I mentioned before that I applied for Taylor Caby’s protégé contest and I was thinking last night about what my realistic chances are of winning. My few paragraphs would have to stand out from everyone elses and I’m not sure if I did that. I’m sure much of my responses were just as generic as the rest. The one original thing I did do was cancel my membership and then rejoin a week later so that I could enter the smaller pool of contestants filled with new signees. Then I started thinking about why I want it so badly. The obvious choice would be money but it’s much deeper than that for me.

It’s for freedom. I can hear Mel Gibson screaming it out right now…FREEDOM!!!!


I have a full time job and have no inclination to quit that job for a poker lifestyle. I don’t make a ton of money but I live comfortably. The extra money I make from poker gives me the freedom to do what I could not with my normal income. I feel very bogged down by the working suburbian life. We live in a society where work dominates your time. The standard 9 to 5 day and commute times leaves only a few hours a day for yourself to enjoy and most of the time you’re too tired anyways. Throw kids into the mix and you might as well forget about doing things for yourself (can you tell I don’t have any yet? :). In the short time that I’m on this planet I want to experience it. I want to see many different parts of the world.

Poker gives me that option. I used some of my winnings and took my girlfriend to Mexico over Christmas for 10 days. We didn’t choose the popular beach locations but delved into some culture in Mexico City and the surrounding areas exploring some ancient Aztec ruins. It was amazing and it only fuels my fire to see more. Since poker is not part of my normal income it’s easier to spend it. I know this doesn’t make sense but psychologically it works for me.

So what next?...what if I don’t win the contest? I know that coaching would be beneficial for my game. I’m a winning player but I have leaks and it’s hard to plug them all through self reflection. A kid can play basketball his whole life and shoot basket after basket day after day for hours (like I did) and become a great shooter. Yet there are always small changes in mechanics that would improve the shot that the shooter is unable to see. If I don’t win the contest I will start looking for some coaches. The difficult part is finding someone who is a good fit and priced reasonably.

I’m also considering doing some coaching for free. Why would I do that and who would want to learn from me? Well…I am a winning player and could help out a low level player improve. More importantly why would I want to? Teaching is not a one way street. I’ve mentioned before that I am a teacher and when you start out teaching, even though you have a firm grasp on the material, when you explain it to someone else you get a much firmer grip on everything. Someone may not understand the way you’re explaining something and you have to think of another way to present it. This only strengthens the knowledge you have on the subject. Students also ask questions that you haven’t thought of and make you see things in a new light. I would assume that I would get the same result from coaching poker. I’ll make my decision on these things after Taylor announces my name.

FREEDOM!!!!

Last Friday I was bored and entered a satellite for the FTOPS $100 rebuy. At the time I didn't even know it was a rebuy tourney :) I was in one of those moods where I felt like playing and entered one of the first satellites I saw. Obviously I won a seat.

The tournament was Saturday and the field was extremely weak. Many of the players did not initially double their stack and some even quit after their first stack was gone. The tournament was interesting because I must have changed tables 9-10 times and had to get a feel for the dynamic at each new table and adjust my play. I would finally get a good feel and then I would move again. Sometimes I would curse for moving and other times I would say a quick prayer to the poker gods for moving me. It actually made me pay attention a lot more because I had to change gears so often.

The worst table change came when I had a decent stack and the two chip leaders in the tourney were directly to my left. They were both playing 30/20 and making life difficult for me...stealing their blinds was out of the question. I thought the following hand was interesting:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,700/3,400 Blinds, 400 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 85,978
BTN: 167,391
SB: 51,224
BB: 90,873
Hero (UTG): 121,187
UTG+1: 313,636
UTG+2: 343,915
MP1: 42,214
MP2: 193,920

Pre-Flop: (8,700) Q K dealt to Hero (UTG)
[color=red]Hero raises to 8,500[/color], UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls 8,500, 3 folds, BTN calls 8,500, SB folds, BB calls 5,100

Flop: (39,300) 9 4 4 (4 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks, [color=red]UTG+2 bets 17,000[/color], 2 folds, [color=red]Hero raises to 60,000[/color], UTG+2 folds

Results: 73,300 Pot
Hero mucked Q K and WON 73,300 (+47,400 NET)

He was leading at a ton of pots and figured the only way he might make a call or shove is if he had tens or JJ but doubted he would even make that call since my line is strong. There was no way he was leading this with a 4 or with 99.

I did not get very good cards but took advantage of my image at the various tables and definitely played the player. One time my girlfriend happened to look over and said "Why are you putting so much money in with 76?" "Babe...because he's going to fold"

I'm going backwards chronologically in tourney hands but I was considering shoving in the following hand:

We were 20-30 people away from the bubble. I had been raising quite a bit and taking most down preflop as our table was playing very tight. The Villain was a high stakes cash game player and was well aware of bubble dynamics. He could be doing this with total junk but I have no fold equity if I shove.

Reasons for folding: I'm raising from utg+1 so that should look pretty strong so he must have something. I can fold and still abuse everyone.

Reasons for shoving: QJs does very well against his wide range and a double up is always nice.


Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 500/1,000 Blinds, 125 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 21,533
BTN: 8,190
SB: 4,591
BB: 36,711
UTG: 20,424
Hero (UTG+1): 17,589
UTG+2: 28,015
MP1: 33,219
MP2: 25,496

Pre-Flop: (2,625) Q J dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, [color=red]Hero raises to 2,500[/color], UTG+2 calls 2,500, [color=red]MP1 raises to 9,000[/color]

I'm not sure what the correct play is.

And then the bustout hand. The reraiser was playing pretty LAG 27/18 . When he flipped over Q10o I was ecstatic but alas. Still won a little cash though.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 3,000/6,000 Blinds, 750 Ante, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP1: 275,305
MP2: 264,104
CO: 135,742
BTN: 347,646
SB: 190,930
Hero (BB): 104,437
UTG: 106,410
UTG+1: 61,008

Pre-Flop: (15,000) A K dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, [color=red]MP1 raises to 17,600[/color], [color=red]MP2 raises to 53,400[/color], CO folds, [color=red]Hero raises to 103,687 and is All-In[/color], 3 folds, MP2 calls 50,287

Flop: (233,974) 9 2 T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (233,974) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (233,974) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 233,974 Pot
MP2 showed T Q (two pair, Tens and Nines) and WON 233,974 (+129,537 NET)
Hero showed A K (a pair of Nines) and LOST (-104,437 NET)


I'm currently playing FTOPS #9 but its uneventful. I have been at the same table though for 2 hrs which is amazing...lol. (I just looked in PT and I changed 14 times last night)

I just cashed out some from FT so my roll isn't big enough to play all of the NL events so I'll try to sat in to some. Unless some tworags pro wants to back me....Cmon Bond, I'm plus EV BABY!


edit: Event #9 Nursed a shortstack for a long time and with M=5 shoved 77 from MP and ran into QQ. Finished 218