Bond18 Just another PokerSavvy weblog

Aussie Millions prelude

It's that time of year again. I look forward to the Aussie Millions more than any other tournament series. It's the perfect length, in the perfect city, during the perfect two weeks of summer. It's especially nice because I don't have to go anywhere to play in a major tournament besides a quick jaunt across the street, and the Australian Open tennis tournament is on just a 15 minute walk away.

Glancing over the schedule I see six or seven events I intend on playing, including the main. I kind of detest live poker these days so I'm not going in expecting much, but I've been working hard at getting up to speed by playing and studying online over the last few weeks, so at least I feel I'm going in sharp. I can't wait to see what hilarious tragedy awaits this year in the 1k rebuys! I've got my friends Mike Watson and Grant Levy staying in the apartment for the series, and I've recently talked Luckychewy into coming down for a visit (his first) so above all I intend this to be an ass load of fun.

I've set the date of the 3rd annual Drunken Kickball Classic on Saturday the 23rd at 3pm, we'll be meeting in front of the aquatic center in Albert park. It's the day of the 100k at the Crown so not too many guys that I know will be playing (except my roommate Jarred, who will likely win it considering what a fucking stud he is.) The plan for the day is to start there with a mix of kickball and dodge ball (must keep a beer in your hand at all times duh) and then walk over to the Belgian Beer Garden a few blocks away where we will continue to get trashed well into the evening. After that we'll probably go out somewhere, I'm not really sure since I'll be so drunk and high at the time I'm not going to presume I could actually plan it now. I'll definitely have people bring cameras so I can do a trip report for that day and I'm very confident it will result in some excellent photo moments.

Let's do this shit!

Response to Lee Watkinson’s blog on racial profiling

I recently read Lee Watkinson's latest blog entry. I don't know the guy particularly well, but from what I can tell he seems like a nice guy and I've got no personal beef with him, I simply believe his entry to be very misinformed. Additionally, I rarely give much of a shit about politics (which is what happens when you live in Australia long enough) but in this case I'll make an exception.

Watkinson essentially argues that if you belong to the race or fit the description that most terrorists do, then you should just accept racial profiling. To quote him:

"Look. if you come from suspect areas, have certain backgrounds, even have certain names, ages, male vs female, should all factor into the likely hood of extra attention when boarding a plane.

As far as body scans being an invasion of privacy, get over it if you want to fly. If violates your religion then you are a religious fanatic, that's the one group I don't want on a flight with me. Only one person sees the image, its immediately erased, and I doubt they even know who they are looking at."

You can read the whole thing here, it's quite brief: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-blogs/34-lee-watkinson/entries/7185-pofiling-in-poker-vs-airline-security

To refute him I yet again I find myself falling back on the writings of Malcolm Gladwell. In an article he published on February 6th, 2006 Gladwell investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of racial profiling:

"...Figuring out what an Islamic terrorist looks like isn't any easier. Muslims are not like the Amish: they don't come dressed in identifiable costumes. And they don't look like basketball players; they don't come in predictable shapes and sizes. Islam is a relgion that spans the globe."

He goes on to quote New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly:

"We have a policy against racial profiling...I put it in here in March of the first year I was here. If you look at the London bombings, you have three British cizens of Pakistani descent. You have Germaine Lindsay, who is Jamaican. You have the next crew, on July 21, who are East African. You have a Chechen woman in Moscow in early 2004 who blows herself up in the subway station. So whom do you profile? Look at New York City. Forty percent of New Yorkers are born outside the country. Look at the diversity there. Who am I supposed to profile?...You think that terrorists aren't aware of how easy it is to be characterized by ethnicity? Look at the 9/11 hijackers. They came here. They shaved. They went to topless bars. They wanted to blend in. They wanted to look like they were part of the American dream. These are not dumb people. Could a terrorist dress up as a Hasidic Jew and walk into the subway, and not be profiled? Yes. I think profiling is just nuts."

Poker translation: terrorists are smart enough to balance their ranges. We're talking about guys who are able to coordinate acts of enormous complexity and logistical difficulty; they can figure out people are suspicious of the highly Muslim looking. It's a dangerous thing to underestimate your opponent.

On top of everything, encouraging racial profiling results in greater acceptance of being suspicious and judgmental of people based on appearance. I'm not down with that shit, and besides, you never know when the polite gentleman in a suit in tie is actually a sex crazed, pot head, professional gambler.

Let’s talk strategy

I've turned into a poker geek again. For a long time my focus just wasn't on the game, but lately I've been playing six days a week again and really getting back into concentrating on improving my game. I'm posting regularly in HSMTT again and watching tournament training videos to get a sense of what other guys are doing. I've had a few interesting hands over the last few days so we'll throw those up here and talk strategy for a bit. I'll be copy pasting hands I posted at 2+2 and including reasoning on my thought process as well as input from other posters:

Hand 1: Full Tilt $500 sat. I haven't been too active and haven't played any meaningful pots against the villain. Nothing about his play or our dynamic would suggest something crazy is going on here. Thoughts:

Full Tilt Poker Aussie Millions Qualifier No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG+1: t5352 M = 71.36
MP1: t6645 M = 88.60
MP2: t6035 M = 80.47
CO: t3215 M = 42.87
Hero (BTN): t4940 M = 65.87
SB: t6178 M = 82.37
BB: t4880 M = 65.07
UTG: t4155 M = 55.40

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BTN with K Q
5 folds, Hero raises to t150, 1 fold, BB calls t100

Flop: (t325) 3 K K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t200, BB calls t200

Turn: (t725) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t500, BB calls t500

River: (t1725) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1175, BB raises to t4030 all in, Hero...

Preflop, flop, turn, and the river bet are all clearly very standard. The river check-shove is a difficult spot. The villain is almost never bluffing (occasionally people will show up with something insane here, but it's very, very unlikely) so the big question is how many hands are in his value shoving range that we beat vs hands that beat us.

The majority of the responses in the thread agreed that you need to call, and the most thorough advice came from my ex-coach NoahSD:
"You lose to like 6 weighted combos (3 of 66 and 3 for the other random boats he shows up with occasionally).

There are probably like 10ish Kx that we beat in his preflop range and he prob plays them this way like 25% of the time for 2.5 combos. Then there's like 1 weighted combo that we chop with. Then there's like 1 combos of him just being a total clueless spewtard with like A-high or 77 or 72 or something.

So that's 6 you lose, 3.5 you beat, and 1 you chop with, so equity of a call is (3.5*6870 - 6*2795 + 2037.5)/10.5 = 886.9"

Hand 2: Full Tilt $100 single rebuy add-on. Haven't played any big pots with villain. I haven't been doing any out of line 3 betting that would make me think his range is anything outside of the usual monsters here.

You giving up on turn or calling and evaluating on river?

Full Tilt Poker $33,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t100/t200 Blinds - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: t12830 M = 42.77
SB: t20824 M = 69.41
BB: t5495 M = 18.32
UTG: t6415 M = 21.38
UTG+1: t3892 M = 12.97
MP1: t6261 M = 20.87
Hero (MP2): t10681 M = 35.60
CO: t7277 M = 24.26

Pre Flop: (t300) Hero is MP2 with Q Q
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t575, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1625, 2 folds, SB calls t1525, 1 fold, UTG+1 requests TIME, UTG+1 calls t1050

Flop: (t5075) K 8 T (3 players)
SB bets t800, UTG+1 requests TIME, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls t800

Turn: (t6675) 7 (2 players)
SB bets t1600, Hero...

The flat call from the SB pre is extremely scary. Against anyone who is competent that is pretty much always a massive hand they are getting cute with (if you are the villain in this hand, and we're both aware the other is a reg, then a 4 bet is mandatory with any big hand because it's a more disguised range than flatting.)

His post flop betting indicates either a very strong hand that is trying to draw me in (like oh say, top set?) or a mid strength hand that is now just trying to get to showdown cheaply (JJ.) Almost everyone who weighed in said to either fold turn, or min raise the flop and give up if villain put any more chips in after that. I know that if we get to turn this way I like folding, but I'm not quite sure on the min raise idea, though I know that I don't hate it and I could see it's possible effectiveness, especially given how cheap it is here in relation to the pot.

Hand 3: Full Tilt $100 single rebuy add-on. Just started up for the day. No relevant history with the villain, he hasn't been spazzing all over the place or anything and I've been in line through the early stages.

His line confuses the hell out of me. His value range should basically be 44/JT (or maybe an ultra slowplayed AA.) Although he has a super small value range, his bluff range seems just as small. What gets to river this way that takes a bluff shot?

Full Tilt Poker $33,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (MP2): t4000 M = 88.89
CO: t2015 M = 44.78
BTN: t4505 M = 100.11
SB: t3940 M = 87.56
BB: t3446 M = 76.58
UTG: t4659 M = 103.53
UTG+1: t3570 M = 79.33
UTG+2: t2000 M = 44.44
MP1: t3865 M = 85.89

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is MP2 with T K
2 folds, UTG+2 calls t30, 1 fold, Hero raises to t120, 4 folds, UTG+2 calls t90

Flop: (t285) 3 T 4 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero bets t200, UTG+2 calls t200

Turn: (t685) 3 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero bets t440, UTG+2 calls t440

River: (t1565) J (2 players)
UTG+2 bets t1240 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero...

Conversation on the hand focused around two aspects; whether we should be calling river and whether we should be betting turn. When some regulars such as Mement_Mori and NHFunkii suggested checking back the turn I posted the following to address the subject:

"FWIW boys I think you get more value at HSMTT by going bet/bet/check whereas midstakes it should be bet/check/bet because for some reason at midstakes NOBODY believes that meanwhile in HSMTT guys peel mid pairs for two straight streets more since peoples double barreling range is wider.

Had he checked river, I'd be pretty damn tempted to value bet too, but I might not have the image for that. Thoughts?"

Posters Apestyles, Luckychewy, and Billy Bibbit came to say they agree that we should be betting turn in this spot.

Meanwhile, the river spot had people almost totally split. I think this is one of those spots where having a sense of what kind of player you're up against becomes extremely important. If you're against a fairly straight forward TAG, then this is a pretty easy fold. If you're against a pretty creative or bluff spewy LAG, then it's a pretty easy call. But when you're in a vacuum and have no information on the guy at all it gets really tough. I guess I don't hate folding because tournament players are rarely that creative early in the tournament, but given how small his value range is I would never mind a call.

Hand 4: Full Tilt nightly $150. A continuation in our series of facing full potish bets on the river. I've seen villain around before, I feel like he's a reg but not a super well known one or anything.

Not a ton of draws out, but enough that I'm curious as to whether that changes your guys thought process facing bets like these. My guess is that it won't.

Full Tilt Poker $75,000 Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds + t25 - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BTN): t6795 M = 11.62
SB: t2465 M = 4.21
BB: t10355 M = 17.70
UTG: t5125 M = 8.76
UTG+1: t6859 M = 11.72
UTG+2: t7001 M = 11.97
MP1: t6254 M = 10.69
MP2: t3771 M = 6.45
CO: t11698 M = 20.00

Pre Flop: (t585) Hero is BTN with A 5
6 folds, Hero raises to t600, 1 fold, BB calls t360

Flop: (t1545) 4 A 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t920, BB calls t920

Turn: (t3385) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t3385) 9 (2 players)
BB bets t3120, Hero...

First and foremost, when I look at this hand the turn seems like a bet. Many posters brought that up and given the draw heavy texture and the fact that he just might peel two streets with pairs worse than aces makes it a pretty clear bet. Some still said they like checking the turn so they could snap any river bet, but I'm pretty sure betting is likely better since we're very rarely getting checkraised off our hand by a worse one.

Again, thoughts on the river were pretty split, though most people seemed to prefer a call. A few mentioned that the bet sizing is scary enough but GeoffRas22 provided some thoughts on why he prefers calling:
"yea not betting the turn is not good- what exactly is your reasoning for checking? i see a lot of ppl think its "best" to check back and call river or bet river if checked to, but so many more worse hands are calling the turn, ur just getting 2 streets so much more of the time- especially if ur not even sure a call is best on this river (granted his sizing is pretty scary)

as played i call as i dont think randos bet this size with 1 pairs and i cant see him not c/r flop with sets/2 pairs"

Thanks to everyone who shared their insight on these hands.

The story of the Bond18 Christmas party

Before my trip I threw a birthday party in my apartment for my friend Lachie. At our high point we had perhaps 40 or 50 people in the place and everyone had a blast. We decided to make it a semi regular thing, and leading up to Christmas we decided that the weekend before the holidays we'd have our bash. I got my friend Tim involved and we set things in motion; Lachie would sort the DJ's and equipment, Tim did the promotion, and I stocked up on booze plus hired two models to work behind the bar for the party.

Lachie invited friends from his music scene, I invited a small amount of guys from poker, and both Tim and I got onto friends in our local pick up community and let them know what was going down. There was only one rule for the pick up boys; they must bring a girl or show up in a group with an equal or above girl to guy ratio. We set our party for Saturday the 19th from 9pm to 4am and got the word out.

The night of the party the boys rocked up early and helped set **** up. The models got there early too so I oriented them with the apartment and what their jobs would be. We had considered setting one of them outside the door, but we quickly realized we would need both to work the bar. We strung up decorations around the flat and then I went upstairs to put signs on the doors to the bedrooms. The apartment is three bedrooms but Jarred and I are the only ones living here, so the middle bedroom was decided as the "designated sex room". I put a "NO ENTRY" sign on our rooms, and then a different sign on the middle room:

I also placed a few condoms in the top drawer on the side of the bed, because being thoughtful is how I roll.

Lachie had lined up a number of DJ's to play for us, and Tim got on the tracks as well. I decided that although I would drink over the course of the night, I'd make sure not to get totally smashed so I could stay in control of my own apartment. After that we just let the people roll in and the mayhem ensue. I ran around the party for the first three hours greeting people, making introductions, and checking the noise level outside the apartment.

Our bartenders.

A very discrete photographer.

At our high point we must have had 75-100 people in there. Not many pictures reflect that, but this one will give you a sense for it:

The man himself and our photographer for the evening, Damo.

Tim gets cozy with one of the models.

Lachie takes a moment off from party running duties.

A little after midnight Lachie and Tim told me that they would take over the managing duties for a while so I could knock off and enjoy myself. I grabbed another beer and made my way around the party for some banter. I either knew most of the people I ran into or they came up to introduce themselves, but I'd seen one hot, tall girl in a white dress hanging around that I had no clue about. While chatting to my friend Martin I noticed her sitting over on the stairs by herself looking bored. Given the situation of the party I went up and said the most obvious thing that occurred "Hi, I don't think we've met."
"Oh hi, I'm XXXXXX."
"Nice to meet you, how'd you hear about the party?"
"Oh I came with my friend Liam."
"Ah okay cool."
"I actually know who you are though. I've read your blog. I like what you wrote about pick up."
"Thanks! Wait...what?"

"Yea, I've read the game and known about that stuff for a few months now."
"Aweeeeeeeeeeeeesome!"

We hung out chatting on the stairs for a few minutes before I suggested we go outside where it wasn't so loud. We continued talking mostly about pick up; how most guys treat women, what it's like for her knowing about it on a girls side, how the sexual double standard for men and women is incredibly retarded, how she doesn't give a **** about what anyone thinks of her, how epic I think it is that she knows all this stuff. Perhaps five to ten minutes into our chat she looked me in the eyes and said "It's kind of loud out here, do you have anywhere more private we could chat?"
"Yep."
"Lead the way."

I took her hand and walked her through the party, desperately attempting to avoid eye contact with anyone who might stop me to chat. When we got upstairs we found several people waiting outside for the bathroom in the hall and a couple girls in my room looking to grab things from their purse's (as I'd turned my room into storage for the night.) Seconds later Lachie came up the stairs and told me that security was at the door and needed to talk to me. I was not pleased.

I went downstairs and spoke to security remarkably politely for how bad they had just ****-blocked me. He said there had been a noise complaint and that we'd have to turn the music off. I apologized for the disruption and told him I'd take care of it. I went back inside and told the DJ that we had to cut the music or I risked eviction, prompting him to ask if he could finish his set. They are a proud bunch those DJ's. I told him that wasn't possible, then jumped on the table and started yelling at everyone that we were going to have to shut the music down but the party could go on. Additionally I had surprise for them, that we had arranged a burlesque show! Tim's ex-girlfriend Anita set up a little space and got to work on her show, which I watched briefly before returning upstairs in search of XXXXXX. I found her with a group outside my door, and made a few seconds of banter before I said "Want to see my balcony?" We stepped inside my room. "Smooth" she teased me. "Well all smooth lines aside I actually wouldn't mind going out on the balcony and hanging out for a bit, you seem really interesting." I wasn't bull****ting or anything; I never get to talk to girls who know about pick up before meeting me and I found the whole thing fascinating. We talked for a bit but eventually the tension became a bit too much so I leaned in and started kissing her. A moment later we were inside on the bed, furiously making out and losing clothing. We had just gotten down to our underwear when a girl from outside my room called in begging for her purse. I looked at XXXXXX quizzically; "It's cool" she told me. "Yea! Okay!" I called out. The girl came in apologizing profusely while I stood there in my underwear and XXXXXX lay on the bed in hers. She hustled out and I returned to bed as quickly as possible. Thank God I didn't get too drunk.

We had sex for quite some time. When it was done I got up and my legs were so blown out that I accidentally stumbled and smashed over the wine bottle she'd brought upstairs, soaking my floor in red wine. After I cleaned it up we lay in bed for a moment. "Man I want to see Avatar" I remarked.
"Oh my God I know! I can't wait for that!"
"Sick! Let's go, let's go to Avatar right now!"
"It's like 2am or something."
"****ing details! Well I wish we could just like, fall asleep right this second, wake up instantly, and go to Avatar. Stoned of course."
"Oh absolutely, you have to see it stoned. Do you have some here?"
"Naturally. Want to smoke?"
"Yep."
"I'll go get it."

I went downstairs and found perhaps a couple dozen people left at the party. I was ambushed left and right by drunks while I scrounged about for my weed, simultaneously attempting to make chat that didn't seem overly rushed and rude yet get back to the naked girl longing for pot in my bed. When I returned upstairs I ground up some weed and rolled a joint. We stood by the door to the balcony smoking it and I sized her up for a moment. "How tall are you?"
"About six-two."
"Whoa seriously? Hold on stand next to me for a moment in front of the mirror." We did and I realized she was roughly an inch taller than me, just as she'd said.
"Damn, you're the first girl I've ever slept with that's taller than me."

The remainder of the evening was spent lying in bed talking about this and that, being interrupted by girls begging for their purses who got them given back by me in my underwear, and smoking another joint while discussing how excited we were for Avatar. We fell asleep with me joking about how she was tall enough to be the big spoon. She left sometime early in the morning; I can barely remember.

In the morning I came downstairs to a thoroughly ruined apartment. I called the cleaning guy. With an apartment too trashed to play poker in and a beautiful day outside I decided there was only one responsible thing to do; go out and chat up girls during the day.

Note: I messaged XXXXXX about writing this blog entry and whether she wanted anything left out to which she replied "Haha full name and address? (I don't know either) Nothing particular dude, write away."

On that day, seven years ago

I can still remember the first time I played poker with my friends. It was just a little over seven years ago, and I was recently 18. We were at a friends house watching a Monday night football game playing five card draw for what I believe was a 10 dollar buy in, though it might have been five. I know for certain that I lost 20 dollars.

At that point in my life I was strongly considering a stint in the military; I wanted to be a marine. My parents were terrified at the idea, but I had already met with the recruiter twice and was keen to sign the papers. My interest in gambling began in sports betting, and I would run around during class with a sheet with all the games betting lines, offering it to whoever might want action. I had a job I hated at Damon's restaurant, an obsession with bodybuilding, and not much else going for me. I was an average student with no concrete ambitions, awkward with women to the degree of uselessness, and lacking any legitimate talent outside of the motivation to be a huge meat-head. But then I found poker.

I knew it was what I wanted for my life near instantly. I would sit and watch every second of the WPT or WSOP broadcasts and could rattle off hand after hand from each episode. I thought the pros I watched were amazing and I'd have arguments with friends about who was the best. I was a full blown fan-boy. I started playing at every opportunity, and read any book I could get my hands on. I lost all interest in military enlistment. When I told people this was what I wanted for a career they shook their heads and asked if I had a gambling problem. At the time I didn't have words like "equity" or "variance" to explain myself, all I knew was that the game seemed to be the only place I could actually focus my mental energy.

It went on that way for years. In college I'd sit in the back of class with my laptop open, watching the afternoon $100 rebuys on Stars and wishing I too could be playing. Eventually I found out the campus had wireless internet and classes were spent playing instead of watching. I was surrounded by theater students killing themselves trying to get a leg up or land the big part and I couldn't possibly have cared less. When one of my professors told me I should audition for his elite acting program I thought he might have a seizure when I replied with "Ah thanks, but that would be too big a time commitment away from poker."

The game has a quick ostracizing affect. I began falling away from my friends, electing to stay in and play tournaments instead of go get drunk many weekends. By the time I moved to Australia and found myself in a long term relationship I realized I didn't have a single friend outside of the poker world. It stayed that way for over three years. Unless you're careful and proactive to prevent it, the game will separate and isolate you from regular society. You live on different hours and think in different ways. You have to watch the way you talk; not in the risk of vulgarity but that you might be accidentally rude. Poker players talk about money like a tool (which it is for us) and wind up forgetting that we bluntly discuss hands that involve most peoples weekly pay check like they are nothing. It's not unusual for the bulk of a persons social circle to be made up of people from their industry, but in ours it comes with so many consequences. It's an industry rife with liars, cheats, and scumbags, not to mention a guy to girl ratio that makes the military look like the Playboy mansion. I am not complaining though, because this world is what I am now. There's no going back to the real world when a simple Google search will turn up videos of you drunkenly lighting yourself on fire or stories about the time you let that girl stab you during sex. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The only thing that concerns me is poker's longevity. There are many good signs about the industry; new markets taking off, the WSOP ratings going up in key demographics, growth on most major online networks, the continuing giant fields every summer in Vegas. However, this is an industry that cannibalizes itself, where once money reaches certain hands it's no longer in circulation. It wouldn't shock me if the game remained profitable throughout my lifetime, but it also wouldn't shock me if it became far less lucrative in the next few years. It's why day after day, week after week, for the whole year, you'll find me billion tabling the day away and posting on the strategy forums by night. Seven years ago failure would have sucked, but it would have been easily redeemable. Today it is out of the question.

See you on the tables.

Tiger Woods isn’t a sex addict, he’s just an idiot

I never liked Tiger Woods. I never disliked him either, as far as I was concerned he wasn't interesting enough to feel strongly about. I was always a John Daly fan; a big fat guy who crushed the ball, smoked on the course, drank and gambled all night, dated a Hooters waitress, wrote a tell all book, and despite his flaws was just so lovably human. Sure Woods could win every golf tournament imaginable, but nothing about his personality or style was particularly engaging. As we all know, it turns out Tiger Woods was a lot more interesting than we gave him credit for. Too bad he's a lying, sell out piece of shit.

Some might think that I might have some sympathy for Woods given my lifestyle choices. And sure, I can understand the desire to sleep around, which would be particularly hard to resist were you a rich and famous sports star. But I have no sympathy for Woods, only scorn and vitriol. Woods is the kind of guy that gives ladies men their often deserved bad name, a liar and cheat who will risk anything and everything to get off. What truly disgusts me about Woods though, is what a colossal fucking sell out he is. They call him the billion dollar sportsman, and we all know he would have never got that kind of money had he been out in the open about his drug use and girl chasing. No, had he been that kind of guy with his golf talent he only would have earned several hundred million dollars, because a sponsorship from Playboy and Trojan doesn't pay quite as well as Buick and Nike. Lord knows you just can't live the appropriate baller lifestyle on nine figures. He could have been himself though, instead of lying to his family, his fans, and all the people that looked up to him.

If Woods had been open (and not married) about how he rolls the guy would have been my hero. A dude who takes drugs, sleeps with loads of women, then rocks up in the morning fresh and proceeds to be crush everyone else would be just so epic. I'd have posters of him on my wall and write him fan mail asking him how it's done, how to balance it all at once. Instead he constructed an elaborate web of lies which covered, as far as we can tell, his entire personal life. Now he's claiming to be a "sex addict", because apparently, he isn't tired of insulting the public's intelligence just yet. With incredibly rare exceptions, "sex addiction" is what men who get caught being men like to claim to gain sympathy when they simply don't have the balls to own up to their horny behavior. Given what I've seen in the poker industry, if every guy who routinely cheated on his wife or girlfriend were a sex addict then the vast majority of the industry is badly in need of professional help.

Fuck Tiger Woods and the Buick that coward rode in on. Daly for the win!

Success and failure

I've been actively posting on the 2+2 tournament forums since early 2006. In those days Party was the highest volume tournament sight and Paradise poker was thriving. I got myself involved in the community as quickly as possible, and wound up befriending most of the major posters of that time period. I keep sporadic contact with many of them on AIM and MSN, and in the case of the active live players often run into them at major tournaments. Having dropped out of college and spent so much time moving from country to country they became the closest thing I had to a normal social circle for many years.

It's been fascinating for me to watch their evolution in both poker and life. Some guys have faded away never to be heard from again, some have gained success on an enormous scale, and in the case of many they simply burned out and chose to pursue different options in life. It makes me sit back and wonder what causes some guys to fail and some to succeed. It makes me wonder how a Superman like Shaundeeb can crush tournaments the way he does but one day just up and quit (though we all know he'll be back.) It makes me wonder how seven years into this I can't possibly imagine doing anything else for a living while so many around me detest their occupation.

After mulling this all over for a while I've come up with a list for what I think creates success in the poker world. It is not listed in order of significance:

1. Bankroll and money management: Although I'm not putting these in any particular order, if there's one thing I felt comfortable for placing at number one on this list it's definitely bankroll management. When I went back to look at the "Things it took me a while to learn" article I wrote on bankroll management it seemed woefully inadequate and so I'm writing a more complete entry on the subject. There is an endless list of negative consequences to fucking up your bankroll management. It will absolutely ruin your long term equity; if you take a shot in a very soft game where losing means inhibiting you from playing your normal stakes for some duration then you might not even be gaining equity by playing in the game. The emotional devastation of losing all or a major portion of your bankroll can be crippling and wreck your will to grind. Some guys in the poker community are admired for their willingness to go broke; I'll never understand that one (though watching someone like Isildur1 degen it off is certainly entertaining.)

2. Volume and grinding: Very few guys can get away learning and mastering this game without putting in much volume at it. My roommate Jarred Graham has become one of the best all around players in Australia (in terms of being good at many things, I would personally argue the best) within just a few years of play. He's a smart guy, but not some kind of freakish genius. He mostly became as good as he is because he worked his balls off playing nearly every day of the week during the period he was coming up. My personal mentality on grinding is "If you can fit it,(and it won't substantially cut your equity in other tournaments) play it." You can find me in a $24 freezeout the same time I'm playing a $100 rebuys. I really don't give a shit about only being seen in the high buy in or "pro's" tournaments and grinding the small ones reduces my variance.

One of my favorite authors is Malcolm Gladwell, a common choice amongst poker players. I would recommend everything the man has written but of particular interest for poker players would be his most recent work Outliers. In it, Gladwell discusses that in almost every example of enormous talent or ability the subject had put in at least 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in that field, yet the public often confused them for a natural genius in their specialty. He can elaborate on the concept much better than I can but the message is simple; if you want to be good at this you had better put in the work.

3. Emotional control: At his peak, a poker player should be 100% non reactionary. Nothing should phase him, and his emotional investment or interest in the outcome of a hand should be zero. Guy's like Ivey and Antonius are masters of this trade; they could be shot in the leg or have Scarlett Johansson call begging for sex and the difference between reactions would be non existent. Then again, both those guys have so much money it's not hard for them to be so disinterested. People often wonder why the Scandinavians are often such excellent natural poker players, and while I have no proof on the matter I'm overwhelmingly confident it's because they are a naturally cold and logical people. Meanwhile many of the players from more..."passionate" countries, tend to be pretty fucking awful.

Unfortunately, it seems difficult to practice being detached and disinterested so many hours of the day and not have it spill over into your personality. After seven years in poker I've reached a stage where nothing bothers me in anymore. I took a one outer for almost my whole stack 20 minutes into the WSOP main event this year and shrugged then laughed a little. Conversely, friends and women I date routinely describe me as "cold", "detached" and the ever common "robotic." I'm still looking to find the balance with this one.

4. Taking breaks: For all the practiced and developed emotional control, most people stay fairly human. This means they burn out and get exhausted of the game frequently enough that a break here and there will do them good. Hell, I know for sure that having spent six of the last eight months traveling (and most of that time getting wasted and chasing girls) has done wonders for my mentality; all I ever want to do anymore is grind. I suppose if you feel happy grinding seven days a week 12 months a year with no breaking I wouldn't advise you to stop, but most people seem to need a breather from time to time.

Even small breaks to pursue a passion outside of poker will be beneficial. We've all got external interests, and hopefully with the money you gain from grinding hard at poker you can actively pursue them. For me it's dating, going to the gym, and getting stoned, but it might be any number of different things for you. Need a recommendation? Call of Duty on Xbox360, that shit is awesome. God I wish I had more time to play.

5. Staying in shape: This is so totally underrated amongst poker players. Near everyone knows you function better mentally when staying active physically, and it's nowhere close as hard as most guys make it out to be. Many of us grew up playing a sport and if feasible, I'd recommend picking it up again. Otherwise, for guys who are grinding hard it's really not that expensive to hire a dietitian and personal trainer who will make corrections to your diet and keep you motivated in the gym. Only a few active sessions a week and editing out junk food will make a noticeable change within a few months not only aesthetically, but in varied other positive aspects.

6. Being social with your other poker players: Learning this game alone is very hard. Having other guys to compare thoughts with, calibrate your ranges, swap notes, and motivate each other is invaluable. It's obviously in my best interest to say this, but coaching is a good idea for many guys too. I've paid four different guys for coaching at some point (Adam Junglen, NoahSD, Mike Watson, and SEABEAST) and every time they found ways to make me better. Shit, I ought to hire someone for a session some time soon considering how much grinding I'm going to be doing.

Routinely talking poker with contemporaries will do wonders for your game and social life when you travel to tournaments. Lord knows how much I learned in friendly conversations with Luckychewy, MikeJ, JayPez, Gobboboy, Randallin, Eagles, Jarred Graham, Steve Leonard, and on and on. I discovered little on my own in this game; I am merely a composition of smart peoples thoughts channeled through my own style and discipline.

APPT Sydney 2009

Sydney has always been one of my favorite stops in the tour. I arrived late in a cool sumer evening the night of the 28th off a 10 hour flight from Honolulu, having missed all relevant preliminary events. Every day after that was perfect outside. As soon as I arrived I found my Australian friends at their apartment in Star City.

Naturally we rolled a number of joints and passed them around. We went downstairs into the lobby and ran straight into a line of eight police men with a drug dog. There was a moment like a Western movie showdown, where everyone stares seemingly forever into each others eyes; the very blurry and red ones in our case. The dog went staight for Stevo, the most stoner looking one of us, and the police pulled him aside. Twenty minutes and one thorough search later and we were off to dinner. Nobody had been carrying.

I decided to play the first day one and get it over straight away. It wound up going extremely well and finished with the chip lead for the day with 104,000 up from the 30,000 starting stack. The key hands were:

Hand 1:

Blinds 200/400, ante of 50.

I hold AKo in the BB.

My stack: ~26,000

HJ: ~8000

Jason Gray in SB: ~36,000

Preflop: Folds around to the HJ, HJ raises to 1100, folds to Australian tournament regular Jason Gray in the SB who makes it 4100. I debated making it 13,000 to look massive or just shoving, and I elected to just shove by putting 24,000 of my stack in. The HJ folded and Jason tanked and made the call.

Flop: K 7 5 rainbow

Jason shoves, I call, he shows QQ. The hand held and Jason said he knew I would play AA or KK that way (which I would to balance my range.) Seems I should have elected to go the 12,000 route and possibly gotten him to fold the QQ.

Hand 2:

Blinds 300/600 with 50 ante.

I hold KsQs in the SB

My stack: ~60,000

BB: ~30,000

Preflop: UTG limps, 1 fold, MP1 limps, folds to me in the BB, I complete, BB checks.

Flop: Js Tc 4s

I lead 1200, BB makes it 3300, folds back to me, I make it 11,000, he shoves, I call. He has JTo.

Turn: 9c

River: X

He looked at me so pissed for getting it in there. Pretty sure he thought I was a massive donk to get it on that draw, that or just generally upset about the situation.

Hand 3:

Previous round we'd played a similar hand where I raised button with J7o he calls big flop A52 check/bet/call, turn 5 check/check, river 8 he bets I fold. I had generally been very aggressive on the button but not very aggressive post flop after the flop unless I had a hand.

Blinds 400/800 with 75 ante.

I hold JcTc on the button.

My stack: ~85,000

BB: ~40,000

Preflop: Folds around to me, I raise to 2000, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: Ks 5h 2s

BB checks, I bet 3300, BB calls.

Turn: Ac

BB checks, seemed like a really good spot to double barrel and I figured that if river bricks off I should bet any non K, A, or possibly J, T. I think he sometimes calls turn with a king since the ace is a clear scare card, but folds basically every king if I bomb dud river. Clearly bluffing a K or A is a bad idea, and a J or T might be enough showdown value to check back in case he has some kind of mid pair he's hero calling, plus some of his range will be stuff like KJ and KT. I bet 7,200 and he called fairly quick.

River: Qh

Easy game, I bet 16,500 he quickly calls and said he knew I had nothing when I turned my hand over.

By far the most interesting event of the day was the bikey fight though. In Australia bikey is the term for a biker gang member, and they are quite prevalent here in Sydney (and many other major cities as well.)

There was a roughly 60ish year old man playing in the high roller event during the late afternoon of day 1a. A big ass bikey came in and started shouting.

"Stay the fuck out of my business!!!" he threatened in the middle of the room, looming over the old guy.

"I reckon your a rat" returned the old guy.

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME!? WHAT'D YOU CALL ME!?"
"A fucking rat!" And with that the bikey lunged upon the old guy and started delivering massive blows to his face. He held his face down then punched up while the old guy struggeled to get free. The room stopped of course and everyone stared at them in awe, not daring to interfere with the enraged bikey. The combantants were perhaps three meters away and it occured to me that at any moment they could smash into where I was standing so I jumped over my chair and stood behind the table. Roughly 10 seconds later they smashed directly into where I had been standing while the bikey rained down punches on the old guy. The floormen attempted to jump in and break up what they thought was a fight and didn't realize was a massacre, so they started holding down the old guy resulting in an even worse thrashing. "You've got the wrong guy!!!" everyone kept yelling.

I'm not sure how long it took security to get there but it seemed forever. When they had finally pulled the bikey off him the old guys face was beat to pieces and he was bleeding all over the place. We sat back down. The dealer asked if we wanted to finish the hand. I said that we did; my straight lost to an over straight. The tournament director put everyone on a must leave the room 15 minute break and we all stood around taking turns making fun of Terrence Chan for not leaping in and destroying the bikey with his jujitsu (though in fairness, you'd have to be completely fucking nuts to start a fight with a bikey that wasn't yours.)

My night off I went out to a jeans company party with Brooke Howard-Smith. I thought for a fashion industry party you couldn't be over dressed in a suit but I was dead the fuck wrong as everyone was in tight jeans and dress shirts buttoned all the way to the top. The only guy with a jacket on was wearing a thin tuxedo jacket paired with a massive V-cut shirt. The music was two Japanese guys connecting numerous electrodes to their face then playing buzzing noises that sort of made music. I decided to get drunk.

I left early to go watch the Danny Green vs Roy Jones Jr fight. I'd run into Danny in the elevator the previous night since he stayed on the floor the boys had the apartment and he seemed like a really nice guy, and came off pure class in the ordeal leading up to it. The guy is a national hero around here now.

I rocked up to day 2 well rested and got things up to around 140,000 before they started going wrong. I lost a couple of straight forward medium pots and then had an interesting spot vs long time Australian pro Leo Boxell who is pretty tight about putting in large amounts of chips post flop and seems to 4X and 5X often pre:

My stack: ~110,000

Leo's stack: ~130,000

Blinds 1000/2000 with 200 ante. I hold 9s 9h in the BB.

Preflop: Folds to Leo in MP2, Leo raises to 8,000, folds to me in the BB, I call.

Flop: 9c Tc Ac

I check, Leo checks.

Turn: Jd

I bet 15,500, Leo quickly announces raise and makes it 40,500, I tank and fold. I just don't think he raises any worse hands and our implied OOP aren't that awesome plus sometimes he can have a set of jacks where we have massive reverse implied.

I busted out go and go'ing 88 for 35 BB's against a guy who had flatted 100% of my three bets against him that day (three or four) and almost never folded to preflop reraises. I started with 72,000 and popped his HJ raise of 7,000 up to 22,000. He flatted pretty quick. The flop came 972 with a flush draw, shoved, and he snapped top set. That was that.

I spent the next couple nights looking to go out. Last night we finally had our big one. It started in Bondi drinking and having dinner with Brooke, his wife Amber, her friend Nicky, Peter Eastgate and his friend Neil. Those Danish dudes are chill as hell and Brooke and Amber are always pure quality. We downed several rounds of Singha beer with our Italian food, then went over to a margarita place and did a round there. I refused the tequila shot as anything brown is pretty much instant vomiting after a few college experiences.

We took things over to "The Scheaf" if I spelled that correctly and met all the Australian online boys there. Even Stevo came out, I assume the apartment was being fumigated. We kept doing shots and mixed drinks and things started getting lose. Neil somehow obtained a plastic gun and gave it to me upon seeing my excitement at his find. I jammed it into my crotch and ran around about the bar asking people "Hey!! Crotch gun, good look or bad look!?" Brooke chased me down and demanded I didn't do that in King's Cross when we went over there and I relinquished my toy to him after much resistance.

We wound up at Piano Bar in King's Cross doing more shots and mixed rinks. A hens night asked us to eat the candy off the brides neck. I jumped enthusiastically at the chance and went to town on her neck. Peter and Neil soon followed. I started flirting with the bridal party and took one of them dancing. The whole group showed up and we went about the business of getting smashed. There was an excellent band playing, and by late into the night I was hugging everyone I saw and had obtained some sort of glowing dildo from another hens night which I ran about brandishing in a threatening manner at people, from the Australian grinders, to the Danes, to pokerstars staff, to my ex Celina. Nobody was spared the sight and potential harm of the glowing dildo.

I woke up exhausted from it all today. I decided to take it easy, so I went up to the boys apartment, got stoned, and met up with Peter and Neil to check out the movie "ZombieLand". I haven't done much else since except write this blog entry, and I'll go to bed and return to Melbourne tomorrow.

It's been a long but fun month of travel. Although I never had a night so big I wound up vomiting or feeling very ill the next morning I realize now that after being alcohol free for two months in Melbourne I spent nearly every night of the last month engaged in some degree of social drinking save the ones before a tournament. It will be nice to be so clean again for a while in Melbourne.

Getting Better With Women [Long]

(Authors note: I wrote this for BBV4L on 2+2 and to generally try to put some positive light on an aspect of my life that gets highly stigmatized. Yes, it's really, really long but for those of you interested in this subject, I believe it will be worth the time invested.)

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while. As I mentioned in the other thread, this is something I've been involved with for about a year now. I know that pick up gets a ton of negative stigma and attention, and looking at the community from an inside perspective I totally understand where that comes from. Also, I want to say at the beginning that many of my ideas and the concepts I'm talking about here are the result of my studying 'Magic Bullets' by Nick Savoy at great length, and it's a book I recommend enormously.

What I'd like to make known though, is that there are a number of schools of thought on pick up and they are vastly different. Many of the things that pick up is famous for like opinion openers, negs, and routines are **** that I detest and think are totally manipulative and retarded. The school of thought I prescribe to is what's known as "natural game". The basic idea is this; you learn about what's attractive to women, their psychology, dating logistics, and pick up concepts then try to adapt it to who you naturally are so you meet women in honest ways congruent to yourself. Congruent is a word I use all the time now, and I think it's a good one because it's so applicable. Learning to be congruent is kind of like learning to be confident, essentially you feel comfortable in your own skin all the time and that calm, genuine confidence comes out and will naturally attract women to you. Additionally, it means putting a lot less effort into picking up women because you start attracting the ones who are into the real you and not some facade you create with pick up tricks.

Most of what I'm going to talk about here is for guys who meet girls at night or through their social circle (friends, work, family, etc.) Day game is actually my personal favorite, but it's a totally different animal and so few guys are ever going to get involved with that it's a little pointless. I already wrote a long post on day game for my PU forum, so if people are interested we can always just add it to this one.

Whenever I talk to people about pick up I begin in mentality. Basically, anyone who gets involved with this should do so hoping to improve their abilities with women, their relationships with women, and themselves. Getting involved just to **** as many women as possible will only be satisfying temporarily, and will eventually lead to a feeling of hollowness and exhaustion. There's nothing wrong with having the desire to sleep with lots and lots of different women, and I think it's a major **** up on societies part that there is this idea that wanting to have sex with a woman is some kind of aggressive, manipulative act. What the **** is that? Sex, at it's core, is an enormously healthy act. It slows the aging process, reduces stress, is a pretty good work out, clears your mind, feels amazing, and helps you connect with someone. The idea that having sex with a woman is taking something from her or achieving some victory over her is condescending. Unfortunately, both men and women perpetrate this hurtful mind set.

The problem lies in peoples mentality towards sex. Men are often willing to say/do whatever in order to get it and women are aware of this, and the whole thing becomes a deceptive game. Additionally, the Western society double standard on sex is as appalling as it is retarded. Men are lauded for the ability to lay lots of girls and women are branded sluts, and this results in everyone getting laid less and a lot more stress associated with sex than there needs to be. Stop judging women, and the whole process becomes a lot more fun for everyone. If you let her sexual history or desires bother you then you're just not being realistic and letting something that's probably irrelevant train wreck a potentially awesome relationship.

Anyway, I'm going to start from the top here and just let it flow out. Plenty of what I write will look like common sense, and if it does to you then that's a good thing, as you probably have more developed natural game. When I talk about this with women they think a ton of it is common sense, but it turns out that a lot of us guys simply aren't aware of it all. If it all seems obvious to you it's because you're experiencing what's known as the "curse of knowledge", where you forget what it's like not to know something. Guys who were good for a long time often look at pick up and think "WTF, how is this possibly necessary?" but for so many of us, learning about game at a later stage of life really is, because nobody taught us when we were younger and then the lack of confidence with women became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There's also a mentality among many men that being an ******* gets you laid, or that women want to be treated badly. *******s don't get laid because they're *******s, it's because they're comfortable expressing their sexual desires and intents with women because they don't give a ****. A nice guy with game winds up getting laid way more than an ******* with game, plus a nice guy with game will keep those girls around longer and have more healthy relationships with them. I'd encourage you to be very pleasant, respectful, and patient with the girls you're interested in and date; just make sure they also know you want to **** the hell out of them, because there's nothing wrong with that. Women like being around men who take stress out of their lives instead of adding to it, and I've pulled a number of girls who were already dating some ******* but they knew hanging out with me would be a more fun and stress free experience.

Approaching, the different kind of openers (night game):

1. Natural openers: These are the best at night in my opinion. Girls are used to so much random, drunken idiocy that just coming up and being normal, fun, and sociable gets you some serious credibility. Natural openers I like at night are:
"Hi, how's your night going?"
"Hey, what's up!"
"Hi I'm Tony, who are you?"

However it is you like to say hello to people at night in a bar/club, I'd recommend simply doing the same with women you don't know.

2. Situational openers: Can be really good in a lot of spots.

Situational openers are a question or a comment pertaining to the situation you're both present in. Guys have been using these forever to start talking to girls. Perhaps you're standing next to a girl at a bar, you both wait quite some time, and you ask her "Wow what's with the service around here?" or "How long have you been waiting for a drink?" Perhaps her and her friends are dressed up in some motif, and you go ask what the dress up is about. I can't really script you a lot of situational openers because you need to be observant, but the nice part is they tend to flow easily into conversation.

3. Direct openers: Can be good at night, but are less effective than during the day. Being direct means walking over to a girl and telling her you think she's attractive however it is you'd phrase that. They're a little less effective at night because plenty of guys can get a bunch of booze in them then work up the courage to go tell a girl she's hot. I'd say use direct openers if you notice a girl checking you out or she's doing something that clearly indicates that she wants you to approach her, otherwise go natural. Some simple direct openers are
"Hey me and my friends saw you girls from across the bar and thought you were really cute, so we came over to say hi!"

"I know this is very forward of me, but I saw you from across the bar and I had to come say that I think you are absolutely stunning."

"I love that X you're wearing, it looks great on you."

Reverse: "Hey my friend caught you checking me out, and I came over here to say that I DO NOT appreciate being made to feel like a piece of meat."

One I used recently that worked and was 100% true, literally the most direct thing I could think to say: "Hey I'd have come over here to talk sooner but there's another girl around here who might get jealous...not a girlfriend."

If you read some of these and think they're retarded that's fine. Just word it however feels right coming from you.

4. Indirect openers: Are really subtle, innocuous things like questions about where things are or what time it is to start up a conversation with a girl. Personally, I don't use them, because I think they're not honest. If I see a girl I want to talk to I 'm not going to ask her for the time then try to segway into a conversation, I'm going to say something more direct to her. However, If I'm somewhere and I genuinely need to find out where something is, I'll ask the hottest girl I see about it.

5. Opinion openers: God these are so retarded in my opinion. An opinion opener is going up to a girl and saying something like "Excuse me can we borrow you for a woman's perspective on something for a moment? My friend and I were having an argument and we were wondering, who do you think lies more, guys or girls?" There's all kinds of these things, and they're just so dumb. No, you weren't actually having an argument with your friend and needed a girls perspective, you were looking for an excuse to talk to her, so ****ing man up and talk to her.

When go out at night, your priority should be having fun with your friends first, and meeting women second. Just being a great time at the bar/club/party is going to get you a lot of positive attention from women, and then you don't have this whole results oriented mindset about how good your night was based on how you did with girls. Just have fun!

One thing I like to do with approaching at night is what I call "planting seeds." Basically I walk around a bar/club/party saying "Hi guys how's your night going!" to a number of groups of girls. Then I'm fun and light for perhaps 5-10 minutes and unless some girl massively latches on to me I'll eventually say it was cool chatting with them and that I'll talk to them later, then continue doing this to more and more groups. At some point I'll go back and chat to the groups who were the most receptive and fun, but this time I'll remember their names and I'll be coming back as "Tony, the fun and humorous guy from before who was normal" and not "Random guy who just came up to us to start hitting on one of us."

Transitioning, and how to do it: When you go up and start talking to girls you'll find that most of the time, they don't just launch into conversation with you, you need to drive it. In fact, when you start talking to girls a good 80-90% of the early conversation is likely going to have to come from your end until you get her really interested in the interaction. Transitioning is whatever you say to get from your opener to conversation.

A transition is normally a question, statement, or observation. It's best if you can tailor it specifically to the girl or the situation the two of you are in, but plenty of generic ones are fine. When I go to a tournament players party where they hire models I see the same pattern over and over; for the first half of the party most guys stand around drinking and not talking to the models, waiting to build liquid courage. So what I do is go over and open naturally, then transition with something like "So why aren't any other boys talking with you girls tonight, what'd you drive them all away?"

During the day I often transition with "So what are you up to in (City X) today?" If I'm in Vegas or a place full of tons of people from out of town, I'll ask "So what brings you to Vegas?"

Normally I don't really have any transition planned at night, I just go in, open, and see what happens. The more you do it, the more it starts to flow naturally.

Attracting women to you: It turns out that with women, you need to attract them to you before you let off serious attraction in them. I know that sounds in-congruent to walking over to a girl and telling her she's cute, but all you've really done is let her know she's a good looking person and that you want to find out more, not that you're so super into her and massively invested in this interaction with her.
When guys come on too strong too early, they tend to get friend zoned unless they have a number of other factors working for them. Your goal is to carry an air of what's known as "active disinterest", meaning that you engage her yet are seemingly a bit aloof. A simple way to accomplish this is by being very non-reactionary, generally just chilled and never too spun out by anything she says.

Women are enormously unique and varied in what they find attractive in men, but the boys in 'Magic Bullets' did some work and managed to boil it down to eight universally attractive qualities. The idea is to understand them, then display them in a socially calibrated way. In no particular order (I think I'm remembering this right) they are:

Confidence: Every woman will admit she wants a confident man. But what is confidence really? Physically, it's the way you carry yourself, it's maintaining eye contact, it's speaking slowly so you seem relaxed, it's
good posture.

Mentally, it's the way you treat people and interact with them. It means not being possessive, jealous, or controlling with women. It means not taking out your insecurities on them, or judging them for who they really are. We're all human and we all have insecurities, but find healthy ways to express them instead of letting them alter your behavior and resulting in your lashing out. Here's a really fun way to express jealousy to a woman that they love:

Say you bring a date to a bar/party. The two of you wind up off socializing seperately with various people, and eventually some other guy is clearly flirting with her, and if she's a normal sociable girl, she might even flirt back a little bit. Instead of confronting the guy or bringing your **** to the girl, here's what you do. Walk over to both of them, put your arm around her and say very politely to both
"Excuse me, do you mind if I borrow the lovely X for a moment?" Of course the guy will say yes, and then you pull her aside out of ear shot and say flirtatiously "You know I got so tired of watching all the other guys in the party chat you up, so I thought I'd have a go at it myself for a while." Then, just blatantly flirt with your date. Women like knowing that you're human enough to feel a little jealous over them, but they don't want to be guilt tripped for normal socializing. Even more fun is that when the girls your date, you can flirt however the **** you want. If you've already slept with her then you can full blown sexually harass her and it's seen as positive attention! Man, I say some filthy **** in the ears of my dates when I do this.

Social intuition: Girls like guys who are good in social situations and socially calibrated. They hate when they take you somewhere with a bunch of new people and instead of going off and charming everyone, you stand around like a chode and bitch "I don't really know anyone here, this is uncomfortable for me." They like to see a guy who can work a room, who can get people to like him quickly, to have other people buzzing in their ear about how fun their date seems. They hate when guys commit social taboos or faux pas.

Additionally, you need to be senstive to your dating situation with her when out socially. When out with a girl you're seeing casually she probably doesn't want you all over her since odds are the two of you ****ing isn't a super out in the open thing, so adjust your behavior. If you show up at separate times from a woman you're ****ing casually, then make sure to hang around the party talking to other people for a while before you even recognize her presence at said event.

Health: Health is your appearance. Men are fortunate in that if they aren't extremely short or extremely ugly, they can probably work on their looks hard enough that most women would be willing to date them or not disqualify them based on looks. Yes, this is all much easier for really good looking guys and they're going to be allowed to make more mistakes, but we guys are lucky that women aren't as shallow about us as we are about them.

Women like to feel a physical presence from a man, so I recommend working out enormously. You don't need to become Brad Pitt in fight club, but women like the idea of dating a guy with an attractive body, or at least a man powerful enough that they can feel his physical dominance in relation to theirs. I especially recommend this for short guys, you're already at one physical disadvantage so try to account for it by standing out in another way.

When it comes to fashion, you don't need to do anything amazing to stand out (though personally I'd always encourage you to throw a suit on, but it doesn't matter that much.) Basically, women want to see that you put some thought and effort into your style, and as long as it's all congruent they're happy. Lots of girls aren't even that picky about what a guys style is, they just want to see that he has one. A girl might go from dating a clean cut habitual suit wearer like me and then her next guy is a tattooed, pierced, punk rocker. Women definitely pay attention to shoes though, so get that aspect covered.

Challenging: A big reason nice guys never get the girl is because they don't challenge women. They constantly supplicate, which basically means always having behavior that makes it clear that they believe the woman's value to be vastly higher than their own (commonly referred to as "putting the pussy on a pedestal.") Women like a challenge, they like a guy who doesn't bend to their every will, remains mysterious, and is generally intriguing.

One big way to increase how challenging you are is to become aware of what are known as "**** tests". **** tests are what women throw at you to test your frame (frame is a word used to describe the way you're presenting yourself, the vibe you're giving off and the way you carry yourself.) Most **** tests are subconscious, but when I tell women about them they often suddenly realize that they do it all the time, which they do.

Women **** test in a variety of ways. You have two options with them, either blow them up, or side step. Most of the time, it's more fun to blow a **** test up, but occasionally you need to side step. Most **** tests come in the form of a woman accusing you of being in trouble for something that you couldn't legitimately be in real trouble for. Here's a good example from an approach I did with Luckychewy in a Las Vegas mall:

The two of us walked over to two girls and I opened direct. He transitioned by asking what brought them to Vegas. There was a moment of small talk, then I offered my hand to one and said "Hi, I'm Tony."
"MMphh, you caught me with chocolate in my mouth" she said (and she was holding some candy.)
"That's okay, I don't have any class either" I replied
Her friend laughed, but the girl wasn't sure how to handle it then turned to her friend and said "Is he saying I have no class?"

That's her **** test, she's seeing if I'll stand up to her. Most guys back down, and say something like "I'm sorry, I was just playing around, I didn't mean anything by it" or something along those lines. My answer: "**** yea, that's how I roll."

Later in the interaction she threw another **** test at us:
"So do you guys just walk around the mall chatting up girls all day?"
What I said at the time was the most honest answer "Actually we're here to buy Andrew a suit" and then I pointed to the bag containing the suit we'd bought him. A better answer would be "Yes, this is pretty much all we do all day. In fact, we have zero legitimate business here whatsoever."

Simple rule with **** tests, if a woman accuses you of being in trouble for something, just say yes and be a wise ass about it. Women will *** test in other ways too. Here's an example a friend gave me from a guy with great game he saw approach a woman who looked very pissed off:

PUA: "So, what do you like?"
Girl: "What?"
PUA: "What do you like?"
Girl: "...cocktails and sex from behind"

There's her **** test. If the guy bites and thinks he's in, she knows he's a low value guy. The PUA in the example was very good however, and answered really calmly.

PUA: "Hmm, I like London."
Girl: "London?"
PUA: "Yea, I live there a few months of each year and really like it there, great city."

One of the most famous **** tests is one of the most common from women. You'll be going home together and they'll say "Okay well you can spend the night, but you should know I'm not going to have sex with you."
First of all, that's a very good sign because it means the girl has already thought about having sex with you. The best thing to do here is simply side step the **** test; just change the subject and talk about something else. Then when you get to hers, eventually make your move and obviously if she stops you then stop, but if she doesn't then proceed as normal.

Pre-selection: Pre-selection means women want what other women want, particularly when it comes to men. Women are curious about guys who are seen around lots of other girls, particularly attractive ones. It's much better to rock up to the club with a group of girl pals than guy pals, and other women are absolutely going to notice the attention you're getting.

If you're not after a relationship (and there's nothing wrong with being interested in getting into one) then I'd encourage you to be very open about being a flit/man whore. What ends up happening is that if you develop a reputation for getting lots of women and other women become curious as to what makes you appealing/interesting, it essentially works as advertising. Additionally, when you have a well established image/reputation as a casual sex guy, that inevitably helps screen out the girls who couldn't handle a casual relationship themselves. If you're a guy who only wants flings and casual relationships, then you shouldn't be trying to take girls looking for something serious and coercing them into brief sex with you, you should be looking for the girls who want the same thing as you do. Because I'm so open about what kind of guy I am I even sometimes get girls coming to me knowing I'm the right person to have a fling with and that I won't get all emo or attached about it.

Wealth: And I'm not saying that all women are gold diggers or anything like that (though obviously they exist.) However, the fact is if you take two roughly equal guys and one has a lot of money and one doesn't, a woman is going to prefer the guy with money. They aren't so much interested in dating a guy who's loaded, as knowing that the guy is comfortable and capable of providing if need be.

You need to be really careful and socially calibrated about how you display wealth. You need to be mindful of what's known as the "prostitution paradigm." Basically, you shouldn't spend a ton of money on a woman prior to having sex with her because she can see and feel you spending that money and she knows what you're after. The end result is often girls will friend zone you or hold out for longer than they would have because they're concerned that you're trying to buy them.

When you spend money on women, make it subtle. Don't make a scene of it, and if so do it away from their eye sight. When you pick up the bill for drinks, go up and pay at the bar. Then when the two of you are leaving and she asks about the bill, reply simply "We're cool, it's sorted" and expect nothing in response. Most of them will thank you, but don't be a nit about it if they don't.

Status: What makes famous people super attractive is not only their looks and money, but that they have enormous status. Power even, is a huge aphrodisiac, and this goes all the way back to the idea of the "alpha male" and all that business.

Keep in mind that status is constantly shifting. A university professor has huge status in class or on campus, but he's just another dude with a good job at the bar. Play to the areas where your status is the highest, such as displaying a talent.

If you can't think of anything that makes you particularly high status, then when you go to meet women make sure you're around supportive, fun friends who make you look good and speak well of you. Don't hang out with your competitive, douchy friends who will try to blow you up out of jealousy (personally I just cut these people out of my life, but whatever.)

Humor: It's hard to tell someone
"Hey, just be funny, you'll be fine" but women really do want a guy who can make them laugh. Additionally, you should have an easy going and fun sense of humor yourself, don't get up tight about **** unnecessarily and claim that this or that is offensive (unless she really is being an offensive bitch for some reason.)

When I approach a woman I know I need to get them laughing in the first couple minutes or I'm in trouble. I do this with a lot of sarcasm and teasing, how you should do it is up to you. Create your own brand of humor. If you don't think you're funny, then watch people who you think are and try to learn from their tendencies and patterns. For example, I think Jon Stewart is hilarious, and I love the way he can engage someone both intellecutally and politely yet be a huge smart ass at the same time.

So there's your big 8. The best way to give those off is to become them so that they naturally come out in your interactions and women can simply observe you being who you are. A big part about natural pick up is improving yourself so you're a desirable guy to women. I can't tell you how to do it for you, but for me personally it means working really hard at the job I love, spending lots of time in the gym, hanging around fun, social people, and spending hours in the gym and dieting.
You don't have to do all that stuff, but I'd encourage you to.

When women become attracted they give off what are known as indicators of interest. Basically, when in an interaction with a woman observe her behavior and notice if she's doing any of the following:

Touching you: The body will say so many things the mouth won't. If a woman touches you that's a good sign, if she initiates the touching that's an even better sign. Be really attentive to this one, it's the most consistent.

Maintaining eye contact: Especially if you haven't said anything to her yet, this can be an invitation to go approach her.

Laughing when you know you're not being that funny: You can tell when you're really on and when you're just being silly, but if she digs everything you say then that's a clear sign.

Twirling her hair: Lots of guys know this one, not as consistent as lots of girls touch their hair a lot but still relevant.

Compliment you: Most of the time a woman won't give you a direct compliment, but even if she says something light or harmless realize that means she's taken the time to access you physically and pay you said compliment.

Re-initiates an interrupted conversation: Say you're at a party chatting up some girl, but then some dude interrupts with a story. Then he goes off and she immediately turns back to you, launching into conversation again. Definite sign.

Asking lots of questions: She's trying to find out more about you, probably because she's interested. Pay special attention as to whether she asks about your relationship status.

Qualification: Qualification is the inverse of the attraction stage. After you notice a girl giving off a lot of interest your next job is to let her know what about her you're interested in. Girls find it flattering but ultimately hollow to have guys only interested in them for their looks, and if you don't tell them why you're into them they'll eventually think you're just another guy looking for a quick lay and brush you off.

Another important factor in qualification is learning to look for the women you're genuinely attracted to. Most of dating is not hanging out in loud clubs or having sex, it's spending a more quiet and social time with a person and getting to know them, being in their presence and experiencing their personality. You should aim to meet women that you
are attracted to on a number of levels instead of just looks. Don't get me wrong, I think looks are really important, but they aren't the only
thing I want in a girl. Eventually you come to realize that when you can meet a lot of women in one night or one week, that looks become common and other things become more important.

The way you qualify a girl is by thinking hard about the personality aspects you find attractive in women then asking questions that attempt to reveal whether she possesses them and gets her talking herself up to you a bit. The classic hard qualifying line, which I will never use, was "Well sure you're cute and all, but what do you have going for you besides your looks?" As you can tell, it's a bit blunt and rude.

Instead, use more soft qualifiers. For me personally I like to ask women things like
"What's the most interesting place you've traveled?"
"Would you consider yourself really open minded and adventurous?"
"Who do you think in movies or TV is really funny?"
"Who do you like in men's fashion?"
"What do you look for in a guy you date?" (great question to ask, women will literally tell you what they like and dislike and give you a blueprint for the behavior that turns them on and off.)

You don't necessarily have to ask women questions to qualify them. You can simply be interacting with a girl, notice that she has/does something you think is really attractive, then let her know that. For me that often happens with sense of humor and wit. If a girl gets a lot of eccentric or esoteric jokes and shoots back very well, I'm apt to compliment her about it.

Comfort: Comfort is a pretty straight forward stage, it's all about getting to know a person for who they are and finding commonalities. It's where a lot of guys start an interaction, and the end result is that they get friend zoned because they didn't build any attraction first. Simple comfort stuff is talking about her hopes, ambitions, dreams, family, her childhood, where she went to school, what her job is like, what she likes to eat, what she does for fun, how she spends spare time, what her friends are like, etc.

There's no way to script comfort, just be yourself and engage her for who she is and don't judge. I will say this though, when you're in comfort with a girl make sure to pepper in attraction and qualification banter to keep things fresh and interesting and prevent the dreaded friend zoning.

Physical progression: Touching is a huge, huge part about sleeping with women. You need to start small and build momentum. You don't want to be the guy who never touches a girl then suddenly tries to kiss her making her shocked and uncomfortable, and you don't want to be the guy who's way too touchy feely and makes girls feel creeped out. The answer; the kino escalation ladder. If you only read one piece of PUA material in your life make it this one, they nailed:
http://www.seductiontuition.com/vin-...on-ladder.html

Sex: I don't fancy myself as some amazing sexual dynamo, and I don't know how to recommend someone sick techniques that will make every girl orgasm a billion times. I will say this though; pay attention during sex. Don't just zone out and enjoy yourself because you finally got her in bed, make sure it's fun and enjoyable for her too and be open to what she's into. I like to get girls talking about sex and make it known to them that I'll do near anything if it's going to help them get off (with a few disgusting exceptions, but hey, I let a girl stab me.) You might not be amazing, but if you're alright and she can tell you're clued in to what's going on with her she'll be eager to come back for more, and if you're hanging around quality women that you actually like then that should be something you're interested in.

Dating logistics: All dates were not created equal. There are good dates and bad dates, and then are good ways and bad ways to do certain dates. Let's talk about dates from the perspective of a first date where there is no physical comfort yet established with this woman (you haven't had sex or so seriously fooled around that the two of you are instantly all over each other on the date.)

First of all, you need to have a plan. A date isn't her showing up and it's like "So...what do you want to do?" A date is you telling her you're taking here, then here, then there, and it's going to be awesome because of reasons X Y Z. Lead the whole interaction, and if she protests about something just be easy going enough to accommodate. A woman will let you know if some aspect of the date is not amicable with her, otherwise she enjoys that you're taking control of things.

A movie: The worst possible normal date. ****ing awful. The two of you show up, there is no physical boundaries established, so you sit down next to her and you're not sure whether you put your arm around her or hold her hand or what. Because you haven't spent any time building attraction with her, she probably won't be very receptive to either of these, and so you'll wind up sitting next to her in silence for two hours creating a physical barrier that you later have to over come. At that point, she's already thinking friend zone. Additionally, you can't actually do anything attractive during a movie. It's time to shut up and watch, and you sit there basically doing **** all.

Dinner: Also really bad. First of all it's cliche as hell. Secondly, a big meal does not put a person in the mood for sex, it puts them in the mood to take a ****, not a sexy feeling. You're going to be sat across from the girl and have to be really on for a good 60-120 minutes and it functions much more like a job interview than date. A Manhattan based PUA named Paul Janka ran a little experiment, he took 30 girls to dinner and 30 girls to drinks at a bar/lounge. He wound up sleeping with 3 girls he took to dinner, and 22 he took to the bar. Variance isn't that big.

However, sometimes dinner dates are inevitable, and I don't always avoid them. If you are going to engage in the dinner date here's how you do it. Call up the restaurant ahead of time and request a table for four or a booth, but tell them there will only be two people. When the two of you arrive make sure she sits down first then sit right next to her. This is because you need to be in close enough proximity to start
breaking down the physical barrier, and if you try to touch her from across the table you look like some couple having a "couples moment" and it's all just much too overt. If a girl asks me why I'm not sitting across from her I answer playfully with "What is this, a job interview, I'm not sitting next to you!" which is especially applicable for me since I don't have a job. Try to make it at a place you're either sure she'll like or where you're regular enough that the staff may know you, which will raise your status. Then just have fun.

Day dates: Day dates should be avoided before you've gotten physical with a girl. Day time hang outs are for friends, and girls associate sex with night. Think back on all the girls you've ever slept with. Now, how many of those was the first time you slept with them during the day? I bet it's a pretty low number (for me it's one.) Again, sometimes you can't avoid this and a girl is only free during the day.
I like for us to grab a coffee then take a walk in the park. I go for the hand hold very quickly when I do his, but if I can tell we're not quite at this point then I'll walk very close with her and make a lot of playful physical contact. It's an easy date that gives you a chance to really get to know each other and is in an attractive environment that makes her feel good.

Going out with friends: Okay but not really recommended, especially if it's her friends. Although you should make a serious effort to win over the friends of the girls you date so you have a support group, hanging out with them on a first date is tough. You've got an entire panel of people judging you and a bunch of people who could potentially **** block you hard. Additionally, nobody in particular might **** block you but the situation easily could, because a girl might not want to go home with you with all her friends knowing about it.

Drinks at a sexy bar/lounge: Ah, the best kind of date. You set this up
at night, preferably close to your place. I recommend you become a regular somewhere, and that it's a place that has couches, as you want to be able to sit next to her. The room should be fairly dark (it often is) and the drinks and wine list thorough. You have her one on one with a minimum amount of variables to **** you up, and at a time when she is most likely to get sexual with you. You don't want her to get drunk, but a couple of drinks for the both of you will do a lot to loosen everyone up and make it more fun and relaxed. Here's another interesting question for you; think back on the first time you had sex with every girl you've had sex with. How many of those times was there absolutely zero alcohol drank by either party? Again, most of you will find it's a shockingly low number (again, mine is one.)

State breaks: State breaks are the things that can **** up the emotional progression you have going with a girl. It's something that takes her out of the moment. What you need to do is think ahead of time and plan for any potential state breaks, then minimize their possibility of screwing you up.

Three major state breaks that come to mind:
1. Getting a girls number: It's not "Can I have your number?" It's "Put your number in my phone for reason X" Normally I'll have sorted the idea of a date with a girl and I'm getting the number as a result of that, not getting the number in order to try and set up a date. If you
don't have a date sorted you should still supply a reason for her to give you the number in order to disqualify the importance of that moment.

2. Getting her back to your place: A tricky one. Again, you need to disqualify the importance of this moment. When you're going throughout the date with her look for a reason, a common interest perhaps, to get her back to yours. When I had a dog I'd ask girls "Do you like animals?" (of course she does) and then they answered yes I'd insist that they come meet my adorable dog. Guys have been using the "Let's watch a movie" line forever, and hey if you both agreed upon some movie that you own and you're both dying to watch then it's all good. Basically, you need to give a woman a reason to rationalize her going to your apartment which isn't a clear invitation to sex.

3. Getting the condom: Keep condoms within arms reach of every surface you might have sex on. I have condoms on the night stands on both sides of my bed, and place them there the second I enter a new hotel room. I recommend keeping four condoms on you at all times; one for night sex, one for if something goes wrong with the night sex one, one for morning sex, and one for if something goes wrong with the morning sex one. I normally only wind up caring two or three, but I'm going to be really pissed at myself come the day I need the fourth. You want the condom close because the last thing you need is physical escalation going brilliant and then suddenly you have to rip your body off hers, frantically search for the condom, can't find the condom, then suddenly you're having trouble getting it open, and the whole time she's mentally just like "What the **** is this guy doing?!"

The anti-slut defense: When I talk to women about pick up, they especially like hearing about the anti-slut defense. Because Western society has deemed it okay to quickly and recklessly brand girls sluts, they are constantly paranoid about their reputation and how people perceive their sexual activities. Your goal, is to never do anything that makes her feel like a slut, or makes people around her think she's a slut.

So if you're at a bar/club and meet a girl around her friends, before you start kissing her and pushing towards physical escalation you need to get her alone. Say you need to tell her a secret then take her hand and walk her off, then go for it. Or ask her friends if you can borrow her for a moment. Or tell her you need to show her something cool in another part of the bar. Anything to get her isolated and away from prying eyes. Be aware of when and how women are under social pressure, and do what you can to accommodate them.

That's a pretty good overview of what I've learned. It's not near everything, but it's a pretty excellent starting point and will hopefully be useful to guys who never want to actually get involved with pick up. If you have any questions, you can of course ask.