Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
March is Ending
With March drawing to a close, the first quarter of 2009 is as well. It seems like time flies these days. In one of my previous blogs I said that I had been holding off writing a post because poker was going so well and I didn't want to mess with a good thing. With that being the case, there's no better time to make a post than now.
March started off around even for a while as I wasn't playing much, but in the last two weeks I've been playing a ton online with good results. I'll have to check, but this is one of my highest volume months ever (in terms of hands played). It was going well until today when I had one of my worst days online. For some reason I'm pretty Zen about it and I'm trying to figure out why. I never really get too upset about a bad day or week because I realize it's part of the gig, but I always feel somewhat negative about it.
Here's the reasons that I think I'm not bothered by today in no particular order:
1)A huge loss online is equal to a moderate loss live due to the different stakes that I play. Hence, the $ value is not new to me. I'd say the $ amount, but then everyone (myself included) would be saying "man, he could have bought ____with that,"etc.
2)I've had success the past couple weeks, so I'm still +$ for the past week
3)It's at the end of the month so I'll still have a + month (barely) and I'm not digging a whole as I would have done if I had this day on Apr 1. I realize that this shouldn't be a factor, but I guess it is mentally for me.
4)I had a good day otherwise. I played basketball, talked to some good people, hung out with my roommates, saw new pictures of my new nephew who is a dog and watched some good TV shows.
5)I put the day in perspective immediately which isn't always easy to do.
This post was kind of goofy, and I have a feeling that many of the sentences are poorly structured, but I'm not going to review it because no one reads this thing anyway. Also, I think I might use parentheses more than anyone who's ever written anything ever.
Until next time, have a good day, week, month, or however long it takes me to get back on here.
-Brian
March started off around even for a while as I wasn't playing much, but in the last two weeks I've been playing a ton online with good results. I'll have to check, but this is one of my highest volume months ever (in terms of hands played). It was going well until today when I had one of my worst days online. For some reason I'm pretty Zen about it and I'm trying to figure out why. I never really get too upset about a bad day or week because I realize it's part of the gig, but I always feel somewhat negative about it.
Here's the reasons that I think I'm not bothered by today in no particular order:
1)A huge loss online is equal to a moderate loss live due to the different stakes that I play. Hence, the $ value is not new to me. I'd say the $ amount, but then everyone (myself included) would be saying "man, he could have bought ____with that,"etc.
2)I've had success the past couple weeks, so I'm still +$ for the past week
3)It's at the end of the month so I'll still have a + month (barely) and I'm not digging a whole as I would have done if I had this day on Apr 1. I realize that this shouldn't be a factor, but I guess it is mentally for me.
4)I had a good day otherwise. I played basketball, talked to some good people, hung out with my roommates, saw new pictures of my new nephew who is a dog and watched some good TV shows.
5)I put the day in perspective immediately which isn't always easy to do.
This post was kind of goofy, and I have a feeling that many of the sentences are poorly structured, but I'm not going to review it because no one reads this thing anyway. Also, I think I might use parentheses more than anyone who's ever written anything ever.
Until next time, have a good day, week, month, or however long it takes me to get back on here.
-Brian
Friday, March 13, 2009
Informative Post (obviously I didn't write it)
I came across this blog that's about the banking industry and losing jobs etc. He write a very informative and accurate description of how the online poker industry works.
http://greenshootsministry.blogspot.com/
It's the March 5th post, in case he adds a new one. I've heard that can happen with blogs.
http://greenshootsministry.blogspot.com/
It's the March 5th post, in case he adds a new one. I've heard that can happen with blogs.
Monday, February 23, 2009
New Post
Since I've already made a post about how I'm a poor blogger, I don't need to discuss the fact that I haven't posted since Nov 3. I just thought of how the title of this post will be very misleading in a few weeks, but who knows I might surprise myself and make another new post in the near future.
The poker side of my life has been going very well over the past few months. In fact, I considered making blog posts a few times about how things are going well, but decided that I didn't want to flip the doom-switch on myself, so I refrained. I've been playing at Commerce probably about 2 times per week on average, and I'm putting together quite a run. I remember the first handful of times I played at Commerce I would see people putting together 5-figure days and I wondered how that was possible, but in the last few months I've found out that in definitely is possible. I've mainly been playing 10-20 blinds no-limit hold 'em, with the rest of my time there being spent in tournament (no success) and 10-20 pot-limit Omaha. That game is crazy and fun, and I did quite well in the few times I've played it there.
Of course I'm still playing online when I have the time, which has been going quite well.
One cool new thing that I've gotten into is coaching and staking online players. Actually, I only have one player right now, but I've been in contact with several others. For the coaching part, we use a program that allows me to see his screen and skype to talk, and we play and go through thought processes and whatnot. I coached this guy for 2 weeks with us sharing his profits 50/50 for anytime he played during that time period. I quickly found out that he was a very good player and trustworthy, so we arranged a staking deal. I won't get into much detail because it's complicated if you know nothing about this, but basically he plays with my money and we split the profits 50/50. It's been going for three weeks, and on the last three Mondays he's sent me $1100, $600, and today was $1400. That's pretty sweet for basically no work.
I've been spending quite a bit of time over the last couple weeks on a business venture that was brought to me by a college friend. I'm quite excited about it, but I don't think I should spill the beans right now because it has the potential to fall through at any time. If it looks like it's going to happen, I'll be sure to write about it in here (no promises), and even if it doesn't work out, I'll still probably write about it in here. It's already been very educational for me, and it will be even more in the coming week. I've always thought this to be true, but I could have taken 7000 business courses at Chapman, and I still wouldn't be fully prepared for real-life business. There's really no substitute for experience.
Some of you may know that there's a major situation in my life right now, but I will not be blogging about it. I'll save it for personal interactions.
I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time...
The poker side of my life has been going very well over the past few months. In fact, I considered making blog posts a few times about how things are going well, but decided that I didn't want to flip the doom-switch on myself, so I refrained. I've been playing at Commerce probably about 2 times per week on average, and I'm putting together quite a run. I remember the first handful of times I played at Commerce I would see people putting together 5-figure days and I wondered how that was possible, but in the last few months I've found out that in definitely is possible. I've mainly been playing 10-20 blinds no-limit hold 'em, with the rest of my time there being spent in tournament (no success) and 10-20 pot-limit Omaha. That game is crazy and fun, and I did quite well in the few times I've played it there.
Of course I'm still playing online when I have the time, which has been going quite well.
One cool new thing that I've gotten into is coaching and staking online players. Actually, I only have one player right now, but I've been in contact with several others. For the coaching part, we use a program that allows me to see his screen and skype to talk, and we play and go through thought processes and whatnot. I coached this guy for 2 weeks with us sharing his profits 50/50 for anytime he played during that time period. I quickly found out that he was a very good player and trustworthy, so we arranged a staking deal. I won't get into much detail because it's complicated if you know nothing about this, but basically he plays with my money and we split the profits 50/50. It's been going for three weeks, and on the last three Mondays he's sent me $1100, $600, and today was $1400. That's pretty sweet for basically no work.
I've been spending quite a bit of time over the last couple weeks on a business venture that was brought to me by a college friend. I'm quite excited about it, but I don't think I should spill the beans right now because it has the potential to fall through at any time. If it looks like it's going to happen, I'll be sure to write about it in here (no promises), and even if it doesn't work out, I'll still probably write about it in here. It's already been very educational for me, and it will be even more in the coming week. I've always thought this to be true, but I could have taken 7000 business courses at Chapman, and I still wouldn't be fully prepared for real-life business. There's really no substitute for experience.
Some of you may know that there's a major situation in my life right now, but I will not be blogging about it. I'll save it for personal interactions.
I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time...
Monday, November 3, 2008
Oct
I don't really have much earth-shattering to say, but I've gotten called out a few times recently for not blogging for a while so I'll post this to keep anyone from chirping. I played in three tournaments yesterday after playing in basically none for the past few months. I got 55th of 7800 or so in the Pokerstars sunday million which paid about 200k to first. It was a good run but frustrating to bust out so close to the big money, especially since you don't get a chance to get this deep in these big tourneys very often. There were also 3 frustrating hands when there were under 100 left that crippled then eliminated me, with a double up in between. These hands for those who care were KKpreflop, AK<JJ all in preflop and the board came A87 9 10 to make him a straight the brutal way, and the last one was 1010<QQ all in preflop to knock me out, but they teased me by making me a straight on the turn only to have him make a full house on the river (QJ9 8 8). I ovbiously had a bunch of chips to be able to lose these pots and remain alive. I was still around avg. chip stack when the last one happened which added to me wanting to chuck my laptop out the window and into the street (I held back).
Last week I played in a tournament (I know I said I haven't been playing tournaments, but these are the only kind I've been playing and only a few of them) that got the winner a seat into a 10k buy in tournament in the Bahamas in Jan along with a flight, spending money, and 7-10 days at the Atlantis hotel which is amazing. I got heads up with a very known, successful player with about a 2-1 chip disadvantage. I battled to even, back to behind, then when he had 120k and I had 80k I got it all in with 88 vs A4 and he of course won which sucked.
I played at Commerce 4 times in Oct and about the same about in Sept with pretty good results minus one awful day that was semi-hard to swallow for a couple days. During that bad session I played with James Woods (on TV show "shark" and used to be in movies like Casino and others) and Jack Haley (played 10ish years in the NBA in the 80s I think) and to keep it tame in case they somehow ever see this: My initial impression of both of them after only sitting with them for a few (4-6) hours each was not extremely favorable. Of course I'm discussing character, not poker skills which, since I mentioned it, both of them had about 4% of they thought they had in that department.
I've been playing online cash a good amount as well and doing pretty standardly (new word) well. In other news I've been playing NHL 09 for PS3 against my roommates and shootout mode online which is pretty fun. I haven't played hardly any video games since soph. year in college when I dominated NCAA football 03 on the regular. As nerdy as it is, I have to admit that this game is really fun and I'd say I've averaged 1-2 hours on it over the past few weeks. I've also been playing a lot of basketball which is currently preventing me from typing with my right middle finger because I jammed it pretty bad today.
Last week/weekend I was in La Jolla (San Diego) for five days which was amazing. I am also going to NYC on Nov 11 with two of my friends to stay with another one of our friends who lives in Manhattan. After eight days there, one of them and I are heading to Nashville for five days. I'm really excited for this trip since I've never been to NYC, and I've only been to Nashville for one day and I loves it.
If you have anything that you really enjoyed in NYC, whether it's well know or not, restaurant, bar, whatever, please let my know because we have eight days there and want to make the most of them. We're going to a NY Rangers and NY Giants game so far. You can leave a comment on here and I'll let you know if I liked it too.
Til next time...
Last week I played in a tournament (I know I said I haven't been playing tournaments, but these are the only kind I've been playing and only a few of them) that got the winner a seat into a 10k buy in tournament in the Bahamas in Jan along with a flight, spending money, and 7-10 days at the Atlantis hotel which is amazing. I got heads up with a very known, successful player with about a 2-1 chip disadvantage. I battled to even, back to behind, then when he had 120k and I had 80k I got it all in with 88 vs A4 and he of course won which sucked.
I played at Commerce 4 times in Oct and about the same about in Sept with pretty good results minus one awful day that was semi-hard to swallow for a couple days. During that bad session I played with James Woods (on TV show "shark" and used to be in movies like Casino and others) and Jack Haley (played 10ish years in the NBA in the 80s I think) and to keep it tame in case they somehow ever see this: My initial impression of both of them after only sitting with them for a few (4-6) hours each was not extremely favorable. Of course I'm discussing character, not poker skills which, since I mentioned it, both of them had about 4% of they thought they had in that department.
I've been playing online cash a good amount as well and doing pretty standardly (new word) well. In other news I've been playing NHL 09 for PS3 against my roommates and shootout mode online which is pretty fun. I haven't played hardly any video games since soph. year in college when I dominated NCAA football 03 on the regular. As nerdy as it is, I have to admit that this game is really fun and I'd say I've averaged 1-2 hours on it over the past few weeks. I've also been playing a lot of basketball which is currently preventing me from typing with my right middle finger because I jammed it pretty bad today.
Last week/weekend I was in La Jolla (San Diego) for five days which was amazing. I am also going to NYC on Nov 11 with two of my friends to stay with another one of our friends who lives in Manhattan. After eight days there, one of them and I are heading to Nashville for five days. I'm really excited for this trip since I've never been to NYC, and I've only been to Nashville for one day and I loves it.
If you have anything that you really enjoyed in NYC, whether it's well know or not, restaurant, bar, whatever, please let my know because we have eight days there and want to make the most of them. We're going to a NY Rangers and NY Giants game so far. You can leave a comment on here and I'll let you know if I liked it too.
Til next time...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Me+WSOP+ESPN=????
I am anxious to see what ESPN chooses to put on their coverage of the world series of poker tomorrow (tues). I was called and told that I would be on the episode tomorrow at 8 or 9 pm eastern time. They actually told me which one, but I can't remember for sure. After they play whatever hand(s) they choose to that I was involved in, I'll comment on what actually happened or how I feel about what they had to say. ESPN loves one guy that I busted out of the tourney so I won't be shocked if the guy makes me the villain. We shall see...
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Poker and other random stuff
After the world series I didn't play much poker at all in July partially because I some things to do in different places, and partially because I wanted to take a little break. I thought to myself that maybe I had gotten a bit burned out for the first time, but then I realized that it's pretty natural to not be as enthused to play after playing in the WSOP. Analogy: After the Rockies finish playing in the World Series (of baseball), they probably wouldn't play as well a week later in an exhibition game. It doesn't mean that they don't love playing baseball, they just don't need to get their work in the week after playing at the pinnacle of their profession. (I'm glad I could get that Rockies analogy in because I probably won't be able to use it after this season.) Anyways, I also knew I'd be running around the country for a couple of weddings and to go back to Denver for a while. My brother got married in Cincinnati and one of my best friends got married in the twin cities area. They were both unbelievably amazing weddings as everything went perfectly in both and all guests, family, and brides/grooms had great weekends. I was the best man at my bro's, so I gave a toast at the reception which I thought I wasn't nervous for until I couldn't eat the meal they brought out because my stomach was full of butterflies.
Between the weddings I went to Denver for a couple weeks and played golf a ton and just relaxed. I played in the member/guest golf tournament at my dad's golf club and obviously won it out of 72 teams. It was really fun to win it with him for a lot of reasons with the most prevalent being that he LOVED watching me compete in anything, especially baseball, but I had never really competed on the same team as him.
I guess I also moved after my bro's wedding and before I went to Denver. I really like my new place compared to the old place, and I like the location better too. Since getting back here about two weeks ago I've really been in "health mode." This pretty much just means getting good stuff from whole foods and eating a lot of healthy food and smaller portions when at home. I've also been working out almost everyday including doing cardio everyday which I've never done before. Needless to say, this is a good thing to be doing, especially after a summer full of eating, drinking, traveling and thing of that nature that probably weren't the healthiest. I've also been playing poker a lot.
It really took me a long time in this post to start talking about poker which is kind of unusual for a blog about poker, but I'm not a good blogger (we went over that a couple posts ago) so I'll give myself a pass. I've only been to Commerce once in the past couple weeks, but I've really been getting after it online with quite a bit of success. Two sundays ago I decided to play tournaments for the first time since the big score in the Full Tilt tournament. I played about 8, and cashed two while winning one of them. I actually didn't win the whole thing, I chopped it with the guy when we got heads-up because I had played with him before and knew he was a good player. I was pretty proud of doing so well in this tourney because it was a heads-up tourney where you play one guy heads-up and then the winner goes on to play someone else. It's kind of like the NCAA basketball tournament except we were playing poker instead of basketball and it wasn't run by the NCAA. there were like 350 players, so I had to win 8 matches to get to the final match where we chopped. The reason I was proud of this one is that the field was stacked with top online pros and guys that usually play huge buy-in heads up cash games. I've been playing a lot of heads-up cash games and this pretty much verified that it's getting pretty good. First and second place were like 10k and 18k, so we chopped it for 14k. Other than that, cash games have been going well too and I've had two of my biggest online cash game days ever in the past couple of weeks, and also one of the worst. I don't really have any plans for tournaments or anything in the near future, but I'll probably try to get to Commerce more often to play live.
One thing I almost forgot that I might make another post about in a week or so, but don't hold your breath. Someone with the film production company that produces the world series of poker called me and asked me some questions and told me that I will be on the show on Sept 16 at 9pm eastern time. It should just be for one or two hands, but still the most TV time I've ever gotten.
Between the weddings I went to Denver for a couple weeks and played golf a ton and just relaxed. I played in the member/guest golf tournament at my dad's golf club and obviously won it out of 72 teams. It was really fun to win it with him for a lot of reasons with the most prevalent being that he LOVED watching me compete in anything, especially baseball, but I had never really competed on the same team as him.
I guess I also moved after my bro's wedding and before I went to Denver. I really like my new place compared to the old place, and I like the location better too. Since getting back here about two weeks ago I've really been in "health mode." This pretty much just means getting good stuff from whole foods and eating a lot of healthy food and smaller portions when at home. I've also been working out almost everyday including doing cardio everyday which I've never done before. Needless to say, this is a good thing to be doing, especially after a summer full of eating, drinking, traveling and thing of that nature that probably weren't the healthiest. I've also been playing poker a lot.
It really took me a long time in this post to start talking about poker which is kind of unusual for a blog about poker, but I'm not a good blogger (we went over that a couple posts ago) so I'll give myself a pass. I've only been to Commerce once in the past couple weeks, but I've really been getting after it online with quite a bit of success. Two sundays ago I decided to play tournaments for the first time since the big score in the Full Tilt tournament. I played about 8, and cashed two while winning one of them. I actually didn't win the whole thing, I chopped it with the guy when we got heads-up because I had played with him before and knew he was a good player. I was pretty proud of doing so well in this tourney because it was a heads-up tourney where you play one guy heads-up and then the winner goes on to play someone else. It's kind of like the NCAA basketball tournament except we were playing poker instead of basketball and it wasn't run by the NCAA. there were like 350 players, so I had to win 8 matches to get to the final match where we chopped. The reason I was proud of this one is that the field was stacked with top online pros and guys that usually play huge buy-in heads up cash games. I've been playing a lot of heads-up cash games and this pretty much verified that it's getting pretty good. First and second place were like 10k and 18k, so we chopped it for 14k. Other than that, cash games have been going well too and I've had two of my biggest online cash game days ever in the past couple of weeks, and also one of the worst. I don't really have any plans for tournaments or anything in the near future, but I'll probably try to get to Commerce more often to play live.
One thing I almost forgot that I might make another post about in a week or so, but don't hold your breath. Someone with the film production company that produces the world series of poker called me and asked me some questions and told me that I will be on the show on Sept 16 at 9pm eastern time. It should just be for one or two hands, but still the most TV time I've ever gotten.
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