What's up guys!

I've decided to take a few new leakfinder videos. I've had a few people ask me for coaching recently and unfortunately I hung up my coaching shoes due to my real life job now. But that being said, I recently made a video with Awesemo and it reminded me how rewarding and awesome making videos can be.

I am going to be taking a few videos from members who wouldn't mind their play criticed publically. So if you are interested please PM me and we can discuss details!

Rules:

1) Only no limit holdem
2) Stakes up to 400nl
3) Be ready to learn!

Looking forward to hearing from everyone! Cheers.

I've been tossing around the idea of where to place price on my private coaching after black friday to continue to cater to the members of Cardrunners. After doing a decent amount of discussion with current and previous students, I have decided to lower my prices to basically what they were when I started coaching in 2008. My prices prior to BF ranged from $105/hr to $250/hr.

A little bit about me: I've been coaching for over 3 years and have coached over 120 students privately. I have a top-notch reputation as a professional in the coaching market. I have experience in full ring and 6m holdem. If you want more details, check out my coaching page in the forums under FR coaching. There's also many references from other members who have recieved coaching there. And now for the super complicated new prices for cardrunners members:

50nl and below: $60/hr for blocks of 5+ hours
100nl and above: $75/hr for blocks of 5+ hours

*Payment options will be limited to merge transfers and paypal

It's pretty straight forward. Hopefully this new lowered price can really allow players in a tight spot after Black Friday to continue to expand their knowledge for the game. Look forward to hearing from you guys shortly. Cheers.

Alright so lets start this off with the another fun lesson I learned this week about PLO. I've still been playing alot of PLO but I haven't been quite having the same success this month as I did last month. Probably to be expected as I ran like god last month. Anyways, that being said, I was getting frustrated. A bad idea in PLO and got hammered with a bunch of friends. Basically, I came home. The fiance went to sleep and long story short I lost over 4k in 300 hands at 600nl. So new lesson for life. DONT PLAY PLO HAMMERED. It seems to be a waaaay worse idea than playing holdem hammered but that might just be because I don't quite have 100% of my habits/ideas in order yet. Actually, while we are on this topic, don't play poker while under the influence of anything other than maybe aderol. So anyways, pretty discourged but still not crushed. Just gotta not pee away 2 of my stop-losses at 2/4 in a 30 minute drunkfest.

Secondly, after applying to several civil engineering jobs and not yet getting a nibble or interview. I'm starting to think maybe my resume doesn't quite look as good as I thought it did with 3 years taken off to pursue a life dream. I actually always had my resume in mind while I was playing poker too and always made sure to stay as close to the business side as well as stay as professional as possible at all times. That being said, it seems no one wants to hire an entry levelish engineer with a background in raping fishies. So one of my friends in Denver works HR at a Blackhawk casino here (that's the casino district outside of denver)... and she offered me a job as a prop in her poker room playing mostly 1/2 and making $11. Honestly, its a bit humbling to think that seems to be the only job I can get with just a nod but I've decided to take it as a part-time solution while I continue to look for jobs. I should be starting it later this week and who knows if i'll like it or not. I just want to get into a routine again and have some kind of income month to month as opposed to continuing to eat through my "buy a house with a dufflebag of cash" fund. I am most certainly not busto or anywhere near it, but I just have a problem with just spending money when I don't really have an income coming in. And to answer your questions, the $2500 per 6 weeks checks from merge network aren't cutting it. I'm hoping to make something like $30/hr and get back into a routine where I am leaving the house and not just hitting refresh on my 2p2 and news networks til its time to go to sleep. Ideally, it won't last too long and I'll have an engineering job before too long. That being said tho, it could be some time with the winter coming up in Denver and I imagine alot of the construction work drying up. If anyone has any civil engineering connection out in denver, anything helps and maybe a bounty for someone who gives me a lead that leads to a job.

Lastly, this part is gross so if the mere thought of bugs creeps you out, don't read on. About a month ago, my fiance started getting some really weird bites all over her body. We couldn't for the life of us figure out what it was because I didn't have any marks and our dog didn't seem itchy or to be bitten. Well we've been hunting for evidence of what we thought to be the most likely scenario... bed bugs. Somehow, my amazing skin doesn't get bothered by the little fuckers but allison is getting absolutely raped by them. She probably currently has 50 bites on her. I think its the apartment complex we live in. It's an older building so I imagine there's tons of little spots for these bugs to hide. Anyways, tonight I finally found proof and no longer will have to wait the month for our landlord to get someone out here. I'm going down there tomorrow, and showing off the bug and being like 'bro, get him here now.'. Either way, an exterminator is coming tomorrow to remove this crap. I don't think the 'infestation' is very bad... since this is the first time i've seen phyiscal evidence of a bug. Hopefully its not and its no more than a day long issue getting the bugs murdered.

Should be a really interesting upcoming week either way! Possible actually going to work for the first time in 3 years and finally getting this stupid bug situation taken care of and definitively knowing what the hell is biting allison. Also make sure you check out part 1 of my PLO video debut this thursday! I focus alot of the transitions from holdem to PLO.

So i grinded 100% PLO last month and that would be the first time I ever put any real time into the game. That being said, I'm completely hooked.

It's one of those things, where I just get passion for something as I try to solve certain aspects of the game. I've been playing alot of headsup vs. regs too... ideally some of the 'best' regs on merge. I use paratheses just cause I really think there's like 2 or 3 guys that deserve respect in the PLO arena on merge. That being said, I think i'm still a dog in alot of the hu matches I take. I just want to see what regs are doing and what ranges/adjustments they are making as the match goes on.

The really interesting stuff has been defining my own hand ranges in and out of position of calling, and 3/4 betting. I definitely still need some help on taht stuff, and who knows I might try to get a PLO expert on CR to make a video of my transition over to primarily PLO... and I hope to start making some PLO videos myself in the future and bring my same techniques for instruction to a different game. It's pretty insane going from a game where I'm pretty sure my pre-flop play was as close to optimal as it could get to a game where I have no idea if I'm playing optimally pre- or post- for that matter.

I've been playing the highest stakes real tables that run on merge which is basically a table of 3/6, 3 2/4 tables and 2 1/2 tables. I am looking forward to perhaps getting into a site where I can really play against good competition cause I feel like merge is a cakewalk... but maybe that's just PLO. Alot of mediocre regs playing too passiveas well regs 3betting way too much and getting raped oop. Just seems like regs have a really tough time finding the natural balance.

Maybe I'm just too new to the game to recognize these 'adjustments' they are making, but they all just seem like cookie cutter answers when it seems PLO is far more dynamic on all streets then NLHE and a cookie cutter strat should just get your raped. It also seems that alot of regs really have tilt issues which I think is a massive leak in the game where someone always has a strong hand. I guess the question I pose...

Is it really this easy for a winning mid-stakes NLHE player to transition into PLO? Cause it hasn't been that difficult of a move over... yet.

That's all... oh and ONE TIME. Is it possible France is gonna bail out the world for once?

So recently I've decided to really start barking up the PLO tree with a few of my friends from NLHE having pretty good success (*cough* newmanmi *cough* bigbox). It's been working out surprisingly well. Obviously, I've had a few mistakes on the way to starting to figure out the ins and outs of mid-stakes PLO but it seems like other regulars are making far more mistakes than me. I've been basically only 6tabling and trying to start as many tables as I can to get there. So here's a really silly hand history from a NLO table (that's right no limit omaha)... it's good to beat up fish on these tables but its such a clunky game that there is reason for it to ever be played by competent players...

***** Hand History for Game 40483182364 ***** (Merge)

$400.00 USD PL Omaha - Tuesday, September 13, 04:06:29 ET 2011
Table Sydney Harbour (40483182) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: NitttyByNature ( $1526.44 USD )
Seat 2: bllidiot ( $2334.93 USD )
Seat 3: Shacal ( $400.00 USD )
Seat 4: evanandmarin ( $255.60 USD )
Seat 6: Madammerock ( $400.00 USD )
bllidiot posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
Shacal posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NitttyByNature [ Ad Ts 6s 4d ]
evanandmarin calls [$4.00 USD]
NitttyByNature raises [$18.00 USD]
bllidiot calls [$16.00 USD]
Shacal calls [$14.00 USD]
evanandmarin folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 3d, 7h ]
bllidiot checks
Shacal checks
NitttyByNature checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
bllidiot bets [$38.66 USD]
Shacal folds
NitttyByNature raises [$1508.44 USD]
bllidiot calls [$1469.78 USD]
NitttyByNature shows [Ad, Ts 6s 4d ]
bllidiot shows [2d, 5s 5c 2h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 8c ]
NitttyByNature wins $3072.88 USD from main pot

That's right... its a 3k 2/4NLO pot. Just plain silly and I can't believe I faded a pair.

Anyways, here's been my results so far... anyone think I'm running hot?




I've heard once you go PLO... you can never go back to holdem. So this outta be fun once the run good wears off. Cheers.

So as perhaps you have or have not seen, I am selling action to event 38 on wednesday. I have about 10% left that I wanted to sell. I am selling at a 10% markup.

5% = $82.5 and 10% = 165

Sadly I can only accept paypal for pieces.

PM if you are interested in buying any of the action, and looking forward to my WSOP debut :). I'll definitely be posting updates via twitter so make sure you check me out there @damnringer!

Next stop vegas!!!

To take things to a whole different level of dorkdom... if anyone plays starcraft 2... I'm always looking for some decent players. Feel free to pm me your e-mail or add me on skype damnringer.

On a sidenote, when I discussed doing something productive with your downtime during black friday... this is exactly what i meant!

So I've finalized my dates to be in vegas this year for the series and it looks like i'll be out from June 22nd until the 28th. I also have decided to play my first WSOP tourney ever. That's right. I've never played a real live tourney, mostly because I tend to consider myself 100% cash game. I figure it will be good fun and I'm going to start at event 38 just cause I don't feel like dumping 10k down a toilet and 1.5k seems like a much better amount to put down a toilet :).

I'm mostly looking forward to playing alot of cash out there as i've been going through some very serious poker withdrawal recently. I keep having dreams of playing rush poker and waking up all pissed off. Anyways, if you guys are gonna be in town during that week, let me know. I'm always down to have a drink or 12.

What's happenin guys? I've been holding off on writing this blog for a few reasons. One I want to make sure things sufficiently blow over before I start throwing my hat into the ring and I've been moving across the country for the last 2 weeks. You might say, "hey ringer! it takes like 4 days tops to drive across the country, how does it take 2 weeks?". Well there's alot more to moving then driving out to your new location. FWIW, I moved to Denver, CO (still in america).

So I guess let me go through the moving stuff first since I brought it up and then we'll get to the black friday opinions. So skip to that part if you don't want to read a few paragraphs about a shitty moving experience. I decided back at the beginning of the year to move with my GF to wherever she got a job. It's pretty standard considering I didn't want to breakup with her and I have (or at least had) the luxury of working from anywhere with an internet connection. I made a small move from my apartment in DC to little ole Blacksburg, VA in March due to my lease in DC being up and it quite frankly making sense. My GF got a job offer in Denver, CO. For those euros out there, its a city in the Rocky Mountains which is pretty well known for being awesome. The move was slated for May 22nd. Everything was looking GREAT! I started shopping around moving companies for a cross-country move and decided on an "internet mover" known as Neighbors Moving and Storage. I got sold over the phone and basically needless to say I got screwed by this company. They never showed up to pick up our stuff and come May 22nd at about 10:30am, I fired them and told them I didn't want their business. They were suppose to show up one of the two earlier days and the dispatcher couldn't tell me when he expected the truck in. So boom 5 hours before we have to leave and no movers. A complete disaster. If moving across the country wasn't already stressful enough, I had no idea how i was going to get my stuff out there.

Thankfully, I had my apartment through June in Blacksburg. So my stuff could sit. My GF had one of her friends let the reputatable movers into the apartment to move us. Fwiw, the reputatable movers were about twice as much money which I'm sure I would have paid in getting screwed by this other company. I learned a valuable lesson about moving. DONT SKIMP ON THE MOVING COMPANY. Also, don't use internet moving companies. They almost all have ratings of D or F at the BBB so make sure if you decide to try one... you look that up first. Don't make the same mistake as I did.

Moving company shituation aside the move was amazing! The drive across the country was great. I really love the thrill of just picking up and hitting the reset button in life. So I love Denver and can't wait for winter which is a weird thing to say... but man, ski season is gonna be AMAZING! Also the apartment we got looks out at the mountains which I love as well.

Black Friday Thoughts

Man, I didn't see this one coming in the slightest. If you had told me poker would get shutdown, I thought it would be after the US deemed it to be illegal and then there would be a mass exodus offline. But BOOM it happened.

I started this whole thing pretty positive. I realized after it happened that I was in a pretty good place. I had alot of money saved up in my bank accounts as well as a degree in engineering. I could definitely go back into the work force with almost no effort at all. I decide after seeing the immediate shutdown that I would wait a few months to see what happened before I made any kind of life decision and on top of that, I decided I should finish the move too. So now its been a few months and I just finished the move. Here's my thoughts:

I started this whole black friday non-sense 99.9% sure i'd see the 70k+ I have on FTP in the next 3 months. Basically as each week goes by and each new update comes up from FTP as well as each new update about FTP comes out, my faith in FTP dwindles. I'd say I'm at about 50/50 on FTP ever paying US players. I just find it pretty hard to believe that they didn't pay before the WSOP as now it will be a 2 month long shitstorm for anyone repping FTP at the live events.

I think the Ivey update as scared me the most of all the things I've heard. I caught myself saying to a few buddies after it happened... "Ivey is so sick, he is distancing himself from FTP because he realizes they aren't the kinda people he wants to be affliated with". Then I realized what I said. Phil Ivey is basically jumping ship in the smartest way I can think of... by looking like a martyr for the players.

Oh man, that's all bad. I am continuing to wait for my money but if the ivey thing solidified one thing, its that we, americans, won't be seeing our FTP money for a few months at the very least. Don't get my wrong, if I never see that money again it won't be the end of the world. But it will definitely sting to have 70k go down the drain of an elaborate poker ponzi scheme.

That being said, I think there's still a 50% chance I see that money again and I've been known to win flips from time to time so let me go ahead and use my 'one time' right here. Don't go bankrupt FTP, one time!

I see alot of people trying to pretend its business as usual at FTP (all euros/canadians obv). I definitely understand their vantage point, and I gotta say i'd have been one of those people too if I wasn't on the recieving end of this. That being said, I think if you can't acknowledge something is wrong at FTP as a business... you are wrong. It'd be the equivalent of the people saying UB didn't mean to cheat and they are a good company. That being said, if there's fish... by all means you should play. Just don't blindly trust FTP with your money.

And now for the million dollar question... what am I going to do now? My plan is as follows: Ride the storm out until the end of 2011 with coaching and video production. Based off how much interest I get in that regard I possibly begin looking to get back into the workforce. I'm not 100% sure I want to get back into engineering though. I'm going to start pursueing a few possibly poker related jobs or something in the HR field. I seem to have a really good knack with consulting and dealing with customers on a day-to-day (who am i kidding hour-to-hour) basis. I think that's a pretty valuable tool in this kinda business. Obviously that being said, I'll be going back to engineering if nothing pans out in that regard. I do plan on coming back to poker when the US finally does regulate it though... and ideally I want to position myself to profit immensely when it does come back.

If any of you poker gurus out there, have a job opening that I could do remotely from Denver with some travel please let me know. I'd be more than willing to listen to anything out there as this is the first I've mentioned this publically.

But while this job stuff may sound like the poker dream is done... mine is just getting started. Hopefully we will look back and think that black friday was a step in the right direction and just a small bump in the road. Thankfully, I have planned well enough where its not the end of the world for me or anywhere close. But even if you have alot in savings and planned, don't just sit back and eat your savings. I personally really liked my "buy a house with a duffle bag full of money" dream and I don't plan on living off that money being a bum.

My one piece of advice to the american pros out there is: Don't sit back and wait for poker to come back. Find a way to position yourself for when poker comes back. This really happened, time to be adults and deal with it.

WSOP Plans

So my plans were to make several visits to the WSOP this year. I sadly didn't make my first trip due to the whole moving thing taking about a week longer than I thought. I am planning to go sometime in mid-june and probably another time in late june. So let me know when you guys are going! I'd love throw down.