That makes as much sense as the success of that show. I think its trying to make a deep point about the importance of the actions you choose to take even in the face a relentless and unyielding world. Like if all you are doing is shouting into the storm, you might as well shout nice things. My logical mind though just says that's logical fallacy. To replace the key statements in that construct for example.

If no supermodels want to blow me, then all those who want to blow me are supermodels.

Or something.

Not sure which I understand least, this or poker game strategy, oh wait, I do ...

There is no spoon.........

20k hands in and down 20BI now. I had a good session today and played my absolute best for a big chunk of it. Still lost though. Not much by my recent standards but got TPTK vs 2 pair in 3bet pot, and missed a lot of draws after raising flop and losing 30-60bb. I did hit one FD with JTs he had called my raise on the flop with the A5s so that sucked as well.

I looked my play vs Cbets for my training for the day. Especially on the river where the big pots live and I'm overfolding statswise. The sad thing is I'm overfolding in theory (although in practice as people don't bluff the river wide enough I think it might actually be ok to make some of the folds I do) and still rarely winning one.

I'm happy that the calls are OK and folding sets, trips and top 2 is not going to be good most of the time. I'd just like him to have a bare TPTK once in a while when I get barrelled into on an Axxxx runout!

Glad to have had a day where I felt good the whole way despite the loss and stayed on my game. I think the last few days there have been some tilty moments creeping in. As always, and even more so when losing all the time, tilt for me looks like not betting when capped range checks to me, or not calling a 3bet IP with AJs because they always have AA or 4bet folding AKs. That last one was especially bad. I don't normally ever 4bet AK. 3bet it loads, 5bet it a ton but not 4bet.

Called in the big guns for your review: @w34z3l will have this made on Monday! If there are any spots you want him to focus on or just discuss more about fire them in here for him!

I don't know. This is my sharpest ever downswing so really its a basic sense check of is my game totally gone to shit and I just can't see it. Is there a major tilt issue that is more disguised from my previous depression lead versions.

I'll post my stats up in here later so Adam has my overall stats to reference back against any plays he sees that look stupid.

So we have reached the end of my time on Party Poker. After doing the review and refocussing on population reads about how tight people were I turned up the aggression and managed to run pretty stable from there until the end. Once nearly there I realised that I was not going to continue beyond 30k I did go into overfold mode just to get it done so I could stop. I did not run well at all.

It was interesting. I think my game came on quite a lot, especially exploiting tight players and keeping it simple. Mental game wise it was not fantastic. Zoom was OK to me and the coping with the run bad was pretty decent I thought. I made a few really bad calls though and I got very tilted about a couple of them. More so than in a long time so the old beast of self attack is not gone he's just better under control.

The main issue is I don't enjoy the grind. I'll not be doing volume challenges again, I'll not be worrying about rake races again. I was playing hard trying to hit it and it stopped me quitting when I was down so thats helpful but the effect on IRL mental state was noticable. As I always do no matter how well or bad I play on whatever stakes or game types, in the long run I broke even. I got the bonus and a deposit bonus, and some free tickets and binked a couple so all fine.

Theoretically I should continue. Thousands of hands on Stars and the last half of this challenge suggest that I would break even on the table and make some money but its not worth the stress for such a small amount of money. That first half of the challenge was no joke.

Yeh I tried to do the challenge and was just mind numbingly bored after the first hour but committed another 10 to it just to try and the da man! Sadly heart is not in it anymore when it comes to challenges. Would rather 1-3 table fish on softer sites

You want to 1 table fish? I'm playing on the Casual tables on Party right now. Worst standard of play ever (including by me as I can't adjust to a table of 60/0, 48/0, 86/22, 6/0, 22/7). Its absolutely staggering. Makes Unibet or Sky look super solid.

Just got AKs in pre 3 way and lost to this action.

UTG limps, MP calls, BTN calls, SB completes. Me in BB Iso's big. UTG flats. Short stack in MP jams for 30bb, I rejam my AKs and the UTG calls for 100bb.

No help for me and I come third to 66 from UTG and J8o from MP that paired the flop.

Sounds like a home game!

Truth is I'm not even sure if AK is worth an iso in that particular spot, there's obviously nearly zero fold equity and we'll be oop with A high and miss about 2/3 of the time anyway. Maybe AKs is ok but I wouldn't be super excited.
I am able, willing and most generally in need of correction, naturally; just a thought is all and I'm rubbish in those types of games as is patently apparent ...
... and I am a tightwad after all.

Sounds like a home game!

Truth is I'm not even sure if AK is worth an iso in that particular spot, there's obviously nearly zero fold equity and we'll be oop with A high and miss about 2/3 of the time anyway. Maybe AKs is ok but I wouldn't be super excited.
I am able, willing and most generally in need of correction, naturally; just a thought is all and I'm rubbish in those types of games as is patently apparent ...
... and I am a tightwad after all.

Playing out a few missions on Party Poker now, all the new account ones now I'm not doing the Summer of Grind anymore. As part of this I've had to play a few hundred more hands of FastForward which is still impossible for someone of my skill level. I'm not sure any NL10 reg can succeed in those games vs the rake. Do better than me, sure but not win at a decent rate. Higher limit crushers coming there just for the bonus I guess could do OK but its just such a cooler fest.

I'm also still playing the casual games, which aside from being super slow are also insanely soft. Loons, fish of all passive descriptions all there. I'm winning there at 40bb/100 without even running well or playing especially well. I'm not sure how much of an edge I have but for the first time in my poker career I think some of the time I'm the best player on the table. That is a novel experience.

Watched 'Missisipi Grind' last night. If you've not seen it, its an excellent Poker/gambling movie. Really enjoyed it.

Can't really be arsed with poker just at the moment. I'm playing Madden and Batman games in my evenings. Not sure why that combination, its just what I feel like doing!

For soft sites we have the site of all sites coming to VIP very soon.....played on it this weekend and will be going live soon with videos etc. I am honestly mind blown by it and it is exactly what we have been waiting for - THE CHINA BOOM

The China boooooooooom???!!!

Wasn't there a issue with ridiculous rake in Asian networks? I did a bit research on them like 6 months ago, and that's what comes up to my mind.

Crazy rake, and a country with complete disregard for peoples rights, money and intellectual property. What can go wrong?

In all seriousness if someone could deal with the second part with out having to take crazy rake to manage the risks there would be cash money to be made from getting a new pool of terrible players to spaff their money away. The Chinese middle classes could kickstart the poker economy again.

Regarding the crazy rake, I remember that playing on small Italian rooms on Enet network back in a day was fairly profitable despite the outrageously high rake simply because the skill level of an average player was very low and the games were super good. There were some security concerns, but if you used services of good affiliate (and PokerVIP is arguably one of the best in business) and played on the less shady skins you were in for some solid profit. I can imagine the story with this Chinese poker room being fairly similar though as always it's best to make a decision once you gather sufficient info.

Interesting. Shortstack play only, with basically no cap for the micro limits. NL50 specifically looks pretty decent though. Then higher limits looks pretty high as well.