This week I tracked 31 players - 19 showed profit, 5 had losses and 7 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$161,500, losers for ~$76,000. Jack "jackstack99/aisixer3jk" Ketendjianplayed biggest sample - 1029 games.
OLD TIME GIN Won The Most (+$57,107 after 427 games)
Richard "chadders0" Chadwick won $31,874 after 554 games
Interview with 307th
Charles Hawk: How did you discover poker?
307th: My older brother started playing online poker before me, he made some money although didn't go full-time.
Charles Hawk: How long did it take to discover husngs and to play them regularly?
307th: I discovered them pretty fast. I first started playing poker in late 2010, I started with pokerstrategy.com with their free $50 plus $50 of my own. I tried a bunch of different formats, husngs being one of them. I ran good and got up to around $2.5k ish bankroll in total, then black friday happened - most of my roll was on fulltilt, so I didn't see it for a while.
After that, I did try to play poker on PokerStars for a little bit, but it didn't go well. I was in university at the time and I strongly disliked it, so I was hoping poker would become a way of making a living without having to get a degree. But I approached it badly. This will sound stupid, but I didn't understand how to improve at things at that time - I thought you learned the ropes, played a bit, and then you just had to hope that you somehow became good. I didn't believe that "hard work" was a way of getting better.
This week I tracked 16 players - 6 showed profit and 10 had losses. Winners combined for about ~$137,000, losers for about ~$100,000. Joshua "slayerv1fan" Hoeselplayed biggest sample - 5634 games.
wtfgmon Won The Most
This week I tracked 31 players - 12 showed profit, 9 had losses and 10 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$79,000, losers for ~$85,000. "azn-ra"played biggest sample - 1054 games.
Eric2441989 Won The Most (+$19,289 after 43 games)
adamc1988 won $18,003 after 669 games
Interview with 307th (part 2)
Charles Hawk:You are currently shot taking 1ks, and basically never settled at one stake for very long. If you are able to get into 1ks what would come next? Would it be time to focus on playing more fish, or maybe time to move on to the next challenge?
307th: I think it'll be a good time to focus on playing fish for a while at least. Moving up any further would require learning a different format, which makes it more work than moving up in hypers. I'll probably learn turbos and hu cash at some point though.
Charles Hawk:Do you think the top 5 of the 100-300 regs could beat the bottom 5 of 500-1000 regs (In EV over a large enough sample)?
307th: Yes, definitely. There is correlation with skill in moving up but there are other factors too, so the top players at 100s-300s will always be better than the worst players at 500s+ IMO. The gap between the best 100-300s players and the worst 500s+ isn't as big as it used to be though, a lot of the worst guys at 500s+ have dropped out.
Charles Hawk:What are your thoughts on husng traffic declining over the last year? What are your predictions or the state of the game in a year from now?
Charles Hawk: In which division are you in at the moment?
307th: 300s division, they have a rule you can qualify with EV results from battling against higher divisions, so I automatically qualified.
Charles Hawk: How long have you battled 1ks? What was your first impression of the field when you started your shots? How has it changed over time?
307th: I've been battling since April. My first impression was that it wasn't that much harder than 200s, since there were players with leaks similar to what I saw at 200s, but as I played more I realized that it was harder than I first thought because the players were overall quite a lot better postflop at the things that aren't obvious from looking at a HUD.
Comparing today to when I started, it's not a big difference, but people have gotten better and some of the weaker players have stopped playing. I've gotten better too, so I'm not worried about it.
Charles Hawk: Any differences with shot-taking 1ks compared with other levels? Were there any aspects that you didn't expect to face?
This week I tracked 29 players - 15 showed profit, 6 had losses and 8 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$84,500, losers for ~$27,000. "azn-ra"played biggest sample - 864 games.
adamc1988 Won The Most (+$25,775 after 577 games)
mavrickkk won $12,478 after 655 games
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Interview with Gabriel 'gabry_00' Vlad
Introduction:
Hey my name is Gabriel, i'm 27 year old, i'm from Romania and i live in Bucharest. I have a bachelor's degree in manufacture engineering technology
and a master degree in economics engineering and bussiness management and I''m playing poker for a living.
Beside playing poker I like traveling, playing soccer, playing FIFA on playstation, I watch a lot of soccer matches on tv, going out drink, dance and have a really good time with my friends.
Charles Hawk: How did you start playing poker profesionally?
This week I tracked 29 players - 12 showed profit, 10 had losses and 7 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$56,000, losers for ~$72,000. "adamc1988"played biggest sample - 955 games.
mavrickkk Won The Most (+$17,269 after 942 games)
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This week I tracked 30 players - 14 showed profit, 9 had losses and 7 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$94,500, losers for ~$52,000. "azn-ra"played biggest sample - 1099 games.
307th Won The Most (+$33,305 after 679 games)
adamc1988 won $28,269 after 999 games
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Charles Hawk: Could you write me a short follow-up? What are you up to recently (previous interviews: CLICK HERE and HERE)? What changed since we last talked?
Daniel "Pl@yerABC" Sklar: Five years ago I left my 9 to 5 job behind and started playing poker professionally. Nowadays I am really happy with that decision. No, I haven't got rich and I haven't won any big tournament and lately I had the chance to experience what the word downswing really means. So why am I happy? Poker EV-line certainly doesn't tell the whole story. I try to maximize my life-EV and I feel I am doing OK in that respect.
So quickly looking back over that five year period: I have been the breadwinner (it's nice english word to use if you gamble to earn the money that the family needs). I have been my own boss, really enjoying playing poker, having enough time to spend with my family and friends.
I really like quotes - why reinvent the wheel if somebody already expressed some idea well? So here it goes:
"The worst days of those who enjoy what they do are better than the best days of those who don't." ( Jim Rohn)
OK, I have to remind myself that you asked me to write SHORT :-) follow up to our latest interview.
Part I
How did you get into poker?
Back in the day I played with a bunch of my friends from back home, and we had house games with $20 buy-ins, just sit and gos. My brother was always big on poker for whatever reason. That’s how I first started playing, but then I stopped playing and started playing again, and again I stopped playing and started playing. Then, after awhile, I had a good month playing online, and I just never looked back from there.
How long ago did you start playing poker?
It must have been about 12 or 13 years ago that I started playing those sit and gos with my friends.
So you’ve been playing poker for a while now. When did you start playing online? Probably when I was around 18 or 19 years old. I played for a little while, lost some money, stopped playing, lost more money, stopped playing again. I started playing seriously, professionally—let me see, well I’m 28 now, so when I was 22, I think, or 21.
You said you grew up in New York?
Yeah. Now I live in Canada. After New York I went to Toronto, Montreal, Mexico, Costa Rica, Montreal, and now Toronto again.
One Man Tries to Forge a New Identity in Life Against an Untested but Trained Opponent
We caught up with Olivier Busquet, aka livb112 aka adonis112, about his upcoming MMA fight with JC Alvarado.
The popular conversation topic today in the poker world was that Olivier Busquet had officially come to terms with JC Alvarado to compete in a MMA fight sometime this spring (April 2016 is the target). Olivier's 120k versus JC's 150k is on the line, more than a majority of big name MMA fighters make in a single fight.
HUSNG: How did you get interested in MMA?
Olivier: I've always wanted to learn how to fight.
HUSNG: How long have you been training for?
Olivier: I started training for this bet. I had no prior training.
HUSNG: What do you know about your opponent?
Olivier: I know that he's had about 50 kickboxing classes, is a white/blue belt in BJJ and has a real passion for MMA.
HUSNG: It's rare, but not unheard of, for people die in mma or kickboxing. 1-2 times a year it seems. More frequently there are fighters that suffer permanent brain injuries from their profession. Do you have any fears stepping into the ring and engaging in a sport this violent with another trained individual?
This week I tracked 26 players - 10 showed profit, 11 had losses and 5 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$53,000, losers for ~$94,000. "azn-ra"played biggest sample - 905 games.
adamc1988 Won The Most (+$22,896 after 769 games)
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majcy won $4,416 after 374 games; Dmitriy "JustNoPain" Ivanovwon $4,115 after 47 games; JstAplayer93 won $3,858 after 408 games; Ziroto won $3,691 after 503 games; Ryan "Moca Choca89" O'Donnell won $3,591 after 457 games; WhatIsICM won $3,349 after 154 games; spiritedreal won $2,323 after 385 games; azn-ra won $2,273 after 905 games; Ut Prosim won $2,187 after 328 games.
Charles Hawk: You wrote to me in a previous interview (in April) that Spins are more fun for you than husngs. Do you feel the same today? If action would be equal, why would you choose spins over husngs?
This week I tracked 30 players - 15 showed profit, 6 had losses and 9 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$90,500, losers for ~$68,500. "mavrickkk"played biggest sample - 1204 games.
spiritedreal Won The Most
Charles Hawk: Did you have any specific goals for 2015? If yes, what were they? Are you happy with your performance so far?
adamc1988: My goals changed a lot from the start of the year to mid way through the year, but I guess the consistent goal was to move up the stakes. I started the year as a 300s reg so to have been accepted into $1ks by September, I would have certainly took that in January. Overall I would say I was satisfied with my performance so far, but it's certainly not the time for pats on the back as the work never stops and there are still plenty of areas I want to improve on.
Charles Hawk: How many VPPs have you earned this year? Are you chasing any milestone yet? Are you planning to grind alot next month?
adamc1988: I have about 1.3m VPPs, I'll comfortably get 1.5m and don't have any goals to push for any more. I'll be grinding a similar amount to usual for the rest of the year.
Charles Hawk: What are you predictions for 2016 a) for online poker (especially for husngs and spins) and b) rakeback at PokerStars? Do you think amaya could reduce rewards or change whole VIP club system?
Our first ever poker camp came to an end in October. It was a blast! With over a dozen players flying in from ten different countries, it was a lively and fun experience.
The location:
At about 9500 feet (2900 Meters) above sea level, nestled in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the location was excellent.
Some of the participants, in order top to bottom: Adam AKA Coffeeyay, Evan AKA Gripsed (from www.gripsed.com), Kevin, Aljaz, Knut, Ryan AKA Chicagory, Raph and Marius
Comments about PS rakeback changes in 2016:
Spencer Moe (360flip19): I remember being intrieged by the high stakes action and hearing about people having elite status. This is what attracted me to poker and got me into playing. I can only speak for myself, but if I didn't think there was a chance I could profitably move up in stakes and potentially play this game for a living then I never would have started. I started playing for fun with my friends. But we all had a dream of playing high stakes one day. It seems like that dream is dead for anyone starting out.
Anonymous: I think Amaya is taking a big risk as I don't see these changes to be sustainable for the poker economy. I'm also surprised by the timing, Isildur is proving once again its possible to go for millions upswings like in 2007 :) These changes are just gonna kill any high stakes cash game action which was getting much better lately. I also think it's gonna be impossible and stupid to try to climb heads-up divisions which is extremely unfair, the same regs will stay in place basically for ever. Finally, as action between regs will almost disappear all the focus will be put on fishes, specific strategies vs fishes will become more common and they will just get crushed faster than ever.
This week I tracked 30 players - 12 showed profit, 8 had losses and 10 were break-even. Winners combined for about ~$69,000, losers for ~$80,000. "azn-ra"played biggest sample - 1053 games.
307th Won The Most (+$15,782 after 714 games)
majcy won $15,569 after 1002 games
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