First pokerpwnage video

So I recorded my first segment for pokerpwnage today. I decided to do the $26 Knockout that I won on Fulltilt a couple of months ago. I am actually surprised at some of the moves I made early on in that tourney as I think I misplayed a few hands and was playing way tighter than normal. But I also think a lot can be learned from mistakes, so hopefully people will like it. Even if they don't, I always end up gaining from doing the videos as it gives me insight into my own play, so it really is a can't lose proposition.

I am about to fire up some tourneys and am hoping to put in a pretty full day. We'll see how it goes...

Back to the grind

Well the title of this post really isn't fair. I am back to working again, but I have to say that I still really enjoy playing so it isn't a grind at all. I know quite a few poker pros who no longer enjoy playing - for them poker really has become a grind. Thankfully, it's still not like that for me. I think a big part of it is that I take lots of time off and with my wife's guaranteed income I am fortunate to be able to do that. So I'm not working 7 days a week. I'm not playing 16 hours a day. Basically I am not burning myself out.

Tonight is just another example of my refusal to force myself to play. I normally would be playing an evening session, but the Cubs/Brewers game is on and I'd rather watch that. So I am.

Anyhoo, I didn't make any money today, but I played well. Tomorrow should be a full schedule. I am looking forward to it.

Car buying

So we got it. We (more like she) chose an Audi A4. It's deep-sea blue and has a whole bunch of nice gadgets, such as navigation and bluetooth (meaning we can talk on the phone without having to punch any buttons), so it's a nice new car. Now that we have it, my wife is in the "did we pay too much for a car" phase, but once she drives it on a daily basis, I'm pretty sure she'll be happy with it.

Anyhoo, now that it's finally here, I can also get back to work, and getting back in shape, and finding someplace to volunteer.

Car shopping

My style of shopping, is much different than my wife's. However, after a second weekend of re-testdriving, looking at colors, and doing research on edmunds.com we have decided on a car we want. Now all I have to do is haggle a bit about the price today and then hopefully it will be ours w/in this week.

I feel bad that we dragged our sister-in-law to all of this, but my wife was very happy to have her help. It was nice having her here as well.

I need to finish a video that I had promised to do for grinderschool, and then I need to start my first one for pokerpwnage. I'd also like to start playing again this week.

Weekend Off

My wife is actually off for the entire weekend and her sister came up to visit for the weekend, so I am just going to chill and spend some time with the fam.

Being able to have this flexibility is one of the many reasons why I hope that I can continue to have success at playing poker professionally.

pokerpwnage

I was asked to become a guest instructor for a new poker training site called pokerpwnage.com today. The site already has quite a few of the top ranked online tournament players as instructors, including USCPhildo, GhettoFabulous, UHBigTex, and Assassinato. Since I do not play anywhere close to the volume of these top ranked players (they play about 4 times as many tourneys as I do), I am not nearly as well known as them, so I was somewhat surprised even to be asked.

Anyways, my current poker goals are: 1) to keep winning at the same rate that I have been this last year, but also 2) to get my name out in the poker community as much as possible to try and bring in some other money making opportunites such as this one. So I am excited to this, and hopefully this site will take off and people will like my videos. If so, maybe some rizenesque opportunities could come my way. We shall see...

Nice Sunday score

I got 5th in the 200k guarantee on UB for just over 10k.

I was a little disappointed not to win it since I was in first place with 6 to go, but winning 5 figures in a day is still a big deal for me.

So wheeeeeeeee!!

Poker Year in Review

After getting 9th place in a big tourney last night and going to place dejected that I didn't get a top 3 finish I realized today that I needed to take a step back and review the year.

For the year I have played 540 tourneys, cashed 87, final tabled 16 (5 firsts (all on Tilt), 1 second, and 1 third).

Considering that I really didn't play much the first three months of the year since I was studying for the bar, I am very happy with both my profit (over 30k) and ROI over 70% for the year.

I am still on target to make over 60k this year, for my roll to grow, and for good things to keep happening. The toughest part for me has been the mental aspect since I am always expecting to win it still frustrates me to run bad. I also still want to become more socially and physically active. But all in all, I really have nothing to complain about. When you add in the fact that I passed the bar and can become employed if I need to, life really is purty good.

This weekend we should be test driving some cars, once we make the final purchase I'll post pics.

Back from Vacation

I just got back from a great couple of weeks relaxing, playing, visiting family in Santa Barbara and L.A. The plan now that I'm back is to make a whole bunch of doctorish appointments (I need new glasses, dentist, etc.), buy a new car, and of course play some poker.