Yearly Update

The title has been created in jest however it will appear to be nothing but the truth. Where to start, quite frankly sooooo much has happened since my last post that quite frankly I do not know where to start so let's start at the beginning :-). I started getting coached back in May '10 by, quite frankly, one of the best 100NL (.50/1.00) grinders, brandonjacobs. The setup: via Moshman Stake where I would play out of my own bankroll and split profits at the end of the week (if any) and not have to pay on weeks where I had losses. Needless to say, this did wonders for my game. If I recall correctly I had just come off a 20bi downswing playing 50NL (.25/.50). Oh yeah, got ahead of myself, I almost binked a few more tourneys post-that one mini cash for 2nd, here is a link to my results since then. To sum most of my donkament success up, I've made about $10,800 in tourney scores, of whiche $6295 is 100% profit :-) results. I've turned out to be quite the luckbox in tourneys. I find it interesting to view the progression, since as of my first post I was trying to make it to $100 and look at me now. So back on topic. Long story short, coaching with Lucas went amazing, I even consider him a close friend, at the least, one of the closest friends I have in the category of people I have never physically meet. More on why later. So, after completing my contractual agreements with Moshman, I had discovered that Lucas had left Moshman as well and had joined a grouped called Fluxstables: pretty much a group of the most elite uNL (micro stakes) players online and a few who play stakes as high as 1knl ($5/$10). I started on a stake with Flux for $750, in doing so I accomplished one very important objective: I got to pay myself weekly + withdraw all the funds I had accrued over the last 2 years and buy myself something nice. The deals of the agreement were a 50/50 profit split with free coaching from the elite of the elites: Gary Hurst- El Nino 1. This even further improved my game. In a 5 moth span I went from grinding 25nl to 100nl and then it happened...Black Friday. It happened amidst one of my downswings @ 100nl nonetheless; so I was swiftly locked out of my hobby, my job (which was fast becoming a potential career) and something that quickly became ingrained as part of my lifestyle: Online Poker. I feel this triggered a very interesting chain of events. First, there was pandemonium and we [online poker community] looked to Quadjacks as a D-Day like information center. These amazing individuals kept a podcast running for what seems well over 180 hours constantly bringing on people from all aspects of online poker - from the lowliest grinder to pretty much all the superstars (Esfandiari, Laak, Negreanu, Cates etc.), several CPA's who worked with poker players, a few lawyers and even the CEOs of 2 online poker sites (Victory Poker - Dan Fleyshman and PPN - Chuck Kidd). Well around hour 100 or so I felt the podcast was faltering around 4 am. The podcast constantly had no less than 7 panelist at all times and around the dead of night they were down to 3, I felt compelled to call in and keep the conversations going, that is to say, do everything I could to keep the movement alive. I did what I knew best and talked strat. I was on for about 12 hours and would of stayed on longer had it not been for final exams. I was very excited to have the opportunity to chat with Kathy Liebert - for those that don't know, she is the winning-est female poker player: a true honor. However, my run in with superstars did not end there. Once the dust settled, and yes I am skipping ahead now, a group of close friends alongside my girlfriend and I made a a journey to the poker mecca: Las Vegas. The highlight of the trip: meeting Antonio Esfandiari AND Phil Laak @ 6 AM at the Bellagio while we were walking the strip in basketball shorts and the girls were wearing something slightly nicer than PJs. A momentous occasion to say the least. We also took pictures with a fake Manny Pacquiao, since there was a fight @ the MGM that Saturday as well (I know sick brag). I will be cutting this post short for I fear it is becoming far to long already and would like to leave somethings out for tomorrow's entry. I will start updating it more regularly and thusly can promise the thought process behind my writings will be far more organized. Later for now, and I leave you with this, a $2 SnG I was running on Bodog Poker while I typed this entry:

I crushed everyone, first time I ever eliminate a whole table >:-)

So, Summary of Las Vegas Trip:

Beat: Didn't take a picture with Esfandiari or Laak

Brag: Got to meet Esfandiari and Laak

Variance: Meet and idential, carbon copy of Manny Pacquiao

And once again, I apologize for all the loose ends, I promise to revisit/tie them up next post. Well, most of them.