The Burning Season

My lease expired on Wednesday and rather than extend it for a week (Headed to California on the 14th), I decided to escape Chiang Mai’s ‘Burning Season’ and spend the final few days of my Thailand holiday in Bangkok.  Before this trip, I had never experienced ‘Burning Season’ but had heard horror stories from others. […]

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The Precious

Earlier tonight, I was scrounging around the house, turning over couch cushions and sifting through a bowl of Thai coins for the precious (and most expensive) 10-baht pieces. Why?  Well, I was ‘Baht Busto.’ I’m not sure the word ‘busto’ has become mainstream but it’s a very common term in the poker community.  Basically, it […]

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The Groove

After my girlfriend left on February 1st, I thought I’d jump right back into my grind routine, putting in the same kind of effort that allowed me to play 6,000+ games in December.  But that didn’t happen. I struggled to find that spark to sit for long sessions.  I’d put in an hour or so […]

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The Laotian Wedding

When people ask me what I enjoy most about playing poker for a living, my mind races.  Well, for starters, the money is obviously great.  The analytical puzzle-aspect involved in each hand excites me, the freedom to set my own hours is fantastic, and avoiding the enslavement of an alarm clock is delightful.  But really, […]

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The Point & Breadth of Report Writing

The numbers whose square is not neutral is known as the real quantities. They’ve a great importance in the mathematics. Infact real numbers are mix of unreasonable and sensible numbers. So a real quantity could be rational or irrational. Consider a true amount. Whenever we have true range can be an integer I. A logical […]

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The 500

The title for this entry shares a name with my favorite salad from Joey’s, a restaurant chain in Vancouver. Organic quinoa, barely, plenty of raw vegetables, watermelon radish, almonds, mint, avocado. Salad isn’t exactly photogenic, but trust me — this one is rather tasty.  Pro Tip: Add double chicken. In poker related news, I reached 500 […]

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The Coconut

It’s been a few days, and I’ve yet to get back into my work-routine.  Started off well enough; put in 70 games on the first day with the goal of building on that the following morning.  Unfortunately, I woke up at 6 AM with terrible stomach pain. I tossed and turned for a bit before […]

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The Excuses

It’s been 2016 for more than a month and: This is my first blog post. I’ve only played seven hours And I’m full of excuses For the first week or so, I didn’t have much desire to play.  I spent most of my waking hours in December at the tables chasing Supernova Elite, and while […]

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The Second Elite

Only a few short hours ago, I reached Supernova Elite on PokerStars for my second (and final) consecutive year.  It came on the heels of a rather swingy 11-hour day and while I easily could have split that workload up into two, three, or even four days, I was determined to grind through and not […]

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The Biggest Loser

The strike ended on the 4th and that meant it was time for me to get back to work.  I planned to break up the final 125,000 VPPs needed for Supernova Elite over a 25-day period.  The whole math thing tells us that to achieve SNE in that time, I’d need to average 5,000 VPPs […]

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The Strike

Recently I’ve been railing against  the proposed changes to the PokerStars VIP system, posting my own thoughts on the matter and linking the blogs/posts of others who share my concern.  If you’re unaware of the changes, feel free to catch up with a timeline, comprehensive list of actual changes, and a well-respected high stakes professional’s explanation of what […]

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The Link

Wanted to provide a quick update about my last post regarding recent changes to the VIP Program at PokerStars.  If you’re not familiar with the developing story, you can get caught up here on Puyan’s blog. Here are some cliffnotes for people who chose not to click on that link: 1) PokerStars poorly handled an announcement of […]

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The Changes

There’s a lot going on right now.  A lot. The thought of discussing all of it in great detail is simply too daunting.  I suppose I could close the laptop and try to start this entry another day, but I’m pretty sure that more important news will break in the next 24-72 hours and then […]

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The Pennies

July was epic.  August was outstanding. On the heels of back-to-back $35k+ months, I felt pretty damn good.  And rightly so.  Each time I sat down to play, everything seemed to go right;  Bluffs got through, value bets got called by worse, my hands held in most of the critical all-in situations, and I even […]

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The GTO

It’s nearly October and for many players on PokerStars, that means one thing – time to start that hectic end-of-year grind.  Over the next few months the tables will undoubtedly be filled with a higher concentration of regulars looking to reach VIP levels, milestones, and bonuses. While it’s tempting to blame the structure of PokerStars’ […]

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The Philly Trip

After losing the Prop Bet to L.A.Ruseman, I spent the last week of August in Philadelphia. Note: Thanks to Andrew ‘FlyingLuske’ Smith for making this video in which I am CLEARLY the star of.  😉 Upon returning to Vancouver, my work-plan was pretty simple:  Let’s grind.  Was eager to put in some 8+ hour days, […]

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The Retirement

No, I’m not retiring.  Not close. As Mark Henry once said, I’ve got a lot left in the tank.   Today, however, was my first day being semi-retired from $30 SNGs. My plan is to play only $60+ games, which should lower my table count quite a bit.  I’m hopeful that even though I’ll be […]

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The Best

For the month of August, I’ll be involved in a Prop Bet vs Andrew “L.A.Ruseman” Russel.  Details of the bet are as follows: Prop begins August 1st, 2015, 12:01 AM PST and goes until August 31st, 2015, 11:59 PM PST. All games *started* during that time window are included in the prop. Bet is between […]

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The Significant Changes

Last year, I wrote many blog posts detailing the high stakes, variance-filled roller coaster that was my first attempt at Supernova Elite.  It certainly wasn’t easy by any means, but about halfway through November I reached my goal and celebrated by taking the rest of the year off. Most of my readers are likely aware […]

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The Pudding

And it’s another blogging hiatus by yours truly. I’m always a bit unsure about how to come back to the blog, it’s much easier if there’s something pressing that drives me to write an entry but currently that’s not the case.  My last post was about my record breaking results in May, so I guess […]

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The Gifs

I can’t find the words to describe last month, so perhaps a few gifs will do the trick.           If you guessed the third one was my favorite, you are correct. I’m sort of excited.  Last month was, to put it mildly, incredible.  When the dust settled, I had my most […]

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The Euro TR: The Netherlands

This will be the second part of a four country ‘Trip Report.’  Part one (Sweden) can be found here.  After two nights in Stockholm City, we boarded a plane and flew into Amsterdam. When I was 21 or so, I remember chatting with my girlfriend at the time about when she visited Amsterdam.  She was […]

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The Spin

Throughout my life I’ve made several decisions purely based on the potential for personal growth. Instead of going to law school at UC Davis (Where I attended undegrad), I chose a school in an unfamiliar city where I didn’t know anyone. Back in 2012 when I was deciding between  Australia or Thailand, I ultimately chose […]

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The Euro TR: Sweden

Got back from my European vacation a little over two weeks ago and am overdue on a blog post. To my credit, I’ve tried to sit down and blog about the trip.  Several times.  And I just couldn’t do it. There’s simply too much to talk about — four countries, multiple cities, several flights, a […]

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The European Vacation

Wednesday is when I’ll be saying good-bye to Playa del Carmen and starting my next chapter.  Adios Playa!  I’ll do a full recap tomorrow, complete with pictures of all (at least some) the food I ate, things I saw, and my overall impression of this place, but for now I wanted to focus on what […]

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The Normal Day

In the near future, I want to start video blogging.  I’ve seen a few other guys do it and it seems more fun, interactive, and would be a nice change of pace from all those big blocks of text I end up posting.  There’s a phrase in the internet community known as tl;dr which means […]

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The Interview

If you would have told me, six years ago,  that Collin Moshman would be interviewing me for PokerStrategy’s website, I would have laughed right in your face. Moshman?  Collin Moshman?  The author of several successful SNG books?  That guy?  Interviewing me?  Yeah, right.  Sure thing.  But lo and behold, on Wednesday afternoon, it happened. The […]

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The Churro

I’m a fairly happy, positive person.  I tend to see the proverbial glass half full, am able to laugh at myself, and don’t take life too seriously.  But none of that applies while I’m grinding. While I’m a talkative person in real-life, it’s not the case during sessions, as I only speak to accomplish one […]

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The Audible

In order to keep Supernova Elite and that precious 68% Rakeback, I’m required to earn 50,000 VPPs per month with up to two ‘buffer’ months where I don’t reach that total.  It shouldn’t  be that hard, considering I averaged almost double that last year.  But thanks to my Thailand/Disney-world excursions, I missed it in January. […]

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The Perspective

Early Friday morning, I dragged myself out of bed to do a coaching session.  While I’ve drastically cut down on my coaching hours in the last year, when I do sessions they always seem to revitalize my interest in the game.  Each hand is like a puzzle to me and once I “solve” a few […]

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The Gripes

New year, same old gripes. Variance is inescapable, but alas I had been away from the game for so long that I mostly forgot about it.  No worries though, the poker gods were around to remind me.  Through ~2000 games this month I’m down $3000 before rakeback.  Yuck.   Games do appear rather reg-infested and […]

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The Direction

After having way too much fun, I’m back in Playa del Carmen and back to work. The transition from leisurely vacation to structured grind hasn’t exactly been seamless.  Flew into town on the 20th and figured I’d wake up the next day and bang out eight hours of work like I used to.  Nope.  I […]

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The Elite

Last time I checked in, I was three days from hitting Supernova Elite.  I had planned on writing a detailed blogpost once I finished up, but obviously that didn’t happen.  Instead, I became Supernova Elite and fell off the grid. Two days after achieving my new tier, I started a two month-long victory tour: Visited friends/family […]

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The Three Days

Current VPP count stands at ~984,000 so by my estimation, I should hit Supernova Elite in a little less than 72 hours.  Yup, all that’s left between me and that VIP status is three full days of work. I’m eager to be done.  To sit back, cash in the $20k bonus, close down the poker […]

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The Identity

I’m a preRB crusher.  When I say that, I hope you realize it isn’t meant to sound boastful. as if I’m puffing my chest out and declaring some sort of greatness to the world. Ever since I started playing single table tournaments, I had a positive ROI and that meant in addition to rakeback, I […]

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The Policy

Wooo, finally a decent day.  And boy did I need one. When I woke up this morning, I was exhausted.  Not physically.  Mentally.  My body was ready to get out of bed, but my mind wanted to stay wrapped in the cozy blanket and not face the day.  I was tired of running bad and […]

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The Problems

I’m on a downswing. And I don’t really want to write about it, but I feel like I should.  Although this blog is my own personal outlet, I do my best to be straightforward and honest with my readers.  And right now, to be honest, I’m going through a rather difficult time. When I decided […]

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The Beach

Oh, Canada. I had hoped to stay longer.   I guess I *could* have filed for an extension but it would come at the cost of not being able to come and go as I please.  For whatever reason, the immigration officers frown on frequent trips back and forth across the border, so if I […]

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The Curse

In October of 2012, I had recently relocated to Thailand and found myself at a local bar and heard a Thai band cover Green Day’s “Wake me Up When September Ends.” After struggling to post a profit this month, the lyrics resonate with me much more than before.  Judging solely by money made at the […]

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The First

I’m a huge, huge nit.  Let’s get that out of the way first.  For years, I played $5/$10 SNGs despite having the bankroll to move up.  Even now, I keep way too much money in my account in case something terribad happens. But this year I’ve started to shed that nit-skin a little bit and […]

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The Beans

For all intents and purposes, yesterday went pretty well.  Red line was good, green line was better.  Made 22 buy-ins.  Unfortunately, I bricked the largest buy-in of the day, a $2100 Step 7 WCOOP Satelite. I won’t lie, it definitely took some nerve to register for that game.  I’ve played a handful of $700s in […]

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The Sting

Last month ended on a high note, as I pulled out of my variance-related nosedive.  On the 26th, I was $17k under EV and by the 31st I had chipped that number down to $10k.  Still sets my record for most money under EV in a month, but I was pretty happy all things considered. […]

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The Redic

Earlier today, a reg called me a luckbox.  I can’t remember exactly what he said, was something to the effect of: You’re definitely one of the better players abarone68, but you run redic good He’s not the first guy to call me a luckbox and he certainly won’t be the last, but his comment comes […]

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The WCOOP

Tomorrow happens to be a Sunday and that means I’ll be waking up a few hours earlier to load a bunch of multi-table tournaments.  So far this year, the excitement turns to frustration around Sunday evening. Despite that disgustingness, as I feverishly type away on my laptop late Saturday night, I’m super excited for tomorrow’s grind. […]

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The Four Month Plan

It’s 2 AM on Tuesday morning and I thought I’d be in bed by now.  Long gone are the days where I would stay up until 4, 5, or even 6 in the morning and sleep until the afternoon.  But right before I was about to close down my computer, a turbo SNG popped up […]

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The Cheese

Here I am, less than 24 hours removed from a whiny blogpost about downswings.  Would you like some cheese with that wine?   Why yes, yes I would. Today I topped my previous record for most profit in a single day.  It felt damn good.   The lion’s share of the winnings came in an […]

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The Heat

Just finished a late-night session and for the first time in a while, I’m a bit tilted.  I’m not the type to yell, scream, and slam things but I can tell when I’m unnerved because my body temperature rises.  My face gets a bit redder.  My forehead feels hot.  And moments ago, I felt that […]

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The Fourth

July 4th is just another day here in Canada, but back home in the United States, people are observing ‘Independence Day.’ Admittedly, I’m a bit jealous I don’t get to partake in the BBQs, carnivals, parades, alcohol, and fireworks.  But what bothers me more than missing out on the festivities is seeing the holiday’s underlying […]

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The Patio

June has been a rough ride, but thankfully my downswing came on the heels of two very successful and profitable months.  More importantly, it came after a half year of consistently beating the games and proving to myself that I “belonged.” I didn’t feel this way in January.  Immediately after starting my SNE chase, I […]

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The Squares

After absolutely crushing the last two months, I had all but forgotten what it felt like to lose.  Sure, I’d lose individual hands, games, sometimes even sessions — but at the end of each day the account balance kept growing.  Normally I cash out each time I’m a few thousand dollars above my starting bankroll, […]

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