Pickin it back up

Hey, its been awhile since my last post and thats mostly due to my getting killed during the beginning of the month, and some of the motivation getting slashed... obviously the flip side to that is this post comes with some run good, and I've turned the month around a bit...

bigbluffzinc 779 $5 $42 16% $4,075 Tilt N/A PokerStars 12/1/2010 12/19/2010

The staking side of things hasn't really flipped, and the Pokerstars VIP changes were a pretty significant let down, so in light of the adjustments I'm still not 100% certain as to what my goals will be stepping into 2011. One of my business partners had to step out which was obviously for the worse, but I've worked out a system that seems to be getting the job done... I'll be moving back to BC in January which I'm pretty stoked about, still have no clue where I'm gonna live permanently but I'll stay with my brother till I get it figured out...

As far as regulars are concerned, people seem to be getting a lot better... the dynamics with a lot of players are getting a bit deeper, which makes for better poker and tougher swings... but nose to the grind stone, coz I aint workin at McDicks..

Keep going...

The year is coming to a close, and its getting pretty easy to just call it a good year and throw in the towel. Pushing through and pounding volume is pretty close to one of the last things I want to do, but maintaining the pace I've been on (however sluggish) is the least I can do as I close out this year... November was a disappointment monetarily as per expectation, but hopefully I'm able to pick it up a little in December, rest up a little bit and prepare myself to hit the ground running in January. I have a number of personal things to take care of throughout December which will distract me from poker, but to have a worse mo/ in terms of volume than November won't be acceptable.

bigbluffzinc 871 $7 $50 11% $5,811 - N/A PokerStars 11/1/2010 11/30/2010

Staking went about as badly as it could have, and on the month I may have only had a $1500 month including poker, (about -$4,000) so hopefully I run better there this month :)

Goals for December: Play at least 1k games, get the Supernova 2x Milestone and the rest of the 4k bonus (about 40k FPP's from where I'm at now)

Nose to the ground...

I've been slacking again lately, my volume has been pretty non-existent this past week, and its clearly affecting my bottom line. I'm hoping to get things back on track after the 21st, as I'm currently out of town and will likely continue my unsatisfactory volume until my return to AZ. Through observation and experience it becomes clearer and clearer how a dedicated personal work ethic is an absolute necessity to the lifestyle/career path I've chosen, there's no one forcing you to get up and go to work, everything is a personal choice with no immediate consequence. I'm already eagerly awaiting Pokerstars to announce there adjustments to the VIP program for 2011, obviously (for those of you who play on Stars) they keep us in the dark as long as possible, hardly muttering a whisper until mid -late December about their intentions or adjustments. I expect that, should Pokerstars introduce a mid Elite level or make Elite that much more attainable, my VIP's for the year will likely triple (if not more) in 2011. At the start of 2010 I was exceptionally unprepared to make any form of serious commitment or goal w/ respect to volume or VPP's earned. For those following this blog that has obviously changed, and my goals, which I will announce in correlation w/ Pokerstars' release of the adjustments to their VIP program, will be more accurate, attainable, and understood, as I will have a better grip on what it takes to put in certain amounts of volume, and play at certain levels profitably.

Below you'll find a summary of the differences between this year and last year, and how I feel they affect my (or your)
success in long term goals/immediate results.

VIP Level
2010 - I started 2010 w/ Plat. star, and I busted my ass to get it prior to 2010 starting as I knew I would be putting
in a significant amount of volume in January, and wanted to capitalize on whatever amount of rakeback I could to cushion
the potential swings I would be facing
2011 - I'll be starting 2011 with Supernova, which is a massive edge in comparison with Platinum star, it allows me to
essentially spin my wheels (rakeback whore) profitably, which is extremely relevant in the $114 18's/$104 DoN's or any
other high stakes game I choose to play.

Experience
2010 - I started the year having dabbled briefly in the 16's, and moved back down to grinding the $6.50's as I didn't want
to go through a swing that would prevent me from being rolled for the $27/$38/$60 18's which I had never played, and had
decided would simply dive into (30 tabling) hoping to strike the positive side of variance.
2011 - As a poker player I have experienced a tremendous amount of growth throughout the last year, I have made the
transition from a $6.50 grinder pre 2010, to one of the more capable $114/$60/$38 18/45 Man grinders, and have completely
eliminated any lower buy in's than that from my playing schedule in an attempt to maximize my hourly rate.

Bankroll/Community
2010 - I began 2010 with a 2.5k bankroll, which I was grinding up during my stay with my parents for Christmas during 2009,
in an attempt to be able to absorb some amount of swing that might occur during January and my induction to games
that included regulars who played the game for a living. In mid 2010 I essentially went busto for reasons I'll not share
with the entire world, and was forced to grind 6.50's and below, I was unaware of any way to play in the games that
excluded my own roll.
2011 - I now have a slightly larger roll, one that is much more capable of withstanding the variance of the games I choose
to play. More importantly, I have a strong network of stakers/backers on and off Parttimepoker.com who are more than
happy to take my action for a percentage, should my personal roll become unavailable or bust. This is crucial
as my hourly rate won't slip to a fraction of what it is now due to a lack of funding at any point during 2011, unlike
2010.

As you can see, I'm much more prepared now to pursue any personal goals than I was at the beginning of 2010, maintaining
an honest relationship with yourself about where you stand is an integral part of our success, gl to all of us in making
2011 a stronger year than 2010!

Poker is a business...

Hey guys... been running hot, like hot like the sun hot.... Its November 3rd and I'm having nearly a 6k month all in, so yeah things on that side are clearly going well... Aside from my results my presence in my staking business has faded out a little bit, and I'm looking to remedy that when I wake up by running multiple sweats for both my BluffztheNutz and the SnGReasons stable. Presence is incredibly important w/ regard to how we handle our business, and is one of the most important things (in my opinion) with regard to the ability to successfully manage anything that has a bigger multitude than the individual. Obviously we can micro-manage, but that requires actually micro-managing the team you have working for you, you can't just let them do there own thing and expect it to work out the way you want it to, nor can you set goals and expect them to meet them when you provide no direction as to HOW we intend to accomplish these goals.. Here's a line from the Prince, which you should read when you peel yourself away from my blog, porn, (I hope not both at the same time) or whatever else you may be doing...

"... if he had not settled there, would not have been able to
keep it. Because, if one is on the spot, disorders are seen as
they spring up, and one can quickly remedy them; but if
one is not at hand, they are heard of only when they are
great, and then one can no longer remedy them."

I'm sure some/most and maybe all of you have read this book, but I've read it 5 times, so the bullshit excuse of being familiar with the text doesn't mean you shouldn't read it... If any of you have any books you found or are familiar with that really developed your sense of business or how you approach poker, throw it in the comments or hit me up by pm and ill try to read through them in the next few weeks... and if you don't, then you should... so put down the porn and get literate :)

October Recap, November Goals...

Here's the summary of what happened this month, I'm going out of town for around a week at some point this month so the goals will reflect that this month...

October Summary
VPP's : 20,100/25,000
Profit: $15,789/13,500
Coaching: 65/115 Hours
Tournaments: 1160
Investing: On top of it!

Eh fell terribly short everywhere except profit.... really disappointed and am going to really need to push it during November to try and compensate...

November Goals

VPP's: 20,000
Profit: 10,000
Coaching: 80 Hours
Tournaments: 1500
Investing: Keep going...

Gl to me!

Measure twice.. Cut once...

Title pretty much says it all, we should rehearse what we're doing, get it right, and THEN go after it... ill never understand the endless cycle of rinse/repeat mistake after mistake, to no end. People breaking even monotonously grind day in and day out, to no avail, and they wonder why? Well, its simple and I'll be nice enough to tell you, its because you're making fucking mistakes! Almost all of the solid winning players I know spend a considerable amount of time studying and reviewing there play, looking for places they could have done something differently, something that could potentially save them future money, and THEN executing it; in addition, there was a point where most of those players spent considerably more time studying than they do now... speaking from experience, I used to study every day while I played (only 5-6 tabled) then I'd study before I went to sleep, and I'd study when I'd wake up before work.... I only played a little bit... Its not the action of doing that promotes learning, that more or less reinforces habits, either good or bad... it's review and analysis that stimulate higher level play in the future, so measure twice and cut once... or waste time grinding life in a horizontal line, up to you...

Updates...
VPP's : 13,300/25,000
Profit: $13,800/13,500
Coaching: 42/115 Hours
Tournaments: 886
Investing: On top of it!

Bink!

Well, my last post briefly touched on mental toughness, and after picking myself up and getting my shit together.. I final tabled 5 MTT's in a two day period... shipped two of them, taking 2nd in another, and finishing in the top 5 in the final 2. Focus is crucial to obtaining a positive expectation, and when you expect to lose you shouldn't be shocked when that's what happens, but it goes both ways.. Winning is just as much a function of attitude as losing is. Of the MTT's I final tabled, the 109 2x had the biggest prize pool, and I shipped it for 10k... I'm still not thrilled with the volume I've put in this month, as it hasn't changed since my last post, but I have been putting in some MTT volume with my SnG's so less volume is to be expected... (I'm always easier on myself when I'm winning!) I'll probably spend the next week or two trying to clear out another 4k bonus and trying to improve my volume... Hopefully I don't run into a doom switch anywhere and the money keeps coming!

Goal Summary:
VPP's : 11,000/25,000
Profit: $11,500/13,500
Coaching: 20/115 Hours
Tournaments: 728
Investing: On top of it!

As you can see.. I'm falling short everywhere, going to need to really up the volume during the final week to satisfy the VPP/Tournament Goal, as well as step it up w/ my sweat sessions...

Mental toughness...

Ehh... I dont wanna complain, so I'll just say I could be running better :) I really only have myself to blame this month, and I am way way way behind on my goals... I dont even wanna post my progress I'm so far behind... It looks like I'll spend the next little while trying to play catchup... good luck me :)

Time is a commodity..

Got some staking coaching today from MHflush, definitely a +ev investment/good guy to work with, so I recommend him highly to anyone looking to take a more in depth look @ how they stake... He brought to my attention how much I squander my time, and how important it is not to do so, as my hourly rate will likely decrease as every day goes by, carpe diem is never more relevant than it is in poker, w/ the progression of weaker players' games the strength of our own is called into question, and so I need to be maximizing the value I have much more than I am currently... I have some really strong examples of how to do this to my benefit, Reasons14/MattGeer being the two who really stand out in this regard... Both guys' maximize the time in there day so much more efficiently than I do, and than most people do, (although they would likely disagree) and I have a lot to learn w/ respect to this... I think I've mentioned this before, but its so easy to get caught up in our own hype, how well or how poor were doing w/ an aspect of our lives, and dismiss a lot of others as less relevant or completely trivial, when focusing on those aspects brings not only more balance to the complicated equation of life, but also often impacts the thing we were so wildly focused on...

Another exceptionally relevant weakness that was brought to my attention was how often I see something positive, and hit it in full stride/swing without really analyzing the situation fully... E.g. I know staking (done properly) is +ev, therefore staking a LOT of solid horses will make me money... real conclusion, ehh... sort of... I have over 67 BAP's, 30 private horses, and coach for a site with a PF-stable setup... so all in all I have some amount of money invested in over 100 players other than myself... this number is overwhelming and too much, I bit off more than I could chew and have likely lost some amount of money in the process, oooooops...

This post was super random, and likely incoherent... w/ the next one I'll try to make more sense, but good luck at the tables, and if I'm not coaching you already... table select not only around me, but those I coach, cause there gonna eat your bankroll :)

*** I've received several PM's from horses who misunderstood my message, my private coaching is going to continue growing, the area I'm overextended most is PTP/BAP's.. so if you want coaching def. get in touch*** Thanks!

Makin some changes...

I've been evaluating some of my life leaks with a buddy of mine, and there is one glaring leak that stands out more than the rest... My sleep schedule couldn't be worse, I go to bed more or less when I feel like it, and wake up right around the same time... :) I wouldn't have a problem w/ this normally, but I'm encountering a huge challenge to my overall productivity, the woman's schedule... Angela gets home @ around 6 30 every day, which usually disrupts the coaching/playing/staking in some way, as it should... This wouldn't be a problem if I was getting up at around 7am every day... as I would have had plenty of opportunity to wrk and accomplish the things I need to, but when I wake up @ 2 or 3, and she disrupts everything at 6 30, my day is pretty much a fail... I don't know why I haven't approached this problem with a solution earlier, but the one I intend to implement is waking up early on a daily basis, and going to bed early... I don't do the alarm thing, the stress of forcing myself to get up for really no reason is unnecessary (Idc if I'm spoiled), so I'll sleep as long as I want, but if I'm up around 8 or 9 I think I'll be able to accomplish a lot more with my day...

SnG's are still a joke, everyone plays terribly so its easy money... I don't really understand how people can do so something every day, and do it so badly, but lets just say most SnG regs make a decent amount of money with no clue about how to play poker.. I know because I was one of them until fairly recently, but now that I'm in the know there's a lot that stands out as awful...

bigbluffzinc 122 $15 $30 27% $1,778 Hot N/A PokerStars 10/1/2010 10/6/2010 SNG Only x

Most people tell me its run good, and obviously that sample is just that.. but I've been "running good" for three months, and they've been running bad for there lifetime graph.. sooooooo, I think they're just bad :), we're both entitled to our opinions! :)

September Summary, October Goals

Here's how I did...

VPP's: 22395/20,000 - Success
Game Profit: $7000 (RB Included) + Coaching/Staking : $5200 = $12,200/12000 - Success
Coaching: Around 100 hours
Tournaments : 1410, Bleh need to up the volume still
Investing: Have about $35,000 invested, I've discontinued a couple investments

Goals for October...

VPP's : 25,000
Profit: $13,500
Coaching: 115 Hours
Tournaments: 2100
Investing: Just keep chuggin...

Feels good to have two 10k + months back to back, the staking side of things should only continue to improve as my personal horses are getting better, I'm extremely impressed with how far some of them have come. Beyond that, the shit going down in Washington is trash, people should be able to make the personal choice as to where they invest or spend there money, taking jobs away from some grinders and forcing them to leave there homes in pursuit of an income they've become accustomed to is just ridiculous...

To get in touch with me regarding coaching, I can be reached @ Bigbluffzinc on Skype or post a comment here and I'll get back to you!

Another Progress Report...

Been running pretty well since I returned from Vegas...

VPP's: 17358.77/20,000
Profit: $6976/12k (this doesn't include staking)
Coaching: Around 70 hours
Tournaments : 1228 (Again a little tougher than I thought with all the MTT's)
Investing: Pushed it a little too hard, and am now out of spending money lol... oops!

Here are my SnG results for the month, fields with less than 180 players... (Stars promotion SnG's fell under the scheduled tab on Sharkscope)
bigbluffzinc 1,136 $5 $31 19% $6,184 Tilt N/A PokerStars 9/1/2010 9/27/2010 E<=180

I've experienced some people taking some pretty weak, predictable lines against me in response to some of the lines I've been taking, I hope they read this.. and I hope they realize their time would be better spent table selecting around me, rather than trying to concoct a 1/2 ass solution that could be better called equity spew..

On a more positive note, I couldn't be prouder of the work ethic of my students, (you know who you are) they spend more time honing in on their games than I do, and I may quickly experience a role reversal as student and coach... In contrast to the time I spend with those 3 individuals, who literally bleed me of every bit of information I have, there are still students who pay for a service, and then neglect to take advantage of it, those 3 guys stand out for their unparalleled student mentality, which in my opinion will pull there game to a level beyond mine, poker is a game of sweat blood and tears, its only through relentless effort, grinding, that a high level of play is attained...

Back from Vegas...

Well Vegas was siiiick... the food was good and so was the gambling.. spent a decent amount of time at the Bellagio eating my way through a buffet and leveling people who overbet air through three streets on the tables... good times :)

Coming back from Vegas after taking some time away from the game/coaching/staking has been nice, pretty refreshed to put in volume and continue chipping away at working on how I handle bad beats and my emotional response to situations that I don't really think should generate one... I think a lot of people focus on the mechanics of the game like its all there is to it, overlooking the mentality and control it takes to beat the game as well. There is so much more to poker than when to 3 and 4 bet light, when to double barrel, most importantly in my opinion is the ability to honestly evaluate where you are and what you need to improve on, and using the tools you have available to you to the best of your ability. Everyone I coach, and most people I come into contact with talk about wanting to make more money, become a better player or individual, and in general step closer to the ideal they consider success, but 99% of the time its the same outcome, nothing... and they're telling me the same bull shit story the next week while they pay me $100/hr to listen... sounds like failing to me, but meh what do I know..?

Nothing Holy about Sundays in Poker...

Typical painful Sunday... gonna be spending the week grinding back the damage I did today, but its how it goes I suppose... :)

I read this somewhere and jotted it down, some pretty true shit...

"There are worse things in life than dying, I could have failed.."

This really hits home with me, at the end of life we all die, but only some of us get to taste our own perception of success, I'm not saying I'm there yet or I'm even remotely close to seeing what would look like a finish line, but I'm proud of where I'm at!

Well.. I was running pretty bad :)

Prior to today I couldn't win a flip... today I won most of them.. so no complaints from me for today, was something like a +$1100 day or something... I'm still way behind on my monthly goals, which I'm definitely not proud of, but I've been working pretty hard to get in games/coach/stake... so sometimes the cards break bad, it happens!

VPP's: 10,000/20,000
Profit: $459/12k (been running terrible and all w/ these MTT's its tough unless I homerun)
Coaching: Around 45 hours
Tournaments : 688 (Again a little tougher than I thought with all the MTT's)
Investing: Def. still rolling my money..

As you can see I'm getting murdered in regards to profit, but meh it happens, I play the highest stakes 18's that run regularly.. so a 700 game break even swing is more than normal variance... I'm really happy to see that I'm still motivated to pretty much pound volume despite being on a break even losing stint, a lot of player's I know slow waaaaaaay down/cut the volume altogether when they lose, which isn't the best way to get out of it as long as you feel it isn't affecting your play... Hopefully I smash tomorrow (Sunday) for a 6 figure score, although it hasn't happened yet... and put an end to the downswing :)

Update on Goals

Had a deep run in the $530 WCOOP NLHE event, bricked out in 45th for 1250, not too bad but would obv. be nice to ship it...

VPP's: 6200/20,000
Profit: $450/12k (been running terrible and all w/ these MTT's its tough unless I homerun)
Coaching: Around 25 hours
Tournaments : 438 (Again a little tougher than I thought with all the MTT's)
Investing: Def. still rolling my money..

Summary: Need to put in some fuckin work!

Progress Report...

Well today could have gone better, but I definitely didn't lose much for a Sunday which is super positive... Were still having a +EV month which is good, as I've managed to win about $800 in SnG's for the week despite running pretty bad and putting in light volume, gonna look to really pick it up over the next couple days, but I'm definitely over hearing players bad beat stories, each of us has our own, and we don't need the negativity of another player impacting our day.. Everytime someone loses a pot, busts a SnG, or gets coolered/setup, do they really need to pass it on, so that everyone gets coolered... as if I've never had a bad beat in 20,000+ games lol? Misery loves company, but competition breeds motivation and ultimately success, so why spend three hours bitching when it accomplishes nothing, its like the male version of crying only worse, because there is this assumption that its ok, at least when a man bows down and cries, everyone knows he's either being a bitch or going through some shit, with this its an endless incessant drain on the existence of the individual listening...

Lately people have been asking me what it is I'm doing differently, what approach to the game is netting me different results... And my answer is that I have two students I can think of who possess the same quality, Push and Plank are sicko's when it comes to their student mentality, they strive to become better, more so than all of my students currently losing/breaking even/winning.. they are doing the right things and yet still they push to become better, where people consistently doing the wrong things over and over just wanna pound volume as if there "lucky swing" is around the corner... some people know what I know, some people (some, lol) even know more than I know, but if its possible for me to find out what you know, what your cousin knows, and what your teacher knows, then I'll figure it out, and when I do, I'll fucking level you with it... so good luck on the tables, and I advise table selection around Bigbluffzinc, cheers :)

Sickest Month Ever...

As the title suggests, this has been the most profitable month of my life, with a net profit of just over $30,000.. Making that in a month is ridiculous, but after staking/coaching/playing/rakeback, thats what it came to :). I hope to continue where I left off in September, but exceeding $30k in profit is a lofty goal, (I had 3 or 4 MTT final tables to help me get there, shipping the $55 12k late August 31st/early Sept.) I'll be satisfied if I stick to these ones....

-$12,000 Profit All In
-2000 Tournaments Across All Sites
-30 Hours/Week of Coaching
-20,000 VPP's
-Continue Investing

Keepin it going....

Been getting lazier and lazier, which is starting to bother me... The more money I make the less I volume I seem to put in, contentedness is the bane of profit imo.... I'm playing backed for this last week of August as well as all of September due to WCOOP, which to be honest seems like a completely idiotic thing to do... I've been more confident in my game than I ever have, and have developed my understanding of the game way beyond where it was a month ago.... Which basically leads me to the conclusion that I'm free rolling people on profit in exchange for money which I don't need, GG me... I'm really grateful for the investors so if there are those reading it I definitely appreciate it and I don't want this misinterpreted, I just think I should've had the balls to run it on my own... Thats the other thing that bothers me, I oftentimes find myself backing everyone in the world but myself, which speaks volumes about how much confidence some of these games take to play, and how lacking I am in certain areas... Its so much easier to just ship the money to jo blow and say "glgl, make me money", when I'd say just about everytime Jo'blow's money would be much safer if I were using it to gamble instead of him... I don't think I'm the only player who plays/feels that way but you gotta man up fwiw...

Changes for Sept/October... I know its August now and planning for Oct before hitting Sept seems a little trigger happy, but Ive opted to play backed so as far as confidence is concerned, its easier for me to be more active in my higher buy in games when less of my money is involved... so w/ that being said starting in Sept the volume on both FTP and Stars is gonna step up, and I'm gonna start loading the 114's a lot more relentlessly as I feel I have a significant edge on most MTT SnG players atm, reg or otherwise...

Personal vices, my fuckin spending habits... Probably burned through 6-7k this month doing absolutely nothing, which obviously needs to be adjusted, I've never spent that much in a month excluding partying when I travel.. but I've never made this much in a month either, not that that's an excuse but yeah.. w.e.

Total side note, but I adjusted the background on my computer to fuckin chess pieces.. ok at first it sounds pretty weak, but tbh it keeps me going... there are only 2 ways to look at what we do, (assuming you gamble relentlessly lol) one, is you're a degenerate, which by definition lends me to the phrase "FUCK YOU!" when people refer to me as one.. Option B, we're strategists... we pick people apart, smart people, and weak people.. and depending on how good you are, you tear them up. We take the thing most people will kill for, money.. I don't sit on a computer 12 hours a day losing my money monotonously, over and over again, and I'm not a fuckin degenerate... if you wanna talk degenerate I'll refer you to the bag boy at a grocery store who works an 8 hour day earning $10 bucks an hour, who comes home, blazes.. falls asleep, rinses, (if he's got the tenacity to haul himself into the shower) and repeats... (People do this on so many different levels, just substitute blazing for television and 10 bucks an hour to 25, and you have some asshole who thinks less of you) 99% of the people who refer to us as the former, fall into the latter category, when on the chess board, I'm the King and that bitch is the pawn, so again, fuck you :)

Click Clack!

Well I'm not gonna be pullin' any triggers, but if you decide to jump into an 18 man SnG w/ me, all I gotta say is you did it to yourself... I've been takin names in my games lately and have never been more confident with where everything is at... "I know something you don't know", comes to mind when I load up w/ some of what are considered the toughest SnG players around... the better you get the more respect you lose for how other people play, not gonna name names but the player whose game I respect most outside my own (I am better than you :) ) has given me 14 pretty good Reasons to, and the ability to bounce ideas off him at will has made joining the coaching site worth it.. I found my old respect for money again after I hustled my ass off trying to make someone else $67 at a Swap Meat in 100+ degree heat working a 7 hour day... its easy to forget how hard I used to work for a dollar, walking back and forth, between 2 jobs 2 miles apart, working 90 hour weeks in the old days to sitting in my AC'd house making about 3-5 bucks a game playing anywhere from 50-150 games a day....

Shout out to all the grinders crushin games and takin shit from people who dont fuckin get what we do... (I dont care if you hate rap/hip hop/pop... fuckin listen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWHH1Updhig

"We are all prisoners of our own captivity"

Been a little while, so what up... Life is still going pretty rock star solid, so hopefully the run bad stick of life doesnt come beat me over the head anytime soon.. because I'm enjoying the moment a little too much and am not asking for any more or any less... just keep the flow goin!
I recently started coaching for SnGReasons.com, which has a bunch of great guys coaching and playing, and I'm pretty stoked about the opportunity all the way around... I feel like I have the opportunity to grow as a player in other aspects of poker, because while all those guys are pretty phenomenal SnG players... they have coaches for everything else :) and will be able to point me in the right direction in regards to a lot of other aspects of the game.
SnG's are my shit, thats the bottom line, but I was watching Prison Break the other day, (I dont watch more than an hour of tv every two or three days, waste of grind time imo) and this line stood out to me, "We are all prisoners of our own captivity".. I really started to question a lot of things w/ regards to life and apply this there, but for the purposes of this blog it'll stay mostly poker related and how this impacted my game... I feel like a LOT of the people I coach/observe play a game thats confined to the rules they THINK apply to the game.. when in reality breaking the rules in logical ways is imo how good poker is played, and how anything worth really doing is done... obviously there are guidelines and things that need to be kept in check, because guidelines generally represent attempts, failures, and success done by people before you, but if you don't allow yourself to step out from the conventional mode of play, step out of the comfort zone, and step into your own game... You'll always be 1 step behind the game. I took that same quote and twisted "We are all prisoners of our own captivity", and shifted it to "We are all prisoners of our own creativity", the limits of the latter should be stretched, because creative play is generally gonna be unpredictable logic, and in the game of war we call Poker, thats the strategy thats gonna win; not shoving ATC into me for 35bbs bvb and cracking my AK in the 55 Turb MTT on Stars... VARIANCE my ass, its rigged.. :)

Keep Winning...

Title says it all... I'm running terribly in the 16's/27's, which is fine if I keep crushing the 38's/60's.... so yeah the money has been flowing in pretty nicely on a consistent basis, no complaints. It probably has something to do with the fact that I could't care less about my lower BI games, and I drag the 38+ off to the side as soon as I double... and pay a lot more attention... but time will tell... I've made around so many adjustments to my game recently, and am really, really, really happy with where it's at.. No more push botting like a robot... Outside of poker life is getting sloppy.. I just started trying to exercise again, which takes some adjusting/time... but its all good, I'm trying to spend less time in this chair and more time doing stuff, but the money's so good I never wanna leave... hope everyone is running well, and if you're not... Idk get coaching from me.. I run as hot as the sun, maybe it'll rub off, gl..

What it is...

Life couldn't really be going much better.... Me and the woman are getting along, I'm stacking 10k months like its nobody's business w/ rakeback/staking/game profit/coaching.... and I just took a sick 3 week vacation w/ my brother up in Vancouver... and blew through a months worth of change, so no complaints... and now I moved into my house in Val Vista Lakes, which is kill.... personal recommendation for anyone moving into coaching, stick to online, coaching live people is fucking bull shit. I've had 1 guy get hyper aggro over a 10k score when his agreement w/ me was clear, he had no argument other then he felt I didnt deserve that much money (he was on a %) and another guy who feels like 3k is enough money... and he should free roll on the rest... I feel almost obligated to enforce the deals, but its for such chump change to me and would require so much suspect activity that there's no logical way to justify it, just some bull shit gang banger mentality that I want what im owed... never had a problem online, so like i said, keep it to the damn internet...

Couple Changes

Life's been going pretty well, haven't posted much which goes hand in hand with my lack of reflection on life in general.. I haven't been playing a lot of poker lately, been concentrating a lot on coaching, the woman, and friends... I've gotten pretty involved with PTP lately, which is a good way for me to earn some extra cash both as a way to advertise my coaching and to put my money in +ev situations.. I just got picked up by Reasons14/Frenzuh/Xboxlucas as a horse.. so I've been playing my regular stakes again, no more 12 dollar BS.. I spiked Supernova which was cool... and beyond that Im gonna start hitting the tables more regularly, my game has been improved a little bit since working w/ them, so +ev all around :) Hope to post sooner next time!

It has been awhile...

Well I've been busy lol, so I haven't been updating... Poker has been going alright, could always be better but again, its going ok... I had my first losing month in March which was mentally exhausting, ended up stuck about 700 at the end of the month... Beyond that, SCOOP has been taking up a ton of my time... I've been around 30,000 on the year including coaching/staking, so thats a better year than last regardless of the rest of it... I feel really confident in most of my games now, both MTT's and SnG's I have a pretty monumental level of confidence in.. Coaching is also going well as my horses are bringing in more than an hourly income to me.. and life is good... Hope all is well w/ everyone else.. Bigbluffz out.

SOOOOO LAZY!

I'm the laziest person ever.. been watching tv/eating/playing video games all month.. like no poker... I broke the hundreds wide open.. consistently making like 500+/day so it took the challenge out of it and I slowed waaaaaaaaaay down... should probably pick it up this month with some solid prop bets... 1500 to the winner of msot profit... so im expecting a 10k month minimum..

Sorry, been lazy!

Haven't posted in awhile, just been busy with life and playing... had to help my woman's family with moving some stuff and she had some problems with life that took some time away from the grinding.. I've been all over the place since January first, I've had a few big final tables (109 20k gtd, took 7th tho after calling a cutoff shove w/ 77 on the button to run into TT when he was the shortest stack w/ me 2nd shortest having 12bb with him at 11bb) thats kind of how my mtt games have been going, lots of near wins/final tables with nothing impressive to show... other than that I've played a bunch of 104 double or nothings/108 non-turbo double or nothings.. as well as 12-36 dollar 180's and all of the 45's/18's that run up to $119... I'll be playing in the Sunday milli tomorrow as its got a 4 milli gtd... gonna be using the steps tickets I've won to play... my bankroll is at 16.5k from 2.7k on January first... so nearly 14k in a month and two thirds.. + a bunch of steps tickets and I haven't cashed in any FPP's for stellar rewards or anything else, all in all I'm probably pretty close to being up 17k... which is about what I made in the entire year last year... anyway I dont want to spend too much time thinking about last year or I will get depressed 4 sure.. ill update quicker next time...

Keep Going...

Hopefully I run like this all year... Because I definitely like 1500 dollar days happening like once a week... just thought I'd update as to where I'm at..

27k VPP's since January 1st (27% of Supernova!)
$7300 - Game Profit since January 1st
About fifteen Step 1 - Step 4 tickets (I'll be doing these every Sunday from now on as they allow me to play in really high SNG's and really up the rake/day)

Goals: Keep winning, and get to 40k VPP's by February 1st.. wanna finish off Supernova in February and have 10 full months to shoot down Supernova Elite!

Crushing Souls

As the title implies I've done quite well this month, taking my bankroll from 2700 to 9200 in 24 days with stellar rewards yet to be purchased and having earned 26k VPP's... I've been messing around quite a bit with different games and approaches to obtaining Supernova Elite, including playing (and beating for around 1700) the 104 double or nothings/Step Tournaments/my standard 16-60 dollar 18 man games. I'm at a point now that I simply want to get Supernova Elite as quickly as possible.. and I know Steps can be a huge way of doing that so I've added them in. (I have over 15 step 2 tickets) I'm probably one of a handful of players to attempt to put in this much volume so shortly after really learning how to play poker... (June of 2009) and my first 38 was pretty much this year.. and I've been crushing this month over like a 5k game sample and am looking to keep going... I don't even have Supernova yet as I started on Stars with 5 bucks in November, but I'm a little over 25% of the way there and were not even a month in, so when I get it I can put in a ton more volume as rakeback is a huge part of beating the current SNG game...

Ode to Pokerstars

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP

Registration code: 526247

Some run good.. and some run bad

Well its mostly been run good... which is good! Since January first I've made about $3800 + FPP's + stellar rewards (I've cleared the first two 50 dollar bonuses and all five 10 dollar bonuses) I've also earned 13.3k VPP and a ton of FPP's which I am pretty happy about.. still not on track for SNE but im hoping to get to 10k this month through sng profit and then start into the 119's next month... (I've already cracked into the 60's..) I've only managed to play around 1600 sng's.. so thats way behind my goal so ill be looking to pick that up as well.. I've started some coaching though and my student is pretty chill so I'm looking to continue with that as well... I ran badly today and lost about 500... so not really too big a deal as its somewhere between 13 and 30 buyins... so not much of a downswing at all but enough to be frustrating... (I know the 60's/38's will be pretty swingy so its per expectation... and beyond that life is good... sooo I wish you all the best of luck and good luck grinding..

Kickin off the New Year

Well were through the first few days of the New Year and because of that its time to update.... the New Year for me began with the worst session I've ever had playing the 38/27/16 dollar buyin SNG's... managed to lose about 2k in a day... I grinded it the 3400 roll down to about 1700, moved down to strictly the 16's... and in the next two days managed to take the roll to a new peak of 5500 and am back in the 38's/27's... im running about 5 tables of each in my 22 tabling sessions (I 22 table continuously not in sets thanks to some poker software) and the rest are 16's. The conclusion to that little rant is that since the first im up 2100+ rakeback on a little over 1100 sng's, not bad for 4 days work.. I'm currently not on track to hit SNE BUT I'm still confident ill be able to do it... just need to get a rhythm going in the 38's and the 60's.. Im currently sitting 10th or so on two leaderboards on stars as well so hopefully I can hold and cushion the roll that way as well.. Until then may the poker gods bless you with winning flips... cause when they dont its a shitter of a downswing..