VanDice is In the Well

BigCityBanker

So VanDice has agreed to be in the Well. I always enjoy his strategy posts and clarity of thinking that he applies so this should be interesting.

eh so il start.

1. your poker story? when did you start playing.
2. what games/stakes do you play now?
3. Was there a poker epihany for you.
4. Do you/Did you ever play live?
5. Best adive you have received?

im sure other will be along soon with more questions. Good luck in the well and thanks for agreeing to do this.

bops

hi VD

do you own a van?
if so, do you have dice hanging in it?

ty gl

TommyGunne

Do you sell luckboxes? Mine has been broke and in need of repair for the last 6 months.

How come every time you play live tourneys you get owned by some random live donk? IIRC you got owned in the West Wicklow House a couple times. Do you feel you have improved to have an edge in that field now?

You also seem to be a long run losing player live. Does this affect your mentality? You seem to be unable to beat live 1/2 and seem to struggle. Do you feel that this reflects the difference in standard between live and online?

Why do you not do more coaching?

Do you feel you can/should take shots more aggressively?

Van Dice

I won't be around from tomorrow evening til Sunday but will try to answer stuff before then - thanks BCB!

RedJoker

gl in the well Van Dice, I'll try to think of some questions for you.

smcb

as a child did you often ponder that your ballbag looked like a satsuma?

doke

Good luck in the well, Van.

1. Would you take a coinflip for all your chips early in a tournament? Late?
2. Do you play mainly tournaments or cash, and if both, which do you enjoy most?
3. Have you ever coached? It seems like you'd make a great one.
4. What do you feel your biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player are?
5. What's your biggest success to date?
6. What's your long term poker ambition?
7. Donkaments - pure luck or not?
8. Lucie in the Fitz or Kasia in the Emporium?
9. Five best players you've ever played against.
10. Five worst.

El Stuntman

who is the biggest bollix on the poker forum?

is it pretty much unsustainable to be an online pro at levels below $1k these days? why?

should poker tracker/HEM/HUD/fish finding tools etc be banned by sites?

AKQJ10

Would you have folded my hand in the fitz Eom against you last week? I remember thinking you had to have a hand this time as it was the fourth pot you'd raised in a row and you 4bet all-in. Assume you have my image and were playing the hand against someone with yours.

Gl with the rest of the well

H8GHOTI

Thanks for doing this & good luck.

When moving up through the levels, how long did each level take and did you find any level in particular very hard to crack?

How many hands did you put in at different levels before moving up? Did you stick to bankroll rules or move up if you averaged a certain bb/100 over a number of hands? What ptbb/100 or BB/100 would you think is required to say you were good enough to move up?

Theresalwaysone

Jim, cheers for doing the well. Will be a very good one I think.

Do you think poker affects your overall health positively or negatively? I know in my case, and in some others that it was extremely negative but interested to hear how it affected you.

Which "named and famous" live pro do you rate and why?

Which one do you think is no good and overhyped?

How come you and your Bro have the same dodgy first touch on a football pitch?

Whats your favourite Cheese?

Craziest vegas Story? I dont want any of that.... too crazy to print **** cos thats a cop out. Your nor a cop out now, are you Jim?

Imo, Conor has improved immeasurably in the last year or two, if you could give him one bit of advice regarding his game, what would it be?

Cheers Jim,

Steven
West Wicklow House Regular

con_leche

Thanks for doing this.

1. Do you enjoy playing live? If so cash or tourny and why?

2. Do you feel posting has helped develop your game, and do you use 2p2?

3. Do you wish you started playing 2-3 years earlier.

4. Name a live player whose game you respect and why?

5. List a good book, DVD, film and album.

Van Dice

BigCityBanker wrote: »

1. your poker story? when did you start playing.

Nothing original here, my first games were home games with friends. None of us had any clue what we were doing, but the games were great. Everyone tried to bluff everyone! I remember one of the first times I was able to guess what someone had (ranges lol), and then I thought, hmmm, maybe there is something to this game.

I was/am a huge fan of pretty much all sports, and I opened a betfair account in college at some stage. I'm very nerdy about numbers and created a basic model for estimating horse's chances to be placed in races. The place markets back then were extremely inefficient, and I was making a ridiculous ROI on them. At the time betfair had a sports lounge underneath what used to be the Merrion casino, and I used to go in there infrequently to trade. They had launched their poker site a while before that, and one day I saw someone else playing online, so I thought that looked great, so gave it a go. I just played SNGs, and I shudder to think how bad I was. Everyone else was worse though

I was still much more interested in sports betting as a way of making spare money as a college student, so never really took poker too seriously. Then I got Super System and read it, and realised that there was a strategy. The first online cash game I played was .5/1 in 2005, still had no clue what I was doing, but just raising and c-betting 100% was enough to win.
I only started playing poker as a form of income last year though, and since then I've played it for a living.

BigCityBanker wrote: »

2. what games/stakes do you play now?

I've played most hands at 5/10 over the last 3 months, but still a lot of 2/5, and increasing amounts of 10/20. I don't really have any ego issues so have no problem with closing a 10/20 table that looks too tough and opening a 2/5 one.

BigCityBanker wrote: »

3. Was there a poker epihany for you.

I'm sure there are lots, if they come to mind I'll post them later. Two I definitely remember - I used to play on Crypto, and then opened a Full Tilt account (early-mid 2007 I think), and the difference was frightening. There was literally no 3-betting going on at Crypto, and if you did get 3-bet, you could set-mine with QQ. On Full Tilt I think I got 3-bet 5 times in the first 3 orbits and I had no clue wtf was going on. That was when I first started using 2p2, and discovered the idea of hand ranges (the games were so soft back then, considering i had been still winning up to that point!!)

The second was before c-betting, deciding how many turn cards I'd continue to barrel. That line of thought really opened my eyes to having a plan for the hand, rather than autopilot c-bet/check/fold. If I couldn't barrel often enough, then I'd adjust my opening range against that opponent.

Actually a third one was to stop defending hands in the blinds that I didn't think I could play aggressively post-flop. If a good player raises the CO, calling with AJ in the BB and check-calling an A high flop is a pretty huge leak imo. If I'm calling in the blinds now, it's never with the intention of check-calling flops. (although that can obviously still happen, it's something I look to avoid)

BigCityBanker wrote: »

4. Do you/Did you ever play live?

I used to play the small MTTs in the Fitz when I was in college, and the same for the 1/2 games. I was the biggest nit of all time, current me would hate past me so much.
Since then, I've played live in Dublin around 3am when there is a queue for taxis, and I've been out for the night. i'd imagine that most Dublin players see me as a huge fish I have played sober/seriously in Dublin a few times, but very infrequently. It's just not worth it when I can play lots of tables online. Although I did go in to play a tournament with my brother in the Fitz last week, €270. KK no good obviously!
I've played live a few times in Vegas at 5/10+

BigCityBanker wrote: »

5. Best adive you have received?

I've never received adive

Best advice I received wasn't directly related to poker, but it's applicable there. It's to look beyond what you're doing, or what your opponents are doing, and try to understand why you/they are doing it. Seeing what they did helps for one specific instance, but if you understand why they did it, that's a goldmine of information.

BigCityBanker wrote: »

thanks for agreeing to do this.

Van Dice

bops wrote: »

hi VD

do you own a van?
if so, do you have dice hanging in it?

ty gl

lol no. I had just read The Dice Man, and a few of my friends were easily led so we began rolling dice to decide small things. Like what city to go to 2 summers ago in America. Or what drink to order in a bar. Just pick 6 options, and then you can let the dice do the work. It chose my first ever Jagerbomb in San Francisco, which is the worst decision ever made by the dice imo

Anyway obviously I watched Diagnosis Murder frequently in college, so a friend of mine twisted Dick Van Dyke into Dick Van Dice.

kinda O/T, but rather than a van, I had planned to buy a DeLorean from ebay, but was talked out of it by someone who knows about cars (actually he called me a complete ****ing retard). Would have been quality with dry ice when you open the door though

Van Dice

TommyGunne wrote: »

Do you sell luckboxes? Mine has been broke and in need of repair for the last 6 months.

I'm running ~1k above EV over the last 6 months. ha

TommyGunne wrote: »

How come every time you play live tourneys you get owned by some random live donk?

i can't beat level 0 thinking
actually one of the reasons I don't really like live play is that I ALWAYS get berated by someone. I think I need to look more menacing or something so everyone will just stfu. Maybe gold knuckledusters, a baseball bat and an I Limerick t-shirt will do the trick

TommyGunne wrote: »

IIRC you got owned in the West Wicklow House a couple times. Do you feel you have improved to have an edge in that field now?

I really don't like the inference that I would need to have improved my game to have an edge!

TommyGunne wrote: »

You also seem to be a long run losing player live. Does this affect your mentality? You seem to be unable to beat live 1/2 and seem to struggle. Do you feel that this reflects the difference in standard between live and online?

results don't lie, live standard >>> online!! (pretty sure I'm not a lifetime losing player at live 1/2 though, cos in my bad nit days people handed me money. so ha again.)

TommyGunne wrote: »

Why do you not do more coaching?

I do too much, work with 9 people which cuts my free time to zero. I haven't played MarioKart Wii in weeks. So I'm not doing any more until 2009 at the very earliest, because by then a few of them won't need any more. (One is better than me already anyway )

TommyGunne wrote: »

Do you feel you can/should take shots more aggressively?

It comes down to factors like Kelly Criterion/variance/happiness. I have played a few very soft games at 25/50, I know I can play higher when soft games come up, but I've very few regrets at not taking shots at 50/100 or something. Conversely, I know a good few people who have a lot of regrets at taking shots under-rolled. I think a -10BI day at 25/50 would tilt me beyond measure

RedJoker

Van Dice wrote: »

The second was before c-betting, deciding how many turn cards I'd continue to barrel. That line of thought really opened my eyes to having a plan for the hand, rather than autopilot c-bet/check/fold. If I couldn't barrel often enough, then I'd adjust my opening range against that opponent.

Did you mean cbetting range here?

Van Dice wrote: »

Actually a third one was to stop defending hands in the blinds that I didn't think I could play aggressively post-flop. If a good player raises the CO, calling with AJ in the BB and check-calling an A high flop is a pretty huge leak imo. If I'm calling in the blinds now, it's never with the intention of check-calling flops. (although that can obviously still happen, it's something I look to avoid)

What do you do differently, are you check-raising or donking? Do you just 3bet or fold preflop instead?

Van Dice

smcb wrote: »

as a child did you often ponder that your ballbag looked like a satsuma?

fraid not. you obviously did though. do you eat fruit or is the psychological trauma too much?

thedini

gl in the well.
do you still do sportsbetting on a regular basis and if so at a serious level? what sports/ markets do you concentrate on ? what gives you the edge that you need?
Betfair or Betdaq?

From reading I see that you dont play live much due to boredom/lack of tables etc is it your goal however to get a big live score, Irish Open/ World Series etc.

thanks

The C Kid

Can WOA win the Gold Cup?

Why is sports betting a millions time better than poker?

BigCityBanker

The C Kid wrote: »

Can WOA win the Gold Cup?

ah well, thats settled now, no more curiosity.

Van Dice

doke wrote: »

Good luck in the well, Van.

ty looks like i'll need it!

doke wrote: »

1. Would you take a coinflip for all your chips early in a tournament? Late?

tricky one to answer. probably not a pure 50/50, but i think that's more a hypothetical question than reality, like the AK v QQ first hand of the WSOP. imo people don't realise that by the stage where they're in a coinflip, there is a lot of money already in the pot, and the overlay makes these 'coinflip' calls mandatory. To be getting ~ evens on your money someone has to make a huge overbet shove, in which case they're probably lobotomised.
If I think a hand is call against someone's range early in a tournament, I'm calling. If it's very borderline, I'll fold. In my admittedly very limited experience, I think people are far too timid to get chips in early in tournaments though

late in a tournament, I have a vague idea of ICM at the table so those constraints apply. Generally I like to give myself a margin of error against someone's shoving range - so if I think it's a borderline call against their range, I'll probably fold unless I have tons of chips.

doke wrote: »

2. Do you play mainly tournaments or cash, and if both, which do you enjoy most?

Almost exclusively cash now. I used to play a lot of MTTs and SNGs, but I find cash games are much more lucrative for me. I play a couple of MTTs every few weeks for a change of pace

doke wrote: »

3. Have you ever coached? It seems like you'd make a great one.

yes, and ty.

doke wrote: »

4. What do you feel your biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player are?

I don't tilt very much at all, and I put work in away from the table analysing how my most regular opponents play. Nothing psychic

Weaknesses: I think I'm too dismissive of fish, and try to play pots with them with too wide a range - isolating too wide, calling flops too wide etc. Basically I seem to think that just because they're fish I should win every pot, which is obviously not true.
More specifically, I know for sure that my range for calling a 3bet and then a c-bet is way too weak. Working on that though.
Also I wish I had more motivation to grind 60k+ hands a month.

doke wrote: »

5. What's your biggest success to date?

this is the real inherent weakness of cash games as opposed to tournaments, nothing I've won to brag about! I've had a couple of 5 figure days, I guess that's the best. Or I could say something gay like I'm just happy to be able to hold my own against good opponents at 10/20.

doke wrote: »

6. What's your long term poker ambition?

I'd like to make seven figures from online cash, and also win a tournament so I can have a gigantic victory party and a trophy.

doke wrote: »

7. Donkaments - pure luck or not?

of course not. in any form of poker, some people have an edge, some don't.

but compared to cash games, variance can take a very very very long time to even itself out.
Bad live MTT players can be winning over a 5 year sample, and vice versa. So people's opinions on who are good or bad live MTT players can be extremely wrong. If you played 2 hours of cash/tournaments, I would say it's much more likely that you can tell who are winning players in the cash games. idk if that's what you meant.

doke wrote: »

8. Lucie in the Fitz or Kasia in the Emporium?

i don't know Lucie in the Fitz. But from the couple of times I've been in the Emporium, I'm certain I'd have said Kasia anyway.

doke wrote: »

9. Five best players you've ever played against.

these are all online names. 5 people that I either felt out of my comfort zone against or were just generally very very good in no particular order are DrGiggy, iRockhoes, zero2lose, aejones (full tilt) dpommo (betfair)
game selection ftw though, I haven't played very much with any of them in a while.

doke wrote: »

10. Five worst.

it would be too unfair on a lot of people if i narrowed this down to five.

RoundTower

why havent you been playing the ucd football recently?

Mellor

I've just one question for now.

very first hand of the wsop you know nobody on your table, its folded around to the small blind,your on the bb,as he lifts his hand up he doesnt protect his hand very well and you see it and he is holding ak, your on the bb with kk, he open shoves, call or fold?

Van Dice

El Stuntman wrote: »

who is the biggest bollix on the poker forum?

again, unfair to narrow it down
ah no, everyone seems to co-exist fairly peacefully.

El Stuntman wrote: »

is it pretty much unsustainable to be an online pro at levels below $1k these days? why?

not in the short term. You could make 5 figs/month at 2/4. the problem with that is online poker has no pension plan, so if you want to play professionally i think you should be capable of making enough in 7/8 years to retire on. if you don't, what do you do if you wake up one morning and find you can't beat 2/4? CV is going to look awesome.

El Stuntman wrote: »

should poker tracker/HEM/HUD/fish finding tools etc be banned by sites?

i would prefer if they did. people would have to start thinking again!

RasTa

Was Keane a good signing, thoughts so far..

Do you think 'this' is your year?

Did the big serb scare you off footy in UCD?

Van Dice

AKQJ10 wrote: »

Would you have folded my hand in the fitz Eom against you last week? I remember thinking you had to have a hand this time as it was the fourth pot you'd raised in a row and you 4bet all-in. Assume you have my image and were playing the hand against someone with yours

i didnt know that was you. so i dont know what image you have, but if i was in your shoes, and all the info you had was the few hands since you got to the table, i definitely get it in. for all you knew i could have been an overaggro maniacal chimp raising every hand (maybe anyway)

fwiw i think my 4-betting range in that spot had you in bad shape, but that's more because I don't think people 3-bet enough in live games, and I had no idea who you were.

doke

Thanks for the answers.

Van Dice wrote: »

but compared to cash games, variance can take a very very very long time to even itself out.
Bad live MTT players can be winning over a 5 year sample, and vice versa.

Or even longer. Jamie Gold will be a winning player over a lifetime sample, but he'll never be a great MTT player in my opinion.

So people's opinions on who are good or bad live MTT players can be extremely wrong. If you played 2 hours of cash/tournaments, I would say it's much more likely that you can tell who are winning players in the cash games.

Agreed. I don't think that's necessarily completely down to the cash game being a purer form of the game though: there's also the dynamics added in tournaments by rising blinds, stepped payout structure etc. etc. A lot of very good (cash game) poker players are quite appalling tournament players because while they have all the poker skills in the world, they have no concept of some of the most basic aspects of tournament theory. In my opinion, you couldn't assess whether someone is a good tournament player in 2 hours or 2 tournaments: you'd need to see them over the entire course of several tournaments. A guy might play the early part well when stacks are deep but be unable to adjust as the blinds rise, as the bubble approaches, as the FT shrinks etc. etc.

When I started playing live tournaments 3 or 4 nights a week in the Fitz, after a while I noticed that on any given night, half the final table would be drawn from a relatively small pool of regulars. The other half would be playing their first FT. Some of the regulars seemed like terrible poker players (in the sense that they made basic poker errors over and over), while there were other players who seemed better and played there every night yet never made an FT. At first I thought it might just be luck but as I got a better grasp of tournament theory myself, I realised that whatever about their poker skills, the regular FT players were adhering to a clearly superior tournament strategy.

Van Dice

H8GHOTI wrote: »

When moving up through the levels, how long did each level take and did you find any level in particular very hard to crack?

i dont really know in terms of time, unfortunately my hands per month isnt very high though, something ive been trying to change over the last 2 months. i got owned at 2/4 when i first played it, i was trying so hard not to get run over by all the soul reading psycho regs (as i imagined them to be), that i was being very spewy. that taught me a bit, just to play my own game, try to find out what they do badly, and keep putting them in those situations.

H8GHOTI wrote: »

How many hands did you put in at different levels before moving up? Did you stick to bankroll rules or move up if you averaged a certain bb/100 over a number of hands? What ptbb/100 or BB/100 would you think is required to say you were good enough to move up?

like i said my hands per month isn't high! i lost one full PT database last summer when my laptop commited suicide, and then i used PT again up until recently when i got holdem manager.
I've no idea how many hands i put in at different levels. I know my winrate at every level so far is at least 10BBs/100, except for 1c/2c where it was like -1000BBs/100, back when i used to tilt I'd go to that!

It's much more important to be bankrolled for a level than use any particular winrate as a guide. I don't think you should ever play a particular level if losing a few buyins will affect you either monetarily, or temperamentally.
Anyway winrate/bankroll are corellated, so if your winrate is high enough, you'll find your bankroll will soon be big enough.

Just offhand, I'd recommend at the very minimum 50 BIs for a level, that allows you freedom to play any style with a lot of variance, and you have an insulation against dropping buyins, where it shouldn't affect your play.
You have enough to worry about when playing without a shrinking bankroll being one of them

colquhom

sn on full tilt so i can rail you?!

Van Dice

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Do you think poker affects your overall health positively or negatively? I know in my case, and in some others that it was extremely negative but interested to hear how it affected you.

not too bad, i was always fairly healthy anyway though. plus i use some of the spare time for running/sports. the one thing that gets to me is that my eyes are almost constantly tired, but i had that in my last job staring at a computer screen anyway. so unless i become a mountaineer, it's going to be a problem with any career

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Which "named and famous" live pro do you rate and why?

i think Ivey's results on FTP confirm him as a phenomenon.

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Which one do you think is no good and overhyped?

This is tough because i'm just going on tv really, which might be unfair because I'm sure there are lots of good players who have made bad plays on tv. I wasn't very impressed by Joe Beevers in one tv thing he won (earlier this year I think?), he just seemed to play way too tight and try to hit hands. Although he did win so what do i know, and I'm just basing this on an hour of tv so that could be very harsh.
Hellmuth's play on High Stakes Poker is very poor. Imo, based on his results and anecdotally, I'd say he's just very very good at outplaying donks. I think that explains his success in big field live MTTs, yet he seems to be outmatched against better players.

Actually JJ Liu used to play 3/6 on FTP, she was very poor, and that's not based on tv.

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

How come you and your Bro have the same dodgy first touch on a football pitch?

You haven't seen me play? Basically I commandeered all the athletic skills in the family, and left him with nothing. He's like a two footed Christy Brown.

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Whats your favourite Cheese?

brie or gouda. coinflip.
coin said gouda.

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Craziest vegas Story? I dont want any of that.... too crazy to print **** cos thats a cop out. Your nor a cop out now, are you Jim?

copout for sure!! lots of crazy stories, lots unprintable. one funny printable one was us drinking for almost an entire day, getting adopted at the craps table by Americans who all had relations in Ireland (obviously) and wanted the luck o' the irish and us rolling 3 wins in a row (no idea how to play craps, but they won a lot) Then one of them had to be bigger than the rest so he put all his money on again (~30k), then we rolled something which made everyone lose. Was a very silent place lol
sorry for absence of the real crazy stories, i'll tell you some in the pub some day

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Imo, Conor has improved immeasurably in the last year or two, if you could give him one bit of advice regarding his game, what would it be?

cut down on tables and think more. I say that to him a lot

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

West Wicklow House Regular

haha

YULETIRED

Gl in the well Van Dice,
1. I see BCB hero worships you to a degree, does this unsettle you at all
2. tell us some of your observed online tells.
3. How do you manage tilt control ?
4. How much from your bankroll do you require to live each month.
5. You are playing near the bubble of the WSOP, you look down at AA, some guy raises you , suddenly a guy falls to the ground choking purple faced on a nearby table and you are the only one who seems to know that he needs the Heimlich Manoeuvre, Do you reraise or flat call in this position ?
6. Have you ever swallowed a spider ?
7. Name yer three
fav chicks
fav tunes
fav movies
Fav quotes

8. If online poker was banned tomorrow what would you do? (for da monies)
9. If you could be any movie star for a day, who would you pick and why?
10. If you saw you mammy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe, would you wake daddy and watch the carnage unfold, or would you wait until you got over the christmas to break the news to the ol fellow.

Van Dice

con_leche wrote: »

Thanks for doing this.

np, thank BCB

con_leche wrote: »

1. Do you enjoy playing live? If so cash or tourny and why?

not really, i must sound like a social retard at this stage
if i was playing live i'd prefer to play a high buyin tournament or else 10/20 cash game, where i'd definitely feel focused.

con_leche wrote: »

2. Do you feel posting has helped develop your game, and do you use 2p2?

Yes for sure. It helps reinforce things I know/should know, and it's especially useful because it makes me articulate what I subconsciously think. Kinda goes back to knowing 'why' something is a good play rather than just doing it instinctively. So it's really a selfish thing

con_leche wrote: »

3. Do you wish you started playing 2-3 years earlier.

I wish I put time into learning the game 3 years ago. I think if I could transport current me to 2005 (in my De Lorean!), I could play the highest games online. I don't think that's egotistical, I think you could say the same about any decent mid-stakes player today. It's just how far the game has advanced, like Commodore 64s.

con_leche wrote: »

4. Name a live player whose game you respect and why?

I don't play anywhere near enough live poker to know

con_leche wrote: »

5. List a good book, DVD, film and album.

hmmm. Good books I read recently: The Remains Of The Day, The Van, Lord of The Flies, 1984, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I could probably add hundreds in there though. For just reading on travel, I kinda like Tom Clancy's books like the Hunt For Red October.

Airplane, Pulp Fiction, Little Miss Sunshine, Zoolander, Under Siege, Indiana Jones - Last Crusade, Monty Python - Holy Grail, Gladiator, True Lies, all Bourne films.
what can I say, I'm an airhead.
(Johnny Dangerously is LOL funny too, just have a few pints beforehand)

album: i haven't got one in ages. whoever posted up lastfm here a while ago, ty. it's brilliant.
The best album I've ever heard though is 'The Stone Roses', and I don't think it's close at all

Van Dice

The second was before c-betting, deciding how many turn cards I'd continue to barrel. That line of thought really opened my eyes to having a plan for the hand, rather than autopilot c-bet/check/fold. If I couldn't barrel often enough, then I'd adjust my opening range against that opponent.

RedJoker wrote: »

Did you mean cbetting range here?

I meant if I found myself having to check/fold too much against a particular guy postflop, I'd look at tightening up preflop, or skewing my range away from suited connectors towards big card hands. And obviously adjusting postflop, say if he was floating a ton I'd just barrel more anyway, but I think it's worth looking at the previous street to see if a small adjustment there will automatically mean you have a 'better' range against someone later in the hand.

Actually a third one was to stop defending hands in the blinds that I didn't think I could play aggressively post-flop. If a good player raises the CO, calling with AJ in the BB and check-calling an A high flop is a pretty huge leak imo. If I'm calling in the blinds now, it's never with the intention of check-calling flops. (although that can obviously still happen, it's something I look to avoid)

RedJoker wrote: »

What do you do differently, are you check-raising or donking? Do you just 3bet or fold preflop instead?

3-betting more and calling less preflop, and when I do call preflop, check-raising more. If I flat KQ in the blinds and get a Q high flop, my standard would be to CR and get it in. If I don't think I can do that, then I try not to call it preflop.
Obv that's a bit of a simplification, but I try to stop playing passively OOP. Also I find people make more/bigger mistakes when they are constantly being played back at, so that's good too.

Flushdraw

No questions and just happy to read your replies to other posters..Its shaping up to be a great well..wp

robinblinds

What sport do you see continually holding the least edge for the bookmaker?

What is the one thing, functionality wise, that you'd like all poker sites to have as a given?

OpenEnded

dexter or the wire?

smoothcall

Are you up or down on blackjack??

Ever give plo a spin?

Van Dice

thedini wrote: »

gl in the well.
do you still do sportsbetting on a regular basis and if so at a serious level? what sports/ markets do you concentrate on ? what gives you the edge that you need?
Betfair or Betdaq?

hey. yeah still do, i guess it would be called a serious level. The main stuff I look at is racing and football, but if there is live tv sport on I'll have a look and see if I think I would have an edge. My general approach is to look for something that the public as a whole really like, and bet against it, or find something they can't stand, and bet it.

[warning, poker players avoid]
The markets have definitely got a lot more efficient over the last few years. I still think they're mispriced on a lot of occasions though. Just a couple of examples - there was a race just a few mins ago at Kempton. Gary Moore trained a horse called Smokey Ryder in the race, and he has an extremely good record with horses in claiming races if they have good last time out form. Smokey Ryder won last time out, and the runner-up went on to win his next start. On his only previous Polytrack start, he ran much better than 9th of 12 would appear - he ran wide on an early bend, and actually ran quite well. I think he was almost certainly overpriced.

At Fairyhouse over the weekend, I thought Donnas Palm was a fantastically good price. Cousin Vinny was having his first ever hurdles start in a Grade 1, which is an almost impossibly high task to be set. Hurricane Fly is the most fashionable type of horse, a French import trained by a top trainer. Even with his good summer form, I thought he was very likely to be overbet/underpriced. Donnas Palm looked clearly best of the remainder, and everything about his previous wins looked top class. He also had the added advantage of being the apparent stable second string (people prefer betting on jockeys than horses). He was 8/1 the evening before, which again looked to drastically underestimate his ability.

Football is tougher, because it's easier to quantify. All numbers are easily available, and can be used statistically without much adjustment. Also, the markets are much more liquid due to some huge companies/syndicates, so the prices are much more likely to be accurate. Even still there are good opportunities.

Right after the takeover/Robinho, Man City were way too short for their next few games. They were being priced as if they were a top 6 team, which they patently weren't at that stage. It was just a case where there was so much hype that everyone wanted to back them.

One last thing - I talk too much lol - in spread betting you can bet on the number of corners per match. Last year the average in the Premier League was 11.06. On betfair you can buy or sell, but they have a rule that the minimum make-up is 5 and the max is 17. So if there were no corners, it would be settled at 5, if there were 25 corners, it would be settled at 17.

So, adjusting for those constraints, the average works out at exactly 11. As the estimated corners in a game rises, so the gap should rise between what the true price and what the price on betfair should be.

People haven't seemed to fully realise that yet.
[/warning]

thedini wrote: »

From reading I see that you dont play live much due to boredom/lack of tables etc is it your goal however to get a big live score, Irish Open/ World Series etc.

Yeah, I'd like to win something in a live tournament this year. I played one WSOP event in Vegas this summer, finished something like 270/2000-odd, with ~200 getting paid. I'd been pretty short-stacked all tournament though so it wasn't that enjoyable, just finding spots to shove. Then I got a lot of good spots and got up to around average stack. Then I ran QQ into KK. C'est la vie.

Plus if I cash in something big I can get a Hendon Mob profile, then I will be Hollllaments hero imo

thedini wrote: »

thanks

np. thanks for the interest.

Van Dice

The C Kid wrote: »

Can WOA win the Gold Cup?

I think he's more likely than most to successfully come back from injury given his lack of miles on the clock. I just don't think that he'll be able to get back to his best, which is a real shame. What a superstar!

The C Kid wrote: »

Why is sports betting a millions time better than poker?

lol, it just is. Nothing like seeing someone else do the hard work while you're lying back like a bum!

Van Dice

RoundTower wrote: »

why havent you been playing the ucd football recently?

I haven't been around Dublin very much, and when I have been I've just been too busy catching up with other things. I'm like Wayne Bridge, retired early from football. I can't make any of the weeks before Christmas either
Will be around some evenings though, so if you want to go for pints, I think that would be a suitably athletic replacement activity!!

pok3rplaya

Any leaks in my play that you picked up while we were playing together on betfair?

dannydiamond

Van Dice wrote: »

The best album I've ever heard though is 'The Stone Roses', and I don't think it's close at all

Well played on the above,good to see some sense on this forum at last,the most complete album of all time imo.:)

Excellent well so far VanDice,triffic read,back with some q's later.

Van Dice

Mellor wrote: »

I've just one question for now.

very first hand of the wsop you know nobody on your table, its folded around to the small blind,your on the bb,as he lifts his hand up he doesnt protect his hand very well and you see it and he is holding ak, your on the bb with kk, he open shoves, call or fold?

lol Mellor
ez fold, and keep watching his cards every hand.

Van Dice

RasTa wrote: »

Was Keane a good signing, thoughts so far..

I thought so, but it's not working out at all. He's not playing well, linking well or scoring. Maybe it will improve, he has only been at the club a couple of months after all. Still, I don't see much to complain about when the 18-time title winners and 5-time European Cup winners are where they belong at the top of the table

RasTa wrote: »

Do you think 'this' is your year?

I think it will depend if we can beat Man U at Anfield. oh wait...
(honestly no, I think Man U have had the hardest opening set of fixtures, and they aren't far enough behind. I think they'll win, but I'd be happy with Liverpool if we got ~83 points. I think that'll be a couple short though)

RasTa wrote: »

Did the big serb scare you off footy in UCD?

hahahah

Van Dice

doke wrote: »

Thanks for the answers.

no probs

doke wrote: »

Or even longer. Jamie Gold will be a winning player over a lifetime sample, but he'll never be a great MTT player in my opinion.

very true. although he gets to play all the super rich people from LA, so I guess he doesn't care too much

doke wrote: »

Agreed. I don't think that's necessarily completely down to the cash game being a purer form of the game though: there's also the dynamics added in tournaments by rising blinds, stepped payout structure etc. etc. A lot of very good (cash game) poker players are quite appalling tournament players because while they have all the poker skills in the world, they have no concept of some of the most basic aspects of tournament theory. In my opinion, you couldn't assess whether someone is a good tournament player in 2 hours or 2 tournaments: you'd need to see them over the entire course of several tournaments. A guy might play the early part well when stacks are deep but be unable to adjust as the blinds rise, as the bubble approaches, as the FT shrinks etc. etc.

When I started playing live tournaments 3 or 4 nights a week in the Fitz, after a while I noticed that on any given night, half the final table would be drawn from a relatively small pool of regulars. The other half would be playing their first FT. Some of the regulars seemed like terrible poker players (in the sense that they made basic poker errors over and over), while there were other players who seemed better and played there every night yet never made an FT. At first I thought it might just be luck but as I got a better grasp of tournament theory myself, I realised that whatever about their poker skills, the regular FT players were adhering to a clearly superior tournament strategy.

I couldn't agree more, nice post

Van Dice

colquhom wrote: »

sn on full tilt so i can rail you?!

I don't play on there any more, it wouldn't be much fun anyway I assure you! durrr/cts are infintely better and more fun to watch

digiman

Hey, nice reading so far.

What's the biggest pots you have ever won and lost? HH would be nice!
What age are you?
If you are 25, what do you see yourself doing at 30 or just in general in 5 years time?
What do your family think of you playing poker for a living?
Would you sit at a 25/50 deep table that had jman, durrrr, Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius and krantz? The game would be 200bb min (auto rebuy!) and is going to be recorded for a training video where all cards are revealed. The catch is though that everyone must play 200 hands and then the game breaks. Would like to hear reason for a yes or a no!
If Guy Libertie was sitting at a high stakes HU table but it would mean that it is 10% of your roll would you play?
Do you play pool/snooker?
Most balla thing you have bought after a really good winning session?
If you could play a 6max 2/5 game with 5 other boards players who would they be and why?:D

Van Dice

YULETIRED wrote: »

1. I see BCB hero worships you to a degree, does this unsettle you at all

lol. he used to keep posting me locks of his hair though. that didn't end well for anyone

YULETIRED wrote: »

2. tell us some of your observed online tells.

when fish check, snap call a continuation bet, and then time down and check the turn, barrel them. Always. They have a very weak pair or A high, and they're afraid to call more bets.
when an average reg times down/timebanks, and then raises the river, just fold.
also a very quick 4-bet is AK much more often than it should be, given people's 4-betting ranges.
when people change their c-bet size or open raise size suddenly, it's almost never a strong hand. People understand the need to be consistent when they have a strong hand.
When someone is limp/calling, and randomly spazzing out postflop, they are most likely called Giancarlo, Antonio or Francesco.
When someone times down, times out and doesn't reconnect, they are probably ****ed. (actually I did wonder that recently, if anyone has collapsed while in a poker hand)

YULETIRED wrote: »

3. How do you manage tilt control ?

not playing games underrolled, lots of practice, getting older, more chilled out generally. I used to tilt a little bit (mainly having a psychotic vendetta against anyone who 3-bet me more than once), but each time I made a play that was emotionally driven, I'd force myself to sit out from the tables, and go for a 5-min run. Cramp/rain made me see the light, and I've consciously tried to maintain focus since. Doesn't always work, but I'm pretty sure I tilt less than anyone else in my regular games.
I also try to do to them what I know used to tilt me, like 3-betting frequently from the button, checkraising frequently, etc.

YULETIRED wrote: »

4. How much from your bankroll do you require to live each month.

I have absolutely no idea. I generally just pay rent and stuff when they come in, but I never add up money for food or anything. The amount spent in Coppers is horrifying though, I'd hate to hear that figure.

YULETIRED wrote: »

5. You are playing near the bubble of the WSOP, you look down at AA, some guy raises you , suddenly a guy falls to the ground choking purple faced on a nearby table and you are the only one who seems to know that he needs the Heimlich Manoeuvre, Do you reraise or flat call in this position ?

In whirling around, I'd accidentally knock multi denominations of chips in which would count as a raise. While the other guy was levelling himself into a shove, I'd save the purple faced guy, and smoothly ease back to my seat to snapcall his all-in. I'd win the hand en route to steamrolling to the win, and get the girl too.

YULETIRED wrote: »

6. Have you ever swallowed a spider ?

Don't think so. I have swallowed flies when cycling really fast downhill, it's horrible.

YULETIRED wrote: »

7. Name yer three
fav chicks

Salma Hayek in Desperado, jesus.
Allison Stokke, just something about athletes.
Adriana Lima for being phenomenal.

YULETIRED wrote: »

fav tunes

Stone Roses - This Is The One
Belle & Sebastian - Sleep The Clock Around
Oasis - Masterplan
also have a weird fascination with Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere

YULETIRED wrote: »

fav movies

pick 3 from the ones I gave above, though Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is def one of them. I've watched that more than any other film, it's just brilliant.

YULETIRED wrote: »

Fav quotes

good question. I don't know if I can think of three off the top of my head, I might have to come back to this.
Bill Shankly had a couple of great ones, not hard to see why he was such a great motivator.
"Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor."
He had lots of very funny quotes too, worth looking up if you have time.

I really liked Churchill's quick response here, wish I had that kind of quick wit!
After dinner Lady Astor presided over the pouring of coffee. When Churchill came by, she glared and said. "Winston, if I were your wife, I’d put poison in your coffee." "Nancy," Churchill replied to the acid-tongued woman, "if I were your husband, I’d drink it."
He also has tons of great quotes.

If I think of another one I'll get back to this

YULETIRED wrote: »

8. If online poker was banned tomorrow what would you do? (for da monies)

back to work, I have a degree in Finance/Economics, which isn't the best area to be looking, but I know some people in that industry quite well who I'm pretty sure could help me get fixed up. I think I'd be able to hold my own in an interview process too, maybe time will tell

YULETIRED wrote: »

9. If you could be any movie star for a day, who would you pick and why?

Jessica Simpson, and I wouldn't leave the house

YULETIRED wrote: »

10. If you saw you mammy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe, would you wake daddy and watch the carnage unfold, or would you wait until you got over the christmas to break the news to the ol fellow.

this is a trick question imo

Van Dice

robinblinds wrote: »

What sport do you see continually holding the least edge for the bookmaker?

Two different issues - racing will always be the hardest sport to price up accurately, because there are way too many variables that are very difficult to quantify. Also we're still a couple of decades behind the Americans in terms of race analysis and information (even the lack of sectional times lol)
However this applies to the bettor too, and the bookmaker's overround is pretty big so I'd say they'll never be in trouble too much there.
I don't know where their lowest edge is, BCB will tell us

robinblinds wrote: »

What is the one thing, functionality wise, that you'd like all poker sites to have as a given?

betfair poker don't allow you to rebuy until after a hand is over, which tilts the hell out of me. If you lose half a stack, you start the following hand with 50 BBs, which is ridiculous.

Every site should have timebanks, resizeable windows, auto top-ups to 100BBs, and a bet pot button for preflop opens. I have tons more gripes but that's all off the top of my head

Van Dice

OpenEnded wrote: »

dexter or the wire?

I almost never watch tv so idk. I'm going to get The Wire over Christmas though, because I've heard too many great reports not to. Plus I don't want to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on Christmas Day again.

I did see season 7 of Family Guy on dvd, and I'd recommend that to anyone. It's way better than earlier seasons.

Van Dice

smoothcall wrote: »

Are you up or down on blackjack??

looooool
I need to go on the biggest rush of all time to climb out of the red. Though I won lots of Sklansky Bucks playing it, does that count as a moral victory?

smoothcall wrote: »

Ever give plo a spin?

No, I'd need to learn it or get someone to teach me. I'm pretty sure I'd be a huge fish at midstakes PLO.