Out of curiosity, how many of you have alerts set up for your bank and credit cards?
Typically there are options to get BOTH a text message as well as an email. Also, you can set limits (under which you won't be notified and over which you will). As well as 2-factor authentication when accessing the account. It seems like these would be quite useful, particularly with accounts that have significant balances.

i have alerts coming out the ying yang.

I don't worry my stuff stays in a safety deposit box. Then again Den of Thieves might happen then I be screwed!

Bike king won't answer any questions, Poker news took down the article, Bike king killed his blog and vlog.....

safe to assume this thing was a lie

And he hasn't provided anymore info about his give away trip to Punta Cana? Maybe he punted all his money there?

He has been talking and live in the bike chat room on YouTube but not saying anything about getting this money back

^^^^^This


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I love his story but I think he is not telling the truth....
Fell sorry for him.

Nothing but crickets.

If he was being honest he would be defending himself.

I was one of the suckers that believed BikeKing at first wanting to believe his story..

I now put myself down as having bit on a lie and wonder 'why bother creating the lie'?'

I'm still holding on...... stubbornly

People lie without a specific and real reason. They just lie. Period.

It's a good story. Unique situation with a really bad turn.

Bike, many of us were really pulling for you to get the contract job. Did you get it?

I really doubt so. That is a very specialized job and integrity is a big part of it. Anybody with a lying history wont fit.

Me too, including the stubbornly part, but my faith is starting to show some cracks: Having all of your money in only 1 account (out-of-state at that). Not following common-sense security protocols like having 2 factor security authentication on the account, getting both text and email alerts (particularly for large amounts). These days, those procedures are an absolute minimum and to not have them in place seems like an incredible lack of judgement for someone who has shown himself to be quite intelligent, if not an impossibility.

Be that as it may. As far as I am concerned, I am willing to call that whole episode a thing of the past: believe if you want, disbelieve if you want. Drive on.

I would like to see the a continuation of the Going Pro & Moving to Vegas adventures. Even with this unresolved mystery simmering in the background, to steam over once in a while, like a good action, thriller movie.

A future job wouldn't know about this. Plus nothing was verified. The job referral contact is actually from a poster in this thread.

Yeah, as this thread dies, I(and I'm sure his followers) would like to see a brief monthly vlog update focused on the bankroll rebuild. Preferably one at the beginning of each month so that they're predictable to catch. And then him get back in action in time for the WSOP cash game action. Are you listening, Bike?

I've changed my mind back and forth like 20 times, and honestly to me it doesn't really matter anymore because I never thought he was that interesting in the first place. And the fact that he's not updating his viewers kind of shows that, whether he's lying or not, he was only in it for his own ego.

One thing I'll add is that I've known a handful of PKs (pastor's kids) in my life, mostly childhood, and they all tend to be attention seeking to some degree, significantly developmentally delayed (socially), and they all tend to try appear "badass", or at least go through a stage of it. It's sort of a product of being called a ***** pastor's kid for most of your childhood. When you come at it from that angle, it starts to makes more sense why he would fabricate something like this.

Talked to Bikeking on twitter.

Asked him if blog is over he said this:

I asked: "why did you quit it? it wasnt making any money?"

I told him to keep going and strike while the iron is hot with all of his drama.

and he posted a "Its true tho" gif.

Not necessarily. Maybe he learned his lesson not to post his supposed personal business online and then expect all roses and daisies.....

I think that he should just simply come back to this thread. Say something like: "The Punta Cana incident has been debated ad nausea. The past is the past, and the future is ahead of us. I am here to continue on with an occasional update of my comings and goings. Here is what is cooking with me these days . . ."

Just forget him and move on.

First time looking at this thread in a few weeks, seemed like for whatever response I gave was met with two insults and skepticism unless I posted my entire financial history and relevant emails and phone calls for verification it was going nowhere fast. I suppose I should put my tax returns on here as well, hopefully those will be gone through with a fine tooth comb as well searching for any anomalies. Perhaps I should have vlogged breaking the news to my parents to help verify. FX transfers can be up to 10k if the country allows it, that was only one page of a three page statement so no the numbers don't all add up when you're only looking at one snip of the thing. I know some of you took out the ruler and tried to verify margins, who knows maybe since I use a free word processor that downloads PDFs into a weird format that messed with some of the standard formatting. As with Trooper, and the number of posts pre Punta Cana and Post, people seem to relish much more in downfalls than triumphs. Trolls and ignorance are a part of the internet, if I actually let those people affect my life I would not have a thread much less a YT channel. Update if its worth anything, I've received credit history reports from all major credit bureaus and compared them for any anomalies for clues or evidence of when and where my identity was compromised. While some reports have a couple miscellaneous items that others do not, there do not appear to be fraudulent or unrecognized charges which further puts a dampener on the case. While it might not completely be a dead case yet, it certainly is a cold one for now.

Actual reputable people who know my personally like Neeme, Owen, Spike, Carl, OMC, to name a few have all been very supportive for what that's worth. Imagine that, people who actually know standing behind my character, huh, interesting. Surely one of them would be wise to such a web of lies.

Some people also really do not realize just how lucrative the aviation industry can be. Avionics+A&P+Secret Clearance, especially if you're willing to go overseas, six-figure salaries are the norm, not the exception. Some people also seem to think money is the key to happiness, which I along with other studies disagree with. If I believed money was the key to a fulfilled life, I would not be doing anything I am now.

Poker may be a tough way to make an easy living, but if you have a passion for it, go for it. Some people have a passion for their desk job, some people have a passion for their blue-collar job, and far too many people, over 70% of Americans according to some surveys, hold zero passion for their job. American dream seems to be go to college that you likely cant pay for, major in something that is in need and sustainable, get a steady career with benefits and 401k, you're only valuable to a company if you're making them more money than you're making, buy a house another thing that you likely can't afford and could be worth way less than what you agreed to pay for it by the time you're done, get married what is statistically a flip on if that lasts, then after a few decades of that, then you can retire and now you've earned time to have fun now that most of your life is over. Life is pretty simple yet people insist on making it complicated. As Rocky said: "I stopped thinking the way other people think a long time ago, you gotta think like you think."

As far as the aviation job goes, there isn't any news yet as far as working on the ILS systems as I described, however there is another need they have where they want to design a drone that is able to perform the tests instead of an actual airplane and I could be helping out with that as well, so we'll see how that goes.

Matt Berkey also wants me to come up a fundraising idea that we along with the other vloggers can come together on. Originally we were planning on donating to the Las Vegas Shooting Victims, but this was before Christmas and too many people ended up going out of town for the holidays. While there's still a need for funds, we feel it's now too far removed from people's minds that there is likely other fundraisers we can do that would gather more attention. I'm still looking at a few options if anyone knows of any good foundations or causes that would work good for a streamed home game feel free to mention it.

I didn't think I was going to be able to afford to go home for Christmas which would have been a first, but on Christmas day I found a round-trip flight to FL for $120 so that was a nice last minute find. A few days later my parents and I drove up my sisters in Columbia and celebrated with the rest of the family and with one of my sisters leaving the country for a couple years this Spring for a mission trip this could have the last Christmas in awhile with everyone together. I actually played a little poker at the Orange City Card Room, decently nice room, was not a fan of the Westgate-like rake and buyin structure of $5+$2 and $60-$200, but the games had decent action, ended up winning a few hundred over 3 pretty short sessions. On the way back flight was delayed for 5 hours but getting a $100 flight voucher made it OK, I might have set a record for packing things in my backpack as frontier charges for anything that doesn't fit under your seat, coming back with Christmas presents and everything it weighed 27 pounds.

Spike and I recorded another podcast before Christmas, he's in charge of editing and producing and has been pretty busy with work and moving and everything so it's not out yet, hopefully going forward in 2018 we can have a better schedule and more consistent episodes with guests.

Speaking of podcasts, I was on the Heads Up Poker Podcast with Steve Barton right before Christmas. You can listen to it here: http://headsuppoker.libsyn.com/150-a...dest_id=317012 We met at the TPE meetup this past WSOP and he thought my story was interesting and we swapped numbers.

2018 GOALS:
1. I want this to be more than "get in better shape". I feel like a general goal like that with nothing to shoot for is a setup for failure. I haven't figured out what exactly but I want it to be something like "climb x" or "run x", maybe even do a Dal Bilzerianish prop bet bike ride to LA, not sure yet.

2. Rebuild the bankroll. An obvious one, I'll update this with a goal once the work situation is a little more clear and I can know how much I'll be playing. But I will not be playing overrolled for 1/2 and 1/3 anymore. Once I reach 15k I'd be playing more of Bellagio 2/5 and Wynn 1/3 (I know people debate back and forth all the time with what is safe BRM, for me and my standard deviation I think a 30 buyin rule is reasonable.) And keep that until I reach 30k and play 2/5 1 cap etc. 2017 numbers I had an hourly of $22 at 1/2 and $33 at 1/3 over 1200 hours which I was pleased to see, 11bb an hour is solid. I wasn't really pleased at the number of hours that number should be much higher IMO, I'll go into that in a later goal.

3. Write more. I'd like to write some more articles for PokerNews, the two I wrote were easily the most popular on that section on their website. No, I don't know why the last one got taken down, I did link my thread in it maybe upon further reading someone discovered there was controversy and decided to take it down even though while it was it got positive response. Anyways, writing is something that I'm good at and enjoy and many people have told me I should do it more, so I'd like to write at least 15 articles this year. No I don't get paid for any articles right now, but it's good for simply getting your name out there and if it turns into a side job for some site cool.

4. Produce 30 vlogs. In reality, I would like this number to be closer to 50 but I'm not really sure of how my schedule will shape up yet. Elliott Roe mentions having a low-end of a goal and a high-end so you're discouraged either way towards the end of the challenge so I'll keep it at 30 for now. Editing really makes/breaks the vlogs, the actual clipping and compiling the film shots takes very little time in relation to everything else. The more polished a video is, the more likely people are to continue watching. I do think the whole homeless thing is a unique angle and I've done some research on growing a channel and there's some things that work and some things that don't. Usually, the more content the better, especially if it's unique and well produced. There's much more to it than simply filming where you walk, your hole cards, and going over hands and several small nuances that you just wouldn't think about until you've filmed and edited things. Another common misconception is that you can easily portray any persona that you choose. You choose what hands to film and how to go over them, etc, however the Bellagio 2/5 vlog is a perfect example. I went over hands while tired and more "interesting" hands than standard ones and did a pretty good job of giving really poor hand histories. I've seen several people remark that Brad Owen's game has improved over the past few vlogs, while I do think like any good player he is getting better over time, I don't think his game has really improved over the recent vlogs, he's just gotten better and more used to going over HH's on video, it's different than texting or even conversing with someone and it takes time to get that way. I'm well aware of the passive nit style that I have, in addition to the vloggers game this is also due to not going over HH's well, people judge poker talent from vlogs and that's fine it'll probably become a part of the vlog of what a nit I am as this is a pretty easy troll to embrace and use to further the channel. I also will be using other social media in Twitter and Instagram more so than I have been as these are important tools for "brand building" or whatever you want to call it I don't have a brand but yeah.

5. Overall manage time better. Some of you might remember when I first came to Vegas I had a schedule of play X amount of hours, study X amount of hours, and had blocks of time designated on certain times to playing. After realizing that having "play poker from 3pm to 1am" is not the optimal poker schedule, especially in Vegas where games fluctuate so much depending on who or what is in town I tossed that schedule away. After I scrapped that schedule I scrapped a set schedule altogether, this definitely led to playing fewer hours especially during the WSOP when I had friends in town, and not having large living expenses as well adds into this. So going forward I will have a more set schedule or at least priorities set in order to be much more productive. Look at Poker Priest as a prime example of someone who hasn't made editing vlogs a priority (really cool nice guy got to meet him at a meetup game), the days really do fly by if you're not paying attention.

Well that's it for an update I suppose, let me know if you're actually interested in hearing how year two goes as I was only keeping this going as people expressed they found value in it. If everybody hates it and assumes you're a scumbag there's not a point in keeping it going. Cheers regardless, hope everyone had happy holidays.

GL in 2018, solid goals man!

Bike King,

I know you're a secure guy who can take advice. Suggestions:

Take Dale Carnegie (expensive) or join Toaster Masters (cheap) to improve your presentation skills.

Define your "get in better shape" goal along the lines of gaining weight/muscles. You'd have to lift weights and, and - this could be a source of awesome content for your vlog - eat a lot!!!! Have you seen the eating videos of Mark Wiens? That guy probably only has slightly slower metabolism than you. He eats like crazy and does not gain weight. Half of his videos are in Thailand. There are more than enough eating places in Las Vegas and Cali to interest people.

As for bankroll building, all I can say is, take shots more and hide your bankroll in multiple places, not in one basket.

In terms of writing, how about a blog in addition to Poker News? Then an ebook once you've got 25 articles compiled.

As for the vlog. Create separate short videos for different categories (same channel): 1. Eating/fitness (ala Mark Wiens) 2. Hand analysis (ala Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme, Vaughn) 3. Car living (Hobo Ahle, Element Van Life, etc.)

Finally, regarding time management: Eat That Frog

Not to be a debbie downer, but now you're saying you are besties with people like Owen and Neeme? You KNOW them and they KNOW you? Sure I know a lot of people, but there are probably 3 people in the world that really KNOW me, because I've known them for decades and discuss very personal things with them. Just because I met someone and talked with them a handful of times, in my opinion, does not qualify as somebody KNOWING you. You cant know somebody after meeting them for the first time 6 months ago with limited contact.

And by the way, for someone that believes that money doesnt matter, I find it odd you talk about money so much. In fact, I think you mentioned money in every single paragraph you wrote.