Hey guys,

I see some familiar faces here, though a lot of new ones too. I posted here a lot until, what, a year ago? I used to be kind of the ringleader in organising strat board tourneys, and I got a little disgruntled when people stopped coming (I guess I took it personally, and figured I'd stop posting). But I have kind of missed you guys, and since my mind has been blown in the last few days I couldn't contain myself and wanted to share the joy with some people who might remember me, and also can comprehend how bizarre this is.

Basically, for nine months I've bounced around with the same $50 I deposited at PS last October. Made a run at one point over dozens of $5 STTs to get up to near $200, but then slowly dropped back down and have hovered near $30 for what seems like forever.

Then I started trying HU tourneys. First it was the deep stack no blind increase ones, which I found a cool concept, and I did well, racking up a 15-8 record. But one of them took over four hundred hands! That's slow going at five bucks a pop, lol. So just this week I tried regular blind structure HU tourneys and immediately won six of the first seven I played for $5.25. Moving over to the $10.50 version, I won nine of ten! So I was excited; but I wouldn't be posting about it if this was all that had happened.

On Friday, the 4th, as my bankroll had moved up to something more like $80 or so, I thought "hey, I don't want to forget how to play against a full table" so just kind of on a lark (and because I like the fact that the structure is slow yet the buyin is cheap and the vig only 10%) I played a couple $4.40 180s. Didn't cash, but I was having fun with it, and played another...which I won! Okay, "big whoop", you are thinking. "Winning a 180 isn't the second coming, for chrissakes!" True--but wait. Then I immediately played another one, and went out 22nd (with the 14th biggest stack: I had trips and was up against a concealed small pp that flopped a boat). But I went right back to the well...and, to mix a metaphor, got right back on the horse and got back into the winner's circle, first place, in the next 180 I played. So at this point, winning two of three (turning less than ten bucks into over four hundred) seemed like a damn good deal; and I finished off the night (Saturday at this point) with a HU win, making the 22nd place finish my only non-win of the past four SNGs I had played.

But Sunday I had massive amounts of homework; and Monday I spent all day travelling with my fiancee. After coming home, I had various shit to do, but I was itching to try another 180. By 11:30 last night I was finally ready and went for it...and an hour or two ago, you guessed it: I won that one too.

So: four consecutive 180s (with that one HU match the only other poker I played over the span), and I logged three first places and a 22nd place. Give me a reality check if I need one, but isn't that a little bit phenomenal? I mean, if I went to people and told them to look me up (SlackerInc1 as some of you surely recall) on sharkscope, and told them I had invented a non-fake program that actually worked and let me see people's hole cards, don't you think I might get some believers? (Just to be clear: I have not actually invented such a program, and I will definitely not be attempting to swindle anyone into thinking I have, lol.)

I mean, WTF right? Have any of you had such crazy variance in your favour? And how do I calculate the odds against this, anyway? Isn't it millions to one? That's the best guess I could hazard.

Though of course I know I can't keep up anywhere near this kind of pace (which is what I thought about all day Sunday and Monday, making last night even more surreal), I feel that I did this by playing good poker and taking unrelenting advantage of the mistakes of other players. I really didn't do a lot of sucking out or whatnot.

I do think my poker skills have percolated over quite a long time. I used to do pretty well against you sharp, aware players, as you might recall; it was the bad players outside our private tournaments that drove me insane. Zach used to insist that it was crazy for anyone to claim that it was more difficult to play against clueless Internet maniacs than against savvy players who know the math etc. It was just that those of us who felt that way hadn't learned how to properly adjust against different types of players. And I think he was right, and some things about that have finally clicked.

But there's one other factor that I can't dismiss as a mere coincidence. A few weeks ago, I came across a poker book that really intrigued me, and I bought it despite having told myself I was just going to peruse the poker section and not buy anything as I couldn't really afford to. And I've just found it a great read, with lots of insight. Here's the kicker, as it were: though I bought it over a month ago, the point at which I actually read most of it (I'm still not finished) happened to be last week, just before going on this supersonic roll.

I'm not going to just announce on a public post what book it is (though the author might curse me for my refusal, lol). But if anyone that I remember from back in the day wants to private message me, I'll give you the 411 on the title and author. It's definitely worth a read!

So, anyway...flame me mercilessly, if you must, for my brag post. But COME ON: if you had won three out of four 180s, wouldn't you be dying to brag too? Cut me some slack (lol...no pun intended, honestly).

-Alan

nice accomplishment, but I know and you know that you owe it all to Phil Gordon's little green book.

Thanks. I do like that book, and it was one of the first poker books I read, but no--this is a newer book.

The Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker

That one saved me about a nickel on heating oill last winter.

LOL...that bad huh?