I booked a sort of last minute flight to Chicago for this weekend just for the hell of it, kind of. Actually my good friend is going to visit some college buddies and he invited me to tag along. I've never been to Chicago so it should be fun regardless, my #1 priority (and possibly only) is to get a picture of myself in front of the Jordan statue. Other than that, Im sure it will be a lot of drinking/debauchery and very little sight seeing.

On the poker front, March has gone pretty well so far. I have been making an effort to grind a ton on AP in attempt to achieve their highest VIP status (Diamond Elite)...the benefits are kind of cool, but basically achieving this translates into me playing 60k+ hands and tons of rakeback. I'm really going to hate myself if I fall short, even though I am slightly off pace at the moment plus I'm taking this weekend off.

In somewhat more exciting news (for me at least), me and my friend who is a solid MTT grinder have joined together to start coaching and backing people for SSMTTs, and I'll probably be coaching+staking for cash games also very soon, once we gain some momentum. So far our first horse has been doing very well, playing mostly 90-180 man turbo SnGs and MTTs <$16. We are about to take an another player, and looking into other potential stakees. At some point, I may make a post/blog about staking/coaching but for now, please don't contact me w/ interest (unless you for some reason believe your an extremely exceptional candidate lol). We are mainly offering this to people we know directly or through a friend w/ recommendation at the moment.

Also, if anyone has a good recommendation for nightlife in Chicago or some good eats, shoot me a PM. and if anybody is out in Chicago and wants to meet up,lets get wild.

It has been a somewhat mediocre start to the year, but that is mainly due to the fact that I decided to go into tournament grinder mode for the first 3 weeks of January...which did not go so well. In January I have played almost 10k worth of MTT buy ins, and come up with I think about 1.1k total in profit over the 3 sites I'm playing on. Obviously managing to profit in the short term in MTTs should feel good, but looking at my OPR there was soooo much potential for a few big scores (5-10k). Pretty disappointing...at one point I was up around 3k but I slowly just got sick of having to sit and play 8-12 hour sessions and knew I was not playing my A or even B MTT game anymore, so I decided to give it up and go back to my bread and butter. I'll be focusing the majority of my time at 6max cash again, and hopefully grind out a nice steady profit in February.

Looking at my HEM for the last 3 months, I actually have a pretty good winrate/100 (not even sure if its sustainable) but I have only played just over 60k hands which is pathetic. Thats only 20k hands/mo. on average. A year ago from today I was posting 50k+ hand months easily...I really need to figure out how I can start getting that kind of volume in again.

Outside of the virtual felt, Ive gone to Commerce twice this month to play LAPC tournies and then some cash...pretty sure Im gonna go with my friend who is a MTT grinder for a few days next week, Im hoping to play a lot more cash tbh so I wont mind donking out of the tournies early.

One last thing, I am currently trying to figure out my Vegas plans for this Summer. Me and my good friend (same MTT grinder as mentioned above), and most likely his buddy/backer want to stay in a house for 3-5 weeks. We are talking to some ppl right now about it, but I wanted to throw it out here on CR and see if anyone is still trying to get a house for the summer? Currently there is 3-4 of us interested. If anyone is interested shoot me a PM here or hit me up on Skype (betwitnothin, Andrew Coomes) and we could talk more about it.

Well just as expected, NYE in Vegas was epic. Went with 8-9 of my best friends since HS, and met up with tons of ppl out there. NYE we got a table at Moon and had a pretty ridiculous night, even though I got kicked out around 3 (didnt matter much because everyone left shortly after) NYD we got tickets to Tiesto at Hardrock and it was fucking awesome. The venue was sick and he put on a great show (played a 5 hour set). Overall the trip was probably my best ever...except for the fact it took us 12 hours to get to LA (normally 4 hour drive).

My body is still hurting pretty bad and I've been in bed all day recovering, but I did manage to think up some New Years Resolutions and figured I would post them here so I can reference them later in the year and see how far off I actually am from achieving any of them, lol.

NYRs:
-50k hands/mo avg (600k on the year)

-150k at 100NL

-450k at 200NL+

-Dedicate 35 hours/week to anything poker related

-Take on a couple more students

-Positive ROI in Online MTTs

-Spend 2-4 weeks in Vegas during WSOP

-Play at least 1 WSOP prelim, maybe some VDS

-Play Main Event (selling most action)

-Focus a lot more of my time at cash games this year

-Achieve Diamond Elite on AP every month while I'm still playing there

-Make at least one significant financial investment

-Start Roth IRA account & max it out (does not count as significant investment)

-Make travel plans for the summer (around the WSOP)

-Euro Trip or possibly South Africa

-Continue going to gym 4-5x/week.

-Keep playing b-ball (look for more leagues)

-Practice guitar more, maybe some lessons?

-Maintain 3.0-3.5 GPA until graduation (3 more semesters)

-Pursue something outside poker. Finance/entrepreneurial related probably

-Keep up with the news and markets of the world

-Eat much healthier. Spend less money eating out.

-Pay off coaching contract

-File and pay taxes on time this year (lols)

-Snowboard trips every opportunity I get

-Training classes with Calvin




Good luck to everyone with their Resolutions, and a successful 2011.

Half way through the month and overall its been going pretty well. I know I promised sexy graphs, but I think I will wait until end of month to post them because I still only have about 25k hands from this month. I'd be on pace for a pretty huge month (relative to my stakes obv) if it wasn't for my absurd obsession w/ APs late night turbo MTTs. I've spent almost 3k in buyins there this month and am about -2k in profits lol.

Also I finished up the semester this week, and get a nice 5 week break now. My 3 main (and only tbh) priorities will be 1) play w/ my dog, 2) snowboard, and 3) grind my face off at all hours of the day. I'm really just hoping the social life doesn't get in the way of this....I tend to be veryyyy unproductive when I'm out drinking 3 nights a week. I am going to try and limit my nights out drinking leading up to NYE in Vegas..although I probably should maintain my tolerance somewhat because its going to be an absolute shitshow. We've got a table at Rain for NYE, and then NYD we're going to Hardrock for DJ Tiesto. Really looking forward to both nights, and to add to the potential greatness of the trip Corwin (VitalMyth) and his g/f are coming to Tiesto w/ us now also. and in my experience partying with Corwin is guaranteed to be a good time.

So yea, life is good. Hope everyone can say the same. The only negative thing I got is I finally got a number from my accountant for my 2009 taxes. I filed late, and the process has been dragged on for a long time, but its time to pony up the cash to my least favorite Uncle. (fk you Sam) Luckily, the number did not hit 5 digits, although it is on the higher end of possible 4 digit numbers, ugh. Oh well.

Time to finish up the year strong, final 2 weeks of 2010! Gonna end with stealing one of my bestfriends favorite "right before going out" lines..."HEY EVERYBODYYYYY.......LETTTTTTTTTTTS DOOOOOOOOOO IT!!!!"

November is in the books, and overall it was a very good month. I actually played very little poker but managed to bink a MTT and run super hot at 100NL in the last week for a close to 5k month. This little upswing has got me pretty motivated right now to grind super hard all of December. It's good timing because 1) its the last month of the year and my previous 4-5 months were not great so would be nice to finish strong, and 2) school is out Dec 14 so I will have a full two weeks that I can dedicate strictly to poker (and snowboarding).

It's been awhile since I have made any specific goals for myself with poker, but after having a pretty good November and gaining some confidence I figured I could make some reasonable goals. Here they are:


December Goals:
-60k hands @ 100NL
-5k hands @ 200NL
-2-3 lessons w/ Corwin
-Limit my tournament hours - I dont play them much but sometimes the AP turbos are just so tempting
-no more than 1k total in MTT buyins
-Watch 1-2 CR vids/week, stay sharp w/ my game
-Continue gym, 4-5x/week
-Finish school strong
-Go snowboarding at least 3x
-Dont spend to much money on snowboarding gear/trips
-Dont break a bone while snowboarding


Also me and 8 of my good friends from High School just booked our room for Vegas on NYE weekend. So it will be nice if I can make some decent monies before that so I can be a huge degen :). It should be a ridiculous trip, as we tend to get pretty wild when were together...even tho it is just 9 guys as of right now haha. (I think we will be ok, working on getting a table for NYE. hoping my friend Sam can pull some strings w/ his agent or something (brag: Sam Querrey aka #3 US tennis player in the world)

Will update later in December, and I promise sexy graphs because I know poker blogs are boring without them. GL finishing up the year everybody.

hey everybody, I just recently reactivated my CR subscription last week and finally got my blogging privileges back. weeeeee. ive been a long time member of CR, but lost my subscription once I stopped playing FTP and getting Truly Free Poker.

so where hell have I been? Well quite honestly it's a long story, but I will attempt to make it very short.

Basically, after WSOP last summer I sort of had a meltdown. Not necessary a mental breakdown, but everything just started going wrong. A few friendships started going south, from late June-August I bricked every live tourny I played, lost every live cash session, and wasn't winning online in my bread and butter games either. Simultaneously to all this losing, my dog got very sick and ended up costing me over 3k in vet bills. On top of all this, I was spending way to much money. Then me and my girlfriend who I was crazy about at the time broke up out of nowhere. Then I moved from San Diego back to my parents house to finish up school at CSUN. Then my dog broke his toe, costing me another 2k(ish). Then I had to pay my taxes that I was late on.

All of these things put together equaled a sad sad betwitnothin. I lost all motivation to play poker suddenly, and thats all there really is to it. I didn't want to do much of anything, and it took me a long ass time (way to long) to pull myself out of that slump.

Over the last few weeks, finally I have rediscovered a sense of peace and happiness in my life. Finally, I'm over my awful ex girlfriend, my dog is 100% healthy, school is coming along, I still have money in the bank, and I have regained my motivation for poker. There are many other great things going on in my life, including friends and family, but the list is to long.

So for now, I am trying to just get myself reacquainted with the CardRunners community, as well as re-learning the game (sort of, Im just super rusty). Due to a lot of expenses, and me basically being a bum for the last 4 months...I had to cash out a decent amount of my roll online. Since my roll is a little short and my game is rusty, I've decided I'll likely be playing 50NL 6max to start. Once I get a few 10k blocks of hands in and regain some confidence, I will be moving up to 100NL asap...and then just go from there I guess.

The good news is....I haven't had a lesson w/ Corwin in over 3 months so I'm going to bug him non stop for lessons every day of the week. (jk Corwin....probably more like every other)




edit: guess Im off to a good start....was messing around on the internet and decided to fire up all the turbos on AP w/ my AP points I had leftover...binked one of them for like $1500

Ok actually I wont be in Vegas for another 17 days or so, and I will be grinding my ass off until then online.

Finally school is out and I have absolutely no responsibilities for the next 3 months. This means ridiculous amounts of poker. I will be grinding cash games super hard for the next few weeks as well as dedicating a few days (def Sundays) to MTTs. Then it is time to head out to Vegas.

I'm staying with a friend at the Venetian June 10-24, and will be playing in a tournament just about everyday I'm there (maybe 1-2 days off). I already sold 50% of my WSOP events and 25% of all my Venetian Deep Stack events that I will be playing, at a decent mark up. I am extremely excited and look forward to winning me and some people some monies.

My MTT Schedule:

6/12- WSOP Event 24 $1k 12pm

6/13- VDS $550 12pm

6/14- VDS $340 12pm

6/15- VDS $340 12pm

6/16- WSOP Event 30 $1.5k 12pm

6/17- Day off/Cash

6/18- VDS $550 12pm

6/19- WSOP Event 36 $1k 12pm

6/20- VDS $340 12pm

6/21- VDS $550 12pm

6/22- VDS $340

**6/23- WSOP Event 42 $1.5k 12pm (maybe playing this)

Really looking forward to playing my first WSOP events ever, I will also be grinding cash games basically anytime I'm not in a MTT.

-Oh also I will be coming out again in July around the ME, and possibly (hopefully) playing in it. I will be looking to sell about 50-70% if I do but I will figure that all out later.

I am a firm believer in this as a poker player, and often do buy very nice things and am able to do so because of this beautiful game. However, it has been awhile since I have treated myself (maybe) so I decided Im going to play a 45 min session of 4 tabling 6max and if Im up 1 cent after that time, Im getting Phils BBQ.

Phils BBQ is basically the best BBQ I know of in San Diego and its like 15 minute drive for me which sucks but I reallllly want some good BBQ atm. So if its meant to be, I will win monies in the next 45 minutes and quench my thirst for excessive amounts of barbecue sauce in my stomach.


Oh and I just read the locked Nutedawg thread in MSNL Forum...Balbomb if you read this chill out a bit imo lol. was kind of funny reading internet poker drama though



edit: won like 35 dollars so I immed ordered Phils and it was delicious.

March is turning out to be a very busy month....but in a very good/fun way. First of all Im waiting to see what schools I got into...I only applied to a few of the CSUs and will hopefuly be going to SDSU. Im excited to get to into a 4 year and focus more on my major. I constantly change the way I feel about school but have just continued to go because I know its not really that hard, and its kind of fun also. Although I do hate it at times.

Poker is coming along well and Im having a solid month so far. I played a marathon 7k hand session at 100NL and it went very well. It was more of a confidence booster and I was at first only 4 table and messing around a lot w/ things I was doing postflop. Towards the end I was playing up to 10 tables though.

Im not going to put up any results until the end of the month but I expect my volume to be very good. Hopefully results follow, Im playing well.

Im buying my Season pass to Big Bear for the rest of this season and next year so I will be in the mountains like every weekend from here on out. Also I am staying in a cabin with a bunch of my friends in Big Bear during our Spring Break which should be a ridiculous time. Im about to get super good at snowboarding I can feel it...Im obsessed.

Lastly, I just found out today about San Diegos Harrahs Rincon WSOP Circuit Event going on towards the end of this month. There appears to be a ton of 200-500 buy in events and then a 5k main with some satties to it. I kind of have the live poker itch since my last Vegas trip and think I will probably go play a few of these events, and try to satty to main prob also. Anyone going to be playing any of these tournies??? I have no idea what the turn out will even be, Im curious. I kind of like smaller tournament fields anyhow...but I like big 1st place money so Win-Win I guess!

Thats all, msg me if your gonna play at Harrahs in San Diego and want to meet up

February was very bitter sweet...while I had one of my worst months in poker, I also had one of my best months of snowboarding/real life activities(?). I am pretty disappointed with my start to 2010...these first two months have basically been breakeven and I have not been very assertive in trying to achieve my goals. I have come to this realization in the last week or so and have a new found motivation to crush in all aspects of life. Hopefully this motivation will last.

My poker month wont start until Monday as I am driving up to Oregon this weekend to visit a friend....but I am excited to get back on the grind. Also I have plans of playing some events at the WSOP Circuit at San Diego Rincon...maybe satty into the 5k main if Im luuuuucky.

Alright I guess thats it.., expect a huge results post at the end of this month.