Blog Feed: The Rant

Last week I went to a "mixer" organized by my apartment complex, more specifically the lovely woman named Michele who works at the concierge desk. > read more

Be warned, I'm not used to this new editing/layout tool that this site has forced upon me so my entries might appear poorly formatted until I figure it out. So far I don't like it but I've always been one who chooses comfort over change, which is a perfect transition to the main point of this entry:A few months ago, the plan was to come back to Sacramento/America for 2-3 months and move to Thailand with N0BigDeal in July. > read more

The List

Published on 2012-04-24 06:15:00

I worked today.Normally when I tell people that, they might let out a wry smile or roll their eyes.Worked? > read more

The Doppelgänger

Published on 2012-04-10 06:49:00

Doppelgänger: In modern vernacular, the word has come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person.When I play live poker, I tend to talk. A lot. Even more than I do away from the table, which is something my close friends might find hard to believe. There's definitely a strategic element to it, but that said I do typically enjoy making friendly conversation and being personable. Recently, I've found myself talking with people who are convinced I look like a celebrity. Awesome, right? [..] > read more

The Shape

Published on 2012-04-01 03:28:00

As I start my second month in the United States, I feel my life is starting to round out into shape, both personally and professionally.Professionally, I have:- Created a 'stable' of clients and am coaching 10+ hours a week- 15+ videos 'in construction' for PokerVT, which basically means all that's left for me to do is hit the record button and start talking- Budgeted 20-25 hours a week to play live poker, enough to keep me entertained but not make it a grindPersonally, I have:- Set up my new pl [..] > read more

The Jackpot

Published on 2012-03-25 05:19:00

Played a few hours at the casino tonight and my table hit the bad beat jackpot (BBJ) for $99,000. Quad 8s under four kings. People went nuts. Some were yelling, others jumping up and down. So many high fives were exchanged that for a second I thought I was watching a never ending game of patty-cake played at hyper speed. A 40% table share split between 7 people was ~$5,650 but only one problem; I had racked out less than 10 minutes earlier. No jackpot for me.A friend of mine had left aroun [..] > read more

The Text

Published on 2012-03-18 06:57:00

Now that I'm not playing (online) on a regular basis, I'm finding less inspiration to blog. I had a feeling that might happen, but I'm still unsure of the exact remedy.I suppose I could write about all of the live hands I've been playing but there are only a few problems.a) Most fall into the brag/beat categoryb) Very few are 'interesting'c) Almost all of the hands are from limit hold-emYes, limit. Believe it or not, I actually find the game incredibly intellectually stimulating despite lackin [..] > read more

The American

Published on 2012-03-09 05:01:00

Two weeks later and well, life is awfully different on this side of the border.I'm all settled in downtown Sacramento (pics of new place below), but I no longer can fill the majority of my days with online poker. I logged on the other day to rail a friend of mine and pesky legal jargon popped up, reminding me that playing from the U.S. is illegal and can result in the closing of my account and forfeiture of my funds. Obviously won't be doing that. But the weirdest part? I can't remember the l [..] > read more

The Check

Published on 2012-02-26 05:55:00

Despite my well-laid plans, I didn't play at all the last two days. I've been so busy getting myself ready to leave Vancouver that I couldn't find the time. However, I felt the St. Baldrick's Foundation shouldn't be limited to my $100 donation. If I had played 150-200 games like I thought I would, I could have very possibly won a few thousand and cut them a significantly bigger check. Because of that, I decided to play the $300 Deepstack MTT at Edgewater Casino on Saturday afternoon and pledg [..] > read more

The Turrible

Published on 2012-02-22 17:07:00

I meant to provide an update after each day of the challenge, but I simply forgot to do it last night. Whoops.Yesterday, I made $195 in 93 180-man tournaments. That number's actually a tad lower because Sharkscope doesn't track the $3Rs correctly, but I'm not about to sift through a PokerStars audit just to short the St. Baldrick's Foundation a few bucks. Me thinks that's bad karma, so I'll just pretend I actually made $195.Unfortunately, today went terribly so I'll need to destroy the games [..] > read more

The Luck

Published on 2012-02-20 18:50:00

I'm lucky.No amount of bad beats, coolers, and close-but-no cigar MTT runs can change that. Not only am I lucky to be able to support myself by playing a game for a living, but I have something that a lot of people unfortunately do not -- my health.It's easy to take that for granted. I mean, it seems the only time I ever think about my health is when I'm sick, and even then it's just a cough or case of the sniffles. Sometimes, especially in the poker world, where people are losing hundreds/th [..] > read more

The Nemesis

Published on 2012-02-17 20:29:00

Over the last few years, several times I've been told I'm a luckbox/lucker/lotto donk/bingo player/etc and I know that there's some pour soul on PokerStars who feels I run like god against them. It's somewhat amusing to me, as I feel I don't run particularly well at all and have my own list of players I simply can't seem to beat when it comes to all-in pots. If I get it in ahead, I'm not holding. If I get it in behind, I might as well close the table right there. I could start naming names o [..] > read more

The Heartbeat

Published on 2012-02-16 04:51:00

Well, the whole 'wake up early thing' officially lasted two days. Went to bed last night at 2 AM, woke up at 1 PM. Whoops.I had a coaching session at 2 PM so I didn't have a chance to get games in all day. Okay, that's a lie. I could have loaded a set after coaching, but didn't really want to. Instead I took care of some stuff around the house, made/ate food, went to the gym, and spent way too much time playing 'Scramble with Friends.' It's a lot like boggle -- and if you'd like to play me [..] > read more

The Fireball

Published on 2012-02-15 00:25:00

Whenever I fail to blog for an extended period of time, I never know how to get back into it. From a very elementary standpoint, it's simple -- load up the page, log in, and start typing. But what do I write about? Usually so much or so little has happened that I either have a million things to cover or am grasping at straws for potential topics. And forced entries simply aren't very good. Note: I actually liked that one, but more than one person disagreed with me.Luckily, this is not one o [..] > read more

The Plan

Published on 2012-02-07 05:00:00

My time is Canada is running short (three weeks!) and many have people asked me what I plan to do in Sacramento for 5 months if I can't play online poker.Go crazy, perhaps?...Perhaps.At the moment I still could play a bit on the Merge network, although there's considerably less traffic and cash-outs are taking several weeks to process. But hey, it's still online poker and if I can grind out an extra bit of cash per month, that'd be awesome.Merge: Where on-line poker is legal, sort of, maybe.In [..] > read more

The Walk

Published on 2012-02-02 05:15:00

I'm hoping tomorrow will turn into a decent 'grind' day as I'm forced to wake up early because my landlord is coming by to pick up the rent and well, I don't have that sort of cash on me so I need to run to the bank.I'll groggily throw myself out of bed, stand around aimlessly until I find sweatpants/my favorite hoodie, and stumble my barely conscious self down to the CIBC in freezing cold weather. Yeah, this is going to suck. I'm about 6 hours from looking like this, minus the bright colors an [..] > read more

The Ricky

Published on 2012-01-31 04:18:00

Eleven days between this post and the last one, so I guess I have some 'splaining to do.Haven't done much, poker-wise, in the last week and a half. Shipping $5.5k didn't do much for my work ethic, as I've only played a few hundred games since. Even when I took an impromptu four day Vegas trip, I didn't play a single hand of poker. Instead I took the time to grind slot machines with my dad, a decision I'd make again 100 times out of 100. At one point I was able to calculate how much I was los [..] > read more

The Glass

Published on 2012-01-20 04:42:00

Bink.A few hours ago I finished 3rd in the Big $22 for $5.5k.I promise to only spend a paragraph on this next bit. Promise. I'm obviously happy to ship the biggest score of my career, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't been thinking about the first place prize of ~$12k that eluded me. Obviously I was lucky to navigate my way through a field of 4600+ but man it feels like the victory slipped right through my fingers. It didn't help that there was such a discrepancy between 2nd/3rd place mon [..] > read more

The TCOOP

Published on 2012-01-19 04:32:00

We're hours away from the Turbo Championship of Online Poker and it's my goal to play as many events as possible. Most are relatively affordable but I may sell action to play some of the higher stakes, and by that I mean anything over $200.It's the first time I've been excited about playing poker in a few weeks, which hopefully will lead me to put in a decent amount of hours while I'm still in Vancouver. However, I'm pretty sure I'm still not that eager to grind -- the excitement stems from th [..] > read more

The Fortune

Published on 2012-01-18 05:01:00

I only have 43 days left living in a country where I can legally play online poker yet I can't seem to find the desire to load up games.I keep hoping I'll wake up one morning and have this uncontrollable urge to start playing, but it hasn't happened so far. The other day I realized I was 130,000 FPPs short of a $4k bonus and thought to myself, "Hmm I better grind so I can get that before I move back to California." But upon further review, what's the rush? It doesn't really matter if I get it [..] > read more

The Hypocrite

Published on 2012-01-16 06:33:00

Earlier tonight, I made the final table of the $1R 3xTurbo and was hoping to take down the $7.4k first place prize. Throughout the day I loaded 180s/low stakes MTTs and despite only having a few min cashes to show for my efforts, I didn't feel too bad. The thought of being stuck $300 or so made me shrug my shoulders. Then I lost AK to A8, finishing 9th for $378, and...Within a minute I was out the door, on my way to the gym, doing my best to avoid expressing any disappointment. I've mocked f [..] > read more

The Fourth of July

Published on 2011-07-04 09:11:00

Happy 4th of July! Happy Belated Canada Day!I took part in a 'Canada Day' celebration on Thursday, but at the risk of sounding ethnocentric, July 4th kicks the shit out of 'Canada Day.' Keep in mind, however, that I'm basing this decision off the m > read more

The First Month

Published on 2011-06-30 20:47:00

With only a few hours left, I think it's a good time to recap my first month in Canada as a professional poker player.STTs (FullTilt):Games: 848Actual: -$1.90EV: +$649.33It'd be a much prettier graph if I removed the super turbos, but I'm not about > read more

The Monopoly Money

Published on 2011-06-30 09:20:00

There's a lot on my mind right now, which means I've got several things I can potentially blog about. I could talk about how poorly I've been running in Canada ($2500 under EV) and the lingering thought that I made a mistake by coming here. Or I co > read more

The Diversification

Published on 2011-06-17 07:22:00

Today (or yesterday, as I'm posting this at 5 in the morning) marks my first negative red-line day in Canada.I know that it's mostly meaningless but it still doesn't sit well with me when I was "supposed" to lose money. Since I've only had my accou > read more

The Riot

Published on 2011-06-16 05:59:00

This post is less about poker and more about, well, my new surroundings. After putting in a quick set of Hyper STTs, my roommates and I headed downtown to watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Boston Bruins and 'our' Vancouver Canucks. > read more

The Lemonade

Published on 2011-06-15 04:31:00

Today marks the two month anniversary of what the online poker world dubbed, "Black Friday." I had hoped there would be an immediate response, by either PokerStars, FullTilt, the hundreds of thousands of grinders, or the millions of U.S. citizens wh > read more

The Tweet

Published on 2011-06-12 06:53:00

So it had been more than a week since I spoke with a representative (Carlos) from PokerStars about unlocking my account and I kept waiting, patiently, for it to happen. Days passed by and still, I remained locked out. Tim (TimmyOx) had his account u > read more

The Sundaes

Published on 2011-06-06 07:21:00

Late last year, a friend of mine got married and I gave him an ice-cream sundae set as a wedding gift, complete with an ice cream maker, recipe book, cups, spoons, bowls, and all the necessary ingredients. My favorite part of the gift, however, w > read more

The Delay

Published on 2011-06-05 05:27:00

I really should blog more, given that I'm not totally swamped here in Vancouver and that several other players looking to re-locate are probably interested in the things I have to say, not to mention friends and family who wonder how I'm doing.For th > read more

The Upd(eh)te

Published on 2011-05-29 13:54:00

Things are looking up.On Friday, Tim and I moved into the new Vancouver-poker-FU DOJ house. It's not the nicest place we looked at, but it's relatively cheap (for being furnished) and allows us to get our accounts unlocked sooner rather than later. > read more

The Headache

Published on 2011-05-25 04:55:00

Sometime over the next few days I'll have an hour to sit down and write about the adventure that has been the last two days, but right now I've got a splitting headache and want to keep this entry relatively brief.Cliff Notes:- Made it into Canada- C > read more

The Chase II

Published on 2011-05-20 19:14:00

Looks like I'm forced to write this blog entry in notepad as wi-fi isn't offered on this flight. How airlines haven't figured out that internet is something I'd overpay for is completely beyond me.I'll probably post this entry when I'm chilling in t > read more

The Chase

Published on 2011-05-20 00:42:00

I wish I had some sort of finality to share with you, but that's not the case.Another busy day in the books and I'm still unsure if I'll be living here on Sunday. This morning, we signed the lease to our new place, contingent on being able to open b > read more

The Deprivation

Published on 2011-05-19 01:56:00

Wow. This will be a long post.For starters, I'm operating on almost no sleep. I arrived around 10 AM local time and wasn't able to fall asleep before we had to meet up with the leasing agent. Unfortunately, the agent recused himself from the situa > read more

The Gate

Published on 2011-05-18 01:22:00

We're supposed to be boarding in 10-15 minutes, so this blog entry might be a bit short. I'm currently sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to the Bahamas. Well, Fort Lauderdale and then the Bahamas. Semantics, really.I'm hoping they'll ha > read more

The Control

Published on 2011-05-10 04:26:00

On account of 'Black Friday' and moving to Sacramento last month, I've found myself playing a lot of limit hold'em. A lot. I'm making less per hour grinding live games than I would be online, but the money is decent and I've found the work to be mos > read more

The Notice

Published on 2011-05-04 02:19:00

Less than three weeks after moving in to my new place, I turned in my thirty days notice. In something perhaps only I find amusing, I attached my "New tenant inspection" form to the document -- As soon as I finalize the 'in,' I'm on my way out..Pay > read more

The Free Membership

Published on 2011-04-28 15:44:00

A little more than a week ago, I headed down to the nearest gym and talked with a representative about getting a one week pass to try out their facility. I liked it. Staff seemed friendly and it was equipped with rows of cardio machines, an extensi > read more

The Abstract

Published on 2011-04-24 00:02:00

Went down to the City Clerk office in Sacramento on Friday to get my passport and apparently the birth certificate I have is an 'abstract,' so I have to wait until Monday and bring back a certified copy. I thought I could come back the next day, but > read more

The Bahamas

Published on 2011-04-20 15:25:00

Earlier today, the DOJ reached an agreement with PokerStars and FullTilt to allow U.S. based players to withdraw, but no word on how soon we can play. Still, it's a step in the right direction and hopefully the start of legalization/rectification.Un > read more

The Limbo

Published on 2011-04-18 16:45:00

As I drove home from the gym last night, I spent the entire time brainstorming for this blog entry. I turned the radio down and just started talking to myself. Boy, did I ramble. Fifteen minutes later, I realized I had missed my exit and had to tu > read more

The Bridge

Published on 2011-04-16 17:02:00

The last thirty or so hours have been rather hectic. If you haven't already heard, online poker has been effectively shut down which means I'm in a rather tough spot. Just signed a lease, bought new furniture, paid the government way too much money > read more

The Real (Kid) Poker

Published on 2011-04-04 16:28:00

Daniel Negreanu has started playing $1.75 SNGs. No, he's not busto. It's presumably in an effort to improve his multi-tabling skills and become proficient in games with a STT structure.Here are a few recent tweets of his, in reference to SNGs.Watch > read more

The Poem

Published on 2011-03-29 06:42:00

I've got a week left in San Diego which means I should probably spend my time hanging out with friends and enjoying what the city has to offer instead of staring at my computer screen and playing online poker.Should. Probably.Of course that's assumi > read more

The Eclipse

Published on 2011-03-28 04:18:00

As of some time this week, I eclipsed the $100,000 profit mark on PokerStars. To be fair, I passed that threshold a long time ago in real life, just not according to Sharkscope.I think a lot of people would be excited by the idea of making $100,000 > read more

The Limit

Published on 2011-03-25 06:18:00

With all of the moving related tasks on my list of things to do, I didn't think I'd play much this month. Whoops. Bad read on my part.- More than 2000 SNGs- 30+ hours of live cash- A handful of online MTTs- An unknown number of hands at .25/.50 net > read more

The Circuit

Published on 2011-03-14 04:20:00

I took most of this past weekend off from the online poker world, instead opting to spend time doing the real thing at Harrah's Rincon. I've complained about the drive before, but it didn't seem nearly as long as I spent the majority of the drive da > read more

The Unstuck

Published on 2011-03-08 12:23:00

Around 10 PM last night, I decided I'd play SNGs until I was unstuck. I had dropped about $500 earlier that day and thought it'd be a fun little challenge to see if I could get myself back to even. Twelve hours later, I have my answer.No.Despite pu > read more

The Hangover

Published on 2011-03-07 01:52:00

I slept horribly last night, mostly because I drank way too much and water wasn't one of the liquids I consumed. I guess there's some water in rum, vodka, tequilla, diet coke, and red bull, but not nearly enough to keep my hydrated.When I woke up th > read more

The Cycle

Published on 2011-03-03 06:41:00

My last entry elicited quite a few interesting responses. Sorry to disappoint, but I won't be trying to find Jesus anytime soon. Nor will I be quitting STTs.One thing I promised myself when I started this blog was that I'd be completely honest. I > read more

The Similarities

Published on 2011-03-01 05:57:00

Only six blog entries in February? That's less than January's output and a far cry from the 15 or so I averaged each month in the last half of 2010.I'm not sure what it is, but I've felt burned out a bit recently. I'm not tired of playing, per se, > read more

The Cupcakes

Published on 2011-02-24 05:06:00

Haven't blogged in nearly a week because I've been in Sacramento, looking at prospective houses and hanging with friends in the area. Oh, and I did happen to spend a day in Vegas playing poker with Daniel Negreanu.I arrived at the PokerVT studios a > read more

The Wait

Published on 2011-02-16 03:24:00

Yeah, I'm not going to get much sleep tonight.In less than eleven hours, I'll be sitting at the same table with Daniel Negreanu. It seems surreal. Yeah, we're both professional poker players but, I mean, we're on such different levels in terms of f > read more

The Twitter

Published on 2011-02-13 05:44:00

Okay, I finally caved. I stayed away from twitter for quite a long time, mainly because the combination of self importance and poor grammar made me nauseous. But when PokerVT management encouraged me to open an account in an effort to 'brand' mysel > read more

The Cash Game

Published on 2011-02-11 05:40:00

This morning, I received an email from the PokerVT Project Manager. Guys,We are shooting a live game in the studio here in Las Vegas next Wednesday February 16th. It will be a 6 Max NL cash game, we are trying for a $5-10 game but it might > read more

The Discrepancy

Published on 2011-02-10 06:00:00

Been a while since I blogged and normally that means I'm in a funk. When SNGs aren't going well, I tend to shy away from anything and everything poker related, including games, forums, and blogging.But no, that's not it. At the moment, everything i > read more

The Bankroll Challenge

Published on 2011-02-03 05:44:00

Even though a normal set of mine has $600-$800 on the table, I don't consider what I do to be 'high stakes' as I'm mass-tabling low/medium stakes games. Still, the thought of playing at the micro levels makes me want to throw up a little bit.Many ex > read more

The Template

Published on 2011-01-31 05:14:00

This looks...Different.I'm still fooling around with the design, but I felt it was time for a change. When I looked at my blog this morning, I was disgusted by the previous color scheme. I'm not entirely set on this one, but it'll do for now.I made > read more

The Wand

Published on 2011-01-30 05:48:00

I managed to run equally poorly over my last 50 games of the prop bet as I did in the first half, so Matt ships 3/4 of it -- I did manage to tie him for most bubbles, something I'm not sure I should be proud of.This, however, is something I'm definit > read more

The Golden Sombrero

Published on 2011-01-28 04:38:00

I'm supposed to play another fifty games right now, but I woke up too early this morning and I've decided to call it a night. Yes, you read that right -- I said morning. Stop the presses, I actually woke up before noon.To help motivate Glitlr to ge > read more

The Selection

Published on 2011-01-26 04:59:00

Poker-wise, January and December are by far the worst months of the year. Nearly every regular seems to have a newfound enthusiasm for putting in mass volume and ultimately that means worse games, smaller edges, and lower profit margins.During this > read more

The Creativity

Published on 2011-01-25 04:56:00

For the last couple nights, I've tried to write a new blog entry but struggled with the first few sentences. I knew the actual topics I wanted to address, but coming up with an introduction was simply too cumbersome. I'm not sure what to make of th > read more

The Taco Tuesday

Published on 2011-01-20 05:17:00

Feels like I haven't blogged in forever but it's only been nine days.As of my last entry, two poker friends of mine were crashing on my couch and I'm happy to report in the past week and a half, they found a place a few miles away and moved in. To c > read more

The New Additions

Published on 2011-01-11 05:12:00

At this moment, two semi-professional poker players are asleep on my couch.The first, Tim Oxborough (TimmyOx), plays primarily SNGs/MTTs and seems to bink a big score every other week. I don't know the screenname of his friend, Ed, but he's a heads > read more

The Cable Guy

Published on 2011-01-09 02:57:00

In readying my new "poker office," I discovered that one of the outlets wasn't cable ready so a technician came over earlier today to fix the problem. While doing so, he engaged me in somewhat awkward smalltalk and I let it slip that I play poker fo > read more

The Logic

Published on 2011-01-08 07:49:00

I started 2011 by taking a week off and after today, maybe I should take another week off.I don't feel all that bad. Actually, I'm a little surprised how chipper I am, considering that if this occurred in 2010, it would be my fourth worst day of the > read more

The Bread

Published on 2011-01-04 04:32:00

Still haven't played on PokerStars in 2011, but I'm sure I'll load a set sooner or later. Because I wanted to make sure I had ample time to finish my prop bet, I pushed all of my coaching appointments back to this week. It's the first week where I > read more

The New Year

Published on 2011-01-03 05:40:00

Happy 2011.I'm a bit late to the party, but the cool kids never show up on time. I guess this is where I'm supposed to list some outlandish goals for the new year but the thought of doing that makes me roll my eyes.In all likelihood, I won't achieve > read more

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