Full-Ring Friends Series: Coordi

What is your poker story and what led you to full-ring over other variations of the game?
I hope people find this entertaining or at least learn a lesson from it. Also I wish I was a better story teller . Oh yea, and my memory is bad so the dates might be off a little but the events are all spot on. Anyways here we go..

I got into poker like many people during the Moneymaker era. They were playing WSOP reruns constantly, and me and my best friend decided if that monkey could do this so could we.  We downloaded pokerstars and started playing play money and freerolls. I literally learned how to play from pokerstars play money games. I think this was late 05 to early 06 and I amassed a bunch of play money chips. I figured how different could real money be from play money and soon deposited like 200 bux or something. I started off playing 4.40$ 180 mans and spewed massively until I luckboxed a win, giving me a false sense of ability and confidence.

Pretty soon I had lost most of the money back through various SNG’s and tournaments, and feeling alittle frustrated I went to the cash games and joined a 100nl FR table. I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing, and I’m pretty sure that 100nl just happened to be what was on the screen when I went to cash.  After that, I just always played full ring.  Probably because it was like the tournaments that were on TV. I was a massive 60bb station fish at the time. I remember having this weird quirk where I would stack off the first hand I raised at a table no matter what. I don’t think anyone caught on, and I’m pretty sure it was actually a profitable play. Good times.

So I switched to cash after a frustrating run at SNGs and was fortunate enough to run my roll up to 1200$ within the first week I was playing cash. This was probably one of the worst things that could have happend at this time. This run, mixed with the win in the 4$180man and the general belief that anytime I lost was just bad luck, put my confidence at an extreme high.  It couldn’t have been 2 days later that I busted my whole roll. All 1200, 60$ at a time 4 tabling. I thought I was just soooo ****in unlucky that I couldn’t stop, I was chasing that initial run thinking that was the normal and now I was just on a sick run of bad cards. I never folded anything, and would make random irrational bluffs.  I was the quintessential fish.

Pretty sure the same night I busted my roll for the first time, I deposited another 1-300 $ and busted that too. I know I busted about 800$ over 3 or 4 deposits within a week. I really didn’t have that kind of money and was soon taking a break, playing at the play money tables again. It ate me up for a long time. How could I not only run up a couple hundo into over a grand and blow that so quick, but blow through another 600 or so just like that. I mean that **** killed me inside. We were always poor growing up and I had a measly savings and a ****ty job with too few hours. It felt like I had lost about 2k and I just couldn’t let it go. For the longest time I wouldn’t play. I’d say this was the late-middle of 06, and I don’t think I deposited again until the end of 06/beggining of 07. I was pretty busto for this period of time and didn’t study poker at all or play much.

I think I decided to deposit again after I cashed in a fair amount of my savings bonds. I was supposed to use my bonds to pay my Dad for my car that I bought off him.  Instead I decided I could deposit, spin it up, and cash out before I had to pay him.  My cashed bonds were about 2500, I used 500 to make a small down payment on my car and had the rest in my checking. As soon as I got back I deposited like 500 and began to play. I had this horrible habit of stomping 100 for a while, moving up to 200 too fast, losing all that I won, moving back to 100, then losing a little more. So I was basically breaking even at 100 then blowing double money at 200. I think the bond money lasted me through February or so until one night I finally tilted off my last 500 after breaking even and earning bonusii.

I had been making car payments and basically living it up off my job money so I dont think I blew the whole 2500. I figured it up once after I got PT and stuff and I had lost a little more than 1800 at this point (it might have been a little less cause I earned a couple 150$ bonus but still bad) so I guess just 1k of the bond money.

Now I was flat broke, making like 7$ an hour working 25 hours a week or something, owing my dad a bunch of money every month, and pretty much living a lifestyle I just wouldn’t be able to accommodate. I had been playing poker pretty constantly for a good 4-5 months straight, and I have a horribly addictive personality. Poker is pretty addictive as it is, so you put those together and I was pretty hooked. Not to get into a lot of detail of my younger life, but i was pretty much a scumbag with no morals. So I wanted to play and I needed money. I remembered finding money in my parents closet while searching for weed one time so I ransacked the closet and found a couple stashes of cash. I took another 1k and deposited into my checking account. As soon as it cleared I put it all into my stars account. I was playing 6 tables of 100 and 200 at a time and went into my superhero mode, the invincible fish on a heater. By this time I had picked up PT and was using it to track my results. I spun that 1k up into 3k and had enough to cash out my roll, pay back my mom, and more than pay back myself. I should have left poker right then and there way better off than most, up a little money, and up a **** ton in life lesson. Obviously that isn’t what happened :o.

Over the next month or so I bled off the 3k at 200 and 100 tables. I wound up trying to shortstack like 10 tables at a time and failing horribly until the rest of my money was gone. I was down 2800, pretty much broke, owed both my parents money, and worst of all I stole from my mom and couldn’t bring up the gamjes to tell her. I ****ed up a lot when I was a kid, and blew a lot of good chances for a number of different things, but this was far and away the lowest point of my life. Words cant describe the filth I felt inside and outside my body.. I mean it sickens me just thinking about it. A week or so went by and I was finally able to tell my mom how busto I was because of poker, but still couldn’t tell her about the money. I had like 35$ to my name and I put 15 of it into pokerstars and vowed to learn how to play from the bottom up.

I had ordered some books from pokerstars and found 2+2 through them. I began reading strategy and 1tabled 2nl with 2$ buy-ins. Things went really well for me from 2-5nl and had ran 15$ up to 125 in a matter of a week or so. I started multi-tabling 5nl deep and had rolled for 10nl very quickly. It was around this time that my mom noticed the money missing, and that caused all sorts of hell between me and my parents.  I started having to make payments to my mom on top of the payments to my dad and I have been living on my own this whole time so there are bills and etc. We also partied a lot and we were paying for a lot of alcohol and etc entertaining an assortment of people. I went into mad grind mode, I was working 30 hours a week, playing 30+ and, going to school another 9 hours. **** was hectic but I was cashing out all the time, just a couple hundred here and there to pay for everything, but still adding a little to roll. After a month of this I had cashed out enough to take a couple live shots(instead of paying extra to my parents LDO) and I was at the casino every chance I could get. I couldn’t afford it, and was playing bad because of scared money. I lost a couple buyins over a week and was pretty life tilted again. I remember wanting to try and spin my online roll up again one last time, but my roommate was super busto also and hadn’t paid the internet bill. This is probably the second most fortunate thing that has happend to me.

Since the internet was down and im obviously a sick degen in need of money, I went to play some live with like 600$ to my name. I remember the session so well. I had been there 35 minutes and was a little under 200 when I get dealt AKo in MP. I made a std raise to 12 and got 1 ip caller and one from the blinds. Flop comes Kxxr and the blind donks for like pot, I jack it up to 80 or so. IP guy folds and donker calls. Turn comes rJ and blind c/c my shove. River is and x and he flips KJ before I can even guess what he might have. I left pretty fumed and distraught. I remember getting to my car and smoking this half a J I had with me and just having no clue what I would do. Selling weed again was probably the standout choice in my mind, but something urged me into getting another hundo and playing 3/6 limit. So I go back in, totally baked and on complete life tilt to find a seat open. I had been there maybe 15 minutes when Im dealt 55 somewhere. I limp call a raise from behind and the flop comes KK5. I dont remember how many bets went in, but im sure I tried to trap with like a lead call or a c/r/c instead of slamming AK face through the wall. I suck at lolimt but have always ran white hot at it. The turn was the golden 5, and again I cant recal specifically but remember getting like 2 bets in. The river was a 2 and I lead, he raises, I raise, he raises, I raise, he raises, and I say ok wtf he wouldnt be 6betting the split, wtf so I put another bet in planning to just call his next raise. He obliges and I make the call feeling sick that i might lose with quads. He tables KK and i reluctantly flip 55. The table goes crazy, which kind of pisses me off, I mean I just lost the ****ing hand… Im too involved with the guy who had KK, who cant beleive I just called with 55 on the river instead of betting out till bust, to even notice everyone rabbling about BBJP.

By the time the floor man came over, I had just figured out that Aces full or better didnt mean you had to have pocket aces, and that I in fact had won 50% of the 7538$ BBJP!! They were going around getting everyones IDs and taking down information, and everyone was congratulating me. The sense of elation that I was feeling was through the roof. I mean this was the answer to my immediate problems. The single most fortunate moment of my life by far. I pulled out my wallet to get my id, I was on top of the ****in world, and I opened my wallet… My id was not there. I started going frantic through my pockets and my wallet and back through my pockets. It wasn’t there at all. The floor man got to me and I was near tears. I explained what was goin on and he looked indifferent. He told me that he wasnt sure what was going to happen, but the head honcho would have a talk with me. I went and searched my car thoroughly and still found nothing. I got back into the casino and was escorted to the back where this lady was askin me how I got into the casino without a ID, (LOLOLOL??!?) why I would come without an ID, was I even 21, and was all in all just grilling the **** out of me. There was alot of attitude traded back for a few minutes when one of the other guys just stepped in and was like, Just come back in the next 72 hours with your id and we will hold the money in the poker room safe. Yahtzee! I remember the day I got it I paid off my mom in full, paid my dad down to like 1k or something and was more than stoked to have a couple hundred extra to pad my checking account.

These events happened about 2 years ago and since then I’ve straightened up severely.  I’ve never been the type to enjoy gambling or even black jack but poker has been different.  I think I’ve always realized there was more to poker and related it to another game that I obsessed over, chess.  One mans strengths against someone can be his weakness to others, which is why poker is such a beautiful art.  As for why i play fullring, I’ve tried all other forms of poker with mediocre to abysmal results.  FR induces the least amount of tilt while allowing me play massive amounts of tables and volume.

What is behind the name Coordi?
I played counterstrike for years as coordinator and everyone always called me coordi for short.  Since then, after all the websites I’ve used coordi as my user name, it has only been taken twice.  convenience ftw

Poker and non-poker goals for 2009?
Supernova elite and > breakeven.  As for non-poker, just do everything i can to enjoy my life and stay off tilt.  I tend to be my own worst enemy.

Have you ever been coached?
No, but i have been fortunate enough to be able to observe players better than me play and discuss poker on multiple occasions.

What are the major poker epiphanies you’ve had to get you to the point of solid, winning poker?
To just play solid winning poker.  I am an ABC nit :D.  I think the way we develop as poker players has a lot to do with our personalities.  I was able to take things like meta-game and perceived images and work them into my game in a way that really made sense, instead of trying to force things i had seen or heard.

You sight tilt-issues as one of your biggest leaks. Are you improving in this area? Have you sought advice from anyone? What words of wisdom can you give people struggling with the same issue?
I have been improving, but still have random outbursts. Something that has helped recently is stacking and never looking at results.  I think you just have to realize that tilting costs you infinitely more money than variance, but really i shouldn’t give advice in this area.

You work a real job as well as playing poker. How many hours do you get to dedicate to poker a week and how tough is it balancing the two?
Actually in August I told my old boss that I was moving to Vegas for all of September to take a shot at playing poker professionally.  I had a really good month for me at the time and never looked back :).  My boss was an old pool hall hustler and not only understood but supported my plan to get out of airplanes.

What are some of your interests outside of poker?
I love to travel.  Not as much the act of traveling but just being in different places and seeing things.  I like learning things, wikipedia is pretty amazing and listening to smart people talk works most the time as well.  I’m kind of introverted so clubs and bars and such aren’t really my thing.  To be honest im a pretty big loser, I mostly like to smoke copious amounts of weed and watch sports or bullshit.

What sports teams do you follow?
I don’t really follow any sports anymore, but i watch a lot of sports.   I tend to watch sports in spurts, like I used to love baseball, then I liked watching basketball, then it went to football for a long time, now i am really into futbol.  I just enjoy watching the raw talent and strategy more than backing a singular team or player.

What are the best and worst aspects of being a poker player?
The best is obviously being able to work whenever and to an extent wherever you want.  The money available for the investment is basically unrivaled.  Also, poker can be very fun, although most of the time I don’t really find it fun anymore.

I would say the worst is that it is the most cut throat industry possible.  It is such a hostile environment I am suprised that the majority of us can even get along as well as we do.  Also the game dynamics are constantly changing, obviously this affects players in different ways, but you aren’t guaranteed anything in poker.  You could wake up a week from now and not be a winner anymore, it happens.  Also you can get so frustrated from life and running bad or even just mediocre for an extended period of time and just go on retarded life tilt.  Which is obviously bad when people keep thousands of dollars readily available to be lost in any number of dramatic fashions.

What do your family (both immediate and extended) think of your poker playing?
Obviously with the details of my story they were horrified at my decision to continue playing poker.  Unfortunately for them they found out from me cashing out large checks and leaving the receipt for my mom to file, so they didn’t really have a choice but to love it lol.

What kind of reactions do you get from people outside of poker when you tell them that you play? What are some of the funniest, ill-conceived, tilt inducing and fishiest responses that you get?
Really in general, the responses i received have been very “I dont understand this, but I believe you to be smart so if you say this, then it is so”.  Although most the people I have talked to about it are close family friends and my friends who witness it first hand.  Some of my favorites tho..

Just donks that use poker lingo incorrectly trying to sound cool for you or something.  Like, “3betting mad flops for value” referring to either him c-betting or donking the flop was one I heard recently.

My old boss used to tell me bad beat stories where either the way the hand played out, he would have won, or it would be impossible to happen.  Or he also told me that he was crushing sng’s and had started to win at 200nl but i look up his shark scope and TR and hes down a bunch.

I also had an old girlfriend who was telling me about how her dad loves to play poker and that him and her brother make decent money.  So I tell her that I play a lot of poker and she freaks out and starts telling me what a waste it is, and like “how does it benefit anyone else?”.  The mutual respect was never the same again.

Quick Quiz – Of All 2+2 SS Full Ring and PokerStars $100nl-$400nl full-ring regulars
Best avatar?
Me obv, why would I do anything without striving to be the best.  I only await to see what I come up with next.

Best strategy poster?
I haven’t looked at strat in a while, most the posts are jokes anyways.  Probably someone in ssfr who gives serious one liner replies every now and then.

Best trash talker?
Probably jumanji, that guy is fucking relentless.

Best 24-tabler?
I don’t even know who is 24 tabling anymore.  Also it is hard to say when people don’t play together or their styles conflict with mine more.
but by level
100nl: renn or me, but probably renn cause of the volume he puts up
200nl: probably you if you 24 tables, your up on me more than anyone who isnt just luckboxing
400nl: haven’t played enough, but there are a number of scary 24 tabling sne maniacs

Funniest?
There are a lot of funny guys.  I think i miss main posting the most tho

Friendliest?
Learningcurve obviously

Weirdest?
Ranka is a fucking weird euro donk <3.  Most of us are probably fairly weird tho, we post in an online community :rolleyes:.

Most under-rated?
Succout, astropete, and my main man effen

Most over-rated?
Meh not really anyone, maybe bently just cause he went on a retarded heater and was suddenly “one of the best” at a limit.

Who, if anyone, have you met in real life?
DonQee, pterodactyl, gomuckyaself, kos, tooeazy, keli, epipen, and shamwow.  Hope i didnt forget anyone.

Most Tilty?
It is hard to say, most people tilt in silence, I just happen to post a lot so I don’t tilt on people in real life.  I’d have to say someone who never wins like alltheway is probably constantly tilting.

Least Tilty?
vinivicci

Best table selection?
The whale never plays and makes 2x as much as me a month

Best short stacker(lol)?
That fag yugor gives me fits.  Also me and hongzhong have been playing for forever, he loves to do retarded shit vs me that works