José I have one more question for you:
you mentioned in the interview that you learned to 24 table 6 max while you were grinding your bankroll and you said you were a huge nit (14/12 or something like that). Do you think that only by playing that tight could you play so many tables? And did you play successfully that tight until what stakes? 50NL?

thx

jose you played that hand terribly imo, I would either fold/raise flop

Lol, this poast is like the poker version of this:

Where I can listen to the interview? Keep up with the good work you are a beast!!!!

Couldn't villian be checking back some of the higher end of his value range on the turn as well, both to induce river bluff raises and balance his river betting range on bet/check/bet line? Wouldn't this protect his thin value range? Do you think balancing his range in this spot is more important than the missed value on the turn sometimes by doing this?

Unlike you I had better things to do than troll 2+2 all day long, had a surfing competition to go to so I couldn't write out a long explanation. On that aforementioned hand, that board is pretty dry so villain is only betting Ace high (maybe even king high or a straight draw), pocket pairs and maybe a queen here. By flat calling the flop you have no earthly idea where you stand, I would rather raise the flop to gain some information right there expecting a lot of Ace-highs/straight draws to fold. After your raise you can pretty much narrow his range down depending on how he reacts (either a weak Qx or a medium pocket pair if he flats). I would of course lead out on the turn trying to get the bottom of his range to fold out. Of course, another viable option is to fold, I just really don't like flat calling there (but I had no reads on villain and I'm sure Jose had several).

I also really like Jose's analysis of the hand, shows you how much you can learn from one hand, and also stresses the importance of switching gears HU so your opponent doesn't recognize patterns in your play.

Do you have any input or do you just troll? EDIT : lol you play 5$ NL i'm sure you have some sick input though

This is just awesome! So well articulated, and on such a level I rarely consider at NLHU. Thanks so much for this small post - really, the sort of post that totally changes/improves the way I think about the game!

dude you are my heros... didnt know you existed till I checked the rake race on lock and saw you were crushing it with over $100k profit... You are only 18 as well?... I only read your first post in this thread cos its so big but you show a maturity about the game i would associate with someone twice your age... Keep it up man you are a great role model for all aspiring poker players... Plus you dont sound arrogant which, for someone whos made this much money, is very commendable!

My sn on Merge is lifesad... if you see me at the tables go easy lol

so lets get this straight, girah joins lockpoker in the month when they are running a promotion for the front cover of bluff magazine at a time when merge is poised to become the frontrunner in online poker. Girah appears to be a weak reg in the 400-1knl 6max games. He wins 100k, beating a good reg who went on an insane heater by winning close to 100k in the last 3 days of the challenge to pip said reg by 10k.

seriously.

even getting enough action to win 100k on merge is hard enough, call me a cynic but i think that merge/lock took a risk and dumped him the money to ensure front page and incred publicity.

girah you sound like a nice guy, please prove me wrong and post a screenshot of last month and in particular the players you won 100k off. love to know you genuinely won it, but finy it tenuous at best.

But he plays far higher than 400-1knl...

Everytime I opened the magazine I kept saying whose this xxxx with the black background until I eventually saw the print on the bottom (very hard advertising). Anyways, don't know much about you but that picture looked realllllly lame lol

wrong

His good English was explained as someone helped him write the OP. How about the more recent posts?

That so many online poker players have fallen for this is amazing. Just one more BS invention by shady online operators, and further evidence that online players are their own worst enemy in getting this stuff legitimized.

I played 5nl bro. Not anymore though.

I bustod, now I'm back to 2nl.

Lolwat?

You still don't believe he's legit?

I've spoken a fair share with Jose the last month or so, and while I cannot comment on the matches them selves (I didn't rail them and I don't have Lock, however he was chatting some while he was playing), he does seem like a very stand-up guy who I'd be quite, in fact, extremely, surprised if was cheating in any way.

I haven't played him, so I can't comment on how good he is either, but when he talks poker it's obvious he knows what he's talking about. He's also said he's going to play kotkis, who's one of the top heads-up players in the world, so again, I feel very confident he's an honest guy.

This would be interesting to see.

If he does not play higher than 1kNL, then how do you explain the screenshot in the very first post of this thread?

This would be interesting to see.

boooooooooooom




PokerNews PokerNews
Lock Poker disqualifies Jose Girah Macedo from Bluff Pro Challenge for multi-accounting. More coming in the Nightly Turbo.

That didn't take long.

It's not like you think

why did jose's post just get deleted?

Wow. Hope this is cleared up.

On Getting Disqualified from the Bluff Challenge
*
Hey everyone. This is sort of a crappy time for me to be writing a forum post, but I felt it was my responsibility to own up to everything that’s happened and take responsibility for the story, so bear with me. The press release was given out today by Lock Poker that I’ve been disqualified from the Bluff Challenge. As some of you who have been following the challenge may know, I ended up winning the Bluff Challenge with 104k in earnings.**Here’s the press release in its entirety:
*
Lock is disappointed to announce that their new LockPRO ELITE team member, José "Girah" Macedo has been disqualified. Runner up Michael "bigguylegend22" Drummond, who earned over $90,000 in profit during the challenge, will take the prize. In audits of all participants accounts at the close of the competition, violations of BPC rules as well as the Merge Gaming network rules were discovered with Girah account including a computer at a second location logging in and playing on his account. Lock's philosophy is built on player relationship and trust; any violation of fairness by any player is taken very seriously.
*
"José is young and he has made a big mistake here. We wanted to make sure that regardless of being a LockPRO that he won this fair and square. After doing an audit of his account we have found that he broke an important rule and that will not be tolerated by Lock" said Jennifer Larson CEO/Owner of Lock Poker. "We pride ourselves in standing for trust, legitimacy and loyalty. The truth is sometimes hard to stand by but it is the only way we can move forward. Although José won enough money from his own IP to have legitimately won the challenge, the unfortunate fact remains that breaking the rules is strictly disallowed. It nevertheless remains José is an exceptional player and I firmly believe that his mistakes only lead to greatness if he learns from them and himself moves forward."
*
"I'm deeply sorry for having broken the rules," said José, "but I truly had no intention of circumventing the rules in any way. Though it is no excuse, I want to be fully transparent at this point to let the poker world know what has happened and why. The computer in question was my backer, who logged into my account to check my balance and ended up playing some $25/$50 PLO while I was asleep and lost some money. Though on the merit of my own legitimate play I had enough winnings to win the Bluff Challenge, in light of the way things appear, I fully support and respect Lock's decision to disqualify me and hand over the challenge to the second place winner. Once again, I truly regret that all of this has happened the way it has, and I hope that I can win back the generous support and understanding of the players who have believed in me so far. I will be issuing a more comprehensive explanation of what happened on my blog. Thank you."
*
The unraveling of this whole event has been bizarre and overwhelming. Although I genuinely believed up until this whole thing exploded that I had won the challenge fair and square, I recognize that I have no choice but to accept full responsibility for breaking the rules. As I said before, I want to be fully transparent and let the poker world know exactly what happened and why so there is no question about what my actions and intentions were.
*
Since getting scammed for a large amount of money (I mentioned the event in my initial story), I decided to put away a lot of my earnings to secure my family and future. A few weeks ago, a backer approached me with a very generous stake and since it gave me a perfect opportunity to cash out my own money and put it away to protect my family, I gladly accepted. I wanted to rebuild myself and prove myself again to the poker world on my own terms.

My backer had access to my account, since of course in backing, transparency and accountability are very important. I trusted my backer, so I had no problem with this. Well, what ended up happening is one night, he logged into my account to check my balance, and then ended up deciding to play a $10/$20 and $25/$50 PLO session. I was asleep at the time. He ended up losing some money and then quitting, and the next day he informed me of his loss. I shrugged it off, and kept on playing and doing my thing. I did not think anything of it at the time.
Now as all of these events come to a head, I see that I must take responsibility for the breaking of the rules, no matter what intentions or magnitude behind them. This is part of being a man and owning up to the situation. I apologize greatly to the poker world for what has happened and fully congratulate the second place winner on his reception of the Bluff Challenge prize. But I want to reiterate, as some people have doubted me – I have not colluded or chipdumped in any way, and no one played on my account for me and won money toward the challenge. To me such actions are absolutely inexcusable and I would never do such a thing, to win a challenge or anything else. I will stand tall next to the mistakes I have made and own up to them, but nevertheless I will defend what were my legitimate winnings during the course of the Bluff Challenge. I do not believe that I deserve to win it, but I do believe that the reality of what happened should be respected.
I have attached to this post a couple of images. I have included all of the hands that I have played on Lock including from this month, in the interest of full transparency so I can show everything. The first is a screenshot from my backer of the hands he played on my account. The second is my own screenshot of my total winnings since I’ve played on Lock Poker, including this month, since some people have doubted the veracity of my play. I hope that this transparency will resolve any uncertainty.


[screenshot from my backer]

[screenshot of ALL MY HANDS on LockPoker]


In conclusion, I just wanted to say that I am deeply sorry that all of this has happened and that I have let down the people who supported me and showed me their love. I do not intend to let something like this happen again. Yes, I am young, I’m only 18 so I can be a bit stupid sometimes, but I nonetheless take full responsibility for my mistakes and will do my best in the future that people will be able to place their trust in me as a poker player. I apologize for everything that I have done, and I hope that I will be able to prove myself again to my supporters as trustworthy and deserving of the love that they have given me.
*
Jose