… I posted a vid of a kid last week. This might be a bit weird, but here we go again. I’m not a freak when it comes to kids, not in any way. But I randomly got this link via msn messenger, and this kid is awesome. Enjoy.

I tried my best. I fought hard.

But it was all in vain. I’m having a badass cold.

Click it to 13:37 if you wan’t to see my few seconds in the spotlight =)

Poker is a tough game to beat. It’s not 2007 anymore, and you have to stay on top of things if you wan’t to be a consistent winner. You have to squeeze out every last bit of edge you can muster up. Is there anything you can do better than your opponents? -Do it. One good example is the fact that you make money out of downswings. Not litterally, but the point is that downswings happen to everyone. Handle them better than your opponenets and you come out on top. It’s as simple as that.

Since I’m a psychology nerd I’ve read some books on poker psychology. One part that really got to me is Tommy Angelo’s theory about “The Professional”. Basically, The professional is someone who always behaves, plays and acts perfectly towards maximizing his profits. Tommy then proceeds to use this made up character to drive through points about how to live your life as a poker player. The professional never tilts. The professional never plays drunk. The professional keeps a healthy diet. The professional work out. The professional would never berate a fish. The professional puts in the volume required, and he does his homework.

Be The Professional and you will win.

It’s mornings like this that makes me question why the hell I try to combine poker and school. I dreamt something about vampires (and I kind of like vampires), but I had to snap out of it when the alarm buzzer rang. “Fuck my life if this is the alarm. I just fell asleep”. It was the alarm, and I had to get up.

I also just read that long term sleep deprivation caused death to lab animals. Great. Just great.

I’m one of those guys who always tries to karatekick-close the refrigirator when it’s open. I’m also the guy who sings way to loud in the car/shower, kick around too much when I sleep and snore when I’m having a cold. Doing trickshots with trash into the trashcan is one of my few talens.

But Whatever. Im genuinly happy!

Freaky son of a bitch. I think I like him.

Stuff like this actually disturb me on a couple of different levels. First, dogs are not supposed to dance. People dance. Not dogs. They might chew on your shoe or beg for food, but that’s about it. I know they are smart animals and all. But dance? Come on.

Seriously, who teaches their friggin’ dog to do a whole dance? That might be the most disturbing part, the effort he must have put into it. I wonder whether this guy’s relationship to his dog can be classified as healthy or not. Hint: the dress.

If that guy put all that effort into solving shortstack NL or something, we would be in some serious trouble.

Creds to maneggs.com for creating this fine piece of art.

August was actually pretty decent.  First, we did China for 4 weeks. China is awesome. Like, really awesome. Put it on your to-do-list and go there one day. You will not regret it.

Being a pokerplayer in August wasn’t all that bad either. As some of you alredy know, July was my worst month ever. In August i managed to repair some of the damage, but I’m still a couple of buyins away from all time high.

Actually, that was a lie. I’m like 30 buyins from all time high. But hey, who’s counting? The important thing to remember is that I bounced back a little, and that felt awesome.

I’ve also been trying to learn heads up NL with some mixed results. I’m still trying to figure out some preflop problematics, but I think I’m settling with min-raising 100% of my buttons as my standard strategy. Of course, I will adapt vs some random fish or whatever, but that’s what I start out with. There are many benefits with minraising, but the main ones are that it makes your defense against 3bets a whole lot easier (since it’s not as expensive to call, you implicit odds goes up aswell as the value of position. This will help you defend enough of your button raises without making your calls -EV). The second thing is that it forces your opponents to start calling a whole lot more out of position, which some people are really uncomfortable with. Getting people out of there comfort zones can do quite amazing things, especially if you start running good aswell.

Another way of putting together a preflop game might be raising slightly less than 100% of your buttons, but with a bigger size; like 3x. That’s the standard way of playing it I guess, or at least the “old” way. Many from the old guard still opens to 3x, but in my opinion that might be a leak since it makes it so much easier for the big blind to defend with 3bets (If you have trouble grasping this concept, think about how big the 3bets actually get with 2x- and 3xraises and what that does with to your calling/4betting ranges, your implicit/direct odds etc). Just thinking about random stuff like that can actually really improve your game, especially if you lack some theoretical knowledge.

All in all, I think I’m getting a feel for the whole concept of Heads up Poker. It’s quite fun since you play such wide ranges all the time. Makes room for some fun psychological games aswell as valuebetting super light and really owning people. Or getting your ass crushed, but shit happens.

I’d like to stick my head out there and recommending some videos aswell. I’ve actually been able to learn a lot from theese, even though I generally think personal coaching works better. The vids I’m talking about are Phil Galfond’s Philisophy series on bluefirepoker. Go check them out, they will probably do wonders for your handreading and open up your mind a bit. Paying the initial sign-up fee might be a bit expensive for some lower stakes players, but if you try to see the long term profits – it can easily be justified. Galfond is one of the best players alive, and he was the only one Durr said he wouldn’t play in  the Durr-Challenge.

I’m continuing with some heads up this month, and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Any recomendations on stuff to read/watch? Here’s my favorite grind-song atm. I can’t seem to get enough of it. Enjoy and take care,

WalmartBrat