Starcraft 2 Review 2012 /w Top 10 Games!

2012 really has been an amazing year for Starcraft 2. The quality of games, in integration of the Koreans into the scene has made the standards go really high. With each patch modifying certain units and/or upgrades, its so interesting to see how it effects the games and strategies that people use.

I've watched so many games and totally been immersed in the scene. The biggest thing that stands out in my mind is the power of the Zerg race in the last 6 months since the Queen range buff. This combined with the fact that Zerg players have improved a lot, have made them a lot harder to beat.

As a Terran player, it makes me shout with frustration that my race seems very fragile and unforgiving in comparison to the other races. It seems that if we mess up an engagement and lose a battle quite significantly, then 90% of the time the race is over. This is because we cannot reinforce as quick as Zerg and Protoss. Zerg having the ability to save up and accumulate larvae means they can respawn their units in huge numbers, allowing them to use up all their money instantly. Protoss can rewarp in their units first, before having a cooldown period, which is the reverse way of how Terran gets their units out.

However, imbalanced players are complaining about, the cream of the crop top top players are always up to the challenge of finding interesting solutions to solve these problems. Whether it being STParting's unstoppable Immortal All in vs Zerg which he has no problem using 3 times in a best of 5, or Polt's TvZ Marauder Hellion Marine timing attack, or even EGStephano's newly implemented switch to using Hydralisks in his composition in ZvT, it always feels like there is something cool and new round the corner, evolving strategies, and back and forth mindgames that renews my love for the game. Its Chess on Meth, its not just a game to me, its Starcraft!

So here ado is 10 picks of games that I loved this year in no particular order! There have been so many cool tournaments streamed on twitch.tv, and its so cool that not just Starcraft but a ton of other games are shown there so that the gamers can expand their communities together. From MLG, Dreamhack, Redbull Battlegrounds, IPL, NASL, Homestory Cup, Iron Squid, Intel Extreme Masters and GSL... there's so much content out there! (Some might say too much)

1. Polt vs Stephano MLG Winter Arena - Amazing comeback in which it seemed impossible considering the amount of bases that Stephano had.

2. Naniwa vs Huk MLG Winter Championships - A really funny game where it all comes down to micro in the end!




3. MarineKing vs Hyun... How can one stop 83 Banelings rolling towards you?




4. MarineKing's super solid macro to win him the Winter Championship MLG final game vs DRG




5. DRG vs MarineKing's (see the bias? =D) hidden Thor/Hellion/Marine play




6. Squirtle's sick vortex on MVP's 30 battlecruisers in the final of GSL. Amazing 7 game series tho.




7. MVP's last game 2 rax play vs Squirtle to win him his 4th record GSL





8. MarineKing's Blind CC First hold vs Hyun's 6 pool in GSL (Sorry its in Chinese LOL). Its the greediest economical build vs the fastest possible aggressive build!



9. Taeja vs Stephano from Dreamhack Winter. Amazing adjusting and readjusting to each other's army compositions. Day[9] also did a cool daily on this game looking at it in detail.



10. MVP vs Nestea at IEM Cologne - Mass Hunter Seeker Missile awesomeness!



Funnily enough, if you play Starcraft 2 you will ultimately have a bias towards liking the games that your race is playing (and winning). I guess its just a natural thing that happens in anything.

All's well looking at the super high level play but there has also been a good amount of games which are just all about having fun and being silly! Redbull's Trial of the X'el Naga was a really awesome event in which modded maps had crazy things happening like nuclear bombs and random explosions and rules which the audience voted that would happen to the players =D

And of course we have the Day9's Funday Monday... playing the game with random contraints, streamchat participation to celebrate his 500th episode!



And some halloween shitting myself screaming gaming! :P Day9 plays Slender


DAMMIT, I was supposed to do shorter blog posts!! >_< Alright lets cut it off here lol, but yay for Starcraft ma favvvvvvve game of all time!! I know a lot of you guys probably have no idea what on earth anything means lol, but I've been meaning to do a kinda newbie explanation blog post on what the game is and why I love it so much later on (whenever that is).

Anyways, y'all have a great Xmas and see you at the tables, or in Starcraft ladder!!

Rome Sweet Rome

So I'm going home this weekend for Christmas, so I'm gonna try and catch up with some much needed lacklustre bloggin! A lot of things on my mind lately...

Last weekend I competed in a Breakdance Jam in Rome called "Fluido 7". We actually went last year but there wasn't much time to see anything there apart from the outside of the colosseum at midnight in the freezing cold. But this time, we went on the Friday and left on the Monday, so we had some time to check out Rome properly.

We actually managed to rent out an apartment close to the venue. It was a really nice place and for 50 Euros each for the whole weekend it was a bargain comparing it to any hotel or hostel. In fact if you ever go on holiday as a group I'd highly recommend it, one of the best places I've ever stayed in fact. Just the fact that you have the freedom to do whatever you want (within reason lol) and whenever you want. Enjoy the overuse of my iPhone 5 fisheye camera!

We went to the Vatican City to have a look at some romantic European architecture. Unfortunately the Manchester rain (or UK? has it been wet everywhere?) had followed us there and it was pretty wet. The inside of St Peters Church was quite amazing, vast and romantic style statues and high ceilings. The choir humming in the background made the atmosphere holy as well. Even as an Atheist  walking around with my friend who is Islamic, we still appreciated the history and grandure of the building.

                 

 


Our Italian friend who rendez-vu'd with us at the church then took us to a place in which he said had the best Ice Cream in Rome. It was pretty damn cold, but hey, why not check it out. He wasn't wrong. On top of that, it was really cheap as well, 3 Euros got you a massive cup of 3 flavors of ice cream... with added cream on top! Never thought of that but it was really really good. I had hazelnut, vanilla with chocolate bits, and cookies and cream (or something nutty, I just pointed at the brownish coloured one to keep my nutty-ish theme going). Mmmmm

Cream on Ice Cream? So good!!

The next day we checked out the inside of the Colosseum. Thankfully it was much more sunny and so we managed to appreciate it a lot more. It costs like 14 Euros and a little bit of queuing. Outside there are vendors who try to entice tourists by getting like a full tour and they try to scare you into getting it because they say that the queuing will be long, but it wasn't at all.

Inside its really nice, and interesting! I think a lot of us think that the inside is like the inside of a gladiator stadium but its not! There are like tunnels and things at the bottom, which we think are under the actual stage which has worn away over the years.

After checking out the bottom section, we went to like another level higher up. There are cool views there and you can look out from the colosseum to see Rome from a higher view which is cool. I took advantage of my iPhone's new panoramic photo settings and took some good pictures. Its pretty fun taking them actually, kinda like a game. You have to start with a picture and then there's an arrow on the screen which moves when you move, but you have to keep it level with a line so that your panoramic picture wont veer off up.

Click on the picture for a bigger view!

The Sunday was the Jam and it was held near where we were staying. In Italy there are two major Jams and this was one of them. Many international bboys and crews too. The competition was a 5 on 5 crew 7 minute battle. We were invited as one of the top 8 crews meaning that we didn't have to qualify, compared to last year. We managed to beat a French crew that qualified in the first round, but lost in the Quarter Finals to a Canadian crew in the end.

The Jam was awesome and had a great atmosphere. The location of the place is a dance studio place that young people can come to practice. Its really good to see that there is a place where kids can come and build a good community.

I had a great time with my brooo's and a great weekend in Rome. I'm glad we got to spend some time together and more time then last year to actually check out a bit of the city!

GOLDDDDD!

Its been a while since my last post. As always, procrastination occurs and even though I want to, I put it off. Right now, I'm enjoying my progress in Starcraft 2 over Poker.

I have been promoted finally to the Gold League 1v1! Leagues in Starcraft 2 go as follows; Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Masters, and Grandmasters.

Strangely enough, when being promoted I'm like in top 10 of Gold League already. I've actually been in gold for a few weeks now, and still doing quite well.

Like most Terrans, I seem to struggle against Zerg. It seems that the balance between when they choose to cheese or macro is so sudden that it throws me off. When we talk about cheese, we mean a strategy that is "All In". In poker terms, that means putting all your chips in the middle. In Starcraft, it kinda is the same thing, but it means that it is a strategy that has no back up plan. So when someone goes all in, it means that they are trying to kill you outright at a certain time, and if they fail the attack, 90% of the time they will be so economically damaged that they will lose to the defender.

Scouting what your opponent is doing is a way of finding out whether they are going all in or not. If you have 2 base and the Zerg doesn't have 3 base at a certain time, it is a good indicator that he is going all in and you have to build extra defenses to prepare and try to survive. However, sometimes scouting is difficult and it is hard to tell. If you scout incorrectly and use your resources to build the defenses when no attack is coming, you are sacrificing your economy and your opponent can get ahead that way and kill you later on with a stronger army because he has more money later on.

Anyways, a lot of you poker players don't really know what I'm talking about, but I'm sure you can relate to it. Poker and Starcraft are actually quite similar in a lot of ways. Like if you make the wrong read on your opponent in a certain situation it can hurt you in the long run.

I probably will be doing more Starcraft blog posts later on as I progress. I'm thinking about doing a newbie post about what the game is, and why I love it so much.

"I love goooooooold!!"

Please feel free to follow my games at twitch.tv/puyanwei


November Poker Review

A quick word about my progress. Its gone backwards lol. I am able to put in the hours and games but after doing some coaching I've realised that I'm doing some elementary mistakes and inconsistent decision making.

I even tried my hand at Full Tilt but even with their promotion only broke even, meaning that I lost. I'm still kinda not sure about Full Tilt, the traffic is really low but I still love the interface and cartoony style.

I think one of the factors comes from the fact that a lot of the time I don't really want to play and its a real grind. My concentration is not 100%. This month there are no goals, I will chill out and maybe play the same games but not with huge volume. I'll probably do shorter sessions with less tables and work on those leaks found.

Its disappointing to see that I'm making these mistakes after all this time, and its clear to me that I need continuous coaching. I have some of the best poker players around me, so I should take advantage of their knowledge. I'm yet to decide what to do next year, I'm playing with the possibility of getting Supernova but I'm not sure.

I'm just gonna use this month to work on my game and get my confidence back. Its been hit pretty hard right now and I'm struggling to hit that register button these days.

QUALITY > QUANTITY

Anyways lets see how it goes... laters!

Punching Bag

Ouch.

Its been a rough month to say the least. I've had my first losing month since January and its not turning around. To be honest its not the losing money that pisses me off but more so the fact that in October I really tried hard to put in a good amount of volume.

In saying that I think I did manage to achieve most of my goals, since they are not results orientated goals, even though things didn't turn out the way I wanted them to;

I managed to play around 800 STTs, which was shy 200 for my 1k goal, but that was compensated by my 1200 180m of which my target was 1k. 

November Goals;

[ ] 25/30 Days playing!
[ ] 1000+ x 180m... 75 games minimum... add in some $15s!
[ ] 1000 x $15s STTs. Playing continuous sessions now in the daytime 40 STTs
[ ] Watch more vids and study HHs...www.youtube.com/jcarverpoker zomg I found this its awesome
[ ] 100hrs of play
[ ] Push ups and/or Sit ups during breaks... nothing helps concentration then some blood flow!!
[ ] 3 SC2 Games a day!! Get into GOLD LEAGUE FFS!! + Stream some too!
[ ] Blog moar man!!
[ ] Stop giving a fuck about what happens in showdowns. Doesn't matter how you lost, you lost! Don't waste emotions on that rubbish!

Right now I'm on a roll of 8 losing sessions in a row and counting at 180m. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or/and running really bad. Whatever it is, its a real mindfuck coz I'm questioning everything, when in comparison to September I was full of confidence and already contemplating the huge winning months I would get in aggressively moving up stakes. I find myself being super negative about my sessions now expecting the worst... and I know all it will take is 2 good sessions and all this bullshit is behind me. Just when....

Tomorrow Full Tilt is gonna reopen. I'm planning add some of their games to my sessions, I plan to get involved with the Iron Man promotion, if it still exists. Anyways, I will decide in more detail.

And btw, for the love of god I hope u Americans get Obama GL!!!!!!!!

Full Tilt is Returning!

I kinda forgot about this but I got an email from Full Tilt 10 days ago;

It certainly has been a long time coming. Since Black Friday when it got closed down, the site has had so much drama, from its poor ownership and lack of organisational structure, the shocking fact that it didn't have credit, the selling of red pro accounts, the loaning of money to its pro's straight from customer's deposits.... ouch. Plus the trouble it has had in finding a new owner who is willing to pay for all the shit... literally.

And strangley enough it was its rivals, Pokerstars who now own Full Tilt. But it has cost them $731 million to settle with the US Government.

In my last post we talked to Josem who works for Pokerstars on the Isle of Man. He told us that Full Tilt are literally gonna be setting base in the Pokerstars offices right there. So as far as running both sites are concerned, its not gonna be a problem... they're probably even gonna save space!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly?

The question that we're all asking (well me mainly, lol... I don't really go on twoplustwo forums or anything like that), is how will things turn out and how will that effect the poker community as a whole? Before they were rivals and there was competition, but now Pokerstars literally owning such a big part of the pie, how will that effect it all?

One thing for certain is that Pokerstar's reputation for its customer service support has been second to none. We are in good hands when it comes to that, comparing to the week long waits for [automated] email responses from the old Full Tilt that drove me nuts. And as a whole this is a really good thing, because there's nothing worse then not trusting the site's ability to handle its customers.

There are talks that Pokerstars are planning to integrate a money transfer system through both sites. This seems interesting. Seems like an example of how Pokerstars can really have a huge advantage in this market. Maybe they've managed to turn the US [Vegas Casino] lobbyists who want a piece of the online poker pie on its head. By the time they start up again, will Pokerstars have too much power?

Even if that's the case, many of us poker players are not going to be too fussed at all. Pokerstars has proven itself to be a great precedent for Online Poker, and if they're the ones in charge of this field, then a lot of us aren't gonna be worried at all.

So another big question is going to be, what's the traffic going to be like? This certainly is going to be interesting to see. I do know a few people who actually only played on Full Tilt and not Pokerstars. From an Interactive Design point of view (that is actually my university degree), I have to say that Full Tilt has a way better interface and overall friendlier cartoony style that would appeal to more casual players. The fact that it had taken this direction was great for its brand as it really distinguished itself from Pokerstars.

I'm certainly gonna be playing on Full Tilt when it reopens again I think. For one thing, I also liked its promotions that it had, The Iron Man was relatively easy to get, and I remember something about The Black Chip which was basically the same as Supernova Elite on Pokerstars but the Full Tilt equivalent. With these promotions it basically means extra income and I'm happy to put in a few extra hours for it.

It will be very interesting when Full Tilt opens again. They never managed to rival the traffic numbers of Pokerstars when they were both in its prime, and I think that's not gonna change either. Only time will tell what happens, this is just another stepping stone towards seeing what happens when USA finally fully legalizes Online Poker again. Only time will tell... but I welcome it.

We will also be interested in how Full Tilt is promoted. With a few of its previous owners being under so much scrutiny, how will the Pro's be represented and how will they market it again?

The Most Minus EV Cash Game Ever [Again]

So last weekend we had another reunion and another pretty minus ev cash game!

I'd say that I've improved a lot since last year but unfortunately I was stuck in between Jamie (Buffyslayer1) to my right, and Tim (Entim) on my left who has a combined winnings of $300k between them... and that's only on Pokerstars lol.

Other guys at the table was Deurdy and "NJD77" Neil Doyle, as well as an amateur who was Neil's friend, who I am glad to say actually wiped the floor with us with his solid tight (and card hitting) play! Sometimes, poker needs the "Average Joe's" to win too, or it wouldn't be profitable!

But hey it was a cheap game with lots of drinking, and even though the banter was hilarious, the analysis also way too in depth, ultimately we were just there to have fun. Highlights included Entim's rather loose 300bb call vs 2 players with 45s and getting there, Neil's impressive moves based on his image, and my shit scared nittyness lol (I'm the fish).

The previous night we met up with Josem from Pokerstars, who was the guy who basically did all the research and analysis into uncovering the UB scandal. Really great meeting him, very interesting guy who did something great for the poker community and its seems very karma-like that its landed him a great job. Apologies to him for the barrage of questions, but him being so Ozzy he was chilled enough to answer them!

Please enjoy this rather "obvious" pun like picture of Deurdy and Michael! Unfortunately we couldn't find any Elites, like in real like they're pretty rare! =D

It was great to see everyone again, I had a blast. I'm really in awe of those guys, they're so much better at me in Poker and I just hope one day I can be half as good as them and I'll be happy. So much to learn! Will deffo try and hit up a trip to Holland to visit Deurdy as our funny poker "gang" [money pending] haha!

October Goalage

Just gonna post this real quick so that I can refer to it at the end of the month. I do this every month but haven't posted it in my blog. Tbh, the last few months have been pretty much the same, just a few tweaks here and there. The reason for that is because I've come up with a good schedule for myself to stick to so that I can see the type of volume I can and cant achieve.


Sup y'all

Pls post up your goals for the month here. Its always a good way of giving yourself a mini target to reach.

[ ] 26/31 Days playing!
[ ] 1000+ x 180m... bump up sessions to 75 games minimum... add in some $15s!
[ ] 1000 x $7/$15/$15KO Turbo 9m... maybe add in some 30s
[ ] Watch more vids and study HHs
[ ] 100hrs of play
[ ] Push ups and/or Sit ups during breaks... nothing helps concentration then some blood flow!!
[ ] Goldstar... push Platinum?
[ ] Gold League in SC2 EU and stream it! 3 Games a day!
[ ] Blog moar man!!
[ ] Stop giving a fuck about what happens in showdowns. Doesn't matter how you lost, you lost! Don't waste emotions on that rubbish!

Hope you all have a good month guys, and enjoy these randomly hot girls!

A Long Time Coming (Gangnam Style)

4th Final "Lucky" for Andy Murray finally taking down a Slam, the US Open! Kinda relate to him but obviously not on that scale haha! Congrats!

As with most poker blogs, we post up reviews of our month/year etc and mostly brag about the profits we make. After all, no unsuccessful poker player would want to blog, right? But I'd like to think that my blog has been about the journey of being a poker player, and kinda showing the bad and good times. Right now... its good! :) But in saying that I've worked really damn hard at it, and in no way do I believe its just a "luck" thing [hopefully lol]

At the beginning of the month I like to put up some goals, so September's was;

[ x ] 25/30 Days playing! Did this in STTs, played 16 sessions in 180m
[ x ] 1000+ x 180m... bump up sessions to 75 games minimum
[    ] 1000 x $7/$15/$15KO Turbo 9m... bump up STT sessions to 60 from 40. Nearly I played around 930! Didn't bump up the session tho, stuck to 40 
[ x ] Watch more vids and study HHs. Had some good study sessions with my friend, it was beneficial for both of us! 
[ x ] 80hrs of play 110hrs yay! 
[ x ] Goldstar... push Platinum? Was very close to Platinum but didn't get it. Don't really mind.
[    ] Gold League in SC2 and stream it! Not even close, just not playing enough.
[    ] Blog moar man!! Errrrr
[ x ] Stop giving a fuck about what happens in showdowns

Pretty solid performance I'd say!

I still struggle to push myself to make the more aggression choice, mainly being rejamming into another big stack with my big stack, especially near the end game. Its something I'm aware of and trying to change.

Its weird to think that I'm "running good" but it really doesn't feel that way. Now I can understand those months in STTs when I felt like I was running bad all the time, when in fact this was because I was so dependent on my HU calls hitting, instead of not giving up my button shoves, and rejamming on theirs. I totally understand what I was doing wrong HU, so glad that I've come this far!

So in TRUE PARTY STYLE here's amazingly the [first Korean] UK No.1 SONG in the charts... zomg, GANGNAM STYLE!!!!!!!! DO DA DANCE! Love how this has randomly gone viral and exploded all over the world!

Big shout out to my friend Kwon who is the sexy guy in the straw hat dancing over the Korean dude in GANGNAM STYLE LONDON!

GL@theTables guys, GG HF!!

The Comeback!

I've found that my blog posts have been getting longer and longer, and that's been making me start some but not finishing them... meaning that I hardly have blog posts at all lol. So I've decided to make shorter entries and therefore post more.

Never heard of him, but apparently he's very good at coming back from behind!

At the start of this month, I finally settled into my new place with new internets, and in true "sod's law" style I ran badly. I lost $800 in 4 sessions of 180m which of course wasn't the start that I wanted.

Looking back at it I blamed variance, but in actuality I had actually did some bad things that could have caused this downswing. This was that I decided that I wanted to reach my volume goal as fast as possible, meaning that I played more then my normal 18 tables, and just kept letting more and more tables load. I wanted to get volume in, but sacrificed quality.

So on my 5th 180m session I cut down the tables and reached my volume goals slower. Thinking back at it, I have no idea why logically I wanted to finish quicker. It wasn't like I was doing anything at like 1am?

The patience style paid off and now I've made a comeback and feeling great about my game. I've also realised a lot of things about 180m as well, where a lot of the edge that you can control [by skill] comes from making other players fold and give up the pot.

My scheduling is pretty solid now and I'm quite happy with it. It goes as follows;

Day Session - 40 x STTs

Break. Do something like go out or chill. Anything that involves being away from computer.

Evening Session - 75 x 180m

Simples.
If I have some other plans in the evening like going breakdancing training or meeting with friends or family etc then I will not play the evening session. However, I will always decided before hand whether I will play or not, but most of the time I will grind some STTs during the day at least.

Finally the new sharkscope has fixed itself! One of the my biggest complaints was the lack of "favourite games" search. The new one is actually better, showing profits of all types of games in the same column as favourite games which is great coz you don't have to research it again.

9 mans are not as profitable as before since they increased the rakes, but still ok, mainly play them for vpps atm, but would like to grind up a STT roll and move up. Doubt I can get Supernova this year I'm only on 40k.

I really do feel good about my game atm. I feel like I have a good understanding about what I should do in certain spots and why I should do it. Understanding this allows for the consistency in my decision making and therefore the results that I want. Hopefully my results will continue to keep going upwards, I feel like I'm at a place where I have a good schedule, work ethic and mental stability to [as strangely as it sounds] worry about the money.

No Man's Land

Hi, my name is Puyan and I'm an Internet Addict. An "InterAddict" shall we say...

So I'm in my new apartment kinda twiddling my thumbs working out what to do for the next week without proper internet. I say "proper" as I can still tether using my phone, but since it has a limit of which I've pretty much already used up, I cant go willy nilly using it all the time as I'll get charged tons for going over it. Also, because of the limit, I cant watch any youtube videos or streams (which I miss dearly) which sucks. I would always love to put some game on in the background from twitch so that I can half watch them play, and also listen to their playlist which is cool as I'm lazy and sometimes cant be bothered to think about what I wanna listen to myself.

So here is my list that I've come up with to help me get through my internetless week;

- Reorganise my 3 external hard drives so that all my tv shows, movies, work and poker stuff is all in one place and easy to get to.
- Reorganise my itunes music. So much random nameless tracks and a lot of duplicates as well. This should take me ages lol
- Watch lots of movies! I've already started going through my James Bond collection haha
- Go outside LOL. However, this option kinda sucks as when you go to town or whatever you tend to spend money, which isn't good as when you move house there are a lot of outstanding bills and stuff so I'm not so keen on doing this too much. Sounds like an excuse not to go outside haha.
- Play Starcraft on tethering on my phone... which I've tried a few times and its a bit dodgy. But since I've pretty much maxed out my limit I dunno if this is really a viable option.

So as you can see I don't really have that much to do, and I'm the kinda guy that likes to keep myself busy these days...

So... FUCKIT

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007IHYP5Y/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

Mad exciting pic of it eh?

Yeah, I know that this is kinda contradictory to what I just said about saving money lol. But yea seems like a good deal and it can add a few more internet waiting things to the list;

- Watch TV
- Play video games

LOL

I had also gotten a glass desk. I find that glass tables are much better to use and they're easier to clean as well. Seems like I'm like totally getting ready to prepare for my internet arriving so that I can get straight back into working on the poker tables. I know that sod's law dictates that I will run terrible when I play since I'm so desperate to do so, but hopefully this wont happen.

[Later edit]

Since I started writing this blog and now I've actually finally got the internet after a crazy stressful experience, here's what I actually did;

- Reorganise the HDs
- Kinda organised music
- Watched lots of telly in true couch potato style... but too late for the olympic stuff
- Traded in tethering Starcraft 2 (was killing my data limit) for getting the old playstation 2 out and clocking GTA San Andreas, which I have to say is an amazing game and holy shit it gets impossible with the challenges (had to use cheats in the end =P)
- Super set up everything all ready to go.

I have to say that these days have been one of the most annoying days ever. Not only have I moved out in a time where I was starting to feel settled in and in a position to start saving, I had also been stuck in limbo in a pretty cool apartment with nothing to do essentially and not really able to spend money (i.e go out and do stuff in town etc) coz I have bills and other outstanding payments from the move to do. I've been unable to make any money from poker so there is a lot of pressure to get a good first week, and if your experienced with playing online poker a lot I"m sure you'll know there's nothing worse then relying on good weeks coz they never really seem to come when you need them most. Well, we'll see how things go...


SUPERNOVA CHALLENGE?

I still haven't decided whether I'm gonna go for Supernova. One of the biggest things that make this hard these days is that the traffic is quite low in comparison to pre Black Friday. For my STT sets I've been playing 4 different games (7/15s turbos and 7/15s KOs) for 20 tables to load up quick enough. Another thing that scares me is that there are no more 27s, but 30s. $3 may not seem a lot but playing so many of these games it adds up, meaning that if I play them the swings are gonna be crazy.

It kinda annoys me that Pokerstars have these stakes that jump up so high. They seem to be rather bankroll building unfriendly. Seems like with these stakes being so much of a jump it basically makes the players unable to move up and be stuck in a certain stake, and then when they do move up its a big risk and makes it hard to stay there. They're argument that introducing new stakes will interfere with other games, but I don't buy that, as STTers all multi table and will be happy to play different stakes at the same time.

The fact that these stakes are doubling each other is quite ridiculous;

Starts at $1.50, $3.50 (?), $7, $15, $30, $60, $100 etc

Should be like $1, $2.50, $5, $10, $15, $26, $37, $50, $75, $100 etc

I would really like to see if having more stakes = less money for them. I cant believe that it would make traffic worse? Plus if there are more stakes, then there are more tables for players to multi table meaning that there is more rake? Sure that'd make more sense.



A 1/2 YEAR REVIEW OF MY GAME

I really do think that I'm a better place now with my game then before. For one thing I'm actually making money LOLz. When I moved up things were a lot less structured, I was too over confident which came back to bite me in the ass, and less motivated/dedicated. Now I feel that I'm sure where I'm at, more experienced in certain situations and more knowledgable... but what people fail at understanding is that more knowledge doesn't mean one answer, it means many answers and understanding them, and then choosing one.

I had gone through the process of playing shove mad to weird/out of the box to super straight up non shoving to now a more foundationally driven style that incorporates all of the above when the situations fit.

Its always hard to know in poker if your doing something good/bad in poker because there is no direct consequence straight away. I always like to use the comparison that if a tennis player hits his backhand and it always goes out then he knows there is a problem with it. Playing poker is like hitting that backhand and have it randomly go in and out over 50 shots, and you can only tell after 500 shots that something is wrong with it.

My structure is now like this;
Days are split into 2 sessions. I will almost always play at least 1 session. Day sessions are going to be STTs and KO STTs, with a minimum of 2 sets of 20. Evening sessions are going to be 180m and maybe a speckle of those luckbox MTTs. I will always pre-decide how many sessions I will play the night before at least so that I can plan the day ahead. I will also try to eat inbetween sessions or prepare something I can warm up during the break. This might seem a bit military but I kinda like having it this way. It gives me a beginning and an end like 9-5 work, and also its a good way to plan certain days when I wanna not play and hang out with friends etc.

As vain as it sounds, I had a 10k game breakeven stretch with those biases, now playing foundationally stronger I've made $5k this year so I cant deny that the connection is there. Games are tougher now and you have to work much harder then before. But this is a skill that I'm constantly working on and I'm much happier with my progress this year.

My last 6 months graph. Not sure if sharkscope is calculating the KO STT's properly but it seems to be more accurate then HEM at the moment.

Rental Number 11

I've lived in Manchester for over a year now and I can say that its been a blast. But in saying that I find myself saying I enjoy things, but for me its becoming more of a long term satisfaction over the short term smiles on faces type of thing. Maybe its personality or Britishness? Learning to be content with things doesn't necessarily evoke the same short term laughing, smiling happiness... which is kinda strange. Ask that to lotto winners after a year! (I'm referring to a study showing that lotto winners tend to return to their "normal" amount of happiness after one year after getting used to their lifestyle) Some good reading here.

I am actually writing this on my balcony on the 7th floor overlooking Manchester of a 1 bed studio apartment. Its quite quirky actually, and reminds me of Hong Kong apartments... small, but cosy which is what I like! Check out the funky design of it lol!

The whole situation of moving out was a little chaotic. It basically stemmed around some of my friends wanted to move as a group of 4, but their financial situations made it out that they were unable to find a more expensive place in central, and I was not wanting to negotiate on the location. Some people might call me mad, choosing location over friends, but at my age I feel now that every place I move to HAS to be an "upgrade", otherwise what's the point? I simply cannot be living like a student anymore. I'm done with that. I hope my friends understand. It was a tough choice but I'm happy it. Why even bother living in Manchester at all, why not live at home with my parents if I wanted the most cheapest option?

I've got a pretty sick view from my new place, and I think its not a bad deal considering that 1 beds are actually more expensive and/or same price as 2 bed places, which don't make much sense! I like to think that when I'm stressing out or going through a bad run I can have a look or chill outside and remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing.



Having a think back, I've lived in a ridiculous amount of places. Its not really by choice really, more so mainly that I spent 6 years in higher education (now irrelevant to what I do lol). "6 years?" I hear you repeat... Must have been in architecture or doctor... but no, I actually dropped out after one year, and did foundations and also repeated another year. But anyhooo holy crap I've lived in many places;

1. Halls in Waterloo - Awesome location, really cheap actually considering location.
2. 3 Bed near Oval - Weird house with shower in downstairs living room where closet normally is!
3. Limehouse - DLR area is kinda cool but found that place a bit lonely as was with some random guy.
4. A shitty room in Waterloo - Above a chinese takeaway, that place was so bad lol but location obv reli good.
5. Halls in New Cross area - Had some really cool flatmates
6. Bermondsey - Quite a bit far out dodgy area but was ok. Got the smallest room though which totally sucked.
7. London Bridge Hostel - For a week! Waiting for a place with another friend.
8. Hackney Downs - An interesting 3 bed apartment where downstairs had 2 rooms of which there were no windows whatever so you'd wake up in pitch darkness not knowing whether its day or night lol.
9. [Moved back home]
10. Delta Point Manchester - An awesome new build near town 2 bed 2 bathrooms, holy crap so much cheaper then London!
11. Abito Apartment!!

Wow.

One day I guess it would be cool to choose one place a stick with it. All those places I had never stayed longer then a year, but if this place is good then who knows? But getting contracts signed is kinda hassle as I avoid telling them what I do if I can get a guarantor signed, but otherwise if I have to then usually its 6 months in advance to pay for the place, as I'm doing now.

In some ways, its ok as I'm pretty confident with my game and I have a pretty good schedule going. I'm pretty confident about getting in the volume that I need in order to survive.



THE BT DEBACLE TAKE 2

As previously blogged, BT is a stupid fucking company. They are literally retarded. And what pisses me off the most, is that they are the only company that actually installs the lines, and fits a phone line for you to get internet. Even if you don't use the phone line at all, which I don't, you still need to use them to get it installed. Meaning if you want to get Virgin or Sky, you still need to deal with BT, the slowest, most unreliable, most terrible customer serviced Inter-telecom company in the UK.

When I found out that the move was going to happen about a month ago, I realised that transferring over my current internet would take a while because it had done so before. So I called them up in advance so that I could arrange a installation on the 6th August (I called around June 13th). This was perfect, as I was due to move out on the 5th. However, for some stupid reason when I called up nearer the end of the month, the stupid Indian lady who I barely could understand had cancelled the order because she thought that I was due a deposit of which I didn't, because transferring internet to another place is free.

Firstly, if your a communications company and employ people to talk to people, please for the love of god will you employ people that are easy to understand. That is literally the only logical criteria for them to have. So sorry if your Indian or Irish or something, but you shouldn't be allowed to work there if we find it hard to understand you. Secondly, how fucking cheap is BT to be offshoring their telecommunications services? I mean the company is probably rolling in it since EVERYONE has to use them to install phone lines, offshoring takes the piss and also make BRITISH telecom give less jobs to locals.

Anyways, so now they've rearranged for another engineer to come on the 23rd August. I know for a fact that the guy is gonna come round, install some mini computer thing into the phone line, and be done in ten minutes. Joker. And for BT's mistake I get nothing in return... just a half arsed apology and the chance to officially complain which means jack shit. I hate working with these incompetent companies...

What this means is that I cant really work for another 10 days which totally sucks. I was getting in the flow and kinda feeling it. My STTs are coming along nicely and 180m, well... a bit breakeven but hanging in there pays off too. I can tether off my phone to browse and stuff, but there's a limit on it so now downloading or watching streams etc. As far as playing goes, I'd rather not be playing off a dodgy connection with money so I will have to be patient and what. I suppose it will be a good time to take a bit of time off and organise myself in the new place.


FULL TILT BACK IN NOVEMBER

It looks like that Pokerstars has indeed bought out Full Tilt. Its so strange that it has come to this but if you had money invested in Full Tilt then you will indeed be getting it back. This also means that Full Tilt will be reopening for business (not for USA obv), and they predicted aroudn 3 months so it looks like November.

This $547 million dollar deal with the DOJ means that they acquire the company as well as paying back the $184 million on top that is owed back to its former customers. Those numbers are absolutely astounding, but I think with Pokerstars strategy it actually is a good investment... for the loooong run.

Pokerstars had known about the possibility of Black Friday's banning in USA of online gambling, so they have been strategising hard to market out to the rest of the world. As I play I see more and more countries I had never seen before, from China/Hong Kong to Croatia to Mongolia! (They have internet? lollll) This is also why they can afford taking on such hefty sums of money. As long as they hang in there, when things become legalised, things will pay off as they have the most experience and customer base.

You can read more about this here - http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/07/pokerstars-acquires-full-tilt-poker-assets-players-refunded-13146.htm

As far as the USA goes, only time will tell what will happen. Everyone knows that it will be legalised again sometime within 1-3 years time O_O but the big question is whether they will be playing vs the world or will it be a country only game like France, and Italy.

Either way, its good to finally have this settled. Full Tilt and Pokerstars were the biggest online poker rooms for a reason... their interface and games where the best. Since I'm quite stubborn to play on other sites, this makes me look on and think about the possibility of investing in Full Tilt again.


LONDON OLYMPICS 2012





I think that the general condenses over the opening ceremony show was that Danny Boyle did a pretty good job. Us British being British, were being pessimistic and kinda interested to see how "bad" it was going to be. But in all honesty it was actually pretty good, especially the opening sequence with the Industrial Age making the Olympic rings out of molton iron (spoiler!). Other notable mentions were the dove bikes, inventor of the internet, The Queen with James Bond, Mr Bean, lit up beds and iron petals which came together to form the olympic torch.

Some parts where pretty weird and random, but in actuality people don't realise how HARD IT IS TO REPRESENT BRITISHNESS. I mean if we compare it to say China, or the next Olympics in Rio, those countries we can already imagine what they will show and the kind of themes that they have going. Hell, we will even call the themes "Chinese" and "Brazilian" LOL. But do we ever call anything "British"? With so many contracting things in Britain from pub food, to rock bands, countryside and city sleek, multi cultralism to royalty, its so hard to represent the British.

It did seem like a one in a lifetime show in London, and I'm kinda sad that I couldn't see it live. Either way I hope it revitalises East London, and well right now it seems that Team GB is doing really well in the medals department, behind China and USA.

I guess over the next few days I will try and catch up on my blogging, there have been a lot more things I wanted to blog so this looks like a great chance to do so! GL at the tables guys!

An ROI of Undefined

What does that mean?

I won a freeroll live tournament in the casino the other night. Meaning I invested zero, and won a few hundred quid... so working out this shit mathematically its prize/investment (=0), which as I'm sure you guys know will make your calculator freak out and say that you cant divide by zero. And as poker players are obsessed with ROI, I'm gonna say that the ROI is undefined.

So lets do some math to make your head explode!

5/0 = ?

Translated to real life English its 5 things divided by nothing.

Logically if we divide 5 things by nothing its 5?

5/0 = 5?

But remember that 5/1 is also 5!

So like wtf lolz how can 5/0 and 5/1 both = 5? (Head explosion)

If we use this 5/1 = 5 in written form it is saying that it is dividing 5 into 1 parts.

So we should try and divide 5 into no parts... which basically isn't possible.

To fuck with you even more we could go algebraically;
6/0 = x
so 6/x = 0
give x, say = 2
if x=2, then 6/2 = 0 (which isn't true), and therefore 6/0 = 2?
6 = 2????????? wtffffffffff

ANYWAYS............. DONT MESS WITH ZERO!!


lols anyways, I digressed a little haha, but I actually really love the quirky shit like this in math(s for the English, but in this instance I actually think that the American way of saying it sounds better).

My friend had visited Manchester for a few weeks and he wanted to play some live poker so I took him to a few tournaments. Unfortunately he didn't have much time so we ended up just playing in a freeroll tournament, which wasn't ideal as normally they're pretty terrible as a structure. But its a freeroll so you could probably let it off.


CASINO FREEROLL TOURNAMENT LOL xD

Entry - Free
Starting Stack - 5000
2 Rebuys = £10 per Rebuy for 10k Chips Each or 20k Chips for Double Rebuy
Rebuy period finishes after 3 Levels

13 Minutes Blind Levels
Starts at 100/200
200/400
300/600
500/1000
800/1600
1000/2000
2000/4000
etc.. and it is never capped LOL


I won £365 for 1st place after making a deal 5 handed. Tbh was probably the easiest cash I've ever made in live MTTs, I ran decently good and players are just really bad as u'd expect.

Strangely enough despite being into poker I'm just not that much of a fan at reading other poker players many hand analysis' coz a)too lazy probably since most other poker blogs are mad long with them b)don't believe that there is ever a definite right/wrong way to play poker c)most are like poker players complaining about other bad players/luck etc and that itself is boring.

What I do remember generally is funny shit... seeing how bad the players are;

1. During rebuy period MP guy limps, I squeeze raise it up w/78s, BB calls and original limper calls as well. Flops is K7T I think. They check to me pretty quick so for that reason I cbet. They both call. Turn is like a 2 or something, but it gives me a flush draw. So checked to me, I think that my line is pretty strong and they're quite defensive so I shove. Limper guy tanks for ages and calls with QJ for an OESD (open ended straight draw) and river blanks and I win lolz.

2. Guy limps in UTG during like last 3 tables with big stack and I shove with 88. He tanks for freaking ages and folds JJ face up. He asks me what I had and I refuse to tell him lolz.

3. Same guy keeps limping UTG and I had like hands to shove on him like 2 or 3 times later. Each time he tanks for ages and then says that he has to fold. Literally lost his big stack by doing this continuously until he bubbles by shoving his A9 into my AK.

4. Final table other huge stack girl who is terrible limps UTG then calls a shove with J4 thinking that its AJ, of which his opponent has... and then hits river 4 lol

An interesting thing happened 5 handed when it was myself and another lady who basically had 2/3rds of chips in play, and she suggested to give me a 1st place deal that was evened out a bit to her 2nd. She was pretty terrible and tired and wanted to go home. We originally agreed £380 to £300, but her fucking boyfriend came over and interfered, saying that was shit. This pissed me off a ton, coz he's not involved and shouldn't be fucking interfering the bastard lol.

So here's the lowdown of the deal that happened;

Chip Stacks

Myself - About 650k
Tired Woman - About 600k
3 Other Guys - Like wavering about 100-150k

Blinds are 14k-28k and go up every 13 minutes and never caps.


Original Payouts
1st - £410
2nd - £290
3rd - Dunno lol

Final Payouts Ended
1st - $365
2nd - £320
3rd - 5th £125

Now looking at the numbers that looks pretty shit, but let me explain some of the other factors that influenced my decision;

- I actually wasn't as big a chip lead as she thought. I think we were really close, and I was probably ahead by something like 50k and she literally couldn't be bothered to ask for a count.
- The blinds are huge, and even with these stacks we're not guaranteed 1st/2nd. Variance worried me a bit.
Main Reason---> My best friend was leaving in the afternoon the next day (technically the same day) and I guess I had enough as well. Had 4 hours sleep the day before T_T

I guess I am thinking of what could have been for that extra £50. I definitely was the best player at the table and had the momentum. She was terrible and tbh her guaranteeing 2nd place was really good for her. But at the end of the day I made £365 from the straight up freeroll stack so it cant be all bad lols.

I really should play more live, I only really play it when my friends wanna play. The thing is, I just really find it boring one tabling, and some of the (fat, smelly, idiotic gambling retards that think they know what they're talking about) characters are basically just annoying as hell. However, on the flip side I can see that when you are playing it feels like an experience, like your own little journey towards winning - just like what I wrote above there are situations that stick out in my mind.

The Eighteen Kay

Holy shit it has been a long time since I posted about some success in poker but things seem to finally turning around. More importantly I'm understanding why things have happened the way it did, and why I'm starting to get results. My game is more complete and I have a better understanding of what to do, and what happens when you make certain plays. Going through this whole process will hopefully be beneficial to me in the overall scheme of things.

One of the biggest challenges I've found is mentally handling the losses, and not getting results that I want despite the fact that I feel that I've been improving as a player. This is something that every poker player has to come to terms with, the fact that you will always get that bad beat, and lose to a worse player... poker has that element of luck in it that gives everybody a chance to win. Without this, poker would only have skilled players and the edge would be minimal and probably not worth it.

Since switching to my new coach/staker we've worked hard at going back to basics and working on getting my game fundamentally strong. I think its interesting that I've come full circle liking certain "weird off the wall" plays, and now incorporating more of a KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) style. On top of that, I've added more of a aggressive style with a lot more rejamming, which is something that wasn't in my game enough.

Below are some graphs/stats of my results since Feb when I got my staking deal;

Its been a struggle but BOOMSWITCH ftwwwwwwwww!!!

Another thing that is cool is that I'm a lot more happy with the distribution. Coaching and talking to many players has really confirmed that I'm moving in the right direction and it's helped with my confidence a lot.

This is my distribution graph for 180ms, I'm happy that I'm getting a lot more 1sts then anything else which is the way it should be. In fact I'm also getting more 1sts then anything else in my STTs as well, although my overall percentage itm is a bit low (should be around 37%)

Eurocultured

I've been rather busy with a visiting friend and a festival with breakdancing competition going on. Which is why I haven't been able to play much poker these days. I took part in a breakdance comp as part of Eurocultured Festival in Manchester, which was fun. Despite the rain, I had a really good time and was really glad that my friend visited during this time, as I got to show off the best of Manchester.

Its one of the really cool things I love about this city is the fact that there's always stuff going on, and everyone is really up for it in this city!



This is a trailer from 2011, 2012 was mad rainy!!



Goodbye House MD

One of my favourite shows finished recently, and I'm sad to see it go. I've never really had much of an interest in medicine but since watching this show its given new life to it. I would say to a person that has never watched it before, its a cross between CSI and ER, where the focus is on solving the mystery and the drama that happens to the characters, of which Dr House is a very logical, smart guy, but on the other hand personality wise he is a pessimistic, miserable git! The fact that he is always right and treats every personal situation into a logical one makes for some funny situations.

Its such a super addictive show! I remember watching one episode, then the rest of that season [3], then downloaded seasons 1 and 2 and literally spent 3 days going through them all!

One of my major critisms of the show tho, was its inability to allow any permanent changes to the main character. But none the less, its really good and if I was to recommend one show to anyone it'd be this one.







One Year On...

Its been a little over exactly one year since moving to Manchester. The choice for me to move outta home as soon as I could afford it was made easier from my experiences of living independently in London for University and a year or so after that as well.

I can say that it has been a great learning experience and I don't regret my decision at all. I have a really good group of friends here, there is a good breakdancing scene, and I love the city. Things haven't been easy, but from my experience that's totally expected. How you react in those situations is the only thing you can control and get on with.

I have been totally lucky that I got to work with Glitlr on SNGProtege, for one thing it has taken a lot of the pressure of needing to win at poker. As shown above it has been a long break even stretch, making it more of a mental challenge more then anything else. Hacking it at this game gets easier in terms of learning what to do in more spots, but as time goes on it becomes harder to mentally take the strain of losing when you know that you are the better player.

Strangely enough I feel that Manchester is somewhere I'm happy to call home, even though I have spent many-a-more years in my hometown Milton Keynes, and my birthtown London. What a strange feeling!

See you guys at the tables, and GLHF (Good Luck, Have Fun) as they would say in Starcraft!

Just SooImba

Sup y'all hope everyone is enjoying the beginnings of what is to be great summer! Well, here in UK we've just had our wettest April and its not gonna stop apparently... so not sure when officially summer is actually coming, but hey... that's UK for ya!

I'm happy to announce that I am making some progress in the Silver League at Starcraft 2! 4th in Silver, pretty happy with that, and quite confident with my build now.

As you can see, I'm "sooimba" but I also notice the 6th place guy "TerranImba" which I thought was kinda funny... coincidence? Totally.

I basically watched a series with this guy;




...and it helped me a lot.

Basically he advocates the "Special Tactic" of.... wait for it....

...Getting more stuff then the other guy!

Wow, such amazing strategy! Nearly as good as such favourites "Score more goals then the other team" or "Score more points in the basket then your opponents". Duuuh

But basically it does show how having literally no real strategy but building a lot of stuff can get you really far. Ever since I've adopted this build I've managed to win a lot more, and learn to adjust to a lot of things. Having specific builds vs certain race match ups is good, but isn't really as relevant until you get to the higher levels.

I'm interested to see how far I can get with just doing this. I am pretty good at doing multi-pronged attacks, as well as multi drops and just being all over the place, which is the kinda style that I wanna use.

I'll be streaming regularly so if your around come by and say hi at twitch.tv/puyanwei


The Imbalanced Argument


So in this game there's a lot of talk about balance. Balance basically is about making the game as fair as possible, by making each race (terran, protoss, and zerg) as evenly matched as possible. But the continuous arguments for/against certain aspects of the game are so overly complained about, it made me use the name "sooimba".

In my opinion the game is as balanced as it can be. There can and will be tweaks here and there, but I honestly think that the general backbone of the game is flexible enough for players to be able to solve certain problems in creative and intuitive ways. After all, don't we play games for the challenge?

Without this balance, the game would never have been as popular as it is today. What's more, the fact that the 3 races are being chosen quite evenly shows that there is no clear better race to use. Even at the highest level when watching the pro's play, we see a pretty good distribution between them. There are advantages and disadvantages to using each race.

I do complain a lot about balance but in actuality I'm only really kidding around lol. I really do <3 this game and will keep playing for a long time I think. There is something really interesting about how there are so many different strategys as well as the fact that they always keep evolving over time, meaning that your not always doing the same thing over and over again.


I guess the fact that I'm just a high silver I don't have the perspective of a high level master league player... but I guess this would be fun to look back on when/if I get there!

Back to the Future

Marty!! Its time... to go back to the future!! 

Well actually... more like back to the past! I've been playing the $15 STTs (Single Table Tournaments) again thanks to my VPP collection scheme, and I have to say I'm not doing badly at all for once wow. Small sample atm of course, but not bad considering I'm not table selecting and 20 tabling a mix of $7s and $15s.

One thing that is interesting is how my game is so much better then before. I understand a ton of new concepts and lines to take, and my heads up play has improved considerably, of which it shows since it's got the highest distribution. 

Another thing is that with this "new" found knowledge... the games are kinda like, new games to me! Its interesting going back to this old game that I used to play a ton with this new mindset, and see things in different ways. I can really see the mistakes that I used to do, and understand why I had the breakeven stretch that I did. Anyways, hopefully it will continue, and with it comes my confidence and hopefully more money!

Hooooold!

Barcelonaaaaaaaa

I have been neglecting my travelling this year, and I feel bad for it. So when the opportunity came to go to Barcelona for a breakdance jam, I pounced on it. December last year I went to Rome, so it seemed like a good time to go to sunny Spain!

However, it didn't turn out that way. We brought the British rain with us, and it was cold as shit =(

Still, I had a good time, tried some Spanish Paella, and checked out the Gaudi Church which was one of the most interesting buildings architectually, I've ever seen! 

Gaudi's most famous building "Sagrada Familia"

View from Outdoor Restaurant. Mmmm Paella!! 

I really do miss travelling, but I think that my days of doing the long ass month stays are over. Maybe 1 or 2 weeks max now. I guess I *could* bring my laptop to play poker, but it would be without all the poker software and stuff... which to be honest I wouldn't mind too much. Its just the fact that I'd like to have my away time from the online felt.. and I'd probably miss my Starcraft too much lolz.