Hey Newf, thanks for doing this and great read so far.

You've stated in this thread that you have good bankroll management skills. What were your Buy-in requirements for online tournaments? Less than 100 buy-ins, 100+ buy-ins, 200 buy-ins?

Did you take a 'shot' by owning 95% of yourself at the Bellagio tournament? I'm assuming you didn't have a $2 million roll before entering because that's what you stated in this thread as having a proper bankroll for $10k tournaments.

It depends on field size. 100 is fine fine for most stuff, 200 for Sunday size fields. It's ok to sometimes play with less if you're willing to move down if you take a hit (but you should be confident you have a big edge). Also, for special stuff like FTOPS 2500 you don't need anywhere near a quarter million because your typical buy-in that you're playing all the time is so much lower.

Yes and no. Again, 10K+ buy-ins are not my main/only game. I'm grinding a ton of smaller buy-in tournaments online as well as cash games and smaller buy-in live prelim events to make a more steady lower variance income compared to playing main events. Taking all my own action still probably wasn't technically the best bankroll management but I wouldn't say it was that bad either, and as I've said I'm fine with taking shots here and there as long as the money you lose won't hurt you too much. But really, the main reason I didn't sell more action or get backed for live poker is because if I won 1.6M and had to give timex half I would probably have to kill myself.

are we going to eat tapas and drink sangria in barcelona?

If I had have given you a 1-time stake for the Bellagio 15k with no makeup, what's the lowest% you would have taken? What if it was someone else backing you?

How should I balance my roll as far as cash and tourneys % wise and which should I focus on most if I want to make the move to playing fulltime ? I have been a MTT player mainly with decent sucess over a ok sample but I still prolly suck. Should I stop playing MTT's for a while and immerse myself in cash ? Also what br advice do you have as far as shot taking is concerned?

this please ^^^

I also play MTTs and hold my own but it is a grind and often seems like a steep uphill battle

% plan to switch to a combination of MTT and cash...

also thanks for this...may sit down and take the time to read it all the way through

what do u think the difference is between the best mtt'er and someone whos like in the top 30 or whatever?

what are my leaks and whatnot?

i suck at well's i always post like the same things.

do you think tag play is more advantageous live or online?

Do you want to do this forever?

Whats the first thing you bought with your money?

Do you think poker ages you more quickly than more typical life paths for kids?

WSOP ME FT 7 left. You are UTG with 99 and 18bb... Avg stack 30bb. Mix of tight and loose players all decent. What do you do? And why? Blinds are SB Hansen w 35bb and Deeb w 25bbs.

I'm only doing London this year because of WCOOP, seems better to just concentrate on grinding online

Meh, it'd have to be a pretty good deal. I really hate selling more than like a third of my action but I guess if the deal was good enough I'd probably have to take it. 35% sounds about right I think? Same for others.

It really depends on what you enjoy more and what you're good at. I don't think it's a big secret that the best cash players make more money, but with the games as they are today it's probably not going to be at all easy to just jump into cash and be successful right away. I'd say start reading the cash forums (sadly they don't seem to be as good lately, at least not MSNL) and start slowly mixing in more cash to your routine. At first don't play MTTs at the same time and play less tables. Keep MTTs your main game at least until you start to have a lot of success at cash.

As for shot-taking I dunno. Probably don't ever put more than 5% of your roll on one tournament or cash game no matter how big you think your edge is, and try to keep more of your shots in the 2% range for tournaments.

Probably not too much. The best MTTer is probably better at making less stupid mistakes (ie plays his A-game more often) and probably plays the tricky marginal situations a bit better. He finds a little more value in certain spots, gets away from a few more 2nd best hands, and probably picks his spots to make moves a bit better.

Seems like you've got the FPS pretty good from some of your posts. The thing is the way you play you put yourself in so many tough situations. I think one of the key things when you play that aggressive is to just have a sense for who is going to sit there, wait for hands, and try to trap you, and who is just not going to stand for letting you run over the table and try to play back at you. It's easy to get in the mindset that "he's just tired of me raising he's got nothing" and then spew off your stack to some nit who is never actually going to adjust, and I'm pretty sure I've seen you do that a few times. It's a very hard thing to get a good feel for though but you seem to lean towards the never believing them side a bit much.

It's great in both. It's probably more optimal online right now. I think the LAG style can work better at a lot of soft live tables since most live players just don't know how to adjust to you.

Nope. No idea how long I'll do it, I figure I'll get bored of it eventually but I still love it for now. But if I'm still playing in 10 or 15 years and enjoying it then that's cool too.

I really don't spend/buy much. I've certainly got a weakness for fancy meals and good booze but my only major purchase so far is my Mazda 3 Sport, which I think is pretty much the perfect car for me right now.

Nah I still feel like a kid in a lot of ways

I'd just make my standard raise and go from there. I have too many chips to open shove imo and I know i will make good decisions later in the hand so it should show an even bigger profit than just shoving even if the antes are big.

Great well and congrats on your success, which seems very well deserved. I can't think of anything really interesting to ask that hasn't already been asked, so....

will the Cubs win the world series this year?

Hmm... I don't follow the NL that closely but it looks like it should be theirs to lose. They'll probably be a dog to whoever makes it out of the AL, but I'm gonna go ahead and say yes, the Cubs will win the World Series this year. You heard it here first.

What was your lowest point in your poker career? And in your opinion, what bankroll ($ amount) does a player need to have in order to consider pursuing poker as a career?

first off, grats on the success.
The skill level of the average player in the wsopme is equivalent to the skill level of what stakes online? Same question for prelims at the wsop, 10k wpt's, other major tourneys i.e. aussie mirrions, EPT, etc.
do you enjoy screech?
what's the best bar in SJ's?

K, can't sleep with excitement of stevepa's wedding today so I'll answer a few more.

Probably the summer after my first year when I had a $4K roll or something and figured I could at least make better money than any summer job playing the game. Then I broke even over the entire summer and realized i wasn't anywhere near as good as i thought I was.

It really depends on the player I guess. I'd imagine a sick 1/2 or 2/4 NL player could start with 10K or 20K plus a few months living expenses and be fine. I would tend to want a bit more because being overolled is always a good idea and you really want to be making enough money to cover living expenses while at the same time increasing your roll so you can move up and make more money as you improve.

congrats on the score/success etc.

15k bellagio cup harder then an average 100 fo table on stars? 55r?

going to do san remo/MC again?

Thoughts on my game/ things i could work on?

Haven't played SSMTT in a while but here's a guess. Main event = $20 MTT. Prelims =$50, WPT = $100, Aussie = $30, EPT = $50.

Screech ain't half bad. Enjoy may be too strong a word though.

Not sure, I get home so rarely that I only go to a couple. Always have a good time regardless but no specific place stands out to me. Also my memory of said nights is not entirely reliable.

Haven't played many 100 fo's lately but probably. Maybe close to a 55r I guess?

Definitely want to do MC, maybe skip SR though. It'll depend what the timing is like I guess.

Man I dunno really. Try to run better at final tables or something. You seem to play pretty good I can't recall anything specific atm.

Congrats on all your success, etc.

As a Canadian, am I giving up tons of EV by not bothering with eurosites and playing only on Stars/FTP (mainly talking about MTTs, but also midstakes NL cash, PLO)?

Concerning bankroll management/shot-taking in MTTs, would you agree that satellites are misleading in that they result in people taking shots well over their bankroll?

e.g. You have a $100k bankroll, and you win a $100 sat to a $10k live event. Would you consider this the same as a person with a $110k bankroll playing a $10k live event (i.e., way underrolled)? How much $$ of action would you recommend this person sell off?

Let's pretend you didn't win the WPT BC IV.

How much would you have to make yearly to continue playing poker pro? What circumstances would have had to happen for you to kick the bucket and find a job related to your degree (any fears of a resume gap?).

Another question (you can ignore it if you want), as a Canadian I always thought that poker winnings would be tax-free but after reading articles/threads on this recently I find that it is really in a gray area. Now that you've won, do you believe you will have to pay a lot of tax, or can this all be put under windfall?

Will anyone from a University in Ontario, not from U of Waterloo win a big championship event?