Can you clarify what this is about? Searching for Brandon Barnes led me to the right place, but Ricky just linked to standard poker stuff like hendon mob and other highlights.

Don't ask don't tell bro

sick barnes pun there zima, wpwp

I can totally see why this business could make someone a jaded and cynical person. Good of you to get out before it consumes you.

been playing a lot lately so been pretty busy, but gonna be getting back to this thread soon.

thanks for the kind words some of you have said to this point.

Is this friendship gonna happen or what you think

What just happened at the Hard Rock that made you send that tweet?

How do I get bottles served by butlers in the Pavillion

Quite the read there Zima thanks for opening up

Cool read, I liked it! I myself stake from time to time in the online staking forums here in 2+2, only for small amounts though

I am sorry if this has been asked before, but have you been thinking about taking all your knowledge and experience and start investing in other things than poker?

I am really not into this stuff (yet) but investing is investing i guess (?), so you look at the same stuff regardless of what you are investing in (poker-people, real estate, start-up companies)

You obviously know how the invest/staking business works so I was just wondering if you plan to expand on that

hey zima , sup ?well come back!

1. mental toughness. its hard to be buried in make-up and just show up each day and grind it out the right way. its hard to play out a session when first in a tournament is like 6k, and you have 200k make-up. its hard to keep getting 12th with 100k to first, yet you dont lose focus and just keep going on. i know a ton of people just "mailed it in" when they were buried in make up. some people can just stay focused and grind away, which is admirable. i know when i was staked, i had a very hard time dealing with such things (at the start of my career).

top 5 worst common attributes
---drugs
---arrogance
---not enough heart
---jealously
---degen

top 5 best common attributes
---playing focused whenever they sit down
---scheduling
---having the heart to finish every session
---knowing their place in the ecosystem
---having a killer instinct

not sure on the countries thing. US seemed to have the best and the worst, ha ha

"i need this money more than you and elio do" ----diegokeep (2x sunday million winner for us, then he stole 8k and has yet to repay any)



its hard to say. i am really really lucky with the situation i have now in terms of my game. without getting into to much detail, i am 99% certain there isnt another way i could earn a decent living in poker at this point without this game. its pretty much a fact that game selection is the key to making it in any form of poker, and i think managing yourself around the fun players is a legit skill. and tbh, most of the fun players are good people with interesting stories/smart guys so its not like its a chore or anything. some people are bad at that whole interaction though, which doesnt get them into to many good games. to answer a bit more of your question: i would get demolished at 1-2 plo and above online, but i am a steady winner in bigger games around tampa for a while. so yeah, game selection is key.

as far as the pit goes, no. i will gamble some times in there, but never enough that i will be uncomfortable or anything. the fun players try and push some limits at times, but just gotta be firm and make a joke about it/brush it off.

i would think its gonna regress at some point here soon (in terms of the games i play). i think its a big enough market where some good 5-10 action should pop up (that arent private), but will see

1. i will always look back on the 3 dollar 10 man sngs and think thats what gave me my start in staking. we had one guy who crushed them and won us a decent amount in them (because of BoP) and that got me my roll. also sweating 180 mans when we had like 15 guys playing at the start was really fun.

2. There have been a few instances of people hitting 100k scores and clearing make-up that way. those are the best ones for sure. i know when dave won the tcoop ME he had like 120k make-up or so.

3. eh, not sure about this one. a lot of this has to do with people stealing from us and their asinine reasoning for doing so.

4. so many horses blinded out of mtts cause they fell asleep. we had one horse who didnt show up for day 2 of a wsop event (hitthepanda). i can look back and laugh at pretty much everything in terms of staking these days though. all the times we got like 12th to 8th with things with 500k+ to first.

5. elio. we dont speak as much as we used too, but elio is a great/insightful guy who i have loads of respect for. i am gonna write some post later going over a few guys who i came across in staking at some point, so look back later for that.

i found out whenever everyone else did. we staked him and he did great for us. we did a loan for him on his ftp money, and he came clean to us around the same time as everyone else. i have no problem outing people, dont worry.

ty, np

i am probably a bit biased in this, and maybe living a bit in the past (as i dont know online poker that well at all these days), but i always think of elio as an elite player. the way he talks about hands, the amount of time he was spending studying etc. i would honestly take elio vs pretty much anyone if we were crossbooking things. maybe thats my loyalty and wanting to cheer on my friends getting in the way of actually being objective, but meh. if elio wasnt so anti social at times, he could surely make a living on the live circuit playing hi rollers and what not, but i think he just doesnt want to do that stuff.

senor conway

i am drug free actually. i guess if we are getting a bit loose with the term, food is my drug of choice. i also like wine a lot these days.

i have played gin games for low 5 figures (not sure if this is a prop bet though?). i have been apart of some smaller bets for like 2-5k, but nothing that crazy. one story though...i am eating lunch with a friend of mine (who used to own a strip club where we would all go after the game to play gin in the back room) and he was looking for a new spot to open a liquor store. he had to go see a place and we were finishing up lunch and he said he had to go. it was 1230 and he said he had to be there by 1pm. the place is no more than a 7-8 min car ride, and i said jokingly "i can get on my bike and be there on time, why do you need to leave in a hurry". he said "bet". so, we booked the bet for 5k that i would have 30 mins to ride my bike from the restaurant where we were eating to the location of the new liquor store. he was feeling confident, so he asked me if i wanted to bet more, i said yes. he said "7k", i said, "lets make it 12k". he agreed. i should have went much higher, but i gamble a lot with him and their was a lot of dynamics to the relationship i didnt want to mess with. anyway... we book the bet for 12k, on google maps it says it takes 23 minutes via bike. i borrowed my friends bike and did it a week later. as i am plotting my course in my car, i notice one way is definitely uphill, so i ask him if he cares which way i do it. he says "no, cause it wont matter". so, i obviously do it the downhill way. i have a friend lined up to follow me in a car with a second bike in case my first one breaks, but my friend said i couldnt do that. i obliged. the day of i was pretty nervous, but i was a pretty athletic kid my whole life and i know i could push through some pain/discomfort if need be to get this done. well, i get to the halfway point in like 8 minutes and pretty much just coast the whole way to the win, barely peddling at all. i still gamble daily with this guy, he just wont bet me on these types of things. did i think about hustling a bit in this spot and making it seem harder, yeah, but meh.

i have seen gin games for 6 figures. seen backgammon games playing for 5k /pt

i dont really have to many crazy nights in vegas. a stay with a friend out there who gets comped pretty well and some of the places we stay are legit.

i try and not lose my faith in people, but i am more cynical than most.

1. jerry (uncaj5)
2. sobizzle
3. knecht
4. me
5. thayer

---bench
phalt
pmahoney
cant rememebr his name but big kid who went to columbia to live

nick san. god, that place was amazing. i guess also just living in pedregal and walking up and down the mountain every day to town. it was a pretty simple life for the most part. i think if i went back now, i would have a much better time. staking was a drain at times, ha ha

ty pat, nice to see you in florida.

i think maybe 5 people were down there? i went right after the world series after BF

not sure really.

hey

yeah, you have done a lot of good work for elio and I. ty for that

great well so far.
curious if you would have won the bike bet if you would have to to go uphill

i am confident i would have won it either way. we can rebet it if you would like though, ha ha

Respect for the humility and awareness to say something like that

Do you think you were good at your job?

Thanks for doing this!

What surprised me was your rather indifferent stance on ghosting in general. You were rightfully stressed about countless scams yet by staking tons of people it's needless to say the effect ghosting had on your EV was just massively multiplied.
In both cases you got literally robbed out of tons of money over the years..

Anyways, kudos to smokrokflock for having the heart to pass up on hundreds of ez k.

Did you used to play OFC with us because you enjoyed in or because you just wanted to show some action to get into the big game?

When was it a lock that you would always have a seat in the big game? (I know u were always like the alternate seat if they just needed another player)

Was I a "spot" in the ofc games?

Have u continued a health grind all these years later?

How much would you guess the magician has made off of crocodile Lyle these past 5 years?

Zimaaaaaaaaaa

1. What are you doing other than poker? I know you mentioned some other endeavors, can you share some details?

2. Do you know a lot of people who back live players for MTT's? It's pretty easy to sell action for tournaments but I really don't understand how people end up getting backed. Do you think 1 is better than the other?

Thanks!

Zima,

Thanks for doing this and I'm digging the Q&A!

No let's go back.... waaaaaay back.

1) Please share some memorable moments on the football field.

2) How do you think athletics has helped you with poker (backing and/or playng)?

3) If there was one thing you could have changed in your poker experience, what would it be & why? (no coping out and saying no regrets/nothing)

4) Let's expand on your "drug of choice"... Top 3 favorite dishes? Top 3 favorite restaurants?

Thanks!

How many times did your stable ship, chop or ft the milly? Best SCOOP/WCOOP results?

bump! no smart questions here, but a great read, thanks for doing this...

Thanks for sharing Zima!

I believe I was the last lowstakes horse in Zima's stable, at least thats what I was told when cut off I understand that Zima may seem arrogant to some folks, but thats pretty obvious considering the line of work. There probably would be double amount of scammers and way more MU overall, if Zima came out as laid and easy going, as he might be. I personally still miss the groupchat and regret not taking the full advantage of having some of the best players at that time, reachable. Good times and the staking was handled top notch.


Enjoy your time back at home!

twatty

Have you considered reading the book, "Debt: The first 5000 years"?

https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The..._000_Years.pdf