Hey TPE, just wanted to write up a quick  note about something that's come up in the last few days that I feel needs to be addressed.  Call this a manifesto, our philosophy or just me rambling.  But I have a blog and I'm going to use it.   Basically, there's been a history of Pocketfives.com deleting references to TPE in their own free forum and banning TPE pros/founders for answering questions about TPE.  I was banned for answering questions about TPE in PM.  Questions that someone asked me.  I have never gone on there to solicit business, injure their brand or be disrespectful in anyway.  They just have a zero tolerance policy on any competitor mentions.  Say something about a competitor and they delete it, and/or ban you. That's nothing new, but in the past few days, it's [More...]

Ok, so Black Friday sucked for everyone who loves poker.  From the inconvenience of not being able to play poker in the US on a mainstream and large site, to those of us who have our money held in limbo on Full Tilt and Cereus – it's bad all around.  Obviously, I can't wait for online poker to come back to the states.  And it looks like we might have some positive momentum.  When it does, I'll be ready for even more success than I had the first time around.  Because as bad as it's been, Black Friday has helped me become a much better poker player.     I am not in a situation where I can go become a live grinder but I still needed to get my poker fix.  So I put a few bucks on the [More...]

If the Saturday 1.5k starting table was a dream, the 1k starting table was a nightmare.  Actually, my official starting table lasted about 5 hands and then I was moved to a tough table. At the official starting table I was able to turn my 3k starting to 3.8k super easily.  I flatted QJ from the sb against a raise and 4 limpers and got value on 3 streets from TP when i flopped 2 pair.  Of course we were at 25/25 so i wasn't able to stack the guy because he just called 3 times, but I was able to add a nice chunk right off the bat. Then, I got moved.  As I walk over, I recognize 4 of the faces.  One of them was Believer82, a very successful online player.  And everyone else is young and wearing [More...]

Saturday brought my first event of the series, the $1500 Event #18.   I geared up in TPE swag and headed over to the Rio with the team.  I was super excited to play because I feel like my game has grown so much in the past year since the last WSOP since I’ve been talking even more poker with the bigdog, wein and the team and learning about table dynamics and how to exploit them. I feel that while I’ve had success in the past and a lot of it was due to being aggressive against weaker players and getting my chips in for big pots that carried me deep, I needed to understand how to adapt to going to 4 and 5 bet pots because so many players are good enough to 3 bet these days that it’s [More...]

Nothing is quite as exciting in poker as gearing up for the big summer tourneys such as the WSOP and Venetian DeepStacks.  My plans for this year's summer poker series was split into two trips.  The first trip is over and I'll be recounting the events here for you.  I’ll be back in July for a few more events and will blog those as well. Not even counting any particular results, the trip was a personal success as we held the TPE workshop, I got to know the TPE guys even better (since we are usually scattered across the North American continent), and I played live poker at what I think is the most advanced level I’ve ever played it.  I felt differently about the game this time and I saw more opportunities at the tables.  I aggressively attacked them [More...]

I spend a large chunk of my day on the TPE forum and in TPE chat talking to members.  I view every single comment for every single video and article, and at this point I’d have to say one of the most popular questions that we get is:  What bankroll do you think I should have to play (insert your stakes/schedule here)? I'll take this topic on because I thought deeply about this when I was first starting to play and applied some very strict rules that I believe helped me become a winning player. That's not to say I knew what I was doing at first.  Like a lot of poker noobs I would deposit $50 and blow it on two or three tournaments, rinse, and repeat.  Then something amazing happened.  I won a $10 tournament on New Years [More...]

Finally! Wow it’s been a tough one but I finally broke through my downswing. I started downswinging in Late March while still playing high stakes. Since final tabling the FTOPS ME in May 2009, I had been playing almost all levels of MTTs profitably but I hit that dreaded downswing after I had withdrawn a decent amount. I also am not backed (prefer to play on my own) and so this was seriously damaging my BR. I had to drop down in stakes. I posted about it here. Dropping down was definitely the right choice. I posted that blog on May 20th and while I continued to downswing the impact was far less from that point. I hit my lowest point in early august but then suddenly it came together. The sickest thing about the downswing, and just to show [More...]

Well, that’s it for my run at the WSOP Main Event. I made it halfway through day 3. The highpoint of my stack the entire tournament was 62k. There’s not much to say here. I made it through this far picking up blinds and 3 bet stealing. There was very little in the way of actual hands. I did some calculating and if we played 9 hours on day 1, 8 hours on day 2 and I played 4 hours on day 3 that is 21 hours of poker – or 1260 minutes. If you estimate 2 minutes a hand I played 630 hands. I had AA once, QQ once, AK once and AQ twice. It’s just really hard to amass chips when you can’t cooler someone at some point. Such is poker and I take some pride in my [More...]

Well, I made it through Day 2. On to day 3 with 45k. Blinds will be 500/1000 100ante for the first hour and then go to 600/1200 200 ante. The average stack is around 86k so I’m not in super comfortable shape but having 45bbs in a tournament actually seems like a lot to me! I feel pretty good to be here as well because I had very few hands today. My plan was to play the first hour tight to establish an image and not put my stack at risk needlessly but I picked up hands that I had to open like 55 from the button which got calls out of the blind. I got a perfect cbet flop that got c/r by the SB so I had to fold. Then I got AQs from MP which I opened [More...]

Made it through to day 2! Was a rollercoaster of a day. I ended up with ~24k after being down to about 20k during level 2 and then as big as 60k during level 3. My table was pretty soft. A few older guys and a few burly home-game type players. Just one or two young internet types. The early going was slow. I established a pretty aggressive image and got paid off with hands. For example, during level 3 I flopped quads once and checked, led turn and river for a big pot when a K hit the turn and AK paid me. After dinner I ran into some trouble. First I lost a big pot. I ran it by Wein and he didn’t like my line. Second orbit after dinner at 150/300 25ante – I have about 50k. [More...]