git.fuwafuwa.moe

A few people asked for my story so I figured I'd share. Writing it out has been good therapy I think.
I first played poker on a camping trip with some friends some 10 years ago when I was 16. We didn't play for money and we used one of those cheapo wallmart sets of chips. None of us had any idea what we were doing. Pretty much every hand was limped family pots and checking down to the river.
A year later my dad's boss invited me to a homegame with his staff. This was the first time I played with someone who knew how to play. It was $10 to play, and my dad's boss won all 3 tournaments he ran that night. For me it was pretty embarassing, folding straights face up because I thought I had a high card. Thinking a straight beats a flush. That kind of thing.
That night I learned that poker was more than just luck, and that good players could make money. So I became determined to learn how to play and how to win.
I started hosting games at my school. I brought my wallmart chip set to school and classmates would play with me on my free periods and during recess. Never for money though.
During this time I started reading some articles about poker strategy online. Or at least that was my intention. After reading some articles about bankroll management and leveling I read an article on continuation betting.
I didn't need to read any more articles because it only took the cbet to make me a BEAST at the school games. Pratically every player in this game was weak-tight and would limp preflop and check/fold any board that they missed. I started to win most sessions just by cbetting 100% of boards.
A couple wins under my belt, combined with my secret weapon (the cbet!), and I knew that I was destined to be a professional.
I started to host real home-games for money (none of us were old enough to play at the casino). Every second Friday we'd play a game with a $5-$10 buy-in (None of us had jobs). It took a few weeks to realise we had to increase the blinds to force the game to end at a reasonable hour, and a few more weeks to figure out a structure that actually made sense.
I tracked all the results of these tournaments over the year, and by the end it was clear that I was the best. I had the largest ROI, the most first places, the most cashes, the most final tables. Every metric that mattered. And it was all thanks to my trusty cbet.
I wanted to go pro. I had no other career aspirations so I stopped paying attention in school and would just day dream about poker. I wanted to play all the time so I signed up to pokerstars under my mum's name because I was still only 17.
Because I had no bankroll on stars I played in the freeroll tournaments every day. The field was usually 9,000 players large, and I played in the 6pm game after school ended but before I went to bed. First place payed $6, so I knew I only needed to win 1 to launch my online poker career.
I quickly learned that 100% cbet was actually not so good against the stations and maniacs that play in freerolls. I had to change the way I played if I wanted to make it to the money.
Eventually, after a few weeks of busting before the first break, I made it to the money and I cashed in at 200th place for 50 cents - which just so happened to be the minimum buy-in for the 1c/2c cash game on stars.
I FINALLY HAD AN ONLINE BANKROLL!
I immediately sat down at a 9-ring cash game and bought in with my prize winnings. It took less than 5 minutes to completely decimate my bankroll. Much to my dismay, the players sitting at the lowest stakes cash game available in the entire country played like poker GODS! What the hell? Every one of my bluffs was called down. Every time I called down a bluff they had it. It was mental, these players were so good. Unlike anyone I had ever played against before.
At this point I knew I'd have to return to my poker studies if I wanted to have any chance at all. So I picked up my very first poker book, "Crushing the Micros", because I was gonna be playing micro stakes of course. One of the early chapters talked about the concept of set-mining and this BLEW. MY. MIND. Needless to say, I didn't feel it was necessary to read the rest of the book.
So, a few weeks later when I cashed my next freeroll tournament and returned to the 1c/2c cash game I completely changed my game. I used a new strategy where I only played pocket pairs preflop against opponents with full stacks. If I missed the flop i'd check/fold, but if I hit my set i'd check raise all in if OOP, otherwise i'd triple barrel pot bet every street if I was IP. It only took a few minutes to win my first stack with a flopped set. So I cashed out of the table and bought in to two tables.
If you've never multi-tabled before, let me tell you, it's the real deal. Twice the hands means twice the speed and that means twice the winnings. It made sense to me that I could scale this as big as possible. Back then, Pokerstars would let you play 24 tables at once - So as soon as my bankroll allowed it I started playing 24 tables at once using my se-mining strategy. The beautiful thing is, it worked!
So, playing 24 tables, only set-mining, I grew my stars bankroll to $1,000. I WAS A POKER GOD and I knew it. I crushed the school games, i crushed the home-game tournaments, and now i was crushing micro-stakes online too.
The day I turned 18 I knew it was time to crush all those fish at the casino. So for my 18th birthday I got my school poker friends (the ones who were 18 anyway) to take a trip to the casino with me.
We each brought $100 with us. 1/2 was too intimidating so the floor offered to open a 1/1 table just for us. Because it was a new table and 1/1 rarely got up, it was just us at the table for most of the night. Luckily for me though, I knew I could crush these guys with my 100% cbet strategy, and throw in a bit of set-mining and my friends stood no chance. I ended up busting every last one of my friends that night yet I only finished $300 up, which didn't make much sense. If I busted them all then shouldn't I be $800 up?
In any case, it didn't matter. I'd just proven to myself I could win at the high stakes casino games. Now I knew beyond a doubt that I could beat any game I played in. Soon I would go pro.
The next year I started uni but because I had no career aspirations besides poker, I'd just stay home and play poker online each day. Sometimes i'd go to class but I'd just play poker on my laptop in class
At some point I picked up holdem manager and imported my hand histories. Over 1 million hands I had a win-rate of 0.5 bb/100 - Yeha I know, I played a shit-load of poker.
It was eye-opening though. I'd played one million hands for pennies, with a win-rate that was hardly even positive. Just imagine if I'd been crushing that whole time instead. If my win rate was 10 bb/100 i'd be up thousands.
So once again, I was determined to get better. I bought books. Lots of books. Like, enough to fill an entire shelf of my bookshelf. And I started reading.
The theory of poker was first. Every time your opponent makes a mistake, you win. Every time you make a mistake, your opponent wins. Yes, got it, basic stuff. What's next?
Professional no limit holdem volume 1. Pot odds, implied odds, stack to pot ratio. This was life-changing stuff. Simple mathemetical concepts I'd never considered before that made so much sense in hindsight. This was it, I didn't need to read any more. Like the cbet and then the set-mine, these concepts were the missing piece I needed to take my game to the next level.
Now I know you're thinking: "Yeah ok, this is great and all but can you get to the part where you lose 200k?". And yes. Yes I can.
So I started skipping uni completely to go to the casino every day. Obviosuly I realised that the rake on 1/1 and 1/2 was fucked, so I started playing 1/3. Even though I was over 1k up online, the buyins for this stake were still HUGE to me and I played pretty scared money. And honestly, I never ended up beating 1/3. I was break-even AT BEST. (I rationalised my results by blaming the high rake. It was unbeatable, you see)
But, I made some friends playing 1/3 at the casino. One guy, Billy, started to invite me to his home game. I LOVED Billy's home game because the rake was lower than the casino's and the buy-in was only $100, which was much more reasonable.
Billy had this rule, where you could buy-in for the max stack on the table. This worked well with my set-mining check-raise all-in strategy so of course I would always buy-in for the max.
One night i'm playing in this game that's been going for 2 days straight and one palyer's got a 2k stack on the table. He's one of the fishier players so I think to myself, why not? And I buy in for my entire roll. 2k.
First hand i get JJ. Flop comes AJ7r. I check, fish bets pot. "Got ya" I think to myself, and I raise all-in.
Snap call. Oh shit. He flips over AA.
I just lost my entire roll that i'd spent the past year grinding for over 1 million+ hands. I'm tilted. Billy asks me if i'm rebuying. That was my entire roll I say.
And then Billy utters the words that you've all been waiting for. "Credit?"
And yeah, basically that's it. I've played in Billy's game ever since. And funnily enough, it turns out I'm not some poker god, i'm just a grade-a egomaniac poker fish. Billy has me for 100k on his books and i've tracked another 100k in losses i've been able to repay. So i'm down 200k over my poker lifetime.
Also, I flunked out of uni. Got married and subsequently divorced due to financial arguments. If you want to know where the money's come from I can assure you it's not my parents or a trust fund or anything like that.
I sell drugs to poker players at Billy's game.

I am an electrical engineer who likes math/statistics and has gotten attracted to the game of poker because I have stumbled on an MIT course about poker accidentally. Ever since I have played with my friends and tourneys. For about a year now, I have played at the local casinos for about a year now playing mostly $1/$3 with a $300 buy in and usually topping off when I am 200ish or less to 100bb, 2 buy ins stop loss (or 1 buy in after a bad beat or even earlier if players are just better than me). I have won about $7000 so far with about 200ish hours of play, however, I realize that this is pretty statistically insignificant so I want to do a sanity check if I am doing things right and I should continue. All feedback is welcome.
I study poker for about 10-20 hours per week for the last 3-4 months (where most of my winnings started coming from). I studied from the MIT poker course, splitsuits videos on youtube and Crush Live poker mainly now (I sometimes double check my hands by using flopzilla or couple of my friends that also play at the same stake, I have none that I know that plays larger).
So here is my play style, I am what you would call a nit I guess ( I am still not sure why this is bad since it seems to be printing me money at these low stakes). I am not just waiting for pocket aces/kings ace king but pretty snug, on the button, I would have my widest range at it would usually not be above 15%. (my loosest range is something like this: 22+, AKo, AQo, AJo, ATo, A2s-A5s, KQo, KJo, QJs, JTs (only when deep and in position, sometimes QJo and JTo).
EP I open premiums and 99 (99-AA) for 5-6X ($15-$20) as well as AKo, AQo, AJs (AJo and ATo I fold). I open limp 77, 88. For low pocket pairs like 66 and lower and everything else, I fold. With premiums QQs+ I will 4 bet if 3 bet (queens I will fold to a 3bet shove or if an opponent is super tight). I prefer not to play jacks or tens OOP but I will call a light 3 bet (of $45 say especially if multiple people called, anything larger that is $60 I fold JJ and lower).
MP I increase my range to KQs, KJS and AJ, ATo, but will let go of these to a 3bet. I usually over limp or open limp with KQo, KJo or just fold.
LP I overlimp or call with A2s-5s if I am getting 3-4 callers in front of me. I will over limp QJ and J10, I will, however, open raise KJ and KQs almost 100%. I will 3 bet pretty 100% Ace-10/J/Q/K type of hand, suited or offsuit, and will 3 bet with 99s plus. (KQ/J suited I will sometimes, and ONLY if I have a super tight image, if i was card dead or just showed up with monsters, I will 3 bet bluff with).
I will set mine if pot odds are good or more likely if implied odds are more than 10X (I know some people are saying it should be 15-20x or even 25x so this may be a leak). If hit a set, I play pretty straight up, if I am OOP and there is a draw heavy/wet board I will not slow play, I will bet large and I will raise OOP on a wet board 3-4x. I will check raise oop if I have a good read on my opponents if I find that they will cbet a lot. On dry boards, I will bet small OOP and Call/check in position and then turn up the heat on the turn.
I don’t play suited connectors one gappers lower than JT unless I am on the BB and I check. In limped pots I just try to follow the rule of never going broke in a limped pot and I always try to play mathematically and usually fold second or third pair even if I hit if a bunch of people call in front of me (unless I got a draw and I am getting the pot odds for it).
I play pretty ABC post flop, if I hit, I will bet usually around 66-75% of pot, if I miss and I am in a position with hands like A/K I will call one street usually. If I was the original 3bet/raiser with 10s+ and an Ace or a king comes on the board (high cards good for my range) I will usually fire once or twice. Generally, I will C bet only if I hit the flop or if the turn will bring me the nuts/better equity (for example I have Ace 2 of spades and it is 8s/10/s/Kc). I fold TPTK to a 3X raise 90% when the opponent is likely to have a set or two pair, the 10% of the time I call when I do NOT block any draws (say there is an ace high board with two spades and I do NOT have Ace or King of spades it is more likely for my opponent to have a draw; I only do this with players that are higher thinking players like 2/5 players and really good 1/3 players since I noticed they sometimes do this with their draws). Other times I call a raise is when the opponent usually was very short, to begin with, and the SPR was already around 1.5 or less.
I don’t fold a set unless I have a read that the opponent has a flush draw and it gets there and even then, it is tough for me to fold, lately I started putting a blocker bet in these scenarios in case they don’t have the nut flush, they may call instead of just shoving. idk if this is correct line of thinking. (usually, I don’t care about straight draws, usually, I focus just on flush draws but this may be a leak).
As for bankroll, I am very surprised when people recommend 50 buyins and such, it seems to me that that is waaay to much variance, I cannot see myself losing more than 10buyins or even losing 3-4 buyins with this strat (of course I may be drastically overlooking things) playing 1/3. Now that I have 20buyins plus, would this not be a good enough bankroll to play poker regularly on the weekends and be profitable?
I did try online too, but man I feel it is waaaay harder, I could not beat 10NL. Heck, even 5NL at pokerstars zoom 4 tabling I feel like I may be a slightly loosing/breakeven player. Might be doe cuz I am bored and I am not using a tracker. Feels like a much different game, wherein casino people are just sooo impatient to play (I am guessing this is because of the 2hour wait times for poker in my city).
I know it is not much info unless you see my hand histories but still, I would like the general feedback to see if I am on the right path and what I need to do to get and keep getting better at the game (how to study more efficiently, books to read)!
​
EDIT:
​
Some more info:
I try to never bluff fish and calling stations.
I am also aware of other people being aware that I am tight, so if a good player calls and he has seen me fold hands for 2 hours prior, warning bells go off when he check-raises me if it makes sense that he has hit a set (otherwise they fold to a cbet). I usually play "slippery" here and don't mind folding top pair or over pairs like aces (This is usually against players that are good and that are well aware that I am playing tight and ofcourse if we are both deep, if SPR is low enough ill ship it). To counter this, I do 3bet sometimes with King Jack/Queen suited as i mentioned to steal a pot or two if they are folding too much to my aggression and giving me too much respect.
If new plays join and they have not seen me fold that much, I can usually get them when i do hit my hand, of course, i won't be trying to 3bet bluff them because they won't have a tight image of me yet. To add to this, this is where I make money. There seems to be alot more volume in 1/3 where players come and go in a session alot more often. I find that 3/4 other guys stay at the table while the rest of the seats are rotated. Here is where I make my money, yes the other 3/4 guys know I am tight and will fold when i 3bet with my aces but the newer ones wont be as likely and will pay me off.

Before the trip
About 8 weeks ago I was casually scrolling though the EPT/UKIPT schedule. I'd never played a major festival event before, and I wasn't really looking for an event to play, just wanted to see if there were any 2-7 draw games going, unlikely, but that's my thing. As I scrolled past the high rollers and main events something peaked my interest. 9pm, Thursday the 16th of October, a £220 deep stack turbo deuces wild event. At £220 it was within the cheapest band of entry fees and subsequently within my budget. I also considered the fact that 2s wild would appear as "a bit of fun" for a lot of less serious players, making for a weaker player pool. Along with that, the fact that the event was right at the end of the festival and at 9pm made me think that if I could sleep all day and be fresh for the event I'd have another small advantage. The thing with small edges... add them up and they can make a significant advantage. Once I committed to the idea of playing the event, I made my travel and living arrangements and started preparing.
Back at uni I played hundreds of hours of home games. About 25% of those games were the later part of 12 hour sessions when things would get less conventional. 8 card omaha, irish, 3 card holdem and most importantly a lot of wild card games. While I'm sure other people have played wild card games, the previous experience let me go in far less nervous, and as I would come to learn, much more prepared than many players in the field.
Before I even got to London I was doing all that I could to prepare. Unfortunately 2s wild is a very popular form of video poker, so searching anything out online was slim pickings. This article however gave me a decent idea about what to expect. I reached out to Will, a redditor who cashed the same event at a different stop on the EPT and we discussed his experiences. I also spent a reasonable amount of time just dealing flops with a deck of cards at a desk, counting outs for different hands containing a 2. Anything I could do that my opponents weren't doing was to my benefit and I pushed that edge as much as I could.
The day before the event
The day before the event I arrived in London. After checking into my room I walked the route from my hostel to The Grand Connaught Rooms, where all the EPT tournaments were held. I took a look inside to familiarise myself with little things. Where is the bar? Where are the bathrooms? Where is the information desk? Little things I didn't want to be worrying about a half hour before the cards are in the air.
My next stop was The Hippodrome, the official casino of Pokerstars at Leicester Square. They did have a free shuttle car service from the two venues which was an excellent thing to see, because the cash games only ran at the casino and due to some legal issues they could only accept cash buy ins at the Hippodrome, so anything to assist players in registering was a good thing. I walked however as it was dry and I had a lot of time. I knew from the promo information that I would need a Hippodrome card and a Friends of Pokerstars card in order to play. A quick visit to reception and the players lounge and I had everything I needed. I paid for my entry with cash there and then, receiving a receipt which I was to use to get my seat at the Connaught rooms later. I then went about enjoying the rest of my day in London. I did try and stay up extra late though, in order to sleep in later.
The day of the event
I woke up around 11am. Got myself up and ready for the day. Before the event that night I had a few more things to prepare. Going into the event I didn't know how long it would last. I had no real idea of what the number of runners would be or how late I could be up. As such, I went out and bought some aspirin, ibuprofen, bottled water, cereal bars and some emergency caffeine. If I felt a headache coming on at midnight I wanted to be prepared. I wandered the city for a while, went a napped a bit in my room, got diner with a friend and then it was time to go to the event.
I arrived at Connaught rooms about 40 minutes before cards were due to be in the air. As there were several events still in play, I took the time for find my table and seat among the 3 or 4 rooms which had tables set up. Screens mapping out what was where made this very easy. I found the screen with our tournament info on. 20/20 players it said. "Wow" I thought to myself. Really small field then?! One of the dealers pointed out it hadn't been refreshed in a while, so I moved past the thought. I peaked my head into the other rooms, saw a few faces I recognised from TV/Web casts, although names escape me. Before long at was 8.55pm, so I headed to my seat at Green Table 10, Seat 4.
The event I took my seat and the first thing I made sure to do was clarify the unique rules for the event. They were as follows.

• Any deuce in the whole cards or on the board can be played as any card in any suit.
• If a player is dealt pocket deuces, they must open their hand when the action is on them. They win the Blinds, the Antes and THE BUTTON
• 5 of a kind is a legitimate hand. It is ranked higher than a straight flush but not a royal flush.

Oh, blinds were 15 minutes and stacks were 15,000.
With the rules confirmed and the other players in their seats the game began. At this time most of the tables had 4 or 5 players, which I found odd. However over the next 30 minutes most of the tables gained more players until the field hit 70 players. After the first level, the tournament director also made the decision to play the remainder of the game with 8 handed tables, presumable due to the smaller field size, but I'm not too sure.
My opening table consisted of 5 players. A middle eastern guy in seat 3 (I'm in seat 4 remember). I could tell as his phones language wasn't in English. Two women in seats 5 and 7, and a middle ages white guy in seat 9. I was pretty happy to get this table draw. While outside of the poker table I don't discriminate or try to make assumptions, at the tables I will use generalizations and stereotypes until given a reason to think otherwise.
Within the first orbit we quickly got a taste of how easy it can be to make a huge mistake. To be brief, the woman in seat 7 raised, and the man in seat 9 called. The action went bet call flop, bet call turn, bet call river. Seat 7 shows 28o with an 8 on board for trips, seat 9 shows AA and lost about 7k of his 15k stack at 25/50 blind level. Pocket pairs really don't have any weight to them. Only on one occasion after that did i play a pocket pair, when the button shoved for 6bb when I had 50+bb and I held KK. He had JJ and I won.
Very quickly it was established that most players weren't playing hands without a 2. But I saw many spots where people were over playing weak 2s. It felt a lot like omaha, where the nuts often ran into the second nuts. Case and point was this hand I played at level 2. The UTG player in seat 3 raises to 3x, (50/100 level) I call with 8c2x. All other players fold. Flop comes 6c5c2x. I've flopped a 9 high straight flush. He c bets 500 into 750. I raise to 2000. I could have any number of straights, sets, flushes, quads. Which means he can have these hands too. He makes it 6000 and I shove for 13000. In hindsight a call of the 6000 would likely have been ok as I has the nuts unless 5 of a kind comes in. Regardless he calls and shows 4c2x for the bottom end of the straight flush. I double up and he is crippled. Coming in I knew I didn't want to play big bloated pots without the nuts and this is why. In this case, 7c8c9c with a 2 all beat 4c2x. Very strong hands were everywhere. 4h2x on a 4x2xJx board is quads. And that happened a lot. One observation I made after a couple of levels was the value of holding any AKQJ or T with a 2. This is because these hands can all make a royal so long as the board contains a 2 and any 2 of the other 4 broadway cards in your suit. This happened surprisingly frequently, putting those hands at a much higher value than 92 and 82.
By the end of the first hour, our table had gained a couple of player, the field was set at 70 and the prize pool confirmed. 9 places paid. A hair under £4000 up top. At this time our table broke. This is because all EPT events break tables high to low and table 10 was the largest number. I move with around 30k to another table. This table has a lot more young grinder type kids which is no fun, but I have a lot of chips compared to several stacks at the table. Over the next couple of orbits I knocked out 4 players when they shove and I call with a better 2x, (and the kkvjj hand from before). I was up to around 80k, still well over 100bb deep before my next table break. Down to 32 players, average is 33k. My next table has several Norwegians who are drinking and chatting. I made my first 5 of a kind on the river and knocked out a player who made a straight flush which was fun. But then the card dead period began.
In 6 or so orbits I saw 1 deuce and managed to steal the blinds a couple of times making use of my evidently nitty image. While I managed to maintain my stack, the blinds were racing up, the antes even more so. Since my initial double up back in level 2, I had simply been avoiding bad spots and pushing my good ones. Cruising my way along watching the field grow smaller. I knew I was getting more tired though. Finding the nuts at showdowns was getting to be trickier. Although this was usually after and all in and call where all 5 cards appear very quickly, rather than me having time to think and act. The dealers and floor staff did and amazing job of making sure pots were awarded fairly and correctly though. Throughout the whole tournament though, I took all the time I needed to correctly assess where I was in the hand and what I held. This was extra important when making thinner value bets on rivers, where a lot of 2s would call with very bad hands and lose to say a straight or flush.
Eventually we broke to two tables. And I could feel myself edging towards the money. When we broke to two tables, we redrew seats. The loud/drunk Norwegians moved to table 2 and I was on table one. While I had just above average at this time, most of the chips in play were at table 2, so I had most of my table covered and there were several short stacks. We began to see the first instances of multiple pre flop all ins with 2xXx vs 2xXx. Often they just resulted in chop pots as any 4 to a straight would make a straight for both players with the 2. I maintained my stack and then soon we were hand for hand. We would be going to a 9 handed final table and 9 places paid so this was the moment we had been waiting for. There were a few very large all ins on table 2, which the bigger stacks spent 2 or 3 minutes deliberating a fold or not. This really hurt with the blinds at 5k/10k(1k) with 15 minute blinds. A player from table 2 did eventually bust and we redrew onto table 1. Now I'm at seat 2 on the final table. 1 of the shorter stacks busted pretty quickly. Then a very important hand happened. I don't recall exactly the hands that got me there but I had about 200k. In the BB i pick up Qx2x. Action folds to seat 8 who shoves for 30k. Seat 9 shoves for 55k and I call in the BB. The hands were 42, 72 and Q2. The board runs out and 72 makes a straight. Seat 8 is eliminated leaving 7 players and seat 8 wins a 150k pot, which had I have won would have put me in a much better position.
Now the shoves are coming thick and fast. There were 4 or 5 all in and calls but they all ended up in split pots or the smaller stack winning. By this time the blinds are 10k/20k(3k) With 1,050,000 chips in play, that's 50bbs on the whole table. Unfortuanelty I catch no 2s that double me up or help me, the blinds go up again to 12k/24k(3k) and I'm all in for 1bb with KJo vs 82. I don't improve and I get knocked out for 7th place for £670.
Ultimately I'm very happy with how I played. I ran pretty well, didn't do anything stupid and had fun. It's a shame a couple of cards didn't come differently for a much bigger score, but given I can now brag about having a 100% cash rate at the EPT and have a good story to tell I'm not going to complain. If this event remains in the schedule I'll do my damned best to play it again that's for sure.
Thanks very much for reading. I know it's a wall of text but in this instance that's kinda the point.
GothicLord
PS- The /poker championship vids will be going up soon. For some reason (possibly the size/length of the videos) sometimes they crash and I have to start the uploads again.

Macau is better known for its glamour and numerous opportunities presented to highrollers and people with more money than common sense. Quite often it happens that nosebleed limits are frequented by players who don't necessarily know a great deal about poker, but have a lot of money and are seeking the adrenaline rush. While these cash game tables remain prohibitive to most players, live tournaments, such as the one recently hosted by PokerStars attracts huge crowds. As a part of the Asian Pacific Poker Tour, the main event represents the highlight of the series in Macau and not surprisingly a Chinese player emerged victorious. This year it was Jiajun Liu who claimed the trophy and caused the elimination of 494 players in the process, to take a prize of HK$2,776,000. As major poker tournaments go, the equivalent of $360,000 is not a record, but still a significant increase from the amount collected by the winner in 2013. Those who made the final table were reluctant to take many chances, because each position they improved up the ladder, translated into a bigger payout. Jiajun Liu didn't bother himself with such petty calculations and aimed the big prize, with this bold strategy paying off. One by one his opponents bowed out graciously and he was left to play the heads-up against Cyril Andre, who had to settle for 2nd place.These are the final table standings with Jiajun Liu proudly at the top of the list: 1. Jiajun Liu – $HK2,776,0002. Cyril Andre – $HK1,693,0003. Billy Argyros – HK$940,0004. Thomas McGarrity – HK$737,0005. Yen Han Chen – $HK575,0006. Carlos Kuo Chang – $HK464,0007. Jean-Marie Peyron – $HK355,0008. Yat Wai Cheng – $HK273,0009. Sailesh Verma – $HK198,140 The 2014 PokerStars.net APPT Macau High Roller attracted fewer players due to the fact that the buy-in was a bit prohibitive, but for the winner the investment was well worth it. This time it was a lady that claimed the first prize and despite the similarity in names, JJ Liu is not related to the other winner. The other thing these two had in common was their desire to fight for the ultimate prize and their uncontestable skills displayed throughout the competition. JJ Liu, Quan Zhou and Chen Wang where the last three players standing and they decided to split the pot according to their chip stacks. Liu got the biggest slice but the runner up and 3rd place both got more than HK $1 million. Check out the final placement of the 6 finalists: 1. JJ Liu – $HK1,420,0002. Quan Zhou – $HK1,275,0003. Chen Wang – $HK1,078,0004. Rui Cao – $HK610,0005. Magnus Karlsson – $HK444,0006. Huidong Gu – $HK388,0007. Zongyoa Zhang – $HK333,950
from
via Casinoreviews

First, a little background:
I'm fairly new to poker... I learned to play in April, but I've been playing somewhat avidly since then. I put in about $20 into PokerStars back in April and I've been able to play almost 800 sit-n-gos on that alone, learning as I went (up to about $250 balance now).
At this point I consider myself a pretty decent player, I think I have a pretty good understanding of ICM, pot-odds, the whole shebang. My game is still developing, and my ROI is steadily climbing. All good news. However, until last night, I'd never made ITM in a live game. Not a huge sample size... 4 tournaments at casinos and about 8 "home-games".
Well, last night that changed, I won a $60 buy-in 50-man tournament. But... I feel like I'm just a lucky douchebag. I didn't get to play many hands early, and at the first break I was down to about 8 BB with ~30 people left.
Lucky Situation #1: With ~8 BB left, at a 7 man table, I limped UTG+1. I was hoping that the manic on the button would raise me, which he did. I got it all-in heads-up.
Me:
Villian:
I sucked out on the flop and doubled my stack.
Lucky Situation #2: With ~10 BB left, ~25 players left, I went all in from the button, BB calls.
Me:
Villian:
J on the flop and it held up. Doubled my stack again.
Lucky Situation #3: Aggressive short stack (sitting 2 to my right) shoved all in about 3 times in a row for 6BB (1/2 my stack). On his 4th shove I re-shoved.
Me:
Villian:
Mine held up.
UNLUCKY SITUATION!!! (gasp): QJo cracked my JJ for 1/5 of my stack.
At this point I made it to the final table with about 30,000 chips. Blinds were at 2,000/4,000 (quickly became 4,000/8.000). Top 6 get paid. Average stack was 50,000.
Lucky situation #4: I'm SB, I have 18,000 chips in front of me and my SB (4,000) in the pot. The table folds around to me. I shove, snap-call from BB (big stack).
Me:
Villian:
I get a 3 on the flop and it holds up.
Lucky situation #5: The next hand! I shoved into the BB from the button, SB folds, BB snap calls.
Me:
Villian:
TT held up. This put me at 120,000 chips, the new chip leader.
After that I just got a good run of cards and played aggro, abusing the short stacks. People were not happy with me. I got a lot of mumbles about being a bully, and a reminder from the guy on my left that I'd sucked out on him. Eventually we were 3-handed for my next big lucky hand:
blinds: 5,000 / 10,000 Button: 110,000 chips SB: 40,000 chips Me(BB): 350,000 chips
Lucky situation #6: Button shoves, SB calls, I call.
Button:
SB:
Me:
SB hit 2 pair, I hit a 5, and Button hit nothing. SB tripled up, and I came out ahead by knocking out the button. I didn't make this call easily... and looking back it wasn't the right play. My thought process was basically, these guys are shoving a lot of hands, and by going in I can increase the odds of knocking one of them out. A5 probably has at least one of them beat... etc. etc. Looking back on it, I shouldn't have called with A5. Probably AT+, or 99+...
Heads-up I just played basic poker, nothing special, ended up grinding the guy away.
Anyway... so here's my problem. I'm thrilled that I won, but I feel somehow bad about it. I sucked like a handful of times... I rarely had my money in when I was really ahead of someone. I did make a few good plays which I haven't gone into detail about.
I was just wondering if anybody in /poker has felt similarly after a live game. Online, if I suck out, I don't feel guilty at all. I play smart online and I see plenty of suck-outs that screw me over, when I get lucky once in a while I just consider it my due. But for whatever reason, when it happened live, I just felt really bad about it. It's not like I was playing junk hands... but some of my moves may have been questionable.
I'd welcome any feedback on similar experiences, thoughts, or critique of the specific hands. I can try to provide other details if needed, my memory is pretty solid.

Hi Reddit, I will warn you this may be a little long. I am fairly new to poker starting playing online about 4 months ago. I played home games for fun with High school friends in the past, but never took the game too seriously. My friend suggested to go to the casino one day, so I did and I ended up breaking even after several hours. This was exciting because I felt I didn't know much about poker and I still managed to do okay with patience and waiting for the right hands. After that night, I grew a strong interest for poker and decided to pick up a few books and dibbed and dabbed in some small cash games online. After a while of playing cash games, I started to do Sit N Go's On stars. Grinding them and researching how to play tournament NL Hold'em. I ended up winning a few Sit n Go's after much grinding. I found learning tourneys to be an investment, I wanted to learn to play well in tournaments and eventually it paid off. I won the Big 5.50$ on pokerstars with 5549 entrant. I was 2nd in chip lead when there were three and we ICM chop. I took home a nice 3200$.
Since them, I went to the casino again once, because I really enjoy live games and get bored with Online. I went about 1 week ago, bought it for 150, and ended up walking out with 500$ within a few hours. This was so thrilling because I made all the right play, had some cards and just played ABC poker and rolled over 1-2 for that night. Tonight I decided to go back. I bought it max this time 200$ and ended up getting into some pretty bad hands. Ex: KK pre flop at the cutoff, a few limpers, the button raises to 16, I reraise 75, he flat calls, flop is A Q 4 rainbow. I check he shoved. I think for a while and decide to fold, he flips over QQ. I was willing to shove the hand and was really thinking this guy would either shove or fold my HUGE pre flop raise.
I think overall I made some REALLY good decisions, very smart folds. But those ended up costing me money. I tighten up REALLY bad, and honestly the cards we're not coming at all.
I was playing with a few maniaks raising 12$ on 1-2 EVERY hand with air. I figured I could take advantage if I get a good hand. Hands were just not coming at all or, hands would come with a SUPER unfavorable pot. I have TPTK and call to the turn and the turn card givens 4 to a straight or 4 to a flush and I had to fold many good hands due to really wet textures. Also I had about 14 pocket pairs during the 6 hours I was there and not once did I hit a board with a set, most of the time boards were overcards and flush draws. Also pre flop short stack, about 70BB, somebody raises me 25 pre flop, I have JJ I shove my last 100$ he calls and shows the other JJ. Split pot.
I ended up losing 350$, 1 buy in and my 2nd rebuy I left with 50$. I felt I played well, but this downswing really hurt. I almost want to quit poker now while I am ahead with my big online win... I know I may just be tilting now but it was really hard staying there 6 hours, and really getting no cards and never connecting on the flop. Sorry if this is a rant. Just don't know who else to talk to.
TL DR : I won a big online tourney for 3000$ + , went to casino won big for 1 night, went back the next night and lost 2 buy ins.

Verified? (This bot cannot verify AMAs just yet)
Date: 2014-01-24
Link to submission (Has self-text)

Questions	Answers
What has been the luckiest moment in your career? Thanks!	With 90 players left in EPT San Remo in 2008, I got JJ in against Roland De Wolfe's QQ... on a T 7 3 flop. I hit a jack on the river and went on to win the tournament for 1.4 million $
1) How long were you playing poker before you decided: "I'm going to do this for a living"? What would you consider the turning point (in terms of poker ability, a significant cash, etc) that pushed you toward doing this professionally?	I was playing for about 2 and a half years while going to school and working part time jobs, before I realized I was going to make a living solely from poker. The turning point was when I decided to go for supernova elite on Pokerstars in 2007.
What portion of the cash that you play with is actually yours?	It's almost always all mine. I sell action to the 100k+ tournaments thought.
Why do you mostly play tournaments instead of cash? Isn't the variance terrible?	I play both, you just don't hear about the cash games all the time. The variance is insane for both.
What is the worst bad beat of your career?	KK into Antonio's AA with 19 left in the One Drop where first place was 18 million dollars. I was third in chips he was second. #showers.
Jason how do i win flips?	Focus really hard, I mean really really really hard lol.
Are there any well-known poker pros out there who have obvious tells they aren't aware of?	Yes, and I'm not going to name names obv :)
Do you think that online poker will come back to the States entirely?	Eventually yes... I hope.
Is there a moment in your career that stands out as the biggest poker mistake you've ever made?	I can't think of a huge mistake that I regret, I try to focus on the positive aspects of my career!
Hey Jason, do you think it would be possible for a live grinder to grind in today's games with 2k starting at 1/2$ to like 75k in a year eventually moving up when the bankroll allows it?	If they are a good player than yes, but I can't imagine why a good player would only have 2k
When Vanessa Selbst did an AMA, she went into some detail on a hand she played on High Stakes where she stacked off to an amateur's set with her queens, her point being that the hand was one that she looked back on and cringed about, knowing that it was broadcast on tv. So, is there any tv hand (ept, big game, high stakes) that you feel that you truly misplayed and can't bear to look back on?	Actually there's a hand against Justin Bonomo that I played on the big game in which I had AxJd and check shoved the river as a bluff. Makes me cringe a little- although, I'm not sure it was such a bad play :)
What would you say the single most important piece of advice you could give poker players just starting to really learn the game?	You can only get better but playing, and through experience. there's only so much studying you can do, you have to play.
What's the best comp you've ever received from a casino?	Lotta buffet tickets :)
	Honestly, I can't recall the best
Do you treat poker like a job all the time now or do you still have the occasional beer and pretzel game with your buddies?	I had to stop doing that a long time ago. I spend so much of my time playing poker at the highest level that when I'm not doing so, I want to do something other than poker.
So what do you do for fun now with your buddies if not poker?	Boating, eating, sports, beach
How many hours did you dedicate to poker when you started?	My life
IS LIV SHAVED? HAVE YOU EVER HAD MORE THAN 4% OF YOURSELF IN A SHR?	Do u want me to say yes? because I've obviously had more than 4% of myself
Can you share some pics/vids of your boat? What are your thoughts on Phil Helmuth?	Follow me on Instagram for boat pics : realJasonMercier.
Hi -I am very curious about what a typical week looks like for a poker pro (in terms of hours)? For example 60 hours spent playing poker, 40 hours spent analyzing, xx spent sleeping, xx recreation.	Depends on the player. I spend weeks playing 0 hours and other weeks playing 100.
So, do you play golf ? And if yes, what's your handicap ? And if it's low, are you better then Ivey ? Cheers from iceland.	Only played a few times, I'm awful.
When was the definitive moment when you decided you wanted to go Pro and what impact did it have on your life (besides the obvious)and the impact of the life of others around you?	A few months into 2007 I was well on pace to achieving Supernova Elite status on Pokerstars, which meant I would make a nice chunk of money throughout the year.
	At that point, it didn't impact much, I was playing online basically working a desk job. Once I started travelling a lot for poker though, my life changed dramatically.
What do the Dolphins need to do in order to become a contender in the AFC East again?	They started the offseason off pretty right with a few firings!
What is the biggest cash pot you have won?	660k
What is the most bat-shit insane play you've ever seen made at a poker table?	Wish I could remember one specific one... I've seen so many lol.
What are the perks of being a pokerstars pro?	I get my face as my avatar :)
I tend to blush at the drop of a hat..as a pro poker player how do you generally read someone whose face turns red?	Lol ummm if there face is turning red a lot, I probably will be able to tell what kind of hand they have. :P.
How much of a financial hit did you take with your bracelet bets this past WSOP?	6 figures. don't want to say
Sweet... big fan, always love watching ept live when u final table. a few questions.	Sorry only 2 questions per person! :)
Seems like you were crazy info OFC before, but seems like to don't play as much, or at least not tweet about it?	Took a nice break but ready to get back in the mix.
After our brief pineapple session at PCA, Vlad said your ofc bumhunting wouldn't stand in Moscow. Was he referring to himself or me?	Lol I'm not sure bud... I think he meant hit and running.
	Language barrier.
Who is the player you least enjoy playing against purely from a personality/body odouall-round douchebag point of view?	I don't exactly call out my enemies on public forums
Is your last name pronounced Mer-Sear or Mercy-A? Every commentator says it differently.	Mer See Ur
Is that true that poker players get a lot of ladies?	Depends on the player...
	If they are a fat slob, then they probably aren't getting a lot of ladies.
	I do okay
Just one question Jason. When will it end? Edit- Im guessing the people down voting dont follow Jason on twitter.	Never.
Hello Jason, welcome to reddit! Do you have any thoughts on string cheese as a snack food?	Thanks! Not a fan of string cheese, stopped eating it when I was 11.
If you could give one tip to people aspiring to emulate your poker success, what would it be?	Win lots...
What tilts you the most?	Traffic
Whats your net worth give or take $1m? also what kind of boat do you own?	I don't tell people my net worth. Its a formula something. 35 footer
Who are the four people you spend the most time with?	Do u want me to name my friends?
	Do u know Dirty Dave?
	Dan Obrien when I'm on the road.
	Why 4?
You can't just drop that you bought a sweet boat and not tell us what you named it. It's corny though, isn't it? :)	It's going to be either "deuces" or "deuce to seven"
	Has to do something with the price :)
Has there been any professional poker player that you just have not been able to read? Who has been the most difficult?	There are a lot of pros that are difficult or unable to read.
Do you feel your perception ability extends past poker?	My perception ability definitely flows over into all aspects of life.
Who would you rather play between Ike Haxton and Viktor Blom?	I'd rather play Ike.
Why Ike?	Viktor is scary :)
Were you actually contemplating taking your boat to the PCA?	Yes was considering it,
I'm not sure of the logistics of it. Was it just a joke?	Ending up not because of the potential problems and bad weather
How did you select your horses? Will you ever recruit more? What cut do you get from their winnings?	I'm strayed away from backing in the last few years. Most players in the past that I backed we did a standard 50/50 with makeup deal.
It’s often a misconception that gambling is a sin but according to the bible it’s never said that gambling is a sin rather the lust of money is where we sin. I was curious since the time you posted your blog about your beliefs as a Christian how has that affected the relationships around you and has it changed your approach in live games? also, on my next visit to Miami can I drive your new boat? @heydanpowers.	Gonna pass on the boat driving, no offense.
	My beliefs as a Christian haven't really affected my relationships or my approach to live games except in that I'm trying to not put in such long sessions anymore playing cash. That is more of a health thing though.
Are you planning on playing any Irish events this year? Irish open, IPO?	No, never been to Ireland either ;/
How much money would you personally have to have in order to play $100,000 buy-in tournaments without swapping/selling action?	Many more millions :)
Just how much harder has the game gotten from when you first started out to current day?	There are a lot more elite players nowadays.
Do you watch hockey? If so whose your favorite team?	Nope
Is the no-drinking bet going to actually happen? What's your motivation for proposing it? Glglgl tho.	It might, but it hasn't happened yet. I was not feeling well after a night of drinking... so I fired off on twitter looking for action.
Hey Jason, Gonna be making my way down for my first WSOP in vegas this year. Any tips? Is late registration the way to go?	I recommend showing up early, regging the night before to avoid lines, get comfortable and prepare for a long day. Patience.
What I'm trying to get at is, as a (amateur) poker player myself, I often find it hard to separate the skill from the variance, and when I win money I wonder if I got lucky and when I lose money I wonder if I just suck. Do you ever doubt your abilities and how do you overcome this doubt?	Doubting your abilities is something that almost every poker player struggles with. It's hard not to during the downswings. Overcoming this is difficult, but a lot of times you just have to play through it.
Who's your inspiration?	My dad
If you could only choose one horse for a ten man sng for your life, who would you pick? Besides yourself.	For my life???
How do you see yourself in 10 years? still at the top, still playing?	I can't imagine a year from now, much less 10 years. I hope to still be at the top.
How hard was it to get there where you are standing now?	I can't put into words how hard it was, it took many many hours and a lot of hard work.
I know that you're a big sports fan. How often do you bet on sports? Also, do you do most of it online, with friends, or at a Vegas sports book?	I don't really bet sports much anymore, had to stop after really slamming it for a while. Was doing it mostly with friends.
Will the Knicks make the playoffs?	Nope.
Hi Jason, In your opinion, is Ole Schemion or Vanessa Selbst a more formidable opponent?	They are both very tough and very good
Any plans to relocate long-term and focus on online games again instead of live? If so, how much would another online MTT reg like me have to pay you to cancel those plans?!	Let the bidding begin!!
	I have no plans as of now to do so, you're safe! :)
Online poker is legal in my state now, and I have a $200 bankroll to start with. What would be the best way to grind it out into a decent amount?	What are you good at playing?
Tell us how you REALLY feel about the Stars High Stakes Regs Problems twitter account.	Lol who?

Last updated: 2014-01-28 19:29 UTC
This post was generated by a robot! Send all complaints to epsy.

So I haven't posted here before I don't think, I'm an Irish guy after moving to Beautiful British Columbia. I like poker and stuff.
I've been playing poker 13 months now, I missed all these "poker booms" and started playing when poker was hard mode. This has been great for my learning but pretty disgusting for my wallet. However I battle on through with the dream of being able to outplay the best one day.
I've kind of cycled through all forms of NLHE and dabblled here and there with other games. (Super unprofitabley in case your wondering :P )
I played a ton of HU SNGs which i think really helped my hand reading skills and being more LAGy.
I played a bunch of the pokerstars big 2.20, hot 3.30 etc. never binking a win, getting some cashes here and there to keep me going back though.
I then switched to 6max STT's which provided a nice win rate for me for a while.
And lastly I switched to 6max zoom because I get impatient waiting for cards sometimes :P
So all that was pretty -EV for me but I was figuring out what I liked and improving my game so whatever :)
Then I decided to visit the casino, having been to the casino in my local hometown in Ireland before it was a very depressing place. One guy sitting losing all his money at blackjack and one sad and empty poker table.
Visiting the Edgewater was a completely different mood. So many gamblers, a wait list for $1/$2, lights, drunk people! It was magical! :P
I had brought $400 for my adventure, knowing I would loose it all. The max buyin is $300 so I wanted to have two bullets. On pokerstars the highest stakes I had played was $10 regularly with odd $25 shots that failed. So sitting with $200 at risk was scary.
I played for maybe six hours, as nitty as can be playing pretty much JJ+ and ATs+ never really being to aggressive (mainly because I thought everyone was insane with their bet sizes) I ended that session at +$580 cashing out with $780. Naturally I was pretty excited! I went back again a few weekends later and dropped -$200 with KK vs AA allin pre, I played for like five hours after that and left with $500 basically just breaking even.
I returned back to online with new hopes of becoming profitable on Pokerstars, switching to $5 zoom, however playing for so little just felt like a grind and boring now so I wasn't doing well. I played for maybe 16 hours on January 1st and went busto on pokerstars again, bringing me to a total of -$400 online.
I have been hearing lots about how soft the 12pm live tournaments in the casinos are so decided to enter one yesterday in the Riverrock. It was a $50 + $10 buyin that I thought would get more people. I think it was like 25-30 entries or something? I cleaned up with next to no problem, I was amazed at how crazy people were playing at such low blinds, how fast people started to get eliminated. .
I double KO'd two people in one hand where I had JJ, crazy aggro guy shoves pre, bad passive guy calls for rest of his stack, i call (my only option) (1/3 of my stack). I'm vs 88 + A7o and hold.
Final table then and I'm the biggest stack by a lot. 3x the next highest chip leader. 4-5x most of the table. I just know I'm going to get top 3 and cash.
Eliminate a guy who shoves with QQ, I have KK. (nice ;D)
Eliminate a guy who shoves on a 9-8-3 rainbow board with K-9o. I had TT and he was maybe 1/4 of my stack at that stage. I had to have a think about calling since he seemed to be one of the better players but he did seem to be getting bored. The rest of the table were like "easy call what took so long".
Then I call off a really short stack like 3bb or something with ATo and flop the old KQJ nuts and hold.
Then some other hand happens between seat 4 and 5 and seat 4 is eliminated. Now we are final three.
I get 33, raise 3x into unopened from the small blind , big blind complains that i always have a good hand and folds, I table 33.
Then 3rd place turns to 2nd place and asks him if he wants to chop, mentions that I probably have no interest in a deal etc. I agree that I have no interest in a deal (im 3-4x their chip stacks) I want 1st place. So that's that. I cash out in first for $550 and 2nd guy and 3rd guy chop.
Not a bad Friday and pretty happy with my bankroll building so far, hopefully I can keep this up over 2015!