breathe, galvin, breathe.
you will get through this.
now go relax and eat some crabs.
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downswing never ends
I'm now stuck 30k for my exchange, probably should have dropped limits way earlier. Left with 16k BR online so I have to play NL200 from now on. Ridiculous how I play so aggressively, people open 60-70% and 4bet 35% of their range, whenever I pick up AK or QQ they conveniently fold and always play back at my air.
Include FTP going busto and there you have it, 2011 was a complete waste of my time. Despite me investing so much time on analysis and money on coaching, nothing ever goes my way
fuck it, not playing for a while
im on the verge of quitting NLHE, so I will spend this entire week studying PLO. Will it be the right move? I wonder, since I suspect I might be slightly more affected by bad runs than others (can't be so sure about that though) but I should have switched earlier. Though my variance might actually decrease if my edge is significantly larger, I won't know for sure, since I have been experiencing PLO like swings for my entire career
since holdem chooses to fuck me over repeatedly I have to switch I guess. Probably 4th or 5th time since I lost >1/3 of my BR. Biggest mistake of my career is not using a conservative BR. Some people said they wish they were more aggressive if they could turn back time, but that was back in the day where everyone was completely stupid.
Going to watch all the SSPLO vids on BFP and all of littlebastard's theory videos. I have never been so determined to learn PLO.
If I can become a winner at PLO200 SH and I'm able to 12 table effectively, I think I will aim for SNE next year, since I can generate almost 1000 VPPs per hour which means I need to average 3-4 hours per day which is easy. This is unlike NLHE where I have to play about 5 h + which is kind of tough IMO, since PLO 200 generates 1 VPP/hand while NLHE 400/600 generates roughly 0.65/0.7
I think SNE will also give me a chance to play some live events and I think while online cash games are going to die pretty soon, tourneys will continue to be a complete donk fest.
BR: 13 800$, 100 Stacks for each limit (though I will play 100 and 200 for now)
Completed Videos:
-Jason Senti 100 (parts 1-3)
-Alix Martin NLHE to PLO transition (parts 2)
What's Left:
-Alix Martin parts 3-5
You can speed up WMV formats with WMP so I just watch these videos at 1.4X speed to increase my time efficiency.
What I learnt today:
AAXX is 2.6% of hands. Here's the manual calculation in case you are wondering.
52 Choose 4 = 270 XXX (total combinations of PLO hands)
50 Choose 2 = 1225 (How often can one make AcAdXX)
49 Choose 1 + 1 = 50 (We need to discount AAAX and AAAA)
1225-50 = 1175
1175 X 6 = 6845 (number of combos of AAXX)
6845/270XXX = 2.6%
Whole PI crew is getting ito PLO atm as well..
Wish ya best of luck
Solid State PLO w DJSensei is def goood for starters, afterwards MagicNinja and PhilGalfond are the nuts
Originally posted by ZhiCheng
Whole PI crew is getting ito PLO atm as well..
niceeee, bring more holdem fish on 
@ mbml:
the fact that you put much time into theory, getting coached and watching vids, doesn't mean you deserve to win. that's only the minimal precondition/prerequisite. most regular online plrs do that, you have to go the extra mile or even the two extra miles and rly rly be self critical to the max. that also means you have to establish the sickest pro like mindset if you wanna be successful longterm.
I do believe, you are smart enough to get PLO theory down fast enough and be able to beat those 1/2 games you are talking about. However, your mindset - just from what I read in your blog - seems to be far from pro-like. I'm afraid PLO will totally crush your sould/mind midterm.
GL and don't forget to go the extra mile in all aspects of the game.
Originally posted by TwiceT
Originally posted by ZhiCheng
Whole PI crew is getting ito PLO atm as well..niceeee, bring more holdem fish on
@ mbml:
the fact that you put much time into theory, getting coached and watching vids, doesn't mean you deserve to win. that's only the minimal precondition/prerequisite. most regular online plrs do that, you have to go the extra mile or even the two extra miles and rly rly be self critical to the max. that also means you have to establish the sickest pro like mindset if you wanna be successful longterm.I do believe, you are smart enough to get PLO theory down fast enough and be able to beat those 1/2 games you are talking about. However, your mindset - just from what I read in your blog - seems to be far from pro-like. I'm afraid PLO will totally crush your sould/mind midterm.
GL and don't forget to go the extra mile in all aspects of the game.
+1;
i think u have a VERY little selfdiscipline while playing, u NEVER sticked to no.of tables/limits i recommended u to play for more than 2weeks afair. I rly dont know what u re thinking and why u re doing what u re doing, but i am totally sure switching to other game is just a hopeless try to start all over and forget abt all the bad u ve done.
I dont think this is a good attitute whatsoever. U have to be totally selfcritical and just focus on evaluating urself first. The summary of ur posts "i get fucked by NL Stars all the time" seems like ur desperate to avoid personal responsibilty. PLO wont take that burden for u..
+2
I am a mental game/mindset fish just like you, struggling hard with it.
Never had any problems grasping concepts of the game and improve rly fast etc etc ... Put a lot of time into it as well, BUT my mental game plain SUCKS.
So, since my knowledge of the game isn't the problem ... I decided to put all my time mainly on improving the mindset.
It has worked tremendously - I've improved leaps and bounds in work ethic/tilt control etc ... and I STILL suck ... But there's no denying it has helped A LOT - there's just so much work and improving to be done still.
Game wise you might be a midstakes crusher, but mindset wise you're still on the level of NL2 "riggeeeed shit" fish.
Strongly advise you to pick up Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" ... or even better, instead of game coachings, get some mentalgame coaching from him.
None of that "just don't think like that" BS ... genuine logical working methods from a dude that rly knows what he's talking about.
My 2 cents - from one mindset fish to another 
Well I have been self critical for sure. I thought quite deeply about why I was losing.
Luck
This 2 months alone, 6 sessions lost were >-5000 and none were >+5000 (only one close to 5000). I'm pretty sure lifetime I only made more than 5000 in each session about 3 times and probably lost >5k 12-15 times. And probably >30k below EV lifetime.
I've noticed that what goes up usually comes down at some point. But what goes down very often continues plummeting at a sick rate so I often force myself to quit before busto.
Other Factors
Of course, I have to take into consideration run-good (used to be a bit of a problem) and run-bad tilt (letting my aggression get out of control), and the fact that I probably play longer on average when I run bad. And definitely multi-tabling seems to amplify my losses more than it does for my winnings.
However, at the very least, I definitely cannot accept the fact that my poor mindset can cause me to lose huge 4-5 times more often than win huge. I do not have the best mindset but it certainly isn't at a NL2 grinder's level, as staticmoth suggested, obviously way stronger than that.
Bad Style of Play
Lastly, I believe one of the largest factors in why I always experience such stuff is my over-aggression. This style of play not only increases my variance greatly, but also sucks so damn hard if u run bad.
What happens pretty often during bad runs is that I get aggressive in so many spots and I never pick up hands to get paid off later. And yet I still insist on going crazy despite my image.
I should have opted for the more balanced approach. And I should start tightening up as well, which I certainly did according to Somnius' recommendations in recent times.
Lack of Discipline
What TLN said was true for my in-game discipline. I honestly tried a couple of ways to solve my multi-tabling problem such as playing on smaller sites. But games don't run and I often put way too small of a BR on my other accounts so I often play with 5-10 buyins only which almost always makes me go bust. Shitty software and the false promise of a super soft site also makes me give up. I did ask around for softer sites to play, tried 888/Ongame/Merge and all those networks. While the regulars are slightly weaker, the fish pool isn't any greater to be honest. The games are really dry and most tables only have one fish even at sites with sports booking. This is why I always go back to Stars.
And when you are on Stars, and see a million games running, I think it's impossible to resist the urge to open a bunch of tables, unless you play 5/10 and there are only 4 tables. This was partially the reason why I wanted to move up to 5/10 so badly.
I am not too great with making myself play regular hours as well, which I will try to change in 2012. And I will try to cut my sleeping hours, I'm way too used to sleeping 8-9 hours these days, unlike high sch/army when I usually sleep 6 hours since I burn my entire day away from home and need a couple of hours to use the computer.
One more thing is that I get really discouraged by losses and I usually don't feel like analyzing hands after heavy losses and long sessions, even though these situations are probably the most important to do so.
Summary
-Overly aggro style causes high variance
-Breakeven mindset fucks with my head all the time
-NLHE tables make me feel depressed, whenever I only get to play one reg fish and 4 regs
-PLO variance is higher but winrates can certainly be larger. Those who refuse to switch to PLO are afraid/lazy of learning a new game, and I have been for a long time. Jungleman and Isildur, the 2 best holdem players in the world were forced to transit. All the main bluefire coaches except samoleus play PLO instead of NLHE. And that's because he's an old man. pretty sure he would switch too if he were younger.
-A new start should help me curb my over aggressive ways. I think having some equity and having blockers should enable me to reduce my bluff frequency. I am way too used to having super skewed ranges in Holdem, especially preflop
-I cannot see myself ever playing NL200 again, it really feels like taking a step backwards over and over again. If my bankroll didn't drop below 16k I might have considered just banning myself from 3/6 and 5/10 but I definitely don't want to play 2/4 with 30 buyins and donk it all away.
-PLO rakes more, so if I can get to midstakes, I can cut my tables to 8 and still aim for SNE.
Graph since Aug 25 2011 on Pokerstars, down another 3k on other sites
Enough of my rant, now thinking of some more video series to watch.
Today:
Alix Martin PLO for Holdem Players parts 3-5
Little bastard Playing OOP, Playing IP defensively
I will probably dig out some TT SSNL vids and find some other stuff.
Note: Anyone has Deucescracked account to trade (since i Need some magicninja)? I have Pokerphenoms (old pokernews strategy), which has some great PLO vids from littlebastard
That was a terrible post imo Galvin. One of your nut biggest problems is playing 3/6 5/10 when u arn't crushing 2/4 yet, esp moving up to 5/10, if u runbad or playbad here at all (even if the games are super bad) its going to abs crush ur roll/confidence/mindset.
Theres nothing wrong with going back to 200 for a bit, you had a good w/r there, you're capable of putting in good volume too. Why not just play 200 for a bit, build your roll build your confidence, this time next month ull probs be back at 2/4.
Then stop being completely undisciplined and just grind 2/4 until you absolutely fking crush, then take 3/6 abs fucking crush, then u can work on 5/10.
All you do is keep setting yourself up to lose, you have no structure or plan.
One biggest floor is mindset, and you're not going to solve that by playing out of your comfort zone all the time at stakes that crush ur soul if u run bad/play bad.
Going to PLO might just make u totally quit poker tbh, because if you run/play bad there you're gonna get crushed and honestly, it's going to crush you as a person.
I don't see anything wrong with going back to what you do best, shipping some decent $$, moving up improving, repeating and seeing yourself as a 5/10 reg next summer?
GL anyway
Originally posted by mbml
Luck
This 2 months alone, 6 sessions lost were >-5000 and none were >+5000 (only one close to 5000). I'm pretty sure lifetime I only made more than 5000 in each session about 3 times and probably lost >5k 12-15 times. And probably >30k below EV lifetime.
I've noticed that what goes up usually comes down at some point. But what goes down very often continues plummeting at a sick rate so I often force myself to quit before busto.
I've found that if among your big winning and your big losing sessions, the losing sessions seem infinately bigger in size, it is fairly likely that the problem doesnt lie with the losing sessions being more unlucky than the winning ones being lucky, but perhaps rather has something to do with the quality of play in big losing versus big winning sessions 
Best of luck with your new adventures though!
What would happen if you capped your losing sessions at your average winning sessions?
hey good luck, i'm learning PLO too. good fish pool, like 1 guy call me down with pure Khi no draw on 3bet pot on turn and river. still i dropped 10BI in 1k hands that day so prepare for that sick variance.
@ holdem: i think the overly aggressive strategies worked really well in small stakes but at 2/4 i felt i got owned abit when i kept getting called with weak ranges.
'And when you are on Stars, and see a million games running, I think it's impossible to resist the urge to open a bunch of tables'
wow, that's pretty interesting. i wasn't aware that some players have this problem, a kind of irresistable urge to open more tables.
also, rofl @ saying isildur and jungle were forced into switching to PLO. jungle could absolutely still make an insanely high hourly playing HUNL, and PLO was for a long time Isildur's gambling problem or, if you would permit me, Isildur's Bane. At the beginning of his ftp run in late 2009 he crushed everyone at NLHU, then as he moved up he started to get bored of NL and top players would refuse him at NL and insist on PLO, but he didn't mind playing PLO despite being terrible at it compared to NL.