes if I take it, I’ll tumble lower because of the caffeine.  I suppose he’s right.  Even decaf gets me jittery sometimes, and my heart rate is already elevated.  I keep oscillating between the literal and figurative pain in my head.

We need to save all the little girls of the world.  We need to make sure no one ever goes through what victims and survivors of sexual assault go through.

The flashbacks.  Oh, god, just the flashbacks.

I’m scared. There are two mes in my head and they’re screaming at eachother. I don’t know which one to trust. I have a thought, I immediately doubt it, and then the screaming match begins. I’m fighting with myself, Brw is demanding an answer to what is going on with me, and my muscles are all cramping up. It starts in my legs and hands, then works it’s way into my shoulders and toes. It begins to hurt. I’m crying, hiding my head and rocking myself back and forth on my couch. I’m hugging my knees and the whole world hurts. Make it stop. Make it all quiet.

:’(

I woke up in a cold sweat this morning. I was dripping. Even now, I feel him inside me, hurting me. My muscles still remember what it felt like to clench against him.

Stop him. He’s hurting me. :’(

Make it all stop hurting. Why does it always have to feel this bad?

First thing’s first…results from July:

• Time period: 31 days (July 1 – July 31)
• Events played (SnGs & MTTs): 687
• Total profit (before split): $1,223

Despite being in Vegas (and away from a computer) for five days in the middle of the month, I still managed to put in some serious volume online due to pushing myself to multi-table an increasing number of SnGs. I can comfortably play around 12 tables on either Full Tilt or Poker Stars, but I want to be able to play even more as the months progress in order to 1) make more money (obviously) and 2) prepare myself to reach an important goal a friend and I have for 2010.

In terms of goals in August, I am going to go for Ironman on Full Tilt, which will require playing about 30 $11+$1 turbos a day for at least 25 days in the month. Frankly I think the whole promotion is bland and relatively unrewarding, but aiming for the highest status will ensure that I put in a few solid hours of work a day on FTP beyond my standard MTTs.

On Poker Stars I achieved Silver Star in July, so I want to go for Gold Star this month. I will need to play at least 600 $15+$1 turbos for the whole month, or an average of 20 per day, which is definitely doable. If I can stay on top of my school work (only eight more weeks after tomorrow), exercise, sleeping, eating, and shitting, I might even chase Platinum Star, which means about 50 turbos per day. In that case my poker schedule would probably approach LoLchAoS, so I might just stick with Gold.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Have a good weekend!

I wish I could do this thing I’ve heard people do called relaxing. It sounds pleasant. As I walk through my neighborhood, trying to enjoy the warmth of a sleepy summer sun, I think, this could be–should be–pleasant, so just relax into it. Breathe, I think. Let it all go. Then I twitch, stopping a “please don’t hurt me” scream at its tail end. I look around the neighborhood, relieved that the only other residents out for a walk are over a block away. And I think, fuck! Why can’t I just be freakin normal?! Enjoy it, goddam it! But that only makes the twitching screams attack more frequently and with greater violence. So I give up, and I quickly walk home before a twitch rises louder and faster, one I can’t stop or conceal behind a cough.

This is one of my better days.

I have felt pregnant for years, at least since high school. My belly first feels distended, then I feel the nausea and the nesting, and I desire, as a dying man does a few more moments, a child. I want so desperately for a little person to be growing inside me. I wonder if that’s just an overactive biological signal or if I’m just crazy. Why is everything always a potential symptom? Can’t I just be normal? Why does this have to be in my head? I just want it out of me. I just want it out.

Sometimes, I feel like getting it out, getting all this awful bile out of me, by just cutting myself open to let it out. But I know that’s bad, so I don’t do it. But I wish I could. I heard you feel better afterward. Although, the idea of cutting myself–that’s just a line l’m not willing to cross. …I just want it out so bad.

Oh, goddam, make it stop! I just want it out! Why won’t this stop hurting so much?! :’(

I was playing that $5 record breaker tournament at FTP. This is my last hand I played there…

Few hands against the same guy (68/65/13 over 542 hands) at three different tables:

Little earlier than I expected I came back to grinding. I’m recovering my bankroll and it’s going well smoothly. By the end of this summer I’m expecting to become regular at NL50 since I have enough time and will to play enough to make that goal possible very soon. My plan is to play today two sessions, each one and a half hour long, maybe two.  First half is over and my results are: So yeah, I’m running $9.50 above EV, and that’s funny to see as I was way under for my last 25 days. $9.50 isn’t much but I hope it’s a sign of some nice upcoming upswing.

One part of running above EV line was hand:

Flop: ($0.80) A, 7, J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.70, SB calls $0.70

Turn: ($2.20) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2, SB raises to $4, Hero raises to $9.10 (All-In), SB calls $5.10

River: ($20.40) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

This sick drops (swings) in today’s graph were caused by running with KK four times into AA, four times preflop. It was my mistake in three of them as I was almost 100% sure they held AA but… Can I really fold KK preflop? I gotta think about that…

As my first session is over I’ll post my stats since I’m using Hold’em Manager. Nothing special but supertight game at shorthanded tables working fine.That’s all for now. New update, with more hand reviews will come very soon…

I can still feel him. It’s the downside to muscle memory. I can still feel him inside me, pressed hard, too hard against my skin. I’m trying to get my legs closed, using every cell to absolutely no end. Who made this man this strong, me this weak? I want to kill Him.

Oh, God, kill me. I just want to tear away this flesh. Please don’t let me remember anymore.

Fuck you.  Fuck you for doing this to me.  The absolute just fucking pain of living and breathing from moment to moment.  Every thought is a death in my mind.  I want to cut into my head just to get the bugs to crawl out.  I’m dying from the inside.  I feel it in my stomach, my legs, my hips, my back, my jaw muscles, my neck, my eyes, and especially especially my head.  Get it out.  Get it to stop.  THE TORTURE, THE ABSOLUTE STABBING, ACHING, KILL ME FEELINGS THAT WON’T GO away sometimes.  Fuck!!!  Make it stop.

Had a really rocky month this month. Losing overall at all sites.

Again I thought I’d turned the corner at Everest a few days ago having had a really good winning streak over 500 hands playing a relatively LAGgy style. Recovered all loses and looked to be heading off my 500BB goal to move up a limit.

Settled down to a session the next day and BAM! Lost it all again and more over the course of the next 500 hands.

Think I may not be able to break through at all unless I learn to hand read better. Sessions with low W$SD totally kill any chance I have of making it to higher stakes.

Wierd thing is… why is this happening now? How comes I had 3 or 4 months of good results? Is variance really this cruel?

swings at .25/.50 6-max Everest

May was a big test of resolve. Here’s the chart.

As you can see, I started to pull it back over the last 1600 hands. Have been on holiday for the last week and haven’t played at all so hope all the insight gained sunk in rather than slipped away on the beach.

When you think of a design ideal there are perhaps deadlines or time constraints and that the idea itself evolves radically faster than you might expect it too. Not necessarily to its detriment or to it’s full potential either. Organic design, that of nature can take millions of years to produce a brilliantly complex design based on simple rules. Life is a perfect example. So squeezing a solution out in short spaces of time will surely never capture the problems essence in its entirety. A different, less considered and more flowing, instinctual design process could yield surprising results. Prototyping, where solutions good and bad are quickly processed through a trial and error phase, is still key to this idea, but the creative process I feel could be much more!

One of the things that I see when I’m playing poker is how my willingness to make a particular play can be affected by the amount of money involved, i.e. hindering my flow. To this I suppose I can easily say a solution would be to increase my bankroll requirements so that there really would be no amount of money that would sway my decision at a particular level although a balance should be achieved to make sure i’m never reckless with my money. At the moment, my BR strategy is quite aggressive from what I understand. I am comfortable with only 20 buy-ins at a particular level before I move up in stakes. Even at a bb/100 rate of 8, I think the potential for 20 buy-in downswings is relatively high (I won’t go into the maths but it’s well within 6-9 months of my standard game play). This April just gone I had to endure a 30 buy-in downswing, dropping through the levels to equate for the losses. My opponents having the goods almost all the time, and not obviously given their range either. That’s not to say I played flawlessly, because I didn’t. It is true to say though, that it’s inevitable no matter how I play.

The issue with applying an organic game methodology though requires some very stiff rules regarding BR requirements. Perhaps in the region of 80+ buy-ins per level. I don’t want to feel stagnant and inflexible by this BR strategy. That said if I feel the “grind” I can always have what I might call a “cheat” day. Athletes often term this a day when they forget the regular training routine and do & eat whatever. I may jump up a level to renew my perspective and relieve any monotonous feelings. Not such a bad idea! As for organic play, it’s really about just letting loose and going with whatever feel and reads you get from the game. It’s more likely that we learn from our peers and their styles, emulating their methods hoping to produce the same results. However, if you know the mechanics of the game you can certainly just do what you feel and attempt to learn from it! This really is where giants leaps are taken and great things can be achieved.

Hanging on the coattails of those that went before you will only lead to second place, and as nice as that is…first is better! My instincts tell me that the variance applying this kind of methodology may well be high, and frankly in my game that really isn’t desirable. My game however has improved recently as I understand ranges better and variations in odds analysis with regard to profitability. When all is said and done, the next time I look for answers, I’ll be more open & flexible with originating my ideas and solutions, not with what’s available, not even with what I think is possible, but with what feels natural. EVERYTHING is natural, so being liberal with my ideas should maximize their simplicity through a sort of evolutionary thinking.