As I head back from an unforgettable weekend in Vegas with some of my favorite people after making some memories that will last a lifetime, I am feeling inspired to write about one of my favorite topics - greatness. I have always been drawn to those who excel at their craft. As a child, I idolized Michael Jordan, becoming a Chicago Bulls fan in Pennsylvania, reading everything I could about him, buying his jersey, and pretending to be him taking the last shot on my bedroom hoop. Sports was my passion early in life. I ate, breathed, and slept sports, with a dash of video game playing thrown in. Speaking of video games, I was a subscriber to Nintendo Power magazine, where I read articles about Shigeru Miyamoto (hope I got that right), the designer of many groundbreaking games such as Super Mario Bros/World/64, The Legend of Zelda series, and more. I had some ambitions of becoming a game designer and creating masterpieces that Miyamoto himself would be proud of.

As I have gotten older, my range of interests has expanded quite a bit, but the concept remains the same. I have tons of respect and admiration for those at the top of their fields. The more I learn about the process it has taken these people to get to the top, the more I am inspired. Here is a list of some people who have drawn my admiration over the years: Dave Grohl (rock musician, Foo Fighters, formerly drummer for Nirvana), Thom Yorke (singer and guitarist, Radiohead), Jay-Z (king of the world, Illuminati), Masaharu Morimoto (chef, Iron Chef TV show Japan), Derek Jeter (shortstop, New York Yankees/MLB), Mariano Rivera (closer, Yankees), Scottie Pippen (small forward, Bulls), LeBron James (jack-of-all-trades, Cavs/Heat/NBA), Derrick Rose (point guard, Bulls), Emmitt Smith (running back, Cowboys/NFL), Peyton Manning (quarterback, Colts/Broncos/NFL), Phil Jackson (coach, Bulls/Lakers/NBA), Mike Krzyzewski (coach, Duke/NCAA hoops - still hate 'em!), Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr (forwards, Pittsburgh Penguins/NHL), Gregg Popovich (coach, San Antonio Spurs/NBA), Tim Duncan (forward, Spurs), Lionel Messi (forward, Barcelona/La Liga), Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix (legendary guitarists), The Beatles (bigger than God), Kenny Mayne (anchor, SportsCenter - my first AIM SN was after him), Al Michaels (play-by-play, all sports), Peter Gammons (baseball reporter, ESPN), Bob Ryan (journalist, Boston Globe), Steve Jobs (CEO, Apple/Pixar), David Einhorn (founder, Greenlight Capital), Mark Cuban (entrepreneur, Broadcast.com/owner, Dallas Mavericks/shark, Shark Tank), Warren Buffett (CEO, Berkshire Hathaway/GOAT investor), Benjamin Graham (author, The Intelligent Investor/legendary investor), Bill Gates (CEO, Microsoft), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (founders, Google), Mark Zuckerberg (CEO, Facebook), Malcolm Gladwell (author, Blink/The Tipping Point/etc), Michael Lewis (author, The Blind Side/The Big Short/Moneyball/etc), J.K. Rowling (author, Harry Potter), Daniel Day-Lewis (actor, There Will Be Blood/Lincoln/Gangs of New York), Brad Pitt (actor, lots of awesome movies), Bryan Cranston (actor, Breaking Bad/Malcolm in the Middle), David Simon (creator, The Wire), Steve Levitt (economist/co-author, Freakonomics), Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Frederic Hayek, Milton Friedman (economists), Garry Kasparov (chess), ....ok fine, I'll stop there, but I COULD go on. If you made it to the end of this paragraph, pat yourself on the back while simultaneously questioning why you have so much free time on your hands :P.

My point is that I have always been fascinated by people of all walks of life who excel in their respective fields and rise to the top. When I started getting into poker my junior year of high school, I gobbled up info from those whom I respected most: Doyle Brunson (Super System), Dan Harrington (HOH series), Tom Dwan (2+2 posts), and then Taylor Caby after the founding of CardRunners. I was one of the first members of the site, having been a regular poster on Pocketfives in my early days. When Taylor announced the upcoming opening of CardRunners, I felt a rush of excitement in anticipation of being able to learn from him. I had sweated his Ultimate Bet $50/100 HU NL matches vs Prahlad Friedman every chance I could and looked up to him. Naturally, when Taylor approached me to join CardRunners and make videos, I was a bit starstruck, a lot nervous, but also very excited about the opportunity. My social skills as a 17-year-old weren't fully developed by any stretch, but I think I've done a pretty good job of producing quality video content over the years. I've certainly never been one to half-ass my work, and I think that has shown in my videos over the years.

Having said that, my level of involvement with CardRunners and production quality of my videos has not always been elite. While I have plenty of valid reasons to explain this, excuses are worthless in the end and I have ambition to do better. All of the people I mentioned above have one overriding thing in common - they busted their asses and outworked their competition to get to the top of their fields. The more I have learned about these people, the more I realize how much of a role relentless work ethic played in each of their successes. LeBron came into the league with more hype than any player in the past 20 years and all the talent in the world. He could've easily given 80% effort, still become a top 5 player in the NBA if not the best, and gone down as one of the 25 greatest basketball players of all time on talent alone. But LeBron isn't wired that way. His first few years in the league, his biggest knock was his outside shooting. What did he do? He worked long and hard on his jump shot and became an above average 3-point shooter. Then he was criticized for settling for jumpers too often. Consequently, he spent the next few summers working on his post game, and now he is an extremely intelligent, refined player who is basically unstoppable and just put together one of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history. You can do the research on your own, but basically everyone on the list above has similar stories.

I worked VERY hard on my poker game to get to where I am today and pulled off a very difficult balancing act in college juggling poker, academics, and fun, but I think as a result of this time crunch (not to mention little perceived financial incentive as I had way more money than any 20-year-old could ever know what to do with), my CardRunners work suffered at least a bit and I didn't quite reach my full potential. I was more Shaq - someone who had tons of talent and did a GOOD job of using it, but was also distracted with an entertainment career, etc - than LeBron. Now that I am out of college, settled in a great home in Fort Lauderdale, and worked through a bit of an early-20s quarter life crisis-type funk, I want to be LeBron. Or at least I want to work like LeBron. I could settle for being the Joakim Noah - a Bulls center who routinely plays through injuries and gives 100% effort night in, night out while consistently getting better despite the ugliest jump shot known to man - of poker training. But the point is, I want to reach my full potential. I have started doing private coaching recently too (email me at stingercoaching@gmail.com for inquiries), and the early results have been very rewarding. I've gotten to work with some fascinating people, and although it's early, I already feel like I'm making a difference. Over the years, I've gotten plenty of extremely kind compliments from CR members who I have helped through my videos, but the impact is easier to see when it is so close and tangible. I recently recorded part 1 of a PLO series, and I will be recording 2 more parts of that in the near future as well as a number of On The Go videos (CR mobile = the nuts).

The pursuit of greatness is also what has me so excited about DraftDay. I get some crap from friends from time to time for constantly wearing DraftDay shirts to poker tourneys and tweeting about it, but truthfully I don't at all feel like a corporate shill - the site genuinely EXCITES me. It excites me so much that I rented an apartment in Chicago for 6 months trying to figure out a way to increase my level of involvement. Ultimately, I realized that I have a special talent in poker and a real passion for it and that poker is what I should be doing right now, but that doesn't make me any less excited for DraftDay's future. I think Taylor, Andrew, and the entire staff have done an incredible job, and in my opinion the user experience of the site is far and away the best in the daily fantasy sports industry and continuing to get better. We recently launched Rapid Fire games, in which you pick amongst 5 head-to-head matchups in your sport of choice. In the regular Rapid Fire games, you strive to get at least 3/5 correct, in which case you double the prizepool portion of your entry (after 10% rake). In the Rapid Fire Max games (my favorite), you try to parlay 5/5 and 20x your money. I've been awfully busy recently between work and travel and random other stuff, but these games literally take 30 seconds to enter and make a day of sports sweating that much more fun. If you haven't signed up for DraftDay yet, take my $5 challenge here. It's a free pick'em game which takes about a minute to enter, winner gets $5 and bragging rights.

Lastly, greatness is what made this past weekend so special to me. I got to spend it with some incredible friends (you know who you are) as well as my cousin Joe and his wife Lisa, and I got to stay at a world-class resort (Aria) that is a pioneer in sustainable architecture, eat top notch meals at Kabuto (sushi), Julian Serrano (Spanish tapas), and Milos (Greek), see two of the world's premier DJs (Tiesto and Calvin Harris), visit Las Vegas' newest, greatest nightclub - Hakkasan, a truly mind-blowing facility, and see some elite performers in Zarkana, the new Cirque du Soleil show at Aria which instantly became my favorite Cirque show I've ever seen. It was a truly intoxicating weekend (see what I did there?) and one that I will never forget.

Brian

I haven't written a real book report/review since my high school days of getting free pizza from Pizza Hut, but I just finished Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson (11-time NBA champion head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers) and feel sufficiently moved to write one. The book was recommended to me by CardRunners' own Andrew Wiggins, who has been a good friend of mine since I joined CR in 2005. Andrew and I have become even closer over the past few years even as my life has become more poker-centric and his less, largely because we have found common ground on a number of issues, ranging from the Chicago Bulls to music to the economy to, most importantly to me, spirituality. When I fell into a depressive funk in the fall of 2010, something that was caused by a myriad of factors: a tough breakup, Black Friday, adjustment to life alone in "the real world", and the types of growing pains and uncertainty that I have come to realize many people in their early-mid 20s face. One remedy that was suggested to me by several people, most notably my personal trainer in Vancouver (whom I had hired mainly to force myself out of the house since by nature I felt like being a total hermit) and Andrew, was learning about Eastern philosophy and spirituality. In short, the main tenets of Eastern spirituality (principally Buddhism) as I understand them are: (a) live in the present moment, immerse yourself in whatever it is you are doing, and strive to achieve 100% concentration and effort, and (b) live your life with compassion toward others and try to understand things from several points of view. At the time, I didn't know a whole lot about it and was highly skeptical. How was a set of beliefs on a general philosophy going to help MY problems? Learning how to live in the present wasn't going to replace my girlfriend, wasn't going to allow me to grind Full Tilt Poker from the Manhattan apartment I had envisioned moving into that fall pre-BF, wasn't going to give me an athlete's body, wasn't going to bring my life direction into focus. So I brushed recommendations on reading material that I received, such as Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now", off for the time being.

Two and a half years, two therapists, and many conversations with friends and family later, as well as 180 degrees turned around on the happiness scale, I can say that I have a much healthier outlook on life, and I think Eastern philosophy has been a positive influence. The key point that I have learned is that we can change our feelings by changing our beliefs, which we can change by changing our thoughts. This is what psychologists refer to as acceptance theory. It is incredible how different my mindset is today versus 2 years or even 5 months ago despite my circumstances really not changing all that much. Acceptance theory is based on realism and learning to accept the hand one is dealt in life, while also keeping the mind in position to change that which we can control. For example, one thought that bothered me was my belief that I had wasted my college experience to an extent; that despite holding a bachelor's degree in economics degree from Cornell University, I hadn't worked hard enough in college and hadn't attained sufficient mastery of the material in the classes I took, and that if I decided to quit poker and get a "real job", I would be unemployable because of this. Essentially, I was depressing myself by comparing myself to similarly talented peers who had given 100% of their career-oriented focus and energy toward their academics while I was playing poker 15 hours a week and had the knowledge in the back of my mind that poker was always there and I was never going to struggle to support myself. Viewpoints like this do nothing but poison the mind, and thinking in this manner for long enough makes the beliefs start to become self-fulfilling. I was looking at things from a very self-centered point of view and neglecting to realize that many others have similar feelings at times, as well as failing to take conflicting (positive) information into account. Regarding that specific point, I now hold the beliefs that (a) college is more about learning how to learn and proving that one can achieve when faced with the task of learning difficult material, rather than about storing information (most employers want to train employees in their own ways anyway), (b) motivation plays a large role in everything we do; although I was internally motivated to get a college degree and to learn in my classes, I lacked key motivators that other peers had, such as financial pressures and fear of failure, and (c) given my circumstances, I actually did a damn good job in college (3.2 GPA, 3.5 last 3 semesters), and if I decided tomorrow that I didn't want to continue with poker, I could set my mind to something I was passionate about and excel. This is obviously a much healthier belief system than the one I previously possessed.

Regarding the actual book (this was intended to be a book review after all!), when Andrew told me about it I was immediately intrigued since I am I diehard Chicago Bulls fan who grew up idolizing Michael Jordan and watching Space Jam on repeat. I have become a particularly big basketball fan in recent years and have learned lots about the game through watching, reading blogs and articles, and discussing with friends (Haralabos Voulgaris!), and I have always had a high level of respect for Phil Jackson as well as a curiosity as to what has made him so successful, both in terms of sheer championship success and in molding transcendent stars like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant into champions. This book was eye opening to say the least. While it used plenty of basketball stories and anecdotes, it's really not about basketball on a grand level. I started to realize this in the "Sacred Hoops Revisited" section of the book (written in 2006, rest of book written 1995), which talked about a story of Phil running into a guy in a hotel lobby who was a jazz musician and instructor. He told Phil how he was not a basketball fan, but he had read Sacred Hoops and it made such an impression on him that he made it required reading for all the musicians he taught due to its lessons on compassion, teamwork, and focus. After reading the book, I have to say that I think just about anyone can enjoy and benefit from it - poker player, athlete, 9-5 worker, stay-at-home mom - it just helps give a blueprint on how to improve your thinking and your way of life. The book really hits home for me because Phil describes his early life, his parents' religious background, and his tension while evolving into adulthood over his non-belief over certain aspects of the religious ideas he was taught. Eastern spirituality helps him relieve this tension by teaching compassion and belief in a greater good while not taking as strong stances on certain topics. He then details his playing career and how discovering his spiritual side helped him become a better basketball player and person, and continues by outlining his coaching career (up to 1995) and how he used Zen Buddhism, meditation, and Eastern philosophy as part of the coaching strategy that enabled him to become one of the most successful coaches in sports history. It's a really fascinating read, and if it moves you 1/10 as much as it moved me you will be happy that you read it.

Brian

I have a few quick updates. In no particular order:

-After feeling out the market some and thinking about it some more, I've settled on some coaching rates. 800/hour is still the rate for an indivdual session, but for larger commitments I'm lowering it to 700/hour for 3+, 600/hour for 10+, or 500/hour for 20+. Probably not moving from this at all, I have had a pretty strong amount of interest.

-Unfortunately, I haven't done much actual coaching yet because I've been computerless for a week now. I spilled water on my computer and took it to a specialist (uBreakiFix, super happy with their service) and they told me I need a new battery. Ordered one online and got it, but then took it to them and realized it was the wrong one. If you're ever buying a computer battery, make sure you have the correct exact model of the computer and battery on the same page.

-I did a 2p2 Pokercast interview discussing PLO and mixed game strategy and more. Link: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/97/two-plus-two-pokercast/pokercast-episode-264-brian-hastings-jesse-may-1315562/

-I also did a Cardplayer interview that focused more on my life and history as a poker player. I was really happy with how this one went and thought Logan asked great questions. Link: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/15256-brian-hastings-high-school-teacher-played-key-role-in-launching-my-high-stakes-poker-career

-I've had a few brief TV appearances recently on both the World Poker Tour and the NBC Heads Up coverage. WPT airs Sunday nights on Fox Sports Net (check local listings), NBC Sports is 2 hours on Thursday nights (I think 8:30-10:30pm) before switching to NBC for the later rounds.

-Because of the computer issues, I haven't been able to make any CR videos, but I have plenty of material and ideas to use and plan on making a bunch more in the near future. If you have any ideas for videos you'd like to see, post here or Tweet at me @brianchastings

GL,
Brian

I've had many inquiries regarding poker coaching over the years, and my answer to all but a handful of these has been no. However, I have been rethinking the possibility of getting more involved in coaching, and I have decided that I want to start doing it actively. Why now? For a number of reasons, honestly. In no particular order:

-To be frank, I'm on the biggest downswing of my life. It may or may not be the biggest money-wise - I'm not counting to the dollar (although I'm much better at record-keeping than I used to be) - but it's certainly the biggest time-wise. In May last year I had a very successful trip to Vancouver to play the SCOOP and cash games on PokerStars, then headed to Vegas and bricked the Bellagio 25k WPT Championship and 100k high roller (although I did sell a lot of action for that), lost a few hundred thousand dollars playing cash games (highlighted by a 200/300 NLH hand in a mix game where I 3 barrel bluffed against an unknown in a massive 3bet pot on an AJ9r63 board including a 95k overbet shove on the river and got hero-called by 98), got some redemption and achieved a major goal by winning the WSOP 10k HU event, and since then I've basically been in a downward spiral of losing. I'm not looking for sympathy, just laying out the facts.

-In spite of this losing streak, I feel that my poker game is better than it's ever been. Despite the lack of consistent access to good online poker games (#landofthefree), I've stayed fresh by playing lots of live poker both in my new home state of Florida and traveling to some live tourney stops as well as watching training videos, discussing poker with friends, and browsing forums, particularly the 2+2 NVG monthly high stakes threads which help me stay in touch with the current state of high stakes online poker and see how today's superstars are playing and learning things from them. I've spent quite a bit of time learning new games (as you'll see in my upcoming CR video "Broadening Your Horizons") and feel like I have plenty of top notch advice to impart not only in PLO but also in games such as O8, Stud8, and Triple Draw. My poker game has adapted to become much more game theory-oriented, which I think is crucial for success in an ever-toughening poker climate.

*Sidenote* If you haven't checked out CR's new mobile site I highly recommend doing so. Video playback works great as long as the internet connection is solid. I watched Andreas' (Skjervoy) latest video in a ski lodge bar on Whistler mountain with a friend on Wifi during a quick break the other day. Quality and content were both superb.

-Aside from the reasons I listed in the above bullet-point, I also feel more capable of coaching right now because I am in a good place mentally, which honestly has not consistently been the case over the past few years. I've battled depression that has been quite severe at times. I think there were several triggers; essentially in April 2011 Black Friday happened, in July I went through a tough break-up, and by September I was sitting in my apartment in Vancouver on a temporary three-month visa asking myself "Is this my life now?" I've been very quiet publicly about this, somewhat because I'm a private person in general, some because I realize that in many ways I have been incredibly fortunate in life, and putting myself in others' shoes hearing me discuss my issues could sound a bit ridiculous. But the more I've opened up with friends in private about my personal struggles, the more I've realized how common they are and how foolish it is to pretend like one doesn't have them. We are all human, and saying that the human brain is a complex thing to understand is an understatement. I was also motivated by my friend Ben (NeverScaredB) Willnofsky's blog a few months ago about mental illness - it was a thoughtful, open, and honest read that I'd recommend to everyone. Fortunately, I think I've worked through a lot of my issues, and I feel better than I have in quite some time despite my downswing. I wouldn't want to take students' money if I didn't feel like I could give them appropriate value, and until recently I did not feel mentally strong enough to do that.

-I've also had reservations about coaching in the past because I felt like even if students were willing to pay the high rates I'd demand, I'd feel nervous that I wouldn't give them their money's worth. This mainly stemmed from a lack of experience in coaching and a lack of confidence in my interpersonal skills. I guess I still haven't done tons of one-on-one coaching but I've taught enough to friends and had enough people tell me "your videos helped me to become the player I am today" to convince me that I can coach at a high level. I think I've grown as a person tons in the last few years as well, and I feel much more self-confident socially now. I've always felt that coaching could be very rewarding on a personal level beyond the money, but my lack of confidence (at least relative to my playing ability) inhibited me from wanting to get more into it. I think I've cleared that hurdle.

-Despite bills passing in Nevada and New Jersey, the US online poker situation is still a mess. Federal legislation seems to be a few years away at best. I purchased a condo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last summer (right before the downswing started) and now proudly call it home. While I still plan to do some poker traveling, I love being in Florida. I've met some amazing people in my short time there and the weather in the winter months is second to none. I long for the day when I can sit out on my balcony overlooking the beach and grind some PokerStars.com or .fl, WSOP.com, MGM.com, or whoever steps to the forefront, but since I can't do that right now, why not sit out on the balcony and coach?

-The new condo didn't exactly come cheaply. Expenses add up between mortgage payments, property taxes, and HOA fees. Couple this with doing a little bit of staking, a lot of traveling, and some spending, and everything adds up in a hurry. Getting some nice, variance-free income from coaching would certainly help a ton to relieve some of that burden.

-It's not as easy to make consistent money in poker as it was a few years ago. This is especially true given my desire to spend time in Florida. It takes a LONG time to reach the long run in live poker. Playing 50 hour weeks at 20 hands an hour is 1k hands a week or 52k hands a year. On my recent trip to Whistler I skied a bunch, went to dinners and for drinks a couple times, and still got in something like 13k hands (estimate since I don't have a tracker for Stud or Draw. Also, the astronomical winrates that many were able to enjoy in previous years are just not achievable in the current games, at least without incredibly nitty game selection. I remember sophomore year of college beating 25/50 PLO on Stars for ~8PTBB/100 over a reasonable sample size; that just ain't happening anymore.

Well, that was the not-so-short summary of why I want to coach. As for the details, I'm going to set my starting rate at $800/hour, which I may adjust as supply and demand dictates. I'll also offer some discount for booking 5 or more hours. I'm not sure exactly how many hours a week I plan on booking, but it will vary some depending on my schedule. For example, during WSOP I won't be trying to book many sessions at all and will probably raise my rate to reflect that. I'll need my students to be a bit flexible scheduling because of my lifestyle, but I'm happy to book firm dates and times up to 2 weeks in advance and hold up to my end of the bargain in this regard always. If I have excess demand, I will prioritize CardRunners members, particularly long-time members, but I will do my best to accommodate everyone.

How to apply:

Send me an email to stingercoaching@gmail.com. Include the following:

-A brief poker resum¨ of your history playing the game

-What you want to learn - certain aspects of the game, which forms of poker, what your goals are

-How many hours you intend to receive (initially and potentially if all goes well) and in what kind of time blocks (I'm flexible here, e.g. 3x40 mins, 1x2 hours, 5x30 mins)

-Anything else you feel is worth sharing, be it your Skype address, some personal info, a funny story, anything.

I guess that's all I have to say for now. On top of the coaching, I have made 2 full-length CardRunners videos that should be released shortly, and have plenty of other ideas lined up for the near-future. Hope to help some of you soon!

Brian

Link here

Phil is one of my best friends in the poker world and his blog is always a great read, but he really knocked it out of the park with this one. There's nothing I like reading more than a very intelligent, successful person being brutally honest and open about his own life experiences and lessons learned. Note that Phil isn't claiming that he knows everything (quite the opposite) or trying to sell anyone on some special system for happiness (the "secret to life" he outlines is admittedly just stuff that has worked well for him). The whole entry is just predicated on getting readers to think critically about themselves, namely what they value and what will make them happy. In this blog, I'm going to relate my personal experiences a bit to the topic and hopefully give another fresh perspective that can be helpful to others, particularly young poker players whose shoes I have been in.

Regarding happiness, this is something that I think about a lot and that I've struggled with at times. Much like Phil, I think stress is the main thing that has led to unhappiness in my life. I currently feel great despite a losing WSOP, but financial stress (losing money quickly in multiple ways right after putting down a 250k down payment on my new condo) coupled with stress related to being overwhelmed (trying to play my A game in poker while also taking care of personal business like the condo documents and entertaining friends and family who came to visit) led to me being a bit edgy at some points this summer.

More seriously, I felt seriously depressed this past fall and winter. I think there were several factors that led to this (in no particular order):
I ended a very close, year and 4 month relationship last July in the midst of WSOP. At first I felt mostly relief, but over time I began to experience the same kinds of feelings that people in this situation tend to feel.My previously well laid plans all had to be reworked. I had planned on renting an apartment in NYC, where my ex-gf was doing an internship fall 2011, but after the breakup and due to Black Friday I decided New York wasn't my best option, as much as I love it. I still came awfully close to doing it anyway, but I decided to look elsewhere. After WSOP last year I really had no idea where I wanted to go; I ended up choosing Vancouver.While there were many things I liked about Vancouver, I naively decided to rent an apartment by myself, and I turned out to not even like the apartment all that much. I had never really lived alone, and while I thought I'd like the personal space, I often felt lonely, even as I was meeting up with friends several nights a week. The gloomy weather in November didn't help either.I had many doubts about my Vancouver decision and my plan going forward. In September, I had a bunch of fun, made some good money, and on paper everything seemed great. Still, I was in a new city 3,000 miles from Pennsylvania (where I grew up) and far away from my family and most of my close friends (although I made some great new friends there). I questioned why I was even there. To me, it felt like my only reason to be there was to grind away money playing online. I still enjoyed poker to an extent at the time and worked on my game quite a bit, but I still just felt like I was letting money dictate my life despite the financial freedom that I have due to my success throughout my poker career. I also felt like my life there was too poker centric, and balance makes me much happier.

I spent the better part of this past winter and some of the spring at my parents' house in PA, because, frankly, I didn't feel up for doing a whole lot else. I took up chess as a hobby and worked on an MIT open courseware calculus class, because my state of mind had convinced me poker wouldn't make me happy and I wanted to keep my mind stimulated and learn things that could help me down the road.

Around March I started to feel a bit better. I took a trip to Borgata to play some tournaments and roomed with a good friend; this helped a lot. Looking back, I realize that my state of mind led to all my close personal relationships deteriorating to some extent. Just as Phil says, I think personal relationships are extremely important to happiness; probably the most important thing. I'm a naturally introverted guy, but I've been making a conscious effort to socialize more and cultivate more relationships, and I think I'm a much happier person for it. It doesn't hurt that I have some awesome friends and family members around me. Even when poker was going poorly this summer, it was impossible to stay upset for long because there was always someone there to cheer me up.

Regarding the decision to drop out/stay in college while playing poker, I'm a strong believer that staying the course is the best way to go. I'm lucky that I had some people older than me who I could relate to (thanks Taylor!) giving me advice during my early college years, because I certainly had plenty of people around me questioning why I was even bothering with college, and I had plenty of justification for quitting. I am a firm believer in keeping one's options open. One important reason is, as Phil says, we really don't know what's going to make us happy in 20 years, or really even in 10 or 5. This is especially true for young people who are constantly evolving. I can very much relate to Phil's point about looking back at things I did 2 years ago and shaking my head. Interests change, and even if poker is currently providing you a solid income and you are enjoying the ride, this can change as one evolves as a person. Speaking of income, needless to say the poker climate today is nowhere near as fertile as it was years ago. There is plenty of uncertainty and stiff competition. I think in today's state of poker, it's more important than ever to be thinking of backup plans and broadening your horizons. For this reason, I'm moving to Chicago part time in 2 weeks so I can spend a bunch of time in the office working on DraftDay and CardRunners stuff (and spend time with all the great friends I have in Chicago, which will make me happy). I'll still be playing plenty of poker as well (going to Florida State Poker Championships at Isle Casino next week as a matter of fact), but I think spending time in a startup environment is something that will be rewarding, will make me grow as a person, and will be valuable if I decide to change focus a few years down the road.

I'll add more later if I think of anything. In the meantime, I'm happy to discuss.

Best of luck,

Brian

Link to 2p2 BFI post

I'm in PA for the week visiting family, breaking in my new place in Fort Lauderdale next week. Can't wait!

And now, I'm gonna spend my afternoon (at least part of it) making CR videos. I have SCOOP footage of NL tourneys, PLO tourneys, and I think some cash games too. Also, if anyone wants me to leakfind them at NLH (I'm good I promise!) or PLO get in touch with me or Alex Huang and we can make it happen.

Brian

Hi everyone, decided to write a quick blog because I can't sleep and because I have a few important quick hits to discuss. In no particular order:

-In just under 9 hours I resume play in the Main Event on Day 3. I have 160k chips (average 111k) and am mostly happy with my play so far. I had an amazing table draw and Day 1 and patiently waited for spots to take advantage of them. After dinner break I went on a huge rush and kept getting paid off huge. I finished the day with 119k. Day 2 was a much tougher draw and I didn't have a whole lot of awesome spots to chip up, but I was overall pretty happy with my play and can't wait to get at it in the afternoon.

-In case you haven't seen, my good friend Pawel Nazerewicz aka verneer is running a promotion selling his new book "Building a Bankroll" for 40% off for the entire time I remain in the main event. So no rush guys, you have about 3.5 months to take advantage of the bargain price :D. But seriously, Pawel did a great job on this book and he's an awesome teacher of poker. I skimmed a few chapters myself and was very impressed with what I saw. I think if you're a SSNL player (full ring or 6max) and you don't buy this book, you're doing it wrong.

-While I did win a WSOP bracelet this summer and I am very excited about that, my summer hasn't gone very well otherwise. I've been running very poorly in cash games and only have one other tournament cash (16th in 5k O8 about a month ago). I made one frustrated Tweet after busting out of the 10k 2-7 NL SD tourney on the first hand of Day 2 and got a bunch of crap for it, and I'm not here to garner sympathy, but at the end of the day poker is my job and it's frustrating when things don't go according to plan. I feel that I've been playing the best poker of my life though, so I'm not too upset. Just a bit of tough timing since....

-I recently became a homeowner for the second time! I bought a condo in Fort Lauderdale, FL in Las Olas Beach Club, and I couldn't be more excited about it. My plan is to spend a bunch of time in Fort Lauderdale during the winter as well as when poker games are good, such as later this month when the Florida State Poker Championship at Isle Casino (featuring a 5k main event, 2k 6max, and 1500 bounty tournaments) comes to town. Hopefully there will be good cash games to play as well. That said, as excited as I am, this place is not cheap and putting down a 30% deposit in the midst of a downswing wasn't the most fun thing ever. I'm certainly gonna have to bust my ass to pay for this thing, and I plan on trying to play quite a bit of poker in the second half of 2012.

-When I was in Vancouver for SCOOP, I recorded a good amount of footage with the intent to make videos later. Soon after WSOP this is going to happen, so expect several videos in the next month or two. I mean it.

Guess that wasn't so quick after all heh. Wish me luck in the Main Event!

Brian

I've been in Las Vegas for a bit over 2 weeks now, playing the WPT 25k and 100k events, 3 WSOP events (2 $1500 NL events and $5k mixmax), and tons of cash games (probably 60-80 hours since I've been here). Unfortunately, nothing has gone right and I bricked all the tourneys (closest call - 10th in 100k, 5 paid) and I've won something like 2/15 cash game sessions. Not the way I wanted to start the summer, but I'm not too upset because I feel like I've been playing great and playing in games in which I'm a winner, although in some of them my edge is probably pretty small and the variance is high. I love challenging myself though and I really enjoy playing in Bobby's Room, where the service is second to none and the environment is great for playing. I've gotten pretty friendly with most of the regulars in there too so the banter is always fun.

The most annoying part of the downswing is that I came to Vegas with a temporarily limited supply of cash on me since I was waiting for a wire from Stars to hit my bank account. I ended up needing that wire money much sooner than I had expected, only to find out that I couldn't wire money from my Canadian (RBC) bank account unless I was physically present. This seemed insane to me, but it's actually a US law and I would've been able to send to a bank account in any other country remotely. Sweet government we have.

I ended up actually flying up to Vancouver for a day last week just to send a bank wire - woke up at 5:30am, flew out 7am, was supposed to get back at 9pm but customs held me up for half an hour (admittedly my own fault - I had Bellagio chips on me and didn't know I was supposed to declare them - but wasn't exciting given the circumstances) and didn't get back til midnight. From Skytrain station to return trip I spent a total of about 3.5 hours in Vancouver, and a full one was spent in the bank. At least I got to get lunch with a few friends (shoutout @JoeIngram1!).

So now my money should get to Vegas in the next 2-3 days and I can repay the people I've had to borrow from and finally have some breathing room. I feel like it hasn't affected my play, but it's really hard to say. In any event, it may be smarter to take a break from the swingy Bobby's Room mix games and play some 25/50/100 PLO at the Rio to run it up some. It is the Rio though, so I'm on the fence.

And now for some links:

-A Quadjacks interview I did that focused on my issues with how the WSOP is running their tournaments and treating players. I failed to mention the running of the 3k HU NL/PLO tourney (which I had to miss because of Vancouver trip) which involved giving about 2/3 of the field first round byes and incorrectly telling some players that registration was closed when it really was not.

-A Cardplayer interview about Isildur, SCOOP, and live poker (same one on CR frontpage).

-The misery of my 25k fantasy team so far.

-Some fun videos from an awesome party I went to this past friday hosted by Vanessa Rousso, Maria Ho, Vanessa Selbst, and Liv Boeree (thanks again ladies and get well soon Liv!): Bluff Cardplayer

-Great article about an NYC public school effectively using poker as a learning tool. Please share with your representatives!

Good luck to all of those playing the WSOP and all else! And to anyone who agrees with me that the WSOP treats its players extremely poorly and decides to do something about it and skip events and deny them of rake until they fix their ways, let me know about it and I will buy you drinks. Lots of them.

Brian

PS - for more regular updates follow my twitter @brianchastings

It's been a while since I blogged, and lots has changed in my life since then - first for the worse, then for the better. Recently I have been loving life and making good money playing live poker in Florida. I'll write up a blog about this later, but for now I have a time sensitive issue that I want to discuss.

I've really taken a liking to South Florida during the past month, particularly Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale is just more my kind of place than Miami.....I'm really not big on the Miami scene where it's all about showing off and dick-waving about who has more money. Fort Lauderdale, by contrast, has a bunch of fun bars downtown that attract a crowd that I'm more suited for, including a bunch of college students. I've gone out there a few times and had a blast every time (having great friends doesn't hurt there). So basically, I'm very confident that Fort Lauderdale is a place where I will very much enjoy spending time. The poker games down here are pretty good too, especially during tourney series, which are becoming more frequent.

I've been strongly considering buying a condo in downtown Fort Lauderdale. If I do this, I will spend 2-4 months a year here (mainly when poker games are good and/or when weather up north sucks) and let trusted friends and family members use it a bit. The places I'm looking at are high end and in the 2 nicest (IMO) buildings in the city: Las Olas Beach Club and the RiverHouse. Both buildings are less than a decade old, and I viewed the units and they are in excellent condition.

All of this excites me, but several friends whose opinions I highly respect think I'd be foolish to buy and that renting is a better alternative. My arguments for buying:

-I'd be acquiring an asset that is in high demand. Las Olas Beach Club is the only building in the heart of Fort Lauderdale beach that is zoned for just condos. The rest are all resorts, some of which are hotel/condo hybrids but those are only available to use as time shares. Anyone who wants to buy a condo on Fort Lauderdale beach basically only has one option. RiverHouse is similarly attractive since it's just insanely nice and nothing contends with it downtown.

-Because of the above and the fact that real estate prices in Florida are still far below 2008 levels, I would think that the condo would have a solid rate of return (aside from taxes/fees, which do kind of suck). I am far from a real estate expert though and am very curious to discuss this point with anyone who is.

-Mortgage rates are very low. I can get a 15 year mortgage at 3.25% or possibly even better. I have a very strong credit rating, so I could probably put a minimal amount down (10-20%), and this isn't an issue since I have plenty of free cash from both opting to lie low in the stock market and winning a bunch in Florida poker games.I am trying to sell my house in Ithaca (no offers yet but promising) and after that I will have hardly any real estate exposure (just a little in REIT funds). Real estate seems like a good buy low opportunity right now (as long as it's quality RE), but again I am no expert.

-This is sentimental a bit, but I feel like I'd very much enjoy owning my own place where I can have a lasting home base and a place to put my stuff. One thing that bothered me a lot in Vancouver was the fact that I could only bring so much stuff and was limited in what I could buy/bring home. I actually bought a $1000 Apple monitor up there and ended up basically giving it away when I left since it was so impractical to bring back. My Ithaca house served this purpose for a while but now I'm renting it out and trying to sell.

Some of the best arguments against buying (and my refutations):

-These places are not cheap. Buying one wouldn't kill my financial flexibility by any means, but it would make my portfolio overweight in real estate. That said, I feel like my earning potential going forward is quite strong and that there's a good chance it would not be overweight within a few years. And if I don't end up making much money or even losing, I can always sell, which wouldn't be optimal in a short time frame but also not the end of the world.

-I'm 23 and I may think I know what I want, but I realize how much different I am now than 3 years ago and even 1 year ago, and my tastes may change. That said, living near the beach and a ton of great golf courses and fun nightlife with great weather just seems like something that I'd always want, even if the poker games dry out eventually. Some friends made the argument that for the same monthly payment after taxes and fees I could spend something like 70 nights in luxury hotels all over the world for the same amount. I have 2 counters to this, (a) that I'm buying an asset and the monthly payments are more investments than cash drain. I've really never understood the arguments that say otherwise as long as one's overall cash flow is positive.... and (b) I honestly think I'd rather spend a bunch of time in one place that I really like than travel for 3 months a year (I'd still travel some of course). To be frank, I was pretty depressed this past winter (which was the main reason for me not blogging/making videos/playing) and I think a lot of it had to do with me feeling a lack of stability, only being able to develop fleeting personal relationships since I was moving from city to city so much, etc. I really value the stablity and forming lasting relationships and I think this would help me in that regard.

There are more arguments against but I'm a bit pressed for time.....I'll think more and type them up in the comments. For now, I'm curious to hear people's opinions and to hear people try to convince me that buying is a bad idea.

Brian

(warning - pretty emo blog. read at your own risk)

The past few months have marked my first real attempt at treating poker as a fulltime job. While I've always played a decent amount of poker, in the past I had high school, then college, then some time when I was living with my then-gf and still not quite making poker a fulltime thing. This summer in Vegas I took a much more businesslike approach than I had in previous Vegas summers, playing 12-15 tourneys or so plus grinding live cash almost every day that I wasn't playing tourneys. After a break in August while I was trying to plan my next move, I got to Vancouver September 1, played over 40k hands of high stakes cash games plus some WCOOP tourneys online in September, and in October so far I've been in Europe playing live tournaments. My feelings about playing poker fulltime have been pretty mixed. To break it down a bit:

-I enjoy living a healthy lifestyle. This has been pretty easy to do in Vancouver, was fairly difficult in Vegas, and has been virtually impossible in Europe since I've been living in hotels, haven't been able to buy groceries or cook, the gyms I've found haven't been great, and the food offered at restaurants tends to contain quite a few more white carbs than I'm used to. Plus many of the tournaments have played til 3am and beyond so it's been impossible to get into any kind of good sleep schedule. For the past few days I've gone to bed at 5am and woke up at 1pm. I know some people who are fine with this kind of routine but I really can't stand it and am excited for a return to normalcy on this front in Vancouver.

-I feel like I've been lacking balance a bit too. For the past 5 years I spent lots of time interacting with college students and I really enjoyed that. Now almost all of my friends that I'm spending time with regularly are poker players. I really like the friends I've made but it's just a big adjustment from what I'm used to. Also, I know 'poker players' is a broad category and quite a big overgeneralization; really it may be more that I've just been living in places where I don't know anyone all that well. That happened in college too obviously but then we were all going through the same challenges regarding getting used to the college lifestyle and rigorous classes. I guess in some ways poker players go through a lot of the same challenges too, but:

-I have mixed emotions on the game itself right now. Poker for me has always been about the challenge, the learning process, and the competitive aspect. My most rewarding moments in poker have been when I felt that I reached a new level in a certain game, especially during my first year of playing poker but also when I learned PLO and then mixed games. I'm certainly not perfect by any stretch but I feel like at this point the improvements I can make to my game aren't huge. I've always joined playing heads up because it involves much more adaptation to counter the opponent's strategy, but I've been playing less of that lately, not by choice. After playing a bunch of live tournaments over the past few weeks, I can say that the travelling the circuit lifestyle is definitely not for me both because of lifestyle factors and because I just don't enjoy tournament poker that much. I think I can get a lot better at them actually but I feel like the endgame is a huge variancefest where even the best players can easily have losing years and after travel expenses the endeavor seems not worth it to me. It only makes sense for those who really enjoy playing live tournaments, and I just don't think it's for me. I enjoyed playing live cash games this summer, mainly because of the social aspect. I got to meet some really interesting people in the games and they were much chattier and looser than tourneys are. Plus the games themselves were shorter handed and had more than 2 cards which made them more fun to play. Online I've been enjoying playing big PLO and mixed games but I just don't know if I have the passion for it that I used to.

I may just be being emo right now, but in the wake of Steve Jobs' death some of his most famous quotes are really resonating with me. For example:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

I certainly can't see how poker playing fits this mold. I've been thinking a bunch lately about how much I value money as well. I grew up very middle-class and my parents are the types of people who make modest salaries while working extremely hard, but they have passion for their work and are very happy. As I walk around Cannes, I see wealth and excess all over, and it just doesn't feel like me. In some ways, I'm very grateful for the money I've made, as it's allowed me to pay for a college education, travel a bunch, eat some great food, and most importantly treat my friends and family to some unforgettable experiences, but in the end is money going to make me truly happy? It certainly won't by itself, and I feel like making major life choices based on money is probably not in my best interest.

This should all be taken with a grain of salt, as I'm very self aware that I'm in a weird transitional phase, both in ways listed above plus still only a few months removed from a very tough breakup. However, I feel like I've been happiest when I've been working towards challenges that I feel truly passionate about and also when I've had a real home and more stable social circles consisting of friends and family whom I've gotten to know very closely, and I just feel like all of this is lacking to some extent right now. Very interested to hear advice from those who can relate to this on any level and apologies for the emoness.

Brian