So for most people that know me well enough to care, I've recently moved to Las Vegas to pursue playing poker professionally. I wanted to start a blog to follow my progress and what is going on. Let me first say that I made this decision with a lot of thought and stress throughout this whole summer. I had a great job offer at a company in Cleveland where I interned in the summer, but following several tournament successes, I felt I had to go for it before I got tied up with a company. I didn't think it would be fair to do this after working for someone for 3 years with the dream and thought of doing this in the back of my mind the entire time. I've always been successful at things in my life, and I expect this to be no exception. I've already made a good amount of money, but I want to be successful and challenge myself to become better all the time. I know many people will think I'm crazy for doing this, and I really am crazy for doing it, but as I learned at Miami University high risk/high reward. This is no exception. I've been working hard at my game and playing often without many great results lately, but sometimes that is what has to be endured in order to succeed in the long run. If I keep playing how I'm playing with a few tweaks here and there in places that I know I've made mistakes, I know big things will happen. (It will be tough to top my May/June this year in any month, but it is possible)
I don't want this blog to just be about my progress in poker and what is going on because running through hands all the time and different situations is sometimes tedious and boring. I want it to be more than that because I feel I have a lot to offer with my opinions on whatever topic.
So first off, how about those Cleveland Browns this year. One of the biggest things I miss being away from Cleveland is all the hype around the sports. It has been a good year for Cleveland Sports, but not a great year. A great year requires a championship. Cavs 2nd, Indians 2nd, Browns ??, I have to be realistic and say that I believe this team is a playoff team and their offense is loaded with weapons that can compete with any team in the league. The team has rebuilt the correct way. The defense and even the play of QB Derek Anderson sometimes has me worried. I still think he is shaky in some areas of his play. While he has had time to throw, often he has not been as accurate as possible, but I can't give him too much crap because he is getting the job done. I'm looking forward to watching the game against Arizona and I had to put a small bet on the Browns at the Bellagio even though I rarely bet sports.
The next couple of weeks will be a few events at the Bellagio in which I have already played two events with no results. I did satellite into one of them though which was a good money saver in the end. I've never play a sit n go satellite where I ran as good as this one, but the tournament was a little different. I got all the money in with two other players in Level 3 with AK vs AQ vs AJ. I lost to both hands. The second tournament, I fought hard and played well despite an early handicap. A dealer miscounted a side pot to me and screwed me out of nearly half of my stack. It was too late to call the floor by the time I realized and could comprehend the mistake.
Basically what happened was I had 3 6 off on the BB early on. 7 players were in the pot for 50 and I had around 3700 chips. (starting stack was 4000) I flopped the nuts with 4h 5h 2c although the flush draw scared me. I led out for 300 into the 350 pot. One shortstack called the 300 and another guy shoved his entire stack in the middle. I beat him into the pot Phil Hellmuth style grabbing my stack of yellow equal to 3000 plus a few more black chips of 100 each. I go into detail here because the short stack went all in behind for 1175. The short stack had a heart draw and the big stack had 55. I dodged the 55 from pairing the board, but the heart draw hit. So 1175 out of each of our stacks moves me down to 2525 or around there, but I should double through the other player and receive around 5k. The dealer shipped me around 2700. I fought back to around 8k when I got all the money in a monster draw with 18 outs twice and missed. I am behind in the hand, but a statistical favorite. I felt that I played well and I feel real in control of my tournament play right now.
Finally, in my downtime I have watched both the Republican and Democratic YouTube debates. I found them pretty boring and candidates to mostly be repeating the same old. On the Republican side, I'm pretty much in agreement with Ron Paul. Our federal government is doing too much and has become too powerful. Even the traditionally limited federal government platform that Republicans have had is obsolete. I also can't deal with the overt religious talk that nearly every one of these candidates have. Religion has no bearing on who I will ever vote for to run the country. Religion needs to really stay out of politics. On those debates though I was impressed with Mike Huckabee aside from Ron Paul. Guliani and Romney really scare me although I do believe an impressive business resume like Romney's is perfect to lead to a country.
On the Democratic side, there is really only one viable candidate for me. Barack Obama should win this nomination hands down. He brings a fresh spirit to politics and even though I don't agree with him (or any Democrat) on all the issues, sometimes we just need someone that is different to change the country. I think our country has been lacking unity since George W. Bush divided us with the Iraq War decision. After 9/11, nearly this whole world was united with nations throwing their support into our arms, but the Iraq War divided the world and our country. I was never for this war in any way because I knew it diverted our government from the mission against finding those responsible for 9/11. Now, we are in an absolute mess with men and women all around my age dying every day. It is quite depressing and outlandish to me that we did not send a message at the last presidential election that this decision was a bad one. Instead, people bombed Kerry for being weak blah blah blah when really all a second term election should be is a referendum on the current President. I was actually impressed with Hillary in a lot of ways, but I fear that she will be a divider much like George W. has been. I also don't believe that members of the same family should ever serve as President. Let's be honest Bush II and John Quincy Adams pale in comparison to their weak predecessors.
I'm still adjusting to life in Las Vegas and don't know many people, so if anybody comes out here to visit make sure to give me a call. I can't promise anything as I am serious about succeeding in poker here, but I can always try to find some free time as I am my own boss.
