EthanCainePoker.com

I just finished the calmness & rhythm section in Zen & the Art of Poker.  Excellent section that talks alot about not trying to bully the table or alternatively be a rock.  Its about taking the middle road because thats what works.  Sure bullying SOMETIMES works and being a rock SOMETIMES works but the middle way works most if not all the time.

“Advance with bayonet; if you encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, fall back.”

-Zen & Art Of Poker

Tonight I was playing and I encountered “steel” so too speak and I did not back down. As a result I lost the entire pot:

Should Have Withdrawn

The guy was betting small through out the hand and I of course overvalued Top Pair. That last bet I should have folded.

Hopefully I will know for next time.

-Ethan Caine
Follow Me On Twitter @RealEthanCaine

Played 30mins or so of Rush Poker 2cent/5cent.  Also read about 30 mins of Zen & the Art Of Poker.  The chapter on SAMSARA or the cycle of self frustrating effort.  Basically the point of the chapter was to simply take the ordinary natural way with complete emotional detachment.  I had an opportunity to practice this for the following hand:

Flopped a SET of 8s.  Rainbow flop.  The guy with pocket As bet heavy.  I was short stacked so I went all in.  Long story short he got runner runner clubs to give him an A high flush.  Clearly a hand I statistically should have won.

I was annoyed because I lost my buy in but then emotionally detached myself and kept playing properly.  Soon after I won almost all of the money I had lost back.

All of the inner game poker books stress its not what cards you have or what your opponents are doing that causes you to win or lose.  It is your attitude and state of mind.

So far this is proving true.

-Ethan Caine
Follow Me On Twitter @RealEthanCaine

Well its 3 months later and obviously the whole be a pro poker player by June 1st thing has sort of failed. However I’m glad I took that break as I needed it.

Today I played for about an hour on RUSH POKER 2cent/5cent table.  I really enjoyed it and even made a dollar.

The reason for my return is that I am re-reading Zen & the Art Of Poker again and I decided to practice a few of the principles taught within.

1st:  Detachment and Egoless state while playing
2nd:  Don’t get fancy, start tight but more importantly STAY tight.

I will focus on these 2 simple but powerful principles for the next little while and see where it takes me.

-Ethan Caine

Lately I have not been playing poker because I have been working on other projects.  However I am ready to reintegrate poker back into my daily routine as I only have 89 days left until I have to take a dump on my bosses desk so that I may quit my job.

I have recently read an article written on PokerBank.com and I will summarize it here for you now.  I have been informed that it is an excellent strategy not only for Rush Poker but micro limits in general.

It is as follows:

Don’t Try and Outplay Your Opponents:

You may think you are the best player on the table however if you try and represent a 3 of a kind and you WILL get called down with bottom pair and lose.   You only have to be a little better than your opponent to beat them.

Micro Limit Players Love To Chase

Pot odds don’t mean much in MICRO because if someone calls your massive raise on a flush draw and you have pocket As you will win most of the time.  Just be ready for a big suck out.  Bet big hear because most of the time you will win.

Buy In For The Max But Don’t Be Afraid To Lose It

You will get sucked out on by people playing poor odds hands however don’t be afraid to put your stack in the middle when you have the best of it.

Fortune favors the BOLD but also the PREPARED

Don’t Give Your Opponents Tips

If your AA all in Preflop gets cracked by 22 don’t yell and scream at the person who made that horrible play.  Just quietly re buy in and let them make that same play over and over again.  In the long run you will come out ahead by alot.

Bet Your Good Hands Fold Your Bad Hands

Basic strategy that alot of micro players ignore, but not you….right?

Beware of Raising

If a micro player raises they have a solid hand, beware.  Alternatively micro players are much happier calling than they are raising.

Don’t Bluff

Bluffing is a way to try and outplay your opponent.  Due to a large amount of players seeing the flop your bluff is useless and dangerous to your stack.

Don’t Be To Concerned About Your Image

Don’t waste your time getting tricky, just stick to ABC because changing gears doesn’t do much.  No one will notice because they are simply playing 2card poker.

Thanks for reading…you can view the original article here.

-Ethan

After losing my first $250 buy in I decided to throw another $200 in and try some different things.

Basically I will be playing SSS Early Position for every hand. I fold EVERYTHING PreFlop except:

JJ QQ KK AA

I will call AK if it is late position and no one has raised but I consider this a drawing hand.  I have looked at a number of top grinders online and these are the hands they mainly play.

The great thing about RUSH poker is that I can simply quickfold until I get one of them.

Because you can’t really get a read on your opponents in Rush playing the TOP EV hands seems to be the only way to go.

Anyway I will try this out and let you guys know whats what.

-Ethan

12000+ Hands Rush Poker

I have been playing 2 x 25cent/50cent Rush 9 Max tables on Full Tilt Poker. I originally deposited $250 and am working on the $250 bonus.

$160 of the bonus has been released so far so in a perfect world if I broke even I would be at $410.

HOWEVER after many ridiculous bad beats my balance is at: $240

However I’m not worried about this because I think I’m finally finding my groove and if I just let the math take over I will make money.

I am convinced that I am playing correctly for rush which is playing STRONG hands aggressively.

Hopefully this dip is due to VARIANCE.

Also if I wasn’t doing the bonus I would be receiving $100 this week in rake back but thats secondary.

Anyway I am going to keep playing and see what happens.  I’m positive math will take over and the variance will swing the other way.

-Ethan

I have officially switched to RUSH Poker on Full Tilt for my grinding.  I have moved up to 25cent/50cent tables.

I am comfortable with these stakes.  After I get about $1000 bankroll I may brave the 50cent/$1 or just add more 25/50 tables.

As of now I play 2 tables at once which averages to about 800 hands an hour and a SHIT load of FTP points.  I have am also working on my first deposit $250 bonus.

Here is a snapshot of my account screen:

Deposited $250

Evidence that I am the best poker player in the world.  ALL IN PREFLOP.

ALL IN PREFLOP...JACKS NEVER LOSE

Couple days ago I lost 5 buyins in about 60 mins playing Full Tilt Pokers new Rush Poker. Annoyed I decided to take a day or so off and gather my thoughts. While gathering my thoughts I totally spent 10 hours a day playing BIOSHOCK because BIOSHOCK 2 comes out on Feb 9th. I have a feeling I will be taking another couple days off to gather my thoughts around that time too…heh

Anyway I was talking to Dustin @DustinJanzen of DustinJanzen.com and he recommended:

Slowing Down: This was the single most useful piece of advice. I play RUSH way to fast. Actually the problem was I didn’t really know how to play rush. I figured because it was such a fast game I could just quickfold till I got a monster hand. Thats sort of what everyone else is doing and as it is with many things in life:

Doing what everyone else is doing is a sure fire way to lose.

3 Betting: So I slowed down and started 3 betting alot more. This means LATE position to the BLINDS if someone position raises me I will RERAISE them. Almost 70% of the time this works.

If they DO call your RERAISE then its time to play some poker. When the flop hits and its pretty ragged take another stab at it. It usually will miss them. If they call, then just check it down unless you FLOP a MONSTER in which case just trap or simply ALL IN.

If they RERAISE your RERAISE then its time to fold the hand unless you have a PREFLOP monster like AA or KK. I wouldn’t play anything less than that on RUSH in this situation.

I am slowly tweaking my rush game an I feel that RUSH will be my primary source of income by MARCH 2010.

-Ethan