You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away

I was tired and was going to quit but decided to play a few more orbits after midnight...what a mistake. It's definitely been a theme for me lately so I thought posting might make me think twice next time :)
The hands after midnight were atrocious...completely my fault...no suckouts.

I won about $1000 tonight and decided to sit in a juicy 5/10 game. There was a guy limping, raising and reraising with a wide range of hands. He was calling down with any pair and bluffing missed draws. The only seat open was one to his right so I gave it a shot...bad idea. I can't stress how important it is to be to the left of a player like this...you can dominate him. My KK ran into his AQ in a blind battle and I lost a good chunk of my winnings. I sat down because I knew I was much better than him. I left and waited 2 hrs to try and sit in better position but noone would leave. He ended up getting up to around $3000 and lost all of it to......

the two guys to his left.


edit: When I went to bed the guy immediately to his left had won $4500 off him. Ahhh position.

I've asked a couple of people if they were interested in doing some coaching. I've been reading their forum posts and blogs and thought they did an excellent job in their analysis of hands. If all goes well I'll keep people posted on the ins and outs of coaching and how it all works.

I had been doing very well in poker recently until today :(
I lost the most ever for me in one day...$1500. Although I'm slightly upset, I played all of the hands correctly (I think) except one. I was a favorite in most of the hands and got sucked out on...what can you do?

I also bought a Wii. Yay for me, I have a Wii! To tell you the truth I feel a little...well you know...for buying one but whatever. I had won some money and wanted to treat myself to something so I made an impulse buy. My gf is happy.

I didn't win the protege contest

Q@$%!@#$%@#$^@#$^@#^@#$^@#

I mentioned before that I applied for Taylor Caby’s protégé contest and I was thinking last night about what my realistic chances are of winning. My few paragraphs would have to stand out from everyone elses and I’m not sure if I did that. I’m sure much of my responses were just as generic as the rest. The one original thing I did do was cancel my membership and then rejoin a week later so that I could enter the smaller pool of contestants filled with new signees. Then I started thinking about why I want it so badly. The obvious choice would be money but it’s much deeper than that for me.

It’s for freedom. I can hear Mel Gibson screaming it out right now…FREEDOM!!!!


I have a full time job and have no inclination to quit that job for a poker lifestyle. I don’t make a ton of money but I live comfortably. The extra money I make from poker gives me the freedom to do what I could not with my normal income. I feel very bogged down by the working suburbian life. We live in a society where work dominates your time. The standard 9 to 5 day and commute times leaves only a few hours a day for yourself to enjoy and most of the time you’re too tired anyways. Throw kids into the mix and you might as well forget about doing things for yourself (can you tell I don’t have any yet? :). In the short time that I’m on this planet I want to experience it. I want to see many different parts of the world.

Poker gives me that option. I used some of my winnings and took my girlfriend to Mexico over Christmas for 10 days. We didn’t choose the popular beach locations but delved into some culture in Mexico City and the surrounding areas exploring some ancient Aztec ruins. It was amazing and it only fuels my fire to see more. Since poker is not part of my normal income it’s easier to spend it. I know this doesn’t make sense but psychologically it works for me.

So what next?...what if I don’t win the contest? I know that coaching would be beneficial for my game. I’m a winning player but I have leaks and it’s hard to plug them all through self reflection. A kid can play basketball his whole life and shoot basket after basket day after day for hours (like I did) and become a great shooter. Yet there are always small changes in mechanics that would improve the shot that the shooter is unable to see. If I don’t win the contest I will start looking for some coaches. The difficult part is finding someone who is a good fit and priced reasonably.

I’m also considering doing some coaching for free. Why would I do that and who would want to learn from me? Well…I am a winning player and could help out a low level player improve. More importantly why would I want to? Teaching is not a one way street. I’ve mentioned before that I am a teacher and when you start out teaching, even though you have a firm grasp on the material, when you explain it to someone else you get a much firmer grip on everything. Someone may not understand the way you’re explaining something and you have to think of another way to present it. This only strengthens the knowledge you have on the subject. Students also ask questions that you haven’t thought of and make you see things in a new light. I would assume that I would get the same result from coaching poker. I’ll make my decision on these things after Taylor announces my name.

FREEDOM!!!!