Hey Shaniac,

Just wanted to say congrats. When I got into poker in the middle of 04 you were one of the people I used to rail a lot to try and learn the game.
Also I really enjoy reading your blog, do you think it you will be updating it more often now that you are a team online pro?

Thanks and congrats again,
Dan

very nice post about approaching the game.

whats ur plan poker wise for 2011 ?
u like playing early session ? late session ? full session ?
how many tables u play at once ?
do u game select ?

grats on team online

also : bibbit's posts, TT_fold's , Tod Terry's posts made me a little bit more thinking player in what comes to approaching this game. i consider i learned alot from this community but sometimes i think about this change and see that ive become a more conservative player and dont click that buttons as aggressive as i used to. and when i have bad streaks i wish i was more of a monkey that clicks buttons and care less about the theory part.

sick beautiful game that makes u doubt every second about ur game and try to improve every second

looking forward to some good discussions. gl

grats on making team online, like everyone else has said love the blog, def one of the top 5 poker blogs out there

never really that great at poker questions, so

favourite album(s)?
favourite movie(s)?
favourite place(s) to visit?

a) Felt awful lol. The absurdity of what was going on at the table can not be described in words, although I reported on this one string bet (that the floor let him get away with) in my blog at the time (you seem good at digging up stuff, there is a LONG entry that coincided with the broadcast). And then he busted me and taunted me lol.

The worst part was the clip of my saying, "No, YOU'RE a jerk" got used in a Nuts segment where Capt. Tom Franklin talked about the brash, young rude class of new players, which is really not at all what I'm like (I don't think).

b) my hunch is yes, he is alive, but it makes no difference, no one's death has ever stopped the world.

c) I wanna say the 2009 WSOP was super frustrating, because in the "softest tournament" of the year I had absolutely devastating tables on both day 1 and day 2.

Goals for the year--play a lot of online MTTs, work on my writing. Also, work on achieving a balance to offset the isolation of online poker (and poker in general). I want to be paddle boarding and playing tennis as much as possible and leaving myself a little time to chase women. Only planning to play live events in CA and Vegas with the exception of Mohegan Sun in April.

good god I forgot all about Molina and really wish I wasn't reminded of his existence

I believe there are guys that can do it for sure. Take a look at JC Tran, my guess is he has a very nice ROI in live MTTs and a low-risk of ruin, and that's just because he does it right.

Re: the "heater" thing...the nature of succeeding at tournaments involves going on a heater at some point. We all know you need to be banging out some top-3 spots to make money in this form of poker, and we all know how difficult it is to hit those big scores, so I guess that's the inherent contradiction/difficulty of being an MTT pro, online or live.

I will say that I think it's probably exponentially more difficult to make a living as an MTT pro if you try to hit the live circuit hard but really depend on online MTTs to get you through. The balance really needs to be skewed towards one or the other imo.

Hey Shaniac,

Congrats on the sponsorship! Wire questions for you.

Do you think Michael has the potential to be a bigger bad ass than Omar was?

Best crime leader: Avon, Marlo, Prop Joe?

Favorite Character?

Least Favorite Character?

How do you feel about the way the series ended? I for one enjoyed the way they ended the series, I thought the whole "cycle" theme was a good one. What do you think?

Thanks for doing this and good luck at the tables!

- I have no way of predicting what the outcome of the political theater will be regarding online poker. I just close my eyes and hope for the best like everyone.

- I would never move out of the USA because I love the USA. If they made intra-state gambling a thing in CA, excluding PokerStars from operating in my state, I would probably move to a different state at least to fulfill my obligations towards Stars. My contingency plan is to get a job if it becomes too difficult to operate as an online MTT player. What that job would be, I have no idea.

- I think the reason most of us here favor donkaments is because for one reason or another, the transition to cash game is not as easy as it sounds for our kind. I've had friends imploring me to make the move to cash for years, and I've made various attempts that have all failed.

name 5 mtters youve met irl

Always enjoy what you write Shaniac- you're one of my original poker heros and one of the players I'd most like to get a beer with

For me, my "greatest accomplishment" truly is that I have a blog that some people seem to like. I was a writer before I ever played a hand of cards, so some affirmation of my talent in that capacity means more than the sum of my poker accomplishments, which include: 2 WSOP FTs, 1 WPT final table, 1 USPC final table, a win in the 2006 LAPC $300 rebuy and maintaining a good ROI in supposedly tough tournaments on Stars.

Modesty and self-deprecation prevents me from elaborating.

Much respect for you sir. Definitely a needed voice in poker.

- I go for the most stripped-down writing style I can and try to write sentences that people can follow without getting bored. Punctuation is major.

My father was a writer of sorts too, and he gave me some good advice early in my HS career: Write for the school paper and take Latin. He also showed me a video once that contained a paragraph on the screen. An invisible hand gradually re-arranged and removed words from the paragraph until just one word was left, and that word conveyed the same meaning as the entire paragraph. Editing is major.

- I have no idea what accounts for my "staying power" except, on a basic level, backers throughout the years who have been willing to put me in action. As I said (and meant), I'm not nearly as good at analyzing the game as most 2p2'ers, but I think I have some natural instincts for gamb0ling in MTTs that gives me a basis to return to and add layers to. Plus, we got guys like eMarkM coming out of retirement and crushing!

It is indeed nutso--some days I'll sit down and look at a poker table and almost have like no clue what I'm looking at. Other times, I'll jump in and just feel like there is no chance I won't be dominating. Definitely a "sick beautiful game" in that way!

I outlined my poker plans for 2011 in response to gettym.

I enjoy the early session nowadays. (Early bird gets the worm). The AM "turbo session" (two 82 hypers, the 109 2x, 55 2x, 54 KO and 11 turbo) is just such a good way to get into the groove of the day and possibly snap off an early score, I try not to skip it. I also like having the option of taking the afternoon off if I feel burnout, depression or any form of unhappiness set in.

For MTTs, I think 6 is probably my optimal amount right now in terms of allowing me to focus and also not get restless. I will play up to 12 or more if that's how things wind up shaking out.

I game select in the sense that I try to play a variety of stakes, and I really don't care if I skip the Super Tuesday if I'm not feeling like playing a night session (my sharpness tends to fade later in the day).

In before Thayer posts the shaundeeb UB blackjack leaderboard.

Congrats on the deal, Shane.

Like Prahlad, in the past you made some posts/statements that were anti-sponsorship deals. Did you have any qualms about seeking out and accepting a sponsorship deal and if so how did you resolve them?

Ok a few of each:

- Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home and Blood on the Tracks. Both major Biggie albums. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Songs of Freedom or any other great compendium. Mark Ronson's 2010 album Record Collection is doing it for me in a big way, so did Malachai's Ugly Side of Love. Brits (and Swedes) kind of holding it down lately on the music scene it seems.

- Heat, Dark City, Last of the Mohicans, Bad Day at Black Rock, Shane. Oh, and 127 Hours.

- I guess my favorite place to visit is NYC, although it drives me crazy at the same time. I really enjoyed my time in Paris in 2010. During the WSOP, I like to visit Zion National Park in Utah, and the National Parks in this country in general are amazing. I might go to New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival this year, another favorite place. Also, Cali--great place to visit.

In your opinion, who is the greatest fighter of all time - Kimbo Slice or Mike Tyson?

grats shaniac

cant add much at the moment. thanks for all the writing tips earlier in the year. major respect for the grind youve been on last few months.

I don't think so.

No opinion on Michael's possible ascendancy.

Prop Joe ainec.

Omar for major character and Brother Mouzone for minor character. Hard to f with Bunk though, he dropped my favorite Wire line of all time: "I'm like Stevie, 'Too High.'"

I'm actually looking forward to revisiting season 5 with fresh eyes. I was in such wire-hype mode there's no way I could objectively judge it at the time. I thought the McNulty/homeless guy subplot felt too contrived at the time, but I anticipate I will have a totally different perspective after I watch it again.

Congrats on the deal, been reading your blog since forever and can thank/blame it for contributing to the idea that I could make a living playing donkaments as a stoner coming from playing live LHE and O8 in New Mexico casinos.

What is your favorite music show on WFMU?
How many Ween shows have you been to?
Were you told not to include your MiniFTOPs title in your lists of poker accomplishments?
Have you ever gotten any penalties in live tournies?

I could probably name 500. Scary.

Congrats! Being in the company of folk such as yourself really increases the honor of Team Online for me.

I'm thinking of some more question for you, but

What about Franz Ferdinand?

congrats!

I'm not sure what statements you are referring to specifically, but it probably conforms to how I once felt about it. It was more of a reaction to the attitude that "getting a deal" is an objective in poker. The objective in poker should be to earn money slowly and steadily, not get "exposure." The best players I know are low-profile and not interested in spending their time endorsing online poker sites, because they have created better opportunities for themselves elsewhere.

I guess in a more general way, I feel that people underestimate what they're giving up when they agree to represent a company. Bob Dylan once said in an interview (paraphrasing) that "anonymity is the greatest thing people have going for themselves and most people don't even appreciate that."

That said, I came close to getting a deal with another site in late 2007, but that fell through, so I think I probably shed that attitude a while ago in favor of realizing the JRB self promotion principle and the basic necessity of generating income by any means necessary.

Also, with Stars, it's a product I am 100% proud to represent, so I don't feel the anonymity trade-off is a hard one in this case. I got lucky. If the super-corrupt poker site that has been snatching up MTT players had offered me a deal, I would have had a serious dilemma, but I think I would have turned it down, because I could just not wake up every day looking at that 2-letter patch and not feeling icky.