Part 2 of 2. Read the entry below first.
So what is a 20 year old supposed to do with around $40,000. Obviously cash out enough of it and not do anything fucking irrational as my father would say. I cashed out a good bit and immediately bought a car, tv, dre beats, spent outrageous amounts of money at strip clubs, and easily doubled the amount of clothes I had. I took my friends out to dinner whenever and really felt good about it. I felt like it was my duty to give back to all the people that had helped me. I took my mother on a shopping spree and bought nice stuff for my family. Even though it wasn't THAT much money it felt like millions, and for me and my family and friends it might as well have been.

Now the reality of it is this: I can play at a high level. Do I think that I can do that profitably? I answer yes. It seems like I have turned the corner and now the thought of attaining all my goals is closer than ever. I spend the rest of the summer taking trips and spending money and making twice as much back. I destroy cash games, I destroy tournaments. I don't have any more wins (besides shipping a qualifier to Spain lol) but I still have deep runs and many 4 figure scores. When you are playing with money and have many thousands behind it that's when you can play poker at its purest form. I was never once afraid to bluff if I thought it was the right play. I had opened up an entire new playbook and it was working. One night after my tournament grind was over I was looking around on FTP and found the HU super turbo's. Not ever having played one or even knowing basic strategy. I decided to play a couple 100 dollar ones. Something to at least make it interesting. I got destroyed but was immediately hooked. I lost 4 in a row that night and went to bed upset but intrigued. I spent the next month grinding super turbo heads up matches. With very poor game selection I feared nobody. I played at least 20 matches against our very own PrimoridialAA. I was no longer a member of Runners and felt like I had it all figured out. I would lose a $200 match, and just go jump into a $350 match. If i lost that it was off to the $1,000 matches. So here I was someone with a $1,200 starting bankroll now flipping coins for $1,000. It seemed so surreal but I was winning, and for the most part hanging with all of these guys who were making 6 figures a year. It made me feel like I could do this and if I stayed with the 2-5% ROI like I was that it just came down to how much money I wanted to make. It was an easy game and an easy life. And now where it all comes crashing to a halt.

One night I was going through my routine which I had for many nights and just playing the highest matches against everyone. I sat down at a table with a well known player who makes millions just like all the other guys. This guy and me split our first 4 matches. He wins the 5th, 6th,7th,8th-infinity. He literally won 16 straight matches against me. My soul was crushed. After about the 3rd or 4th suckout I began playing my F+ game. I might as well have just been writing this guy $1,000 checks. He broke me. I went to bed thinking that maybe he could see my cards, maybe I was just lucky this entire time, maybe it was all my run good finally catching up to me. Whatever the case, I felt like I had paid my dues and took a week off. I returned with intentions of doing what had always worked and not being afraid to lose. Maybe I was out of my league, but these guys weren't doing anything different than me. And you would be surprised at how bad people are at these high levels. I was arrogant and felt like I had it all figured out despite my recent loss. There are now to date three separate occasions where I have lost upwards of 10 grand in an hours length of time. Have I played bad? Yes. Have I been unlucky? Yes. Was it dumb/irresponsible/insert synonym here? YES. But it is done. Will I ever play another HU super turbo match again? Probably not.

When or if you ever roll your poker account up to a number you never thought attainable. And you have enough money in your bank account you will have the feeling I did where it didn't seem like I was taking $1,000 dollars and putting it on a table. If you gave me a thousand dollars and showed me an opponent and said put your thousand on the table you will win 55/100 times I would say absolutely not. And there would be nothing you could say to convince me otherwise. But at the same time this is what I found myself doing. Over and over and over. I now have no money left in my FTP account. I have ran $1,200 up to 40K only to lose about half of that. I have spent about 12K on other stuff. So I guess you could say I have accomplished something great. Without poker I would have none of the belongings that I now use daily. I would be far less happy. But at the same time I would have not had to go through all of this questioning of myself. On a much deeper level than just poker. I wonder how I have gotten to this point? Why did I let me emotions get the best of me? It is something that I have learned and hopefully will never have to experience again. My plans were to take the next six months off and just travel and play poker but I don't even know if that is a viable option any longer. I have about 7 thousand dollars of useful poker money. I need to get re focused and re energized about the game that I love to play or else I will soon just be another could have made it story.

Part One of a 2 part story. -The Upswing of a lifetime.

When I joined Runners I anticipated I would be blogging a lot more than I normally do. I always feel like writing is the best way to express how you are feeling. Let me give you my story of how I ran through the limits of poker only to find myself playing against the best in the world and where I'm at now. My summer started with a $1200 deposit, a desire to win, and all the confidence in the world. I stressed to my family and friends how important it was for me to get off to a quick start. I began playing $2/4 which is a little out of my bankroll. Having previously grinded 10/20 I am not uncomfortable at this level by any means. My start was slow...I didn't lose money, but wasn't making it nearly as fast as I wanted to. I would have small $60 or $40 scores that began to add up. I had about $2400 in my account when I had a nice 7th place finish in a tournament for an extra $1100. I decide now is the time to start turning poker into a job again. I find myself playing 10/20 HU matches against a particular opponent who I will not name just incase they are a Runners member as well lol. I have never seen somebody this bad play these levels and it begs the question where some of these guys get the money. He boosts my account to around $7,500 within 2 days of playing.

Now that type of money was very significant to me at the time (as I would expect it is to most people.) The player who I have broken will no longer play me. When you have that type of success it makes you feel like you can play anyone. I quickly learned that even though I was better than ever I was nowhere near ready to play with the regulars at 10/20 again. My account took a -3000 hit the following week in a couple sessions of play. Did I play bad? No. Tilted? No. But I played a style that can be exploited by a someone who is better, and thats exactly what happened. That day I made my mind up. I had made my money, more than I though I would the entire summer. I'll take my $4000 and have everything paid for the next year of college. Easy. I decided that was the plan and that I would play one more tournament that night and then be done. It sounds ridiculous but all of my close friends and family can vouch for me that I was dead serious. One more tournament and that's it. The tournament was the nightly turbo fifty. A soft tournament but that still requires you to win multiple flips late in the tournament and sift your way through a final table where the only move is all in. Well I shipped the entire thing outright for $5,400.

My first major tournament victory which I had strived so hard for over the years. Finally broke through in the Turbo Fifty lol. Now I have almost a five digit account. Something I never thought I would see this quickly. Was it a sign that I should keep playing? I thought that night before I went to bed that if I quit now I have proven that I can win but I don't want to stop now. I began playing tournaments daily and did quite well My account had almost doubled after another tournament victory and another 3rd place in the Turbo Fifty. Effective bankroll-$20,000 I visited my parents at home for a weekend during the Rush Week promotion. I'm sure all of you remember the insane amount of rush tournaments that were run during that week. I do not consider myself an expert at rush poker but I feel that it is extremely profitable for me with the right strategy. I began crushing these tournaments only to get into the money and just get cooler after cooler. Frustrated and demoralized I decided once again I would play one more Rush tournament and that would be it. I elected on the $200 6-max tournament. A tournament loaded with every single recognizable player including multiple Runners instructors. I played poorly early on and got it all in with JJ vs. KK and AK VERY early. Binked a Jack on the flop and didn't look back. I was winning the tournament literally the entire way until the final table. Which included 4 other recognizable players and a FT pro. To say I was the underdog would be an understatement. I was not intimidated but the jumps between finishing places were huge. I played my game and luckily picked up aces twice to get into heads up play against Caio Pimenta. (sp?) The guy has won like millions playing online tournaments and has me 3:1. I ask politely for any kind of chop and he laughed at me. Whether he was trying to tilt me or not didn't matter. He knew that he had me crushed and I was looking for an easy way out. I remember him showing me a bluff the first hand of HU play and laughing in the chat box. I remember bluffing for my tournament life about 3 times after that. We were about even when we got it all in with my top pair to his gutter ball. I held up and shipped the tournament for $14K.

Not only have I beaten a loaded field. I destroyed a well known pro in HU play. And had my first 5 figure score and was staring at around $35,000. My parents really had no clue this was even an option. I immediately cashed out enough to ensure that I could buy a lot of cool shit and have everything else paid for. And still be left with 20 grand. It seemed like a dream but for some reason seemed like it was supposed to be that way. Word spread fast and the amount of phone calls I got after that tournament win was extraordinary. People you haven't talked to in years are calling and telling you how cool it is that you can play poker for money. Everyone wants you to teach them how to play. I try to tell them that I am very lucky and fortunate. I felt like I had accomplished something for my family and for me. For all my friends that believed in me when I didn't. Everything finally came full circle and now I felt that I could do this and do it for a long time.

Greetings to all,

Today marks the start of the newest FTOPS series that promises to be one of the biggest in history. I have thought about playing a few of the tournaments, but will probably decide against it even though it is tempting. The only event I will more than likely play is the $120 knockout tournament. I feel very good about my MTT skill. I just don't need to be risking that big of a portion of my bankroll. I could always try and qualify though, right?

The 45 man super turbo's as I mentioned in my last blog have been going great. I have tried to stick to playing about 10 a day just to make some money and I had a sick run two nights ago where I cashed in six straight including two victories. There is a lot of variance to these tournaments, but I feel like they are very beatable. I made a deep run also in the $15 10K super turbo event, but busto'd in like 40th place. The payouts are so top heavy that I made around 40 dollars profit including my knockouts (4). All and all it felt good to make a deep run in these since I haven't in about 20 tournaments. I think the rest of this week I am going to try to start playing as many $15 super turbo's as possible. I will start by limiting myself to a 40 buy in bankroll and just see what I can accomplish. It may be swingy, but I will keep everyone posted on my progress. I look to try to increase that 40 buy in's to at least 80 by the end of the week. I will be playing in the ironman tournament on Saturday as well. That mixed with the FTOPS should keep me busy.

My neighbors and I went to Lenox Mall this weekend in Atlanta. I went there with no expectations of buying anything, but then I saw the new Kobe basketball shoe. It looked fantastic, but when I put it on it exceeded anything I could have dreamed of. It literally is the most comfortable shoe I have ever worn in my life. Having played basketball since I was born I can honestly say I cannot imagine a more awesome shoe. Some people may look at and think that it doesn't give ankle support because they are low cut, but think again. It looks great, feels unbelievable, and will make you a better basketball player. You can get them in various color schemes which is good since the purple and gold one's probably do not match too many people's wardrobe. I highly suggest picking up a pair if you are in need of workout or basketball shoes.

-Da Caesh

Hello to All,

This past month of January including this week of February has been my best MTT month ever. I have had three different 4 figure scores, and have been so close to wins. Last night I played the $75 double stack that runs at 2 in the morning. It seemed ridiculous at the time because I had a test the next day, but I was feeling very focused and wanted to test my skills. The play was fairly standard and not too much impressed me at all. Out of the 311 entrants I felt that I was in the top percentile, but when we got down to the final table I was clearly outclassed. Making appearances were multiple Sunday major winners and a couple millionaires. I went in to the FT as the short stack with only about 6 BB. I tripled up with K J and found myself in the middle. We were down to the final few players when this spot came up:

I was on the button and found A Q off. I quickly tripled the blind as I had been doing from about 60 players on down. I almost was hoping for a re raise since the majority of the time I had gotten re raised from the two agressive players behind me. The guy in the BB had three bet me all in a few times before that and I continued to let my weak aces go. Of course he goes all in again and I thought for a while and called. He flipped up A K. I wasn't necessarily getting the right price to call. If I would have folded I would've had plenty of chips. I almost regret my decision now I honestly don't really know if it is "correct". Judging by how the events had played out before that he could have been making that move with a weaker A or even smaller pockets. I thought for sure I was a slight favorite or at worst flipping when I called. It just seems like more unfortunate timing than anything. I'll keep learning though and playing with some excellent players last night helped my game out substantially.

I have been playing a lot of the fifteen dollar super turbo's which are made up of 45 players. I probably haven't played nearly enough to predict a profit goal or anything, but thus far I would estimate I am up about 500-600 dollars which is roughly about 40 buy ins. So I will continue to try and grind these just on the side to maybe make a little extra cash for spring break.

Which brings me to my final question. Does anyone know of any good casino's in the Daytona Beach area? I will be there for a couple weeks and would love to play some live poker in a casino. If anyone has any recommendations that would be great.

Good luck at the tables everyone!!

-Da Caesh

Hello To all Runners members,

I made another deep run yesterday evening in the $10 rebuy. It was the craziest tournament I have ever played I was in first with about 300 people left and then took a couple of ridiculous beats and thought I was going to be eliminated. I continued to grind the shortstack until I managed to fight my way back to even. Then a guy went crazy on me and gifted me all his chips thus making me 1st with about 90 players left. I made it all the way down to the final table. I was 7th in chips and felt like only 1 other player at the table scared me. Ended up with K Q on the button calling a pre flop raise for about 20% of my chips.
Flop: 9 J 3--two clubs giving me a runner runner flush outs.
He bet half the pot and I pushed all in after little deliberation. He called and turned over 5 5. I was very confused by the call and whether or not it was a read or not I was still very surprised by the call. The turn gave me a flush draw so I was drawing to a ton of outs on the river none of which hit and I was out. It was probably the best poker I have ever played down the stretch. I don't consider my push to be a mistake (maybe it is????) but I would do the same thing again given the player and the position I was in. It was upsetting not to get a top 3 finish but I am very happy with the way I played. Another victory is soon approaching.

*Sidenote a hit a royal flush during the same tournament. I have hit two in my lifetime now so I guess I consider myself very lucky especially because this time I actually got paid!!

Another popular topic of conversation these days is the new rush poker on tilt. I think the idea is very very cool and is great for the website. I don't see it as being very profitable though. I feel like everyone has the same mindset just trying to play the premeir hands because there is no need to wait. I would be very interested to see some kind of strategy to these tables and a training video if one is available soon. I guess I am a donkey at these tables because I have dropped almost $100 thus far. So I'm going to just wait until the verdict on rush poker is out.

Good luck to all at the tables.
-DA CAESH

Hello again it has been too long,

I hope everyone had a good break and enjoyed time with family and loved ones. I traveled up to Chicago for a week over the break and it gets harder to leave every time. The goal I had over the break was to not only increase my bankroll (obv), but to play good MTT poker. I was on CardRunners and saw a series of videos that I found interesting. I don't remember the name of the instructor but it was a 3 part series video on the Single table Super Turbo's. There are different levels of these and I have never ever played one before this break. I decided that I would watch the videos and just get an idea of some basic strategy. I started at the $3 buy ins and played 6-9 tables constantly for hours at a time. It started off great and by the end of the first week I had made a few hundred buy ins which is good considering I was not only new to the game but it was only $3 buy ins. I hit a bit of a rough patch because I think I was way way too loose from opening positions and such. When you are playing 9 handed with 300 chips a person it is easy to get caught up in hands like K J suited or pocket 6's. But with 6 people behind you these hand values shrink to the point where they become unplayable. I know the correct "mathematical" play might be to open shove 5 5 with 4 people behind you but i found that i was either gettin called with better pairs or any high cards. I found that once you slowed down and tried to think about the play that it became easier to fold these tempting hands. I played good for the majority of the break and was very happy that I now have enough to prehaps make the jump to the $15 turbo's although I'm certain the competition will be better.

I would be interested in discussing basic turbo strategy with anyone willing to provide insight to hand ranges. I did all of this play with no computer program or Wizard to provide me with correct mathematical plays. I found myself struggling often on the button or small or big blind when people would shove or deciding whether or not me shoving gave me an advantage. I know the basic any Ace or king in the small blind is probably almost always a shove but I still would like to discuss other strategies about maximizing profit.

The multi table tournaments have been going well and I finally chopped a 6.50 super turbo tournament yesterday with about 1,500 players. I felt going into it that I would do well and wound up winning just over $1,200 which was a nice addittion considering it only took about 2 hours to finish. These tournaments are very easy but it is hard to dodge all the possible suckouts. I felt that I had my money in good nearly every single hand but you still have to run good in these and yesterday I did. I was last in chips at the final table and got fortunate to pick up Ace King a couple times and have it hold vs. weaker aces. Overall it felt good to get a W. I also made a very deep run in the Double Duece until I had a gutshot hit on me but if I won that hand it could have been something to write about. I also then played in a $30 MTT last night and finished in the top twenty. I had my K K all in against 88 and it didn't hold. It feels good knowing that I am not only running good but playing excellent poker. I think I have cashed in 9/10 tournaments over the break so I can't complain about a little unluck.

Now that I am properly bankrolled it is time to decide what to do. I could try and grind the super turbo's which I'm sure would be a slow and steady climb but the cash games are always there. I may just switch it up everyday and use the super turbo profit to fund my MTT's. I know that another win in a major tournament is approaching. Hopefully for a 5 figure score (the 4 figure ones just get old).

Good luck to everyone at the tables.
-DA CAESH

Back again,
The .25/.50 online sessions have been going well. Still not at my A+ game but the good thing about those levels is that you don't always have to be. I've made progress advancing about 6 buy-ins. So I'm about 75% of the way to being able to play .5/1. One particular hand I played today stuck out in my head. I think I played it correctly but I guess feedback is always welcome. It was a blind vs. blind matchup in which I was the BB. The SB who had about half a buy in ($25) had been opening with a very wide range of hands and was not particularly good. it folded around to him in the SB and he made it $1.50. I was in the BB with A 10 off suit. I three bet small to $4. I know some people don't like to three bet because a hand like A 10 has to fold to just about any four bet. He thouht for a moment and then called.
Flop: A 4 7--Rainbow.
Great flop for my hand. I lead out with a pot size bet of $6.75----he quickly calls. At this point I am putting him on a 7 or prehaps even a higher pocket pair like 8's or 9's. I think he would have shoved over the top of me with a bigger Ace.
Turn: 2
Best turn card I could have hoped for. Instead of betting this time I wanted to check to make him think I was stealing on the flop since I had been C-Betting the majority of hands. I knew that if he had any piece of the board that he would bet. . He pushed all-in and I snapped called and sure enough he turned over 9 9. The river bricked and I won a good sized pot. I believe it was a good play to check for value knowing that my opponent was likely drawing to 2 outs. Sometimes on a dry board if you can check and make your oppponent think that your three bet pre flop was just an attempt to steal then acting weak on the turn can pay off.

Other than that I have been re-watching a lot of Entourage and I must say it is the best show on TV ever. There is never a bad episode and the characters are all played to perfection. I highly reccommend going out and renting the seasons if you haven't seen any yet. Daniel Negreanu signed on to do an episode for the upcoming season so it will be interesting to see what kind of role he plays. Finals week is quickly approaching so poker will be put on hold for a long time. Probably up until Christmas break. I'll watch training videos but will probably not do too much playing. Enjoy the holidays.

--DA CAESH

The beginning of the best:

I have been playing poker for the last 3 years somewhat successfully I built my account up to the 10/20 NL level before I cashed it all out to focus on school. I played the donkaments on the weekends occasionally until I felt motivated enough recently to where I wanted to win again. I realized when I joined CardRunners that I had some major leaks in my game and if I ever wanted to pursue it as a career or money making option that I had to get serious about it. I had the intention of starting off at the low limits of .25/.50 NL. I watched the SSNL series of videos and it became clear that the players were so weak if you just knew how to exploit it. I had $200 in my account just to try and get a feel for the game again. I ended up becoming bored and loading the account on to a 3/6 table. After about 20 minutes and a very lucky matchup with my AA to a KK all in pre flop I was looking at about $600. I wanted to keep playing but I remembered the handy rule of bankroll management. I now had $660 and enough of a roll where I felt good about playing at 50NL tables. (ideally about $900-1K but what can you do?) So I start with Brymstar's videos which were all about the obv TAG style and its going to yield profit eventually over time nearly all of the time. I played this style for the last 3 days and made a very steady climb and a profit of about $300 over a relatively small amount of hands. I enjoy the style though it is pretty cut and dry but you can't complain when you make money. I watched NuteDawg's 100NL videos today and the guy is a total beast and just understands the game so well. The best thing I learned was just simply how to put oppenents on a range which I had been doing but not as frequently thinking about it especially on the turn/river cards. It is clear that he has it all figured out and that's why he's the best. (where da gold at lol) I watched these with anticipations of moving up to the .5/1 NL stakes hopefully by the end of the week. I know that my minor bankroll management collapse is the worst idea for any poker player but now that I have enough to play at the level I want to I wont be doing that again. I'll update everyday I play poker and track progress of that and life in general. Couple of minor sidenotes:
1. Dont spend all your winnings on shots/drinks for pretty girls because it doesn't yield positive EV
2. Do not ever do what I did and load your account on one table ( I know I'm and idiot)
3. Shout out to my beautiful best friend Katie Craig who is always there for me during a poker crisis.

-DA CAESH