As some of you know, I have been working on a few business plans for the last couple of months. I am excited to announce that earlier this week I found a partner who is willing to sponsor one of my businesses. I cannot describe how happy this makes me.

The Business
I'm a launching a financial planning firm focused on a younger client base with little or no investable assets that want to get a head start planning their future. There is 10 - 20 year gap between when people get their first job and when they have enough investable assets for a financial advisor to consider bringing them on as a client. In addition, people usually don't consider hiring a financial advisor until they are in they are older and start thinking about college planning and retirement. This huge gap is a lot of time for people to make costly financial mistakes and it is certainly a lot of lost opportunities. Most people don't realize how putting away $100/mo at age 25 with an average growth rate can compound to over $1 mil by age 65. It's truly a proactive approach to planning for everything that is important in life, so we're not stuck in the mud if/when '07-'09 were to happen again.

I'm hoping to launch within 3 months, but there is still so much work that has to be done.

I know the new year is right around the corner and with that comes resolutions. Most people have a resolution that deals with money. Whether it's sticking to a budget or buying a new car, don't hesitate to contact with any questions. I'll be happy to help in anyway that I can.

I'm heading to Chi-Town today to spend the holidays with my girlfriends family. It's been in 70s this week in Austin, so I'm really not sure how I'm going to deal with cold up there. I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend.

TA

i've officially had my first downswing as a poker pro. i'm running 18 buy-ins under ev for the last 2.5-3 weeks. i've heard other players say it's variance and just let it run it's course. they say there is really nothing you can do, you just have to wait it out. that's a crock of s***. that is the easy way out. of course, you can't control the cards that fall, but you definitely control how you respond to the situation. this is your responsibility to your game.

i find it ridiculous for players to have a losing session and completely expect it because they are on a downswing. do you think that frame of mind had anything to do with having another losing session? if you expect something to happen it's going to happen.

what i'm trying to get at is you can't control variance, but you can have a influence on variance by controlling your frame of mind. i'm a strong believer in the power of positive thinking and i believe if one possesses this skill they can influence they way they are hit by variance.

it's such a simple concept, but putting it into practice on a consistent basis is so tough. a ton of people try to use positive thinking in their daily lives, but don't realize that they are actually attracting negativity. this one example comes up, because i realized myself doing it last night. people think to themselves, "i hope my aces don't get cracked" or "i hope i don't fail this test", but what they don't realize is they are attracting negativity. what are they really thinking? aces getting cracked and failing a test. after two instances of losing with KK alpf, i was thinking to myself, "i hope i don't get sucked out again" or "every time i get aces of kings i get no action." what did i really expect to happen? let's just say i either got sucked on or got no action.

change your mindset and i promise it'll change your game and the way variance affects it.

below are notes from one of my fav books 'thinking for a change' by john maxwell,

1. Changing your thinking changes your beliefs

2. Changing your beliefs changes your expectations

3. Changing your expectations changes your attitude

4. Changing your attitude changes your behavior

5. Changing your behavior changes your performance

6. Changing your performance changes your life

ta

with november coming to a close i began to reflect on my month. i had a decent month, but i did not hit one of my goals. truthfully, that really pisses me off. i should have realized that I was on track to have such a shitty month. i'm quick to talk about how great i am at reflective thinking and self improvement, but i couldn't even realize how unmotivated i was. i've always said how you plan your days shows how driven you are. not sure when my drive went, but it's time to bring it back.

looking back, i half assed everything: poker (although, i'm kicking ass at 50nl), my relationships with everyone, self development, exercising, and most importantly holding myself accountable. i'm not going to yap about what's going to change and how i'm going to do it. i know what i need to do and i'm going to do it.

december goals:

• top 10 ultimate grinder
• 40 hrs of playing time/week
• blog twice/week
• 15 hrs of study time (hand review, forums, videos, poker group discussion)
• volunteer 2 days
• goal setting every morning
• workout 5x week
• 1 chapter in book/daily
• meditation/visualization every morning & before sessions

If you haven't set your goals yet, what are you waiting for?

I've had a few friends recently ask me how I can play so many tables at once. As you know, it's hard to explain poker concepts to people without any or limited knowledge of the game. I tried to explain that most of the dynamics of poker become ingrained in your subconcious (folding K7o UTG) and 80%+ of your decisions will be pretty standard if you're playing ABC poker. This dicussion lead to the question of why do I not play less tables at higher stakes if I have a "solid" understanding of poker. Besides bankroll management I explained that my hourly rate is higher if I mass table smaller stakes than if I multi-table higher stakes. This then lead to why I stopped playing Rush Poker. Again, I had to explain the concepts of table dynamics and game flow and how these factors are taken away from the table with Rush Poker. Before these conversations I never truly thought about why I decided to switch from mutli to rush to mass tabling. So here it is:

Before I decided to play poker "professionally" I would play up to 6 tables at once. I was playing for fun & to make some extra $ so I never really tried to play more tables. When I decided to make poker my career I made a commitement to follow strict bankroll managment so I had to drop in stakes in order to abide my guidelines. No one really enjoys dropping down stakes, so I wanted to build my bankroll as quickly as possible.

I figured that since I could play 6 tables simultaneously I could handle 4 tables of Rush. I did this for a couple of weeks and beat Rush at a decent rate, but it was still a smaller rate than playing ring games. I was still making more $/hr, because of the amount of hands Rush allows, but my sessions became boring. In Rush, you have to tighten up so much. 3-bets are almost as common as a pf raise and stealing 65%+ is standard. What I disliked most about Rush is absence of many important table dynamics like:

• Table selection
• Having consistent position on fish.
• The ability to identify who is tilting and play accordingly.
• Game flow

Sorry for the rambles. I just didn't feel like posting in the forums, watching a vid, or grinding, so this is what you get.

This was another top notch weekend. On Saturday, I started grinding around 11am, because we were having game night at a friends house that evening, so I wanted to get my hands in. I played for about 4 hours and won 4 buy ins. I saw bits and pieces of the Indiana and Texas games and happy both won.

I hit up the mall with my GF for the first time in probably 9 months. I disdain the mall. I truly disdain shopping for clothing in person. I prefer purchasing everything online. I shop at particular stores and know my sizes in all of them, so there really is no need to try anything on. This journey was different and more exciting. I was on a mission to acquire some 'Skins gear and new hats. As a financial advisor for two years my sports clothing slowly disseminated as I wore a suit 5-6 days a week, so I was down to 2 caps (a black Texas hat & a black FTP hat - which looks more brown now since I've aged it). I purchased a Texas Rangers and Redskins cap and along with a 'Skins tee. I'm ready for game day baby.

I can say that I am very proud to be a 'Skins fan although we are 3-3. Every game this season has been close and we never give up. Our defense (specifically our secondary) is absolutely horrendous, but I think we'll be ok. Who the f is our RB, Torain? The kid has come out of nowhere and is tearing it up. And the best part of this season is the Dallas Cowgirls are 1-4 brahahahah. It makes me smile so big every time I say it.

On Saturday night we went over to our friends house and played Apples to Apples & Taboo and tossed back some brews as we watched football in the background. I love game night. I've very competitive and enjoy winning.

On Sunday we pretty much lounged around all day and watched football. We headed to a B.D. Rileys, an Irish pub, on 6th street to watch the 'Skins play the Colts. I'm the type of guy who can walk up to anyone and have a great conversation within 5 minutes of meeting them. I meant some pretty cool people there. To my right was a businessman with season tix to the Patriots and a pharmaceutical professor at Old Dominion. To my left were Maserati dealership gm's from all the over the country, whom I had to give the 411 on all the strip clubs in town. I tried to exchange it for test drives on some Maserati's, but they said this year they won't even be allowed to drive them. Oh well.

We had to leave in the 3rd quarter to watch Aziz Ansari:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpgmVqWikqM

Stand up comedy is my absolute favorite genre of comedy and nothing comes close to watching it live. His new stuff was ok. I don't think I would have laughed as hard if I had watched on tv.

After the show we headed to 6th street to party. We caught up with some friends who were at the show and pounded some shots at my buddies bar and watching drunk chicks ride the bull in tiny dresses. You know what ended up happening and what was shown. We finally ended up at some bar playing beer pong. We cleaned up although we both have played once in the last 6-8 months.

Time to grind. Stay up playas.

TA

I attended Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival this weekend. It was simply one of the greatest weekends of my life. My girlfriend was given a ticket by her boss, so we were able to give one of our tickets to my little sister who is senior in high school in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She had a blast, although, she was hanging out with us old folks. I really hope to make it a tradition with my girlfriend, sister, and brother (he couldn't come, he had midterms at Arizona State). Next year bro!

Here is the lineup of bands for the show (there were 110 of them!):
http://2010.aclfestival.com/user/95741/bands

Friday we watched:
Blues Travelers
Miike Snow (They put on a ridiculous show. Good grinding music)
The Black Keys
Beach House
Spoon
Vampire Weekend
The Strokes

Saturday:
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Pete Yorn
Gaslight Anthem
Black Lips
Broken Bells/Silverspun Pickups (saw both shows at the same time)
The Temper Trap
Matt & Kim (Best show of the weekend)
M.I.A (She suckedddddd)
Muse

Sunday:
The Morning Benders
Yeasayer
Rebelution (If you like reggae these guys are awesome)
The Flaming Lips
Cage the Elephant
The Eagles (Hotel California is my favorite song of all time. Now that I've seen it live, I can die a happy man.)

The lineup this year was not as strong as last year, but I had more fun this year, because of the people I was with. Company is everything. I will be buying my tickets for next year in the next few days. If you've never been you have to experience ACL and Austin at least once in your life.

The Grind
I didn't player any poker over the weekend for obvious reasons, but I picked up right where I left off. In my last 4 sessions I'm up 30 buy ins. I'm definitely running hot, but now that I've switched from Rush to regular FR I am able to play at a higher level, because I actually have time to think through my hands.

I've withdrawn 6 or 7 checks from FTP since mid September and have not received any of them. I've read on many different sites about many players having issues receiving them or even cashing them. I finally put my black member status to work by emailing them about the issue. They responded withing 10 min! whoa! They let me know all my options and said they were having delays from checks being sent around that time. I hope they resolve these issues quickly or I may have to become a full time PS grinder.

TA

I've been grinding 4-8 tables of Rush for the last couple of months and have not been getting the results to which I am accustomed. I am not winning at a rate that I should be, given my history of beating both 25nl and 50nl. I felt like I was in so many tough spots and didn't have enough time to think thoroughly through hands. I would get flustered and irritated and this put me on tilt many times.

I decided to go back to regular FR ring games. I've played 2 full days of 16 tabling 25nl. Here are my results:

I'm on fire. I'm definitely running well, but I also have so much more time to think about hands. Table dynamics finally come into play, where as, in Rush there is no such thing, unless you have a lot of history with a certain villian.

I feel so much more comfortable and relaxed. Decisions seem so much clearer and I feel more confident while I'm playing (who wouldn't running like that?). I'm so happy I made the change.

http://tonyaguilarjr.wordpress.com/

One thing I've realized is a lot people who say they are motivated/inspired/driven really are not. They think they have a great work ethic, but they are just lying to themselves. I was one of these people. I realized that I wasn't as ambition/motivated/driven as I thought, because of the way I lived my days. I had great intentions and great ideas, but never really acted upon them. I didn't pursue my goals and objectives like I should have. One way to really know if you are motivated or driven is to log your days and see what you accomplished. How you spend your time will show you how dedicated you really are.

I've gone through a lot of drastic life changes in the last 10 weeks. I've really been trying to piece together my life and the direction that I want my life to take. I've had a lot of time to think about what is really important to me and what I want to accomplish. I made short and long term goals at the beginning of the month, but really haven't held myself accountable for the things I'm pursuing. I decided to take the day off and lay out an action plan of everything I want to achieve in the near future.

Here are a few of the goals/tasks I want to accomplish:

• Play 6 days/week - 40 hours/week
• 1 Video per playing day
• 1 hour hand review - forum posts/playing day
• Workout 6 days week (I'm training for an adventure race in 6 weeks)
• Read for pleasure 1 hour day
• Rosetta Stone (Spanish) 5 hours/week
• I'm in the beginning stages of a few business projects that will also take a lot of time, in addition, to the meetings with business partners/investors.
• I am well connected person in Austin and will continue to attend at least 2 events per week to make sure I stay in the loop.
• I am cutting back on how much I drink when I go out
• I will be eating a lot healthier
• I quit smoking cold turkey. (I haven't had a cig today, just a snus pack...it was easier than I thought)