Krantz just released this today. Absolutely hilarious, (pay attention to the art details):

In case you guys haven't heard the buzz, here's what was released on YT not too long ago. Off the top of my head, I heard two of the guys in here is GoMuk and SethSethSeth whom are respected in the online community. Plz 2 B painting online poker in a positive light like 2m2mm imo. Hopefully the studio doesn't only edit the show to the most douche baggery, ego-whoring, drama chaotic parts that commonly comes with being young, wild and successful. Unfortunately, they're probably going to edit a lot of that in since its good for TV, so I can only pray they somewhat reflect a humbling light to the characters. Anyway take a look for yourself. I think we all want it to be good if it does air for our own benefit as a community and for our own entertainment value... Cross your fingers, the last thing online poker needs is more negativity in the media.

Today marks the last day of Nov. Poker has thankfully gone much smoother. Last month's # of coolers, runner runners, suckouts, 1 outers was enough to turn any sane person into crazy. This month that amount of all those has gone back to a normal amount. For some reason, PTR has been incredibly inaccurate this month. Many people have complained about the inaccuracy of progress tracking. For me, PTR has me stagnant to negative in winnings the past month while I'm up over 20k. Not always accurate LDO and not a big deal of course but this has been the biggest discrepancy I've seen thus far.

November was an interesting month outside of poker. The 2 kittens we had been fostering were given back to the shelter to be put up for adoption. We also got another kitten that we've named Pichu and he was found as a singlet at 4 weeks old. He's jumpy at loud noises and has had some digestive issues but he's pulled through and is a cute, furry, bundle of love. It's amazing he was a stray and battled the streets and came out alive in 40 degree F weather for however long he had to on his own. When the shelter got him, he was starving and was incredibly boney. Here's a slide show of the newest kitten the wifey put together:

For Thanksgiving, my mom flew in from Hawaii. Was crowded while she stayed with us but it was nice to have her around. One of my friends has a tradition of doing Thanksgiving with just friends the week before. It's really fun and this year he cooked one of the best turkey's I've ever had.

I talked with my accountant and if all goes according to plan, I'll be shelling out 6 figures in taxes this year. I've worked incredibly hard this year in both poker and career. Thank god Obama's tax plan for 250k+ doesn't go into effect until next year. I won't be looking forward to that.

RAVE: Very proud of one of my students this month. I began indepth coaching with one particular student of mine looking to move up. He first contacted me when he was playing 100NL a while ago. In his 1st 3 weeks of indepth coaching with me, he is winning at 6PTBB/100 at both 200NL and 400NL. I definitely love the feeling of seeing someone improve and see their appreciation. Of my crappy month, this was definitely the personal gratitude of my October.

RANT: My October month was a huge POS and definitely the most stress I've ever had. I had two -20k downers and still managed to be positive on the month. I ended up working 200 hours in 2 weeks with everything (career, coaching, poker grinding). The number of retarded beats and coolers I took this month in this span of time has been more than any other in my career. I won't get into it too much but it definitely felt like the poker gods decided to piss all over my face after shitting on me. Focusing on the positive, I guess it was a true test of me as a player to go through two 20k downers and come out ahead (85% 600/1000NL/PLO and 15% 2000NL). I've always said in poker and life relationships in general, it's not how you deal with the ups that defines your relationship, it's how you deal with the downs.

SICK CALLS: Keeping the anonymity of one of my buds I played this hand against, I won't release his name. But I will say this guy is as feared a 5/10 grinder as Dr. Giggy on FTP. (converter messing up results @SD, pasting results from HEM)

Full Tilt, $5/$10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details


BTN: $9,460.80 (946.1 bb)
SB: $1,307 (130.7 bb)
BB: $350 (35 bb)
UTG: $4,393.30 (439.3 bb)
MP: $1,816.25 (181.6 bb)
Hero (CO): $1,263.80 (126.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J A
2 folds, Hero raises to $22.90, BTN folds, SB calls $17.90, BB folds

Flop: ($55.80) 5 T 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $37.90, SB raises to $130, Hero calls $92.10

Turn: ($315.80) 2 (2 players)
SB bets $250, Hero calls $250

River: ($815.80) 2 (2 players)
SB bets $904.10, Hero calls $860.90

Results: $2,580.80 pot ($3 rake)
Final Board: 5 T 4 2 2

VILLAIN shows [6c, 7c ]

HERO shows [Jd, Ac ]

HERO wins $2534.60 USD from main pot

I also now have started a waitlist for coaching. For those interested, I might have availability starting in Dec or January. If you'd like to get to the top of the waiting list, please let me know.

Really wish it was me on there and not Imari (for the WSOP ME). But nothing I can do busting my QQ to T4ss AIPF at the ME. At any rate. Here's my poker twin. Thoughts?:

Imari Love






woooooooooooooooz



And yes. That is an ASCII ass on my hat.

WAT

60k corporate > 100k Pro poker in the 1st year.

The short of it by math:

28k for the Corp Grinder vs 23k for the 100K PPP. Interesting huh? Below is more detailed info of how I came up with the numbers.

More detailed:

A number of my students have come to me dreaming to be a professional poker player some day. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great things about it and I love it. But I definitely have a love/hate relationship with it at times. A lot of poker professionals will say the same thing. While it has a lot of advantages, there are a lot of disadvantages that are often not discussed. One of the things that is kept the dark a bit is money management. I'm not talking about bankroll management. I'm talking about pure money in the hands of a PPP and using it to further his/her career.

Let's take the 'average' Poker Grinder. I would think anyone trying to getting into the business wants to work hard, and make 100k a year (after rakeback/etc). 100k to a poker player is NOT the same as 100k to a corporate grinder. Here is why:

1. The corporate desk jockey doesn't need to reinvest in his future. The professional poker, in order to get 'a raise in salary', has to keep more at his disposal in risk/reward. That means, part of the money he makes needs to stay in the business and cannot be touched, even though the money has been earned.

2. The Professional Poker Player needs to pay for his/her own benefits. The average healthcare for an individual in 2008 was 8k and that's just healthcare! There's no 401k company matching, stocks, retirement benefits, education reimbursement, etc. All of the little perks that come with the corporate life are assumed by the company and are averaged into an employees salary. The Pro Poker Player (PPP) has to pay for all of this himself. Employee Benefit Research Institute quoted in Dec 2007 that 30% of the total compensation goes to benefits.

3. Paying taxes quarterly sucks. It's pretty difficult to shell out a bunch of money to the IRS quarterly when you may have had 1 or 2 bad months... or break even months. As a PPP, many set themselves up paying a estimated amount every quarter. This could end up being quite a big chunk of money in a quarter if 1 or 2 months don't go so well. It happens to ALL of us! Look at the likes of Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius online.

4. The PPP needs a higher cushion of emergency money than the corporate grinder. 1 word: Unemployment. The corporate grinder has the cushion if he's out of work that the PPP does not in most cases.

I personally do both. But those who are on the corporate side looking to get into pro poker, the above is something to think about...

It was a sad day the other day when Pstars announced that it has decided to pull out of the Washington State market. I suspect that FTP will follow soon meaning the biggest of online options are in huge jeopardy for WA state and in turn many US residents for the future. The fact that it happened in Wa state only means that it'll be easier for other states that want to create their own laws against online gambling... as now they have an example. And, since the Supreme court has upheld the states view, THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS STANCE WHICH PUTS MANY OTHER STATES AT FUTURE RISK.

I'm fucking pissed. You should be too even if you aren't a WA state resident. Having court decisions like this pass fucks with YOUR future as a poker player regardless of where you live. If you haven't joined PPA, sent letters, called your governor/reps like I have. Do it. The collective 20 minutes you take away from getting heard only helps our cause.

FTP also announced that it restructured how it does rakeback and FTP point calcs. Luckily, I play much much looser than 90% of players I play against so it only helps me in FTP points but screws with my bottom line from monetary value of perks from what I've been reading (After cashing in points and rake generated). So, FU FTP. Paying 125k in rake over 2 years and you decide to screw me like this? Are you retarded? Do you like lighting future money on fire or do you really want me to move my money off your site so you get NO more rake from me. You've got to be dumb to think your decision to restructure your rewards program to screw regulars would actually HELP your bottom line.

On a side note, Vancouver BC is one of my favorite cities in the world. I'm seriously considering moving there because I'm so fed up with the American BS and in my personal opinion, I don't see it changing soon.

TL;DR... So cliff notes 1st on The French Laundry

• $728 bill (not including hotel/air fare/car to get there which puts it into well over 1k+),

• Incredible culinary artistry
• Best service of anything anywhere period
• One of the best meals ever
• Not worth the money just looking at it from a monetary standpoint
• But worth the bucket list check mark

About: For those not familiar with The French Laundry, it is one of the hardest restaurants in the US to get a reservation to. It took me 3 days to get a reservation, calling on 3 phones with assistance of the concierge of my building helping me to get a spot (thank you Byron!). TFL only opens up reservations for the day of, exactly 2 months in advance the day you want to make reservations. The reservation line opens at 10am (and phones are constantly busy) and if you don't get reservations by 10:30ish, you won't be getting reservations. Some people spend weeks trying to get reservations with no success. It is also one of the six 3 Michelin Star rated restaurants in the US, which is the highest rating you can receive for a restaurant and the only one west of the rocky mountains so far for 2010.

With that said, not many 'foodies' have had the pleasure of sitting at this wonderful restaurant and people fly from around the world to experience it. My wife and I had the pleasure of dining at TFL for my B-day. I turned 30 this Aug 19th. Yes... get out the walker and cane. I'm an old fogey!

Likes:

There are six things from this menu that were the best things I've ever had. They are:
1. The Sparkling Rose Wine... and better be for $110 per HALF bottle.

2. Foie Gras and Brioche

3. French Roll

4. Spanish Mackerel

5. Clothbound Cheddar

6. Hazelnut chocolate truffle.

Dislikes:

1. Sweetbread. I've had good sweetbread before. This didn't even come close. Even the wife agrees, a complete miss.

2. Lamb Rib-Eye. Very well prepared dish, however it was missing a heavier sauce to accompany the dish and bring out the flavor of the meat. A little bland considering the course before was a pork belly and that is typically on the saltier side and no palate cleanser in between.

3. Grilled Sea Scallop. One word: 'Meh'

Overall: My wife and I are true foodies and experience a lot of fine dining. Of the things listed, only 3 full dishes listed on the menu made the best I've ever had list. The others, were only pieces of dishes or accompaniments. And even though every course wasn't total knock out of the park, it was still one of the best meals I've ever had. Altogether everything was spectacular as expected. With that said, it is no wonder Thomas Keller was regarded as the best California chef and to some, one of the best chef's on the planet. With The French Laundry and Per Se, Keller has two of the six 3 Michelin star rated restaurants currently rated for 2010 in the US. Altogether a great experience, but don't go in expecting it to be worth every penny. That's not the point. When you sit down at either, you aren't eating food, you are tasting art.

Side Note: Oh and if you are in Vegas, skip Bouchon Bistro for dinner (another Thomas Keller restaurant). It is garbage/overrated and many agree with my take. However, the Bouchon bakery is amazing and well worth the calorie spew.

Right now my pooper is feeling a little tender from the brutal prison rape of poker sessions I took over the weekend. Is it just me or does AK always seem to win vs pairs AIPF? And why do sets always get runnered vs something retarded? I'm sure you've all experienced and have heard the bad beat stories so how about just a graph?

This weekend emphasized a few new things that I need to get better about:

1. Detaching myself from a big loss and being ok with it. I've got no problem losing big pots from time to time. It's when it continually happens one after another. The compounding poker god ass f***ings start to feel like someone is pulling some retarded goatse.cx financial prank. It's hard not to be sad about it and just be happy around my wife or friends. I hate it. But the key to it is to remember, it even happens to the best of the best. Dwan went on a 5m downer as we've all seen online and Ivey we've seen take some brutal beats and always stays calm. Both are regarded as some of the best in the game and we just all go through it. That in itself is comforting to remember. Poker for the most part, is really looking for the +EV spots and hoping you hold right?

2. Rework my schedule. I've been doing it a long time but I'm getting continually more busy. It's been a challenge to balance pro poker, video producing, training myself in poker, working out, spending time with the wife, friends, family and keeping them all in check. And though I am not able to take on the workload that some of the full time CR pros have time for, I do believe my unique approach to poker/FT career is important insight to poker players looking for content because most of you balance something outside of poker. For coaching, I'll have to increase my rates because of demand but it won't be by much. I already take a huge hit to my hourly but I do like to keep it good value to oncoming students.

3. Revisit my yearly goals. In light of new opportunities that have arisen this year and mapping out a plan for my wife and I, I think it'd be wise to modify the goals I made for the current year. I'll elaborate more on my goals in another update. One of them includes the prospect of buying a new house.

Good luck at the tables folks and run better than I have!