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Sunday, 13 September 2015

Everyday I am begging

I just woke up and had a dream a bunch of kids holding me for some money, saying I owe them this and that but their reasons are laughable and ridiculous. In real life I have a lot of people that owe me money. A LOT. I am not rich, actually I am considered poor. I remember I attended my high school 15th year reunion and thought to myself, my goodness I am poor. I have so many other schoolmates that now was driving better cars, had their own businesses, properties, and I had close to nothing. Yet I have a lot of debtors. To put it into perspective, they owe me a cumulative one years' salary. That is freaking a lot.

Everyday I beg for my money back while these guys just go on with their lives without a care. Just ignore my message, no need to reply, no need to answer my calls, just continue on like nothing happened. When is karma going to strike? Well I tell you two people that tried to make my life miserable they got their karma. One is somewhere selling retail. The other sold his apartment to fix his problems.

I am a nice guy, I like to help people. Only a close few people try to help me. Anyway I am told I have to let go. I am trying. Maybe this is my karma, but I know my stress and sleepless nights is not unheard. God is my witness and these people will pay, to me or in another way.

Just a piece of advice, don't lend people money, don't owe people money.

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Goodbye Malaysia

I have decided to take the job. Leaving town first of the next month, up to the new change of back to full time employment, top gun position, big responsibilities.

Some of the factors that contributed to the decision

1. Superb offer. The salary they are offering is really really good. It is too good to turn down. I was a bit taken a back then I saw the job description but I think i am ready for it

2. Weakened ringgit. Same salary but in ringgit it is gone up 1000 because of the exchange rate. Considering my previous salary was only 4500 I just got a 1000 raise in a week because of currency exchange

3. Health. Lately I feel aches and pains and really lack of sleep. This lifestyle is bound to catch up to me sooner or later. Suddenly a 9-6 job sounds attractive.

4. Poker. The poker scene in Macau is great. I had to cancel my trip to Cambodia because of this job but now I am planning to play in the ACOP MACAU. I plan to play cash games every weekend

5. Change. Everyday I have to face some issues from poker, my businesses, or some prick decides to cause trouble. I am tired of it. I want a change.

See you Penang, bye bye grinding, but I will be back. Hopefully fresher, better and richer hahaha

Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Hand Selection

Recently I conducted a class on hand selection. Hand selection is very important in poker especially more inexperienced players because they can either get themselves into really tough spots or call down with a losing hand.

There for 4 key elements to deciding to play the hand or not.

1. Hand strength: This is a given. If you have premium, regardless of position, stack size blah blah, you play them no matter what. You need to know the strength of your hand. This may seem easy to most people but I have some students who think that KJ suited is a premium hand. KJ suited is NOT a premium hand. I repeat, KJ suited is NOT a premium hand. Some hands look really pretty, but they are not as good as they look. QJ, QT, KT, these hands will get many players in trouble more than good.

2. Position: Rule of thumb, the later your position, the worser cards you can play. This is relatively true because late positions offer other advantages so you are able to maneuver marginal hands. But it also depends on how many players are in the hand, pot odds and implied odds. There is no point calling one raiser without any additional value with hands like 69 suited but multiway then there is value.

3. Initial raiser image: You may be holding a nice looking hand like AT, but you have to judge your hand strength based on the initial raiser's image (callers too). If the initial raiser is a tight player, your AT may be going against a hand that dominates you. You are sometimes better off calling tight raisers with hands like 45, 57, etc. If raiser is a loose aggressive player, AT is good most of the time against his range. Instead I would avoid playing small cards.

4. Relative stack sizes: Your hand may be good to call in most spots, but you need to recognise the stack sizes of the initial raiser and relative to yours. For example, initial raiser makes it 4x but only has 14x behind. You are holding JT suited on the button. I might not even play this hand because there is not enough value for you to see the flop. Furthermore, player is likely to shove the flop regardless whether they hit or not therefore putting you in a tough spot if you missed or hit but not strong.

Good luck!