neeme is one of the few people i can listen to talk for a while but his vids are far too long

A friend referred me here and I read and enjoyed a lot of this thread. So much wisdom in it that it deserves bumped so new people can read and be inspired by OP's journey.

Thanks man I really appreciate that.

Chris and I bagged the vlog idea due to editing learning curve. Might be something I do in the future tho.

For now you can follow me on snapchat. I'm trying to update frequently throughout the series and some people find me mildly entertaining. Just don't send me any dik pix.

snap: tjurk76

No problem! Hope you continue to update this from time to time.

Got my first cash of the Series today for $1.2k in the Colossus. Took me 4 bullets so I took a loss on the tournament overall but I'm still super happy about it. I have a completely different mindset this year coming out to Vegas than I did in years past. I'm no longer in that snobby "ugh poker is so dumb ughhhh it's so unfair another dumb tournament vegas sucks FMLLLL" mode and have taken a step back to realize how awesome it is that I can come out here and grind an entire World Series of Poker. Like if you told me when I was working for 10 bucks an hour in Newark that in a year I would become a pro poker player and go to Vegas for 4 straight WSOP's and grind a bunch of events I would've thought I won the f**kin lottery. So I'm just being super humbled and grateful for the opportunities that I have and I'm playing really well so far. I came out here with a lifetime peak roll and I'm going to have 100% of myself in the events I play which is really exciting (aside from the Main probably). I realized there's no need to be super upset even if I brick every event I play because the absolute worst case scenario is that I go back to Maryland and continue to grind it out in cash games and rebuild the roll back up.

I've been inhaling a ton of MTT training videos (mostly from Upswing Poker) which is opening my eyes to so many new concepts that are exclusive to MTT's. After reading up on Michael Phelps' visualization techniques I have a newfound respect for studying as well. Phelps coach said that they preach falling in love with the process and understanding how important improving each and every day the best you can is as opposed to visualizing yourself just winning a braclet or gold medal or whatever and failing to understand what it's going to take to get you there. Instead you should fall in love with getting after it every day and watching training videos, mashing down notes from those videos, reviewing those notes, etc etc because in the end it's the day to day things you do that will result in you achieving the long term goals. I definitely just ranted a ton there so I hope that makes sense.

If I keep playing well and maintain a positive mindset, with a little luck (currently 0/5 in AIPF flips for the summer) I'm going to make some noise in one of these things soon =]




cliffs: i suck at flipping coins and we got our first cash of the series...and we're happy

Just cashed the 1k tag team event and busted with 20 min left in the night getting set under set all in on the flop for a 100k pot at 500/1k. Le sigh. On to the next one!

Did a short interview with pureaggression for his youtube channel. Check it out if you wanna hear me ramble and not know what to do with my hands.

Watched the interview and totally agree, self awareness and self discipline are crucial to success, and table/pit games are one of the worst thing for your roll. Great interview, full of wisdom and great advice, as expected. Hope you're crushing in Vegas, brother!

Leaving Las Vegas

I'm currently 30,000 feet in the air headed back to Baltimore right now. I left Vegas and the WSOP earlier today due to some issues going on back home. Anyone know knows me personally knows Cullen or "H" as everyone calls him. I've known him for the better part of four years now and he has essentially been my second father. He's having some serious medical issues back home right now and I would rather be there around him right now than back in Vegas surrounded by worry. It was becoming harder and harder to focus at the tables with all of this going on and I have been getting 2 hours of sleep tops per night so I just wanted to get home in my own bed and visit him a bunch.

There's still a chance I go back for the Main Event but it's not at top of my list of priorities right now.

Sorry to hear that man. Sounds like a good decision. Hope he gets better.

^^ ditto, my prayers are with you and your friend.

Damn really sorry to hear about the H man. Wish him he best.


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Prayers and thoughts are with H

After gauging interest and then selling out in a half hour, we are Main Event'ing

GL me.

Why you no chat thread? GL anyway.

Not posting much in general. My number should be retired from the chat thread. Elite group of being one of the only posters to go to the meetup all 4 years.

Got what had to be one of the toughest 5 opening tables in the entire Rio today and it didn't break until last level of the night. Bagged 14.7k after having like 64k after level 2. Got a lot of good hands but unfortunately they had better hands a lot.

Spot of the day:

Eff 48k hero CO with black 44. Nacho Barbero opens UTG1 800 @150/300/25, hero calls, Niall Farrell calls BB.

Flop (2700): Q85r
X thru

Turn (2700): 4d second diamond
X x hero 1400, Farrell x/r to 4500, fold, hero calls.

River (11700): Jx
He asks to see my chips and bets 25k, hero tank folds.

Bagged 117.8k for Day 3 of the Main Event. Coming back to 1k/2k/300 and feeling super confident.

Garick meant...

y u no give ****** pen opportunity to buy shares in RG-ME, Inc.



Good luck, fellow 4-timer.

I have been deleted from the Main Event. Open AKo CO 6500, Sofia Lovgren 3b BTN 16k, I shove 90k @3kbb she calls QQ we can't hit. ‬

Rip. You're a good man. Throw it up.


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I strongly disagree. Every poker player at some point will implode/ lose their ****, it's just a matter of time and pressure... and those that flirt with step 6 are more likely to lose their **** in a big way. I mean there are so many great poker players who won so much money and they ended up imploding in one way or another. It's crazy to think about.

Another interesting thing is the high variance but profitable line. I think anyone who plays outside their roll (whether its profitable or not) is straight up degening. For example, im sure tons of people including yourself have a quantifiable edge in the ME and large field 1500s... but virtually nobody is rolled for the ME, and i'd even say the vast majority of professionals dont have the roll for 1,500s.... and those that do would go on life tilt if they dropped maybe 40+bi which is very reasonable and expected.

edit: I don't want to give the impression that im some sort of crusher or know all the answers or whatever... i just like thinking about and discussing poker like you and others to

Just because a majority of people "lose their ***" doesn't mean there aren't exceptions to the rule. I didn't say I knew a ton of people who juggled these things successfully, I just said I knew a handful that did. I can guarantee I can name one person (I won't name his name though for obvious reasons) I know who sports bets, plays MTT's and DFS that I know will never ever ever go busto just because of their discipline and skill.

STRONGLY disagree that someone "playing outside of their roll" is "straight up degening." So you're saying that since I play 4 or 5 of the softest $1.5k buy in MTT's a year and I don't have 40+ BI's for them, I'm degening? No way. It would be degen if I went back home after WSOP and fired every $1.5k MTT I possibly could. Someone like me doesn't drop 40+ BI's on 1500's lol I just strategically take my shots and know beforehand that even if I brick the 4-5 tournaments that I'll still be fully rolled for my usual stakes.

By your logic, let's say someone has a 40k poker roll which is a comfortable 5/10 roll, wins 10k over the course of say two weeks, and a crazy T/25 jumps off every now and then. You're saying that with this new 50k roll, it would be degening to take a few shots at the juicy T/25 even though even if you lost the 10k, you would still have that comfortable 5/T roll and play your usual stakes. This is the wrong way of thinking about things imo. If you have the discipline to stop playing if you lose the 10k and go back to 5/T, there is no way you can qualify that as "degening" which if I recall correctly, means to severely risk your current quality of life for the sake of gambling.

It's dumb to not shot take/ play bigger when the situation calls for it. Yes it adds a ton of volatility to your BR but that's the point.

F**k you for making sense and having me agree with you.