Hello all, I want to start a blog and see if it generates any interest... So here we go!

It has been already 12 years ago since I ended up in Dawson City in northern Canada... Little did I know that I was at the tail end of a 4 year relationship with my girlfriend, and that our 1 month on the road hitching would land us here in northern Yukon, land of beauty and desolation, and eventually introduce me to holdem...

Fastforward 12 years and here I am, single, grinding the lone 3 tables at the local casino and I have just purchased a ticket to Paris for the 2013 WSOPE. Yes it has been an interesting ride, to say the least, and a bumpy one - or course -, but I have been pro for just over 2 years now and hope to continue this lifestyle for quite a few more years...

Because of the Yukon gaming, the games here are capped at 1-2 with a 200$ max buy in, but it is by far the most action 1-2 game I have seen in any cities! It plays more like a 2-5 game, then a 1-2. Understand though, people come back from the bush, having worked for 1 month straight, and are in town for a night or 2 with the intention of partying big time and splashing the pots with their newly made economies! So the action is fast pace, wild like the north, and it is not uncommon to see at 8:30 pm, 90 minutes after the casino has opened (the casino is open from 7pm until 2am, making it tourists hours and preventing the locals from going to broke), over 5k on the table!

So this where I was introduced to holdem and after a few years of studying the game and going broke a few times, I finally held my own, made a great hourly wage for a 1-2 game, and started to beat the game everywhere : online, Vancouver, Vegas, Cambodia.

And now I have 2 months before I get to Paris : just enough time to build up my bankroll before the WSOPE kicks in! Wish me luck, and run good all!!!

Nice! Can't wait to follow this. I'm planning on coming up to Dawson City either sometime in August or early September to visit Diamond Tooth Gerties. Nice to hear the games are awesome up there, maybe I'll run into you when I come up!

As a sidenote this thread is probably better suited for PG&C though...

A TYPICAL FRIDAY...


18h50 : There is already 9 of us poker regs waiting in front of the entrance door... Doors open in 10 minutes, because this casino strives on the tourist industry in the summertime. Having a casino in a town of 1400 people is quite the luxury, but the hours of operation are limited...

18h55 : We are talking amongst ourselves, but you can sense the hitching : we are just killing time before the cards hit the felt, and that's when the real action starts, that the blood flows through our veins! And tonight will be an action, you can feel the vibes : people want to be splashing chips tonight, and a lot of them!

19h00 : Doors open, and we storm in there. Habits die hard, and gamblers are creature of habits, like making sure you get your favorite seat...

19h10 : After chipping in and seeing who starts with the button, the first hand is finally dealt. I got a drink in front of me, an irish coffee, for my brain is not yet fully activated...

20h00 : We have played about 22 hands, and already there has been about 20 all ins... The buy in is 200$ and when we are deep 100bb, a second pair justifies quite often a shove. There is 10 of us around the table and already there is just under 5000$ on the table in 50 min of play!!!

20h20 : The casino fills up with tourists that come to watch the first of 3 half an hour shows of singing and can can dancers. For us, it is business as usual as the action doesn't slow down and the booze flows as well. I am drinking a beer now.

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps11b9e2b1.jpg

22h00 : I am sitting on about 1k in chips when I am dealt A8s in the CO. There is 2 early limpers and a MP manic the open-raises about 60% of his hands makes it 12. I don't mind a call here, for A8s plays well in position multi-way, but it becomes more of a fit or fold hand. So I decide to make it 32$ to go. The move will most likely isolate the maniac and his range is WAY behind my hand, for he likes to limp-3bet with monsters like QQ+. I get 1 caller from a loose-passif player from the blinds and the villain in question calls, like I expected him to do 95% of the time.

Flop come 24J rainbow. I got 1 over and a backdoor flush draw. The blind checks and seems uninterested. Villain leads out for 28$. He will do that with a lot of his range and simply likes to take control of the hand. Also, he does like to CR with the top of his range, so I feel pretty comfortable with my A high and backdoor outs. I decide to call for 3 reasons : firstly, I will get to see the reaction of the third player involved, even though I expect him to fold almost always. Secondly, my hand is a bluff catcher and I want villain to do just that, to keep on bluffing for 3 streets, which he has a tendency to do. Thirdly, outside of pot control, I do not want to reveal too much of my hand, while he will on the turn.

After the blind folded, the dealer flips over an innocent looking 7. The 7 might of helped him, but if he leads turn again, he is capping his range to sets or a pair of jacks, for I know he does not like to fire 3 streets with bottom pair, unless he changes his hand into a bluff. He fires 48$ into a pot of 96$ (after the 5$ rake). I tank for 20 seconds. I still have 2 overs to the second card and mainly A high, which is good more than 33% of the time here. I call.

The river brings the beautiful J, which I like a lot, because it caps his range to trips, fullhouses or pure air, which he will have I am guessing more than 85% of the time. And what I like even more, he shoves for 248$, polarizing his range once again. I tank for 10 seconds, knowing that I will make the call 100% of the time, but since I play against this opponent 3-5 times/week, I do not want to discourage him from bluffing with air in the future. I call. He shakes his head, hesitates, but he often will do that with a pair of deuces or a better A, thinking he is not good. He flips over 69s for complete air. A scoops it! Ship it! Easy game!

2h00 : We all get up from the table, some of us richer than 7 hours ago, most of us slightly-heavily intoxicated by the booze, the cards, the women dancing and the never ending rattling from the slot machines! Time to go home, for tomorrow is another day.

Well, I am trying to post photos, but am having a hard time right now...

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...psdc65362e.jpg

If you click this link, it show you a picture of Dawson City...

What about WSOP River Rock, WSOP Montreal or WPT Montreal in a few months?
Good luck.

This is the first I heard of WSOPC Montreal... But my November, I will be in Asia already. The plan was to take the greyhound bus from Vancouver-Montreal, fly to Paris, play the WSOPE, take the train Paris-Moscou and then the trans-siberian train Moscou-Beijing to eventually end up back in Vietnam... Problem is, you need a visa to China, Mongolia, Belarus and Russia for the trans-siberian train... Bummer! I love the freedom of hitting the road, but not for the price of a major planning headache...

As far as the WSOPC at Riverrock goes in Vancouver, was there last year, and loved the live cash games. But really do not like busting out of a live tournament and having to walk away close to the bubble, with no money, and that sense of grinding it with no benefits...

Speaking of that empty feeling, how many of you grinders feel the absence of purpose... That emptiness in the morning where you are not excited by the grind anymore... Maybe it is just the hangover feeling... Or maybe I just miss the excitement of the road, the new adventures, the expanding horizon...

Run good all!

You will eventually need to find a higher purpose other than winning money for yourself. With very rare exceptions like Negreanu, you probably don't want to depend on living off poker for the rest of your life. It can be a great means to an end, such as financial security for your eventual family or travel for now.

For others, finding the woman of your dreams, or having children who you care for more than yourself, or giving back to society, may relieve that empty feeling of grinding money away from others. At least that's what I'm telling myself just before I head out to the casino tonight to try to take others' mortgage payments!

Poker, A Life Lesson...

Saturday night. The night starts out slowly, with the pots rarely going over 200-300$ in the first hour. Yes it is good for a 1-2$ game, but not for Dawson City. Not for the weekend.

I down a shooter, liquid cocaine to be precise (jagermeister/goldshlagger). Me and my buddy started this tradition about 5 years back, where on a given night and when agreed upon both of us, if one of us would win a pot over 50$, we would have to get a round of shooters. Fair enough. And on a night like tonight, it helps to kill the boredom. Sure. Problem is, I play WAY more hands than him and have a very strong tendency to pull big pots my way... So I got the bad side of that deal...

Jameson's this time. Nothing like irish whiskey to kill the boredom! Yup, the alcohol is flowing and while the buzz is running through me like a heat wave, I realize that I might not be the only drinking, for the pots are suddenly passing the 500$ mark... The 1000$ mark... Problem is, I am running cold like a winter day in Dawson in dead middle of January, -50 outside, with strong winds....

This guy to my right goes on a massif heater : he pulls 3000$ in just under 40 minutes!!! One of the biggest heaters I have seen in my life, especially at these stakes... Not so much for the money made, but for the junk cards than he plays and hits every single time. But he is drunk, splashing the pots, and raising 95% of his hands preflop to 40-50$. The whole table is just limping and waiting... I pick up AKs in position and while I like this very playable hand in position, he makes it 50$ and then after 1 caller, there is just over 100$ in the pot and I have 350$ behind... I like a call here for the post-flop playability of the hand, but am not deepstack enough to allow him to hit... I do not want to play fit or fold with such a powerful drawing hand, so I simply shove, get him to fold while the other caller calls off her 200$ stack. AK holds up vs AQ. Good, especially that flop came 3 clubs and that our fellow drunk that has been hitting everything, would of flopped a flush... Now I have 600$ in front of me, which allows for more post flop play...

I pick up A7s in the MP. Our villain makes it the standard 40$. I call. So do 4 others. 240$ in the pot. I don't like my position, but there is only 1 hour to go until 2am (casino closes at 2 am here) and I will get more involved, especially with a nutted potential hand... Flop comes 710J rainbow. Our villain checks, which is great, because he would lead out if he hit any part of that. But really, with those middle cards and 4 people to act after me, I kind of give up on that pot... They all check, but more important, they all seem uninterested... Turn comes an innocent 2... Our villain bets 55$ into 240$, a huge sign of weakness for his play... I call, hoping that no one else will... They all fold! River comes J. Gin! The perfect scare card for a weaker player to bluff. He bets 300$. I tank for about 5 seconds, thinking about his past tendencies. Call. He flips over 85, for a busted gutshot.

2 am hits. I am drunk. I look around, but there does not seem to be any interest in an after hour game... That is too bad. Tonight I could see more flops... More action... More booze...

I say goodbye to everybody and while I am walking back home, I think of our villain... A good guy, a decent player when sober, but he let his ego get in the way tonight... He was on a mission to crush the whole table tonight, and wasn't satisfied with a profit of 2500$... As you all know, heaters come and go and so do downswings, it is what you make of them that matters... Like anything in life, it is the approach that matters : a balanced mind, good ethics and detachment from the emotional swings of the game. That is what I tell myself while I am walking home, trying to remember that lesson next time tilt comes knocking at the door... Either in life or in the game. Run good all!

Loving the updates. Some absurd hand histories in there. Can't wait to get up there and get myself a piece of that action.

Thx. What are you going to do in Dawson? Just grind it for a couple of weeks? You do know there will be some fairly big tournaments from September 6-9 - which I will link below - and that the action is crazy that weekend? Not only are the games good at the casino, the after hour games are sick! For example, 2 years ago we were playing a 1-2 game after hours and after players eventually busted out or simply went home to sleep, we played 3 handed until 10am. The blinds would be 1-2, of course, but the third guy would straddle to 5$, back to the small blind, he would straddle to 45$ and the bb would make it about 165$ straddle. We were playing about 3k deep each. I would make the first and second straddle, but did not have the recklessness or gamble to put in the third one... Crazy times!

http://dawsoncity.ca/thingstodo/whiteram/

The main event is a 2 day tournament and first is usually in the area of 23k in a weak field and deepstacked... But outside of myself, don't expect 2x opens over here!

Is there anything special in Dawson City for a travel-hating wife and a girl? I was thinking of WSOP River Rock or WPT/WSOP/CPT Montreal for a poker/family trip.

Not sure about that one... Dawson is great for canoe trips, hiking and camping, but it does start to get cold in September. It is not really a place for a family orientated vacation, but more for adults in general. Also, the cost of the trip would be pretty big, with Dawson being so far up north and hotels being expensive. I would rather suggest Vancouver in October, for you will still have some nice weather at that time of the year. I love Montreal and am originally from there, but November is not the best time to go there, but I am sure you know that already. Let me know how it goes if you do make it to one of these places.

Also, Vancouver has a great 2-5 game where 500$ is the min and 1500$ the max. When you can have a starting stack of 300bb, it changes the game completely from the 100bb strategy...

very cool blog! you're shedding some light on a unique part of the country, looking forward to following.

The Way UP

The year was 1896. The economy had been hit by a recession, so it therefore came as no surprise that all eyes were looking up north when the news of abundance of gold made its way down. It didn't take long for 100 000 men to set on the expedition.

They were mainly men in their 20s or 30s - a lot similar to the current poker demographic -, that left family, friends and security behind for the promise of a better future : they were chasing the nugget. Only half of them made it.

The year is 2011. Times have definitely changed while I look around at the crew and instead of noticing shovels and buckets, I see a helicopter, a laptop and a GPS. We are in the dead middle of the bush, 150km from the closest town of
300 habitants. We are possibly the first ones to walk this ground. A helicopter has taken us to this distant land where we, a crew of 12, will sample the soil, pick up rocks and send the samples to a lab so they can analyse the potential that the ground holds in gold.

This is my last job and I am happy to be part of this latest gold rush that has just hit the Yukon. This is in fact the biggest gold rush since 1896. Mainly because times are hard again, that recessions are cyclic and we once again seek that precious nugget to solve our financial problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/ma...anted=all&_r=0

The helicopter lands. We were expecting this famous geologist for a few days and he has finally arrived. While the crew is gone for the day, I get to sit down with him. He is made man. After all, he helped finance and structure a few gold mines in the past. And while he brags about all his accomplishments, I can't help but notice how this millionaire-modern-successful-man looks so sad. And then I cannot contain myself : all I can think about, is how I want to be back in town, back in the casino, to feel the green felt, to splash some chips and to smile while the action is wild, uncontrollable. A few days later, this poker itching makes me quit work to become a pro full time.

These thoughts of how I got here briefly cross my mind as the dealer turns over the flop of 910J, two diamonds. I am sitting on the button with 10Js and was the original raiser. It is checked to me. I fire 40$ into a pot of 60$. Fold, fold, then 1 caller. I am 600$ deep. Villain has me covered. Turn is 5 of diamonds. He leads out for 100$. Why the overbet? And then it hits me : he peaked at his whole cards after the flop was flipped. He is not one send out false information : he was seriously checking his cards to see if he had a diamond. I call. The river comes an 8.
He tanks for 1 min and then checks. I flip over my 2 pair. It is no good. He had A7o, with the ace being a diamond, of course.

While I am walking back home and thinking if a shove on the turn might of been better, I try to tell myself that I do not want to chase that nugget like that sad man did all his life... As I make my way up in the poker world, I want to remember that friends are important, that I need to find something that transcends me (like Nash_Equilibria said so well in a previous post...). Yes the nugget gives me freedom and a job that I appreciate, but somewhere along the journey, many men previously got stranded on their quest for this elusive gold.

Run good all!

Naga World

Only 3 weeks left in the Yukon, in this place that I have named home for the past 13 years... Then it will be a brief stint in Vancouver, followed by Montreal, before hitting Paris for the series in October. And that too will be short lived, for Vietnam is the final destination, where I plan on staying for 6-9 months. But while I am hit by nostalgia of Asia, let's go back to last winter and the live poker scene in Cambodia...

It is April in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. A vibrant city that is still emerging from the scars of its past (if you have never read about the Cambodian genocide, please do : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_R...le_of_Cambodia ). In the heart of the city and close to the touristic area, lies Naga World, a two story casino that hides 3 poker tables in its depth. There use to be 2 tables reserved for 1-2 and one for a 5-10 game. Now that they have cancelled the 5-10 game, the players all have merged at the 1-2. And since there is no cap on the buy in, the game plays higher than your typical 1-2.

Midnight. I am tired. I have been grinding since 7pm and am sitting on 1k, which makes me break even, after overplaying AQo vs a nit that happened to have KK (obviously, but I convince myself too often to call with TPTK while my niece could of made this laydown...). I am thinking about my hotel bed and how sweet it would be to lie underneath the blankets and fall asleep in front of a movie on my laptop... While very tempting, this thought leaves me as soon as I see a guy sit down and buy in for 4k.

The shortstackers, intimidated by the aggressiveness of our new villain and some other old 5-10 regs, decide to leave. In no time, we are down to 4 players, each of us having at least 1k.

The rake at Nagaworld is outrageous : it is 5% and capped at 20$. This is better then the Canadian rake for small pots, but is a killer in a bigger game, like it is the case right now. Our villain makes it 100$ preflop with about 80% of his hands. Usually, it is either me or a solid Scandinavian player that enters the pot with our villain. While I like to play lots of hands, I am tighter in this game, for it is a very HIGH variance game and I prefer to have the best preflop.

I pick up AJ on the button. I make it 15$ to go. I know that if our villain likes his hand, which he usually does, he will pop it to 100$ regardless, but I do not want any other of the 2 players to tag along. Villain makes it 105$. Call. Flop comes 237 rainbow. Very dry and safe flop. Villain bets 200$, a potsize bet, which is his standard. I call. Turn is a sweet looking 4, giving me some outs in case my A high is no good. He checks. I like this, for the guy is such a straight forward player, that he would of bet any pair he had. Check. River is another 7. He picks up chips, 315 of them to be precise, and fires at the pot. I insta call : AJ is good as his A8o finds the muck. I often wonder why people take a showdown value hand and change it into a bluff, but it is a common occurrency with bluff happy players...

It is 6 am. I am now sitting on 2000$, after spewing 500 in a bluff against our favorite villain... He smiled when he picked up the bluff, after tanking for 20 seconds (an eternity for him). I am feeling the drowsiness after playing for 12 hours and the thought crosses my mind to leave, but these situations do not happen often and our French villain still has 1500$ of donation money in front of him... Until - sigh! - a pretty Cambodian girl walks towards the table, taps our friend on the shoulder, and impatiently asks him "are you done soon?". 10 minutes he answers. 10 minutes. Jeez, that might be 8 hands at the most... Jeez! It has been already 15 minutes since his girlfriend has shown up and I can read the impatience on her face... Even worse, our villain has tighten up, probably not wanting to spew some money in front of his love one... I flip over the corner of the cards... an A and... a beautiful, inspiring, majestic red A!!! I am in the small blind and make it 15$ to go. He makes it 100$... Beauty! But how to play this... I would usually just flat here, wanting to disguise my hand, for I have yet to 4 bet him... but this might be my last chance, and I want those God sent chips... 300$ and he insta calls... I put him on a high pocket pair, possibly 1010... Flop comes 567 two diamonds... Since I put him on an overpair, I decide to Check raise him, for I do not see him folding after committing some money in there... He bets 500$... hummmm... did he possibly hit a set... maybe, but I am never folding in this spot against him and shove... he snaps... "you got a set" I ask him... "no"... Sweet!, but I still have to dodge whatever pair he has... the dealer slowly burns the card... turns over a 2... Jeez!, for her, the dealer, it is work as usual, meanwhile my heart is pounding, sweating the ultimate and last card... 7, I flip over my AA, he shakes his head in disgust, flips 88 and walks away, leaving the storm behind him, this crazy high variance game... the dust settles while I pick up my chips, cash them in, and finally head towards my prized pillow.

As soon as I step outside, I call over a tuktuk, not wanting to walk back with the amount of money that my wallet now holds. I have been playing online all winter but now that I have 2 weeks left before jumping on the plane back to Canada, I have been playing more of live poker. I could wire some money back home, but decide to get a hotel with a safe in my room instead.

Run good all!

The Land of Desolation

1896-98. Only a handful of the 100,000 people who left for the Klondike during the gold rush became rich.[29] They typically spent $1,000 ($27,000) each reaching the region, which when combined exceeded what was produced from the gold fields between 1897 and 1901.[197] At the same time, most of those who did find gold lost their fortunes in the subsequent years (Wikipedia)

August 28, 2013. As soon as the cards hit the felt, a switch flicks on in me : my sole focus is the poker table, the cards that are being dealt, the reaction of the players. This is my universe and I am the master. There is me and them. They are the enemy, villains, opponentsto outplay. And right now, I am in the zone and this pot has my name all over it...

Once the hand is over, I come back to myself, look around me and smile ; these are all the people I grew to love over the years. A common quest has brought us together in this far northern land... and even though it is presently -5c and September has yet to show its face, a feeling of warmth goes through my body : I love these people! Every single one of them (or almost...)! We have come here with similar goals, similar ambitions, at the far outskirts of civilization.

Many people still live an ancestral lifestyle, by either fishing the salmon jumping upstream the river, hunting moose or trapping smaller animals. As far as electricity goes, it is at best scattered when you leave the core of the town : people prefer to rely on the old school ways as wood burning, oil, solar power or generators. Yes life is simple up north, as we are all subjected to the will of the land.

The richest of the Klondike saloon owners, businessmen and gamblers also typically lost their fortunes and died in poverty.[306] Gene Allen, for example, the editor of the Klondike Nugget, became bankrupt and spent the rest of his career in smaller newspapers; the prominent gambler and saloon owner Sam Bonnifield suffered a nervous breakdown and died in extreme poverty (Wikipedia)

The wild north is full of dreams when you stare, from an eagle's eye, into its wilderness. There is mountain to climbs, rivers to coast, valleys to wander upon. The ground is rich like our dreams. And tonight, around the poker table, some of us will touch a small fortune, others will walk home disappointed. Netherless, we wake up in the morning and the Yukon, land of the free, welcomes us for another day. As long as the sun shines, there is hope in the horizon, like a tangible, yet unreachable goal...

But the sun is setting earlier lately, as if tired of always being with us this summer... and with the darkness, the stiff cold is settling in, freezing the ground that we walk upon... Adios Dawson City, adios all these familiar faces, it is time to move on and for me to chase my dreams on different lands!

Run good all!

great read thanks. gl at the white ram

Vancouver

The plane has just landed and already a smile paints itself on my face... I remember the first time I left the Yukon, back in 2001, shortly after the 911 attacks, and came down to Vancouver : I was citystrucked. Not really like the rest of America was, feeling vulnerable after the World Trade attacks, but was mainly shaken from leaving the bush and stumbling back into civilization. Staggering across the street became a challenge... Looking left and right like a mad man to make sure there was no vehicles... The chaotic rumbling of the city... I was simply a headless urban chicken...

Nowadays, the cultural shock of the city simply leaves me unfazed. Sure, as I wander through the streets of the city, the wave of people often hit me like an undertow - well, at least for the first few days -, but mainly I just let myself get carried away by the wave of the crowd... Just another face in the anonymity of the population. But what does grab my attention, what I have been lacking up north in the dead middle of the bush, is the diversity that offers the city. And by diversity, I mean sushi! Cinemas! Women! And lots of women! A live poker game that runs 24 hours/day! Who said I was a chicken without a head : I am a kid at Christmas, ecstatic and overflowing with joy!

Although, this year I only have 24 hours in the city, as I have a different calling : I am going to do a 10 day meditation retreat. You ever heard of vipassana meditation retreats?

http://www.dhamma.org/en/

It is a 10 day course during which you are not allowed to talk, to communicate, to use devices, to read, to do anything you take for granted in an everyday civilized life. All that you do is meditate. And meditate some more. 10-12 hours/day, that is.

It is a monk lifestyle and it does struck your inner cords when the gong vibrates through your tired soul at 4am every morning. And from there on, you meditate non stop, digging deeply into your inner self...

Hunger kicks in after you have taken your last meal at 11am, but even that becomes a non factor as you go deeper, visiting the subconscious areas of yourself that you didn't even know existed... Lost dreams... scattered thoughts... poker hands played... films seen... wandering memories... the journey is smoothing, peaceful, as breath by breath, eyes closed, you go deeper... But then it hits : the unavoidable storm.

Our demons are underlined within ourselves, hiding like this lost childish monster that only comes out in the dark. And this time, it roars! The ride is bumpy. All you want to do is move, open your eyes, get the **** out of this place! And some do : they storm out of the meditation centre, run outside, and scream their lungs out! Because the demons are simply overwhelming. But most of us stay in silence, eyes wide shut, just another bad beat in our life that comes swinging by.

And the demon finally leaves us! We are freed! A feeling of lightness flows through us, happiness, as if we can dance our way gracefully through life again! In that moment, we become a better person : we have beat this game called life. But the journey doesn't stop there ; we remain eyes closed, legs crossed, back straight, breath by breath pursuing this life-long journey...

For those of you that have known the grind of a multi-day tournament, you come to understand how you must keep a balanced mind through the casualities of the long haul. So many times we kick ourselves for that bad call, missed raise, that 3bet that we should of orchestrated, for that missed live tell... So many mistakes that we have made along the way, but it is the journey that counts, to play our best, to keep on surviving through the different blind levels. But there is this demon called tilt that always comes knocking at the door, looking out from the shadows for that moment where we let go of our awareness, or our equanimity. And then it strikes its victim, merciless.

So many times, we are alone in this lifetime... When we play a hand. When we bust out and are left with the walk of shame. When we lose our internet connection. When a downswing hits. When tilt shows up, like an unwanted guess. And when we close our eyes and visit the depths of our soul. But then something ultimately happens : we feel connected again. We feel one with our surroundings and a flow of love and compassion runs through us.

I have done this 10 day course 26 times already in the past 11 years. The first course was in Jaipur, India. At that time, I realized that I was but a stranger to myself. But since, the journey has been more agreeable, peaceful. I know myself more nowadays. My leaks. My tilting habits. My patterns. I have a better control of this game called life and enjoy every single unexpected flop, river or turn of events that it brings.

Run good all!

Note : this next link is a song by God Speed You Black Emperor! that must of you know from the movie 28 Days Later. I believe it represents adequately the ups and downs of our inner journey... Also, the title East Hastings, is a street in Vancouver where countless homeless lost souls live outside waiting sadly for the next score... It is a harsh part of town but like our demons, let us never forget about them and their struggle. Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kfkUUkEGtc

Wow, I really enjoyed your description about meditation retreats. Makes me want to sign up for one. Do you meditate daily as well? I'm doing 30 minutes at least 5 times a week. I feel like it has changed me a lot.

very cool stuff. keep posting.

I find the meditation discussion interesting. Faraz Jaka, a pretty well-known poker player, discussed his experience in a Buddhist monastery on this podcast: http://www.thinkingpoker.net/2013/08...42-faraz-jaka/. Might be worth checking out.

Yes I do, in between 1-2 hours/day. I wake up and meditate for an hour a day and always try to meditate after a poker session, to calm down.

You should try one : it is the absolute nuts in this life!

Thx for the link bob ; it is also good to know that fellow poker players are exploring their inner depths and therefore taking an alternate path to the hookers/blow lifestyle (although, I do like to indulge in that world as well).

On The Road


1998. Oliver, Okanagan Valley, British Colombia. Like numerous French Canadians Quebecois in between the age of 19-21, I have made my way across the country, thumb up, a few tiny bills in my pockets and a broken English accent. The difference is today, I wake up with no backpack : with it, my wallet has gone missing, my clothes and my camping gear. All I have to my name are my shoes, a pair of shorts, my shirt, a swiss army knife, my sleeping bag and a massif hungover headache! I goes it is -EV to down a bottle and to pass out on the bedside of the river! But strangely, I feel so free, so liberated... I stick up my thumb and ride out to a new adventure...

2013. As the trees and mountains unfold through the greyhound window, I feel at ease. I let myself get absorbed by the landscape, fading into it like a dream... there is something hypnotizing about the constant movement... This is the 17th time I take the greyhound on this 3-4 day trek across the country. I know it might seem absurd to many, but I just prefer the slow transition to the fastness of a plane, even though I had airmiles to use up!

READING MATERIAL : King of a Small World, by k Bennet ; Einstein, The Life and Times, by Ronald W. Clark ; Heads-Up No-Limit Holdem, by Collin Moshman.

WATCHING MATERIAL : The last 3 episodes of Breaking Bad, Oblivion, We Steal Secrets and Orange is the New Black.

Up Next : Full Tilt Montreal, followed by WSOP Paris.

Run good all!

Good luck! Please blog about the cash games around Quebec, e.g., Snake's Poker Club or Rideau Carleton Raceway? Is it true that the $15 max rake at Playground and VIP Poker Room make their cash games unbeatable for all but the best players?