A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says, "On any day except Saturday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer."

The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on Saturday? and the voice from in the well shouts back: Because on Saturday, it’s your day in the well.

OK, pretty much anything is fair game, except I would rather not answer "what do you think of my game, what are my biggest leaks, who do you think are the best regs" type questions here.

Fire away...

first

sup

Even though I think lots of us already know this, obligatory poker story/life plans while I think of real questions?

Favorite Poker Trip?

Why your house is so lucky?

I'll troll later.

Favourite memory from vegas this summer?
Favourite memory that doesn't include a porn star?

Coolest canadian you've ever met? (sorry ricky)

how old?
what do you see yourself doing in ten years?
ambitions in poker and in real life?

I was putting my eggs in the "best looking Canadian" basket anyways.

I dunno, I think I'm way more muk's type.

muk?

poker aha moments?

pic of setup?

When was the first time you played poker in a casino?

Poker Story:

(partially copied from interview I did with EurekaKid)

I started playing poker just like everyone else, in the dorm, drinking Natty Light and playing $5 and $10 donkaments with my friends back in ‘04. A few of the other guys were doing decent online (who wasn’t in those days...) so I decided to give it a shot and deposited $50 on Stars to play SNGs. I busted that pretty quickly and around 10-15 more $50 deposits mostly by playing way underrolled ($100 SNGs with little understanding of ICM, etc.) and eventually I decided that Stars must be rigged. I took my last $11 on Stars and entered into some huge 1500 person donkament and spun my $11 into $1500 by taking it down ($1200 if you take into account the $300 I spent at the bar that night). I was hooked. I started taking BRM more seriously and have not made a deposit on Stars since, other than to get a bonus.

Sophomore year some friends told me about this glorious place called PartyPoker where the players were (gasp!) even worse than on Stars. One Friday afternoon I really had the itch and deposited $300 on Party. I basically played for 60 hours straight and by the time I had to go to class on Monday I had over $20,000 in my account, mostly from playing $100 and $200 sit n gos. The rest, as they say, is history. Those were the days, when poker was actually fun. I was so involved in school and had so little free time that I genuinely looked forward to being able to play. Party had this great tournament back in the day, a $33 rebuy that started at like 11pm. You could rebuy anytime you were all-in so the average person was in for $300 or so. At one point, I cashed this tournament 9 times in a row. I would bust around 4am, take a quick nap, and wake up for class at 7:30. Rinse, repeat. F the UIGEA =/. I played donkaments semi-seriously for the next year or so with some decent scores but the whole sit down for 8 hours on end was not very conducive to my busy schedule.

In November of my senior year, I got two five figure scores on Stars and had built up a nice bankroll. I decided that I had pretty much mastered tournaments (laughable, I know) and was ready for a new challenge. I had never played in a cash game online before, so I decided to give them a shot. I immediately started 12 tabling 1/2 FR on Stars. Full ring was the logical choice for me because I was used to the dynamics of 9 handed poker. (I think the first posts about me on 2p2 were me 4b/c A7o and doing other such spewy stuff.) It took me a couple weeks to adjust to playing with deep stacks and develop pot control skills, but after that I was pulling in a steady five figures every month in my spare time. I moved up to 2/4 and 3/6 ~ April (graduated from Ohio State in June and won the million for 135k in July, YAY) and played there for about 6 months before moving up to 3/6 and 5/10.

I had accepted a job working for Ford up in Michigan (pretty sick job in marketing, I was going to be a marketing relationship manager... coordinating cooperative advertising campaigns with Ford's partners such as Sony, Sirius Satelite Radio, BP, Microsoft Sync, etc.) and moved up there in September for the position. The week before my scheduled start day I got a call that Ford was undergoing a hiring freeze and my start date would have to be pushed back. They gave me $5000 for the trouble and said I should be starting within a month. So here I am in a new city where I don't know a single person and have absolutely all the free time in the world... time to triple my volume! Long story short, they kept pushing my start date back and giving me the run around where I wouldn't hear from them for weeks at a time... I had two 50k+ months to start 2009 and the next time they called with BS excuses and to just hang tight I basically told them to go *****.

I was seriously doubting my decision to do this thing full time a couple months later when I hit an inevitable downswing and started to get seriously burned out. I was actually doing job interviews with local advertising agencies, but I found myself basically hoping that I wouldn't be offered a job. I had a sick place in Vegas with alot of FR guys from this forum so I decided to just stick it out through the WSOP and reevaluate from there. I didn't play much online at all in Vegas (I think i had 7000 hands total in June haha) but I came back reinvigorated and proceeded to crush pretty hard. Since then I pretty much play 5/10-25/50 exclusively, playing pretty much everything from HU to FR depending on what games look good at the time. I'm getting much better at shorthanded play (the adjustment has been more rocky than I expected, especially with the tough player pool at high stakes) but I'm still most comfortable at FR where I am pretty confident that I am one of the best online atm.

I alrdy knew everything about you....did you mention you're the mashup king?

I'm sure you will.

Favorite poker trip would probably be a toss up between LAPT Rio and EPT Barcelona... I mean both cities were basically created to have sick parties and good times. Amazing weather, amazing beaches, beautiful women every where, ridiculous clubs... what was not to like. Barcelona was definitely better as far as the EPT goes (Rio didn't even have any cash games or side events) but I went with my cousin to Rio who goes there all the time on business so I got to go to alot of 'local' places and see the stuff tourists never get to see.

I was mostly joking about the lucky house thing... we just have amassed a good amount of poker talent into one house. I'm not going to be making anymore posts that could offend the poker gods anymore haha... after the last brag post I made I proceeded to lose 25k in 100 playing some of the fishiest 25/50 games I have ever seen. =/

marry-****-kill

lebron james, jim tressel, paul newman

hahaha

yeah favorite memory is tough, we had a lot of good times this summer.

I would probably say the dune buggies... it was just kind of a cathartic type experience being in the middle of the desert, not to mention the adrenaline rush. I really had a good time at the backyard BBQ's too just BSing with everyone... even though they were all giant sausage fests haha.

Um... fav canadian is probably a toss up between you and Ricky, you guys will probably have to fight to the death or something for that honor. You both are very cultured and I really enjoy our philosophical conversations!

Best strategy thread on 2+2? ( link if possible)
Poster you pay the most attention to about strat online or not.
Your thoughts on Islidur and those nosebleed games.
Favourite poster?

Some observations about how msnl has change over the time you have played.

How do you manage tilt? How do you relax?

23

I have no idea about what I will be doing in 10 years, I am pretty confident that I will no longer be playing poker except maybe recreationally in some super high stakes private game or something. When I started college my written goal was to be a millionaire and Chief Marketing Officer of a Fortune 500 by the age of 40. If things continue to go well, I should achieve that first goal significantly earlier but I don't really see myself having the patience to try and "climb the corporate ladder" at this point.

Most likely I will start some sort of advertising consulting business where I can take on corporate clients in my spare time and make enough income to live on from investing (most likely in real estate). This is just conjecture though, I only know for a fact that I am playing poker for the next 6 months (last 5 months of lease in LA and WSOP in Vegas). After that, if poker isn't still a profitable and challenging venture (notice I don't say enjoyable, most days I can barely stand it haha) I would have no trouble walking away. There are plenty of ways to pay the bills... maybe not as easy as poker but there is alot more involved than just $$$ for me anyway.

Poker Ambitions for 2010:

• Make 500k+ just from playing poker
• Become a significant winner at 6m (not just in soft games)
• Become the best midstakes online full ring poker coach in the world (impossible to measure, but basically just continue to improve my coaching methodology and develop it into a sustainable business)
• Find some of the best up and coming low stakes players and through staking/coaching help them progress to the mid stakes and beyond

what is your red line like?

how do i improve the red line without spewing?

does it matter iyo?

Oops forgot life ambitions. I guess we will make this for the next 10 years or so. Pretty broad/standard, but whatever.

• Travel to at least two new countries every year
• Live life to the fullest, try to have as many new experiences as possible
• Do something I never thought I would have the balls to do at least once a year (hanggliding in Rio is probably a good recent example considering I am super afraid of heights)
• Make a difference and an impact as much as I can, whether donating time/money, helping a friend in need, etc
• Buy a house that I can pimp out and rent
• Get into above average physical shape (just started with a personal trainer last week after pretty much never worked out in a gym before... going great so far. I've always been a pretty thin/athletic guy (played varsity soccer and baseball throughout high school) but kind of let myself go a bit since graduating... none of that anymore.)
• Get more active in marketing again, maybe do some freelancing for an ad agency or something

if there were one MSNL reg i wouldn't want on my direct left on 6 of my tables it would be: ______

thoughts on what gino looks like IRL

do you have any regrets with regard to poker?

ever have any issues with family / friends related to your present lifestyle?

top 3 mashups on recent rotation?

mila kunis or kristen bell?

world cup predicitons?

what are the last 5 books that you have read?


what are the top 5 books you would recommend?

graph for 2009 below...

Ya bro, chicks dig the red line. ha, I think people massively overrate redline/blueline winnings. Winning is winning imo. I see people with y=-x red lines who crush at 3+ptbb and people with y=x red lines who are breakeven or slight losers. I mean certainly you want to try and find as many spots where you can take pots away without a hand as you can but there's certainly a tradeoff... I don't think I've ever had a W$SD even approaching 50%.

Easiest ways to improve your red line... 3b light more, bluff raise more flops/turns/rivers, value bet wider, float/double float more often in good situations and take it away on the turn/river against abc players, etc

democrats or republicans?
if there were no nlh...?
i rush poker the future of online poker?
beer or vodka?
who is ur favorite 2+2 user?
sne this year?