GiantBuddha's Wellathon (ask me anything)

I know I'm not a poker folk hero like leatherass, but I am currently on Day 3 of my own epic 28 day grind. So I thought I would tell you guys a little bit about it, and answer any questions, whether they're about the grind, LHE strategy, the Mayfair Club of old, vegan baking recipes, martial arts, or whatever else anyone wants to know.

Grindathon cliff notes: I'm quarantining myself in my apartment complex for 28 days to grind poker and raise money for charities. I won't be collecting the money myself. People make pledges, then donate the money themselves once the grind is done. I will also donate a portion of my winnings once the whole thing's done. I'll post the whole press release below in a response.

Hi Paul and welcome to CC!

I applaud your grindathon efforts; cool idea. A bit demented, but pretty cool.

Okay, a question... Um...

Can you name some important lessons that NL players should learn from LHE?

How many tables do you usually play at once?

How many hands do you typically play per month, and what's your typical total rake paid per month?

Good to have you here!

/Fredrik

Thanks Fredrik! To answer your questions:

Can you name some important lessons that NL players should learn from LHE? In LHE we get to see a large percentage of showdowns (40%+), so it's a great game for learning how to read hands. It's also great for learning to count combos, since players tend to have somewhat more uniform ranges when opening from a given position. Finally, we get to see more flops in LHE (especially HUHU LHE), so it's a great way to practice reading board textures.

How many tables do you usually play at once? 4 to 6 tables most of the time. If I'm playing HUHU, I'll used to just play 1, but I've taken to starting tables pretty often, so I'll play someone heads up while playing 3 to 5 other tables at the same time.

How many hands do you typically play per month, and what's your typical total rake paid per month? It's hard for me to generalize, since last year I averaged about 20k hands per month. This year, I'm averaging over 50k hands per month, and I expect to play close to 100k hands during this grindathon. I pay about $20k in rake per month these days. Fortunately, once I hit Supernova Elite I should get over half of that back.

I'll follow up with a vegetarian question: My wife and I decided, somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly, to become vegetarians last fall, but we're still on the lookout for quick-and-easy recipes. What's your favorite? Preferably something that takes less than 30 minutes to cook and ideally also something that can be put away in the fridge for a day and re-heated without spoiling.

Again, welcome GiantBuddha/Paul (already did a fly bye with your intro thread )! No ???s ATM, just wanted to subscribe to this thread. As indicated by F Paulsson, Grind-a-Thon = very cool idea >>> Best Wishes & Much Success with it!

Very nice project of yours and for a good cause. Welcome to the forum!

Thats a really nice thing you are doing.

GL

Welcome GiantBuddha - great to have you here! Your project sounds great - I'm guessing/hoping you'll be blogging - link pls for everyone (I'm guessing I can find it on my own, but for simplicity...)?

Hi Paul - thanks for joining! I read about this at DTB and wanted to pledge something myself.

If any of you guys here want to join me in a group Cardschat pledge send me a pm and we will come up with something together. I will send him a pledge on Monday so contact me before then. (I know he has already started - but hey this is a charity thing not a prop bet so who cares).

I would like for the donation to go to his friend's family (friend has cancer).

You play LHE. How many nails have you pounded through your dick? Why'd you pick a game that likely has less fish (correct me if I'm wrong) and a smaller edge?

And doesn't bacon taste good?

Haha. Very funny above!

Anyway. This sounds like an absolutely awesome idea! I wonder what your daily routine looks like? How tightly do you have it all scheduled? Do you have a set meal plan? What's in it? Do you have anyone helping you to get through this?

Also, I think I saw that you are doing daily YouTube video updates. Can you link those here as well?


Thanks and keep strong!

Very cool pokerthon, all the best!

Lotsa pizza I guess??

That's great that you can take your knowledge and apply it to help charity.

Why play LHE? Don't you think you could make more in other gametypes?

Since there is a large # of showdowns, do you consider LHE somewhat of a 'chasing' game?

What the hell is the old mayfair club?

btw..my two sisters and mother have been vegan's most of their life, they wont even prepare non-vegan food (which sucks for me) but its a huge commitment to make and I respect that

The easiest thing to cook on a regular basis is stir-fry. Get a wok, throw in some garlic, ginger, soy sauce, or whatever other seasonings you want. Throw in some tofu, seitan, peas, or other protein source, some vegetables, stir it around, serve over rice. You can also add coconut milk and curry paste (Thai Kitchen makes one without fish sauce) to make a thai curry.

I also eat a lot of pasta - pretty simple, but adding stuff like peas or pine nuts can help out on the protein front.

Black beans w/rice, avocado, salsa, etc. is also super easy. You can use beans from scratch, but I'll usually just take a can of them and add in a slash vinegar, olive oil, and hot sauce, along with some salt, pepper, chili powder, tumeric, and cumin. Fresh diced onion, green or red peppers, and garlic can spice it up and add some crunch when I'm not feeling lazy.

Also, here's a super easy vegan pancake recipe from my blog: http://zenmadman.blogspot.com/2009/0...me-sunday.html

There are some things that were better before I was a vegan (cheese, mostly - especially pizza). But I like these pancakes way better - very light and fluffy - and eat them perhaps a bit too often.

1. Why "GiantBuddha" ... are you Buddhist?

2. How rewarding has it been being a poker instructor? Any great success stories?

Thanks for the support everyone! I'm glad you asked about the blogging, sly. In fact, I'm posting a video blog each day here: http://zenmadman.blogspot.com

Exactly zero, thankfully. That's the same number of times I've eaten bacon, so I can't comment on the taste. I'm not a big fan of the smell, though.

As for LHE, the games are better than most people think. Sure, there are fewer fish, but there are fewer all pokerstars as well. It's just a smaller player pool.

What do you consider good BRM for limit holdem? I mean I've always heard 300BBs but that just doesn't seem like enough to handle the swings.

Why play LHE? Don't you think you could make more in other gametypes? LHE has always just made more sense to me, probably because it's the first version of Holdem I played. I have played all the games (even Triple Draw and Badugi), and plan to go into mixed games within the next year, but I'll never stop playing a large amount of LHE. I actually have more fun playing LHE than NL. I like to see flops and showdowns, and we get a lot of those in fixed limit.

Since there is a large # of showdowns, do you consider LHE somewhat of a 'chasing' game? We always have great odds in LHE, so that means we can make very thin peels, thin bluffs, and thin call downs. Given all of that, we also make thin value bets, like A-hi on 3 streets from time to time. More than anything, it's a collection of very small edges.

What the hell is the old mayfair club? If you've seen Rounders, it's the club that the Chesterfield was based on (w/Femke Jansen). Patrick Harrington and Howard Lederer used to play there. It's pretty much where I learned to play poker back in 1999/2000. It was an underground NYC club that got shut down in 2000 for health code violations. :rollseyes:

Do you think coaching is really worth the exuberant rates that most coaches charge? Sure, people make the assertion that its just 1 buy-in at their current limit, however, IMO winning poker is much more than having the information on how to beat games. Tilt control, talent, intelligence, experience all go into the soup that creates a winning poker game, but its quite hard to teach that stuff in a coaching session.

Thanks kryptonite. I have my days fairly well structured, although it's a bit flexible. My basic day looks like this:

3 PM - Wake up, stretch, run on the plaza, eat breakfast
4 PM - Study Poker - retool my game
5 PM - Poker Session (snack at 6 PM while still playing)
9 PM - Eat dinner, relax
10 PM - Poker Session (snack at 1 AM while still playing)
2 AM - Session Review
3 AM - Record Video blog & Hand of the Day for DTB
4 AM - Upload vids, post on forum, relax, snack
7 AM - Sleep

The two 4 hour poker sessions will expand to 5 hours each by Saturday, and I'll try to maintain that for a while. Hopefully I'll get up to two 6 hour sessions on most days by the end of it all. It depends on how much faster I get at video blogging. So far all of the peripheral things like the vids have been taking more time that I expected.

I have no set meal plan, just the meal schedule - 3 PM, 6 PM, 9 PM, 1 AM, 4 AM. My girlfriend (whom I live with) helps with the food preparation.

My daily youtube video blogs are on my ZenMadman blog and on DTB.

Thanks, dakota. It would be awesome if you got a sort of group pool thing going. I'm still accepting pledges, even though I'm a bit behind schedule. I'm pretty confident that I'll make my numbers, though. Once I dig myself in, I tend to be pretty stubborn with it, especially if it's a bit insane.

Why "GiantBuddha" ... are you Buddhist? I'm not Buddhist, per se, but I'm pretty zen (not to be confused with littlezen). My screen name on Paradise Poker was GiantPanda, and it was taken on Stars, so I went with GiantBuddha on account of an old card protector I used live (which was actually a tiny buddha).

How rewarding has it been being a poker instructor? Any great success stories? I love it. I probably enjoy talking about poker more than I enjoy actually playing it, so I get paid to do something I love doing. Making a living playing poker affords great freedom, and anything I can do to help others achieve that end makes me very happy.

What do you consider good BRM for limit holdem? I mean I've always heard 300BBs but that just doesn't seem like enough to handle the swings. In today's high variance online games, I'd say 300BB is pretty light. It's fine for low variance games in which you have a huge edge, or if you're a recreational player (in which case it's not really a bankroll). But most players should have closer to 1,000 BB for limits that they need to keep playing. It all depends on your winrate, standard deviation, and risk tolerance. I currently won't play any games that I have fewer than 1,000 BBs in, although I think taking shots with 500 BB is fine.

Do you think coaching is really worth the exuberant rates that most coaches charge? Sure, people make the assertion that its just 1 buy-in at their current limit, however, IMO winning poker is much more than having the information on how to beat games. Tilt control, talent, intelligence, experience all go into the soup that creates a winning poker game, but its quite hard to teach that stuff in a coaching session.

I don't think all coaches are worth the exuberant rates that they charge. I haven't worked with many other coaches, but I do think there is a fundamental flaw in the way most people think about poker coaching. It takes more than a winning player to make a good poker coach. I think it's unreasonable for every player making $100/hour to assume that their coaching is worth $100/hour, or even $50/hour.

To be a good coach, one must actually know how to teach. Poker skill and knowledge are requisites for sure, but they are not the only requisites. The ability to communicate knowledge is not a widely held skill. While some people may have more talent at it than others, working to develop the skill of teaching is just as important as working to develop the skill for poker.

I started out teaching friends how to play a decade ago. I taught my girlfriend how to play six years ago. I taught martial arts for six or seven years, and did a good number of session review swaps with other players. All of this was before I ever charged anyone for a poker lesson. Still, I only charged my first student $25/hour at the beginning. Only after testing out a large number of coaching methods, trading sweat sessions with other players, and coaching a number of students did I feel justified in charging anything resembling my hourly rate from playing poker.

As for whether or not the value is there, I believe it is. I don't know how to teach intelligence or experience, but a good coach can show a student how to make the most of their intelligence and experience. And I can recommend a guy for working on tilt control.

Stepping in for a second.. Answers were getting here to the questions are top notch.. Really interesting to read... Back in the a.m. to post questions.

Welcome to CC!
I am quite impressed with your answer on coaching, seems well thought it, logical & intelligent!

How long did you play poker before you became a consistent winner?

Was there a moment that really changed things for you? Like a certain piece of information or play that just clicked in your mind that was a turning point for you?

How often do you play live?

Do you prefer live or online play?

Which is more profitable for you, live or online?

Do you have any problems switching (if you do this) between live & online play?

Thanks Storm.

How long did you play poker before you became a consistent winner? I've been a solid winner since the first real session I ever played (in 1998). I basically decided I wanted to be a pro from day 1, and never looked back (although I did look sideways a few times at various other careers). I did have a rough stretch as a marginally winning rakeback grinder in 2007 when I tried to go from 4 tables LHE to 12-24 tables of NL. In January 2008, I turned my game around and started progressing properly again.

Was there a moment that really changed things for you? Like a certain piece of information or play that just clicked in your mind that was a turning point for you? The three biggest poker revelations I had, in order, were:

1) Game selection is the single most important thing to do properly in poker. Your edge comes from the difference between your skill and your opponent's skill. You can improve your skill. This is hard (but worthwhile). You can find opponents who play worse than you do. This is easy.

2) People have a range, not a hand. From live play, I always tried to put someone on a specific hand, and I was pretty good at doing it. There is so much more information available when you're single tabling in the flesh. But online we have to put people on ranges. This makes poker so much different.

3) There is nothing to be afraid of. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. So you made a play that looks stupid? Who cares? A bad calldown (or a deceptively good one), a crazy bluff (or a deceptively sane one), a whacky value-bet (or an...uh... un-whack one?). You have to hold yourself responsible for your table actions, but who really cares if you called down with J-high and looked at quads? If you thought it was the right play at the time, then it was the right play for you to make.

How often do you play live? I played three days in Vegas last year at the Bellagio. So not often. I'd like to play more, but there aren't many good options nearby.

Do you prefer live or online play? I actually prefer live play. I enjoy talking to people while playing, and I enjoy the feel of cards and chips, building a big pyramid, etc.

Which is more profitable for you, live or online? Online, and that's why I play more online than live. If I had an infinite bankroll and a teleporter, I'd probably play all live poker. But I have neither. Playing 400+ hands per hour of $10/20 is more profitable than playing 40 hands per hour of $50/100. And it requires a smaller bankroll.

Do you have any problems switching (if you do this) between live & online play? No. I fall back into live play very easily. It may take an hour or so to get comfortable, but I wouldn't say it's difficult. It takes a little while to get back to online speed, too. But that's true even after just a few days off.

This one resonates very strongly for me. I think it is the one I am currently working through.

Welcome to CC. It's a great place IMO. I am glad to pros with positive mindset such as your self getting involved here.

Very structured schedule GiantBuddha, is this your std schedule or it's been modified for the Grind-a-Thon?

Also, you mentioned you taught your girlfriend how to play poker; is she also a pro or recreational?

What type of adjustments did the two of you arrange to spend time together (asking because my SO plays @ the Wynn & there are times when I won't see him for 24 hrs+ so it's challenging to schedule 'dates')...for example, every Mon night = date night to go out to dinner &/or a movie or something? If there is a scheduled date night, is it negotiable (if there's a special game occurring...like FTOPS)?

The 3PM breakfast & 9PM dinner are meals the 2 of you share together (since it's not indicated that you're eating while playing)?

Thanks, interested in insight when/if both peeps play poker & how they manage their relationship around a job with non-traditional hrs.

I can see that you do a session review every day.

Do your session reviews have a particular format? If so how do you go about a post session review?

A very big welcome to CC and what an interesting Thread .

I apreciate it that u are shareing all you knowledge with us and i have already taken a lot from reading all of you responses

Good luck to ypu mate and a very good luck with your charity challange.

Lazmansa

PS:I have a very nice pasta recepie for you to try.

Lemon pasta for 2.

- 1 Lemon(squize all the juce out in a mixing bowl)
- Equal amount of extra virgin olive oil into the same bowl.
- 1 fresh chillie finaly chopped into the bowl.
- Beat it until it has combined.
- a big hand full of freshly grated parmesan into the bowl and mix in.
- freshly chpped tomato,( finaly chopped)

Boil spagetti pasta
Once pasta is cooked pore mixture into pasta and add tomatos and if you want some more cheese is up to u.

Hope u enjot.

Welcome to CardsChat! It's great to have you here, Paul!

^^^You and me both Caps!!!

Very structured schedule GiantBuddha, is this your std schedule or it's been modified for the Grind-a-Thon? This is my Grind-a-Thon schedule. My weekend schedule will look like this after the Grindathon is over, but replacing the 2 hours of video filming with another 2 to 4 hours of poker. I'm expecting to stretch out my sessions throughout the Grindathon so that I'm playing 12 hour days by the end of it.

Also, you mentioned you taught your girlfriend how to play poker; is she also a pro or recreational? She's a winning recreational player. She beats up on the low-limit games, and could play professionally if she enjoyed the game enough, but she just doesn't put in the volume.

What type of adjustments did the two of you arrange to spend time together (asking because my SO plays @ the Wynn & there are times when I won't see him for 24 hrs+ so it's challenging to schedule 'dates')...for example, every Mon night = date night to go out to dinner &/or a movie or something? If there is a scheduled date night, is it negotiable (if there's a special game occurring...like FTOPS)? We try to schedule days off together, but we live together, so it's easy to take time together for granted. It's definitely important to schedule concurrent time off, but this is easier in theory than in practice.

The 3PM breakfast & 9PM dinner are meals the 2 of you share together (since it's not indicated that you're eating while playing)? Pretty much, except she doesn't always wake up as "early" as I do. So 9 PM is our main meal together.

Thanks, interested in insight when/if both peeps play poker & how they manage their relationship around a job with non-traditional hrs. She does try to schedule her poker hours to occur during my sessions, which I think helps a good deal. Otherwise, we'd practically never talk, despite seeing each other all day long. Also, we get to complain about bad beats and brag about sexy river check/raises while we play.

I demonstrate my session review process in my Sixth Star series at Drag the Bar, but I can sum it up here:

First I write in my poker journal how I felt about the session, how were the games? How was my focus, energy, creativity, etc?

Next I go through some to all of my marked hands from the session and decide if I like how I played them or not. If something is close or I don't have an immediate answer, then I open up Poker Stove, Flopzilla, or another program to calculate some equities, combos, EV of different lines, etc.

I mark the hands in Holdem Manager, but I used to just use a notepad.