A stranger is being shown around a village of which he has just become a part. He is shown a well and his guide says, "On any day except Wednesday, 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 Wednesday?"

The voice from in the well shouts back: "Because on Wednesday, it's your day in the well."

...

Ask away!

P.S. I don't give out my flipping advice for free so don't even ask

How and when did you get started playing poker? Online and live/home games?

When did your home game start? When did some of the regulars that I know start playing?

How often have you played the super-loose 10/20 game at Hollywood?

How long did the design process on your chip set take?

What's your most embarrassing hand?

When am I stopping your flipping-spree?

I started playing poker when I was probably around 5 or 6. I used to play for pennies with grandma over silly games like crazy 8's and legit poker like 5 card stud/draw. I even think my brother made up a game called Monkey once that I remember laughing a lot, but don't think any casino would allow that. When we were younger we would spend the night at my grandparents house and when my parents put us to bed they would go downstairs with my grandparents and their card playing friends and all play penny poker for hours. I usually sat on the stairs and listened till I got caught and then would get to play a couple of hands before really being send to bed.

Other than that I picked up real Texas Hold'em poker in 2003 after watching Chris Moneymaker win (cliche I know) and my whole dorm going nuts for poker. I remember the first $5 I put down playing $0.25/$0.25 NLHE with my friends and cashed out with over $30. From there I was hooked and always could be found playing in the "lounge" game that was running 24/7. We got busted up by some cops once or twice, but that's for another day

Shortly afterwards I had a friend from the lounge game that was making good money playing $2/$4 limit poker online. He taught me the sites to go to and the some differences between NLHE and Limit Hold'em. It was also around that time he showed me the 2+2 forums and I began reading up on strategy. I eventually made a $50 deposit online at Party Poker and that was the only deposit I would ever have to make.



As far as my home game that also began in 2003-2004 on breaks from college. My friends from high school, when we got together, expressed an interest in playing and I was happy to provide the chips (bleck dice chips!), cards, and game knowledge. We usually played NLHE, but also would play a variety of mixed games of Chicago/PLO/Razz/Stud/Stud 8. After we all graduated we continued to play as everyone was still in the area and around 2009 is when everyone started getting married, moving for jobs that they finally could get, or going to grad school so I needed new players. Mr. Bootysnatcher himself was the first on the scene and the game has been growing ever since.

Honestly, I wish I played there more often, but with my success online I never felt the need to go pay $6 a hand rake or wait 3 hours for a table so not super often. However, I was unemployed for a while during 2010-2011 and I would usually head over there once in a while to help cover some of the bills. That game is crazy bad and beatable despite the high rake. It also helps it plays with a half kill to 15/30.

At least 5 years. Seriously...

Playing the 5/10NL table with effective stacks around 2k when I 3b on the button with a caller in-between the initial raiser. They both called and we saw a flop.

Flop came out 233

Check/check/I lead for pot. Villain #1 insta-CR ships, Villain #2 ships, I call.

Time to play guess our hands!






Never. I can't be stopped.

AA, 22, and hero has 23


very well done.

Who is the avatar again? Do the women in your life like her?

Kate Upton. My wife knows I like her, along with a lot of other women. As long as I don't comment too much she's pretty cool with it.

What is the story behind the chips you use? What chips have you owned and how did you decide to spring for custom chips?

What would you say is your most embarrassing decision, or rule, that you were responsible for in your home game?

well, besides this one:


I mean, have issues with coming to a decision there, chipboy? Sheesh!


And, I guess, what's your best addition of a rule or decision that you'd made?

Around 2004 I began looking for chips to use for a table my buddy and I built. I didn't like the dice chips that we were using and wanted something more authentic. I looked around and found ASM's website at the time and began the design process. Eventually I had something mocked up to my major and hobby, the piano. ASM only had 312 spots at the time with very few colors. I picked out what I wanted, had a design finalized, and at the very last moment decided that I might not want that the rest of my life and canned the whole project. I wish I still had the design, but I no longer have that email address so everything is gone.

While designing what I wanted I was searching ebay and the internet for chip combinations used in casinos around the world. I noticed they had a lot more colors and spots than what ASM was going to let me use. I found a set on ebay that was I loved the colors on so I placed an order for some Grand Island Chips made by the Blue Chip Company.


I wanted a set that would play for both tournies and cash game so I ordered 25-100-500-1k-5k denoms since we would use the 100's as $0.10 chips for our cash game. The set has 750 chips in it

50 x $25
250 x $100
250 x $500
100 x $1k
100 x 5k

This solution worked out great and while I was content with the chips I was super over the top about them. BCC quality control sucks

Fast forward to 2009 I again revisited the ASM website and noticed that they had more color combinations, spot combos and that was the green light I needed. I again looked at my other hobbies for inspiration and came up with Piston Broke with a picture of a car inlayed in the center. I didn't want to use just any car. I wanted to use MY car so after much persuasion from a fellow car forum friend he sent me the logo for the Pontiac G8.

Car Pics!




I love this car so much I own two of them. The blue is my fun weekend car, which is now tucked away for the winter and the red is the daily driver.



From there J5 and I continued to work on what would look best and would work. One night while playing some online poker I got felted and was angry about it so I went to work on the chip design. I looked at the word Piston and LOL'd to myself as I realized I could also use Piss'd N Broke to mean angry and felted, just like I was feeling at the time. This way I could incorporate my love for cars and poker. Some people when looking at the chips have no idea of the connection, but that's ok I prefer the some things not so obvious.

Probably in a large pot of Crazy NL Pineapple where I had to kill my own hand (as the dealer) because I forgot to discard after the flop. I was so worried about everyone else discarding that I forgot about myself for a moment. Whoopsie!

I think the best addition that I've made to my home game is a cap on any and all variations of PL Omaha. I played in a few home games that ended very shortly because of Omaha and watched as one home game ceased to exist because of players that just couldn't afford to play anymore. Therefore when I introduced Omaha to my game I put a cap on it (usually around 100BB, sometimes slightly more or less) and while sometimes my players and myself hate playing a bit shallower Omaha I truly believe, for the health of my game, it is for the best.

What games did you mostly play on party poker? Your favorite hand?

On party 5/10 LHE usually, but would play 15/30 if I noticed I had some of my favorites in the game.

When I was a prop on a couple sites I would play from .50/1 to to 50/100 LHE.

AA duh!

Non-favorite nut had is JT suited particularly in or

What is your all time favorite beer? What is your favorite new beer?

It looks like you played a lot of limit online. Do you prefer limit to no limit?

What is your favorite set of poker chips, beyond your own custom set?

What is more fun, 3B! nits from the button or 3B! LAGS from the blinds?

Tell us more about being a prop. I did not know you did this. How did it start? What was involved? The financial particulars? How did it end?

All time favorite is New Holland Mad Hatter and not because of its taste, but because I went to college in the town and we could go every Wednesday night and get a liter for $4. Good times!

New favorite beer, I actually had to think about for a second because its scotch season! Stone Levitation Ale has been my go to recently though.

I have a fondness for limit, but either is cool.

Easy



3B! nits is always more fun. They get tilted easier

What do you expect will be the range of player's buy-ins?

What was your screenname on Party Poker? Any story behind it? How did you get into the piano? Wanna move to Connecticut?

I'm not surprised you didn't know. Very very few people actually know my true poker background as it isn't something that I talk about often.

I propped on a couple of small sites for a couple of years. I honestly don't even remember how I initially found out about the sites or got associated with it. I had 2 managers that worked directly with the sites to arrange rakeback deals for the players.

Basically I could sit down at any HU table, had to be one of the first 3 at a 6 max with the condition that I had to leave a 6max or full ring game once it got full. Usually though I would be playing many tables and they didn't care if I left a full game. By doing that I got 120% rakeback for playing at the site. Depending on how much I played and the stakes I usually had a grand to 5k a month coming in guaranteed.

Unfortunately the government ****ed me over with UIGEA. When everything was finalized the sites no longer allowed US players and that was the end of that. I played a little online poker after that, but nothing like what I did from 2004-2009 when I was grinding out my living. Fortunately for me the timing couldn't have been better. I just had finished graduate school and received an offer to be a teacher so I took the job and considered myself very lucky.

I'm heading out for my district bowling league tonight. Precept and other I'll answer your questions later

What's your bowling average? What's your team's record? How bad are your team uniforms?

I only ask because Wesrwood and I had some summertime competitions.

Pokertracker or Holdem Manager?

Flat everything in a LHE BvB situation or do you like a 3! range from the BB?

Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?

$200-$300 is what I would figure would be average although some might be a tad less since limit is up first and then they will add on before NL/PL if needed

Not giving that or any other online name I used out and I've had many over the years. Now that I think about it I don't even think my wife knows what name I used...

N/A

My mom made me start when I was 4 and I just continued to play because I really enjoyed it.

Not particularly unless you would like to send me a nice lump sum Any reason why?

Usually around 130. Although tonight I bowled awful 114-104-83 *facepalm*

1-8. Yeah we are good....

I play with 3 of my teachers who are worse than I am, but are also a ton of fun. We don't play to win obviously. I just like that it provides me a chance to get to know some of my staff members better when I'm "not their boss."


We don't have any thankfully.
Who won?

I've had PT since the beginning so I'm biased here I think

You must have a 3bet or 4betting range from the BB. HU, depending on the opponent I would frequently be 3 and 4 betting. 6 max not quite as much but people knew that I usually didn't give up my blinds too easily. Your losing money if you just flat everything especially in a BvB situation from the BB as you have position.

One horse-sized duck

Boxers or briefs ?(boxers briefs not an option)

favorite superhero?

Carrying weapons to home games, yay or nay?

Most bizarre home game you ever attended

Most bizzare moment you can recall from playing live poker

Any favorite poker pros?

Had you ever considered at any point in your life turning pro long term?

Thick or thin crust?

Apples or oranges?

Favorite ice cream?

Biggest home game pet peeve?

Now that you've played with your custom chips for a while, if you could do it all over again, what, if anything, would you do differently?

Greatest distance traveled to a private poker game?

Favorite casino in the greater Chicago area?

Cats or dogs?

After failing to play some League of Legends with Breich since my new router is giving me fits I decided to do some plumbing (why not at 3 in the morning) and answer the new batch of questions.

Boxers

Gambit cause he has cards, ldo.

Only if its a glock! Easily in my top 3 favorite HP threads of all time along with the tworooks casino. Stupid new 2+2 otherwise I would bump those threads right now cause they are awesome!

Serious answer, no.

A really bad one during my college years were they had a rule that if someone went all in blind. Nobody else at the table could look at their hand before they decided their action. Every hand went like this UTG raises all in blind, everyone else folds. Rinse/repeat for the next hour. Then I left.

See above. Seriously WTF is that ****!

Amarillo Slim cause he would gamble on anything.

When I started for sure yes! However, after living that dream for 5 years from 2004-2009 my answer would change to no.

Chicago deep dish all the way

Apples, especially honeycrisp.

Lactose intolerant now so I almost never eat ice cream anymore, but when I do get a little. Mint chocolate chip.

People who can't hold a conversation while playing and tanking over a small decision on every hand.

I'd saw screw progression and probably add a couple more spots to the $0.25 chip and add another color to the $1 (courage used the exact same base, retro color on his set with another color and it looks even better IMO). I really wanted to make sure the set made sense with its spot progression when I created it and now I realize the more spots on every chip the better!

2 hours (HPI people are all laughing at me!) when I was in MI.

None, they all blow. WTF is with the rake in this state.

Don't have any pets and I'm not fond of the idea of taking care of an pet. However, I always picture myself of owning a dog.