The Blog Move

Recently i've been working on some sites and becoming familiar with Wordpress. Inspired a little by my roommate Ashton Cartwright and by ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

I decided to move my blog for the following reasons;

1# I wanted to change my domain from nicastripoker.blogspot.com to aaronnicastri.com

2# Wordpress provides more flexibility and potential growth

3# It seems silly to use both Wordpress and blogger



Im hoping to become a more active and better blogger and i think it will be a good platform for me to do it

A Blended Grind

Had an interesting week of poker.

Both this Monday (5/12) and last Monday (28/11) I've had decent 5k+ scores in online mtts (this is not exactly what it seems because usually you win one tournament or do well in one and lose all the others) they were still both significant scores though
which is nice, the path to get to this point though has been pretty rough and very very swingy. Sharkscope says I'm back in the positive for scheduled tourneys but i think it lies about rebuy tournaments and so is far from accurate.

On Thursday night i played a little bit of heads up in Jesse Mckenzie's home games holding my own with a solid player and then stacking Micheal Arietm as he joined us for a 3 player cash bonanza. After this i headed to the city to chill with Rhys Gould and play some magic online.

I played some live 5/10 and 10/20 cash on Friday and Saturday nights, got there twice when it was necessary and just played pretty solid straightforward poker which is all that really needs to be done in live passive fields where the overlay and skill edge is significant.

On Sunday the 4th i played the 1k nlh event at 'The Star' which had 108 entrees. My opening table was one of the tougher ones but the other good players (Brendon Rubie etc) seemed to die off. Rhys Gould came to my table with almost no chips, doubled up and then got stacked a few hands later as one of the regs Danny predicted. Alek Smith showed up and immediately got in a 6 bet war then proceeded to run over the table with a combination of aggression and big pocket pairs.

I soon got moved tables and watched my friend Nick Polias run into a monster with 88 and then found myself in a tough spot, i opened with ato utg (had a semi loose image) the table folded to the sb who min raised with 16bbs (an amateur), the bb called (also an amateur player) and i called. The flop came a25 the sb lead for 4k the bb folded and i called, the turn came a queen and sb led for 9k with 15 behind, i tanked and decided to call and fold to any river action if the board did not change. The river repeated the 5 and the sb shoved. Based on his play i didn't expect him to ever have ak and rarely have aq (i thought his most likely holding was aj)as i expected he would have shoved pre flop with these hands and his stack size eventually i called and he turned over qq and scooped a big pot.

Back to 10bb i ground away and doubled up with JJ. We soon moved tables and only 40 players were left. I sat on the right side of a pretty adventurous Sydney regular, Tolly. My table overall was pretty tight and i found a few spots to pick up chips. I was up to 30bb as some new players moved to our table. One of the new players to the table came into the cutoff and when folded to opened to 3k @ 600/1200 200ante(from a 50bb stack), in the sb i decided to 3 bet him with kjs to 8k he called. Flop came a52rainbow (1 card to my suit) and i made a half pot continuation bet, the new player called. The turn was a queen which helped my hand a little, the pot had gotten pretty big roughly 34k and i had 24kish left, i decided this was a good opportunity to pick up a big pot I shoved and was called.

Usually this would be super super bad for me. To my amazement my opponent turned over q4s for 2nd pair and a gutshot, i had 7 outs as opposed to the 4 i expected i would have when called unfortunately i missed them all. My opponent played pretty interestingly in this hand calling a 3 bet with a really bad hand, calling a flop bet on an ace high board with only a gutshot and then calling a turn shove in this spot. I want my opponents to play badly so even though things did not go my way i was pretty happy with the tournament and how i played.

So in the last week i have played lots of online tourneys, heads up cash, big live games and a 1k livament.

Officially poker'd out for at least the rest of the night

The Sunday Grind, Why Ride the Wave?

In Australia our Monday falls when the rest of the world is busy enjoying their Sunday. This means that the Sunday majors happen on an early Monday morning, once a week every player worldwide jumps online and every Australian player wakes up at 4am to get their grind on. It is a necessary evil to play this day if you want to be an online mtt (multi table tournament) player.

The reason Sunday majors are a big deal is multi faceted. First of all the tournaments are the largest on this day, Secondly the guarantees are the biggest and thirdly fields are generally the weakest.



The reason is because more leisurely or part time players can play on these days so in addition to all the regulars (who are looking to benefit from this scenario) you now have a largest amount of players ever online.

Satellites run all week long for the Sunday schedule and build up the amount of players. Players that have satellited into events are generally weaker then those who choose to play the event normally. The reasoning for this is that the player who satellites into lets say Sunday millions which is a $215 buy in would usually only buy into tournaments that cost under $50.

As the buy-in (BI) goes up the fields get tougher and so the player who has an average BI of $10 is generally going to be weaker then a player who has an avg BI of $100. It's a process of elimination, if a player keeps losing at a higher stake eventually they drop down to a lower more suitable game. Poker is more fun when you are winning.

Sunday is the most swing day, larger fields create higher variance. If you play in a tournament with 10 players and all players were of equal skill you would win 10% of the time. If you play in an event with 10 000 players and all were equal skill you would win .01%. Because tournaments are top heavy in payout structure we always want to play to win, when you take up this kind of mindset in high variance big fields players will tend to win or lose a lot on this day.

Most players play higher BI on the Sunday. Because the fields are weaker players who usually play $50 BI usually will play $100 BI plus Sunday millions. Every player wants to play Sunday millions because it is the biggest regular tournament online and it runs the most satellites and so at its particular BI is great value for almost every real player.

All the major sites (pokerstars, carbon, party poker, bwin, titan etc) have enough games on a Sunday that you will never have trouble getting a quantity of tables up at whatever stake you desire. Some players who like to play really high BI just play the biggest BI on each site, however using different software from different sites at the same time can be annoying.

Sunday is the funday where hopes and dreams are at a high but due to variance are generally crushed, it is an emotional fast passed day. It is certainly a wave which is ridden worldwide once a week by many many people. If you are going to win big in poker this is the day to get it done.

All i can say is good luck on the grind and for the Australian's don't miss your alarms

Mid Stakes Mtt Video

I've been interested in coaching for a while both from the side of learning and the side of teaching as a way to develop both myself and my game as a whole. Often when watching other players you are put into new scenarios you would not often find yourself in.... Sometimes we find new and good ways to play hands and other times we just have to attempt to clean up a mess, but i think the thought process is interesting

This is a video i made for my team-mate "the infamous Jacky Wang" a few months ago (he has been doing amazingly since and id like to think i had a little hand in helping him along the way). A lot of things have changed in my game since this point but i thought id put this up as a freebee for all those interested. It was my first attempt at making a video so go easy and feel free to leave comments

7 deadly sins

I confess its been 7 or so months since my last update. Ive been a busy boy playing poker, learning new formats, getting in some big live games and trying to stay sane.
I'm going to discuss some bad things in regards to online play and then talk about how i deal with them.

Online poker deadly sins

Sin 1 Not having enough fun
Sin 2 Playing tournaments
Sin 3 (Not) Controlling your emotions
Sin 4 Not waking up fully before grind sessions
Sin 5 Chatting too much/ or any distraction that does not let you focus on your game
Sin 6 Being on your computer way way to much
Sin 7 Being lazy

"but finally I've learnt this, (if you don't do enough things that make you happy and keep your life separate from your work) your whole life can become a grind"
As a professional poker player you must have some other vices outside of this game, we all need an escape. The reason for this is probably based on variance which comes from the land of tournaments (at least more then in any other field of this game).

I think there are many controllable factors which mostly tie in with not being lazy. You need to use your time wisely when you are not forced to work, but this is not just for work this is also for the time you dedicate to your family your relationships and all other aspects of your life.

You can control your sleep patterns so you wake up well in advance of your sessions, for some people sessions are scheduled in but for me this would make it seem very much like a grind if i was obligated to play x hours at x time. In fact it is one of the reasons i don't like jobs...the freedom to be my own boss is highly important

In online poker tournaments on the major sites all players get a five minute break every hour, if you were ever going to use your time wisely this is the period in which it must be done. Personally i spend this five minutes away from my computer stretching and doing general fitness to get blood circulation happening and clear my mind from the fast passed decision making that happens the rest of the time. Toilet breaks, showers and quick meal preparation also fill in this time. Usually i prepare meals before sessions so i am never distracted by hunger, any meal that can be reheated in the microwave during breaks is a winner.

Turn off your facebook, twitter etc and don't get to involved in skype chats when you have more then nine tables ruining. This seems pretty obvious but distractions are super bad and will lose you money long term. You only have a small amount of time to process information on tables and shortening this time by allowing yourself to be distracted is the equivalent of playing a whole lot more tables with none of the gains.

As professional poker players we are going to be tied to our computers a whole lot, this can be balanced by some amount of live play and getting outdoors when you finish your sessions. We all need some escapes from poker at times try to make these activities which distance you from your desktop.

Controlling emotions is one of the hardest things to deal with. There is no easy solve, but it is important to stay positive and give off positive energy to others around you even when things are not going well. I personally struggle with this and catch myself doing things that i know are bad from this perspective. You don't have to keep it all inside but limit your venting and negativity as much as you can/ or just don't play tournaments because they are the most tilting thing in the world :)

With all this said have fun with your poker and fun with your life. Remember that you took up this career because you love this game, if this is not why you are here then may i suggest a different path.

the chesper update

Its been a while since my last confession.

A lot has happened in my poker adventure. In December 2010 i found a coach and a willing backer and decided it was a good time in my life to take a chance. On the 2nd Jan i quit my job which was fine by me because i pretty much hated it.

I went down to Aussie millions and had a pretty awesome trip which included playing lots of satellites the main event and some 5/10/20 cash action.. I think i played pretty well across the event but did not favor well overall in the satelites and ran into a cooler in the main event.

Unfortunately sometimes bad things happen and my backer to put it simply isn't in an apt position to back me. A little bit frustrating but now i think i will just work on building my bankroll without assistance.

I have been trying to put in hands online, i am currently 12 tabling 50c/1 full ring on stars and am working with mike gano (a cardrunners coach known as "fooz") on my game. My current plan is to try play more hands online each month then the previous month and continue on my learning curve.

I have also been playing live games and been faring pretty well. At the begging of next month i can play at star city again and then i can really try to put my stamp on this town.

thats about all hope you enjoy

Update Time

Its been a while, i have a habit of saying this.

Above is an update of my live cash play which has been going pretty well, and i guess in part is a reason why i want to give more attention to cash then other formats (also i feel there is a lot of room to grow).

Ive found it hard to report when things are not going your way and my online October was my worst month ever, probably a combination of running badly a little tilt and mostly just not ever winning on bubbles. I ended up breaking close to even by backing Ryan in Melbourne ANZPT and some online tournaments where he did really well.

I gave the online situation a lot of thought and decided that DONs are not the best format for me overall for a large amount of reasons, so what are my other options??. "Cash" i have always thought as online cash as being to hard to beat, but this is more in comparison to how easy live cash is rather then whether it is true or not, also i have never played a volume that would allow me to have a real idea. I decided that i need to learn more to beat online cash, so i bought a cardrunners account and have been reading a lot (its mostly information i know but the application in spots is different online to live).

I want to build a game that will allow me to move up while being a good aggressive player, to do this im keeping a limit on my tables so i can maximize in good spots and hammer people with stats that just don't add up. I also am aware my game has leaks and im going to endeavor to solve these issues whether it be through training, analyzing sessions or just talking a lot to other good players about spots and hands.

September was a bit of a write of for me and most of November has been due to glandular fever which to say the least is not fun. Basically just makes you really tired and drains your energy which really has hurt my ability to play even in short periods. Fortunately for me Jesse Mac destroyed the side events in APPT Cebu and my backing for him has now been more then justified.

th th th thats all folks

August Has It All

I got through about 900 dons this month, the most I've ever played in a month (considering i was @ 600 half way through the month and my aim is 300 per week it still is not the best). The graph is a record of my pokerstars play but i also played a few games on partypoker (signed up through my mate 'Ashton').

I experimented a lot this month with different ways to apply sitngo wizard ICMs and found myself playing to tight looking for positive expected value spots. I think my game is improving as a result but my profit showed that i was not on the money all the time (and was probably playing badly in some regards/ especially when my internet was crashing).

There's always a reason you (I) cant grind enough. On the 26th i turned 25 and had pretty much a week of celebration (in my experience alcohol and poker do not combine well) also our home game got running which took another day of grinding away from me. If things keep going well in these departments i will be able to cut my star city work down even further.

I've been dedicating a fair chunk of time to ju-jitsu and my fitness (trying to put on 3kg muscle). I think it is necessary at least 3 times a week to get far far away from poker

As for the team Rhys, Ryan, Jesse and James have been crushing the live cash scene which is pretty awesome (especially Rhys). Jesse and Ashton have been grinding up a storm in the sitngo world. Tim is beating other Asians at starcraft...

Augusto

As usual its been a while between updates. I spent the month of July being frustrated at not being able to get real Internet (Telstra and current Australian infrastructure is a joke). Thankfully that issue has been resolved, 4g mobile network for the win.

As a result i played a limited amount of poker, instead i did some study into 6 max and deep cash game poker. While i do not currently intend to go full steam ahead in these games i like to be constantly assessing and studying. It is necessary to do this for many reasons which include; avoiding boredom (with poker); improving; broadening perspectives so you can be opportunistic as possible; and fun!.

The first Harbour game ran and ran well, we were in doubt a game would work after an initial lack of interest. Hopefully it will be a fruitful investment for all concerned parties.

I'm back in the grind mode, half way through August and i have 600 $50 don games under my belt (been a bit of a roller coaster ride thus far). Ive just begun to use SitNGo Wizard to help me do ICM calculations as it seems both quick and good (We had done a fairly extensive general look into this while we were all grinding dons but i think this program will prove to be invaluable).I certainly have found a few weak points in my game which is great because it means i can and should be able to profit more in the future.

Jesse, Ash and me are all needing to do a lot of work to reach supernova by the end of the year but all have a good work ethic and will push each other. Basically i need to play 300 tournaments + per week for the rest of the year to achieve this.

June on the move

Ok, there is lots of news this month. Firstly my part time has been approved and starts in one more week which should help me grind a whole lot more.

Secondly i moved apartments (Rhys and Ryan have joined me) into the heart of Pyrmont with Harbour views. This is gonna help me run some home games (these games will be referred to as "Harbour game" to differentiate from the "rooftop game" at the Fishmarkets), the prospect is pretty exciting.

Ive been packing and moving across the last few weeks and so things on the poker scene have been a little quiet, i don't have home Internet set up yet but that will work itself out in the next few days (hence the short nature of my update).

Ive been doing pretty well in the home games and have played maybe 100 tourneys this month... I've got a game lata tonight so hopefully i can continue making the moneys

May Madness

So Ive had a pretty interesting month

The image is my live cash game graph for this year (small sample i know). I'm using poker-tracking.com to record all my live play and i think it will end up being a very useful tool (if you are playing live cash i suggest checking it out). I was going to graph my entire recorded history but am pretty lazy and didn't really have all the information i wanted for my 2009 sessions at star city casino.



I got in a total of 52 hrs live play this month and still have one more game tonight. I'm feeling increasingly more comfortable in the deep cash games and am hoping my coming sessions continue to reflect this. I'm playing two games a week for about 6hrs each game on top of full time work and some online play so i am a little time pushed at the moment.

To the online world...I played about 400 dons on stars for $-192, i had a pretty bad session where i dropped a thousand or so just running really really badly (It was pretty absurd and i raged a bit on facebook, in hindsight probably not the best outlet). I played only ten tables tonight rather then twelve and felt a lot more comfortable. I'm kind of unsure as to whether this is a good or a bad thing.

I made a new account on titan to see what there dons were like because i heard they were doing very aggressive promotions. The site runs a high density of 6 max dons and like party poker they have no antes which i feel is slightly negative for me (as things like the actual bubble person are not so easily missed), i have only played about 40 tourneys on their site due to the fact I'm learning both the 6 max format and how to play with no antes. The big downside is they are raking games excessively to pay for the promotions, while i am clearing a depositors bonus it is probably fine but I'm unsure about the sites potential.

After i clear the deposit bonus i may try out party poker and any other sites that have dons and reasonable reward systems in place... pretty much bonus whoring for the win until i find the most suitable home.

I'm pretty happy overall with how things are moving along, tonight i get to put in my application for part time and once it is approved (fingers crossed) life and poker will be much more manageable

Peace Aaron

Grinding on the less virtual felt

Once again i am overdue to do an update, i have been playing a lot of cash (dealer games) and working. My last 4 cash sessions have added another $900 to my bankroll (23hrs total time played). Across the last few games i think Ive probably lost over $2000 expected value in bad plays and bad lines and hence am making a lot of mistakes and not always maximizing when i have the best of it...

Deep cash is still a scary world and provides a lot of room for errors. I do feel like i am improving and am a wining player even while i feel at times out of my depth, i guess if i feel this way then many of the other less experienced players (which is 90%) either have no fear or are under the gun more then me.

There will always be money left on the table by the mistakes you make and some mistakes are only mistakes in the sense of if you knew your opponents hand how would you then played. You should always feel like you could have played better because this provides you with a drive to improve

My dons for this month are @ 250ish played for an $84 profit (0.6% roi). My month started pretty averagely and once again my volume is low but that's going to maintain to be a problem for another month i think.

Also i got well on the score board in random. games with Rhys and Ryan who have been destroying the cash games i have been at.

April In The Bank

Sorry this is a few days late, i just wasted some days off not updating my blog, not playing poker, not training jiu jitsu......instead i got a bit drunk and then lost badly at board games to Rhys and Ryan who apparently win at life , this is only mostly true (Ryan did accidentally reg for a 2k buyin in the scoop events and got busted with AK against AQ. table ninja for the loss)

I have been feeling really limited time wise but i guess that's what full time work, jiu jitsu training, socialising and poker shenanigans leave you with. Maybe i just procrastinate to much rather then just getting my hands dirty and grinding up a storm.

So about my April. After a slow start to the month i came home strongly, my overall volume did suck as i only played 716 tournaments making a month profit of 1400ish dollars from 43 hrs play (plus rake back/ points) which conveniently is just enough points to clear platinum star.

I do feel like I'm swimming in shark infested waters on stars and so may look to branch out to party poker, plus i don't feel stars is worth playing unless you hit 200k vpp's which is a tall order from where i am right now

I'm also getting involved in some live cash games (dealers are just way to good value to avoid, in fact its closer to a d### measuring contest then anything that resembles good poker). I played 2 1/2 $200 sessions recently, the first session on the 26th April was short (4hrs)and i was down 150 but i felt i played pretty badly in 3 specific pots. I was mostly a pay of wizard on bad rivers, however i tried to develop a loser image for myself in this game then how i would standardly play and i feel maybe this is worth dumping a little for. In retrospect i kind of feel based on the game like this is unnecessary for me to do.

The second session on Monday the 3rd of May was plus 1550 although i think i played averagely due to my inexperience more then 100bbs deep and my lack of recent cash play, a good result is a good result but maybe this result reflected the weakness of the game and the effect of standard tightish play with some solid reads and value bets (but it definitely convinces me that this is a game i should be devoting my time and efforts too).

that's about all Ive got for the moment

Peace Aaron

Let the Good Times Roll

Time for a weekly update, just had a good morning session so I'm feeling energetic.
I have not really played much this week due to work, family and Jiu Jitsu (75 games in total- i now have a few days off to ramp that up though). Am just finishing my probation period at work which means i can go part time which should have a dramatic effect on my life/ ability to grind.

i am starting to get interested in 6 max cash mainly under Ryan's influence (i heard he over applied it to a full ring game, kind of a trap). So study is in order for me which may hurt my volume a little bit but will keep me interested and keen, which i think is a requirement.

At a point i don't really feel like dons teach you very much about poker(or maybe i have just learnt for the most part what they offer), they teach you how to shove effectively, how to view stack sizes and how to manipulate blind structures and peoples inabilities to know that they are actually destined to be the bubble boy/girl (our coined term for the first person to blind out). In comparison i feel deep 6 max cash has more overall to offer me.

Of special note this week the enemies are HB-Kid and Daleroxxu, been having some interesting times with both these kids. HB-Kid because he called me once light and then picked up the nuts against me for an hour, Daleroxxu because his style is more confrontational then all the other regulars- his results say its good but he definitely hurts my bottom line so i feel i need to even the score. Hating regs is one of the most fun things about dons, sacrificing a little of your expected value to wreck their tourney ev is kinda gas.

News about the boyz, Jesse mac came 2nd in the Tony Hachem ANZPT tourney for 12k, Tim is hardcore grinding some big games and is fighting out the main event today. Ash is in Vegas showing the world his moves, I'm not sure if it involves poker or women or alcohol or all three but I'm sure hes having fun. Rhys and Ryan are getting into some 2-5 action and making some solid positive moves. Seems all round like it has been a good week.