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Mayo's picture
Dream Big, Work Harder

Hi everybody, 

I am currently playing the $7 Hyper Turbos on Pokerstars. I came to poker about 2009 and started to donk a little bit here and there on FR CG. Later on I switched to 6max CG because you can use more of your skill to get a bigger edge. I stopped playing Poker and then got back on it in 2012. I've read that if you play a little bit of HU, you could even improve your skill level through the deeper thinking of what your opponent might be doing. 

I started to watch some free Videos and started to read the mersennary ebook after I've read the book from Collin Moshman. First I played the regular HU SNG with some Turbos in it. I didn't want to switch to hypers because I thought you can only use a minimum of skill. I thought those players were just learning some Nash and after a few blinds they're just push/folding. But when I played on the $15 turbos and regulars I realized that the traffic there is nothing against the traffic on hypers. After a few thoughts I decided to give it a try and so far I really like it. You can still use a massive amount of skill to make some moves. 

I know that I have to learn muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch more. I am not even at the beginning yet. But I really have some big plans. I want to be somebody someday at least at the mid stakes! As a matter of fact, I want to get to the high stakes and I am willing to do whatever it takes! Yes, big dreams I know, but who would mrgr33n13 or skaiwulkurrr be if they wouldn't have had big dreams and set themselves big goals? DREAM BIG WORK HARDER!

I am still a bad player. I don't know that much about the math and I can't approximate what equity I have got vs Villains range just to name a few things. But I am pretty good at giving Villain a hand and at guessing what he might do or what it takes to make him what I want (fold/bluff etc.) - at least at the $7 lol :-)

I purchased Will Tiptons book and I am going to read it and to make some improvemens. I also have to work on my C-Game. 

This is my graph so far:

As you can see, I have to work on my showdown winnings. Any tips, critics, random stuff etc. are welcome :D

ARRONWILSON's picture
I suspect you are not keeping

I suspect you are not keeping your opponent bluffs in for your showdown winnings to be so low or you are getting bluffed a lot and not bluffcatching with certain hands.  An example you raise preflop with kq, flop is k 2 7 dry, u cbet and get raised, are your reraising here or flatting and letting opponent barrel off.  

Mayo's picture
Hi man. Most of the time I

Hi man. Most of the time I would let my opponent barrel off because he would fold worse hands if I would reraise. But it depends on the opponent and on my type of image at the table. If I have bettet much and I know that I play against a thinking player and have got a maniac type of image, I would sometimes push to get called by worse Kx, 7x and pocket pairs so that he thinks that I bluff because he thinks that I wouldn't push a king caused by the fact that I don't want him to fold worse hands. But like I said, most of the time I would just flat to keep worse hands in. 

 

Mayo's picture
This week went pretty much

This week went pretty much break even. Currently I am trying some other play. I have to work very hard on my game. As a matter of fact, I have booked the coaching package from Cog Dissonance. I am really looking forward to this because I love his videos and his crystal clear reasonings and of course his teaching style. You are going to see first how it will improve my game. Tomorrow is when my first lesson will start. 

Here is my overall graph in hypers so far:

Again, I want this thread to be living. So post comments and critics or questions or whatever you have got :-)

 

Best of luck to ya'll

 

Barrin's picture
Paul is an amazing coach. I

Paul is an amazing coach. I had the hyper and the turbo course with him. One can really tell, that he has a teaching degree!

Still, while Paul is a great coach, a great coaching requires a great student as well. With Cogs course you get the chance to learn 'why' you should do something and you should really try to figure it out, otherwise you are just wasting your time and money.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Thanks for your comment

Thanks for your comment Barrin. That is one of the biggest reasons why I chose a coaching with him, to learn why I should do something instead of just telling me "Do this and that and follow that chart and you will be alright". I WANT to get something out of it!! I'm not just gonna take a coaching to here a voice to be feeling like "ok, I should be doing good right now because I've heard someone telling me what to do" :-) Just like the motto "Give someone a fish and he will be fed for one day, show someone how to fish and he will be fed for the rest of his live" or something like that ^^

My plan is to get the most out of the coaching  possible. 

Best of luck!

Barrin's picture
That is some good amount of

That is some good amount of attitude you have there. It is important that you do the coaching  aftermath, once the first hour is done!

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Thanks for the tip Barrin, I

Thanks for the tip Barrin, I will definitley do that :-).

Mayo's picture
This will be my last graph

This will be my last graph without coaching:

 

My coaching first coaching is starting in one hour ^^. I am looking forward to it!

Barrin's picture
How was it? Has your world

How was it? Has your world been rocked?

Hi.

Mayo's picture
First coaching was pretty

First coaching has been pretty solid :-). I have to get used the new ranges and playing style, thatswhy I only played like 4 games today and recognized that I have to learn the new range first instead of playing whilest looking at them. I looked at the new range a few hours ago but took a break and made some sport. Now I will review the session which he recorded and then go on and learn the ranges in a bit more depth. By tomorrow I want to have the ranges memorized so I can focus on playing with this new range and style :D

Barrin's picture
Yeah, Pauls style can be

Yeah, Pauls style can be kinda confusing if you are not used to it.

You should not rush it. You said it right in this thread, you do not wanna play the starting hand chart. You might wanna figure out why you should shove some hands and why not.

Eventually, even Paul can not teach you anything you cannot achieve yourself. No coach can. All you buy from a coach is the possibility to achieve something quicker, because they al ready have the experience. That does not mean that you now have time to waste. ;-)

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Thanks for that Barrin!Yes,

Thanks for that Barrin!

Yes, I don't want to play just with a chart. Totally right. As a matter of fact, I will ask him if it is necessary for me to be playing strictly like this (maybe he wants this so that I see some things I don't know yet). He explained why the chart is like this and told me the pros and some cons that people may argue and he asked me to stick to this chart during the coaching. It is much better to know why instead of blindly playing like this. I totally get where you are coming from :D.

How did you do it during and after the coaching? :-)

Barrin's picture
Even if you play his chart

Even if you play his chart (his course is building up on something), you still should look out for hands that you would play different and ask him about the possibility, explaining your point of view.

And that is what you should do.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Thanks Barrin. I am totally

Thanks Barrin. I am totally with that :-)

Mayo's picture
A small update with my graph

A small update with my graph so far:

 

Today I will take a shot at the 15s and see what happens and how the opponents differ from the 7s. In two days I will have my second coaching with Cog and I look forward to it. 

Barrin's picture
Interesting graph, but why do

Interesting graph, but why do you show BB won? It is not CG is it.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
No, I play Sng's. Does the

No, I play Sng's. Does the Pokertracker only show right results on BB won with CG? Some show it with prizes, some with Buy Ins and some with BB and I really don't know which one to choose and why ^^. So I just chose one and sticked to it.

Barrin's picture
BB makes very little sense

BB makes very little sense with SNG, cause it is a winner takes all format. In  CG it is a bit different.

You also should show $ with SNG.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Today was the first Tiltday!

Today was the first Tiltday! Session started pretty good until I lost some hands in a row where I usually should have won. I was still ok, I lost about 13 BI, won in back and then lost it again. That was the time when the tilt really got me! The last few games I played horrible not under control because I felt like I should have won but lost game after game. I started to push OOP w weak Ax still deep just because I wanted to win fast to play the next game and hopefully get some BI back (stupid decision). Even though I knew I should take a break, I didn't and I was getting tired too (normally I go to sleep around 23pm and stop playing at about 22pm, but today I played until midnight). I have set myself a stop-loss of 15 BI and ended up losing 17 BI, but finally ended the session. 

I know that I shouldn't think of how much money I have lost......but damn, these BI were hours and hours of grinding. A lesson for the next time!

Ryzant's picture
I completely understand what

I completely understand what you went through there.  I also had a tilt day this month.  We just have to accept that we still can lose even if we put the money in while we are ahead.  It's part of the game.  What I learned during my tilt session was to take a break the moment I recognize I was tilting.  Even if you have a stop-loss, you should just take a break when you know you are on tilt.  Tilt will just make you get to your stop-loss quicker since you aren't making good decisions.

 

Good luck my friend!

Barrin's picture
Stop-loss is a totally lost

Stop-loss is a totally lost concept. I admired it in the beginning, but eventually noticed that it does not help to beat the tilt. Playing poker is not like working out for 60 minutes when you will start thinking 'in 15 minutes it will be over - i have done it!'. Stop-Loss gives you a net. And you wanna jump off the bridge because, well, there is a net below you. But if you could control yourself you would never jump off the bridge and it therefore does not matter if there is a net or not.

Everybody knows tilt. Tilt is nothing that can be beaten by studying theory. It is about your way of life. You hit rock bottom and stand up against. It is passage you have to go, if you wish to beat it. Everyone who is succesfull knowadays had to beat it. There is NOBODY who never experienced tilt in the first place.

You might think that life is not threating you well, because you lost a 65% to 35% spot. But who gave you the right to take 100% if you only earn 65%? If you wanna beat tilt, you need to understand that there is only one thing that is threating you good in poker: the long run.

But...here lies the problem; on the long run you only can look back - not ahead. All you really see is the place where you place your foot next. You play hand for hand, match for match and session for session. And in this time you will experience unjustice.

Undoubtly you WILL lose 70% spots!

Undoubtly you will WIN 30% spots!

Undoubtly you will be BEATEN by WORSE players!

Undoubtly you will BEAT players that are SUPIRIOR to you!

Really, all that you can do is following the road that lies ahead of you. That is - however - if you ever wanna look back. If you play BAD because you TILT, it is YOUR  fault that you let the tilt get the best of you.

There have been two things that helped me minimizing (it is never gonna away!) the tilt.

1) Analyzing my games. Accept that there are spots that i should not had won and spots that i had should won.

2) Realize what variantes really is. There is a - IMO totaly underestimated - tool on husng.com; the heads up poker variance calculator. Play with it. Especially fish look at a 50k games graph of a pro and think 'it is always going straight up - how is he doing it?! IT IS NOT FAIR!'. What they do not realize is that this little '1mm hicks' in the graph are many more games then if they look on their own graph with 1500 games, where the hick is 3 cm!

Do the following; visit it...put in your ITM rate (or any that is good!)...simulate for 10'000 games...for 1'000 games for 100 games and for 10 games...and do this many times over (especially if you have 10 to 100 games) and you will notice that even tough if you had a great ITM rate (like 55%) the swings that are part of the 10 game and 100 game sample size are NOTHING but huge.

http://www.husng.com/content/variance-calculator

Life is not threating you badly. Life is challenging you. You can fail or you can win. It is up to you. It's gonna be a long way. If you wanna look back on it proudly one day or take the next exit - that decision is up to you. Variance is not up to you. Live with it, or don't play.

Hi.

Robinlomax's picture
Thanks`

This literally made my day :)

Mayo's picture
Wow, thank ya'll for those

Wow, thank ya'll for those answers! Barrin, you took some pretty good content in your answer and with that, the time you also put in. Special thanks for this :-)

If I lose a spot where I am 65% favourite, I of course know that I just win in 65% of the time and ususally don't mind If I lose a couple of BI in a row because I know that I win in 65% of the time in the long run. But sometimes keep staying calm after losing a couple of BI in a row (not only with better hands though, but also with hands that are I go AI preflop and are dominated like A8 vs AJ or KJ vs KT which of course happens) is easier said than done. Losing 6 BI in a row can  as a favourite can feel like not winning at all.

Sometimes it feels like you can't win at the moment and everything is against you. Now, I know the other way around too tho :D. Sometimes I win every Hand and give my opponents some pretty good bad beats :D . 

I looked immediatley at the tool and was pretty surprised I have to admit. Big thanks for this!!!

I am going to analyse some handhistorys of mine and try to find out what my opponents might have exploited etc. 

This is just a challenge and I love something like this because it pushes me even harder to improve!

Thank ya'll for the answers again. Made me think a bit deeper! I hope to get answers like this in the future too :D

Best of luck!

 

 

 

Barrin's picture
Well, let's see about that. I

Well, let's see about that. I am kinda jealous that you prefered Paul over me so...

One thing you might also not wanna underestimate; heads up is mano a mano......man versus man.....it can get kinda 'personal' when you lose in a duel more than in a 6max sng.

Hi.

Barrin's picture
Well, let's see about that. I

Well, let's see about that. I am kinda jealous that you prefered Paul over me so...

One thing you might also not wanna underestimate; heads up is mano a mano......man versus man.....it can get kinda 'personal' when you lose in a duel more than in a 6max sng.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Totally right and in fact,

Totally right and in fact, often it gets personal after a few games in a row. I have to work on that and I already am working on that. Usually I am going to quit after losing 3 games against my opponent and it doesn't matter how I have lost (good or bad). But sometimes I still play my opponent because he is writing bullshit and I want to give him a lecture . Sometimes it is good but when it goes wrong.....it is really going WRONG because I go on tilt and can't play my A-Game against the next opponent. I have to take a break first. That is why I had the "always decline rematch" activated but Paul told me not to because we want to play against bad players and rematch them.

When did I prefer Paul over you buddy? Keep posting your great advice! I don't want to miss on that!

 

I will start reading Will Tipton's Book today.

Mayo's picture
Had another coaching session

Had another coaching session with Cog Dissonance  today which was very good and he found some major leaks in my game which I am now going to foucs on. Other than that that there are really not much more news. Haven't played very much and had to recover from a cold. But now I am back and I work hard on my game every day! I still can work harder which I am going to do!

Also I am staked since yesterday which I think will help me a lot. I also have written some questions to the husng.com staking program. Ryan has told me some really good things but unfortunately the staking programs manager or something didn't write answers back to the e-mail I have written but some questions for me to answer. After that I would have gotten the answers to my questions. I totally understand that process due to the many applications. But the team I am in right now has answered my questions already and have been very friendly too. It is a good feeling to be in a team and my first aim is to be the best of those in my group which are playing at my current stake level. 

I don't think of it like a fight though, more of a friendly competition to push each other and pull each other up! - to those which are willing to work hard. I am always competitive so that is why I set myself small goals like this to get on the next lvl and therefore to get one step further to the bigger goals.

Best of luck to ya'll!

 

Barrin's picture
What do you wish to learn

What do you wish to learn from Will Tilptons book? Don't get me wrong; I love his book, but eventually it teaches you how to play and what to consider. Now, that you joined the course of Paul, you al ready learn this. Therefore you have a basic understanding about how to adjust. Now, before you even take the chance, to modify it and create your own strategy, you read a book that will teach you the basic strategy and how to adjust your game. But, if you made the course, you al ready should be in a position to adjust. Probably not perfectly, but, especially with your limited time for poker, you might be better served, if you stick to what you know and learn the thinking process 'how to adjust' by doing so.

I am also kinda surprised that you have been accepted in the coaching program. I have never been in a staking program from husng.com, but in others and usually they have shares on your winnings and therefore want you to generate volume and - this seems not to be something you did in the past?

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Hi Barrin,  I have stopped

Hi Barrin, 

I have stopped reading Tipton's book because I think I don't need it yet on the 7s and can focus on grinding and erasing current leaks. Maybe by the time I get to the 30s I am going to read it. Now it would just be too much information at once.

I am not in the husng.com staking program. I am in another staking program - should have made that more clear in the last post sry.

I have played about 3.5k games in 46 days and since that is much more than I need to play for the program (even though I will play much more than needed for sure), the volume won't be a problem at all. 

Mayo's picture
Hi guys, here a graph update

Hi guys, 

here a graph update for the last 7 days:

 

The peak and then the big breakdown at the end have been 15s. Made a few too light calls after a few setups. Also I realized that the people at the 15s l/c readless much more strong holdings and also call then a shove w small aces or maybe it only have been the few opponents I have played. 

Anyone realized some more differences whilest moving up?

Best of luck!

Mayo's picture
Hi, I have now played about

Hi,

I have now played about 750 games on the 15s and it is going pretty well. I had to adjust a little bit and don't go AI so fast - when I play opponents of which I think I have a great edge on - because I want to keep the variance at a minimum. 750 games is no sample and I don't want to upload a graph for every post I make :-). After a few more games I will post another graph.

I also have one coaching hour with cog dissonance left. After I have a bit of a sample against good opponents we will analyze my game against them (which I really think will improve my game a lot).

What else?

-  I analyze my game EVERY day and sort them by "My C Net Adjusted" so I can see if I have made big mistakes or if it just have been standard play with coolers, because I don't want to go through every game which would take much too long. On the other hand I don't want to just review only one hand of a game but the whole game to take the gameflow into account - I will review hands I marked as also and then of course not the whole game.

- Me and my best buddy made a small poker "bootcamp" for over days and discussed theory, played and looked up some situations with cardrunnersEV.

- I have bought the coffeHUD and play with stats from now on.

- I have bought sharkystrator

- Played against good regs which are in the leaderboard and most of them don't sit me anymore

- Three of them regs still sit me and I have to adjust my game against them

- Configured my autonotes for NoteTracker

Cheers.

 

 

 

Barrin's picture
Analyzing your hands is a big

Analyzing your hands is a big part of the game. Checking your hands does not take as long as you might think.

Your c net analyzis does not work, because you play against a range, but the analyzis is based on a specific hand.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Hi Barrin, don't know if I

Hi Barrin,

don't know if I understood you correctly but when I filter my games (not hands) by My C Net Adjusted, I am getting the games where I might have won or lost but the Adjusted can be different. So even If I have won a game my c net adjusted can be negative. I review those whole games where my c net adjusted is negative to see whether I played a good game overall against this opponent (e. g. didn't stack myself too light and so on) or if I played badly. For example if I play against a reg and my adjusted graph only goes down, then I am pretty sure I am doing somthing wrong. So if the orange graph would go down over a large sample against the population it would be an indicator that I am a losing player right? That is why I am reviewing those games at most plus random hands that I have marked during a session.

Tell me if I am wrong or if I didn't get something right.

 

 

Mayo's picture
Hi, I think it is time for a

Hi, 

I think it is time for a small update even though I don't have much to say at this time. In the last days I think I made too many "reg" battles. I was excited because some of them are in the Top 5 on Sharkscope for the stake I am playing and I found some leaks, so I thought wow, they are on the top list and I still find some leaks and since I love competition because I am a competitive player I like playing regs and it was good to don't lose against them even though I am new at this stake lvl. I was thinking it would improve my game huge if I play much against them. As a conclusiion though, I decline them from now on because I can end up making much more money playing against recs and fishes. Thus, I will move up much faster than when playing against regs. Since my goal is to move up, the question is why playing regs? --no good answer for that.

There will come a time when I will play much enough regs and improve my game against them. But that should be at a stake where it is worth it. So from today on I will concentrate on fish. 

Here is my graph from sharkscope for one month (7s until the dollar signs):

Gl!

Mayo's picture
Hi everybody,  maybe it is

Hi everybody, 

maybe it is time for a tiny update. I'm doing pretty good at 15s and will start to mix in some 30s. Unfortunately my girlfriend crashed my computer duing my sickness. Thatswhy I had to start a new database so I lost about 2.5k games in that. I think the 30s will be much harder than the stakes I've played so far. I mean it gets harder everytime you move up but I think there is a bigger step to making it at the 30s. I know some players which have been winning players at the 15s and got crushed on the 30s directly at the beginning. Thatswhy I will mix some games in and try to make more like a fluent step forwards instead of an abrupt change.

Here is my graph from the games since my new database:

 

GL at the tables

Barrin's picture
Did she find your pr0n?

Did she find your pr0n? Happens!

No flower can grow without sunlight. If you only put half the flower into the sun, the flower will die. If you think you are ready for $30 go for it and if you think you are not there yet don't play them at all.

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Yooooo Barrin, nice to have

Yooooo Barrin, nice to have you still in my blog buddy :). 

And no, she crashed it by accident.

I feel ready for the 30s but seeing other good players fail so drastically at the 30s makes me wonder if I am really ready, because I am only good at the 15s but never played 30s so I have no experience on that stake level and therefore I can't really prove myself that I am ready. Thatswhy I want to try them out a little bit at first and just play a few games there and then review them to look how the other players on that limit play and how they adjust, so I can play more confident afterwards. Also I only have a license for Sharky for below 30s and I don't want to play too many regs.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

 

 

Barrin's picture
Glad to hear that the pr0n

Glad to hear that the pr0n was well hidden then! :P

To be honest I do not understand your reasoning. If you wanna try out the $30 games, go, try them out and play them. If you feel like you cannot beat the game just yet, you move back down to the $15 and try again later.

Your approach of staying on the $15 while playing some $30, based on the reasoning that the $30 require a better mindset and better style seems not to make any sense: if you lose on the $30 you still lose. The main difference from mine approach to yours is that with mine you can focus on whats different much better, then if you were playing two tables at a time - one table $15 and another $30?

Sharky is not a reason. You still can join w/o sharky and you do not even know who are the fish yet. If you really wish to upgrade your existing below $30 license to $30+ license I suggest you talk to cog.

He is an affiliate of sharkystrator and has good contacts to Marko.

But then again; whatever works for ya. Good luck (hiding pr0n)! ;-)

Hi.

Mayo's picture
I one table atm only for

I one table atm only for educational purposes :).

I agree with your argument, focusing only on 30s would be best. I am going to prepare myself as good as possible and then take a shot at 30s only and see how it goes.

 

 

Mayo's picture
Hi people, a real small

Hi people, 

a real small update. I couldn't play very much because I moved to another country to finish my study there. Now I am a little but under stress because I have to learn the language and so on. I played a few 30s also which worked out pretty good in the beginning but then it went straight down. Now I will play 15s first again to get the feeling of playing poker again and will then try my best at the 30s :D

Here's the small update as a graph:

Barrin's picture
So, it was not just my

So, it was not just my imagination that yesterday you were marked as living in germany in skype now it is the netherlands ? Gotta say; I am kinda reliefed :P

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Hahhahahhahahaha. I'm glad

Hahhahahhahahaha. I'm glad that I could help you Barrin. It was not just your imagination :D

Barrin's picture
Hows it going?

Hows it going?

Hi.

Mayo's picture
Hi :D. It is not going that

Hi :D.

It is not going that well at the moment because I am not allowed to play. Pokerstars somehow blocked my account in the netherlands and I already had massive email contact because of that. They told me they can't tell me the exact reason - WTF? - but it is because of the IP address with which I play. The told me to play from another device or change the location. I was so angry when I heard that you won't believe me.

Until this is fixed I am not able to play and I hate that. But what can you do. I assured them that there couldn't mistake from my side only I played from my PC so nobody could ever make something against there rules with my PC. Now I can't do nothing but wait. They didn't answer yet to my last response.

How is it going with you barrin?

Barrin's picture
Oh, yeah, that must suck as

Oh, yeah, that must suck as hell! You are not an exception in this matter - they haven been doing it for years. Before BF when you still could play in the US most european players that might Money with poker and went to visit the states for WSOP did starting pre-announcing the time frame in which they would leave the country.

There have been many threads about bans just like yours.

I am running not bad, but right now I am taking a break. Got lot of new stuff to do at work and got other stuff going on in my life as well. :)

Hi.

RyPac13's picture
Update on the situation with

Update on the situation with your computer and Stars?

Mayo's picture
Hi Rypac,  since of last week

Hi Rypac, 

since of last week I can play again :-). Finally. Played a few games again and it went pretty well. Now I have to get back into the game :D. I am working next to the university atm. My short time goal is to earn a good second income so I can leave the job which is annoying me very much.

Thanks for the question Ryan! 

Mayo's picture
Hi People,  been playing

Hi People, 

been playing again but didn't put in a whole lot of volume yet. I also played some 30s again which were going pretty well. I will put some time in poker theory and make more session reviews ( which I pretty much skipped the last days ) to improve my game. Also I have to put in some more time in the math aspect especially for decisions which are coming over and over again so I can focus more on other things during the game and make faster decisions in order to improve my multitabling game. 

I am going to plan and schedule some short time goals to make sure I put in the work. 

Good luck at the tabes!

Mayo's picture
No real update so far people,

No real update so far people, I am working on my game and I started reading Tipton's book yesterday. I am going to really READ it and not just to skim. I am going to make me some notes and will do every exercise. I have to step up my game to the next level! My goal is to read the book a few times because you never absorb every information from a book just by reading it once. It will surely give me great value. 

Here is my Sharkscope graph for the 15s only so far:

I also play some 30s atm but still have to get used to the bigger $ during the swings. There is so much more that I have to improve. 

GL at the tables!

grindmore1's picture
Keep on working. Graph is

Keep on working. Graph is looking pretty nice! 

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