Every year that I have played the WSOP, I always get a rush of emotions a week out from the beginning of my first event. The main emotion that I experience is hope. The WSOP to me is when great opportunity meets preperation. I spend all year thinking about the WSOP, from hands of the past to new strategy that I think may work in a tournament structure. There is no doubt about it that for me the WSOP is the biggest chance at hitting the big leagues through a flurry of big cashes. So my flight leaves tomorrow for Vegas, but am I ready for what's ahead? Can you prepare for what's about to come? I think understanding good strategy in your event, being healthy and boosting energy naturally, and being patient and alert are all key factors of winning at the WSOP.

At this point I feel I can brush up on the structures and rethink about optimal play in each individual game at each point in the structure, and come up with a solid overall game plan. When I reach the table and see who is there I will adapt to the table, not just the structure, as any great poker player will tell you that understanding your table and each villain is paramount in good play. I feel like my knowledge of each game is solid and has improved since last year. I've learned from some marginal spots I put myself in, in 10k events which I had the chip lead and couldn't close. I am much more confident and feel like I have a great shot at a bracelet. At this point if you don't feel comfortable with your overall game in each event, you probably didn't prepare well enough. I feel pretty confident about my strategy going in.

I've been working out in Mexico almost every day and have been eating pretty healthy as well. It's important to keep your health up, so that you can withstand the grueling 12 hour grind almost everyday for a month. Energy is huge and can be increased through exercise and eating well throughout the whole series. Using artificial ways of boosting energy such as energy drinks or coffee could be fine too, but I find are just temporary and you begin to depend way too much on them, even to the point that you may NEED an energy drink every morning just to wake up properly. I also think that for me they distract me and give me too much energy causing me to make some spontaneous plays. For me energy drinks aren't an option this series, so I will continue to workout most mornings before an event, and be very sure to eat well.

One of the hardest transitions for online players if you aren't familiar with live poker, is that IT IS SO MUCH SLOWER. You need to have a lot of patience in live poker and never count yourself out. Waiting for good hands and good spots to make plays is very important. If you start spewing around it will be easy to get a read on you that you're over aggro since we only see 20-30 hands an hour live and if you're playing 10 of those hands, chances are good players are going to start playing back at you often. If this is your strat, well then good, but if you are just impatient and playing a lot of hands without any overall strat, well then you are in trouble. Don't ever just spew off chips because you feel like you're out of it. In the $1500 stud 8 in 2010 I literally had 1 or 2 bets left and was all-in in a split pot and somone ended up (wrongly) folding the best high hand and mypair of 4s won the high. I went on from there to final table it and took 5th. Never count yourself out of these events. The value of playing well down to your last chip is very big.

So I hope that these factors of playing in the WSOP will help you determine what you need to work on or what you already know to prepare for the WSOP this year. I know I will be constantly thinking about what I need to work on for next year as always.

I've been a pro poker player (living off poker) for awhile. Recently I had to switch to playing live, it has started to wear on me. The constant travelling, the late hours, the stress. It has come to my attention that I have become very unhealthy. This bothers me a lot as I used to be obsessed with health. I used to keep a diet log, work out every day and I worked as a personal trainer. You can imagine the extreme ying and yang type effect it has had on me since those days. I now eat whatever I feel like eating (usually because its convinent) If i have a big losing day I use comfort food, I have a hard time consistently keeping up with working out and cardio (cardio being my priority now that i'm so sedentary). My teeth have suffered from eating horrible foods and sugar, and recently I dislocated my shoulder (not relevent to poker, but it still sucks). I started thinking to myself that life is not a game, if you mess up your health, you die.
It's so easy to get caught up in the life of poker, money, fashion, stuff that has no relevence to your health, and in fact hinders it. What good is money if you don't live long enough to even enjoy it? I feel like I've had great opportunities in my life with poker, and have over looked most of them, not really thinking much of it at the time. If I had the money I had at certain points in my poker career I would have done a lot of things differentlly. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 and spending 4k at a stripclub in one night is easy to look back on and say I was stupid, but if I had taken myself more seriously with less partying, spending money, and focusing more on my health, I would be much happier today than I am now.
I need to start focusing on my life again. I've been so burried in poker, that I've let a lot of things in my life deteriate. Socially, mentally, and physically poker has beat me up. All this being said it's going to be hard to change everything at once, so as a start I feel like watching what I eat is probably the thing I have the most control over, and will address it. Then figuring out a way to consistently work out. And then my dating life could definitely use some work. So for those who are still reading, I hope that poker doesn't take over too much of your life like it has mine, and if it is starting to or already has, that you have the smarts to change it before it's too late.

This blog post is going to explain why and how i'm going to win a bracelet at this years WSOP.
When someone claims that they are going to win a bracelet at the WSOP, the first thought that may come to someone's mind is... "hahaha" "GL" "Gotta run good" "its a luckbox fest" "you can't plan to win a bracelet." Well yes it's true you need to get lucky at certain points in a tournament to ship one usually. Then again it is possible to run decent and play ridiculously well and still ship one. So why am I an exception from the other thousands of players that will be at this WSOP?

Well for one, I believe that I'm one of the best Stud players out there. This alone gives me a signifigant edge in any Stud field, which generally is going to be one of the smaller fields at the WSOP, thus giving me a great shot at a bracelet. The Stud/Stud 8 5k are my two best shots at a bracelet by far. I have a well rounded array of mixed game experience and will be playing around 15 events. The more events obviously the better shot at a bracelet. I have the experience. I've been in two WSOP so far and each one I've had a great showing. I have 6 cashes and 1 final table, and in each cash I had a shot at the bracelet (except the omaha 8 10k). I am preparing for the WSOP physically and mentally, exercising and studying each game seperately, always bettering my game. I feel like it's my time. This one I can't really explain logically as it's a feeling more than anything else, but I definitely feel that I've had my share of experiences in poker, and I could definitely see an upswing through the WSOP this year. I'm going to pressure myself to succeeed, and won't take failure as an option.

If this post rubs you the wrong way, and you think i'm over-confident or delusional, I definitely understand where you are coming from. But if you are going to achieve greatness in the poker world, you really can't just settle for anything less than what you believe to be the greatest potential in yourself. Just like in every other aspect of life, you really need to believe in yourself and push yourself to achieve exellence, so even though it may seem like I may seem taboo in claiming that I'm going to win a bracelet, I feel like I have to believe in myself that I can, otherwise who will?

Since grinding poker the last 3 weeks, I've slumped into being very unproductive in every other aspect of life. Rounding from casino to casino can get very hectic and lonely at times. I find it's very important to keep up with everything that you like to do, such as hobbies, exercise, or whatever it is that gives you some feeling of productivness/happiness. So this week i'm going to dedicate each day to something different that I've wanted to accomplish. Monday I will set aside for spending time with family/friends. Tuesday I will try and achieve some kind of charity goal, such as do research to find a good charity to give to, or donate time. Wednesday will be spent on learning more about omaha 8 or better, whether its videos or reading. Thursday will be spent focusing on grinding mindful poker and exercise. Friday i'm not sure yet, but will likely be spent doing something I love.
For all those that are on the grind in casinos, I highly suggest doing something social, getting some exercise, seeing the sun regularly, and don't get caught up in grinding 24/7.

So I've been waiting for an appropriate story to start off my CR blog. I have had a few blogs in the past with ridiculous poker stories which eventually I may import into my CR blog, but for now let me start off with this fun story.

It was another day at the Borgata as I was grinding the 75/150 Stud Hi game. (great game) I took a break and walked around the room just to see what was going on in the high stakes room, when I noticed the infamous Stud hi player, "Freddy." Some of you may have heard tales of the man they call Freddy, but for those who haven't let me explain some background. Freddy was one of the biggest stud hi players back in the day. He would play the huge flynt game, from what i've heard, he played up to 4k/8k stud hi, a real action junkie. Now Freddy isn't exactly what you would describe as a shark... No, I would call him more of a guppie before shark. So me being the action junkie I am myself started dreaming about playing nosebleed stakes with Freddy. I noticed that they were playing a 600/1200 mix and went over and asked what games they were playing. Turns out the mix was of course Stud Hi, Stud 8, and NLHE 10k cap. Freddy had obviously picked the two stud games, and the other players i'm sure happily abliged. Again I started to think about the possibility of playing in that game as Stud Hi and Stud 8 are my two best games, and I could shortstack NLHE very well. I sighed and walked away knowing that I didn't have the BR to take on that game and returned to my stud hi game. I couldn't get this game out of my head while grinding the 75...then it hit me. I should just piece of myself and jump in this game! It's been my life long dream to play this kind of game since I started grinding the .25/.50 stud hi game on full tilt. So I contacted 3 of my friends to see if they were interested in taking a %. One of them was in the game directly adjacent to the mixed game (25/50 nlhe) glady decided to take a piece, and my other friend in PA said he wanted a piece as well. My 3rd friend who you all know as Eric Rodawig (Chipsahoya) had gone to sleep already, but I still wanted to offer him a piece. So I texted him that I was going to play this epic game and that I'm buying in for X thousand and if he wanted, he could have a piece. I had the intention of letting him decide when he woke up, and I would cover his part of the buyin, and if he didn't want it, then I would take the loss or the win more on myself. So with my buyin split 3 ways I now was about to jump in a game I had up to this point dreamed about quite frequently. The line up was insanely soft and was 6 handed including me. When I joined the table they decided to take out NLHE which you can imagine made me smile. (I often get pegged as a NLHE player, so when I join a mixed game people auto think I'm good at NLHE and PLO because of my young age lol)

One of my first hands of Stud Hi I played I was the Bring in with 3s 3h | 2c. a Q completes Freddy calls with a Ten and I call. Q catches a K Freddy hits a J and the dealer peels off... yep, a 3 for me. My heart instantly starts pounding and I feel the adrelenaline pumping as I try and keep my composure. QK bets, freddy calls, I just call. 5th street comes and QK hits a T freddy hits an Ace and I hit a J. Freddy bets out and I raised and the QKT calls 2 cold and freddy calls. 6th it checks to me and I bet and both call and the river it checks to me and I bet again and QKT folds and freddy tanks for awhile and then folds. I pull in the pot and feel amazing. Everyone starts asking who I am as they have never seen me before. (I'm 24 so you can imagine a 24yo kid walking up to a 600/1200 Stud game and coming out of the gate raising 5th street with 23Jr and winning a big pot) The game went on and I have never been in a better high stakes game in my life. It was the perfect lineup, the perfect hour (everyone was tired except me) and the perfect games. I went on to book a 20k win and then Freddy quit causing everyone else to wanting to play different games, so I quit as well.

I texted Eric to call me when he woke up the next morning and he did. I explained to him the opportunity that I had last night and that I jumped in the game. I explained to him exactly the situation without a hint of being results oriented. I then asked him if he wanted the % i had reserved for him. He tanked for awhile as I remained quiet, and he finally decided to take a large % of what I reserved for him and won. Easy game.

Now i'm about to catch some sleep as it's been quite an adrenaline filled 24 hours and I have an interview with Kristy Arnett for pokernews about mixed games in 2 1/2 hours.

CG