I have and continue to play the highest stakes available.  I've played the WSOP Main Event four years in a row, and online I've played every 100r and and 1k you can think of.  While I've had amazing success, the variance in games that big can be brutal.  Also, playing against the best players in the world can be really tough and demoralizing to your game.  Due to this, I've moved down in stakes often. Sure, bankroll is a part of these decisions.  There have been various points in my poker career where I've gone on 100k downswings, and playing smaller stakes minimizes the risk.  However, I think moving down in stakes has more to do with renewing your confidence than anything else. I played the 10k WSOPC High rollers event in December of 2010.  I played at a table [More...]

Adios Las Vegas. Tournament poker is a brutal game.  Live tournament poker - can really break spirits.  I came to the WSOP this year feeling amazing.  In 2009 and 2010 I went cashless, and played less than ten events totals due to mostly personal issues coming up.  In 2011, with an engagement on the way, I figured there was nothing between me and a successful World Series.  I've never felt better.  Unfortunately, i have again gone cashless.  I played six events in the span of two weeks – the $2500NL, the $2500 mixed, two $1500NL, and two $1000NLs.  Live tournament poker is really slow.  The WSOP events are an hour long, and you maybe see 25 hands in an hour.  In all NLHE events, you start with 3x the buyin for starting chips.  That doesn't leave a lot of room for deep [More...]

I got into Vegas a week ago today.  Having a house has been very helpful in terms of keeping myself mentally stable.  After busting an event, I'm able to go home and detach from poker, whereas in years past I've lived and breathed poker every moment since my plane touched down. I spent Wednesday and Thursday organizing the TPE seminar, and then ran a very successful TPE bootcamp on Friday.  I really was unsure how it would turn out – but within five minutes of cougars4444's theory on stack sizes, I knew we had a winner.  I really appreciate everyone who came out, and hopefully this will be the first of many. I played my first tournament on Saturday.  I got up to around 16k in chips at 200/400 in the 1500NL, but I lost a crucial flip where I [More...]

I want to comment on everyone's questions about what to do now that the main online poker sites have been seized by the government.  "Should we take our money off?"  "When will we be able to play again?"  "What are you going to do as a professional?" "Will we ever be able to play on Pokerstars again?"  All these questions are good ones, but I have no idea what the right answers are.  I can only speculate, but I want to be very informed on the situation before I ever give advice. I'd like to take this space to just discuss how this has affected me personally, and just hope it's relatable.  At 21 year olds, I decided to give poker a whirl instead of pursuing a professional job.  I finished school as quickly as I could, never traveling anywhere.  [More...]

Sorry for not updating in quite a while – I really have no excuse except that talkiing about myself is not something I like to do.  I started part one of my poker story, and I promise part two will eventually be written.   As for life over the past few months – Last year I made a post about trying to get my weight down.  I've successfully hit my goal of 215 a few weeks ago, and am actually at 211 pounds right now.  It took me exactly a year to go from 250 to what I am at now, and it has been a struggle.  Learning to eat right has been very difficult – and I learn new things NOT to eat every day.  My cholesterol is unfortunately still a bit high – but is a lot better than what [More...]

Most people don't think about it, but there comes a point where you've finally made it.  You have the money, respect of most of your peers, and you seem to be making good decisions when you play.  However, this is one of the most important points of your poker career.  DO NOT BECOME CONTENT. It's really hard going from playing a pot at a final table of a major tournament, where you are consistently betting hundreds of thousands pre-flop and winning million chip pots.  After that rush, it's hard to stay excited when you're winning 60 chips at a time.  I often find that after a big win, I make quite a few mistakes because I am simply happy with my recent score. Don't fall into this trap.  Here are some simple ideas that will keep you crushing the game [More...]

I’ve been asked several times how I’ve got started in poker. I figure this would be a great way to just get it all out there. As a four year old, I remember playing 5-card draw in my garage, with plastic chips that were held in a wooden case that rotated. I could barely count, nevertheless know the difference between a straight and a flush. I played with kids four and five years older than me, but I remember check-raising on the river with what I thought was a straight and getting a kid to lay down two pair, and then I proudly showed my hand. Everyone went crazy because of the bluff I had just pulled. I of course, had no idea what I was doing, but it is my first memory of poker. I spent most of my [More...]

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. I’ve been busy moving into my apartment for the last few months. I had no furniture when I moved in, but after adding some paintings and couches, it’s really starting to feel like home. I haven’t played too much. I did have moderate success on Sundays, winning the 50 super turbo on FTP last month, as well as getting 2nd in the 30 rebuy. However, I did brick WCOOP and I’m still experiencing a downswing that is approaching 100k. I really need to put in more volume to turn this around, and I plan on doing so in the upcoming months. My personal life on the other hand, is going fantastic. Met a girl a few days after moving down here and am smitten like a kitten. I’m usually pretty quick in finding [More...]

I’m sitting at my computer on a random weeknight, grinding away in a $5 tournament. Down the hall, the rhythmic back-and-forth of a ping-pong ball is heard, while others are clapping and whooing about whatever American Idol season is on. If I go down the other part of the hallway, I can hear laughter as people are being named “beer bitch,” “asshole,” “president” and “vice president.” I’m right in the middle of the recreation room and a game of King’s Cup that has broken out in a dorm. A typical night in college, I guess. Yet here I am, sitting in my dorm room, about to win my first tournament in the very beginning of 2005. I’ve just won a three-way all-in with JJ and nine players left, transforming my 10BB into a middle-of-the-pack stack that I will eventually propel to [More...]

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. 55 dollar where first is $15k. can’t be that. Feeling confident for the rest of FTOPS now. Let’s go!