Journal of a Poker Pro

Macau/ BCPC

2011-11-01T19:26:00.009-04:00

Hey everyone

I'm back in beautiful Vancouver, gearing up for my 3rd BCPC. Hopefully I can improve upon my 13th place finish last year. That goes off tommorow and I'm pretty excited about it.

My last post was pre-WSOP, and nothing really noteworthy happened on the trip. I busted day 2 of the main event, and whiffed on the other 3 side events I played. I pretty well broke even at cash games and came back a small loser on the trip.

If nothing else, the trip sort of inspired me to play more live poker. I started to grind at the local casinos in Vancouver with very good results. This actually put me on the lookout for some bigger action. And what better place then the gambling capital of the world... Macau!

I rented an apartment thru 2+2 with 3 other high stakes Swedish poker players, and one American. The place was great and I made a bunch of new friends.

Some pics.

Our apartment building, in between Macau Tower and the MGM

Fountain Show at the Wynn

Our apartmentView from our balcony

View from my room

Had a really great meal there that I'll share as well. We went to Robuchon a Galera. It was my first time at a 3 michelin star restaurant, and we did a crazy 8 course set menu. Just a couple pics.

Half duck breast, half foie gras, with a figgy sauce

Sea trout in a ginger broth with smoked cream

Great meal!

No real plans after BCPC. I'd love to make a trip back east soon and see all my family and friends who I miss alot. Especially my mom! Love you mom! :)

Anyways, be good everyone. Until next time.

vegas 2011

2011-06-20T02:02:00.004-04:00

wow has this year ever flown by!

heading back to vegas tomorrow morning to grind out a few of the events.

with all the crazy stuff going on with online poker no one really made the time to organize a house, so I'm just staying with my buddy rick at his place there. and we're driving out from vancouver! woo roadtrip!

should get in tuesday afternoon, just in time for the wednesday $1500 event.

if there is anything worth posting, it will be here.

stay tuned

snow day

2011-02-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

well this is the end.

probably only 30 or so minutes left.

i'm typing pretty frantically as to get everything i need to down in time. truthfully, i don't know what happens next.
i have no idea what happened but i hope it fixes itself soon.
i cant even remember the last time i've been in this situation. probably a dark day years ago in toronto? i'm not sure.

i suppose all i can do now is embrace it, in all its madness.

the power is out.

my laptop's battery is the last ounce of juice i have left.

i was actually grinding online and timed out in a few small pots. i was even in a $100 tourny but pretty shortstacked.

i should go to a coffee shop or something to finish it out but I'm probably close to bust now anyways.
thankfully i already brewed some coffee, so it seems like as good a time as any to sit down and update.

so, where am i at?
broad question, with lots of different answers.

physically, i'm in vancouver. i've got a great place i love in the core of downtown.

healthwise, i'm probably at my peak. i've hit the gym 4x a week for the last 18mos or so. probably in the best shape of my life.

pokerwise, i'm stagnant. still grinding, mostly 2/4NL right now. cash games have been pretty consistent.
the last year in tournament was has been pretty disappointing, as I consistently fell just short of big scores.
i finished in the top 20 of at least 8 tourneys with over $100,000 for first place (5 of which were $200,000+).
and after all that I still only probably ended up $20k in tourneys.

but still, all considered;
mentally, i'm in a good place. i'm happy, still very much enjoying what i'm doing.
i'm concentrating now on improving my work ethic, as the games get tougher and I need to work harder.
at the same time i'm working on managing my state control to make that easier.

i guess not much has changed, but i don't think that is a bad thing at all

*beep* *beep*

my computer is fading now, only 10minutes left.
i can see the dark at the end of the tunnel.

i have no idea what to expect, or when my life will return to normalcy.
everything i do seems to revolve around electricity.

maybe this is like the poker equivalent of the snow days i looked so forward to as a kid?

only difference now is that i go to a separate school from all my friends lol :)
well, that and no snow.

anyway ill try to make the most of the day as best i can.

until next time

Post WSOP

2010-08-29T03:28:00.006-04:00

So I'm back in Vancouver from the world series.

Actually that was a while ago but whatever. Mid-july I think?

Series ended up being successful despite being down on live tourneys for the trip. Made a bunch online and at live cash games. Even up for the trip on random craps and blackjack actually, thanks to a black-out drunk session I played after XS one night. Woke up with a bunch of extra money and had to be filled in by some friends as to just exactly how lucky I was getting

The main event was a let down, as it is for like 90%+ of people who play I assume. I made it to day 2 with a shortish stack and busted early.

Enjoyed the trip overall but it didn't quite meet my always high expectations :)

NOw that I'm back, I've kind of promised myself that I'd try to better enjoy the beautiful city I'm in. I always brag about the awesome stuff to do in Vancouver, but I never seem to be doing it! So I've been hitting some trails, beaches, did a bit of boating, and of course I try to hit up all the best restaurants.

Oh speaking of restaurants, I just remembered something funny that happened in Vegas.
I actually emailed it today to a podcast I listen to (Two Jacks in the Hole , comedy podcast not at all about poker. check it out!) for a segment they do called 'glitches in the matrix'. SO I shall cut and paste:

After a night of degeneracy, me and a buddy are leaving the casino and see some b-list celeb shooting dice.
The table has a pretty big crowd and it painfully obvious it's because of this one guy.

Me and my buddy really could care less. We keep on and get to talking about how ridiculous it is that people get so starstruck.
We pretty much agree that there are virtually no celebs that we'd actually care that much about seeing. Just normal people, right?
Sure it's cool but nothing to lose your mind over.

I go on to tell him that I actually might be taken aback if I saw Shaq or something. Mostly the fact that he's gigantic, but also because I love basketball and grew up watching him.

So anyways, we leave it at that and call it a night. The next day we head over to Mix restaurant @ Mandalay Bay with a bunch of other poker players and grab dinner.

About half way through dinner, a giant African American gentleman walks into the dining room and the place starts buzzing a bit.

If you couldn't have guessed it already, Shaq is walking right towards us with a fine dime piece on his arm. He walks up and looks over at our table of twelve (who are all staring at him) and says 'Wassup fellas!" as he walks by. He ends up getting seated right next to us.

Pretty weird right?

Anyhow, I also hit up Calgary this past week. They had the canadian open poker championship. I went 0/2 in the events, but my buddy Ricky(rask88) basically chopped the $1000 event for first place money and I had 10% of him! Easiest $4k I ever made. Met a bunch of cool people on the trip too, and the drive up there has amazing scenery.

Next up for live events, I'm looking towards the British Columbia poker classic. This will be my second year doing it and hopefully I can have better success. Oh and hopefully a murderer doesn't win again. :)

Ok this is getting too long I'm off to bed. I'll update tomorrow if I win the sunday million or something :)

starting on a good note

2010-06-24T19:15:00.004-04:00

Got out to Vegas about a week ago. The house is great and we're all having a lot of fun.

First thing we did when we got here was flip for rooms. There are 9 of us but only 8 rooms(5 really nice and 3 decent ones). So two of us would have to share. And because I run awesome at flips, I get the pleasure of sharing my room. Thankfully its with one of my good buddies from Vancouver so it hasn't been a problem. Not like I spend much time in the room anyways.

Oh and on top of that we went out for a nice dinner that night and I lost the credit card roulette for that too. Lost two $500+ roulettes thus far actually.

Thankfully my luck has shifted a bit. In my second tournament of the series, the Venetian deep stack extravaganza $2000 event, I managed to final table. My first live final table of a major event. I didn't stick around long though as I busted in tenth place. The crazy thing about it is that my roommate ended up at the final table too! So random. He ended up finished 4th or 5th, and I had 5% of him so I made some more money. The cash itself was about $13,000, so I'm looking good so far.

I've played 2 WSOP events and haven't made day 2 of either sadly. I'll probably just play the $3000 triple chance and the main event and a bunch of cash in between. I've played so much poker this week, I'll probably take it easy this weekend and get going again on Wednesday.

gearing up for wsop

2010-06-05T17:21:00.004-04:00

It's almost that time of year again, and I can't wait!
I'm flying into Vegas on the 15th, and hopefully be hitting the felt soon after.

We'll count last year as a warm-up. This year, I'm thinking bracelet!
I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to play. As of now the only thing set in stone is the main event. I think I'm gonna take all of my action this year and just swap %'s with some great players to help ease the variance of a $10,000 buyin event.

To gear up I've been playing a bunch of tourneys and grinding cash on any site other than Stars. Their cash games have dried up so much with the changes, I think I would struggle to beat mid-stakes there for a good clip.

Thankfully the action is still pretty soft elsewhere, and I get to play anonymously which is a HUGE help. Maybe it's just mental but I think I've just been on stars for so long and have so much history with different regs it gets boring. I like the whole idea of fresh start for my image.

I'll probably play a lot of cash games in Vegas if they're good. Probably start at $5/10 and move up from there when games are good.

I've had mild tourney success since my last post, up a bit of money with only 1 final table since. Saving my run good for Vegas hopefully! I have some horses (players I'm investing in) playing events for me so hopefully they run good too.

Oh and I'm getting ready for the nightlife as well, as I went on a bit of a shopping spree and treated myself to some new clothes. I've been doing well so I splurged a bit, with my favorite piece being a John Varvatos goat suede officers jacket.

I think it might be the second most expensive thing I now own after my car lol :)

Well, that's it until Vegas. I'll make a post before I play anything so people can sweat me if they like. love ya!

any given sunday

2010-04-19T16:37:00.005-04:00

Every sunday I wake up and say it.
Today is the day.

Sundays, in all their beauty, are filled with laziness, indulgence, and of course, the biggest poker tournaments on the internet.
Sundays are the only day I can go to sleep with hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I had when I woke.

I rolled out of bed yesterday with the same thoughts.
Today.
It was a beautiful Vancouver afternoon, so breathtakingly perfect that I just couldn't wait to lock myself up in a room for 12hours and click my mouse.

And twelve hours later, wouldn't you know it. It was no longer today, and I was still in a tournament. Probably the biggest tournament on the internet that day, the full tilt $1million guarantee ($500 buyin, 2100 entrants).

$200,000 for first place, and only 8 people in my way.

It seemed like forever before someone busted, but eventually 1 did. And then there were only 8.

I was the short stack at the table and everyone was just sitting, waiting and praying for me to bust out so they could move up a pay grade. And I did not disappoint.

A few hands later I'm in the big blind and it was folded to the smallblind who, given the stack sizes, was going to move all-in with any two cards. Given that, my K6 suited looked awfully good. He pushed, I called, he sucked out, I cursed.
All pretty standard.

$20,000 richer nonetheless, and of course, there is always next sunday!

(click to enlarge)

first $10k pot!

2010-04-05T02:10:00.002-04:00

I've played a bunch of higher stakes this year with marginal success. Anyways, the guy who won the sunday million 2 weeks ago for $250,000 has been dumping about $10k a day at $25/50 so i decided to take a shot.

Results!

Poker Stars $5000.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 625220
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $5144.00
SB: $17248.00
BB: $5569.00
UTG: $10485.00
UTG+1: $5000.00
MP: $6541.00
Hero (CO): $5100.00

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is CO with 6 6

UTG raises to $150, 2 folds, Hero calls $150, 3 folds

Flop: ($375.00) 6 K 8 (2 players)

UTG bets $200.00, Hero raises to $775, UTG raises to $2200, Hero raises to $4950, UTG calls $2750

Turn: ($10275.00) 2 (2 players)

River: ($10275.00) 7 (2 players)

Final Pot: $10275.00

UTG shows A 4
Hero shows 6 6
UTG wins $10272.00
(Rake: $3.00)

ooops.

oh yeah! blogging

2010-03-16T23:43:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the neglect, I have no excuses.

Havn't posted anything since superbowl and quite a bit has gone down since. I actually entered a different superbowl squares pool and won the whole thing! It wasn't as big but the $5k was a nice treat. Pretty sure I blew it all during the olympics though lol.

They were absolutely insane. I've never seen anything like it - the streets were jammed packed the whole time and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. I got a chance to see deadmau5, wale, mstrkrft, and even got out to see one of the hockey games. Once in a lifetime experience but was pretty relieved when it was over. I was just exhausted.

What else? Well, I'm moving downtown next week. I'm about 30m outside of vancouver now, so it'll be nice to be right in the core. The best steakhouse in the city is right across the street so it could get expensive!

Oh and I've got my summer plans all sorted out. Me and 8 other mid-high stakes guys are renting out a legit mansion for the whole series. The place sleeps 41 people, has a theater, basketball court, putting green, poker room, etc.

Should be insane. Really looking forward to vegas again.

Oh yeah and I'm still winning money playing poker too which is nice. :)

superbowl squares time!

2010-02-02T02:53:00.008-05:00

It's that time of the year again!

click to BIGGER

I didnt get great numbers but it should still be a fun sweat.

I have the 1,1 and the 5(saints),4 (colts). Ship it one time!

Oh and for the people who have no idea what this is:
http://www.runyourpool.com/super-bowl-squares.cfm

back from cali

2010-01-23T02:39:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to check back in and share the promised photo from last post:

Fabio! If you watch top chef like me you'll recognize who that is. He was one of my favorite chefs from all seasons, and we got to enjoy a 7 course meal prepared by him at his new restaurant, Firenze. It was a great meal and great trip.

I've had a pretty good start to the year, with poker and everything else. Really stoked about the Olympics coming up, should be a crazy month!

2009 Review and looking forward

2010-01-12T03:52:00.002-05:00

I'm not even sure where to start. It was a weird year, in which I didn't really accomplish all the things I set out to do, but had some other success in areas I never really set out to do.

New year and a new city. It's been a good year in Vancouver, and I'm really pumped about the Olympics. The city is really starting to jump. I'm gonna stay here for another year I suppose, spending the summer in Vegas.

Vegas was easily the best part of my year. Meeting a bunch cool people, and having good success at the WSOP. Can't wait to head back next summer.

I drove across Canada too, don't know if I ever wrote about that. Bought a car in Toronto and took the trip with a good buddy over 4days. Great trip, great times.

Unfortunately I didn't get to do much more travelling. I'm planning to get somewhere in march. Maybe Malta, not sure. Oh and I'm heading to California this weekend for something I'm really looking forward too. It's a surprise for a friend who reads this blog so I can't say, but hopefully I come back with some pics.

2009 wasn't really what I wanted to do in regards to cashgames. I played about 1/2 the amount of hands I did in 2008, and my hourly was worse. I did run about $25k below expectation, so that had a little to do with it. But if it wasn't for that tournament the year would've been pretty bad results wise. Oh well, I'm pumped to crush in 2010.

I've been hanging out with a couple good players here in vancouver, and we've been talking a lot of poker. It's been great because we do a lot of discussions at the gym, so I've been getting in better shape.

My goal for the year is to never tilt. I know it's a bit unrealistic, but so far so good. I've been studying Tommy Angelo's Buddhist inspired 8 step path to poker enlightenment, and its been good for me. Lots of great gems in there, and I'm playing with a lot more emotional control.

I have some pretty lofty goals for the year. I'm really gonna to need to play and improve a lot to acheive them, but I have faith.

Best of luck to everyone in the new year, unless you happen to find yourself in a pot with me :)

bcpfail

2009-11-20T06:36:00.004-05:00

well, i doubt i could be running any worse.

if you caught the wsop final table this week, you'd have seen how bad all my horses ran and how sick hot joe cada ran. so yeah that bet from the last post didnt work out too well for me. gg $500

but at least bcpc is in town, and the easy money is floating around town. time to crush cash games and own tourny donks!
right?

i busted in day one of each event, so gg $5k+.

also yesterday i had dinner with 15 of my closest 2+2 friends and gained the priveldge of buying everyone dinner after a failed credit card roulette bid. gg 2.5k. :(

so im stuck like $10k this month if you count my ftops fails. ugh.
even though everyone is in town this weekend im just gonna go into lockdown.

im just not in a partying mood.

im going to make $10k, no matter what it takes. long nights? 24hr sessions? peeing in water bottles? i dont care. im making it happen.

WSOP Prop Bet

2009-11-05T16:24:00.004-05:00

Well the final table of the WSOP main event goes off this weekend.

I'm really hoping Ivey wins because, well, he's the man. Check out the E:60 spot he did with ESPN:

I also made a prop bet with a buddy for the final table. We did a draft and I got first pick so obv my team is a lock. We have $500 on the winner, with Darvin Moon being a push.

Team Main:
Eric Buchman
Phil Ivey
Jeff Schulman
James Akenhead

Team Rick:
Steve Begleiter
Joe Cada
Kevin Schaffel
Antoine Saout

The only person I don't have that I want is Joe Cada. He's a beast, but I couldn't take him over Ivey.

I also heard Doyle and Negraneu have a 'must-win' prop bet, with Daniel taking Ivey, and Doyle taking Darvin Moon. If someone other than Ivey or Moon wins, the bet is off.
It's an even money bet... I'm not even sure who's side I like, but I think if I had to choose I'd go with Doyle's (moon). What do you think?

BCPC

2009-11-04T04:30:00.003-05:00

Alright, I have my next tourny lined up, and it's right in my own backyard!

The British Columbia Poker Championships start on November 12th, and the 4day $2500 main event starts on the 19th. There is a $500 and $1k event before the main event and I'll probably play in both if they don't sell out.

It's all going to be at the river rock casino. Never been, but I've heard it's nice. The cash games are supposed to be really soft too, so I may take some shots. One of my buddys here told me the 10/25NL games are pretty juicy so I'll get in that if I run good at 5/10NL.

I'll keep you all on updated on what happens.

easy money

2009-10-22T17:08:00.003-04:00

So just to update you all on the propbet I made -- it's over.

The guy quit earlier today, which was pretty surprising. I mean I didn't think he had much of a chance, but I thought he'd tough it out longer.

Easy $1k. Feels like I won $4k though because my $3k was in escrow. :)

The easy money is nice as I've struggling on my end. Nothing serious, just breaking even since I got back to Vancouver. I feel pretty good though, about to clear some bonuses and reach some milestones so I'll have a nice influx of cash.

Until next time!

pokerstars giving away a porsche!

2009-10-07T14:08:00.003-04:00

All you have to do is deposit before october 17th, and youre entered into the freeroll. Pretty awesome giveaway, can't wait to give it a shot.

Click the banner for more details.

prop bets

2009-10-06T17:05:00.002-04:00

Free live streaming by Ustream

This guy above me thinks he can accumulate 830,000VPPs in 70 days. I don't think its possible.

I put up my $3000 to his $1000, and he got $45,000 action in total.

Should be fun to watch him struggle through it. Today is day 1.

I mean, supernova elite is a great value and awesome to get, but so many people struggle to achieve it with a whole year given. How this guy thinks he can get it in 70days is beyond me.

The guy will be doing updates at:
http://www.i-eat-fish.com

I wish him just enough luck to keep his sanity, but still end up failing the bet :)

wcoop relfections

2009-10-01T10:01:00.002-04:00

I know WCOOP ended a week or so ago, but I've been traveling and havn't had much time to play lately, let alone post. I'm in toronto with my g/f for another week, and then to vancouver for a few months.

Overall a pretty unsuccessful series for me. I didn't have any deep runs, though I cashed in a few. The structures are just so amazing. You need to dedicate a lot of time to the tourneys, but they are so much fun with all the play involved.

In the main event, I got really shortstacked early and basically hung on for about 7hours as one of the shorter stacks in the tourney. Just stealing blinds, keeping my head above water until I got a big hand. I eventually got A10 and doubled through A9 (allin pre), and then K10 doubled through tsoprano's K9 (allin pre). I went from 6bbs to about 25bbs, when I picked up a trashy little pair of aces under the gun. I raised and got 3bet and ended up getting it in against QQ. The board 4flushed and I busted about 8 or 9hours in. :(

I'm really looking forward to pokerstars spring series, the SCOOP. Should be just as amazing.

In other news, I bought my first car! It's a 2003 infiniti G35, and so far I like it a lot. I've never needed my own car really, but I figure I deserve it. Oh and the best part is I paid for it with FPPs. I've been withdrawing my Pokerstar's bonuses into a separate account, and used all that money to pay for my new car in cash! it was a great feeling, thanks stars! :)

wcoop ME

2009-08-16T21:08:00.003-04:00

things are going pretty good.

having a pretty great summer cash wise, and now I just qualified for the $5200 WCOOP main event on stars.

pretty sweet. i might sell some action (like 1k or 2k) to guarantee myself some profit on the whole thing.

not too much else going on. heading back to toronto in a few weeks to see family and watch one of my best friends get married. should be great.

all for now, take care all

meh

2009-07-27T15:04:00.002-04:00

So I played that WSOP freeroll tournament yesterday and went 'deep'. I finished 20th for the $5500 package. I had a really comfortable stack at 30bbs but I ended up getting AKo in against a guy who had me covered. I think our table was 6 handed and I had been really aggressive against this guy because he was stealing a lot (he was probably the only guy I noticed playing well at the table). It was folded to him on the button and he raised. I 3-bet him from the SB for like the 4th time in an hour and he shoved QQ. I pretty much snapped him with my AK and lost the race. The pot wouldve put me in great position (like 2nd or 3rd) but it just wasn't meant to me. I think the hand basically played itself and I have no regrets.

Now apparently I can use the $5500 for the online world championship of poker (WCOOP), which would be nice to get free entry to the $5200 main event.

But I think I want to use it on a trip and live tournament, because thats so much more fun. Anyone have suggestions? I can't decide what to do or where to go.

Anyhow, back to the grind I go.

back in van

2009-07-23T04:26:00.005-04:00

Well I'm back settled in Vancouver.
Bought some stuff for my grindroom (new 24" monitor and speakers) so I can put in some volume the next 2 and half months. Then back to toronto for a friend's wedding.

Now I'm just looking for a bike or something to get back in shape. 6 weeks of doing nothing but playing poker, eating out, and drinking beer took its toll on me. Hopefully I can get back into a good routine quickly.

Sunday is that million dollar freeroll on pokerstars that I qualified for. I've already 'won' a $5k package but hopefully I get lucky and can eek out some more value. Only 124 people get to play so I do have a decent shot. Here's the payout structure.

124th to 28th - $5000
18th - 27th - $5500
....
13th to 15th - $7000
10th to 12th - $8500
9 - $10,000
8 - $12,500
7 - $15,000
6 - $18,000
5 - $22,500
4 - $30,000
3 - $40,000
2 - $50,000
1 - $60,000

If I can't take it down, I hope one of my WSOP roommates do. GoMukYaSelf and justforfunds both qualified as well, so best of luck to them.

So anyways it starts sunday july 26th@ 17:00ET, feel free to sweat me and root me on!

busto

2009-07-07T18:17:00.002-04:00

Busted out of the main event about 3hrs into day 2.
Got kind of shortstacked early and had 10k chips with blinds at 250/500 50ante.

MP opened to 1200 and a guy I was fairly confident was opening light 3bets to 3500. I look down at QQ in the SB and fistpump ship it in. I know the guy is commited, and he asks me 'do you want a call?' and I just smile and and say yeah because I'm obviously say ahead if he asks and i know he cant fold. He calls and flips up KQs. King in the window and I take the walk of shame.

All in all it was a great experience and a very successful WSOP.

I won the pokerstars freeroll yesterday which gets me into an exclusive online freeroll which pays out about $800,000 in packages. So my EV is about $7000 from that, and everyone gets a seat. So that should be awesome and is gonna take me to at least one more event for free. :)

I'm in vegas for 1 more week. Gonna take it easy for the most part, and I'll definitely hit up the pokerstars party on thursday. be sure to say hi if you see me.

the mains event

2009-07-04T02:30:00.002-04:00

main event kicked off today and i played day 1

i didnt really play any interesting hands, all pretty standard stuff. ended the day with 20k in chips gonna relax for the next few days and start crushing on day 2a.

went deep again

2009-06-17T04:19:00.007-04:00

event 32 this time
It was another $2k buyin with a few less runners (1500 i think?)

I busted 44th about an hour ago for just under $10,000. I got pretty unlucky actually, getting KK in preflop against AQs (I 4 bet-shoved and he called) for what would've been a double average stack. He flopped a flush and I got like zero sweat. It was the kids first live event ever and he was shaking so much raking in the chips and for like the next 5hands afterwards. It was cute. Soon after I called a late position shove with AJs to find myself up against ATo for what would've brought me back to average. Two tens on the flop and I get no help and I'm down to about 10bbs. I ended up shoving blind versus blind with K3s and the same kid with AQ made a pretty sick call with K8o and busted me. GG main.

So i'm at like $51,000 on a $5500 investment so far this series.

my girlfriend flies in on friday so i wont be playing anymore events this week. i might play one more $1500 event before the main event, but not even sure about that. i might just relax and grind online.

well thats about it. im off to have a few beers by the pool while i think of what might have been

remembering what its like to run good

2009-06-09T19:01:00.004-04:00

so i've been out in vegas for a week now.
staying with a bunch of the MSNL/HSNL full ring guys and everyone is awesome. we're having a lot of fun and winning a bunch of money.

i played my first WSOP event on thursday and ending up going really deep. it was event 11 ($2000 NLHE 3day) and i finished 12th out of 1600ish for $41,000. easily my biggest tourny score to date.

my run good continued last night online when I shipped the $77 freezeout on stars for about $3500. everything seems to be going in the right direction. I'll play a few more events before the main event, so keep your eyes opened and expect some big things :).

yeah im pretty much a tourny pro now ;)

lucky coin

2009-05-13T18:57:00.002-04:00

so i've never really had a lucky coin before but i just found one.

yesterday i was unsure if i wanted to play the $200r tournament so i flipped a coin, and it said no. so i didnt. then i saw a similar tourny structure on stars but it was a $20r so i flipped again and it said to play. 8hrs later i finished 3rd/800 for like 3.6k.

since then ive been flipping it, asking if i should make calls when close, when to end sessions, which site to play, when to leave tables, etc, and am now on a sick heater.

to test it, i asked it if the worst player at one of my tables was a good player and the coin said yes. i was a little upset initially but then i realized my coin just has a good sense of humour. so now its not only my lucky coin, its also a close friend.

2009-05-13T12:50:00.003-04:00

things are good on my end. vancouver is nice, met a bunch of poker players out here and having fun with them and old freinds i made in korea.
final tabled a few tourneys this week and won like $9k. pretty nice rush.
the year isnt going as well as last to this point, but as long as there isnt another stock market tank i should still do better this year. especially after i win the world series.

so yeah...i'll be out in vegas for all of the WSOP, june 1st-july17th. living with 4 other poker players in a house just off the strip. probbaly play a bunch of small events and then the main event. wish me lucky

$500,000 prank

2009-03-05T13:36:00.003-05:00

Watch Prank War 7: The Half Million Dollar Shot and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

ownd

ever gambol on a fart?

2009-02-24T13:23:00.002-05:00

family feud bad answers

2009-02-17T01:56:00.002-05:00

saw this today on youtube and had a laugh

takes a while to get good but worth it imo

lol
idunno but i think dude is pretty smart

fck february

2009-02-11T00:53:00.004-05:00

well, i've been welcomed back to the tables with arms wide closed. yes that makes no sense, but neither does the run ive been on.

it seems like everytime i try to buckle down and grind out hands i end up pissing away money and running like a crippled kid over an oil slick.

not to mention i lost like every stupid bet i made on the superbowl. granted, i was betting ridiculous props, but still... at least one should come through, nO?

anyhow, its cool. it will turn around. plus im pretty much set up in the new apartment. i have everything essential. so no more expenitures. bedroom/bathrooms/kitchen/lviing room, all done. my office has a chair and a desk, which is fine for the time being. i got the aeron chair, not sure if i mentioned that before. its ok i guess -- 7.6/10.

speaking of the kitchen, i've been getting really into cooking lately. i cook every single day (sometimes even twice). my food tastes awesome but usually looks terrrible. im not really creative with presentation, but im working on it. maybe ill have something to fall back on should the poker gods decide to never give me my run good back. maybe a sacrifice is in order?

anyhow, thats it from me. wish me luck. i think ill go sacrifice a bottle of wine down to the depths of my stomach instead.

Gettin ready to grind

2009-01-24T05:30:00.002-05:00

just got my new setup. i should be ready to go by monday.

interwebs are installed, and i picked up a new aeron premium chair and some rando desk. still gotta put it together but im lazy.

i played 8 hands today, first ones of the year. my hourly rate so far is $2304.01/hr, so hopfully that keeps. pretty sure it will

vancouver

2009-01-13T20:13:00.004-05:00

so i've arrived safely in vancouver.
got my new place all worked out, just about ready to actually move in.
will probably be by tommorow. i scored a pretty good deal on the place, and its in a primo location. i'll try to post pics once its all set up.

the weather here is pretty bad but whatever. i've been having a really good time with a bunch of my friends out here that i met in korea. definitely feeling the love. i'm sure the summer will be much much better.

on another note, i'm really feinding to play some poker. havnt played at all yet this year... hopefully i havnt gotten too rusty. and it'll still be another week before i have internet all hooked up. but everything will be set up really well for me to grind, so hopefully i can have a huge year. fingers crossed.

yao

2008-12-22T14:54:00.003-05:00

whats up everyone

i may start posting some more in the new year once im out of toronto.

year has been ok. started good, got amazing, went terrible, got better. pretty much sums it up.

next year should be awesome.

i'll be living in vancouver for most of the year, and spending WSOP in vegas with some of my poker friends. looking forward to it.

also planning to visit austrailia and argentina in 2009, plus some other location to be named later.

anyways, ill share this video which will make you cry.

tuff fish plays mario

2008-11-06T19:10:00.001-05:00

title says it all

i love this video something fierce

fml

2008-10-14T13:56:00.003-04:00

busto.

i worked up a pretty crazy image at my table, before picking up KK in EP.

i got lots of action, and even more from QQ in the blinds who squeezes. i shove and get snapped called. all is well until the Q on the river ends all hope.

i get a few apologies and head out the door, dreams dashed.

fml

day 1 update

2008-10-11T21:29:00.002-04:00

day one went pretty good for me.

ended up with about 66k and average is about 48k.

i played a huge hand with gus hansen -- here's the update from WPT. I'm SB obv.

Gus Hansen makes a pre-flop raise from the cutoff and gets two callers from the blinds. The flop comes K76, and the action checks around to Hansen who bets 900. The small blind raises (check-raise) to 3,000, the big blind drops out and Hansen calls. The turn is the 7 and the small blind leads out with a 5,500 bet. Hansen calls and the river is the J. The small blind bets 10,000 and Hansen goes into the tank.

"I don't see how I can beat anything that he has," says Hansen as he shuffles his chips. Hansen continues to think out loud. "Well, well, well," he says. "I really don't have that much left. There is always a chance that this guy is completely and utterly insane, but it doesn't look like it."

One player calls the clock just as Hansen makes a reluctant call as he says, "Wow, I actually found two hands that I can beat." The small blind turns over KK for the full house as Hansen shakes his head and throws his hand into the muck. After the hand, Hansen is left with just 7,000 in chips.

updates

2008-10-11T01:27:00.000-04:00

hey
i start in about 10hrs
you should be able to catch updates @
http://liveupdates.worldpokertour.com/tournament/?x=updatesnews

gl me!

WPT Niagara

2008-10-09T00:48:00.007-04:00

Heading to Niagara falls this weekend to play in my first $10k WPT event.

I'm just going to buy in directly, although I have some people who've bought some of my action. So I'm not putting up the whole $10k myself.

Hopefully I can make them and myself some money. :) A cool million would be nice.

I've been running pretty terribly lately, but I'm cool with it. Saving up all my run good for this weekend!

I'll post some updates on how it all transpires.

For now, I'll leave you with a nice hand I played today. How badly do you just want to click call? I think I hit it automatically everytime I look at the picture.

click to enlarge

not dead! yet

2008-09-29T11:56:00.003-04:00

sorry i havnt been playing/posting much lately, as iv've been doing a lot of travlling with my girlfriend. we just got back from a few weeks in panama.

i guess being back home in toronto has kind of made my blog a lot less nessecary for me to keep friends/family posted... s0o its obviously suffered.

ive also achieved all the goals i set for myself from the onset of the blog, so there's that too.

prehaps ill get back to posting regularly at some point, but i wouldnt count on it.

love you all! thanks for all the continued support

hand of the day

2008-07-30T21:51:00.002-04:00

550bb pot @ 2/4

Poker Stars, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $2,063.20
Hero (BB): $1,100.80

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (BB)

SB calls $2, Hero raises to $20, SB raises to $44, Hero raises to $224, SB calls $180
Flop: ($448) (2 Players)
Hero bets $334, SB calls $334
Turn: ($1,116) (2 Players)
Hero bets $542.80 and is All-In, SB calls $542.80
River: ($2,201.60) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,201.60 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
SB mucked and LOST (-$1,100.80 NET)
Hero showed (two pair, Aces and Threes) and WON $2,201.10 (+$1,100.30 NET)

ship

Bill Fillmaff vs. Mikey The Chimp

2008-07-30T13:55:00.001-04:00

free money

2008-07-27T13:38:00.002-04:00

fun hand i played yesterday:

Poker Stars, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $284.30
Hero (UTG): $587.10
BTN: $1,379.50
SB: $839.15

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $24, BTN folds, SB raises to $42, BB raises to $284.30 and is All-In, Hero calls $260.30, SB calls $242.30

Flop: ($852.90) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
SB bets $554.85 and is All-In, Hero calls $302.80 and is All-In

Turn: ($1,458.50) (3 Players - 2 are All-In)

River: ($1,458.50) (3 Players - 2 are All-In)

Results: $1,458.50 Pot ($2 Rake)
BB mucked and LOST (-$284.30 NET)
Hero showed (a pair of Kings) and WON $1,456.50 (+$869.40 NET)
SB showed (high card Ace) and LOST (-$587.10 NET)

god people are so bad

playboy golf

2008-07-25T23:07:00.002-04:00

had a great day at the golf course

met some nice guys from stars, some hot playboy bunnies, and even managed to ship 5th place!

thanks stars!

"is this game pot limit?"

2008-07-25T09:59:00.004-04:00

guess he was pot committed, cant blame him

also, going to the playboy golf tournament in toronto today... ill try to snap some pics

heyo

2008-07-10T18:53:00.004-04:00

been gone for a while, busy with my move back to canaduh and stuff

nothing really new, just came here to brag:

click to enlarge

ship the $7500

lol stocks

2008-06-16T23:24:00.002-04:00

I wonder if anyone took my "advice" on that stock last post... jumped 25% since. :)

I'll have another chunk of money to invest later this week... time to get drunk!

long update + bonus new drunken habit

2008-06-13T03:07:00.009-04:00

whats up y'aall?
I know ive been lacking in updates, but be assured all is well.

Just got back from tokyo, which was amazing. Look back at old posts to find out how much I love Japan. Tokyo may be the greatest city in the world, though I could do without all the nigerian pimps.

Highlights from the trip include:
1) a baseball game at the tokyo dome that went to extra innings and ended with a walk off homerun. Such an awesome game, and the atmostphere inside the dome was INSANE.

2)eating raw chicken ship the salmonella

3) A trip to Harajuku to scope the cosplay girls.
4) nitelife - no details sorry ;)

Right now I'm just wrapping up all the loose ends associated with moving back to canada (partying/drinking a lot) and really not playing as much as I should. Although, I'm running hot the times I do decide to play so I'll probably still book a good month.

May was amazing for me and hopefully a sign of bigger things to come. I'll definitely be acheieving some big goals of mine this year that I set out at the start of this blog a couple years ago.

Anyways, so I have this new drunken habit which is pretty interesting. I'm usually really good about not coming home black out drunk and playing poker. If I do, its usually penny stakes or something stupid. Usually I'll just hit my bed and pass out.

But yeah, so my new habit is similar to drunken poker, but a little wierder and completely facilitated by me being on the other side of the world:

I trade stocks.

Ususally when I get home from the club, its peak trading hours on the market.

But like seriously, who does this? I wake up the next morning and have confirmation of orders I have no reccolection of placing. If thats not weird enough, I think I'm a drunken stock savant. Each time I've done it, I've managed to flip the stock for a nice profit.

And I'm not totally messing up or throwing my portfolio off balance. I look the next morning and it all makes sense. So yeah, if it ain't broke...

Anyways, the latest stock I picked up last night was a bunch of Western Potash Corp. (WPX on TSE). I got it at $1.70 so we'll see what happens. Figured I'd post it to be accountable :)

So thats about it, take care everyone

"And thats why you play 58 in the big blind"

2008-06-02T14:19:00.001-04:00

maybe the best video i've ever seen

officially leaving korea

2008-05-27T01:44:00.009-04:00

I'm done.
Booked my flight home for July 1st. no word on future plans, but I'll be chilling around toronto for a few months at least.

No real reason except that I need a change. Lots of my friends have since gone home, so it's only me, my g/f and few friends.

SOooooo I have someone coming to look at my place tommorow, so its all clean and I took some pics for my memory. I know a lot of people have asked and I've been really lazy... so here is my pad!

Note that I paid for nothing in my the place except the Xbox, and my computer setup(incl. chair). Everything else was given to me or salvaged, so obv its not very balla.

my setup

living room 1

living room2

bathroom - i was naked so i had sneak out of the pic

"kitchen"

hallway - bedroom on right(no pic, too many naked girls inside)

tahts about it - month is almost over and im rollin in dolla bills fwiw

biggest drawing in the world

2008-05-26T04:52:00.001-04:00

what a sick idea

http://biggestdrawingintheworld.com/drawing.aspx

china earthquake relief fund

2008-05-19T04:29:00.003-04:00

I'm sure you've all heard about the disaster in China by now.

Pokerstars has kindly agreed to match all donations made by thier players to the china earthquake relief fund.

You make make donations in two ways

Under the tournament/special tab, there is a $5, $20 and $100 option. It's not a tournament, but your money (matched by stars) will go to the red cross relief fund.

Alternatively, you can make a fund transfer to "Quake Relief" if you'd like to remain anonomous or give an amount greater than $100. These funds will also be matched.

If you don't have stars, you can visit www.redcross.org and make a donation online.

I encourage you all to come together and make an effort to help in this tragedy. Thanks.

lol 5kNL is ez

2008-05-09T05:09:00.003-04:00

Well, I guess what has become tradition on my birthday has been a shot at higher stakes as a gift to myself. My b-day is tmrw (may10th) I'm going away tommorow to da islands mon, so I did it today.

I started playing regular pokers at $5/10 where I got in QQvsJJ pre and held up in a $2000 pot. It was sweet until I got coolered with KKvsAA in a $2000 pot about 5minutes later.

I continue to play a mix of 3/6-10/20NL and nothing is really happening. I bleed some money in small pots and I'm down about $600. Then I end up sticking my stack in with a pair and straight draw after a failed squueze attempt. Ended up puttin a nice beat on a donkey in a $1200 pot.

So I'm sititng at like -$50 or something and sick of pokers (I played like 6k hands today at $1/$2)

So obv I shortstack the biggest game running - $25/50NL.
lol, very first hand dealt:

Poker Stars, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
SB: $2,145
Hero (BB): $1,000
UTG: $2,919.50
MP: $2,165.35
CO: $5,787
BTN: $7,098

Pre-Flop: Q 3 dealt to Hero (BB)
4 folds, SB calls $25, Hero checks
Flop: ($100) 4 J 3 (2 Players)
SB bets $50, Hero calls $50
Turn: ($200) 6 (2 Players)
SB bets $100, Hero calls $100
River: ($400) 3 (2 Players)
SB bets $1,945 and is All-In, Hero calls $800 and is All-In
Results: $2,000 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed 5 A (a pair of Threes) and LOST (-$1,000 NET)
Hero showed Q 3 (three of a kind, Threes) and WON $1,997 (+$997 NET)

ez game

Decent birthday so far. Tommorow I'm heading to an island in korea with my g/f for a night or two. just relax and take it easy seeing as there will be NO DOUBLE VPPS this month. wtf stars i hate you.

anyways prop bet update:

costanza is treading water and looking for buyouts. the bet is as good as won. +$2000 for me, plus the $3000 I had in escrow that I've all but forgotten about.

prop bet update

2008-05-07T07:40:00.000-04:00

First 7 days: $8645
Day 8: -$660
day 9: $145
day 10: $238
day 11: $684
----------------
11 days, $9052

20 days left to make $30,948.... $1547/day

looking really good for me so far

april wrap up

2008-05-02T04:08:00.002-04:00

Pretty ok month, despite having my lowest volume of play.

I dropped some tables and played some higher stakes. It went well initially but then I went on a nice downswing to end to the month.

Seems like a reccuring pattern actually - I make a sick amount in the first two weeks, and then breakeven for the rest of the month. Once the 1st rolls around again, I go back on a heater (like even today, may 1st, was my first winning day in over a week).

But whatever, I'm still making lotsa moneys.

Plan for this may:
Play more hands than i ever have
Make more $ than I ever have

should be easy enough. :)

With the supposed double vpp promo happening, I'll be playing like a mad man. I was considering starting some kind of may marathon and go for $31k in 31days of may. But with my birthday next week, and the soeul dj festival this weekend, it doesnt seem like a good idea. Maybe i'll start on may 11th or something and try to do $21k in 21day. I'll keep you updated.

As for my prop bet from last post. Costanza is doing surprising well, much better than I expected. That said, he's still slightly behind pace, and its not gonna get any easier for him.

After day 6, he's at $7,215.

fun propbets

2008-04-26T23:24:00.002-04:00

DOn't you just love a good prop bet?
One guy starts talking trash, and the other guy calls him out. What's next? Money, meet mouth.

After one player making some rediculous claims of making $40,000 at 1/2NL in a month, and having everyone saying it was impossible, a lone soldier came out of the smoke and said that HE could do it. That player is costanza_g.

A couple insteresting things to note. The original player who said they did was misunderstood - he did it at 1/2 and 2/4, INCLUDING a tonne of bonuses. Mr. costanza claims he can pull it off WITHOUT bonuses.

So he issued a challenge - 31days, $40,000, all 1/2. He put $15k of his own money to back his claim, asking for 2:3 on his money.

And boy, did he get interest. Within hours, people bought up all the action, escrowed the money, and the bet was set!

The bet has since been featured on the pokercast and has over 400replies on 2+2.

Do I have action? Yessum.
I put down $3k to say no way in hell he can do it. The MOST I've ever made at 1/2 in a week is $7k. I see no way he can do $10k, 4 weeks in a row. So my $3k to win $2k.

In order in ensure it is costanza playing all the tables, he's set up a webcam to film him playing 24/7. If he claims victory, we have 72hrs to review all his hands and verify authenticiy. I wont go into the details, but we've covered all the details. There is about $60k in escrow, so obvioulsy people are taking this seriously.

Here's the cam:

Express Yourself LIVE

link if its not working here:
http://www.stickam.com/profile/teeque

please wish for his failure with me :)

in the butt

2008-04-13T05:05:00.000-04:00

This kid films his sister coming home late after meeting a guy she met on Myspace. Some of his comments while his mother yells at her are classic.

Sister Busted By Brother - Watch more free videos

hai

2008-04-04T06:16:00.003-04:00

im drunk and on the interwebs(beat) and this made me laugh so i post because i never post because i suck at it

I am so rich. Goodness, gracious. My, my, my. I am so, very, very wealthy. How many dollars do I have? That's a question only my team of ten fat accountants can answer, because they have golden calculators which I bought for them with my money. And what is on those golden calculators? Numbers. And those numbers equal the dollars in my bank accounts, which are huge.I have many vehicles which I use to travel across the world and to many exotic destinations where most people cannot go, because they are so poor. They have very little in dollars, but I, myself, I have very many dollars. Also, I am sexy for a man. I like to think that if I was a woman, I would be a playboy model. But since I am a man I am like the opposite of all that, the man version.In my vehicles I have stored many bottles of rare, delicious wines. These wines are hundreds of years old and covered in dust and cobwebs, which means that they are the most delicious kind, and that they were grown from grapes which were so succulent and juicy that the poor grape-pickers of France wanted to eat them right then and there. But they were whipped, by my shift-leader vintner, who makes sure that the best grapes in my vineyard go only into the wine. That's right, my great grandfather, who was also rich, owned the vineyard where this wine was made. And it's really strong too, it can get you wasted quickly.I am a big time gamer in the real estate market. I speculate and consolidate my wins and losses into pure profit, keeping my blue chips in the black, playing the lady stock market, teasing and tempting her, always with my eyes on the wall street journals and calling my broker on my diamond plated iphone, which I have the most expensive plan of. I call Steve Jobs on it, and when he answers, I'm like, "Who are you? I don't know who you are because I am so rich and cool, and only nerds know who you are."Then I hang up on him and laugh, lighting a big fat stogie with $300 dollars cash, which I just happened to have in my pocket because it's chump change to me.But I have a tender side. Sometimes, I see a hobo. And when I see the hobo, I think to myself, "This man is poor. His monetary value is low, and my monetary value is high, and it's a shame that he is himself. What can I do?"I ask the hobo if he would rather have booze or money to buy booze. If he says he wants the money, I don't give it to him because I know he'll buy booze with it. But if he says he wants the booze, I give him the money because I value honesty, even among lying hobos.You may be asking yourself at this point, why is this rich man posting on a message board when he can have any woman he wants at any time he wants her, just by showing her how much money he has in his shoe? The answer is that I want to date someone who doesn't know that I am rich. I want to be anonymous. Only when we have fallen in love will I reveal to you that I am rich. That is why we must meet through this message board.On our first date, I will wear normal clothes like from Wal-mart, that most people wear. And I will turn on the music on my stereo, when I'm picking you up, and it will play "Jamie's Cryin'", just like normal people listen to. I'll sing along as I drive you to the local Sonic and buy you a cherry limeade, being careful not to tip the carhop so you won't think that I have more money than I'm letting on.By this time you'll be thinking that I'm just like you, poor and smelly. But then we'll drive back to a hotel, only you will think we are going to Motel 6. But then we will pull up to the Marriott, and I'll smile knowingly. You might think that I have won the lottery recently, but I won't let on. Then when we get to the room I'll order room service, again, not telling you that I'm richer than a donkey's ass, just coolly ordering some duck l'orange and some fries.Finally, you'll be dying to know how I can afford such luxury. At that point I'll be like, "It's because I am rich." and then I'll pull off my flannel and be wearing a tuxedo underneath, and you'll be like, "Oh my God! You ARE rich." And then a helicopter will pull up to the window, with my butler Jenkins leaning out, holding a bottle of Chablis and a towel on his arm."Evening Sir!" he'll say in his trademark way, and I'll say, "Jenkins! Let's go to Borneo tonight, eh? Can the GoldenDollarSign," (the name of my helicopter) "get us there in time for cocktails?"When we arrive in Borneo we'll land on top of my tallest skyscraper, and I'll propose to you, handing you a ring made of pure platinum, with 0% impurities.I can't wait to surprise you with that ring. I'm looking at it now. Send me an email if this could be you.Yours,Rich Bigdollars (Not my real last name.) http://cleveland.craigslist.org/m4w/628259611.html

[ ] paragraphs

march wrap-up

2008-03-31T11:55:00.002-04:00

Pretty dissapointing month I suppose. Compared to Jan and february it sucked, but pretty average relative to last year's results.

I went through an $8.5k downswing, so I'm just grinding 1/2NL again for the next few weeks until I get my groove back.

I didn't play as much as I should have, but it was hard to put in hours while running so bad. Hopefully this month is a bit better and can run good at higher stakes. I should make a lot of money in bonuses. Like $5k.

I also got harrington on cash games books today, so I'll be giving a review of those when I'm done. First 80 pages have been terribly boring and basic though.

20%

2008-03-28T12:11:00.002-04:00

So I hit the 200k VPP mark today.
Way behind pace, I know.

I had a brutal last 2 weeks, and I'm recovering from my worst downswing ever. Should still end up with a pretty decent month though.

I'm really hanging my hat on thier being a double VPP promotion in May, or I'll have like zero chance at elite.

Finsihing with like 800k VPPs would be pretty lame.

biggest pot ever!

2008-03-20T13:22:00.003-04:00

Poker Stars, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
Hero (MP): $1,602
CO: $1,445
BTN: $300
SB: $650.90
BB: $1,000
UTG: $1,520
Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG raises to $30, Hero calls $30, CO raises to $160, 4 folds, Hero raises to $572, CO raises to $1,445 and is All-In, Hero calls $873
Flop: ($2,935) 4 8 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: ($2,935) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($2,935) J (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $2,935 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed Q Q (a pair of Queens) and LOST (-$1,445 NET)
CO showed A A (a pair of Aces) and WON $2,932 (+$1,487 NET)
sweeeeeeeeet

i wont go into much detail, but BTN is a reg and was overactively squeezing. i was tryign to disguise the strength of my hand, but apparently it ddint matter. pretty awesome to get coolered at 5x my stakes.

if that wasn't enough(from the same session):
Poker Stars, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
UTG: $871.50
CO: $1,000
Hero (BTN): $1,110
SB: $2,015.75
BB: $1,386
Pre-Flop: 3 3 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG raises to $30, CO calls $30, Hero calls $30, 2 folds
Flop: ($105) 3 9 4 (3 Players)
UTG bets $75, CO calls $75, Hero raises to $320, UTG folds, CO raises to $970 and is All-In, Hero calls $650
Turn: ($2,120) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($2,120) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $2,120 Pot ($2 Rake)
CO showed 4 4 (three of a kind, Fours) and WON $2,118 (+$1,118 NET)
Hero mucked 3 3 and LOST (-$1,000 NET)

what a fucking piss off

i've never dropped much more than $2k in day... and today i dropped like $3.5k in an hour

yay me

same ol'

2008-03-13T06:54:00.002-04:00

Nothing much to report here

Month is going great again, so I'm taking shots at higher limits. I've been playing as high as 5/10. My game has improoved a lot and my results are showing.

I'm waiting for my quesidilla to be delivered and it's been like an hour. That's the only reason I'm posting. SO I'll end here b/c I have nothing to say.

BEST BLOG POST EVER.

japanese guitar hero

2008-03-03T00:49:00.004-05:00

It was a hard enough time to find guitar hero in korea, but I'm glad I did. That game is so addictive and has probably cost me 1000s of dollars in EV.

I'm not sure what compelled me, but I decided to search for guitar hero videos on youtube. Came up with this, the japanese guitar hero. I wonder how badly this guy would destroy the game?

Anyhoo, I'm slowly gettin back on pace with 153k/169k pts. Had a realllly good day at cash games yesterday and March is off to an awesome start.

february wrap up

2008-03-01T03:20:00.002-05:00

Another great month in the books. February was my best month ever. I played 120k hands at a nice 2.5ptbb+ winrate, $3k in bonuses and the $4k tourny score. So you can figure it out more or less with a little math.

Considering its the shortest month of the year, and I was in Hong Kong for a while, I feel great about it.

As for SNE, I have 147,500 points while pace is 166,666, which is ok because I'm slowly making up ground. I'm gonna try to put in an extra hour every day this month and I should be just about caught up.

So in March I should clear my first milestone bonus for $2k, plus the regular $3k in other bonuses. I'm planning on putting in my most hands ever, so hopefully I can top my best month for a third month in a row?? It will be tough, but I'll do my best.

looool

2008-02-28T05:32:00.001-05:00

have you seen this show? Moment of truth? You're hooked up to a lie detector, asked some questions, and get money for every one you answer correctly.

this clip is OMG funny.

grrrr

2008-02-24T10:27:00.005-05:00

I've been sans internet for about 3 days now. So I'm falling behind my SNE pace, but catching up on my sleep.

Sucks because I was excited to play a lot this weekend, but whatever.

Had a fun weekend instead and got my drank on with some friends. Got a guy coming in the morning to fix it I think, so I can get back to the grind.

Anyways, fun story I read the other day:

Punter wins £1m for 50p horse bet

what not to say at a poker awards ceremony

2008-02-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Nebuchad explaining his nick to Negreanu

SNE app

2008-02-22T02:53:00.002-05:00

Here's a little script for those of you going for supernova elite.

It tells you what number you have to be at to be on pace:
http://www.houseofillusion.com/sne.asp

Currently I'm ~15,000 behind pace, at 129,064 VPPs

video documentaries

2008-02-19T04:21:00.002-05:00

My buddy 2ez showed me this link, and I thought I'd share it with everyone.

NicheGeeks top 10 google video documentaries. "Some are sad, some are wacky, but they are all very informative and entertaining."

http://nichegeek.com/10_google_documentaries_you_have_to_watch

In other news, this month is unreal. I'm crushing every day and already ahead of last month. So yeah, barring any downswing it's already my best month ever.

VPP count is now 118,442, which is a little behind pace but SNE is still in my sights.

tourney score

2008-02-14T19:34:00.003-05:00

Good news!

I decided to fire up a $22/$20k GTND tourny this evening. 7hrs and 21mins later, I finsihed 2nd for $4068.25.

Havn't had a good tourny score for a year, so it feels good.

Thanks to all the guys and gals for the final table sweat... I appreciate it.

Special thanks to 'Calleddownlight' who was with me for the last 3hrs, giving awesome advice and reinforcement.

It's now 9:30am, and I'm off to bed :)

[x] 10%

2008-02-12T14:10:00.000-05:00

10% done my race to supernova elite.

So I won my little prop bet race to 100k points for a cool $100.

No signs of burnout as of yet, just hope I can keep up this pace.

HK trip report

2008-02-11T04:27:00.001-05:00

All in all, it was a pretty decent trip. But then, any vacation where nothing goes terribly wrong is going to be decent if you enjoy traveling. So yeah, it's really not going to be up there with my greatest trips of all time, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Anyways, I think we just picked the absolute worst time to travel there. The lunar new year resulted in a mass exodus by hong kong residants, and left us with all the tourists. The hong kong airport had more flights leaving the day I arrived than at any other date in history.

This sucked for several reasons. For one, lots of shops and stores were closed because people were on vacation. Secondly, all the touristy places are extra busy and crowded.

Personally, when I'm travelling I want to experience the culture. I want to eat where the locals eat, party where they party, etc. And this was a terrible time of the year to do that. But I digress.

The airport and transportation system in HK is incredible. Cheap and easy to get any and everywhere. We got to our hotel with no problem, and my room was pretty awesome. Gotta love the glass bathroom. I was instantly relieved to have gotten seperate rooms :).

The first night we stayed close to our hotel, in the WanChai district. We started out with dinner at a bar and ordered some sloppy joes. Traditional Hongkongese fare.
Then we headed out to the bars which were... well, interesting.

Every single girl, in every single bar, was a hooker. All of them were either philipino or thai, and all were looking for cash. I guess it depends what your looking for, but I wasn't all that impressed.

It wasn't long before a dude came in all hammered and claimed to be Dennis Hopper's son. It was pretty random, but whatever (I looked it up actually, and his story doesn't seem to check out, but he was funny, buying drinks and lived in HK so had some good info). He made fun of us for being where we were, and took us to a new place. We danced and drank there for the night, and I ended up spending way too much money. I don't really remember it all but apparently I ball harder than Dennis Hopper's son.

The next day we got a lot of shopping done in Tsim Tsa Tsui and had a whole lot of dim sum. We then joined about 400,000 other people for a huge 30min fireworks display.

It was pretty cool, but crowded. People actually showed up around noon to get good position for the 8pm show.

We grabbed some peiking duck afterward which was awesome, dropped off some stuff at the hotel and headed to Lan kwai fong to hit some bars and clubs. I think we checked about 8 different places that night, but spent the majority in this 3level club called "beijing". They played some good music and we actually met some cool local people.

We had planned to go to Macau for a day, but it sort of fell through. We way overslept, and then headed to the ferry terminal. Once we got there, one of my buddy's was like "do you think we'll need our passports?", and I'm like 'yeah were all idiots, lets go back to the hotel". No clue why it never crossed my mind, but I'll blame it on the hangover.

By the time we got back, there was a 2hr wait for the 1hr ferry ride. If it was the same both ways, it would suck because I had to catch a plane the next morning. So instead we just decided to head to victoria peak.

VIctoria peak is the highest point on HK island and has an incredbile view of the island. We took a cab up instead of the tram b/c it was a ~3hr lineup. We managed to get a good look at it in the day, grab some dinner, and then see it again at night from up there.

So I guess we didn't really 'do' much there, but it was a good excuse to party and have some great food. Good little weekend trip, but I don't think I'll be back any time soon, unless it's to Macau.

back

2008-02-11T03:59:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Korea, got in last night.

Trip was pretty good, I'll write a little more about it later if the mood strikes me.

For now I'll leave you with a pretty crazy video of some guy 52 tabling.

off to HK

2008-02-05T08:55:00.000-05:00

So, I whiffed on all my superbowl squares. 6 squares and not even a sweat, wtf.
I only lost $550 on the game, because I took the giants with the spread as well.

But yeah, I'm out of here in about 8hrs -- heading to hong kong.

Had a great start to the month, so I'm leaving on a good note.

I picked up a membership to leggopoker, and it's helped my game out a bit. Or maybe I'm just running good, whatever :)

Anyways, looking forward to a well deserved vacation after like 300,000hands in the last 2months.

Back in a week.

janurary wrap up

2008-01-31T20:58:00.000-05:00

Well, the first month of 2008 is about done and I'm glad to say I'm pretty much on-pace for supernova elite.

I'm currently at 83,777/1,000,000vpps.

I havn't been posting regular updates b/c I have a prop bet with another player for who can reach 100k faster. I didn't want to give him an edge by knowing my pace. Anyways, now I'm pretty confident I'll win so whatever.

I played a sick sick sick amount of hands this month -- 170,000. That's ~50k more than I ever have. My results showed the hard work and I booked my best month by about 50%. If I can keep this pace I might be able to triple my net from last year.

So I'm gonna keep on grinding until the 5th, when I leave for Hong Kong. I'm verrry stoked about this trip, it should be awesome. I'll try to take some pics and give a good report when I get back.

Hopefully I can get to 100k VPPs before I leave.

great headsup match

2008-01-30T07:50:00.000-05:00

Pokerstars hosts a $5000 freezeout, with a 'winner takes all' structure.

I'm not sure how many entries this one had, but I guess something like 13-15.

The tournament came down to Barry Greenstien(barryg1) and Apathy (who has won the MSNL headsup championship 2 years in a row).

You can watch the whole matchup right here, WITH hole cards exposed.
note:it's ~90mins long

Oh and in regards to my superbowl squares pool, I pooled my squares with calleddownlight, so I now have 19% of 4squares instead of 1 square. Less variance, yadda yadda.

HS $500 Superbowl Squares Pool

2008-01-27T01:57:00.001-05:00

I havn't done any sportsbetting for over a year, so I figured I'd throw down on a pool the high stakes guys have going for the super bowl next week. We have a $50,000 squares pool going, for $500/sq. I grabbed a square and hopefully catch a good draw and get lucky.

If you don't know what that is (cliff notes at bottom):

"Football Squares Rules: Within the grid, the top row of numbers represents the possible points scored of team one and the left column represents team two’s score. (The numbers are not placed in these squares until the players have added their names to the grid.)All the players add their names to the other free squares within the grid. Depending on the number of players, some may choose more than one square. As soon as the players have filled in all of the squares, numbers from 0 to 9 are drawn blindly and filled in across the top row. This is repeated for the left column. When you’re done, you’ll have numbers from 0 to 9 in random order across the top row and down the left column, and names filled in all of the other squares.The object of the game is to “choose” the score of the game by having your name in the square at the intersection of the final points of each team (as you draw an imaginary line down from team one’s score at the top and across from team two’s score). If there is a two-digit number, the second digit is used for the match. For example, if team one has 14 points and team two has 21, the person in the square at the intersection of #4 from the top row and #1 from the left column wins. You will have four winners by selecting the scores at the end of each quarter."

Cliff notes: A squares pool is neutral EV roulette with a good sweat.

Here's the pool... the image will update as numbers are drawn. I'm the_main, obv.

edit 1: I now have 19% action of 4squares... mine and all of calleddownlight's.
edit 2: I have 20% of 2 squares in the mulligan pool as well, under the name 'holdem2000'

Awkward moments in poker: Juice it up

2008-01-23T05:56:00.001-05:00

Check out this video.

It's a pro-am event, and Erick Lindgren takes a little jab at Jose Canseco. Happens about 2mins in.

It's pretty LOL and Ivey's reaction is awesome

poker bustouts

2008-01-16T14:09:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share a pretty entertaining poker documentary with my readers.

I'm not sure the exact reason why it's entertaining, but it definitley works on a few different levels. I actually think the whole thing might actually be a giant level, but there is no way these guys could act so well.

Anyway, check out the first part here, and follow the link at the end of the post see the other 4 installments.

For the rest:
http://www.pokertube.com/SearchMovies.aspx?FreeText=poker%20bustouts

HighStakes Bathroom propbet

2008-01-13T22:58:00.000-05:00

Today, I came across one of the more interesting prop bets that I've seen in a while.
Good2cU, a high stakes cash player offered another midstakes grinder an undisclosed 5 figure bet that would have the latter staying in a bellagio hotel room bathroom for a month.

The guy, Jay I beleive, can't leave the bathroom but has access to a DVD player and TV, plus room service.

The best part is they set up a live feed so you can watch the 'action'
http://www.stickam.com/profile/bellagiojay

lol

There is more info on the bet here:
http://lukekim.blogspot.com/

My month is going really well so far. 13days in, and it's shaping up to be my best month ever AND I'm on pace for supernova elite.

I also planned a short trip to Hong Kong to celebrate chinese new year. What better place to do it than China, amirite?

Life is good.

the times, they are a changing

2008-01-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

The games have been so terrible today, I couldn't find much motivation to play. ONly got in about 3,000 hands but managed to grind out a profit.

I had a sweet run at 2/4 and 3/6 on Monday, while chasing a really terrible player. I managed to take about $1000 off him when all was said and done. He was probabaly one of the worst players I've seen in months, and was sitting on a tonne of cash over 2 tables. What I couldn't beleive was that good players kept leaving the game and we struggled to keep a full table. WTF? SInce when do poker players hate money?

But anyways, I'm not complaining.

Month has been ok so far. I've played a lot of hands and am easily on pace to set a record for myself. Possibly for profit, but definitely for hands.

On an unrelated note, I caught wind of this new monitor coming out in a few months:

Sweeeet curved screen. I don't know how it would be for poker, but I want it. No clue what it'll cost, but it will likely be ridiculous b/c it's from alienware.

you can find more on it here:
http://gizmodo.com/341413/alienware-curved-monitor-looks-like-its-from-another-planet

Cardplayer TV - The mouthpeice

2008-01-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

A friend pointed me in this direction earlier today. Apparenlty Mike "the mouth" Matasow has a TV show on cardplayer. It runs about 1/2hr and is pretty funny.

There are 30 episodes. I've seen the first two and they were pretty funny.

You can find them at:
http://www.cardplayer.com/tv

SNE Update:
13,600/1,000,000

First few days +female women

2008-01-04T12:46:00.000-05:00

One thing I've noticed right away this year, is the increase of tight players at the table. While this effectively makes the games slightly harder, what I'm more concerned about is the decrease in my VPP accrual.

For supernova elite, I need 1,000,000VPPS. Last year I was earning points at around .57/hand. SO far after my first 20k hands this year, I'm at .47/hand. Yikes. If htings don't pick up, I'm going to need to put in more hours, which sucks.

My hope is that it's just the new year, and lots of players are trying for elite. Most will burnout/fail, and games will get looser. If not, I don't know how I can manage to put in ~2,000,000 hands this year. We'll see how it goes.

Right now though, 9,221/1,000,000 (almost 1%, ship it~!)

On another note, somehow I came across a classic Bill Fillmaff video. I don't know if I've ever mentioned him here before, but it's a great poker parody. Here's my favourite entry, 'female women'. The other episodes can be found on youtube.

Relfections on 07 + Supernova Elite

2008-01-03T04:03:00.000-05:00

2007 was OK.
From a financial standpoint, it sort of sucked. I made a lot less than I planned, and played less then I should've.

From a personal standpoint, it was great. I had tonnes of fun, freedom and excitement. And of course I got to travel a lot.

I probably put in about 900hrs of work, which is like 17hrs/week, which is golden. I'm going to try to put in 1700hrs this year, and hopefully double my output ($150k).

So yeah, I guess I'm saying I've decided to make a run at Supernova Elite(SNE).

This is about $100,000 in value, plus whatever I make at the tables.

That said, I want to turn this blog away from my finances and results. It was mainly a statement to family and friends that I could make decent money 'gambling'. I think I've done that. So this year will concentrate on fun things, and my race to SNE.

I don't want people worrying about me, and most people can't fathom that I can lose $3,000 in a day and it's normal. I may post a quarterly, semi-annual, annual update, or none at all. I havn't decided completely, but it's probably the latter.

So yeah, SNE:
After my first 1.5 days of play, I'm at 4,945/1,000,000. I'm aiming for 20,000pts a week, which will leave me with 2 weeks for vacation. I have a bet with a friend as to who can reach 100,000 first. It's only for $100, but its decent motivation.

2007 Results

2008-01-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

January - $6,146.28
February - $6,844.20
March - $6,345.11
April - $2,002.50
May- $7,558.51
June -$7,724.71
july- $6,240.57
August- $3,263.55
September - $4,769.20
October - $4,655.25
November - $9,569.70
December -$9,632

Total:
$74,751.58

Breakdown:

Cash Games:
826,604 hands for $34,155.57

Tournaments:
224 for ($1,350)

Bonuses/rakeback:
$41,022.57

Random flipping/other games/unaccounted:
($923.44)

If I had to guess (I don't have my entire database), I'd say my hourly rate was around $80/hr.

december results

2008-01-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

Cash Games:
Hold 'em:
126,332 hands for $1632 [$12.95/hr]

Tournaments:
Not sure actually because PT wont import summaries. I made some cash in a VIP freeroll, and only played a few more. I'm just calling it even.

Pokerstar Bonii:
$5000 Milestone bonus
$3000 in VIP bonuses

December Net profit: $9,632
----------------------------------------------
Year to date: $74,751.58

Not a great month. If it wasnt for the milestones and insane number of hands I played, it would've been terrible. It was a strange month in that it seemed like I dropped ~$500 everyday, and had a few really huge days in between.

great success

2007-12-30T00:40:00.000-05:00

Hit the $5k bonus and I'm DONE for the year. Sweet, 1day off!

Also, my move to the phillipines is currently on hold due to some recent developments. Still looking into other oppourtunities though.

I'll prob post a monthly and yearly update tommorow.

$10,000 month!?!? Stay tuned to find out, lol.

figured I would add...

2007-12-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

boom, $3k day (well, $2971, but yeah)
+1.5k bonus cleared today, so lets call it a cool $4500 :)

sorry

2007-12-27T08:20:00.000-05:00

I'm a bad blogger, I know.
But I have lots going on at the moment, so this has kind of fallen off my priority list.

I'm grinding every day, trying to reach 500,000 vpps, which gets me a $5,000 bonus. I'll make it, I'm like 7200points away.

I'm also moving to the phillipines in a week or so. Kind of random, I know. Should be a fun change up though.

This month sucks, and I may end up being down in cash games at the end. Thankfully bonuses will put be somewhere between $5-7000.

I'll do the numbers next week, and reflect on the year in a later post.

encore

2007-12-17T11:40:00.000-05:00

I guess there wass only one way to follow up my biggest hand ever, and it was with my biggest session ever.
Without including bonuses and/or rakeback, I'm 99% sure this was my best session ever:

5.5hrs, 5387hands, $2,381.

This helps my pathetic month tremendously. :)

quick update + biggest hand ever

2007-12-16T09:02:00.000-05:00

This month has been a pain. I've been running pretty bad and breaking even for the month not including bonuses. Sucks.

Thus, no recent updates. I'm just waiting for the month/year to end and I'll re-evaluate from there. Grinding has been really annoying, especially while not making any money.

SOoOo, I took a shot at some 600NL and 1000NL and things went... well, check out the hand:

Poker Stars, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $342.25
Hero (CO): $1,010
BTN: $1,105.50
SB: $990
BB: $460
UTG: $1,000

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (CO)

UTG raises to $35, MP folds, Hero calls $35, BTN calls $35, 2 folds

Flop: ($120) 4 Q A (3 Players)

UTG bets $75, Hero calls $75, BTN folds

Turn: ($270) J (2 Players)

UTG bets $200, Hero raises to $640, UTG raises to $890 and is All-In, Hero calls $250

River: ($2,050) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,050 Pot ($3 Rake)

Hero showed Q Q (three of a kind, Queens) and WON $2,047 (+$1,047 NET)

UTG showed A J (two pair, Aces and Jacks) and LOST (-$1,000 NET)

Ship my biggest pot ever. It was my 3rd hand at the table I think and I obv hit and ran. :)

weird day

2007-12-06T04:31:00.000-05:00

Today was the weirdest poker session I've ever been a part of.
First, I played 7,000 hands. Which is probably the 2nd most I've ever played in a day.

But every big hand I got all in with,went terribly, and I ran ~$1200 below expectation. Yes, 6 buyins below expectation.

But whatever, I played really aggressively and took down a lot of mid-sized pots without going to showdown. And I mean, A LOT. It was fun.

So somehow, I managed to eek out a profit for the day:

lol. Yeah, I managed to win ~$1600 which is probably in my top 3 best days of the year.

If I ran at expectation today I would've made like $3k, which would've crushed my best day ever in cash games.

Oh well, can't complain. I was even for the month before this, so it feels great.

RIP, Chip

2007-12-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

David “Chip” Reese, the three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, longtime cash-game star, and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, has died. He was 56.

Link to article

Too bad, he was a great player and seemed like a nice, genuine dude.

24tabling ftw

2007-12-04T02:39:00.000-05:00

So I played a bit on sunday and got killed. I was up early and played/busted out of the sunday million after 3hrs. I just didn't feel like grinding and was down about $700 so I quit early. Probably not a good idea b/c I have to play sooo many hands this month.

So today I obviously 24-table 1/2NL. Happy to say that my new laptop can easily hanlde the load. Also equally happy to say that so can I.

It's pretty intense though. You rarley have any time when you arn't acting. I played for 5hours and logged ~6,000 hands. I lost ~$200, but it wasn't from bad play or lack of concentration (2 three outers in 200bb pots, etc. etc). My multi-table ratio was 19.8.

If I can pull out a sessions like these for the next two weeks, I should be able to relax and enjoy the holidays without stressing about logging hours.

Anyways, on a completly unrelated note... have you heard about this 'new' drug called 'jenkem'? Click the image below to see the Collier County Sheriff Office intelligence bulletin from September 26, 2007 which was later leaked to the media:

hahaha. I just think it's hilarious people are actually doing this. Had to share.

November results

2007-11-30T00:16:00.000-05:00

Cash Games:
Hold 'em:
80,135 hands for $4,297.70 [$40.07/hr]

Almost every big downswing is from $400NL.

Omahahaha:
some flips for $80

Tournaments:
12 played for a net loss of ($308) --I didn't cash ONCE.

Pokerstar Bonii:
$4000 Milestone bonus
$1500 VIP bonus

November Net profit: $9,569.70

----------------------------------------------
Year to date: $65,119.58

$10k month? nope.

gay gay gay.

The month started out so promising, with visions of going on a tear. But I've been ice cold for the 2nd half of the month.

I was actually at like $12,000 for the month 3days ago, but have managed to lose an average of $1k/day since. Most of this was playing $400NL, where I've had some bad luck.

I ran really well at $200NL and piss poor at $400NL this month, which is a bad combination IMO.

These results are sort of preliminary. My new laptop should be here any minute, so incase I have anouther database disaster I have my results here at least. I might take tommorow off anyways so whatver.

December should be a grind. I have to play about 40% more hands. Yuck.
But with my new laptop, I should be able to multi table better, and be able to use my buddylist as well. +EV.

Hopefully I can finally crack that $10k mark in december or I should probably quit. lol. Still my best month of the year, but that isn't really saying much. I'm pretty disapointed with my results thus far :(.

random video

2007-11-28T09:30:00.000-05:00

One of my buddies here is a pro boxer. Anyways, he's preparing for his next fight and he films all his sparring sessions. So the other day he's sparring and this happens:

He's the one in the white headgear

So yeah, end of the month is upon me, and I'll be back in a few days with my numbers. Barring any unforseen downers, it should be my best month of the year... possibly ever.

unlimited power

2007-11-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

There arn't too many places in Korea where you can find good collections of English books.

However, inside the CoEx mall (which is about an hour away from me) is the biggest book store in Korea.

So when we make the trip, me and my friends stock up on a bunch of good books, and then trade them around. I bought a bunch myself, and wanted to discuss one in particular.

I skimmed through the new release section, and picked up "Unlimited Power", by Anthony Robbins. I had always heard good things about him, and I have an interest in psychology, neuro-linguistic programming and hypnosis. So I figured I'd check out his newest book.

Turns out it's not new at all. I think it was published in 1986 actually. But regardless, it has been a great read.

I would urge poker players to check it out. It basically teaches you how to run your own brain. How to 'lie' to yourself, and choose the state you wish to be in. It's a great way to eliminate tilt.

Outside of poker, one thing it helped me with immediately were my sleeping habits. I've often had trouble falling asleep, because I can't seem to 'turn my mind off'. I've always been pretty analytical, and sometimes I drive myself nuts. I remember once when I was a kid just lying in my bed, literally thinking about what to to think about. Anyways, nothing has changed.

I'll constantly be thinking about what I did that day, what I have to do tomorrow, poker, relationships, whatever. Sometimes it's really annoying because I need to sleep. Well, this book has taught me how to turn that voice off. Within minutes I'm asleep.

The applications are endless really, and its a good read for anyone interested in improving yourself, your poker game, or simply your life in general.

quick update

2007-11-20T06:29:00.000-05:00

Last couple of days have been meh. Break even over last 6k hands. Whatever. I'm still at ~$10k for the month. I made a sexy graph a few days ago before this, and that's what I'm posting :)

(click for a better look)

Anyways, I woke up early and played the sunday million but busted after a few hours. No cash.

Because of the time change (daylights savings), I can now play the million if I get up at 6:30am on Monday. I think I'll start doing this every week, as the tables were really juicy then and for many hours following. Hopefully it results in a big score so I can hit $100k+ for the year.

Oh and I ordered a new laptop. Makes more sense then the desktop at the moment. It's a Dell Inspiron 1720 Notebook. Intel Duo T7700 2.4ghz processor, with 4gigs RAM and a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card. I upgraded the LCD too (17" WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT). Should be hot, and is only costing me ~$2k. Early x-mas christmas present to myself. :)
I think it gets delivered at the start of December.

And finally, a funny video. I saw this a while ago on billrini's blog, but he disabled embedding so I couldn't post it here. I saw it on nation's blog the other day, and just grabbed it from there.

new dog in the nieghbourhood

2007-11-15T09:48:00.001-05:00

My buddy Brian just bought a new dog. It peed on me.

OR DID IT!??!

Also, there's a funny movie/documentary a few guys put together of 'team domeski", 4 college kid's who've made millions playing poker.

Here is part 1/4: you can find the other 3parts on youtube (part 4 and 5 are awesome and involved a $10,000 propbet and hilarity):

part2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS29g1o0x3c&

part3:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=380do2DhRrw&

part4:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KqmcUKWcjw&

part5:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOP4OJgqC5s&