Goodbye twenties.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but back in 2008 I added a gadget to this blog called “time left until goal” which has a countdown until midnight tonight. Tomorrow, September 8th, I celebrate my 30th birthday and I had a disillusioned dream of being financially free from playing poker. With 1 hour to go I’m sad to say that this won’t be the case. So is this the end? Of course not, it’s just another chapter.

This will be a long post so I’ll be breaking it up into categories. As per usual this is a personal post so don’t expect and professional writing in it, I’m just gonna pout it out like I always do here.

Achievements over the past 2 years.

Well I never had that big score, but I feel I’ve had some damn nice success. In hindsight my best time was when I was a reg in the $16 9player SnG’s. I was beating these games for a little over 7% after 1,000 games. Now I know what any reg will say here (lol, sample size) but nevertheless considering this was done 4tabling I feel it was pretty damn impressive.

I’ve never really had any solid success at cash but cash games is really something I never studied or applied myself to like I didn’t SnGs. A cash game for me was more trying to double my buy-in then GTFO.

As far as MTTs are concerned, as mentioned I can’t brag about anything to big as I really never played anything over an $11 game. My best run was coming 159th out of 18,875 players which was in event #1 at the MiniFTOPS XVI. I’ve one win at the smallest tournament ion PokerStars, yes the 10c 360 player, had a few final tables at games from $2.20-$5.50 but nothing massive. GG Custo!


My faults and downfalls.

If I had to be brutally honest with myself, and I’m sure my friends will agree with this and possibly add more, I’d say I change my strategy WAY TO MUCH. I’ve had tendencies to try to re-invent the wheel the second something goes wrong or I start losing. “Oh, I’ve just lost 10 buy-ins at SnGs so I better go to cash”. “Opps I just lost money at cash so I’ll try double or nothing’s” “Wow double or nothings are poisoned with Chinese bots so I’ll go play super turbos” over and over and over again. I just can’t seem to stick to one format and learn to dominate it, which I am capable of if I just apply myself.

No more shot taking.

This isn’t as much as a permanent problem more just a recent problem. For the past maybe 3-4 months I’ve literally done almost everything a poker player can do. I have:
40tabled $1 DoNs
30tabled $5 DoNs
16tabled $10 DoNs
Single tabled $20 DoNs
16 tables 1c/2c NLHE
Single tabled $2/$4
Played all forms of Mtts from freerolls up to $100s

You name it I’ve done it and all this was done with a BR varying between $50 & $500. I’ve had multiple times where I’ve had my entire BR on a single table. Smart moves yeah?

The dumbest thing I ever did.

Well at least this isn’t poker related but it tells a good story.

When I was playing exclusively at Titan Poker I feel into the trap of being addicted to blackjack! (Yes, that bloody little icon on the bottom corner of the poker table just looked too sexy not to click). I can’t remember if I admitted this publicly but at one stage I was up over $1500 just from $5 & $10 per hand. I thought I was indestructible, until the obvious variance showed its ugly arse. I lost a few hundred in the span of 15 minutes and was furious so I did what any degenerate gambler would do; I tried to get it back in one hand. The table limit was $500 and that is what I placed. I remember the feeling like it just happened a minute ago. I get $500 and hit deal. BANG! KK against dealers 6! I was ecstatic, here I am about to double down and double up! I split as fast as I could move my mouse to see my dreams almost come true, dealt a 10 10. Holy Jesus, I have $1000 on the table with 2 20s against dealers 6. From there, my heart stopped, it happened in slow motion the dealer peeled his 2nd card for the 5, I knew I was fucked! We’ve all seen bad beats coming in poker and I knew it was about to happen to me. I stood up and literally screamed at the top of my lungs NOOOOOOOOOO right as the fucking K feel. $1,000 gone, in a single hand. There I was one of the nittiest players with an over protected bankroll management system to throw 25% of it on a single hand of blackjack. GG Custo?


Much more confidence in the game.

Because the majority of my playing has been at the micro’s and low’s I’ve always had this strange fear on more expensive games. The only good thing I can take about playing games like $2/$4 or $100 mtts is there is still a massive level of retardation at those levels. Obviously less than the micros I play but I really expected the overall game-play to be totally different, when aside from a few key-factors, there really is still an amazing amount of retarded plays there. I remember telling my coach when I was under Team Moshman I wasn’t beating the $5s for a big enough ROI so I should move to the $10s because they will “respect my raises more”. I also remember him politely trying to get the message to me that this thought process is totally wrong. I really think he had to bite his tongue out of fear of bursting out and telling me to STFU and not think like that. Thanks Rob, I now understand. With an adequate bankroll I’ll play any stakes, I actually feel that good about poker.


Personal.

Poker aside, I actually have a bloody amazing life. I’ve been blessed with the girl of my dreams who is my wife of coming on 9 years and 4 perfect children. I have an amazing bunch of friends that would give up there left nut (or nipple for the gals) just to make sure I am happy. I live in a great house and overall have a very prosperous future ahead of me. Life in general I am probably one of the luckiest SOBs you’ll ever meet. I always try my upmost to do the right and honourable thing and hold myself with a high level of integrity. Conquering poker is really the only last thing I want.

Tournament Staking.

I have an idea of how many loyal readers I have and new visitors I get so I’ll put this out now. I know the majority of fellow poker players reading this have BRs of 4 and 5 figures and in 2 cases I’m aware of, 6 figures. To all you guys I’d like to propose this. If you ever want a horse in a small mtt, let me be that horse. Weekends may come and I feel like playing a 1000+player tournament, you buy me in. I lose, you lose. I cash then buy-in back plus 50/50 net profits. I’ll even say the first 3 cashes I have I’ll pay 60/40 net. I’m doing and asking this because I know to a lot of you putting me into a $2.20 tournament wouldn’t even show as a dint in your cashier page but could make so much difference for me if I ran well. I’m also doing this to further gain respect and trust from players I respect. No pressure but I am available and hope to make something good out of it. I’ve already spoken with a couple colleagues and they feel it’s a good idea, because the games they stake me in are less than half the rake they pay in a mtt. If you wish to discuss this further please ether comment on this post or email nick@custo.com.au

Where to from here?

Am I suddenly going to change dramatically over night just because my body clock ticks over another year? Or course not.
Will the poker gods give me some insta run good now? Highly unlikely.
Am I suddenly going to bink a massive MTT and boost the BR so I can play levels I want to? Don’t think so.

The reality is I’m just going to have to suck it up and re-build like I’ve done before. I’ll be taking a little time of from the tables, I’ve already cashed out from PokerStars and I’m just going to chill for a week or so. I’ve basically played every day for 4 years now so I think I small break will do me well. I will periodically be adding to the BR with any surplus income I may stumble upon, but I’m going back to the good old basics of 100 buy-ins for a game.

I’ve abandoned the dream that poker will inevitability set me free in x amount of time but because I have such a passion for the game, I’m just going back to have fun, play my best and enjoy life.

Overall I’m still going to be the same Aussie Battler, just a little but older and hopefully, a little bit wiser.

Happy birthday ME!

Thanks for reading, all you guys & gals rock and are my reason I continue to blog.

Peace
Custo.