I didn't put too many hands in over March. I probably played most of the hands during the last week of the month as I was busy with finals and spring break. Speaking of spring break, I had an awesome time. Me and my girlfriend flew out to Colorado and went skiing for a week in Vail and Beaver Creek. The first day it was 65 degrees and sunny, most of the rest of the week was below freezing and we got tons of fresh snow, so we got to see some really great conditions ranging from tee-shirt weather to deep powder. Here are my results from March.

Didn't really put a lot of hands in but that's ok. I'm definitely rolled to play 5-10 but have only had a few unsuccessful shots thus far so I figured I'd play lower this month. I also think I probably can make more $ playing 2-4 than 5-10, as the competition is much softer and I can find more opponents. It also helps that lifetime I'm still at 10.8ptbb/100 at 2-4 HU.

I haven't updated this blog in a long time, I hope to do that more often. I have been a cardrunners member off and on since the early stages of the site. I realized that I wasn't really watching enough videos each month to justify paying the monthly fee, so not too long ago I cancelled my paid subscription. Luckily cardrunners started the free poker training promotion and I am getting enough FT points each month to get about 2 weeks free.

Life Update:
I am currently a graduate engineering student at Dartmouth College and am in the process of finishing my winter term classes/projects this week. I have a job starting this summer as an assistant trader at a well respected trading firm. I am very excited to start that as my twin brother also works there. Between now and then I have one trimester left of school and lots of exciting trips planned. I plan on going to Vail for spring break with my gf. Over the summer I hope to take a roadtrip across either the western US or Europe, we ll see.

Poker Update:
I've played a ton of poker since the last time I made a post, and have improved a lot. I realized that to get better at poker there are two things you need to do: 1. Think about decisions when you play 2. Put in some hands. You will never get better if all you do is play 3k hands a month and watch tons of training videos. Here is a graph and my stats for the past year or so.


I've recently been on a small breakeven $ stretch. Much of this is due to losing money at 5-10 and winning $ at 2-4. I wish I would run better at HS but it's nothing to worry about.
I've considered getting coached for a long time but the coaches I feel that would have value to me all have high price tags. I definitely don't want to pay $200/hour (about my hourly rate playing) for someone who is at the same level as I am. Suggestions for MS/HS coaches are appreciated. I've also considered coaching other people, I'm not sure what hourly I would start charging at but I'm sure it would be lower than coaches with comparable stats. I completely disagree with coaches who think they are justified charging their hourly rate at poker as their coaching rate. It doesn't make make any sense imo. The reason is because playing at the stakes where they are earning a certain hourly requires a certain base of capital (bankroll), whereas coaching does not. I agree that a good coach probably has spent lots of time fine tuning a program etc. but it all comes down to not risking any $. You wouldn't pay a trader his trading hourly rate(where is he risking lots of $) for coaching, there is no reason poker should be any different.

So I've finally decided that playing HU is where the $ is. The graph is below, obviously the last 2k hands don 't look pretty but besides that I am doing really well. I am currently living in Philadelphia for the summer and it's not too bad. I think I like Chicago a little bit better but I have no complaints. I went out for all you can eat sushi last night with a bunch of fellow interns at this place called Aija. There were about 10 people with us and I tried to get everyone to play credit roullette (even though I run bad at it), but most people just wussed out. If you're going into trading, I don't see why you can't take a small risk (bill wasn t even that big at around $275). Oh well, here is a graph, before this I was running at 12ptbb/100 at 1-2, now I think I'm around 10. Thanks for reading

I haven't really updated this at all lately. I have been very busy and am about to graduate from college in about a week and a half. I'm pretty excited as I have a really fun summer planned. I'm going to Europe for about two weeks with my twin brother and am super pumped about that. I've never been there so it should be great to get drunk with some euro-babes. I am working this summer in Philadelphia as an intern doing options trading for SIG. In the fall I start up with Dartmouth Engineering again and do that for one more year to get a bachelor of Engineering degree. Before I do that I hope to make it out to Vegas as I've never been there either.

As for poker I've been playing almost strictly heads-up lately and that has been going well. I really like playing it and feel much more mentally engaged playing HU rather than grinding it out 6 max. I've also been running well. Here are my stats at 1/2.

I've been putting in more hours than usual recently, I m playing as a prop on this one site(can t say which one on here) where I get around 100% rakeback. Though playing on these small sites has some negatives, like slower software and less game selection, getting so much back in rake is huge. It s so nice to start the week off with a boost to my bankroll. On fulltilt I ve broke even for my last 10k hands, which happens sometimes. I think I've been playing too many tables and playing too mechanically. Also I ve been running pretty badly. Sometimes I would say that thinking you re running badly is just making excuses for poor play but this time that is definately not the case. It s losing 6 out of the last 7 60-40 and 80-20 as a favorite type spots . I can t win with a straight without someone filling a set(or 2 pair) up or hitting a flush. Normally I d be a little upset but this time I know I ve been getting it in good the majority of the time.

On another note my final semester at SLU has just started and things are going well. I m taking lots of upper level math and physics type courses so it should be tough. I feel like I have more energy now because I ve been exercising and eating a lot better so far this year. One of my friends who regularly plays 5-10nl, 10-20nl is gonna do some sweat sessions with me to give me some advice. It s funny because a year ago I was doing the same thing for him when he was playing 50nl. I guess some people move up faster than others. No worries though, I ll get there one day.

I had a nice family Thanksgiving celebration and it was great seeing my friends from back home again. In poker related news, I had a pretty sick downswing. I was playing a lot of heads-up and 1-2nl and just ran cold/didn't play well for a little while. By the end I was down about 12 buyins at 1-2. I have had downswings before, but it always seems that you forget about their inevidability and get blindsided by them when it happens. I think it is definately a mix of running bad leading to playing badly. Usually I say I almost never tilt but honestly looking back over the some of the hands I d say I definately made some tilty plays. So what did I do? Did I but my whole bankroll at risk and try to double up in a 25-50 game? Hell no. I took a break, played some video games, partied with friends, and did normal college kid stuff for a few days. When I felt better I got back on some lower limits (.5-1) and played well again.

I feel that I really learned something this time. I titled this post thanksgiving not only because it was the holiday that passed but also that I really have to be thankful that I've had fairly good results over the past couple years. Even with the downswing I am still up for the term. Not that I have been killing it but results have been good. Even if I had lost money for the term, I really realize that playing poker is about taking risks., and I'm not just talking about the obvious, risking money. You are taking a risk when you take a lot of time to learn the game, pay for a poker training site, and sit a bunch of hours playing online. You're risking that with all your dedication and work, it's possible you might not be good enough, you might break even, you might lose money. I d say for an average person (who studies the game and tries to move up) it might go like this:

%25 lose money

%25 break even

%30 small winner (maybe a couple thousand)

%15 solid winner (10K+)

%5 Big winner (dominates 5-10nl+)

I made up these probabilities on the fly so they are certianly not exact , but the point is that it is worth it to take that chance to win big.

Finally got the money to move up to 1-2nl. I used to play this game (and 2-4,3-6) prelegislation but I took a long break from playing poker seriously and when I came back games were obviously tougher. It was almost like another bankroll building experiment, in the beginning of my career, I went from $50 to about $35,000. Then due to cashing out almost all of it and taking a break I started up with $500 in my fulltilt account about 6 months ago. Thankfully that is now around $6000 and I m starting to play in the games I used to be playing in. I've had the itch to play more lately, though I can't put in tons of hours like some of you guys due to school constraints(ship the 4.0's) and wanting to have a social life. Here is my stats from the past week.(I know very very small sample size)

So things have been good far at 1-2. We'll see how I do in the upcoming weeks.

Besides the poker not too much else is new. I went up to Dartmouth last weekend for homecoming which was awesome. (One of my friends got arrested for indecent exposure, hahaha) This upcoming has a ton of halloween parties so I m pumped for that, still not sure what I am gonna be. Oh and I also bought a HUGE bottle of Jack Daniels.

Later

I didn't keep a blog at all over the summer, so I figured I would make a post talking about some of the more memorable moments of my past summer because it was a good one. I grew up in Rochester NY, but my twin brother and I both got jobs as assistant trader interns at SIG in Chicago. We stayed at the UIC dorms with another coworker, the dorms were ok, but in restrospect we probably should have done some more research and lived in a better area of town. A bunch of my friends ended up living in Lincoln Park, which is a much nicer area for people in their early twenties.

Chicago is a really nice city. It is much cleaner than NY, has plenty of stuff to do, and even has some nice beaches. Lake Michigan is really nice during the summer months and there is a bike path that follows the lake for a very long way that is excellent for running. One cool thing that happened during my summer is that I got to meet Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins for lunch. We met up at an awesome burrito place called Qdoba and just shot the shit about Chicago, poker, girls, partying etc. One thing I came away with it is really how much those guys seem exactly like your typical young twenty somethings as they seem to have a lot fun and go out and party. At the same time they've accomplished so much in terms of this site and with poker. It shows that you can really do well in business and still have a fun life. I feel bad for those I-banking kids who are working 100+ hours a week and not really having that much time to just relax and enjoy their 20's.

Alright I gotta finish writing a paper and then maybe I'll have time to go out tonight. (Also got Bioshock for the 360 a few days ago, really really awesome game, I highly recommend it if you've got some free time on your hands). Take it easy

So the biggest news of my weekend is that I lost a pot where I held quads, which has never happened to me before. I flopped a set of 6's, other guy flops a set of Q's on a Q 9 6 board. Turn comes Q 9 6 6, river Q 9 6 6 Q. I wasn't mad about it, I never really tilt, it just made me say "wow" and kept playing. I then got 2 outted twice in about 5 minutes. Oh and I also flopped a top full house, only to be 1 outted to a guy with quads on the river. Luckily this was all at 100nl. I then stepped it up and playing 4 tables of 200nl made my money back and then some.

Besides playing poker I did some solid drinking over the weekend. Me and one of my buddies ran the table in beirut over about 8 games of 10 cup. It was parents weekend up here at SLU, my parents didn't make it, but it was funny to play drinking games with the parents of my friends. Saturday I got pretty drunk and went to the local bar, which really sucks compared to a real bar(because I am in Canton NY), but it was kinda fun because a lot of people were there this weekend.

One more kind of funny thing; you know when you're sitting at a table, usually at a HU table, you're doing well, and an observer with a sn you don't know comes in and says stuff like "hey (insert your sn here), how s it going?" In my experience this line is always followed with "I just need x more hands to clear this bonus, can you lend me $10?" Well today was the first time it was someone who actually knew me. It was one of my friends who is currently in London studying abroad. I haven't seen him in about 2 years but it was cool he recognized my sn as he was looking for tables. Before he told me was he was, I almost told him "I don't lend money, please leave, you stupid beggar."

Not much else to say, right now I m doing a take home physics exam. Pretty soon one of my friends is gonna lend me Bioshock for the 360 which is supposed to be great, so I'm pumped for that.

I think I'll start a blog on CR discussing some poker related ideas and maybe some other random stuff. As far as my background goes, I am in my 4th year of school, I'm doing a 3+2 Engineering program between St. Lawrence and Dartmouth, where I spend years 1,2,4 at St. Lawrence and years 3,5 at Dartmouth. I end up with degrees from both schools; from SLU I get a B.S. in Physics and Math, from Dartmouth I get a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering. Pretty good deal. As far as poker goes, I'm currently just grinding 100nl, maybe some 200nl on full tilt. Back in the golden days of online poker I used to be up in 600nl, but due to cashing out 25k+ to pay for tuition and taxes I ve had to move down a bit. Games have definately gotten tougher from back then, I honestly wish I had played more than I did while there was so much money to be made. Here is a shot of my recent stats playing a bunch of tables:

So I'm doing decent, but the winrate could be better. Much of that is due to the first 20k hands I don't really think I was playing well. Recently I've been thinking about the game much more and that has been reflected in my results. I am not sure whether or not I still have the desire to play a ton and move higher and higher. It would be nice, but I have so many other things going on right now. Plus I feel that I can probably make more money by getting a good job when I graduate. I think I am going to go into trading, which I actually have a phone call coming today from a recruiter in a few hours to discuss what I am going to do this summer. My twin brother goes to Cornell, already has a job offer that is REAL nice for a kid just graduating college, and has interviews with several more top trading firms in the upcoming week. One place he interviewed with is Optiver, where they interview by getting 50+ people in a room and give them this math test that only like 10% of people pass (these 50 people are usually very smart, ivy league, math, physics, engineering type kids). Nuff said, he was the only American to pass in that round. Either way things look good for the future, i ll try to update this occasionally with progress in poker or life...take it easy.