I feel like it would be fun to try and give articulate answers to any of your poker questions..so fire away!

Story!

Cool person to do a well. I agree let's hear the poker story from woe to go.

3rd!!!!!

Biggest Week? Biggest Month? Biggest downswing?

Biggest lay?

Start with story, later get to these:

1. What keeps you motivated to earn the next 25k rather than complacent with the amount you've already accomplished?
2. Where do you see yourself in five years?
3. When a casual friend/acquantance asks if you're employed (in a group setting where it'd be easy to answer vaguely), do you tend to half-dodge the question or get into a conversation about poker?

Do you just play HU sngs?
How many do you play at once?
How many in a month?

Blondes or Brunettes?
T!ts or A$s?

Hey croix, first of all thx for doing this...

- How did you come to playing HUSNG's? Did you play another form of poker before this?
- What was the hardest level to move up to for you?
- When did you realise you could do this for a living?
- How long fo you think you can do this for?

A brief story:

I started playing standard games for fun with some high school friend about 6 years ago such as night baseball, follow the queen, some other random hometown games. When I got to college in Pittsburgh I met a few kids through engineering that like to play lounge $10 tournaments. There I met Vinny (Predator13)..a very big influence in my poker career. One day a few of us took a shot and played a $40 buyin and I was pretty fortunate to win..being that I knew pretty little about poker at the time. After that I would beg Vinny to get a friend of his to send me online money for cash. I eventually lost $1500 before discovering heads up and eventually talking Vinny into playing it. We would run the 4mans all throughtout the summer of our freshman year and build a pretty solid profit.

Come sophomore year I would transfer to a different school to play college tennis. Vinny and I would continue playing heads up and making solid money. About halfway thorugh the semester I would have a turning point. My bankroll would grow to $100k..a huge amount of money. Thinking I was kickass I played a player at 5ks very underrolled and lost 40% of my roll in a day. I would eventually lose the entire 100k primarily due to poor game selection and be back at the start.

Part 2 to be continued...

how much would it take for you to only play the 'hu w/ no blind increases' for the rest of your life exclusively?


also why does everything taste like chicken?

What was your biggest aha! moment?

How did you get better at HUSNG's? Playing a ton or looking over/discussing hands etc.?

why do you only have 45 posts and now doing a well? what sites do you play on? who is you favourite online pro and why? do you think you are the best reg at your stake?

how often do you not play straightforward poker?
how's your hiccup?

Play any HU cash?

Was there anything specific that helped you move up through the ranks (specific shottaking method, coach/coaching sites...etc)?

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

pwned without saying anything. wp, sir.

I am incorporating this lesson into my forum game.

What are your goals for August?

Who are you?

most overrated reg you would sit anyday?

Part 2:

I forgot to put into Part 1 that I had my first taste of live success in March of 2005. Vinny and I would chop action in the 4mans and decided to try and satelite into the first EPT Championship. We were fortunate enough to both win seats and we were off. He took his girlfriend (fiance now congrats!) and I took one of my buddies. We didn't have any success in the main event, but I entered a 1k euro side event and got pretty lucky to take it down. That netted us both roughly 21k each and gave me the thrill to play more live tournaments. I also got hammered post tournament and threw up outside of a club there..classy guy. So back to the fail.

I busted my account in December of 2005 and it was pure misery. I couldn't go to the Steelers/Seahawks Super Bowl and see the glory but I guess it could be worse. Vinny transferred me 2k and went into super grindmode. I played 100s then 200s and occasionally a 500, but made sure I was very well rolled before even thinking of moving up. I had another taste of live success in the 2006 WSOP 5k 6m event. Finished 31st or something getting sick coolered preflop with the ol 74o to QQ. I suck. I continued grinding HU, eventually reaching my previous peak without taking many shots.

Vinny was getting more involved with school and couldn't go down to the 2007 PCA. I won a seat online and headed down with Premier and CHEKdezNUTS. Since Vinny wasn't playing the same tournament we weren't chopping and I was fortunate to run well and finish 3rd for roughly 550k. I badly wanted to win just to see Chek jump into the cove fully clothed..the money would've been good too I guess. When I returned I cashed out almost all of the money to invest and save for taxes and just continued to grind HU and play the same stakes I was before.

I still don't really like playing higher than 1100s with regularity because I cherish the grind as cheesy as that sounds. I still love playing live tournaments (hate online ones) and still have alot of interest in poker. I know I don't want to play forever but the flexibility right now at this stage of my life is essential. I wonder where I would've been today had I completed school in typical fashion, had I not met Vinny or without any of the tournament scores. Its been a fun ride so far and hopefully it will continue!

Jon

Non tournies I think my biggest week was something like 40-50k and biggest month was like 95-100. This is including staking and live cash play though I would have to look at my excel sheet to figure out online exclusively. On a bit of a downswing lately but doesn't compare to the -100k in 2005.

1. Just the realization that 25k is still alot of ****ing money. I just love putting in the hours and the mental challenge.

2. Probably playing poker recreationally and hopefully being a semi-successful investor. My eventual goal is to make enough so that I can give alot back to great causes instead of sitting on it.

3. Great question. I hate dealing with this in a group of people unfamiliar to poker and who onl see it on TV if at all. I've thought about going the 'consultant' route and just hope that that is the only question but I usually tell people that I play and say some self-depricating thing such as 'its embarassing'. Its a huge peeve of mine when people then say somehting along the lines of 'isn't it stressful gambling for a living'..so I may try the consultant thing out more often.

Almost exclusively HUSNGs online, with a MTT and satelite thrown in occasionally. I think that with my skillset that HU is the most profitable form of poker for me right now.

I will play up to 4 at once but most often I probably play 2 depending on action.

No idea really. If I had to guess in a super motivated month..800.

Brunettes

Tits