holidays!

Yeah, I haven't been really playing last few weeks to be honest.. been morphing from a working robot into a party animal haha. I guess I deserved a good amount of degen after working so hard the last few months. I can't let it all devour my attention though, the plan is still to work hard and to make enough money to buy my first condo around March. I did make a return today at the tables, and grinded like 4 or 5 hours and I was running pretty bad, had a few cooler spots like KK vs AA twice and a flopped flush vs overflush, but in the end still managed to make some money, so I can't complain :)
I have to do a visa run and get my student visa done before the end of this month, so I'm thinking about flying to Laos and back, not that there is anything there, but it's just the quickest and fastest option. Losing a couple of days, but it will be the last time because I will be good for at least a year (extendable up to 3 years) so, it's all good ^_^
anyways, gonna try to put in more hours and warm up for next month when my visa and all that stuff is clear, gonna seriously grind my hours then, back to the robot.

Further on, although I said I quit coaching, I am coaching 4 of my friends back home in Belgium, giving them assignments and theory of poker while checking up on them every week. Ofcourse I had to start from scratch, so it will take a while before they will actually hit the felt, but I hope they appreciate the effort (because I do lose a lot of time because of it) but well, it's my last shot of helping them, and they know it. Hope they will listen this time and put in the effort! Because it's well worth it imo....

cheers,
Ryu Dang

Happy New Year! 2011 yay!

Just have to start the year with a bang.. my first hand of 2011 on NL2000 went like this..
I waited for BB to post then got QQ, there was a raise before, and then a flat, a minraise, then a flat, and I was already going for it, in my mind I already decided I will never fold already no matter what so I shoved the 2000$ in it and I saw one guy snapcall, and then another guy snapcalling behind me.. I couldn't believe what I saw, it was QQ vs KK vs AA ... wow.. nice first hand of the year.. all the cards went blank and the last card was a pretty lady haha, scooping the 5k$+ pot to me.. yep.. it's gonna be an awesome 2011, I just know it now already :D

had a nice party at the penthouse from the poker crushers, lots of people, I was guessing around 100 for sure, place was booming and it was a very enjoyable evening, gonna continue to relax for a bit this week since I did work pretty hard the last few months, and I don't wanna burn out although I'm playing really solid lately imo and I feel like I'm on the top of my game

but for now it's catching up on a few series, watching a few movies, watching UFC and more things like that to enjoy my life a bit, although I did still put in hands every day, it's just cutting down a bit on the marathons or standard 8 hour day workschedule hehe :)

here are my new year goals for 2011:

1. buy a (few) condo's in Thailand or a house back in Belgium
2. ship 400k$
3. keep this trend updating my blog :)
4. focus on keeping improving my game, and not make the same mistake as before being stuck in it
5. be a good friend and person overall

wishing you all a prosper 2011!

Ryu Dang

Last post of 2010

Started off the week with another 2 red days (which totalled up to 3 red days for the month), was very disgusted with it since I lost KK vs underpair 10x in two days. I dropped about 10k$, thought I would call it a month, missing out on my target sadly enough and took a day or two off with barely playing, just doing some other sidebusiness work. I still wasn't happy about closing the week off and year off on a negative, so I decided to give it a try and fight back to break even.. well in two days I managed to be positive for the week again, so I'm superhappy with it :D:D
I was hoping to hit a record 6 figures month, sadly enough, I didn't make it due to almost winning nothing in the last week, but well.. I should not complain, it still was an awesome month and it can only look positive for the next month and coming future...
Now I'm getting ready for the last amazing superparty at the penthouse from the pokercrushers here in Bangkok. Heard they got fireworks ready and the pipers bottles lined up :)

Party hard and get back here in 2011 in full health!

Ryu Dang

The Challenge and the strangest week

One of my friends from Singapore, whom for now still wishes to remain anonymous wanted to come over to Thailand and try and grind it out here for some time. As good as I like the idea, I do think that some people should understand that usually living here for a long period requires a lot of discipline and change in values and culture imo. It is a fact that you have a lot of good players over here, and well, people who only live off poker must be good at it or else they wouldn't be able to afford to stay here and pay their bills right? So it's interesting to bond with those people and I also admit that it helped my own game a ton by staying here for the first time. I don't think I would have made it if I didn't take that step to move here. Anyways, I do think that fundamental work ethics and basics is needed before you can make such a step. Hence I gave him the challenge... what's the challenge?

1. he must make 30k$ in one month (including rakeback), challenge valid for 1 year
2. no matter the number of hands, limits or day during the month, let's say he hits 31k$ but drops back to 15k$ when the month ends, then the challenge is still valid and successful

if not.. he should stay in Singapore until it happends :)

what do I offer in return?

1. I shall arrange him a decent staying arrangement in Central Bangkok
2. Show him around and let him meet crushers, say hello Viktor :p
3. arrange a few sweat sessions if wanted

I'll keep you guys posted if he made it or not ^_^

As for myself, this week has been a very strange start of the week.. I keep losing a ton , like 5k$-6k$ during my afternoon session, only to recover it during my night sessions and end up (a little bit) in the green.. so I can't say my winrate for this week is super.. but what can I do? I lost KK vs lower pocket pair preflop ai 5 times today.. nothing to do about it right? let's hope this will all add up to my upcoming superheater

I arranged my Christmas dinner with the poker guys at the Four Seasons Hotel, to have a super buffet and free flow and a relaxing night, pretty sure it's going to be entertaining and fun :) Wishing you all the best end of year holidays and see you guys back on a super new year with new year resolutions!

Ryu Dang

the heater and the recovery

Let's start with the good news, first of all I had this sick heater last Saturday, I don't think I ever had this sick of a good run this whole year.. anyways, a few key hands to let u now what happened. I had Qh6d on the BB, it got all limped to me so I checked, flop goes 5d8d9d , I check, guy on button makes a bet, I'm like thinking, how awesome would it be if the 7d popped up, and I called, bink, 7d... waaah.. I check, he spazzes out, I'm like thinking, how awesome would it be if he had the Ad lol.. so I reraise him, we were deep, so like 200bb's deep (oh it was on NL600 this hand), he repops it, I'm in heaven and reraise him again, and he shoves and I snap call and he has the Ad, drawing dead :D bink the 2.5k$ pot
Then after that hand a bit later I got 44, flop goes 54K rainbow, decided to flat the original raiser his cbet, turn comes a 5, original bets again, so I flat again, river 4... I'm like wow, how awesome would it be if he has a 5 lol, and he bets small on river, I shove him, and he calls with a 5, ship.. 1.5k$ pot.
And then after that I hit another 3 sets in a row, whom 2 where set over set with me being on the higher end, lol, it was total shippaments that night. I was very pleased lol.
So the week ended very good for me. I was on a high the Monday, fully powered to start the week good.. but alas, like good run and bad runs evens magically out. I lost 3 KK vs JJ preflop ai in a row, which was so sick. Started the night with like 8k$ down.. and had to fight back for like 10 grueling hours before I finally broke even (well I won a tiny bit, like 200$ or so lol), it was crazy every time I was making some recovery I got a bad beat to set me back, it was really stressfull, but I'm glad I'm still at exactly 1 red day this month only :D
As for this week after the recovery Monday, it has only been going up really, been doing pretty nicely at NL2K and making good money. Hope it will stay this way and let's finish this year with a bang.

Wishing you all the best for the end year festivals!
Ryu Dang

keeping it up

Settled down pretty nicely in my new condo, and things have been as I was hoping for and expecting, the internet has been giving me a lot lot lot less issues, and I haven't been disced during my 8 hour grind sessions, and it's just a nice feeling to not be super worried about the internet. I wanted to try and hit the perfect month this month, since I almost hitted it last month, with that 1 day loss, but last night I already had to red mark a day, so I can forget about it already :p Been running pretty bad I suppose this week, had a few terrible suckouts, and more then previous month I'm sure. Had a rollercoaster run today on NL2K , had this hand that totally made me a bit sigh, had AKs on the BB, shortstack raises on the button, so I opted to just flat, flop goes K64 rainbow, and I check raise him, he instashoves, so I call, and he showes 24o, Turn comes an A and river is a 4... sigh, but meanwhile on the NL400 table I had 22 on a K42 flushdraw board, and turn and river was 8 , but the villain had 44, so I stacked off there as well, so it was just all happening at the same time, which made today a hell of a rollercoaster ride, since I was running into a lot of 3-outers. The day still ended on a high note though where there was this hand which was very crucial. It was on the NL2K table, so fish raises 80$ UTG, I have QQ on the cutoff and raised it to 200$, guy in the SB repops it to 600$. I had 2 things going on in my mind, he probably wants to get it all in with the shortstack fish while squeezing me out of the pot, since we are both pretty deep. So was thinking he had an AQ, AK type of hand.. that or he could really have KK or AA and I die :p anyways, original raiser folded, and I made a flatcall. Flop goes something like TT8 with a flushdraw. He instajams it, which was like 2000$ or so.. I had to tank pretty hard, but I went with my read and called it and he showed AKs. My hand held up and I won the big pot, YAY :)))
I was up pretty good last week, and the trend seems to be keeping up, except for yesterday then :p So I'm hoping it's gonna be another near perfect month for me and I can celebrate the upcoming new year on a high! Lots of regular grinders are also back in Bangkok for the festivities so I look forward to some good dosis of partying also :)

wishing you all the best
Ryu Dang

good month - happy thanksgiving

Things have been good lately on the poker area, been making a decent amount at the tables, haven't had any (that I can remember) losing days yet for this month, so that should clarify that this month is going to be a good one. Been playing mainly 3/6 and 5/10 with a hint of 10/20 again, so I guess we're moving back up the stakes, feeling confident in my game and ready to face some variance. Hope we can continue this grind until end of this year and have a good closure of 2010. As for my year resolution, pretty sure I won't make it, but it's still nice to have a target and hopefully to be near it when the time comes.
On the other hand I have made it clear for myself that I won't be doing any coaching anymore. I thought about it for a while and weighted the pros and cons, and I just can't figure out how the pros could ever outweigh the cons. So every asian guy that wants poker coaching, please be referred to Jason Samsonov, you can find his blog on my bloglinks side. He is still willing to accept students and help you on your game. As for me there are just too many factors which makes me annoyed about coaching someone, so that chapter for me is closed. Not that I regret doing or trying it once, because you have to try everything once to know. But now I know, and it's just not worth it for me, and neither am I willing to put more time and effort in it.
Lots of 'regs' are coming back to Bangkok for the coming end of year, so I'm looking forward to it and party it up with everyone around here. Also looking forward in settling down in my condo next week, I already contacted my ISP to upgrade my line to get more speed and stability and also picked up a 24" external monitor (my 3rd one that I'm getting already for this year lol, such spew) from my friend to have a nice grind station. So I have a monitor in Singapore, Belgium and Thailand now, let's just hope I don't get it in my head to move to South-Korea next year LOL.

on a serious note

a silent prayer goes out to one of my best friend in Belgium whom grandma just found out she has cancer and only 2 weeks to live, may it be as peaceful as possible

Ryu Dang