How many here turned to IM after poker's Black Friday?

[jstover77]

I used to love playing poker (online, backroom). It took me a long time to realize how bad I was at the game though. I probably lost around $50K in 2-3 years before I quit playing. It's like that saying in Rounders, "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker". I was certainly the sucker and unfortunately it took me a few years to realize it.

 

[Zaino]

I spent three weeks in 2005 turning $50 into $800 and then losing it all in an hour. I felt pretty fucking dumb.

Which part made you feel dumb? That you spent 3 weeks to churn out $800 or that you lost it all quickly....

 

[Loafy]

Black Friday, April 15th, 2010. Never forget it. I was in the publix shopping when my buddy (an online pro/reg tourney grinder) called me up panicked as hell and told me what was going on.

I wasn't a pro player but had been a poker affiliate since 2003. I was one of full tilt's first aff's ever and had thousands of players there raking away under me (no rakeback either). Was gravvvvvy. Gone in an instant, across multiple rooms. Yeah, I remember that moment pretty clearly. Like you all remember where you were when you first heard about 911, many of us all remember where we were when we first heard about Black Friday.

I shoulda took the CPA instead of rev share. Lessons learned.

 

[CallOnMe]

He was referring to the sick swings of poker in general, especially when grinding tournaments.

You can have a hot streak, such as winning 3 tournaments in a week, and then go on a month long dry spell with no good finishes.

If a hot streak is winning 3 large tournaments in a week, and this is extremely common i have to start to play online

 

[maybenot]

If a hot streak is winning 3 large tournaments in a week, and this is extremely common i have to start to play online

You have to remember that often those winning 3 tournaments a week are playing lots of tournaments at once at any given time of the day, and play hundreds a week easily.

After some moderate tourney wins in my spare time, I played poker full time for just a month. I barely made any profit and came out with a stress level that had me snapping like a rabid piranha. Couldn't face carrying on after that and dropped it completely.

 

[transistor]

Which part made you feel dumb? That you spent 3 weeks to churn out $800 or that you lost it all quickly....

That was back when I was in college. It was just something I did in between classes.

 

[Michael_]

I play live, much more fun
mainly cash game 5 10

How can you say winning 3 tournaments in a week is "extremly common"?

Maybe you mean sits

When you're playing 60-100 tournaments a week, it's pretty common. Not hard when you're playing 12+ tables at a time. But, even with that same volume, it's also pretty common to not win shit for a month+. Variance is brutal.

 

[CallOnMe]

When you're playing 60-100 tournaments a week, it's pretty common. Not hard when you're playing 12+ tables at a time. But, even with that same volume, it's also pretty common to not win shit for a month+. Variance is brutal.

i'm a full time cash player i know about variance

but man are you crazy, is pretty common to win 3% of the tournaments?

and anyway to play 100 tournaments a week is not that easy believe me either multitabling i don't know what you mean for large tournaments but some tournaments like the sunday special here last 2 days.

i actually play sometimes tournaments on italian stars this is my graph

yea i won one...in a year

let me see your graph on sharkscope with this 3 tournaments a week and i believe you

 

[dmnEPC]

yea i won one...in a year

let me see your graph on sharkscope with this 3 tournaments a week and i believe you

Shit just got real.

 

[rusvik]

I played poker and tried to get a poker bot developed at the height of the bonus whoring days. I had nowhere near enough emotional control though, massive tilting sessions. I do remember fondly the few months I had when I was banking on the $400 crypto Omaha pl tables, what a ride. Down $1K on one hand up $1.5 on the next. Great stuff.

 

[Scococo]

I've got a pretty similar story. Paid my way through University playing poker then switched to it full time for a year once I graduated.

I only played cash games, usually 8-tabeling 0.25/0.50 NL on Pokerstars. From that I brought in a pretty stable income, usually up 4 days out of 5.

However, the games got so much tougher with the US players disappeared, coupled with the grind really becoming a grind, I quit it totally and started up a coffee business.

 

[Chupin]

I bonus whored for 2 years through college for spare cash. I was by no means good at poker, followed a very strict call/fold chart and just multi-table grinded. Worked out to about $20.00 an hour which was way better than any job I could have got at the time.

 

[Michael_]

i'm a full time cash player i know about variance

but man are you crazy, is pretty common to win 3% of the tournaments?

and anyway to play 100 tournaments a week is not that easy believe me either multitabling i don't know what you mean for large tournaments but some tournaments like the sunday special here last 2 days.

i actually play sometimes tournaments on italian stars this is my graph

yea i won one...in a year

let me see your graph on sharkscope with this 3 tournaments a week and i believe you

Any tournament grinder will tell you, 700 tournaments in one year is absolutely laughable volume. Tournament variance is insanely higher than cash games, and the two really aren't comparable.

Look over the biggest volume tournament players on stars or tilt, 15% ITM is super common with around 5% FT and 1-3% wins.

Naturally, due to the variance of tournament poker, you're not going to win 3 tournaments every single week, which is why, in my OP, I specifically said...

Extremely common to win 3 "large" tournaments a week, each with a $5k to $10k+ first prize and then do not-shit for weeks after.

Which is saying, that it was common to go on heaters and long dry spells. Any tournament player who isn't an idiot will agree. If you wanna call bullshit on me, please do so after logging a respectable 3500-5000 tournaments a year like a normal online grinder. Also, if you suck, volume doesn't help - which, your -ROI over 700 games suggests you need to work on your tournament game. Variance is one thing, but no winning tournament player will have neg ROI over 700 tournaments.

 

[Michael_]

 

[onqdirector]

/signed.
Variance in poker is more of a bitch than G's SERPs.
.

Except I run way better in the SERPs lol...

 

[CallOnMe]

Come on this is really childish.. I don t even know where to start to comment

 

[CallOnMe]

Any tournament grinder will tell you, 700 tournaments in one year is absolutely laughable volume. Tournament variance is insanely higher than cash games, and the two really aren't comparable.

Look over the biggest volume tournament players on stars or tilt, 15% ITM is super common with around 5% FT and 1-3% wins.

Naturally, due to the variance of tournament poker, you're not going to win 3 tournaments every single week, which is why, in my OP, I specifically said...

Which is saying, that it was common to go on heaters and long dry spells. Any tournament player who isn't an idiot will agree. If you wanna call bullshit on me, please do so after logging a respectable 3500-5000 tournaments a year like a normal online grinder. Also, if you suck, volume doesn't help - which, your -ROI over 700 games suggests you need to work on your tournament game. Variance is one thing, but no winning tournament player will have neg ROI over 700 tournaments.

i'm not a online grinder, i play tournaments online for fun when i'm at home in the evening on my ipad or either on the iphone sometimes while playn at casino i don't even use any hud like poker tracker or holdem manager.

that's why "only" 700 tournaments in a year (many of them are hu s&g aniway as you can check on sharkscope)

but if you actually start to play for real you realize that is not easy to win a tournament after 700.

variance in tournaments is much higher than what you think.

I don't want to comment everything you wrote but let me say is very dumb to fake to be a tournaments player online. why? because there is sharkscope

You can't either fake to be a pro cash player probably

If you want to have fun you can post your first post on 2+2

 

[CallOnMe]

i know how to use firebug or photoshop too

and yes i know, faking the graph part is long work (i tried with a google analytics screenshot one time, gave up after 10 mins)

 

[ShadowCaster]

Uh-oh, is someone about to pull a Kani?

 

[Michael_]

i know how to use firebug or photoshop too

and yes i know, faking the graph part is long work (i tried with a google analytics screenshot one time, gave up after 10 mins)

Because you're bad at the game you think I'm faking having played online poker? lol. Bored much, bro?

There's plenty of people who absolutely blow my stats out of the fucking water. Your mentality is ultra-typical of someone who's purely recreational and spends a lot of time losing. Instead of blaming their lack of skill, they say "it's rigged, these guys cheat, these guys are lying, blah blah."

Anyway, this thread isn't about how bad you are at poker, I was just curious to see who else in WF was crushing the games before black friday, this obviously excludes you from the conversation.

variance in tournaments is much higher than what you think.

I don't want to comment everything you wrote but let me say is very dumb to fake to be a tournaments player online. why? because there is sharkscope

I've apparently logged 8000 more tournaments than you, so I'm clear on the variance of them. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Here you go, bro: