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[Eevee]

I've been meaning to do this for a long time, and since I'm busy procrastinating at the moment, it's finally time. It seems I registered here in the beginning of this year, I think I was reading the articles for a couple of months before that. I recall registering to participate in a tournament, in which I took a hilarious beating losing every single match. It was really fun though, and got me posting on the other areas of the forum as well (well, I haven't really posted that much if you exclude the forum games section). I used to be really excited about dominion, but don't play nearly as much these days (combination of goko and forum mafia and maybe me starting to suck at the game for some reason). Nowadays my dominion playing is super casual, I tend to explore fun and interesting strategies rather than maximize my win chances. Back when I "played well" (peaked at level 44), I was a big money / alt vp - type of a player, probably because I learnt everything I knew from WW's videos, so it's not exactly a wonder this "building fun engines" style doesn't result in that many wins. I don't own any of the games physically and have never tried Goko, so I've never played any dark ages, would sure be interested though. Would anyone happen to know if getting a copy of the dark ages to Finland would be possible already? I'm sure none of the stores have it yet as it hasn't been translated. I'd even have a friend who is better than me at the game, (doesn't post here), so could definitely be tons of fun.

Oh yeah, backwards intro post is backwards, I'm 21 years old, surprisingly male and from Finland. I live in Helsinki (the capital) with my girlfriend and play poker for a living (heads up, 5-10 to 10-20 for the poker players around). Surely love my job! For hobbies, I started a floorball team with some friends this spring, and also do some racket sports (mainly table tennis and padel, also some tennis but I suck at it / think it's too hard to be fun). Because of the poker thing, my sleep schedule is often super wacky (typing this at 6:33am, haven't slept yet). I probably drink a little too often, but it is so so very fun. One of the more time consuming hobbies lately has also been forum mafia, which is also a big reason I still spend a lot of time on this site, despite semi-losing interest in dominion. This community is awesome though, so this is definitely not one of those farewell posts. It also got long, but ohwell, I'm sure it'll still earn me an upvote or two.

Oh and if you've never tried forum mafia, I highly recommend it. It's pretty awesome!

[jotheonah]

...you're a professional poker player. How has this not come out in forum mafia?

Also, lol at "surprisingly male"

[Eevee]

...you're a professional poker player. How has this not come out in forum mafia?

Also, lol at "surprisingly male"

It actually did, in mafia III (my first game). It was really hard to convince everyone I could still be a cute idiot incapable of lying.

[Young Nick]

You make a living on deceiving others and picking up reads/tells (if you play IRL)
Never wanna play mafia with you again.
Terrified.

You were a lvl 44?

Dayum.

[Ozle]

"heads up, 5-10 to 10-20 "

Wish I was this good. Never got past 1-2 myself!

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

"heads up, 5-10 to 10-20 "

Wish I was this good. Never got past 1-2 myself!

Yeah, the change in skill level from players routinely playing 5-10 to players who routinely play 10-20 is substantial. I played in a 30-60 game exactly once and felt largely overmatched, so 20-40 was my self-imposed ceiling.  Mostly I played 10-20.

[shraeye]

diggity dang, eevee! That's a pretty cool story!

[Eevee]

Oh I guess I should have clarified, it's purely online. Live poker can be fun in small doses, but it's purely a hobby / for fun, it's way too slow and miserable to be done "seriously"/professionally (even though for the most part people are pretty clueless in live environments). Just my opinion obviously.

Thanks shraeye 

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

Oh I guess I should have clarified, it's purely online. Live poker can be fun in small doses, but it's purely a hobby / for fun, it's way too slow and miserable to be done "seriously"/professionally (even though for the most part people are pretty clueless in live environments). Just my opinion obviously.

Thanks shraeye 

And here I had visions of you in the Grand Casino.
Did you see much of an effect in the online games after Black Friday in the US?

[Ozle]

Yeah, I think its easier to win money off people in Live settings, enough that I could go up a level (never tried anything too high though) but its just a lot slower than online, and online is more about the maths

[Eevee]

Oh I guess I should have clarified, it's purely online. Live poker can be fun in small doses, but it's purely a hobby / for fun, it's way too slow and miserable to be done "seriously"/professionally (even though for the most part people are pretty clueless in live environments). Just my opinion obviously.

Thanks shraeye 

And here I had visions of you in the Grand Casino.
Did you see much of an effect in the online games after Black Friday in the US?

Wow, wouldn't have expected anyone to know our (only) casino, nice one. It's called Casino Helsinki nowadays, I go there maybe once the month or so, mostly to drink and have fun with friends. The games, especially the holdem games (I don't play any plo) they spread are pretty small, so that + the slowness Ozle mentions makes "grinding" in there an impossibility (for me anyways). The actual moneymaking is done home in pajamas, simultaneously refreshing forum games section here. 

Black Friday had some effect, obviously can't play on FTP anymore and generally lost access to the american player pool. I also have some money locked up in there (low 5 figures), but luckily that's likely now getting resolved with the stars deal.

[Archetype]

Nice introduction Eevee, was surprised about most of the things I read. But Poker for a living? That would be cool

You should have titled this: "A Wild Eevee Appears"

[Eevee]

Nice introduction Eevee, was surprised about most of the things I read. But Poker for a living? That would be cool

You should have titled this: "A Wile Eevee Appears"

DAMNIT! I should have. Going to make that my profile text thingy right now!

[Captain_Frisk]

You own the thread, you can fix it.

[Eevee]

You own the thread, you can fix it.

The moment passed.

[Obi Wan Bonogi]

I miss online poker so 

I like to dream that online poker's reintroduction to the states will be synced with the launch of Goku.

[Eevee]

I miss online poker so 

I like to dream that online poker's reintroduction to the states will be synced with the launch of Goku.

I'm pretty sure it'll happen within the next 1-2 years. And man I hope europeans will have an access to your pools then.

Actually wanted to clarify something to Nick too. That's a common impression, but it would be much more accurate to say "he is getting as good as possible in a game and then playing it for money". I remember at one point contemplating contacting some of the top dominion players and asking them for coaching, that's how similar the two are.
It's like, I haven't practised bluffing in front of a mirror and I never will, but I've studied game theory to better understand how the game works. It's more like that.

[Ozle]

Thats what I love about modern poker, and how you can tell a proper player from someone who just talks a big game.

'Tells' are things mainly used in movies, occasionally you will get someone who talks nervously when they have a good hand, but not at any decent level.

Its about probability and working out other peoples betting patterns rather than if their eye bleeds!

[Captain_Frisk]

So eevee, does this mean that I could play poker professionally if I didn't live in the states?

[Ozle]

So eevee, does this mean that I could play poker professionally if I didn't live in the states?

You can play poker professionally even if you do live in the states can't you?
But its easier elsewhere!

[Captain_Frisk]

I was referring to my (presumed) high skill level @ dominion.  If the skills transfer....

[Ozle]

I was referring to my (presumed) high skill level @ dominion.  If the skills transfer....

You would have to be good at Dominion first........

[Eevee]

I was referring to my (presumed) high skill level @ dominion.  If the skills transfer....

There is obviously also the emotion/money management part too, which is pretty huge. How one could theoretically play is a completely different thing than how one's actual level of play is when he is losing, upset with real life or what have you.

What I meant is, I'm sure most of us love games and trying to solve them. Easiest way of explaining poker is thinking of it as a video game. It often almost feels like you are trying to "gather points", rather than win money. You have to distance yourself from the money somehow or you'd go nuts (basically ridiculous spending habits and such because "well this could be won or lost in a single pot/day of poker anyways and terrible tilting issues thinking what the money you sometimes lose could have bought you. Greed actually is detrimental to a poker player, I think. Right mix of egoism and humbleness good.). So, I got lucky I got obsessed with a game that is played for money, and also in that I have the psyche to handle losing and emotional issues and such. Happened to have the right talents, and now I'm in the very fortunate position of day to day thinking "wow, it's really cool I'm so good at this and can do it for money". It's hard to explain, but I feel really proud for being this good in poker. I was always sort of an underachiever in school (lazy with homework and such), it's a very nice feeling to put a lot of effort into something and then have it pay off. Poker is also cool because despite the variance, you in the end always get what you deserve. If I do things better than the other guy, it's going to show in the long run. Very motivating.

So yeah, you're certainly easily talented in enough in gaming to be smart enough to learn about the game, no doubt. You'd still need emotional control, patience, helluvalot time and effort, probably the right social circles (so much faster to learn with others than alone) and such. Time / obsession is the biggest thing, I don't think I'd suggest starting to learn poker anymore for anyone, just because the games are getting tougher and tougher and moving up from the scratch would probably not be worth the effort anymore.

[Eevee]

It's probably because of poker I have so much respect for the guys who constantly beat me in dominion (like Frisk for example). It's pretty cool how good they are. I wish iso never goes away..

[Captain_Frisk]

-1 for crushing my dreams of easy money.

[Eevee]

-1 for crushing my dreams of easy money.

I did it because I like you.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

-1 for crushing my dreams of easy money.

"It's a hard way to make an easy living."

And E is right, it would be tough to start from scratch in today's online world.

[Sigismundo]

-1 for crushing my dreams of easy money.

"It's a hard way to make an easy living."

And E is right, it would be tough to start from scratch in today's online world.

Ha ha no doubt.  Back in Party Poker day's it was like printing money if you were any good.  Now even .5/1 or 1-2 NL games are mostly filled with decent enough (though maybe not creative) Tight Aggressive multi-tabling dudes with HUD's.  Games are so much tougher now across the board and you really have to be good at game selection if your are playing bigger games.

I was already losing interest in Poker as a serious thing before Black Friday, as living in Massachusetts it is brutal if you actually pay your taxes since you have to declare your wins, but can't declare your losses.  Then there is the vagueness of what a "session" is on how you declare.  I would basically just consider one day a session to make it not seem weird in case of an audit.   The other thing was to get better than where I was I basically had to start moving up to limits past 2/4 where is was hard to compartmentalize the amounts you could lose even if you play well and just run poorly.  Even the best players go on downswings of 20 buy ins or more at times.  Some top dudes (Durrr/Galfond/Isuldur) can be on a swing where they have lost hundreds of thousands easily but still have a positive year.   Then once you do run poorly it can effect you outside of playing just being bummed out in daily life.

Eevee what games do you play?  PLO is probably my favorite, though the swings are insane.  If online becomes ok again in the US I might play again but probably never above 1/2.  Looking forward to getting the couple thousand I had on FT when the shit went down....I can't believe it actually seems like it might happen now!

[Ozle]

Holy crap, people may actually be getting their FT money back? Never thought I would see that day.

I also lost a lot of interest once you couldn't play hundreds of stupid people any more, plus the bots were getting so sophisticated and the addition of the HUD's really irked me and put me at a disadvantage!

[Eevee]

I play heads up no limit holdem pretty much exclusively. 85% 5-10 and 15% 10-20 with no immediate plans of moving up. Us euros get the ftp-gold back right away, so less than a month now which is pretty sweet. I'm possibly even more excited about gettibg to play there again though! I'd imagine the process might still be a little painful for us players but hopefully it will be resolved quickly.

[Sigismundo]

Haha talk about timing.  I just got this email from FT

....
As a player on Full Tilt Poker, you may be aware of the recent settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice (the "DOJ").

Full Tilt Poker will not offer real money online poker in the U.S. until it is permissible to do so under relevant law.

In relation to your account balance, you will have the opportunity to file petition with the DOJ through a remission process which will be administrated by the DOJ.

In light of the above, only play chip games will be available to Full Tilt Poker players in the U.S. following re-launch, in the first week of November, 2012. Your Full Tilt Points balance will remain intact in your account.

Please note that we are unable to answer queries in relation to your funds - all such questions should be directed to the DOJ in accordance with the procedure to be defined by them.

Hopefully this DOJ remission process isn't a total pain.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

-1 for crushing my dreams of easy money.

"It's a hard way to make an easy living."

And E is right, it would be tough to start from scratch in today's online world.

-snip-
PLO is probably my favorite, though the swings are insane.
/snip

PLO is the Cadillac Lexus Bentley of poker games.

[timchen]

Very interesting introduction eevee! Love the parts about poker. Still completely don't see how it is related to dominion however...

[Eevee]

Very interesting introduction eevee! Love the parts about poker. Still completely don't see how it is related to dominion however...

Like dominion is related to baseball. Game of skill, but with different skill sets.

[Jimmmmm]

Hey Eevee, I'm totally playing against a guy who's from Vantaa. I'm assuming that means more you to than to me.

[Eevee]

Hey Eevee, I'm totally playing against a guy who's from Vantaa. I'm assuming that means more you to than to me.

Neighbour city. It's like playing someone from new jersey if you were from new york. 

[Ozle]

Hey Eevee, I'm totally playing against a guy who's from Vantaa. I'm assuming that means more you to than to me.

Neighbour The other city. It's like playing someone from new jersey if you were from new york. 

FTFY