All good things much come to an end, and unfortunately I am leaving CardRunners with immediate effect and moving onto other things. I first joined in 2007 and videos made by guys like Taylor, Brian and Brian were hugely helpful in advancing as a poker player. To this day I've continued watching a ton of poker videos and honestly think they are the most helpful way of learning about the game. In the early days I bought all the poker books I could find, and many were very useful like the super systems and some of the twoplustwo titles, but they don't quite prepare you for play or teach you how to think in the same way that videos do. I've had a great time here too and would like to thank the CardRunners community for their support and input on video ideas over the years, as well as Taylor, Andrew and Brian Townsend for having me here in the first place.

As for the future I have plenty going on as well as some new announcements and you can find out more by visiting my new website at www.philshawpoker.com, which contains archive magazine articles, news, videos, coaching info and from now on will be the home of my blog (I've already written up a pretty crazy series of antics from one player at EPT Madrid) as well as the best way to contact/follow me. Thanks for reading over the years and hopefully see you there!

Phil

www.philshawpoker.com

Well it's been quite a week! Black Friday saw PokerStars, Full Tilt and UB indicted by the DOJ and their .com domain names seized, causing widespread panic and paralysis over the weekend (no doubt the intended effect) as US players were blocked and people struggled to comprehend what was happening, plus what might happen to their money, and the sites were flooded with cashout requests and panic emails. Manic Monday saw Eurosites stock prices soar and the big sites still swinging back into action to try and counter the confusion with statements and press releases. Then by Whew Wednesday it all looked like a storm in a teacup (in relative terms) as the domain names were returned and the DOJ announced US players would be allowed to cashout promptly, signalling the start of a process that will likely end in some sort of plea bargain and fine (probably in the high nine figures), and could well be the first stage in the scramble for legalized online poker in the US. It almost happened in December in a more orderly fashion and insiders say there were a couple of eleventh hour saves in the intervening period, but it's here now and things are happening fast so who knows where we will be in a month or two.

For me personally as a UK citizen it was still pretty scary, as it makes getting Supernova Elite harder and i had decent amounts on both PokerStars and Full Tilt, though of course one of the points of playing there is that you trust your money is safe in such a situation. Even here it sort of felt like the aftermath of a disaster but that only took a couple of days to clear and by Thursday I had some nice withdrawals in my account, a SCOOP reload bonus, and also a trip out around town on PokerStars with the dream team of hosts Dustin and Serena! This consisted of a limo ride around town to pick everyone up, champagne on the London eye at sunset (cue Champagne Supernova jokes), and a nice meal at Las Iguanas on the Southbank. In attendance were TJBentham, Wazz, Gavz101, Gakn29, and myself among others (although one person simply wasn't in when the limo turned up!) and a good time was had by all. It was also filmed for PokerStars.tv and should hopefully be up in the coming week, in conjunction with other events around the world. It was, all agreed, a good end to a bad week, and may even be available for you to have a similar experience through the VIP Store at some time in the future if Dustin and Serena can swing its inclusion! Pictures below...

As for the future it seems the whole poker industry is in wait and see mode as the ripple effect works its way through every aspect of it from sponsored pros, to the staking forums and the training site industry. I'm currently on 270k VPPs which is close to pace without too much effort, so I'm probably going to take a few weeks off and play EPTs whilst the dust settles. It's going to be an interesting few months, and most of the last week has been putting out fires for the sites, so I'm sure they will now be moving into planning for upcoming events - I already got a questionnaire about changing the starting times for SCOOP today, and I'm sure all other issues will be dealt with equitably (Personally I'm hoping for some sort of changes in the VIP scheme to compensate for lower volume, and tougher games as the pros move abroad but the recreational players don't). I can't speak for Full Tilt, and who knows what's going to happen with UB, but I've known people at PokerStars since about 2004 and I can say that they've been planning for this sort of thing for almost as long (the EPT was a big party of outreach in the pre UIGEA era) and that they are smart peoples, so my recommendation for most people would be to get back to business and get on the SCOOP bonus!

Its been a great relief to get into the new year and no longer feel like i have to grind, even though it was fun, and its allowed me to review my goals for 2011 and set some kind of plan out. 2010 ended well, but im still pretty burnt out and have no desire to grind 24/7, so im basically going to do what i have in previous years and play sngs at the start of each week to see how it goes, and max them out in the good weeks for the leaderboards but take time off when it doesnt go so well and play cash gsmes. Hopefully there will be enough good weeks early to avoid having to really cram later, I also need to get back to basics and follow the plan i previously had of:

- playing sngs in the background when good cash games are running.
- betterr game selection, its easy to load every game and not care, which is basically what i will continue to do at 200s and 300s but i still want to apply some discrimination when they are jammed and at higher stakes.
- playing more at off peak hours.
- only playing 200+ games. I also experimented with seeing how many games i could run at once this year towards the end or when games were dead, but it didnt go so well. Although the 100s are very soft they are just too small to take seriously, i dont know the regs that play 100 and below and it diverts my attention from other games and leads to stuff like timing out too much.
- spending time reviewing hands. Its pleasing to see how well i have almost every situation internalised, but i still want to spend time reviewing hands to keep sharp
- play more steps, obviously they are way softer than the average games. Ill be in most step 5s and 6s around scoop and wcoop hopefilly.

In the rest of the time ill be focusing on mix games. So far ive mainly been playing 25/50 and 50/100 and whilst the games are pretty soft ive run terribly so im gonna force myself to stay here until things improve. Ideally id like to be playing the 100/200 - 250/500 regularly but i want to get a feel for them first too and build up a ftp bankroll rather than just depositing a bunch and jumping in. To counteract this ive run pretty good in the $200 stars mixed games tournies where most people are pretty bad, this weekend 1st in 8 game, 3rd in TD and 5th in Badugi. Theyre not exactly big events but late reg no runs for 90 mins so you can buyin late and have about 10-15 big bets, so as long as you run ok to start with its pretty time efficient.

Got there with 3 days to spare, didnt push it at the end or could have been there a week ago... will post trip report in the coming days, and screenshot if i can figure out how to get it here!

970k, so practically on pace now. Was going to burn it to be finished by xmas, but with all the snow it looks like going north will be impossible since the north yorkshire moors are pretty much impassable and the nearest train stops 30 miles away so ill be in and around London anyway and can coast home at leisure... Will post a full sne trip report once its over.

Have been coasting along getting 5-6k vpps happily for the last month or two which only takes about 3-4 hrs a day, but yesterday turned out to be a masssive grind thanks to a last minute decision to enter the UK RCOOP main event as there was a bit of overlay, despite not feeling great. 12hrs later i was almost at the final table and 15k VPPs nearer to the goal. It just finished in unspectacular fashion, coming 5th for 9k but i cant complain too much as i basically won zero big pots on day 2 and laddered from 10th to 5th by stealing to stay alive, before losing all-in as the short stack, and that was about my eqiity at the start of the day. Ive had quite a few MTT results like this in the last couple months but the luck is unfortunately eluding me at the end or in the biggest events. Its going better than the previous months though and ive enjoyed playing MTTs again for the first time in ages, so thats progress at least i guess!

As for the SNE chase im on 920k now, which is almost on pace for the year overall. There is a thread dedicated to the subject on 2p2 and a lot of people seem to be losing their minds at this stage playing smaller stakes with further to go. I havent minded it too much as its been keeping me busy and i havent had to push myself really, and 6-700 hrs in a year isnt exactly a full time job. I cant imagine spending any longer on it though, and am looking forward to getting back to cash games soon. Hopefully will be there around xmas weekend.