As of June 1st I will no longer be a lead instructor at CardRunners. I will still be around in the capacity that I was before I joined CardRunners as a lead instructor. You can find me in the forums participating in discussion as well as watching the videos.

I have two more videos that will be coming out this month. This Friday the finale of my 50/100 HU HA video vs. Urnotindanger2 comes out. In a week or two my video with Tom Chambers (LearnedFromTV) about PLO theory will be out.

I have been considering leaving CardRunners for some time now. There is a lot that goes into being involved in the running of a small business while also playing poker full time and having a life outside of poker. It can be difficult to give enough time to everything. When I joined CardRunners back in 2007, I joined because I thought it was a great company and because I wanted to gain experience helping run my own small business. CardRunners is still a great business but it is one that is much more time consuming than I would have imagined. I value the friendships I have created here immensely, but over the previous months I have started to realize that it is time for me to move on and devote my time to playing poker.

I have also enjoyed all of the support from our community over the years. I think the community of CR is a very special one, which has always supported me. I plan on still being a part of this community and I wanted to thank everyone who is a part of it for that support. I will always remember and appreciate it.

I will no longer be a Red Pro after my departure from CardRunners and I will return to playing under "sbrugby" at the tables on Full Tilt Poker.

Brian

This blog will probably end up like the last one without much direction. Hopefully you guys will still enjoy it.

Today I went to the gym for the first time in a year. I work out consistently but usually outdoors. As I was on the stairmaster there was an old poker tournament on TV. I had a book which I was reading but looked up to see a Pro raise from what looked like middle position with KJo. It was folded to one of the blinds who flat called with AQo. The flop was something like 862 with a flush draw. The guy checked and the Pro checked back. The turn was a king not completing the flush draw. The opponent checked and again the pro checked back. The river was an offsuit ace and the opponent leads into him. The Pro calls with his KJo and then slammed the table when his opponent showed him AQo. I guess this story doesn't really have a point, other than the childish way the player acted, but it did get me thinking about how I react to different poker situations.

I began thinking about my feeling when I flop top set in a 3 or 4 bet pot in a high stakes game. When it happens, my adrenaline starts running and I get a sense of excitement. I think this occurs because my brain has been has been taught that when I flop top set I am going to win money which in turn makes me excited. When I sit here and write this blog though I realize how silly this is. When I flop top set or bottom pair I should have the same emotional reaction. I should think how I can play as well as I can based off the information I have at hand.

Unfortunately, I don't think like a robot and to some degree I let my emotions effect my decisions. Probably in most scenarios how you play top set will have a negligible impact on your winrate as generally shoving as much money in the pot is a good strategy and you flop a set so infrequently compared with other "smaller" decisions. How you play bottom pair or ace high will have a massive impact on your winrate, yet I would spend 10x the amount of time focusing on the big pots where I have top set instead of trying to play better in the smaller "boring" pots.

Another thing I notice about my psychology in poker is how results oriented I am. If I play a hand poorly and get lucky to win the hand I feel excitement. Say I make an incorrect call with a flush draw but I river a flush I feel great about my decision. On the other hand I can feel like crap when I play a hand perfectly and get sucked out on. If I play AA perfectly and induce someone to bluff preflop all in, but their hand suckouts out on my aces I feel like complete shit. On the other hand if I am the one that makes a spazzy bluff with the same hand and get snap called by aces and I am the one to suckout I do a little dance and get excited.

I wish my reaction was the opposite. When I play well and lose because of factors outside my control (getting rivered etc.) I want to give myself a pat on the back, yet I find myself cursing my keyboard. On the other hand, when I play poorly and suckout I don't have a feeling of shame, but rather a feeling of joy. And if I dislike my opponent, there's happiness at them sitting at their computer cursing me. I think this is a direct show of how results oriented I can be.

Another area where I am results oriented is if I play a hand in a way which I feel maximizes my expectation but results in me losing a pot I could have won by taking a different action. If I flop top set and just call a flop bet and my opponent "gets there" on the turn with a gutshot and we get stacks in, I feel horrible. I will tell myself I played the hand perfectly vs his range of holdings, but there is a little piece of me that says "dammit if I had just raised the flop, I would have won". Obviously as I sit here and write this, I realize how silly it is but I still can't help having those thoughts creep into the back of my mind from time to time.

My goal going forward is not to get emotionally invested in any poker decision. I want to make the best decision I can with the information I have at the time. I want to treat every decision I have the same way, to make the best possible choice I can. I want to treat each decision as an opportunity to make the correct play regardless of the size of the pot or the hand I am personally holding. I don't want to take this to far and waste brain power on trivial decisions but I do want to examine and focus on the smaller decisions which generally creates your edge. I would also like to not let hands that I play well but lose, negatively effect me. I should be happy that I made the correct decision and not expend any more of my attention on the hand.

All this is MUCH easier said than done, but hopefully I can make some productive changes which will help my game.

I don't really know where this is going but I thought I would just write it down and see what comes out.

I was thinking today in the shower about the poker of the past. I have been a full time pro for about 3.5 years now. I was thinking of all the pros who I have played through the years. There are countless people I have played in the past who have ended up in different places. Some have gone broke. Some have gone from being winners at 25/50 or 50/100 to grinding 1/2 and 2/4. Some used to play lots online and now play primarily live or at MTT's. Some have left poker all together.

I think games have got a bit tougher through the years which is the primary cause of people playing lower or moving on to other things. I don't think this is the total picture as lots of it is people who ran hot and took shots and were only in the big games because of luck.

I think the landscape of online poker is going to be very different in another five years. I think back to who the best players were 5 years ago and many haven't adapted and improved their games and been left behind others. I see this happening in the next five years as well. I would guess only a handful of the successful 25/50+ players are around in 5 years. I think it is so hard to have longevity and success throughout the years.

I think there is a feeling in the general population that being a poker pro is an easy way to make a living. You sleep late, you are your own boss, and you make a living from a card game. I think its the exact opposite and in fact I would imagine its a very tough thing to be successful in for 10+ years. I have alot of admiration for the people who have had the longevity because poker is not easy.

Anyways, the past few days I have been playing Ziigmund and Durrr HU. It has gone okay for me, basically breaking even against them. Here are some of the larger pots.

Not to fun here with top two pair...

http://weaktight.com/2319575

Here I get caught bluffing and my opponent makes a very good call vs me.

http://weaktight.com/2319576

A big pot where my kings hold up.

http://weaktight.com/2319577

Here Ziig bluffs into me.

http://weaktight.com/2319578

Although the Irish Open didn't go as planned for me (I busted in the first day), I had a great time. The tournament was held in Dublin while last year it was about 1/2 hour out side of town. This allowed me to do some sight seeing. I didn't see anything special in particualr, I just mainly wonderered around town. I had a few great meals, one in particulary at this small brazilian restraunt.

I have begun training for the Santa Barbara triathlon. I am in bad shape and its showing in my workouts. I did the bike portion of the triathlon course and finished 30 minutes slower than I did on race day two years ago. So I have a long way to go but luckily the race isn't until the end of August so I should be in great shape by then.

I have been doing really well at poker this month. This year has basically been a disaster for me so it feels great to have some nice results. I am up about 500k, which is great but I still have a long way to go to even and even longer to be out of this downswing. I just need to keep putting myself in good situations and these results should continue.

Here is a 24 big bet O8 pot I was fortunate to win. I was suprised to scoup this one, though it did require me to get very lucky on the river.

http://weaktight.com/2228452


Here I win a big pot at 100/200 NLH. I was lucky in that I didn't beat much of his range but he had a hand I was ahead of.

http://weaktight.com/2228454


Hopefully this run continues.

I just arrived in Dublin yesterday afternoon after a long and brutal flight. I am a bit of a complainer when it comes to travel. First, I flew from LA to NY on Virgin which had wifi on the flight. I can't wait until international flights have wifi too, it makes such a difference. The 6 hour flight felt like it went by in 5 minutes. Once the international flights have wifi, I will be traveling to Europe every week.

Virgin is a really great airline but the only direct flights to Dublin from the US are on Aer Lingus, which is not nearly as nice. Whenever I travel now, I do lots or research to make sure I am flying a great airline. It makes a world of difference in how you feel when you land.

The day before my departure I received a text message from Aer Iingus saying that my flight was canceled. I had to scramble to get a new flight at the last minute and they were not helpful at all.

Aer Lingus is a really bad airline, as poor as the US ones like Delta and United. The price of a business ticket on Aer Lingus was over 4k round trip extra for only the 6 hour flight from New York to Dublin. I guess this would be reasonable if Aer Lingus actually had a business class but it was just the same as premium economy on Virgin, which would have cost about 1/4 of the price for a little extra leg room but that's about it. So my cheap ways came through and I flew coach. Luckily for me I was able to get a exit row seat as my knees kill me on long flights.

The moral of the story is that it's well worth spending some time doing some research on your flight to get a good airline and seat. It doesn't take too much time and you will be so much more comfortable.

On the flight I began reading Tom Chambers PLO book. I was very impressed with the first few chapters and will finish it up on the flight back and give a review on it then. I think he did an amazing job with the book in what little I have read.

This morning I put in a great session of poker. I won about 100k mainly playing 1k/2k limit OE. It felt really nice to book a win. Now I am heading out to see some of the city before the tournament starts this afternoon. Hopefully I do better than last year (I was the 2nd person out). All I need to do is stay away from Richard Ashby, who has knocked me out of two major tournaments.

I'm looking forward to playing my first live event in a long time. This was a great event last year, really well run and they do a good job of making sure everything runs smoothly. The Paddy Power guys have been taking good care of me and put me up in the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in. It's massive. Hopefully the tournament goes well but if not, I'll get to see some of Dublin which looks like a cool city.

Things have been going much better for me the past few weeks. I haven't been crushing or anything but I have been winning at a nice rate. I am still down lots on the year but hopefully things continue and I can turn this into a great year.

Here are a few big pots I have played

Here I am lucky to get it in with great equity. Its a cooler but I will take it.

http://weaktight.com/2179950


I get in in bad here but with the money in the middle I just have to call it off. Lucky for me I get there.

http://weaktight.com/2179952


A big draw which bricked off for me. Oh well, I have great equity vs 2 pair. Not so great against sets but I think my play is good.

http://weaktight.com/2179958


Again I get it in very bad. I don't think I can find a fold though.

http://weaktight.com/2179962


So I have been feeling very good about poker overall. I think I am playing well and making good decisions. I think the next part of the year is going to be very successful for me.

I leave tomorrow morning for Dublin. I am very excited about going and really looking forward to the tournament. I haven't played a live MTT since the WSOP and I can't wait to play some live.

I am heading off to Dublin in a few days for the Irish Open. I was there last year and it was a really good time so I am looking forward to going again. I am not very excited about the travel though. Its going to take about 20 hours to get there and two flight changes.

Poker has been going pretty well for me the past week. Mainly 200/400 Cap PLO games have been running. I prefer playing on the deep tables with the antes but I must admit Cap PLO is much less challenging of a game to play. Most decisions are very straightforward and easy to analyze.

I had a friend visiting and we went out to eat alot which is fun. We went on some nice restaurants as well as going for a few hikes. He was really impressed with Santa Barbara and the area.

The past little while has been great for me and I have won every day for the past 4 days, winning about 250k. It feels great to have four consecutive winning days after this downswing. I have also been doing a lot of analysis on hands the past few days and found some leaks. I think my winrate has dropped during this downswing. Not a huge amount but spending some time reviewing full sessions has shown me that I am not playing my best. I would estimate my winrate has dropped 10-15% which isn't a huge amount but coupled with some run bad it just amplifies the downswing.

A few years ago when I was still in school I won a seat to a WSOP circuit event in New Orleans. It was a very fun event for me as I managed to final table it. It was my first time on TV and as a college kid I thought that was pretty cool. Unfortunately I was the first one out and won about 25k.

With the excitement still in me I ran back to the hotel room and mapped out every single MTT I was going to play for the next year. I am a bit compulsive about things so when I sat down to decide which events I was going to play, I went for every single one. The schedule I outlined was so crazy that no one could possibly do it. The plan was to play pretty much every 5k+ event all around the world. Luckily this was before the tours in Asia and South America, but I was planning on traveling to every EPT, every WPT, every WSOP circuit event and a full WSOP schedule as well.

The schedule was so rigorous that I was only going to be home in Santa Barbara for 3-4 days at a time between events and some trips would contain three stops which would require traveling all around the world.

My first stop was a WSOP circuit event in Lake Tahoe and it was a few weeks after the New Orleans event. I made it through the first day with a good chip stack, only to bust early in the 2nd day when I was under set. I had to fly home empty handed and it was then that I realized how tough the live tournament life must be. Outside of the WSOP, I didn't play the other tournaments that I had on my ridiculous schedule that year. I scrapped my whole plan once I realized how brutal all the travel is and that you obviously aren't going to final most of the MTTs you play.

So tonight I got that bug again. I think the main reason it came back is that I haven't played a live MTT in over 8 months.

This year for the WSOP we are renting a house instead of staying in a hotel, which I think will make the time spent in Vegas much nicer. Hotels are great for a few days, but not for a few weeks or even months. I looked at the WSOP schedule and saw about 7 or 8 events that I would like to play. I started day dreaming about how fun it would be to play all these events. Then I snapped back to reality and began remembering how much of a grind live MTTs are. There is nothing worse than playing poker for a day or two and busting from a tournament without even making the money.

So instead of trying to do these 7 or 8 tournaments I am going to set my goals lower. I would like to play the 25k WPT championship in April and I really want to play the 50k 8 game mix tournament at the WSOP. I am really looking forward to that one as I love smaller fields. It's really tough playing a tournament for three days and then busting without even making the money. I love fields where if you make it to day two you are getting close to the final table.

After that I would like to play the 25k 6 handed NLH event but that may be getting too far ahead of myself. So instead of setting a goal I will never reach, I am going to set a goal of playing two tournaments, the 25k WPT finals and the 50k 8 game. If I can accomplish this I hope to also play the 25k 6 handed event.

Today I played mainly 1k/2k OE and some how managed to lose 250k. At least there is no all in EV so I don't think about that as I lose and remain a bit more focused on my play. I started going through all my hands but need to spend more time on them tomorrow.

Here is a hand I played today which I feel like illustrates how frustrating poker has been for me.

http://weaktight.com/2088426

I was pretty sure he had turned a draw and was going to barrel any brick river as I thought he would shove JT or JJ. Honestly I could have considered folding this river just because I don't think hes bluffing with a high enough frequency on that river in that spot as my hand look very strong. But beyond my river fold, its this card that just screwed me. I just feel like I get put in these spots constantly, where sure you can make a highly exploitative fold against a good player, but in the long run if they know you are folding 97 here good opponents will bluff you relentlessly. Its just one of those spots that there is no great answer.

I am just frustrated with it all. When I analyze my hands I defn find mistakes, but never massive ones. For example today I lost 106k at 1k/2k O8. I haven't analyzed all my hands yet but I would guess I will find at most 10-20k worth of mistakes. I would be shocked if I where to find anywhere near the the 106k in mistakes that I am stuck. And I know yes that's due to running bad, but its just so old. I am so tired of losing what feels like everyday.

I guess all I can do is hope that things turn for the better tomorrow.