First Eurotrip a Success

I arrived in my temporary new home in London with a bang finishing a strong 6th place in the EPT London main event. It was a great run and I spent 4 days getting my chips in good and holding and winning crucial 50/50 races. Almost every big race was JJ vs AQ coincidentally. The tough decisions came mostly on the second to last day as I was attempting to accumulate chips for the final table but was stuck in the card dead, flop dead portion and forcing things a little too much. After spending a lot of time folding, I won a miracle KK vs AA with a beautiful King of clubs on the river. It seemed like I was finally due for a title. The final table hardly went my way. 22 and A6 top out the high end of my range of hands and I whimpered out in 6th place after reraising A6 all from the small blind and having the big blind wake up with AQ. It was cool getting deep. I felt like I belonged there and I know I'll be back at some other stage. I remember calling somewhere that I was going to go 2/2 at EPT final tables when I came back. My main goal in poker is to win a big live tournament at this point.

I tried to carry that momentum to the WSOP Europe in Cannes. Cannes is gorgeous by the way and the weather hasn't failed to disappoint. I just busted my last of 5 tournaments here. Lost a giant pot 4h 7h vs 5d 3d on a 9h 6h 4s flop in the first tournament. In the second tournament, the 1k, I fought for a while from my 3k chip stack and then could not find a spot to get my chips in the middle after almost 5 levels (hours) of play. The third tournament was basically my main event, a 5k Pot Limit Omaha tournament. After doubling up early, things did not go my way and I was put to the test on a Th 9s 6s 9h board by a check raise all in. I eventually made the call with only a 78A5 no suits that mattered and was up against a KQJ5ss. The J sealed my fate, but I liked my decision at the point. I made it down to the final 3 in the shootout, but was short the entire tournament it seemed. I made one of my worst calls of the five days in that tournament early but fought back. The key hand for me was when my JJ finally had a chance to double against AQ, but the 98675 board saw a split pot and ultimately, an AT vs 77 race later, I was gone. The final PLO event was no different. I had a tough time getting anything going and made a bad pay off to a player who made quads, but could never seem to win an all in or racing situation when it would have got me going. 0 for 5 in Cannes, but I'm fairly pleased with how I played. I feel more and more comfortable live and especially playing in Europe.

As for my schedule from here on out, get back online soon from London and I'm certainly going to Prague in December for two events, one being the final EPT event of the calendar year. I'm looking to close out my best year as a professional with a BELT.

The Law of Unintended Consequences as it Applies to the Full Tilt Poker Situation

As many people now know, Full Tilt was crediting player deposits without actually receiving funds. Many poker players knew this fact as every single person in online poker had at least one friend wondering why money wasn't drawn from their bank account by Full Tilt Poker yet they were still allowed to play. The new action today is summarized by The Feld on ESPN. What I want outsiders to understand before they just see the words Ponzi scheme and immediately move on is that this is just an unintended consequence of our corrupt/broken political system and one of it's laws, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

The UIGEA was passed in 2006 and was NOT DEBATED IN CONGRESS FOR ONE SECOND. It sent banks into a defensive mode where they would no longer consider transactions for online poker. Online poker wasn't specifically identified as illegal, but lumped into gambling, a category banks feared to process. This consequence removed liquidity in the online poker world. Poker players need access to their bankrolls to be made available online to play through the swings and now players were forced to get find another way. Some traded cash for online money in unfavorable circumstances or went through some other 3rd party processor that was or wasn't legit(how could you know) in order to keep playing. How to deposit online became a much bigger issue. Several sites left the US and few remained. Given fewer options of sites to play on for US players a few things happened. Serious players had an increased need to have more money sitting in an online account because of the inability to deposit. Poker has swings and you need money to earn in case you have none. Fewer sites and now an increased need for money to be kept into these accounts likely created a windfall amount of cash to be kept on sites like Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars.

We may never know is how many excess dollars were held in the Full Tilt Poker system by players that feared the illiquidity, but it did happen because of the UIGEA. Did these excess funds in the system contribute to the wild bonuses/dividends/ownership payouts that we are now hearing about or an inflated value of the company? We may never know, but I like to think I kept 500% more money in my account than I would have ever kept if this law didn't remove the ability to deposit what I needed to play for that day. Why would anyone ever take 0% interest in an online poker account instead of using a pay as you go system? We all took our own individual risk in this scenario to earn money or play for fun or whatever your motive, but it would not have been there with proper regulation or even in absence of the UIGEA.

So now a law attached to a Port Security bill probably meant to get some corrupt politician re-elected has in some way contributed to this Ponzi scheme. I can call for more regulation of online poker in the United States, but it's far too late. Instead of doing their job, Washington was more concerned with getting elected and passing bad policy to do so. 5 years of tax revenue and regulation would have gone a long way to preventing the pain many poker players are now feeling.

Post World Series & Some Words About Trading/Poker

Four Horseshoe Hammond poker sessions since my return to Chicago and my 1 winner out of 4 was for less than you can pay in tolls to get there. I got beat up in HORSE, PLO and Hold 'em on separate occasions. Live poker is slower and more boring and losing certainly doesn't change as quickly as it can online into winning over the short and long term. Truly, I miss playing tournaments and having the shot to throw up the belt every day whether it's something small online for a few thousand or a Sunday major or a WSOP 6 max tournament. Competition fills my blood, so I've been channeling that energy into trading lately, which is more rigged than any human should care to think about, but I have managed turbulent times in markets fairly well lately and can't complain.

Similarities in the lessons around the games of trading/investing are much more than just risking money. Bet sizing, bankroll management, mental flexibility, discipline and patience are all required to be successful in the brutal games being played in your respective financial markets. Knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em as Kenny Rogers would sing applies to trading as much as it does to a single hand. Decisions are constantly changing by many inputs and outputs. Buy here and sell here. What price do you want to get? How can you maximize value in any one situation by using both volatility and price? It's tough to explain, but I feel more and more comfortable finding situations and understanding what's going on. The true test though will always be protecting money and growing it in the lowest risk way for the maximum return. It doesn't mean you can't push a lot of your chips in the middle with a strong hand, but it does mean that you are prudent in times of market correction and when your trades just simply aren't working.

I may be adding more business and investing/trading things into this blog mainly because it's been keeping my mind sharp during the lull in poker. There is a ton to learn on the subject and if I could say the most important things I've learned so far about it they would be:

1. No one cares about your money more than you. No advisor, tweeter, blogger, person on CNBC, or even your parents can you tell you what you want to get out of investing/trading and what your actions are going to be when you lose money or win money. Winning money in poker or trading can easily go to your head. The money needs to be bound by a purpose, goal, and risk management.

2. Pigs get slaughtered. It only takes a few bloodbaths to learn this. Gains aren't gains until they are booked. Getting too greedy is one of the worst things you can do.

3. Much like in poker. When you bet, ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN. You must have a method because actions of the game will change and not always go according to your plan.

4. Nothing comes easy. Everything takes work. Poker/Investing/Trading/ LIFE!!!

5. Don't listen to anything I say. Mistakes are how I've learned my most important lessons in both poker and trading, but I'm not advising you. In fact, not once unless you are my close friend have you even talked or heard my theory behind investing/trading.

There are tons of resources on the internet and the two things I use most are Stocktwits and Finviz.com. Stocktwits is a great idea generation site as their founder always says, but don't get caught up in the panic or try to trade based on some random tweeter's ideas. Finviz has tons of good research tools/charts/etc.

On Saturday, The Horseshoe Hammond is holding a $1500 tournament and it will be a nice going away present when I win it. The next few months will be hectic as I'll be traveling for poker/moving/getting back online (fingers crossed). London is my next destination for EPT London, and I will be in Europe (hint,hint) a lot in the next few years. I'm excited to get back to Europe. I am 1/1 at making final tables in that continent.

The 27th day.

I warn readers that I've played 26 days of poker straight, and I'll be playing my 21st event today. My mind is in a weird place, but relentless positivity and thoughts of being a champion still pervade. I have been battling a cough for the last three days or so, but if Dirk Nowitzki can play like a sick champion while spanking Lebron James in the NBA Finals, then a little bug isn't going to affect me. It's pretty easy to catch something in that giant Rio petri dish passing around chips that each person has coughed all over.

I arrived about an hour late to the $1k NL Hold 'em today. After losing a key pot early QQ vs AK and KJ, I rallied from just 1400 chips (starting 3k) all the way up to 11k. The key hand of the day came as I held AQ out of the small blind with blinds at 100/200 25 ante. An aggressive player raises the cutoff position and I call out of the small blind. Flop comes A95 two of the same suit. I decide to check raise his 800 bet to 1900. He calls. Turn card is a 4 second suit of spades. Two flush draws are now out. He was the type of player that was literally raising any two cards at this point. I decided to ship in 9075 into the 5200 pot b/c I sort of put him on a draw or a weaker ace and really thought he might call me off. I wanted to push this for value and protect my hand. I thought he'd be more likely to call a shove then two bets in a row. I was pretty confident I had the best hand. If I bet into a better hand then fine, but I just didn't care about controlling the pot. When I pushed my 9075 in I still had a 25 chip on my cards. The dealer incorrectly announced that I was all in and I pointed to my chip a few times but didn't want to say much as the player hadn't acted yet. The player thinks for a while and calls immediately flipping his A4 over for two pair. The dealer says "ok we are all in flip them over." Then they call the floor because I point out that I'm not all in. First floor guy somehow rules it's an assumed all in and I say there is no way I'm going to put that chip in the pot when there is one card to come and I know his hand. Now typically they penalize someone for exposing a hand before the action is over, but I'm glad to see the 2nd floor man decided not to penalize my opponent and ruled I didn't have to bet that chip. The bad news is the river was a 6 and I check folded my cards face down. I'm really fine with the play. My 25 chips and my 28 of diamonds failed to beat AK on the next hand.

The 5k NL Hold 'em event concluded for me on Saturday with a teasing day 3 11th place finish. It was the 3rd biggest event so far this series in terms of prize pool out of the first 40 events. My day 3 began with me pushing A8 of diamonds at 5k/10k blinds 1k ante into the short stack big blind and losing 85k from my 866k. I then immediately raised KK and everyone folded and that about sums up the day. I made a bluff that eventual champion Matt Jarvis made a nice call with J9 on a K Jd Td 9d 2s board. I missed my straight flush draw with A7d and almost moved all in there. Who knows if he calls? The deck put me in a few less than lukewarm situations as well. My AA had the board run out Kh4h4sThJh. I bet on the flop and the turn because I felt like he could still be drawing with a KQ, KJ hand or even have something like nines with a heart. I folded to his river bet. I believe I was right on both decisions, but I'll never know for sure. After the bluff, I won a KQ vs AT all in by hitting a K on the last card. Shortly after, I 3 bet Jarvis again with TT only to see him call in position and flop come out AJ4. After my bet on the flop, the K on the turn made me just give up with my 19 bb stack. He could have been bluffing, I think he probably had me beat at that point. If he didn't, then he just owned my soul. I then moved all in over a raise 5 handed with AQ and the small blind called with 99. The 9 on the flop sealed my fate. It didn't occur to me until later that I shook everyone's hand because I was kind of in a daze at the time. 3 days of poker and all the excitement of achieving my one goal this summer was on hold. Props to my opponents as they deserved to be there getting through that tough field.

Overall, I'm happy with that tournament, I'll learn from it and move on. I made a couple bad plays in the event, but also made some good ones and rallying from just 16,000 chips with blinds at 800/1600 all the way to 11th makes it hard to complain about luck. It was probably the best competition in a tournament I've played to date. Some extremely talented tables played throughout that tournament. At the same time, it's extremely painful to be so close to a huge score and a bracelet again and come up short. The swings in emotions are just mind boggling. I slept extremely well the night before day 3 despite it being the biggest tournament I would ever win if I beat the 20 remaining players. I feel much more mature as a poker player in terms of how I manage my emotions. At the end of the day, it's just a game and you have to have confidence in your ability and reads and play great poker.

I've been having a lot of fun this summer and wouldn't want to be any place in the world but in the biggest poker tournaments in the world. I do miss my girlfriend and family/friends. 27 straight days of poker probably isn't helping my relations to any other human, but I get to take a break and head to Cleveland for July 1-5 where I'll see a lot of great people in my life. I'm super excited for that. Then I'll return for maybe one more event and the Main Event. I'm feeling ready for that after immersing myself in poker this month.

It's 2:21am and somehow I haven't gone to bed yet, but I'll decide how I feel tomorrow and play either the 10k six max NL Hold 'em tournament or the 2500 Omaha Hi/Lo and Stud Hi/Lo 8 or better Limit tournament.

Five Simple Reasons to Regulate Online Poker

#1 To protect players. The government in collaboration w/ players needs to make sure people's money/financial info is safe.

#2 To create business in the United States. New businesses are good. Competition helps players. Jobs are created.

#3 Tax Revenue in US. Needs to be fair to players and cover costs of an efficient regulatory body.

#4 Poker is different from gambling. Gambling is a part of the game as is sometimes the case in strategy games. Poker is a game of skill and needs to be treated different in public policy.

#5 Poker is played by millions... MILLIONS of Americans...Prohibition and resources wasted towards stopping this activity are counterproductive to business and government.

I probably have 10 more good reasons.

Time for Reflection

Post online poker in the US has let me reflect. Let me make the first statement more accurate. The post US online poker world where US players could actually compete in a large enough player pool to matter and create enough value to make it worth it has disappeared. Online poker still goes on in the USA if someone wants to go through the avenues to play. Prohibition never works.

As for my reflection, there has always been a battle in my mind and spirit about what poker has meant to me. Sometimes I think about it more, on long plane and car rides, sometimes I think about it less. I've been consumed by the game at many points in the past 4 years to the point of playing 14-20 day series nearly every day and regularly playing 12-16 hours on a Sunday. That doesn't leave much time to reflect on the big picture. To be away now for almost 3 weeks without a chance to compete is tough. I can say without a doubt that I loved what I was doing. Online poker is a training grounds. It's the best value place to hone skills in many games. I believe the only way to be great is to practice. Online poker lets someone like me who deposited under $1k of my own money initially to work my way up. Along the way, I made enough that I could focus on it full time. Less than 2 months off my largest cash win (not online), my training grounds are gone. The repetition that online poker gives me is no more. I now must travel away from the comfort of my home, live in and around casinos, risk more of my money for less value, and most importantly, put a shirt on to go to work.

Practice is essential for the World Series of Poker coming up from June 1-July 20. Of the over 50 events, there are many different games and buy in levels not just the most popular No Limit Hold 'em. You can't play these games regularly aside from a few venues and very rarely in a tournament of a size that matters. This hurts US players against our competition from non-US players that continue to improve at this very moment through experience.

At this point, most online player's careers earning a living doing something they loved online. While nothing changes the fact that online poker probably won't be available to us, we are all still going to Vegas to play in the most meaningful events for poker players. Events that allow us to win a coveted World Series of Poker bracelet. A brand that was built from the inside out of America that should be the biggest brand in poker now pales in comparison to other international poker growth because of a law that was not once discussed by our "representatives." Many players win their way into the main event for $1-$1000 online and can compete for upwards of $7 million. That is now impossible for the majority of US players and will hurt attendance.

After the World Series of Poker, some of us will win and some of us will lose. We will all have to make a decision. At that point, I will have to decide if I want to leave the country to be able to play online and evaluate what that means I'm giving up in the US. These are not light life decisions and require the maturity of years to probably make correctly. Since I already know that the government doesn't believe we are mature enough to handle our own money against other players in an online poker game, I'm sure they will offer us assistance in making our decision.

I've read other blogs where most players talk about a gaping 5 year hole in their resume, but I see this as hopeless talk. I'll list below a few of the things I've learned.

I've learned to able to ignore money to make a profitable mathematical decision.
I've learned to control unwanted negative emotions.
I've learned to manage money.
I've learned to understand and respect the results that come with luck.
I've learned I don't feel right if I don't give something back when people are in need.
I've learned inside of me, I have the ability to become a champion and compete at the highest level.
I've learned how to not live outside of my means.
I've learned about human nature in pressure situations.
I've learned a lot about different cultures and their players.
I've learned how to take a risk.
I've learned how to survive out of the comfort zone of a steady job and income.
I've learned how to objectively examine and review plays in poker.
I've learned the value of hard work (but I was actually taught this my entire life, nothing changed in poker)
I've learned there are always people in life cheering for you and always people rooting against you. The people rooting against you are louder than the people cheering for you.


"Stay far from timid, only make moves when your hearts in it, and live the phrase sky's the limit."

The Hangover

It's what you can call the week after your most exciting moment in your career. I remember it after June 2010 and the infamous KK vs AK hand. (forgot the hand write-up is wrong on pre-flop action). While that wasn't yet the final table it was the closest to the biggest goal I have, a WSOP bracelet. The EPT championship would have easily been just a hair under a WSOP bracelet, but the hangover has been worse. The hangover refers to the fact that every morning I wake up thinking about hands from that final table. I even think about the first hand and things I couldn't control, the fact that my QT suited was calling the 3 bet of a player with KK if QJ doesn't 4 bet shove. The flop of QT5 would have likely seen me stack a player and take a dominating stack through. Poker doesn't always happen the way you want it to.

Nor should it.

I'm still teetering back and forth about calling off my chips with 0% chance of winning. Generally, you don't want to do that too often in a poker career. While I navigated my stack properly to the four handed game, I think I would have had an advantage keeping things in front of me and small. I hadn't tested one of the other four at the final table's post-flop game at all to that point in the tournament and with two player behind me, John Eames and Michael Tureniac that were clearly strong in that regard of the game, why not wait to get into more situations with Per Linde. Those are the strategic hangover thoughts. The truth is that I got up from the table and was so pissed off because I felt the championship was in my blood and my soul that tournament. It was an honest thought and one that still resides. I needed just a little more from myself. It could have been that one decision, maybe it wasn't, but in poker you can't know after you have no chips left.



The hangover extended to online play this week. I didn't bring my A game all the time. I wasn't as hungry as I needed to be. The standard winner's curse I've written about before followed me. I shouldn't have let it. Each day is a new day, a clean slate. Your record before that doesn't matter. All that matters is if you bring it or not. A week off may have been a good idea, but the hangover of such an exciting atmosphere made me want to create it again, even if it was for something smaller.

Oh well, I don't anticipate playing any tournaments Fri-Sat unless they are super duper turbos. I'll be celebrating St. Patty's Day in Chicago and hopefully not freezing my arse off looking at a green river. Happy St. Patty's Day and celebrate with your safety and others in mind.

EPT Copenhagen: So Close

"Fold or hang tough. Call or raise the bet. These are decisions you make at the table. Sometimes the odds are stacked so clear there's only one way to play it. Other times, like holding a small pair against two over cards, it's six to five, or even money, either way. Then it's all about feel, what's in your guts."

Mike McDermott from the movie Rounders

One of the best quotes from one of the best movies. It can't describe my tournament with anymore precision. Day 1 was jet lag day, but it worked. Get it in good and win. Control the pots. Day 2 was a struggle, card dead, but one last hour rush of aggression and nicely played hands kept me in contention. Day 3 was seize the moment, play with no fear, and enjoy every minute as we entered the money and set ourselves up for more. Day 4 was the craziest day of my poker life. It was the day of the biggest bluff I've ever pulled off. A bluff about feel, guts, your opponents, and knowing something would work. It did. It took me from 11th of 12 remaining players to in contention. A couple well timed hands later I was playing with one table remaining. The goal was so close. A major title against a talented field.

The final table was a struggle. It's always tough to win tournaments without flopping pairs and always having inferior holdings to opponents, but with the stroke of luck on the shortstack, my 44 beat 66 all in. I still had a shot. Then, I kissed my shot away with an incorrect read. See quote above. One critical mistake in my eyes over the course of 5 days. Not all that bad, but given my holdings today, I needed to be slightly better than that.

I can't help but smile when thinking about the last five days and how much fun I've had. I came up just short of a huge goal of mine, but recognize how much I've matured as a competitor.. I can smile because I never lost faith in knowing I'd win or in my own abilities. No matter what happened, I kept the game in front of me while always telling myself to pay attention to the 3-8 other opponents. I know I fought with my heart, my guts, and with every inch of poker talent I have. A taste of a major no limit live final table is intoxicating, but tournament players must always remember, the next time around, you all start with the same amount of chips. You start from scratch with your poker tools and your guts and of course, hopefully a little lady luck.

January Update, February Plans

January flew by in large part due to a 9 day trip to the Bahamas, the cleansing of my mind through a tougher yoga practice, and lots of poker in between. January really felt balanced. Let me first say that I really enjoy getting to meet my adversaries and friends at the poker table at the live tournaments. So often, we spend time looking at each other's screen names and competing online that we forget we are actually other living people. At least in competitive sports you could look another player in the eye all of the time. Playing online doesn't afford you that opportunity. I met some great people and had a blast despite playing two other events in the Bahamas and not cashing and an exact bubble (43rd place with 42 paying) in the 1k six max. I did, however, have an outstanding month online both in cash and tournaments. I was able to throw up the belt Aaron Rodgers style in my home by winning the 6 max $75 tournament on double guarantee multi-entry week and narrowly missed my first life ever title in a hyper turbo event during double guarantee week. In that tournament, I refused a chop for the 5th straight time and for the 5th straight time turned in a 2nd or 3rd place performance after refusing a chop. I don't think it's stubbornness, but when I get that deep in the tournament, I want to win it outright. Why play if you don't want to win the maximum? This works both ways in poker, but if the situation really calls for a deal, I'll make it. It usually doesn't.

I've had a lot of time to think about my goals for this upcoming year. My halfhearted approach towards the goals in the earlier blog is unlike me, but many of the goals that I haven't accomplished are the same from the year before. I will add a few things as I go along and think of them.

February is started with a great trip to see the family with two wonderful nieces having birthdays as well as my Grandma. Then the FTOPS begins on Full Tilt for what will prove to be two grueling weeks that should get me into a great poker mindset for the EPT Copenhagen at the end of February. Normally, I'd make my way out to LA for the LA Poker Classic, but the Commerce selfishly (against the poker community and spirit of the game) tried to get online poker legalized as a statewide initiative through California earlier this year. I think a one year break from there is fine enough for me on the boycott level. This initiative of casinos, states, and countries looking to restrict the access of local players to the same sites is anti-free trade and completely against the spirit of the game. If anything, the World Series of Poker has taught me that poker is an international game enjoyed by men and women from all over the world. It's equality in its purest form. States like New Jersey, countries like France, and poker rooms like the Commerce have all done or are in the process of restricting access to poker pools of money to their own states to make a profit. Now, I have no problem if the Commerce wants to compete in its own niche market, but everyone in the world needs to realize that the bigger the pie of players, the better for everyone, players, tax collectors, media, live casinos, etc.

PCA Update

Let's do a quick summary. I played the Main Event of the PCA Day 1a today and made it a meager 6 levels into the tournament before my short stack was busted when my KQ failed to improve against AJ. Two hands before dinner break, I flopped a straight with my 67 of clubs after calling a minimum raise of 800. After betting 2100 into 4 players, I was raised and subsequently called by AQ of spades after I put my pile of chips in the middle. With the board reading Ts 9s 8h, I stand as a slight 53%? favorite, so basically a coin flip for 35k in chips. The 2 of spades crippled my stack down to a paltry 6k from starting 30k.

Chips were not easy to accumulate today. The table was very tough relative to fields I've played in the past. I have a pretty good knack for being able to succeed in these tables in the past but today wasn't meant to be. I can pin two mistakes on myself, one where I just leveled myself into calling. This is when I begin to think he thinks I think he thinks I think he thinks when really he just has a hand better than mine. The other situation was typical of the table on a QQ4 board when I bet the button against two players and was check raised. I really needed to see through that, but I folded my TT here and another player paid the player $100 to see the hand. He showed 89.

That leaves 8 days in the Bahamas to figure out what I want to do with myself. I may enjoy the sun or go on water slides through shark tanks or whatever else people do on vacation. There are several mixed game side events that I would actually be excited to play, so I'll probably win one of those. I really want to get to the point where I have that killer instinct at a live poker table. Sometimes I begin to get chatty and see other players as humans and that affects my play. It's a leak and I'll get over it. All other players shall not be seen as friends while cards are being dealt. Poker is supposed to be a social game and what not, maybe it is. The problem with that idea though is that we are all chasing millions of dollars.

2010 Accountability and Reflection

Putting the words in front of all 10 of my blog readers: I will update this blog more frequently this year. Sometimes I go on these kicks where I feel the need for privacy in life. In this entrepreneurial endeavor you are measured by your recent results and not by how you are playing. It becomes tough when people ask "how much are you making this year?" "how much is your biggest win?" Answering both of those questions answers nothing about how I've progressed as a professional poker player, a competitor, and as a person. The wins are excellent, but if I would have told you that I was one 70% - 30% hand from a life changing moment in poker, you could very easily respond with a Mike McD quote "you don't hear about the guys who took their shots and missed."


To summarize this year, it was a battle. I hopped out of the gate with a 5th place finish in $1 mill guarantee on Full Tilt for $50k. This provides a nice mental cushion for any player being backed on his own. If I learned anything in this business, mental cushions are only as strong as the mind behind them. Rough downswings can shake your bankroll and rattle your cage more than anything. Heading into the WSOP, I was exhausted physically and mentally. May was the toughest month of my poker career. Poker giveth and poker taketh away. Being the month before the biggest tournament in the world, if you would have told me that I was going to have my best financial year as a poker player, I would have laughed at you. That fact alone snapped me into a better mental state. Doing anything for the money in life is stupid, but it is a factor. I remember thinking this is a game I love, one that's supposed to be fun through all the challenges. If I'm not enjoying it, then why the hell am I doing it. Coupled with living in Las Vegas far away from friends and family and the relationships that mean the most to me, I just wasn't happy. June provided a great distraction in the WSOP. I was fortunate enough to put myself in an outstanding position to win my first bracelet. A rough KK vs AK loss for 3x the 2nd place player with 11-12 remaining sent me out of the tournament in the hands down most brutal beat of my poker career. With the flip of one river card my poker destiny was altered, a dagger 4 of clubs making my opponent the nut flush and the eventual champion of the tournament. I made another run in the Pot Limit Omaha $2500 tournament but ended in 14th place painfully short of a 2nd consecutive PLO WSOP final table. The main event gave me another shot at redemption. I made day 4 while never holding over 80,000 in chips until day 4. Just when I started chipping up, another brutal hand (AQ vs KQ river K) sent me to the short stack followed by my AQ losing to JJ shortly after to send me to the rail. While I did book a tiny winner in the overall series, it wasn't enough. When is it ever enough?

I gave a lot a thought about what I wanted to do in my future. Since then, I have moved out of Vegas. September was my second best month ever in poker overall. This also didn't come without mistakes as I believe I made one of my most regretted plays to bust 117th? in the $5k World Championship of Online Poker Main Event. With close to $2 million to first, it's a mistake that I haven't forgot. I focused on becoming a better NL tournament player this year. I believe that I have achieved that in short. I also believe I am a much stronger mixed game player.


I'll get more to results in the goals, but mentally, I've never felt better about poker and life. Many people are ready to fill you with doubts in this world. I learned to laugh and enjoy these doubts because they are that person's own fears about life. There is nothing in the world a competitive person would love to hear than someone else in the world doubting what they can do. Doubts are gasoline to a competitor's fire. I'm fortunate that in the year 2010, I was able to love what I do day in and day out. Balance has been semi-restored to my life. I've never been happier in poker and never have there been fewer FML's muttered out of my mouth.



Now on to the goals from last year.
1. Win a World Series of Poker Bracelet----if the deck cooperates, I would have had a very good chance, 12th and 14th
2. Cash in the main event of the WSOP--finished in top 15% for 3rd time in 4 years, but still have no cash in the main event
3. Win a live tournament--I played a very light live schedule this year, but still remains a goal
4. Win 10 NL Hold 'em tournaments--As it turns out, I won 8 NL Hold 'em tournaments outright. I also won 2 HORSE tournaments and smaller mixed game tourneys. I'm pretty satisfied here.
5. Final Table 100 tournaments--This is a really lofty goal in retrospect, but those tracked by Pocketfives, I'm at 54 for the year. I know there were more in the smaller field non-NL Hold 'em events.
6. Final Table 15 Sunday Majors--I believe this stands at 2.
7. Win a Sunday online major tournament (Tournaments that count on Pokerstars-Sunday Warmup, Sunday 100R at 2:00pm Est, Sunday Million, Sunday 500, Sunday Second Chance, and Sunday 200R, on Full Tilt--Sunday Brawl, Sunday 750k or 1 mill, and Sunday Mulligan---I made a very nice run at it in the Sunday Mulligan late in the year, but it wasn't my day. That was also the last time I've lost a mouse in the heat of battle. Losing 6 showdowns in a row isn't fun at a final table with over 50,000 on the line
8. Win a major series live or online (UBOC, FTOPS, WCOOP) tournament. I had a 4th in the WCOOP Stud and a 7th in the UBOC 100 Rebuy Turbo.
9. Final Table 5 major tournament series both live and online.--This will stand at 2 same as 8


If you look at them on the surface, I could say I missed a lot of goals, but it doesn't feel that way. I'm ready to go for 2011. These goals are all things that I still want. The most notable addition to my own poker goals will be updating this blog more regularly. Even better, I'm in the $10,000 Pokerstars Carribean Adventure Main Event beginning Jan 7th for a meager $350ish dollars. I get a shot at much of the glory right out of the gates. Cheers in 2011 and best of luck in whatever you do.