Hello friends,

Since getting added to Stars team online 2011 edition it's been requested I drop some knowledge bombs on all of you and do another well. I last did a well in 2006 (linky) and it only seemed right that I take another spin in SSNL.

Since that well I've had the following adventures:

- luckboxed around $335,000 profit in online donkaments
- cashed 8 times at the WSOP
- made the money in my first three WSOP main events (305th, 68th, 608th) and the streak is still alive
- been berated by Norman Chad on ESPN
- finished 2nd in a live tournament for ~$35k where first got $100k, and busted by 5bet bluffing a paired flop. Then laugh as the results never made Hendon Mob.
- joined Leggo as a video producer, blogger (link to blog), and coach
- successfully spewed in games as high as 25/50 PLO/NLHE/mixed
- Won a $20k pot
- Lost a $35k pot
- moved to San Diego
- Actually made money staking thanks to orange

I'm sure I'm missing some other stuff but maybe that will surface in the REDUX.

These days I play smallstakes PLO/NLHE and online MTTs, and play all the big live tournaments on the west coast. I'm slowly replacing call of duty with starcraft2 as my number 1 timewaster.

Thanks to the pokers and 2p2 (more than 25k posts later, crikey) I'm living comfortably in the best city in the USA and I get to pretty much do whatever I want. Pretty swell, all things considered.

===============

So feel free to ask away and I'll answer everything to the best of my abilities.

what do you think of snakes?

first!!
Aha moments, story, hand that you are most proud of, favorite pizza topping?

so close to first =(

Snakekilla said that because he's a snake killa. You should have asked what I think of trob888. That would have been the most meta-post ever.

I think snakes are scary!

Thanks for (re)doing this.

Opinion on the state of the games and where you think poker will be going legislation-wise in the next few months/years.

Favorite food?

So, your favorite sandwich is on a downswing, and at the same time, your favorite beer is also on a downswing. You, feeling sorry for your sandwich and beer, decide to cheer them up by taking them on a trip to the grand canyon. You arrive, and while you are going down to get to a nice vantage point you accidentally slip and fall on your left shoulder, dislocating it. At this same time, both your favorite sandwich and your favorite beer have reached the vantage point and have simultaneously attempted suicide by jumping off the canyon. You're close, but with only one good arm and the rate that the sandwich and the beer are falling, you know you'll only be able to save one of them.

Which one do you save?

hey clayton! congrats on the deal bud

why did norman berate you?

oh yeah ditto.

what are the terms of your arrangement (if they're public)? is it play x amount of hours for y% rakeback and hourly? tourney entries?

=================

On aha moments... I think once you hit the 5 year mark it's less about "aha" and more about the non-poker aspects of poker to continually be successful.

Like when I was building a bankroll there were a bunch of "aha" moments but at a certain point (specifically pertaining to NLHE) we all sorta grasp how big the decision tree is with NLHE.

Everything becomes standard, we continue to strive to learn and discuss hands with each other to keep our games sharp, and we know what to expect from thinking players and fish alike. So the "aha" moments relate more to understanding your own personality and your own habits and translating that to more success at the tables. Playing to your own strengths, so to speak.

In 2010 for instance I learned the following things about myself:
- I'm better off avoiding 9handed online tournaments
- I'm better off playing 6 tables at once or fewer
- I'm better off incorporating live cashgames
- I play a lot better after watching videos and talking poker; when I isolate myself I get rustier quicker
- I play a lot better when I only have my poker tables running on the monitor, so there's less distraction

These are all kinda standard things and not exactly great "AHA!" moments but when you get to your 5th year or so playing professionally it's just about staying sharp and not getting into a bad rut. Add in a lot of work ethic and it's easy peazy. Even with a 6 month "bad rut" of trying to be nanonoko in all forms of poker I still posted a winning 2010; but had I learned from my mistakes sooner I could have had a year like 2009 where I was crushing everything and running hot.

So overall I'd say the "aha" is taking nothing for granted and just keep good habits.

===============

Hand I'm most proud of

I'm having a really hard time thinking of one, to be perfectly honest. For the last year I haven't been very aggressive with my bankroll so there hasn't been a moment where I felt like I really owned someone hard.

I guess I'm proud of the hands at the WSOP where I've lost 6 figures worth of equity. Not the way I played them, just the fact I've been a gentleman about losing and I didn't lose my sh*t like most people would.

================

Pizza topping

Meat lovers, nom nom nom. Best pizza definitely pizzaria bianco in Phoenix.

===============

Poker story would take forever, I guess I could work on it but a general assumption is to check my old well and plug in 4 years where I've largely spent time hanging with friends, playing videogames, attempting to improve myself in some way shape or form, and have run good at donkaments.

Most degen thing you've done?

Graphs?
Biggest downswing in buyins/$$?
Is Peachymer a girl/the one that actually plays on the account? Are you 100% sure?
Are all the new members of Team Online being asked to make wells?

I think the state of the games are fine. Between the talent of game selection, the talent of playing poker well, the talent of not tilting/degen'ing, and the talent of putting in a lot of hours, the ability to make a 6 figure income at smallstakes shouldn't be too difficult.

And not to plug Stars intentionally (heyo!) but the ability to make SNE is always gonna be there and there's no shame in being a breakeven player pulling 6figs from points. Work ethic is one of the hardest "skills" to learn, especially if you don't have a background that involves manual labor at some point.

That said, everyone should get adequately informed depending on their living situation. I'm in a great spot for a 24-year old in that I can always go back to college and I don't need a lot of things in life to make me happy (ie I dont spew money anymore). The guys who are 35 with a wife and a couple of kids would do well to make sure their livelyhood is stable in the next 10 years.

The only real legislative problem, in my opinion, would come if more states went the Washington route and more payment processors got shut down. That said, I don't think the internet poker economy is going to be taking a big hit in the next few years. Looking back, 2011 doesn't feel very different from 2009, at least when it comes to SSNL.

As a sidetrack, I'm not about to advocate that the 17 year olds choose poker over school. I think that was a good avenue about 3 years ago or earlier, but these days even with the shoddy economy you need that degree as a safety net. Personally I plan on going back to college within the next 5 years unless I have a monster poker decade.

=============

Favorite food is pho, aswell as most thai foods. Basically anything that involves a protein with rice/soy/srirachi is bound to make me happy.

I'm gonna hit up French Laundry in a week though, so we'll see if that gets thrown into my favorite foods category :O

I'm sad to say this, but this one is really easy. I don't drink beer!

dun dun DUNNN

My palette from very early on was always very favored to sugary drinks, so I've always thought beer was too bitter. For my alcoholic needs I resort to shooting hard liquor or sipping red wine, preferably Pinot Noir.

F*ck

I feared this would happen.

thoughts on your workout ?

thoughts on your sc2 skills?

thoughts on taking a gun and pointing it at me, forcing me to give you 10k?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

According to youtube commentator "Tward2929":
Nice no bet on the full boat.." I win" ...What an idiot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJ-C...eature=related

Starts at 0m15s

Silly me going for river checkraises =(

I get free cookie baskets for life. Playing poker has been a lot easier now knowing that I'll never go hungry.

Buying into big live tournaments with a 20 buyin bankroll, I think. My confidence was peaking at the time. Don't plan on doing that again anytime soon.

My biggest skill has always been being a sick lifenit so this post will invariably suck.

No graphs I'm afraid, only had this PC for a few months and they aren't really worth showing off. My online graphs for 2010 were a bag full of suck trying to be nanonoko. Thank god for live poker and David Yee, AMIRITE.

========
Biggest downswing is probably 75k or so? Dunno in terms of buyins. According to NoahSD the downswing was standard-ish so maybe I can say I'm a huge degen for being an MTT reg at any point ever.

=======
Zero idea about peachy, we used to chat together in IRC but I've got zero idea either way so I can't comment. I feel like one of the guys on the Vikings being asked about Brett Favre's sexting habits.
=======
I got asked to, I acknowledged as much in the cheese thread. I can't comment for the other pros, altho I see peachy/shaniac/foucault have theirs in MTTC. Maybe some people are doing wells in foreign language forums outside of 2p2.

It sucked, but it was worth it. For those who don't know I did p90x from August-Nov and went from 177 to 159.

Have been taking it easy on working out last couple of months and gained back 3 or 4 pounds (doh), so I think I'm gonna buy an exercise bike at some point so I can at least get some biking in while I watch TV. Really with me it's all about diet, I lose weight when I don't splurge on ice cream sandwiches and I gain weight when I go to town on tortilla chips. Switching to diet soda permanently, from a calories perspective, has been the nicest part.

I think I'm silver or gold league 1v1 as terran, and truth be told I enjoy watching more than playing. Playing is too stressful lol. Fortunately I have JonnyCosMo as a roomie to spaz in multiplayer games with me.

anytime you want my lucky monies for another live tournament just holler

fwiw, i'm glad that you were the one who won $ from me when you took a piece, you've taken alot of my action in the past and i haven't ever done anything with it. also, **** your actual weight, just go for lower body fat %!!!

pretty much all the weight I lost was fat, I think. never had a lot of strength to begin with.