The LockPoker Fiasco

I was late to the party on Merge. That is how I choose to phrase it anyhow. After Black Friday and the ensuing cluster fuck of not knowing what money we would be able to get off the sites, what money was lost forever and what our future as poker players would be, joining the largest U.S facing poker network was less appealing than sitting at a live poker table for 10+ hours/day.

It was early summer 2011 that we began paying attention to the success that our friend Rick was having at Merge, on BlackChipPoker playing our specialized games of fixed limit Holdem and Omaha SNG's we decided, we would give it a shot and hopefully be able to make some money.

Video: Heads up Limit Hold'em SNG (Produced for CardRunners, StoxPoker)

Post "Black Friday" Update and where to go from here..

By now the whole poker world is aware of the events that took place April 15th, now being referred to as "Black Friday" there have been countless articles and reports on line.

Like most when I first heard of the indictments and subsequent seizures I was in a bit of a panic, let me re-phrase that.. "I freaked the fuck out". In the days that followed it was a scramble to gather all information possible and make a game plan. The game plan has changed a number of times as new information comes to light.

Intuitive vs Math Is there a Difference?

Some consider themselves “feel players” drawing on  intuitive experience. Some will say they are “math players” having devoted a great deal of time learning and understanding the mathematical reason in a given situation.

If your a winning player or professional it’s most likely that you fall into both categories – or rather, you should!

Black Card Arrives..

So, I was very impressed first with the letter (an actual letter sent by mail) that FTP sent me about a month ago letting me know that I had qualified for their new reward program. Then FedEx rings my bell and delivers my black card, This was presented in a very nice presentation box and this thing is an actual steel card - pretty flippin awesome! not very convenient to carry in ones wallet but why would you anyway? :)

High Stakes “milk” Prop Bet.. GL ME!!

So everyones probably heard of the gallon milk challenge where you have to drink a full gallon of milk within 1 hour and not thow-up an after after.. Well yeah, I’m doin that shit!!

This is a challenge between myself and my close friend Michael who is under the influence of common sense and thinks this is not possible.. I disagree.

Back in the swing…. But down!

After taking the better part of August off I jumped back in and It has not been going well to say the least. I had got to the point where I expected bad things to happen every time i was involved in a large pot. I cannot say that I played my “A Game” but i also am confident that I played well through some terrible beats..

Downswings, Tilt and Realization that we will always have both.

A few weeks ago I experienced a pretty bad downswing playing heads-up Omaha, In retrospect I guess Its amazing that I have not experienced this kind of downswing yet and I have that to be happy about..  )

New and Improved HUD along with FTP Table and BG

MonstrHuntr hooked me up with the most awesome BG and table for FTP, perfectly matches my “less is more” mentality when it comes to tables, BG’s and avatars..

Avatars tilt me to no end.. I cannot even bare to sweat my students when they have on avatars, I have very specific reads and histories with each of the avatars.. you will tell me “thousands of ppl use that avatar” but I know better

LOL, Variance!

Heads-up poker in any variety can be extremely swingy, this week is by no means a “huge” swing although it does demonstrate a normal frustrating couple of days that some of you may experience while transitioning from SNG’s to cash games..

H.U.D Stats..

So I thought it best to get something posted that everybody could come back to. Here is a snap shot of my HUD layout and I will go over what these stats are and what we can learn from them.

Variance came to visit last week..

Of course its hard to complain about poker when you end a week in the black however a look at my weeks graph is sickening..

At first I was really crushed with the weeks results after such a great start however I looked at my W$SD% .... 34.5% and I now can laugh at variance.. "This is all you got for me? at 34.5% W$SD% and I still can't lose.... bring it on bitch!"

Vegas: Pics Inside!

What a great trip, poker-wise this trip sucked.. Definitely My 10 handed game was rusty and I should have spent some time getting back in the groove prior to arriving. to be fair for the stakes played my results were pretty pointless up or down this amount, However losing is always frustrating and particularly when your opponents are incredibly weak and predictable..

Ok, so to the awesome-ness of Team Moshman!!

As Collin was playing $2/5 NL at Venetian I noticed Teddy "The Iceman" Monroe walk in the room.. I had been seeing Teddy every time I visited Venetian playing $8/16 Limit Hold'em.. Lou had the distinct honor of playing with the Iceman himself a few days prior. I was jealous having never sat a world class limit holdem player myself.. Anyway, Like myself Collin was very much wanting to meet the man behind the diamond headphones. I finally found the nerve to approach "The Iceman" before he took his seat and asked if he would be so kind as to meet my group and take a few pics, Of course I mentioned Collin Moshman author of two best-selling poker books would be among my group. Teddy mentions as we walk that he himself is writing a book and its going to be the best-selling book of all time, this was the most exciting news I'd heard in a very long time.. "The Iceman" was gracious enough to not only take several pictures with our group but also tell us many of the projects he is currently working on and even hinted that we could be part of it.. I assume only financially involved as I can not imagine how we could bring anything to "Iceman Productions" and obviously "The Iceman" can burn more dollars than our group could put together so A real honor to even be offered such an opportunity..

Here are the pictures from this most historical event:

Such an awesome experience..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN2lk1S_7D8

After which we decided to go to dinner at Grande Lux I snapped a few pics to share..

Katie enjoying a fruit cocktail on a stick:

We flip quarters to see who will sit next to Vandweller, He constantly molests his table mates:

The two brits Kevin "lovejoy" and Simon "Is it time to eat yet" Galloway:

Here we see the eating habits of the British is far differant, I decided it best not to post the pics from desert:

We all lost the "can he fit the whole thing in his mouth" bet :(

So I keep getting asked, "What is Grind4Moniez like in real life? :

The next night we visit the gourmet steak house (Hugo's Cellar) Lou, Aaron, Katie, Collin and Simon Enjoy Cognac and cigars after the meal:

C.C roulette for the bill:

Simon takes his first loss of the trip in..:

Running Below EV, Grind4Moniez and our Growing Team & Vegas

A real blog this time guys!

So this week has been very frustrating poker wise as I'm running like shit.. Small sample of sngs, but still...

Cash games have been ok although action has really slowed. down.

I have decided I needed more help coaching as my current group of students has grown and I have several possible candidates coming on board soon.

coaching is something that I really enjoy and take very serious, seeing my students progress and become winners themselves is very awesome! I have the privalage now of having one of my first students coach along side me, "Grind4Moniez" will now be working with me in the coaching my stable..

I have total confidence in his abilities in heads-up limit holdem. Having Lou going over HH's and sessions will allow us to collaborate on what area's need most improvement. this is also going to allow me more personal time with each student and also I can produce more videos each week.

I have setup a private forum board for my group to go over hands, post discussions or just brag about their results. Being able to interact with others that are learning the same game and trying to improve is a huge advantage!

On Tuesday I will be leaving for Vegas where I will be shacked up at Bellagio for 2 weeks. I am really looking forward to this trip (and my current online results are helping me in this regard) It seems like forever since I played some live poker so tomorrow I'm hitting the tables for at least a few hours just to brush-up on my live game skillz..

Later!

kidKash vs DaffyDeth part 1

kidKash vs DaffyDeth Part 1

So, Im starting to do more videos as this is a great way for my students to get an in-depth review of their matches.. Here is part 1 of a leak finder series where I played vs DaffyDeth who I am coaching.. Hope you enjoy!

DaffyDethVid1

My Students are Awesome!

I have been spending more time coaching lately than playing myself however seeing my students progress is very exciting.

Here are 3 of my students that I’m working with, I have a total of 5 currently however 2 only recently started playing.



Heads-Up limit Hold’em

Games: 1,347 Avg profit: $2 Avg Buy-in: $20 ROI: 10% Profit: $2,329

Heads-Up Omaha hi/lo

Games: 593 Avg Profit: $5 Avg Buy-in: $30 ROI: 15% Profit: $2,743

Games: 198 Avg Profit: $2 Avg Buy-in: $17 ROI: 8% Profit: $299

Team Moshman goes Live..

So finally the Moshman coaching site has went live at www.CollinMoshman.com

Collin Moshman is the author of best-selling poker strategy books: Sit 'n Go Strategy and Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'Em. He is also the lead SNG coach for Stoxpoker.com

Collin has put together an awesome team of expert coaches in almost every type of poker and I am thrilled to be among them and be a part of "Team Moshman"

I will be coaching all forms of fixed limit Heads-up poker. I will also have my blog on the site and plan to post graph's of my students progress.

Poker wise everything has been okie-dokie! I have not been able to play much live poker since Atlantic City as the mix games and Omaha games here in AZ have dried up for the moment - I may have to just buckle down and play some 9handed $20/40 which is equivelant to watching paint dry but I gotta shuffle some chips soon..

Atlantic City

So I planned a trip a while back to visit Atlantic City as my friend Collin and his wife Katie would be there to play some WSOP qualifiers and having not ever met face to face I was thrilled for the chance to go. Having never been east of Chicago I was pretty excited to visit the east coast, My good friend Louis (grind4moniez) was also going to AC so we decided to share a room at Borgata and he would pick me up at the airport in Newark..

The 2 hour drive from Newark to Atlantic City is not bad at all - lots of trees to llok at and coming from the dessert it was a nice change of scenery. Atlantic City was so much smaller than what I had imagined, very similar to Laughlin is anyone has ever had the mis-fortune of visiting that place :)

The Borgata was very nice and "Vegas like" as they say.. our room was located on the 43rd floor and had a great view of the city.

An interesting situation occurd when we pulled in to valey parking and the nice lady getting our bags refused to take the case of Corona we had, some kind of rule about 2bottle maximum or something.. So Louis carries a case of Corona bottles by hand to the check-in counter... Fun!

A few observations about Atlantic City:
poker players talk more in this town than I have ever seen anywhere!! the players are not shy about critisizing any play they witness, describing why/how they played their own hands and precisely what they would have done with yours - nice information right? Wrong! It becomes aparent soon that they really just like hearing themselves talk and rarely practice what they preach. This was the most annoying table chatter that I have ever been witness to - I suggest strongly in taking an Ipod to the tables!

At one point there were litterally 7 people all talking about the same hand at the same time..

Taj Mahal: If your familiar with the movie "Rounders" you remember the Taj scenes.. Well, The Taj is not the same place as portrayed in the film - The poker room was the dirtiest room I have ever played in. the tables were just disgusting and i wont even go into the chips.. I was appraoched for money 2 times in ~4 hours while in the vicinity of the poker room. the drive between Borgata to Taj re-afirmed the notion that walking down these streets your life is in danger!

As far as games, Borgata had a $10/20 O.E. (Omaha, Stud 8) game with half kill that seems to run every day. On thursday Lou and i were able to get a $20/40 H.O. game started in the back that played short handed.. Their was a steady $40/80 LHE game every day however holdem is played 10 handed in AC so I stuck to Omaha or the mix games..

poker wise it was an OK trip with me winning around $1500, Lou did ok as well as he was able to get some short handed $40/80 action for a few hours where he picked up ~$2400 and Colin "mother F%$^ing" Moshman shipped the $100/daily for $~7kish which gave myself Lou, Katie and Simon an awesome booz filled railing session..

In Feb the same crew will be meeting in Vegas for 2 weeks and I'm sure there will be some awesome stories to tell from that trip!

I Hate Poker

So, I have played a few completely exhausting sessions of live poker here in Phoenix this week. To start I hit CAZ's $20/40 LHE - within ~30 mins Im stuck $860... Sweet. Play 5 hours and end ~$155

Next it's Gila River. A friend had called and said there was going to be a $15/30 Omaha hi/lo Sweeeeet! When I get there I'm 5th name on interest list and the others are not wanting to start short handed so I begged and convinced them that It would never run if we dont start it.. We start 5 handed and within 30 mins Im stuck ~$375 another guy loses $500 and decides to quit - Just as I expected the other guys sat out - No Game now.. So only games going are $3/6 $4/8 and $6/12 hold'em so fuck-it Im playing the kiddie table - I Played the $6/12 for what felt like 32 hours - come to find out it was only 5 and managed to get un-stuck plus $30 brand new dollars Sweeeet!

So, Sunday I will be back to old faithful ($20/40 LHE at CAZ) Where I plan to sit out the first 30 mins..

Poker

I hate u!

AP #1 Withdraw Method BLACKJACK!

So, both Lou and myself had small amounts on AP of which was doing us no good since A) Were both primarily playing HULHE sng's. B) AP sng format sucks!

When I told Lou I was just going to request a check for my $126 he suggested shipping me his $15 to add to my withdraw and we'd both be AP free.

Sucks for Lou since MIN PLAYER TRANSFER = $20

I suggest shipping him $20 so he can ship me $35 so I can request check at a fee of $8
We decide our best course of action at this point is to play blackjack as withdrawing $100k must be easier than under $200 right?............. Right? Of course! Anywho..

Lou's $15 lasted apprx 3 hands of which were not very exciting. My $126 shot like a rocket up to $190 in about 30 minutes then plummeted to $15 within the next 2.5 minutes..

I have to say that of all withdraw methods that I have encountered over countless sites AP's BlackJack is among the most reliable. No wait - No worry. I wait sometimes 8 business days to recieve a check from FTP, Wire transfers take 2 days but cost $40

AP only has one method being BLACKJACK however there is no fee associated and your funds are removed in less than 45 minutes AT THE MOST!!