As some of you know, I have been working on a few business plans for the last couple of months.  I am excited to announce that earlier this week I found a partner who is willing to sponsor one of my businesses.  I cannot describe how happy this makes me. 

The Business
I'm a launching a financial planning firm focused on a younger client base with little or no investable assets that want to get a head start planning their future.  There is 10 - 20 year gap between when people get their first job and when they have enough investable assets for a financial advisor to consider bringing them on as a client.  In addition, people usually don't consider hiring a financial advisor until they are in they are older and start thinking about college planning and retirement.  This huge gap is a lot of time for people to make costly financial mistakes and it is certainly a lot of lost opportunities.  Most people don't realize how putting away $100/mo at age 25 with an average growth rate can compound to over $1 mil by age 65.  It's truly a proactive approach to planning for everything that is important in life, so we're not stuck in the mud if/when '07-'09 were to happen again. 

I'm hoping to launch within 3 months, but there is still so much work that has to be done. 

I know the new year is right around the corner and with that comes resolutions.  Most people have a resolution that deals with money.  Whether it's sticking to a budget or buying a new car, don't hesitate to contact with any questions.  I'll be happy to help in anyway that I can.

I'm heading to Chi-Town today to spend the holidays with my girlfriends family.  It's been in 70s this week in Austin, so I'm really not sure how I'm going to deal with cold up there.  I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend. 

TA

i've officially had my first downswing as a poker pro.  i'm running 18 buy-ins under ev for the last 2.5-3 weeks.  i've heard other players say it's variance and just let it run it's course.  they say there is really nothing you can do, you just have to wait it out.  that's a crock of s***.  that is the easy way out.  of course, you can't control the cards that fall, but you definitely control how you respond to the situation.  this is your responsibility to your game. 

i find it ridiculous for players to have a losing session and completely expect it because they are on a downswing.  do you think that frame of mind had anything to do with having another losing session?  if you expect something to happen it's going to happen. 

what i'm trying to get at is you can't control variance, but you can have a influence on variance by controlling your frame of mind.  i'm a strong believer in the power of positive thinking and i believe if one possesses this skill they can influence they way they are hit by variance. 

it's such a simple concept, but putting it into practice on a consistent basis is so tough.  a ton of people try to use positive thinking in their daily lives, but don't realize that they are actually attracting negativity.  this one example comes up, because i realized myself doing it last night.  people think to themselves, "i hope my aces don't get cracked" or "i hope i don't fail this test", but what they don't realize is they are attracting negativity.  what are they really thinking?  aces getting cracked and failing a test.  after two instances of losing with KK alpf, i was thinking to myself, "i hope i don't get sucked out again" or "every time i get aces of kings i get no action."  what did i really expect to happen?  let's just say i either got sucked on or got no action.

change your mindset and i promise it'll change your game and the way variance affects it. 

below are notes from one of my fav books 'thinking for a change' by john maxwell,

1.  Changing your thinking changes your beliefs

2.  Changing your beliefs changes your expectations

3.  Changing your expectations changes your attitude

4.  Changing your attitude changes your behavior

5.  Changing your behavior changes your performance

6.  Changing your performance changes your life

ta

with november coming to a close i began to reflect on my month.  i had a decent month, but i did not hit one of my goals.  truthfully, that really pisses me off.  i should have realized that I was on track to have such a shitty month.  i'm quick to talk about how great i am at reflective thinking and self improvement, but i couldn't even realize how unmotivated i was.  i've always said how you plan your days shows how driven you are. not sure when my drive went, but it's time to bring it back.

looking back, i half assed everything: poker (although, i'm kicking ass at 50nl), my relationships with everyone, self development, exercising, and most importantly holding myself accountable.  i'm not going to yap about what's going to change and how i'm going to do it.  i know what i need to do and i'm going to do it. 

december goals:

• top 10 ultimate grinder
• 40 hrs of playing time/week
• blog twice/week
• 15 hrs of study time (hand review, forums, videos, poker group discussion)
• volunteer 2 days
• goal setting every morning
• workout 5x week
• 1 chapter in book/daily
• meditation/visualization every morning & before sessions

If you haven't set your goals yet, what are you waiting for?

ta

I've had a few friends recently ask me how I can play so many tables at once.  As you know, it's hard to explain poker concepts to people without any or limited knowledge of the game.  I tried to explain that most of the dynamics of poker become ingrained in your subconcious (folding K7o UTG) and 80%+ of your decisions will be pretty standard if you're playing ABC poker.  This dicussion lead to the question of why do I not play less tables at higher stakes if I have a "solid" understanding of poker.  Besides bankroll management I explained that my hourly rate is higher if I mass table smaller stakes than if I multi-table higher stakes.  This then lead to why I stopped playing Rush Poker.  Again, I had to explain the concepts of table dynamics and game flow and how these factors are taken away from the table with Rush Poker.  Before these conversations I never truly thought about why I decided to switch from mutli to rush to mass tabling.  So here it is:

Before I decided to play poker "professionally" I would play up to 6 tables at once.  I was playing for fun & to make some extra $ so I never really tried to play more tables.  When I decided to make poker my career I made a commitement to follow strict bankroll managment so I had to drop in stakes in order to abide my guidelines.  No one really enjoys dropping down stakes, so I wanted to build my bankroll as quickly as possible. 

I figured that since I could play 6 tables simultaneously I could handle 4 tables of Rush.  I did this for a couple of weeks and beat Rush at a decent rate, but it was still a smaller rate than playing ring games.  I was still making more $/hr, because of the amount of hands Rush allows, but my sessions became boring.  In Rush, you have to tighten up so much.  3-bets are almost as common as a pf raise and stealing 65%+ is standard.  What I disliked most about Rush is absence of many important table dynamics like:

• Table selection
• Having consistent position on fish.
• The ability to identify who is tilting and play accordingly. 
• Game flow

Because of all this I decide to try to mass table 6-max.  I could handle up to 10-12 tables at once, but anything over that was overwhelming.  After figuring this out I decided to try FR.  Boomshakalaka!  10 tabling was a breeze.  12 tabling was a breeze.  14 & 16 tabling were a little difficult at first, but after setting up my stacking table format and using hotkeys it became easy. 

Mass tabling has allowed me to play almost as many hands as playing Rush per hour, but all the table dynamics are there.  I can table hunt for fish using table scanner (shout out to my poker group who convinced me to get it).  My winrate has doubled mass tabling over 80k hands. 

I highly recommend mass tabling to anyone who can beat a stake at a consistent level.  Obviously, I don't recommend going from 4-tabling to 16-tabling.  Try adding one new table a week and experiment with different table layouts and find what is most comfortable for you.  We all want to move up and play the nosebleeds one day, but if you've found your rhythm playing a certain stake, just add more tables and increase the amount of hands you play, increase your hourly rate, and increase your experience at the table.

TA

I got back into poker in mid-June with not really sure of what my intentions were.  After playing for about a week I was sure I wanted to play professionally and I had to get my bankroll back to what it was during my college playing years. I knew if I was going to do this right I needed to have discipline and have strict bankroll management.  I was playing 6-max 50NL & 100NL back then and was beating the game at a decent rate without rakeback.  Since June, I've played SnG's, 6-max Rush , FR Rush,  & now mass tabling (12+) regular FR.  I've really found my comfort in FR games.  I've been working on every aspect of my game and find that I can spot leaks and weaknesses easier in a FR format than in 6-max game.  Decisions at FR seem to be more clear and obvious than in any other form of poker. 

I've grinded  a 50 buy-in's for $50nl while withdrawing for expenses and am now mass tabling 50nl.  I'm very excited about the step up, not only because I feel like I'm one step closer to my ultimate goal, but because of the affect this will have on my entire situation.  Stepping allows me to have a higher hourly rate (assuming I win at a rate similar to $25nl), doubles my rakeback, & doubles my FPP. 

My passion for the game is at an all time high and all want to do is grind and improve my game.  I'm hoping to put in a good 45-50 hours this week and hope to move up to 100nl by the end of the year with 50 bi's. 

Oh yeah, anyone have any awesome Halloween costume ideas?  I've been brainstorming for a few days now and can't think of anything clever, besides being Brett Favre (in the form of a lude pics), Tiger Woods, or something to do with the oil spill...

TA

I attended Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival this weekend. It was simply one of the greatest weekends of my life. My girlfriend was given a ticket by her boss, so we were able to give one of our tickets to my little sister who is senior in high school in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She had a blast, although, she was hanging out with us old folks. I really hope to make it a tradition with my girlfriend, sister, and brother (he couldn't come, he had midterms at Arizona State). Next year bro!

Here is the lineup of bands for the show (there were 110 of them!):
http://2010.aclfestival.com/user/95741/bands

Friday we watched:
Blues Travelers
Miike Snow (They put on a ridiculous show. Good grinding music)
The Black Keys
Beach House
Spoon
Vampire Weekend
The Strokes

Saturday:
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Pete Yorn
Gaslight Anthem
Black Lips
Broken Bells/Silverspun Pickups (saw both shows at the same time)
The Temper Trap
Matt & Kim (Best show of the weekend)
M.I.A (She suckedddddd)
Muse

Sunday:
The Morning Benders
Yeasayer
Rebelution (If you like reggae these guys are awesome)
The Flaming Lips
Cage the Elephant
The Eagles (Hotel California is my favorite song of all time. Now that I've seen it live, I can die a happy man.)

The lineup this year was not as strong as last year, but I had more fun this year, because of the people I was with. Company is everything. I will be buying my tickets for next year in the next few days. If you've never been you have to experience ACL and Austin at least once in your life.

The Grind
I didn't player any poker over the weekend for obvious reasons, but I picked up right where I left off. In my last 4 sessions I'm up 30 buy ins. I'm definitely running hot, but now that I've switched from Rush to regular FR I am able to play at a higher level, because I actually have time to think through my hands.

I've withdrawn 6 or 7 checks from FTP since mid September and have not received any of them. I've read on many different sites about many players having issues receiving them or even cashing them. I finally put my black member status to work by emailing them about the issue. They responded withing 10 min! whoa! They let me know all my options and said they were having delays from checks being sent around that time. I hope they resolve these issues quickly or I may have to become a full time PS grinder.

TA

I've been grinding 4-8 tables of Rush for the last couple of months and have not been getting the results to which I am accustomed.  I am not winning at a rate that I should be, given my history of beating both 25nl and 50nl.  I felt like I was in so many tough spots and didn’t have enough time to think thoroughly through hands.  I would get flustered and irritated and this put me on tilt many times. 

I decided to go back to regular FR ring games.  I’ve played 2 full days of 16 tabling 25nl.  Here are my results:   

http://pokercurious.com/pictures/thepecoskid/1942/

I'm on fire.  I'm definitely running well, but I also have so much more time to think about hands.  Table dynamics finally come into play, where as, in Rush there is no such thing, unless you have a lot of history with a certain villian.  

I feel so much more comfortable and relaxed.  Decisions seem so much clearer and I feel more confident while I'm playing (who wouldn't running like that?).  I'm so happy I made the change.

TA 

Sorry it's been a while since my last post.  I've been really busy with poker, my businesses, and my life, in general.  I have sinced moved up playing 3 tables of 25NL Rush and 1 or 2 tables of 50NL Rush.  It feels good to move up while withdrawling on a bi-weekly basis for expenses. 

Over the years I have realized there are so many factors that affect my play:

• Certain types of music are distracting because I end up singing along in my head.
• It's very difficult to play my A Game even if I'm a little bit tired.
• If I'm a little bit irrated/annoyed, I cannot play my A game.
• I cannot play well if I'm hungry.
• If I'm having a bad day I do not play well.
• The biggest factor that affects my play is knowing how I'm doing that day/session.  If I know I'm up or down I play less optimally.  I make more marginal plays, especially if I'm down, because I want to "get back to even" for the day.  If I'm running bad I take more risks and make plays that are def -ev, but I "feel I'm due" so it's ok to make those plays.  If I'm up a few buy ins early on, I tell myself it's ok to stop.

In general, knowing how I'm doing gives me a short term perspective of poker.  My long term approach is thrown out the window.  Earlier this week I found a post on Cardrunners that discussed looking at your Cashier window during your sessions.   There was great content from new players to highly successul pros.  Before going through this post, I would look at my cashier window after each one of my sets (after every hour of playing Rush).  I didn't realize how much this affected my play for the rest of the day.  I decided to not look at my cashier window or poker tracker stats for 3 days.  I cannot explain how beneficial this is.  I've never played so optimally for so many session.  I didn't get near tilt at all and I knew I was up for the 3 days, but I was suprised at the real amount when I finally saw it yesterday. 

Many players say to try not to look at your cashier window for an entire month, but I cannot afford that luxury since I have to withdrawal $$$ on a regular basis.  I've decided to look at my cashier and poker tracker stats once or twice a week. 

I recommend trying it.  If you're used to looking throughout your sessions, start without looking a couple of sessions/hours.  Then gradually move up to an entire day, then a few days, and maybe a week.  I promise it will change the way you play.  Let me know how it goes for you and I will do the same.

TA

Zimba's 'Developing a Poker Plan' (http://pokercurious.com/blogs/zimba/developing-a-poker-plan-pt-2-the-actual-plan-1), talked about the importance of developing a poker plan.  A plan gives you direction and structure and allows you to set clear goals and objectives to work towards.  Without one there is no clear destination. This goes for every area of your life.  As a former financial advisor, a financial plan is the most important aspect of your financial life.  It allows you to see if you are making progress towards your goals and if you are on pace to achieve them.  If you're not, you can make adjustments accordingly so that you can achieve your goals in a timely manner.  A plan is standard if you want to accomplish anything in life. It makes your time more efficient and valuable.  What is not mentioned that is as important is the intesity that you puruse your plan.  You can sit down at the end of the week and look at your poker plan and scratch off your objectives:

• Played 25 hours
• Watched 3 Cardrunners Videos
• Spent 4 Hours Reviewing hands
• Posted 10 hands in the forums

Looking back you can say you had a great week and you accomplished all your poker objectives.  It obviously shows you made progress, but at what intesity level did you accomplish all your objectives?  For 10 of those playing hours were you on autopilot?  Watching TV? Chatting on AIM? etc.

Did you take thorough notes as you watched the videos?  Did you truly grasp the concepts explained in the videos or did you add 3-betting on the button to your game because Brian Townsend did it? 

As your reviewed your hands did you play every scenario in your head to see what the best play was?  Reviewing your big hands did you pick up on the mistakes you made even if you won the hand?

Were there 23 hands that you had issues with, but you just posted 10 to hit your objective?  Or were their hands you didn't want to post, because they seem so standard, but you're still not sure what the best plays is and you didn't want to seem like a fish?

All the flaws above were flaws in my poker plan.  There were dozens more to add, but you get the point.  When you realize you're doing all the right things, but you're not doing the right things right then you know you're making progress.  My favorite quote in the world is:

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Exellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle

It's simple.  If you want to become great at any endeavor in life you have to pursue every aspect of that endeavor with the intesity of greatness. 

• Play every session to the best of your abilities.
•  Think thoroughly through every play and make the smartest play.  I know how easy it is to make a call just to see what your opponent had when you know the smartest play is to fold. 
• Mark every hand where you had a difficult decision and review it.  If you can't find the best solution, post it in the forums.  No matter how easy it may seem there are dozens of people who have the same question. 
• As you watch videos take detailed notes and grasp the concepts until you can explain them to a friend who knows nothing about poker.  Watch videos more than once and replay certain scenes to make sure you grasp the concepts discussed.
• When you're reviewing your poker plan make sure you're being honest with yourself about your intesity level.  It's very easy to fool yourself into believing you are doing everything to the best of your ability, when you know you can step it up a notch.

TA

I want to give kudos to Zimba for creating such a wonderful poker resource.  This site covers every important aspect of poker and then some.  As a member of Cardrunners during 2008 I remember Zimba posting in his blog about a huge project he was working on.  He was consitently going to meetings and making changes for this big project.  PokerCurious was this project and it launched as soon as I got out of the poker world.  I'm happy to be back in the poker world and am more excited to be a part of the PokerCurious community. 

Background

I started playing poker in 2006 while I was in college at Indiana University.  Go Hoosiers!  My buddies and I would get small $5 - $10 sngs and play while tossing back a few.  I have been a very competitive person my entire life and poker was no exception.  I wanted to win...all the time.  I started buying every poker book I could get my hands on and read them cover to cover many times.  I deposited $50 a few times on PartyPoker and finally hit a big score in a small stakes donkament for $7k.  This really set my bankroll.  I became a member of Cardrunners and started to take poker a little more serious as I made more money.  I played poker semi-professionally through the rest of college (Dec '07).  After college I moved to Austin, Texas and started a financial advising business.  Financial advising was a great career that allowed me to influence many peoples lives.  After two years in corporate America (June 2010) I really did some soul searching and realized that I wasn't happy.  I was content with where I was in life, but I was not accomplishing the objectives I had set for myself.  I was influenced by a lot of people around me to get a "real job" and not "throw my education away."  I just knew that I was not going to be able to achieve all my goals as a financial advisor.  My passion lies in poker and entreprenurism.  Poker allows me the income I need to sustain my lifestyle and the flexibility to work on my businesses.  So in mid June I sold my financial advising business and decided to take on poker.  I am playing full time now (30 - 35 playing hours, 8 - 12 study hours) and working partime on my businesses (15 - 20 hours a week). 

Now

I'm currently playing Rush 25nl. I 4 table and play between 5 - 8 hours a day, 5 - 6 days a week.  On average, I'm seeing 950 hands/hour.  (I'll talk more about my routine in the near future).  I hope to get back to playing 100nl full time, but since poker is my main source of income I have to follow stricter bankroll management rules & because I withdrawal rake & winnings for expenses it makes it more difficult to move up.  I am a member of the best coaching site on the web, Cardrunners (IUTexan).  If you want to take poker serious I highly recommend getting on a coaching site asap and get as involved as possible.  If you want to get "good" at poker you have to consume your life with poker. 

I'm currently writing business plans for two projects that I am truly passionate about.  Both of these projects will greatly impact my community and hopefully the nation.  I will provide yall with updates as they arise.

If you guys every have questions or suggestions do not hesitate to hit me up.

TA