Daniel > 2+2

Raptor doesn't speak for all of us, Daniel.

DANIEL IS 34 YEARS OLD STOP THE LIES!!!

Raptor

this really doesn't follow at all. chris moneymaker, ESPN, and the dude who thought of the hole card cam 'paved the way' for a bunch of 20 year olds to have million dollar bankrolls. reese and brunson merely managed to make a lot of money gambling in a climate where it wasn't particularly easy to. you're conflating the issue of 'having it harder' and 'paving the way'.

the sillier thing is that you seem to think that online players should have some sort of latent guilt for having the opportunity to play online. it's not as if online poker is some magical dream world where players make riskfree millions -- being 22 and making millions playing poker online is surprisingly close to impossible, or else a lot more people would have done it!

daniel, as lucky as raptor is to have made millions playing poker at his age, you are every bit as lucky to not have been born 10 years later, or (worse) 10 years earlier. you should be smart enough to realize that the arguments you present apply to yourself as well.

I dont have anything for Raptor nor against him( i guess i was rooting against him because I was rooting for matusow and hellmuth) but I do have something about people whining about his blog, wtf!!! Dont read the ****ing blog.

For one thing, i am very well aware that attatching pride and glory to a tournament win is ludicrously stupid. However, people that dont understand the poker world, ie, family, friends, etc, do NOT understand this, which is the point i was making earlier. As far as being a poker pro or whatever, and the only thing that matters is money.. why? Maybe for you sure, but i play for more than money. I have plenty of money, i dont NEED any more, another million wont change my life one bit.

I have plenty of experience dealing with beats. Seriously though, this was a blog post i wrote after i busted in the biggest tournament of the year, where i got binked pretty hard. If this was online or whatever i wouldnt give 2 ****s, but its the biggest live tournament on the planet, where the equity from winning is enormous, you dont think i am allowed to write a vent post? That is a bit too over the top? I should instead just go out and 'get drunk' and make a fool of myself as some other poster said? Well i dont do that. I vented in my blog, and as i said earlier, if you dont like it dont read it.

I dont mind that people are making a big deal about this, as the people that are are just trying to hate on me, and thats understandable as well. I do think there is a bit TOO much hate going on for a vent post i typed up 20 minutes after busting, but hey, thats not really my call, this is an open forum and u guys can say whatever u want. I do find it odd that some of you care this much about me though to go through all the effort of reading my blog posts, then flaming me on a forum, i guess i should be flattered

As far as dues go, i am going to stop talking about dues, apparently that works everyone up into a tizzy. You are absolutely right, i have never been addicted to drugs, or broke and having to play poker in bad games to make ends meet. I am not a degenerate that put myself into that situation, and i am glad that i dont have to, and if you feel that this is the way to earn respect as a poker player, then i am so very sorry. I definitely dont think i have paid my 'dues' in live poker tournaments, i am very young and have said many times i have tons to learn, especially about live mtts, but i guess you guys just kinda pick out which parts you want to rip into me about, and again, thats fine, though somewhat silly.

Daniel, i have never said anything bad about you as a player, person, etc, and have been nothing but respectful towards you. I dont really understand why you are going out of your way to attack me. I didnt complain to anyone in particular, i mentioned that i was unhappy with the way pokernews made me look, and the fact that i got sucked out on in the biggest pot of my life. You guys are really blowing this out of proportion, i didnt call a press conference, bitch on national tv, go on a radio show and complain, do a pokernews interview, etc. I wrote i was upset in my blog because i am competitive and wanted to win, but i guess that is acting like a whiney bitch with no respect.

However Daniel, i am really confused with the way you are acting and talking, ESPECIALLY seeing how you ran like god at pretty much the most pivotal moment of being a live celebrity TV pro, when the WPT was becoming big etc. You ask if i have any idea how lucky i am, do YOU have any idea how lucky YOU have been? To have this superior attitude about yourself and trying to tell ME about variance and luck or whatever just completely blows my mind. You probably think that 40% itm in a live 10k mtt is NORMAL, and you should be expected to accomplish this, as well as final table 1 in 10, or at least this is how you talk about your OWN game. Again, i have never had a problem with you, have met you, played with you, and like you very much and the way you handle yourself at the table, but really dont appreciate the way you are talking to me and about yourself in a lot of these instances. Pretty damned hypocritical.

The whole played 239058902532 hands thing is also sort of silly, i agree. 20 tabling .25-.5 NL is not the same as playing 6 tables of 200-400 NL/PLO online, or 1k-2k NL/PLO in bobby's room, though i must admit, i have done all of these things, so to say i am not experienced and understanding of what it takes to be a successful poker player is also quite silly.

As far as a thicker skin in relation to beats.. again i must question your reaction to busting out of the main event with 70 left in what was 2nd place chips pot. This wasnt a standard beat that i am used to dealing with. I have lost 6 figures in a day more times than i would like to remember, and have been fine with it, layed down, read a good book, then gone to sleep only to wake up with a drive to make it back. I feel like my skin is actually QUITE thick in relation to dealing with the swings of poker. Again though, i must remind you that this could easily be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it definitely stung a bit to have it happen. I guess if this makes me a crybaby in your eyes, i will have to find a way to make it through the days.

Also, as far as feeling sorry for myself, you guys really really try as hard as possible to pick and choose small little sentences out of a rather long essay. I have mentioned MANY times how lucky i am to have come into the poker world at such a lucrative time. I have stated many times how happy i am that i dont have to go through the routines that most people my age do, that i am aware that there are people less fortunate than myself. To say that i whine and complain about bad beats just seems silly, and you guys are talking about respect, that is pretty damn disrespectful to me, but i guess that doesnt matter because im 22 and not worthy of respect. To precounter the argument that you have to give respect to get respect, who exactly am i disrespecting by venting about busting in the biggest tournament spot i will probably ever be in?

Anyways, i just wanted to get some of these things off my chest. I cant really call you guys unfair or anything, but i do feel like i am getting attacked a bit maliciously for a few comments i made during a pretty unhappy moment. I also think that you guys are going a bit over the top in trying to make me look like some punkass whiney little bitchey kid, but again, open forum etc, you have every right to do so. Dno what else to say, ill try to live up to all of your expectations in the future. Perhaps one day i will be good enough to be accepted by NVG. -David

btw I once sent a PM to raptor and he answered it, so yeah i have that for him.

Where did I post the blog that said I have been unlucky despite paying my dues? I don't think online players should feel any such guilt, you can't put words into my mouth that I've never said or even thought. My response was to a kid who has been given an opportunity thanks to those before him to live a pretty easy life.
You can attribute the majority of online poker to whatever you'd like, Moneymaker, the WPT cam, etc... but how did THAT happen? What came before that? Doyle's book, the WSOP, Amarillo Slim on Johnny Carson, Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek... all of these things helped to contribute to poker's popularity, the degree as to how much is totally unimportant.

I don't think Raptor is a bad kid at all. I responded to his blog post where he did write that he was better than everyone, has paid his dues, and complained about PokerNews misrepresenting his hand to make the live pro look better. He wrote that stuff, I'm not making it up dude.

raptor wins imho.GL next year

This thread now only needs Barry to reach epic level.

I'm really not attacking you dude. I don't think you are bad kid at all. When you write what you did you should, at least by now, expect that it's going to make some people cringe. I've written a ton of blogs where I said really stupid things, even worse than what you wrote. It's no big deal, I'm not really hatin' just adding my two cents and hoping you see, from my perspective at least, why what you wrote comes off bad, IMO.
As for me running hot at a good time, who's to say you won't either? In season one of the WPT I cashed zero times. When poker was starting to air on television I whiffed completely.
I went through an awful period in some juicy cash games in my early 20's where I ran bad for a long time. It took me three visits to the WSOP before I could even put enough cash together to buy into an event.
Not looking for sympathy, I promise! My timing ended up being great, that's for sure, but in my earlier days I seemed to be "unlucky" as well on the bigger stage.
You might be awesome, I have no clue. Winning a ton of money, whether it's online cash or tournaments requires a decent amount of luck for a couple key reasons, most importantly: confidence. I'm sure you've had bad luck in tournaments. You've probably, I'm just guessing, have run pretty good in other areas of your life. That's all I'm saying...

I saw a lot of people get boned in the tournament this year (and I got boned myself a few times), but the combination of everything going on in the hand -- raptor's relative skill level vs the field, brandon cantu playing like an idiot (essentially refusing adjust to the skill level of his opponents), the size of the pot, and the magnitude of the beat -- made it the most brutal hand that I personally had witnessed in the tourney up to that point.

All,

Please don't ignore this. This is gold and something we should all keep in mind everytime we are bitching about stuff we really have no right to bitch about. I'm guilty of it too, but it should stop.

fwiw, i agree with you on a lot of these points. i guess its just like..
that seems like an attack. you are calling me a whiney kid that has no respect for other people in poker. I wrote a blog post about how i got sucked out in a gigantic tournament. I am not really sure who i am disrespecting, and i dont really see what the big deal is. i guess maybe thats my maturity level and age, but i really dont understand what the issue is. It was definitely not my intention to disrespect the people that made poker possible, and by me bitching about getting busted in the wsop main event, i dont really see how we can even draw these ridiculous conclusions that people are drawing up. I mean someone compared this to going home and beating their wife, now i am disrespecting the godfathers of poker, and the veterans fighting for our country. Really? I just busted out of the biggest tournament of my life!! I cant complain for 2 seconds about it in my blog without being called a wife beater?? Really?? Forgive my incredulity.

Raptor, you just learned the hard way that what you say on the internet follows you around and matters. You may consider your blog as just your own personal space for ranting. That's ok. Until....you reach a certain level of celebrity, then to a *large* degree, you lose the ability to say what you really mean and feel. At least, without filtering it a little bit and thinking about how it may be received.

This is unfortunate, but it is reality, in all media. When you step over the bounds, you will get dinged. The higher you are, the more people will care about what you say and react to it and judge you by it.

Lesson learned...maybe.

oh god please let this result in raptor vs negreanu hu4rollz

this is a classic new school-old school lesson spiced up with the fresh steaming tiltiness of a sick beat on the big stage. dad's always wrong in this case

the great thing is, this thread is the kind someone may look back upon twenty-thirty years from now, when raptor becomes DN's age. I'd say he might remember that the value in this experience is remembering what's really important, keeping things in perspective, despite all the ****ing bitterness that can roll off that deck ...

can't really blame benefield for the **** 'em all mentality here. can't really shoot DN for taking the time to set him straight.

IF YOU WRITE A MOTHER ****ING BLOG ABOUT YOUR LIFE (AS YOU ARE ENTITLED TO), EXPECT ASSUMPTIONS AND JUDGEMENTS TO BE MADE ABOUT YOU THAT EXTEND BEYOND THE EXACT WORDS YOU HAVE WRITTEN, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU POST LIKE A WHINEY BITCH (AS YOU ARE ENTITLED TO BE AFTER GETTING SUCKED OUT ON BY A COCKY ****ING IDIOT IN THE BIGGEST TOURNAMENT OF THE YEAR)..THOUGH YOU COULD HAVE POSTED IN A MUCH COOLER WAY TO MAKE YOURSELF COME ACROSS IN A POSITIVE LIGHT WHILE DOING THE SAME AMOUNT OF WHINING. BUT I GUESS NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A TRUE E-THUG.

IN THE END, NOBODY TRULY GIVES A **** WE ARE ALL JUST POSTING BLAH BLAH BLAH RAHHH RAHHH RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH TO ENTERTAIN OURSELVES ON THE INTERNETZ

WHY CANT WE ALL JUST BE HUMBLE ABOUT OUR PROFESSION NO MATTER HOW GOOD ALL THE NUT LICKERS THINK WE ARE SO THAT WE CAN WASTE LESS TIME AN NOT EXPERIENCE STRESS AND TILT CAUSE LET ME TELL YOU A 22 ****ING YEAR OLD THAT MAKES MILLIONS EASILY DOING A JOB HE ENJOYS GETTING STRESSED OUT AND TILTED ABOUT THAT VERY JOB DOESN'T MAKE MUCH ****ING SENSE TO ME

edit: the caps was not out of tilt or anger it was satirical irony

Hey rekrul, blow up a mil again bro, k later.

He can still say whatever he thinks/feels, but now he just has to deal with backlash. He certainly didn't "lose his ability" to say waht he wants. In fact the reality is most of his "fame" is because he has said whatever the hell he wants. I happen to not be a fan of this particualr blog personally, but he still has every right to say what he wants and I hope he never changes. IN fact imo it would be tremendously -ev for him to do so.

I like blowing up money. My mom once said she thought I was allergic to it. I enjoyed every second of it too.

I guess life tilt is just in some people's nature. Not everyone can be an emotionless ****** like me : - (

Rekrul strikes again

this thread is pretty gay though

If the choice is between no one caring whether you even write a blog and tons of people reading your blog and reacting, I guess most would choose the latter.

When tons of people read a blog, you can't expect everyone to react in a level headed manner. Some will over react, some will mis-interpret it, some will intentionally twist it etc. At the end of the day, life is too short to put too much weight on what some forum members might be thinking or saying about you.

Raptor,

Not entirely relevant, but what do you think your chance of winning a bracelet in a given series?

depends how many events i play, i really have no idea.