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Who Am I?

What's up, CardRunners? It's been a while. In fact, it's been just over four years since something I produced appeared on this legendary web site. I was lucky enough to have been brought on board as a guest pro in early 2008 and made my seventh mid-stakes no-limit hold 'em cash game video in August of that year.

I can't believe it's been that long. A lot has changed since then. The poker world has undergone an unwanted makeover, thanks mostly to the US government. Kudos to you if you're reading this, because that means you're still around. Surviving in the gambling world isn't easy, especially in an environment in which outsiders have the ability to manipulate the market (and the immorality necessary to take advantage of this ability) ... seriously.

As many of you know, Taylor has been working on an online-poker-centric documentary called BOOM. I can't wait to see it. I don't know about you guys, but I want to keep my game sharp for Boom #2. I can't tell you when online poker will be explicitly legalized in the countries in which it's currently illegal or barely legal, but I can tell you that I'll be ready.

It's been said by more than one wise individual that success in poker requires complete immersion in the game. I believe this to be true. How many times have you seen someone grind out a bunch of money, decide that he's the king of poker and that it's no longer necessary for him to think about the game constantly ... annnddd it's gone? His edge in the game, I mean. And with it, his ability to earn money at his leisure from anywhere on the planet.

I'm exaggerating a bit for the purpose of making my point, but I believe my point is worthy of internalization. The moment you allow yourself to take your foot off the gas with regard to your poker game is the moment you jeopardize your ability to beat the game. That's the reason I've made it my business keep my game sharp. I've continued to play on the sites that will still accept my business (I've reached a point in my life where I don't care to move out of the US), but perhaps more importantly, I've become serious about coaching. I've yet to advertise my services on CardRunners (until now), but many of my students are CardRunners members. It's cliche, but coaching is an excellent way to sharpen one's poker game. The reason is that it forces you to clarify your thinking.

What is Smashing Fewer Holes in Your Computer Desk?

Those who coach poker inevitably come to realize that there are many crucial concepts that surface over and over again. There's something to be said for discussing things in a one-on-one setting because it allows each party to obtain and react to thoughts from the other. However, in a way, this is inefficient. There's little practicality associated with regurgitating the same information many times over.

This, of course, is the reason we've seen so many poker theorists release costly e-books. "Buy my book and you, too, will be earning $X/hour," they say. I'll spare you such rhetoric, but I will state that I consider Smashing Fewer Holes in Your Computer Desk to be my ultimate accomplishment in the realm of the game.

In the past, I've described it as "a set of written leak finders." What I've meant by this is that it consists of three narrated videos that were sent to me by students along with ~65,000 words of my written analysis on their play (along with additional written material). However, on some level, I regret describing it this way. While I comment on my students' decision-making, their videos are little more than a mechanism that allows me to discuss cash game no-limit hold 'em in a free-flowing format. Cash game no-limit hold 'em was more or less my life from the year 2006 through Black Friday, and I like to think that this has resulted in my brain being chock-full of insights about the game. Every single one lies in the pages of Smashing Fewer Holes in Your Computer Desk.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. For a thorough explanation of what I'm selling, please go here. To read a handful of reviews of the product (one of which was written by CardRunners' own Gareth Chantler), please go here.

Why CardRunners?

Upon launching my product, I was quickly contacted by several poker training companies who were interested in partnerships. If you're reading this, you know the usual suspects.

CardRunners wasn't one of them. However, I contacted CardRunners. There are two reasons I wanted to partner up with them on this.

The first reason is selfish. CardRunners remains the largest poker training site in existence. The more members a site can boast, the more sales someone like me should expect to generate via the establishment of a business agreement like this one, all else being equal. All else isn't equal: I consider CardRunners my training site home because it's the only training site to which I've ever owned a paid subscription. Thus, at least a few of you guys know who I am. That means more sales EV.

The second reason is unselfish. In case you haven't heard, the poker world isn't short on scumbags these days. Meanwhile, CardRunners has always been and continues to be run by an awesome group of individuals. I don't mean to imply that I don't respect CardRunners' competitors (in general, I do), but I knew that any site that would help me advertise my offering would enjoy a cut of my sales revenue in exchange for a relatively trivial amount of work (popular training sites have already done lots of work, or else they wouldn't be popular). It's my opinion that CardRunners is more than deserving of this.

That's my spiel. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to pose them. I'll be monitoring the comments.

Thanks for reading, and good luck,
Jon