EPTNowadays im much better. By no means a pro, but its a good hobby. I never expect to do this as a job - for a variety of reasons, even if i grinded the 12-30 180 mans which i won't explain.
In terms of online, i made my first 500 playing cash, no bankroll management at all (my "BRM" was 10 buyins hahaha) and swang a ton, decided to cash out and quit after a while. Fundamentals were horrible, i was relying mostly on instinct
I started getting good when i met two kids at the casino, who i am now really good friends with, who basically opened up the world of real poker to me.
One of the most memorable hands i ever played with these guys was when i first met them -
I sat down at a 100NL (pounds) cash table and it was the very first hand for me. I see two very young kids (probably just turned 18), and i pick up AK first hand. One of them raises to 6 UTG, and gets 1 caller. I re-raise to 20, and then it folds to the UTG raiser. He sits there for a bit, and slowly pushes his stack for 110 pounds all in - and im just like "woah ok". The other limper fold, and i think about it and fold also.
The kid then flips his cards up and shows me AQ, and im just sitting there going "wow did you just shove 100BB 4bet with AQ??"
The instant impression i got was that they were terrible players, loose cannons who could barely look past their own cards, bad because they SHOWED their hand, and just all sorts of thoughts going through my mind.
This is the first time i really learned what it meant to get levelled.
A few things transpired, and after i became really good friends with them, and he explained to me his thought process during the hand - he knew that i had AK already, and why it was profitable to shove with AQ there, knowing he is absolutely dominated
So he said, firstly, when i sat down on the table, i was a student, younger than most of the people there, pretty calm, so i must have been an OK player, probably not a complete fish, probably not that good either (true)
When i raised to 20, he said that he put me on AK. This is pretty standard - if i had AA, KK or QQ, i wouldn't have raised so much. It is a very common mistake for newer players to try and extract maximum value out of their big pairs and change their raise sizes with premiums like that to be too small. Whereas with AK, you are happy to take it pre so you raise a big more.
Thirdly, he said it was my very first hand, and i am a student. As a result, this means i would be playing scared money - I got AK, which can very well call there, but nobody likes to stackoff on their first hand!
Fourth he said: "i know exactly whats going on in your mind, you must be thinking, why on earth did he raise so much? You were thinking that you were either flipping or worse, and so thats why i knew you would fold because you didnt want to stackoff to a flip"
Lastly he says, also i did it because it was a perfect spot to do it with AQ. I would usually just fold it there, but i thought if i showed you AQ, it would be much more likely to tilt you because id be showing a dominated hand instead of a flipping hand - this way im setting up a trap for the future because you think im a terrible player
Woah. So for those of you who think preflop poker is easy - think again. I got absolutely levelled by these guys, and in just the very first hand i was being crushed without even knowing it. I bet most people hardly even think about how much game you can put into just the preflop - think about how complicated the game gets postflop!
Nowadays i 15-20 table the 2.20 180's on stars, and you can see my stats here http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/pokerstars/BrTarolg/poker/results/542563F362104692A50FE27DFF26B7B6.html?t=2
Pretty much all of that profit comes from this month only
I am a very strong believer in proper BRM and high volume.
That hand i posted above pretty much opened my eyes up in poker - it makes you realise that tournaments arn't just knowing your shove ranges, theres a very complicated preflop metagame that should be played and a big edge to be had.
My overall profit since i started about a year ago is $5-6k (estimated)
So yea - on top of that, i play SC. I suck, im like D/D+ level. I ALWAYS wanted to get a C ranks, but never could. Mostly because of motivation, i dont have enough SC friends to play with.
Recently i did a deal with a B-ish level SC player that i would teach him poker (cause he really wanted to learn) and that he would teach me SC. In the end, not much really happened, but now we are good friends and it got me back into SC again.
So heres what im looking for - im looking for a starcraft coach, and in return i will be able to coach you in poker.
My main speciality is MTT SNG (45, 90, 180 mans) at the moment, but i have pretty strong fundamentals in cash and big field tournaments also.
What i can offer as a poker coach is that i am not expensive - this will mostly be a deal about making starcraft friends, making poker friends, having people to chat to about similar topics and getting better at both games at the same time!
I also have a VERY strong focus on whats required to be a player who can make MONEY out of poker, as opposed to just win. ATM, i grinded 800~ dollars just this month in MICROS, all within BRM. This is not run good (im 120 below EV
). Most people who want to get into poker, start at the micros, and find it impossible to roll up - this is where i can help. I see it every day, players who are good players, capable of winning at both SNG and cash, yet when they play the micros online they can never break their roll past 300 dollars even playing for months and months on end.I also have a very level head of where i am at at poker, and what my skill level is. I am NOT a pro player, i simply play recreationally, i have no aspirations to be a pro player, nor am i good enough. People severely underestimate the many, MANY steps that pro's go through to get to a point where they can make MONEY, and not just be winning players.
I don't really know what you will be able to offer as a SC coach, but i would like someone of reasonable skill (B- or better?), and someone who can learn fast, and throw everything they know about poker out of the window, and most importantly, someone who is friendly!
Phew, long post. Well, i don't really know what kind of response ill get out of this. I'm not the best poker player out there, but i'm OK and i have strong fundamentals. Worth a shot to throw this out there!
edit: also you need to be able to use skype/msn and come online regularly. I also live in the UK if tht helps with timezones
