Must... play.... more......Oblivion!

I'm really loving that Oblivion game. It has consumed my soul. The game is honestly like crack. I'll finish this quest and the I'll stop. Well, maybe after the next quest. I knew I had a problem when I got up at 7:30 a.m. yesterday morning and decided to fire it up before even taking my morning piss. Fortunately, I haven't abandoned all of civilization yet and have really only put 4-5 hours into it. But I can see myself playing some more tonight!

I have been playing a bit of limit poker recently. The only reason for really playing LHE is because it's quicker to clear the bonus on Eurolinx when you play $1/2 limit than it is to play $.10/.20NL. Fortunately, I've ran around expectation playing the games and have padded the Eurolinx bankroll a little bit. I'm still only about 4% of the way to clearing this bonus, but it's getting quick now. It's also looking like when I get done clearing this bonus, I'll have enough LPs to buy a $100 bonus (no clearing required). Then I can take advantage of the $500 reload bonus. That's $850 in free money for me! For those of you with a bankroll, you can get the $1000 1st deposit + the $500 reload + the bottomless bonuses with the LPs. If you want in on this action, see the right hand column for details.

I'll be excited to have these bonuses cleared out soon though. I plan on moving up to $50NL and might even dabble in the $100NL games soon. It'll be nice for the bankroll to be healthy enough to do that!

I have the remainder of my fantasy starting rotation going today. Verlander already had a good start, but blew his wad in the 5th or 6th inning. Sheets is doing OK right now early in his game, but he's up against Zambrano who is also doing well and not on my team. Then I have Oswalt going against Peavy tonight (yuck) and Bedard going against Millwood. Hudson scored me some decent points last night, but just like my team always does, he got me a quality start, but no win (10 lost points). I can see myself staying up late tonight watching the Padres/Astros game. 2 Stallions pitching in that game! 1 of them being my horse.

New month

A new month always brings freshness to the poker tables for me. My goals this month are simple:

- Clear the Eurolinx bonus and then start working on the reload bonus.

March sucked butt poker-wise. April will be better. I swear.

Holy Crap!

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is so awesome. It sucks me in and I lose track of time. I keep telling myself that I'll finish this one quest and then quit, yet there's never an end because the quest turns into a whole chain of adventures. It's really great. Also, the world is HUGE!

Big day!

I'm stoked for tonight. Baseball season kicks off for real on the home turf tonight when my beloved Braves meet the stinky Nationals. I love baseball season. It means summer is here. It also means fantasy baseball and shit talking.

I didn't play any poker yesterday. Instead I spent the entire day painting. I had yet to paint the downstairs bedroom. It was a mess too. The room used to be hot pink. Then they had primered it and started painting over that, but never finished for whatever reason. So it was a mixture of hot pink and olive green. Beautiful! I (meaning my Mother) chose a hearth brick color to cover that clusterfuck of colors. It took 3 coats to do the trick. What I thought would be a 1/2 day job was an all day event. But it was worth it. I got to spend time with my parents as they came over to help me.

After that, I watched some of the 2008 Civil Rights baseball game between the Mets and White Sox. Joe Morgan has to be the most annoying announce on earth (Just ahead of Joe Rogan). On normal days, Morgan is barely tolerable, but on Civil Rights day, I finally quit watching. The man just babbles about stupid shit and second guesses every move made by every manager. He also makes sure to regurgitate all this crap about racism and how hard blacks have it. We all have it hard dude, it's the 21st century. Get over it and quit doucheing up my baseball games! Morgan will be on hand to announce tonight's game. My finger will be on the mute button.

I also went to some friends house last night and played some cards (not poker) and watched some stand up comedy on Comedy Central. I have 5 words for you: DANE COOK IS NOT FUNNY!. What a joke this guy is. His entire routine consists of telling far fetched stories in excrutiating detail while making stupid gestures and body movements the entire time. He's a shitty actor too as Good Luck Chuck would prove. My theory is that he spent too much time with Ryan Reynolds on the Waiting set and tried to mimick him.

Today is more of the same. I might grind some poker or might just play some video games. It all depends on how I feel. I'm feeling a cold coming on. I haven't had a cold all year long and it pisses me off that I'm getting one in the Spring time!

Eurolinx Review

My Full Tilt cash out hit my bank account today, so I have been able to get thing going for my bonus whoring adventures on Eurolinx. I wasn't expecting much from a Microgaming site, but color me impressed so far!

First of all, deposting was a breeze. I set up my account with Eurolinx, set up an account with Togglecard.com and used my debit card to deposit to Togglecard.com. Then used my Togglecard.com account number to deposit into Eurolinx. Think of Togglecard.com as the Neteller of the entire transaction. Except no fees! I put $250 into togglecard and ended up with $250 in my Eurolinx account.

The Eurolinx lobby is pretty cluttered and takes a little while to used to. The also spread non dollar games which would be nice, except they are raked in non-dollars (I'm guessing those are Euros?) So, with the dollar being what it is, if you sit down at a Euro table, you're gonna get ass-raped on the rake. Sit at dollar table and all is normal.

The bonuses are the killer part of this site. It's looking like Eurolinx wants to be the people to drive the stake through Absolute's heart. You have the sign up bonus, a reload bonus, plus bottomless bonuses that you can buy with your Linxpoints (I got 3.5 LPs in 4 raked hands and it only costs 3800 LPs for a $100 bonus). I'm pretty sure you don' thave to clear the bonuses you buy either.

The actual gameplay takes a few minutes to get used to, but after all is said and done, it's really pretty decent. The table layout is simple and there are nice 3x, 4x, etc raise buttons that you can use instead of manually typing in an amount.

All in all, I'm impressed with the site. Don't forget, I'm offering a $1000 bonus if you sign up through my site instead of the standard $500 bonus. You can sign up here.

Congrats to WVU for making the sweet 16 and then choking hardcore at the foul line... both in the last seconds of regulation and all throughout overtime. I hate basketball and I hate that I wasted my evening watching that garbage. The good news is that the real baseball season starts Sunday night with my beloved Braves.

I finally got back to playing some Bioshock last night. That game is amazing. I am maybe only 20% through it. I can't really tell. It's a very fun game and very creepy! I also got to see the final GTA:IV trailer last night.... Whoa!

In other news: Coast Guard Siezes over $100M in cocaine. If you watch the video on the right, that's my cousin with the M-16. I wonder if I can score some of that 100% pure Peruvian marching powder from him and put it out on the mean streets of WV and become the redneck Pablo Escobar?

I did play some poker last night as well. I just donked around at the Uber micros tryign to run up my Pokerstars balance a little bit. I didn't. It stayed the same. I've lost all confidence in my game and really don't feel like playing much anymore. I need to take a break and stick with it.

I think some personal coaching would help me more than anything. I'm looking around for someone to help me out with some personal training. I'm not opposed to investing 25% of my bankroll for a couple hours of solid training. I think it will pay me back infinitely. I'm a Stoxpoker member and I can watch those videos and pick up stuff...but I think my game really needs attention at a more personal level. If I would just hit more flops, turns, and rivers, then everything would be alright.

Live

I'm rapidly approaching being a "bad debt" free man. I'm excited, yet nervous at the same time. One thing I've missed out on since buying this house is being able to play live poker. My area has turned into the next G-Vegas...minus the douchebag police officers knocking down doors to steal your bankrolls and smack you in the face with a bible.

Live poker is so much more fishy than online poker. Yet, the stakes are usually higher than what I play. There is a place nearby that runs a regular $1/2NL game and sometimes spreads $2/5 as well. I've only had the chance to play there once, and of course I ran bad as I had KK all in pre-flop one time against T8s and lost. Then lost a coin toss with a short stacker.

I keep getting text messages about the games running from the host of the games. Occasionally I'll be passing by the establishment when a game is running and the parking lot will be full! I feel left out on all that money that is in play in that big room. I really want to establish a bankroll and be able to play at least the $1/2 games.

When I finish refinancing this house and free up some financial burdens, I can afford to play in that game. Which will be awesome. I'm pretty sure a retarded monkey can beat that game. Luckily for me, my mental capacity is just north of "Retarded Monkey". Bonus!

In addition to those games, there are several other establishments around the area that spread NL games. It's pretty much the same crew of people that go from game to game and pretty much all of the suck. If I can get a bankroll going, I can see online poker becoming a side thing instead of my main gig.

Who wants free money?

I mentioned yesterday about moving my money over to a different site to whore up a nice bonus. Now I can mention that the site is Eurolinx. I didn't want to mention it yesterday because I wanted to get all the details so I could offer the same thing for my readers:

Currently we offer a 100% up to 1000$ deposit bonus instead of the normal 500$ and on top of that a reload bonus of 100% up to 1000$! WHILE you are clearing those bonuses you are also eligible to collect your points for the bottomless bonuses!

As you know you can buy cash bonuses on Eurolinx (you dont have to play to clear them, you just trade in your points). So basically you are clearing a double bonus! A first deposit bonus, a reload bonus and in conjunction a bottomless cash bonus!

That's a lot of free moneys. I need all the help I can get with my bankroll so I'll be playing there a lot from now on.

I couldn't stay away :P

I decided to fire up a $4.40/180 when I got home from work. I'm not real sure why...habit I guess. I ended up just busting out in 4th place for a decent take. I got bad beat out of the final table. But oh well, it was a decent profit for a couple hours of fun. I didn't give it my 100% attention as I ended up firing up the laptop around 8:00 so I could watch American Idol (sucked ass all around) and cook some dinner. Cooking dinner and playing poker at the same time is pretty damn hard to do.

Boo freakin' hoo

It seems as though some of the poker bloggers have their panties up in a bunch about some crap to do with the BBT3. I don't read those said bloggers, but evidently it has something to do with possible collusion. Who knows.

I have had a poker blog since 2004 and never really felt part of the "Poker Blogging" family. I played aroudn with those guys back in the day, but then someone would start flaming someone else for a certain play. It was all a little too soap opera-ish for my tastes and it's not like these were very good games to be playing anyway. They were just fun.

I have a short to moderate list of poker blogs that I read on a frequent basis. Most of these are the old school guys that I read back in 2004. I read these blogs for the entertainment value. With Pauly's talents on the keyboard, he can paint a story of his travels and I for that moment travel with him. Then on the other hand, you some douche with a blogger account critizing some other douche with a blogger account's play on a daily basis.

"OMG WTF, he called off 3/4 of his stack with AT and cracked my Kings!!!"

Well, shit happens...you don't like it, send me the guy/gal's screen name and I'll play with them all fucking day long.

I don't understand why some people have a blog. I use it as an outlet to life. I could sit on my ass all day and just type about random crap in my life nobody cares about. I don't mind. This blog helps me keep sanity and it's a fun hobby. Some people just use a blog to flame others. These people are most likely miserable human beings in real life.

Here's a tip: If you honestly thing that these folks would collude with one another, then DON'T BUY INTO THE FUCKING TOURNAMENT! Of course, these are probably the same people that think 9/11 was an inside job. Wackos!

In the meantime

While I'm on my poker vacation, I figured this would be a good time to move some money around and do a little bonus whoring. I really miss Neteller for times like these. I cashed out $250 from my Full Tilt account directly to my bank account. This is the first time doing this option, but I wanted to avoid the MyWebATM fees and the check wait. So supposedly, I'm going to have the funds available in 5-7 days.

With this $250, I'm depositing into a lesser known site that I'll mention at a later time. I get 100% bonus with a 7x raked hands rate to clear. I could get up to $1000 bonus, but the bankroll can't afford it. I figured I'd just start with $250 since that would help out my roll pretty well right now. So, with $250 bonus, I have to play 3500 raked hands in no particular amount of time to clear. This site also allows for "bottomless" bonuses up to like $20K a year (no, this is not Absolute). My affiliate also has a 3rd incentive that can't be used as a "sign up" incentive, but does promise that it's better than the 100% deposit bonus + the bottomless bonuses. I can't get the details on that until I sign up. Gay, but intriguing.

I've been checking out play on this site and the games seem pretty good at my levels, so I shouldn't have any problems. Once I clear my $250, I'm not sure if I'll actually stick around or not. It all depends on the quality of the site and the games.

Refinance time

I've just begun the process of refinancing my house. This is scary for me because it's my first time. I'm most scared of the appraisal. Will I get some dickhead/cunt having a bad day? Or will I get the appraisal I want? The house appraised for $101K last summer and I did about $20K in renovations to the house including a brand new kitchen, all new ceramic tile throughout the downstairs, and all new paint, new heat pump, etc.

I really don't know what to expect, but I do know my goals. I would like to be able to pay off my debts and have the money left over to finish the house. I don't think this will be a problem considering I bought the house for $72K. I have around $90K invested in the house. So, once everything rolls over, I should have around a $90K mortgage for a house that once appraised for $101K and has since been remodeled.

So, I'm expecting the house to appraise in the $130K-$140K area, but this is all new to me, so I don't know. Unfortunately, the bank can't choose the appraiser anymore, so it's a luck of the draw. This is idiotic to me, but whatever.... that's just a bank being a bank. They are just a shade more efficient than the Federal Government at some stuff, so I don't put any stock into them.

If all goes well, I will be absolutely debt free with the exception of my mortgage. This will translate into me not being a broke bitch anymore. I will be able to do some finishing touches on the house, but most of all, it will allow me to save more money and not live paycheck to paycheck. If I can get everything rolled over into the mortgage and still have another $40K in equity in the house, I'm going to be a very happy man... Mission accomplished and shit.

Even if I can just be rid of all my "bad" debts, I'll consider it mission accomplished. If that day comes here in a couple weeks, you'll see this man celebrate. I don't celebrate often, but when I do, I do it good!

Then, when I'm done celebrating, I'll take that opportunity to scope out House #2.

******* Edit **********

I was looking at comps in my area using my super secret website with a not-so super secret (stolen) username/password. I looked a few comps in my area. I think I'm in good shape. There aren't many houses comparable to mine in the same neighborhood because 1.) I have the double lot, and 2.) I have a full, finished basement instead of just a crawl space. One comp sold for $151K earlier this year and it didn't have a heat pump. However, it was a split foyer instead of a ranch...not sure if that makes much of a difference. There is another active listing now that is comparable... they are asking $180K ...again, no heat pump and the square footage is less than mine. That's uplifting/comforting news.

Gameography

I've really missed playing video games over the past year. That's not to say that I haven't played any in a year, because I have. But the only games I've played are maybe at a friend's house on the Wii. I used to love video games. Nothing obsessive, but just a love.

Over the years there are maybe a handful of games that I've devoted more than 20 hours of my time to. The NCAA Football games probably got the most play from me as I would just play season after season with WVU. 2nd on the list has to be GTA: Vice City. I tried to get 100% on that game. I think I gave up around 95-96% because I came to my senses. I devoted some time to World of Warcraft, but it just wasn't my style. I'm a single player kind of guy unless I play with people I know. WoW is just gay in most of my friends' eyes.

I used to buy every console that came out. It all started with the Intellivision. We had one and my aunt had one. My father was laid off from the coal mines one year and he and my aunt had an epic Burger Time battle that lasted for months. I'm not sure who had the high score between the two. I didn't care for that game much, I was a Night Stalker kind of guy.

After the intellivision, my next stop was the NES. This was the first console that I bought with my own money. I saved and saved. I remember the first time I beat The Legend of Zelda. I had to call all my friends and tell them. However, I think my favorite game was Kings of the Beach. It was a 2 on 2 beach volleyball game that I loved for some damn reason.

Next up was the Sega Genesis. My neighbor got one and I just had to have one. Sonic was amazing at the time. Then came the 6 button controller and Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Whoa! The Genesis came out the same time as the SNES (same gen anyway). I could only afford one and the Genesis won. However, my cousin had a SNES and one summer we swapped. I spent that entire summer beating Zelda.

When the PS1 hit the market, I was too old for games. I skipped out on the PS1. Then the N64 hit the market and I had to have one. It was awesome and so was Mario 64 and Excitebike 64. This renewed my love for games and I bought a PS1, modded it, and had every game you could think of for the Playstation. Then I outgrew the PS1 and N64 and sold them.

The Dreamcast was my favorite system. I could play Crazy Taxi until my fingers bled. The NFL 2K games were breath-taking at the time. I remember getting into the Super Bowl with the Redskins one time against the Colts. The Colts were handing my ass to me until the 4th quarter. I staged an Elway-like comeback and tied the game. I had to hold the Colts one more time to force OT. James busted the first play for like 40 yards and I was in trouble. Then they tried to pass to get in to field goal position to put me away and Deion Sanders out of nowhere picked off the pass and ran it back for a TD. Best NFL 2K game ever against the CPU (it might have been 2K1, I can't remember).

The PS2 hit the market and was causing a scene. Everyone wanted one, but supplies were low. I scored 1 by luck after work one day. I tried to buy all the store had, but they wouldn't allow it. I didn't put the PS2 on ebay, but I did advertise it for sale. I got a lot of bites to buy the thing for double price, but nobody actually pulled the trigger. Finally I gave in and just plugged the thing up and fell in love with it. There were so many good games on the PS2....my favorite though was Vice City. 80's Rock n' Roll playing while I run over hookers with my Sanchez motorcycle.....sheeeeeeit.

I then got an Xbox for Christmas one year. It reminded me of the Dreamcast. There were several great games for it. I spent most of my time playing Tiger Woods though. I never really got a chance to give the Xbox the love it deserved.

When the next gen consoles hit, they prices got out of hand and so did the people wanting them. I was older then and could wait. I finally decided on an Xbox 360 year before last. I bought a few sports games for it, but never gave it the love it deserved. I was spending most of my time playing poker instead of video games.

I still don't have a Wii or PS3, but would like both. The only reason I want a PS3 is for the Blue Ray player and the MLB: The Show game. The Wii would be great for company, but isn't the best console for single player action. That's the reason I don't have one right now (although I've tried!).

This all brings me to yesterday when I decided to take a little vacation from poker. I coudln't ask for a better game than Bioshock. It's intense! It has refueled my video game urge too. Now, I have this long list of stuff I want to play! The good news is that they are all on the 360. The bad news is that I don't have the time nor the money to be getting all these games. I hope to finish up Bioshock this week (I'm going marathon on it's ass tonight!) and then that should do me until GTA:IV comes out. If not, I never finished GTA: San Andreas. I'll whip out that bad boy and start going on rampages.

My gaming Wish List:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
o Nintendo Wii
o PS3 w/ MLB The Show
o Mass Effect
o Oblivion
o Orange Box
o GTA:IV
o 50-60" LCD to play it all on!

No Problems

So I opted for Bioshock over Oblivion and Mass Effect. I think it will have about the right amount of gameplay for me. Not too long, but definitely not short. I'll have to say that I'm happy with the purchase too. What a friggin' game! I'll have no problems staying away from poker this week.

I had to quit when I about had a heart attack during the game. I was in some dark corner searching a cabinet or corpse or something and when I turned around, this dude was standing right on top of me just staring. It was pretty fucking spooky and I didn't realize he was a bad guy at first until he busted me in the forehead. The music and sound in this game is brilliant. The sounds creates the atmosphere and makes the game twice as awesome.

When I was at Gamestop, I went ahead and pre-ordered GTA:IV. So I know what I'll be doing towards the end of April too.

Vacation / Pisgah House / My Neglected 360

I'm going to take a hiatus from poker for a couple days. I've decided this is the best thing overall for my bankroll. This isn't a permanent vacation or anything... just until the weekend or at the latest next Monday. Poker has wore thin on my patience the past few days and I need to take a break from the tables to get my head clear. That's not to say I won't be studying the game or even blogging about it, because I more than likely will!

So what to do with all the extra time? Well, I've had my 4th bedroom that needed repainted. That's getting done this coming weekend. Once that is complete, then I'll need to touch up a few things and I'm ready to re-finance the house, which in turn should take a lot of financial burden off me this coming summer. I only expect the room to take a few hours to paint as there is nothing really tricky paint around. The closet was the hardest thing to paint in that room and it has already been done. Once the house is re-financed, I will be able to roll over my HELOC into my mortgage and then pay off the rest of my credit card that got run up a bit during the renovations. I should also be able to pay off my appliances and any other outstanding debts I have. This will ease my financial pain a bit.

Other than working on the house, the weather just hasn't broke like I had hoped, so I still need to do something to occupy my time during the cold hours. My poor Xbox 360 has sit collecting dust for a long time now. I think it's time to break it out. I'm going to find a good game this evening to pick up. I'm probably either going to get Oblivion or Mass Effect. It all depends on which I can find the better deal on. I'll also be placing my pre-order for GTA: IV which comes out towards the end of next month....awesome.

I have missed out on a lot of gaming the past couple years. Some due to poker, but most due to buying a house. There are a bunch of titles for the poor neglected 360 which I'd like to pick up: Oblivion, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, Orange Box (I've never played any of the Half Life games, except for a little Counter Strike back in the day), COD4, and Bioshock. The good news is that I have friends that have most of these games and can just borrow one instead of having to buy them.

Also, I'd still love to have a Wii, especially since we have SSB: Brawl and Mario Kart coming soon.

Easter Hangover

I don't feel right today. Not mentally, but physically. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. I tossed and turned for 2 hours before finally drifting off. Once I did sleep, it was a continuous sleep until the alarm sounded (way too early). So I was able to drag my ass out of bed, although I could have slept about 4 more hours I think. I skipped out on breakfast because my stomach didn't feel right. I didn't have any dinner last night because of the larger than normal lunch I had thanks to Easter with the family. Right now, my stomach doesn't feel stable and I'm yawning like a mad man. My eyes are swollen from the lack of sleep. I'm not sure if I'm sick, tired, or just need to take a big dump to make myself feel all better. Hopefully a nice lunchtime nap will help.

Easter was OK I guess. Our family spreads out more and more each year. Some of the cousins are off in foreign countries making $500 Million drug busts, laid up having babies, patrolling the streets of WV for criminals, and other less interesting things. So we didn't have the normal family lineup that I'm used to. It was basically, me, my parents, my aunt/uncle, and a few of my aunt's relatives. I had a reasonably good time too. My uncle is a fairly wealthy man and has and awesome home. I spent some time watching NCAA basketball, pretending I cared. My uncle also has The Getaway, a pinball machine that I played several games on. I couldn't get my name on the high score list, but I was getting close. I also watched some of the cousins and cousins of cousins play some Wii games. These people are gaming fools! They were playing Super Smash Brothers, some old school Street Fighter, REsident Evil, World of Warcraft, and a host of other games.

I also got to hear my cousin's band for the first time. I knew he played bass in a band, but I thought it was really just a bunch of guys sitting around jamming. He let me listen to their stuff yesterday and I was blown away. They are very talented and I think the oldest is 21. It's not the type of music I listen to, but it was good stuff. The production quality of their recordings was top notch. One of the band members started his own recording studio and they used that. I'd like to hear them live though.

The highlight of the day though was finding a hidden gem on DVD. I walked into my cousin's room and noticed a special edition DVD of Snatch. I was talking to him about the movie (my favorite movie of all time by the way) and my cousin gave me a DVD by the name of Layer Cake. I had never even heard of it. It's got the guy that played the new James Bond and is made by the same guy that did Snatch and Lock Stock. I really liked the movie. It was the best movie I've seen in a while. How can movies like this fly under the radar when turds like American Gangster and Michael Clayton get all the attention? Marketing I guess.

I did get to play a few SnG's when I got home and cashed in 4 of 6 with one first place victory. I had played some SnG's earlier before leaving for dinner and cashed in about half of those for a small profit on the day.

Tonight, I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I know I'll have dinner with the parents, but after that it's anybody's guess. I guess it all depends on how I'm feeling. I'd like to jump back in the cash games a bit, but I believe I need a break from poker. Looking back on my March goals, I have to laugh.

20,000 cash game hands? I got about 1/2 that, but have well over 20,000 total hands if you count SnG's and MTTs.

Move up to $50NL and beyond? LOL...I'm lucky to have salvaged enough bankroll to not have to move back down to $10NL.

Work on MTT game and play many of those? I just completely whiffed on this one. I spent most of my time trying to get unstuck and didn't worry about playing many MTTs.

Make poker fun? Umm...yeah right. No way to have fun when you're on the shit end of every cooler hand, lose 75% of your coin flips, whiff 95% of the flops, etc.

I still have a week left in the month to salvage March. I'm sitting close to dead even for the month (still a bit in the red). I'd like to pull a profit out of this month, but I really need a break.

LOL

If you haven't read Grubby today, this post is great!.

Oh and I got an Easter present today.... I a small win at the poker tables. Go me!

I found my leak!

I found out why I've been losing money on the tables all month long.... this guy has been on a heater of epic proportions and all the money is trickling into his bankroll:

Merry Easter

In an effort to be more positive, I promise not to bring anything negative about poker to this blog anymore. So with that being said, I'll talk about Easter :P What is it about this magical bunny that makes people from all around turn into Church-goers for a single day?

I had a pretty good day yesterday. The weather was nice early and I got to spend about 1.5 hours of the nice weather sitting in line at the trash dump. Nothing like breathing in that fresh landfill air while waiting in line. I made the best of it and cranked up The Allman Brothers on the stereo and zoned out while I waited.

After that, I got to see WVU lay the smack down on Duke in the NCAA tournament. That is the first basketball game I've watched in 124198124 years. I hate basketball, but I gotta root for my beloved 'Eers. And you fuckers rooting for teams other than Duke...You are welcome.

AFter the game, I spent some time with the folks. Then I picked up my temporarily blind buddy Rog (Lasik surgery) to go hang out at some friends house. Now I might seem like an uncaring asshole at times, but my friends had this baby back in November and it's had some heart complications. The poor thing has already had 2 surgeries and will get 1 more in about 2 years. It makes my day to hold that baby. I laid down in the floor and just played with him for almost and hour or so. I kept him occupied while his mommy fed him and gave him his medicine. Unfortunately, it was little Spence's bed time, so my play time with the baby was cut short.

We played some board games afterwards. And then I went home and watched the funniest hand ever on the WPT. I'm not sure if this is old or new because I don't watch much poker on TV these days.

Basically, on a board of 3,7,3,A, Chuck Kelley was holding Q7 and Hennigan had A5. The turn betting ensued and when it was done, Kelley flipped over his hand! Now, I thought this officially declared the hand dead. However, in the WPT, you only get a warning on your first offense. So, that was actually a bad beat for Chuck because when the river came a 3rd 3 giving both players the boat, Hennigan knew he had it won. He knew his hand was best and he knew that Kelley was the worst poker player in the history of poker players, so he pushed. Kelley called and it was over. Dumbest, yet funniest hand ever.

I gotta go do the shit, shower, shave thing and then head up the road to my Uncle's house for Easter dinner. After that, I'll probably try to grind some more poker. It's been a tough run this weekend again. I need to get away from these SnG's and get back to the cash game tables though.

Ugh

The games are so good this weekend! Now LET ME WIN A HAND PLEASE!

Migrating

I'm slowly migrating some of my bankroll from Full Tilt to Stars. I just like having both sites available to me. I don't have very much at all on Stars right now, but I'm trying to grind that up playing micro SnG's. I have found the micros much softer on Stars than Tilt. Of course, there is no comparison between the 2 software versions.

So the gameplan tonight is to grind a bit on Full Tilt...enough to get my Ironman points and then I'll probably fire up several SnG's on Stars and try to inflate that bankroll a bit.

I have all night to play poker tonight. All my friends are out having babies and such. One of my friends is having corrective eye surgery done right now, so he'll be out of commission for a couple days. Another just had a baby born almost 2 months early and they are out of town tending to things that need tended to. Another set of friends had their baby the next day. And yet one more set of friends just got their baby home from the hospital and he's on Oxygen. All these babies and all these doctors!

I'll probably mix up between cash and SnG's, but I do plan on playing some marathon sessions. I'll probably work in some MTTs too.

FTS

I bought a new piece of poker software yesterday. It's called FT Shortcuts. It only cost $25 and they take transfers directly from Full Tilt. The program has a bunch of different features that are pretty damn nice.

The main reason I bought the program was the automatic SnG opener. I was a little confused trying to figure out the setup at first, but a quick glance at the documentation fixed those issues. Now that it is set up, with only a simple button combination, I can have the program continuously open X amount of SnGs. I have it set to 6 right now. One of the aggravations I had with SnGs was tryign to register for more SnGs while trying to concentrate on the ones I have running. This program fixes that problem. I can also tell it to keep opening the tables until I have played X amount of SnGs or X amount of time. Pretty cool stuff.

There are other features in the program that are pretty neat. You can have the program auto-size your screens. You can also have it highlight the active table with a border. It will also highlight tables in red that require action. You can customize all this too. One of the cool things I liked was the bet sizing with your scroll wheel on the mouse. That's AOK stuff. They had one feature I turned off because it was annoying. It was activating the tables when you move your mouse over them. I got mouse turrets and this was putting me on tilt.

There's a ton of other stuff in there. Some of it I don't understand yet. But there are plenty of cool features for cash and SnG players. The best thing is that it costs the same as getting your

Karma Train Baby

So after my deep post, I decided to just try to be more positive overall in life and let the bad just slide by and not sweat the small stuff and all that crap. On the way home from work, I just missed a bad traffic jam. About 1/4 mile from my exit traffic was stopped dead. I was able to get on the shoulder and make it to the exit without delay...close one. Traffic was backed up almost 15 miles to the tunnels that lead into Virginia. I needed to make a pit stop at the convenient store before going home. The parking lot was full of foreigners with Ohio license plates. These people are my arch enemies on the interstate. They were seeking refuge from the traffic jam.

I did my business with the store and as I was leaving, I was asked if I knew a way around the traffic. I decided to be a nice guy and suggest an alternate route for the guy. I showed him how to skip the entire interstate fiasco and get back on the interstate right at the tunnels where the source of the jam was. If you get on right there, it only takes a couple minutes to get through the jam. Hey I'm a nice fuckin' guy!

So tonight I decided I wanted to do some SnG's. My first set didn't go so well, but after that it was smooth sailing. I booked another decent win. 2 days in a row. Look out! Maybe this karma thing is for real?

This one is deep

I have to change my ways. I've spent the first 30 years of my life trying things one way, and obviously that way didn't work. Now it's time to try it the other way. For 30 years, I've been taking the easy way out in everything I do and it has gotten me nowhere. For 30 years, I've lead an unhealthy lifestyle, and it has gotten me nowhere. For 30 years, I've secluded myself from the world, almost making myself a hermit at times and it has gotten me nowhere. The end result? I'm a 30 year old miserable human being.

I'm sure my blog readers notice it from time to time. My "Why me?" post from yesterday was a little tongue-in-cheek, but actually not far from the truth. Frequently I bitch and moan on this blog about how my life sucks or how unlucky I am. I've been blogging about hating the same job for at least 4 years now. Is it bad luck that I'm depressed a lot of the time anymore? I don't believe in luck. Maybe I've just led a bad lifestyle and I just get what I deserve. It's not that I'm a bad person because I'm not. However, I wouldn't consider myself an upstanding citizen by any means either.

So what needs to change? Honestly everything. I need to change my ways physically, mentally, and emotionally. Those are broad categories, but I believe they are all related in some way. Helping out one facet can help you out in other areas as well.

Physically

This one is simple. I'm a fat, lazy bastard. It never bothered me before, but the past couple of years, it has taken it's toll. I'm tired all the time. I don't have the energy to go do anything. I just kind of sitting around playing poker, watching TV or listening to music. I get zero exercise. Basically, I'm just killing myself from the inside out.

It's not that I go on huge binges of food or anything like that. I just eat out too often for anybody's good. Fast food is the devil. But again, I'm lazy and even though the taste and selection is horrible, I choose convenience almost every time. I started a 30 day challenge week before last to not eat out any for my breakfast or lunch. I did well with both for the first 7 days. However, come week #2, I got lazy. Admittedly, I was out of town and it was impossible to fix my own lunch for those 2 days, but the rest of the time I was just too damn lazy to get off my ass and go to the grocery store.

Sunday, I finally made my way to the store to stock up on lunch and breakfast stuff. The results were me eating my breakfast at home and me still being too lazy to fix my own lunches. I chose sleeping that extra 10 minutes instead.

Starting today, I'm going to ween myself from these bahaviours. I, again dont' have my lunch with me. However, instead of opting for McDonalds or Wendy's, I'm going with Subway. Then tonight, I'm going to pack my lunch for tomorrow morning just in case I need that extra 10 minutes. I'm not going to cut out eating out 100% because that's impossible, but I am going to start making healthier choices and cutting down on portion sizes starting today. I just need to train my brain to get used to it. I was able to train it the other way, I don't see why I can't try it this way.

The bottom line is that I need to lose weight. I really need to get my energy back. With just those 2 things, I would be a much happier person.

Mentally

I also need to work on my mental game in life. I have become set in my ways too much. Everything has to fit in my schedule. I have to have X amount of alone time to get my head right in the evenings. I can't do this because that leaves less time for that. It's a never ending thing. The bottom line is that I'm so set in my ways, that I'm scared to change up anything. My brain has been burnt into this rut. Anything outside of this rut just messes with the entire system.

My schedule is pretty much the same every day. Get up, go to work, sleep at lunch, go back to work, go home, play poker or watch tv and sleep. It's boring and that routine never would have worked for me 10 years ago. However, I've programmed my mind to accept this routine. I've even programmed it to love the routine because any time I get outside of the routine, then I get mad.

This facet is harder to fix. I need to just break myself of my routines. Instead of going straight home after work, go do something like golf or fishing. Life's too short to be caught in a rut. I've even quit going out as much on the weekends because I have to stay home and get my poker hands in. There's always some excuse that keeps me from doing things that I would normally enjoy.

It's hard to explain what's wrong with me mentally. I guess the best way to sum it up is to say that I'm set in my ways and hardly ever open to new things. Even though deep down I really long to do new things.

Emotionally

This one is very important as well. However, I feel that by working on the physical and mental side of things, the emotional side will just kind of fall into place. Right now, my nerves are a wreck. I fly off the handle with ease. I don't do it in front of people because I can't stand people that throw temper tantrums in public. But when I get alone, I can go into some tirades.

The basics situation is that I'm unhappy. I hate my job, hate my life. There are only a few things in my life that brighten my day. I like to bowl, fish, golf, and absolutely love music. Last year, I played like 2 rounds of golf and did minimal fishing. Why? Because I would rather sit around the house and loathe in my self pity. Interacting with the public was just not something I was interested in.

My unhappiness had never reached into my friendships until recently. I love my friends to death. Them and my parents are the #1 things in my life. However, I find myself distancing myself more and more from them each day because I'd rather just sit in the house alone not wanting to face the world.

-------

Typing all this out, it doesn't make me feel any better. In fact, when re-reading it all, it makes me feel like a mental case. I'm far from eating a bullet or mowing down pedestrians in the street or anything. Very far from that. However, I don't want to keep spiraling downward until one day things come to something drastic.

The bottom line is that I have to live better. I need to take care of myself first and foremost. I need to just relearn the way I live all around though. I should be nicer to people and get out and meet new people. I need to try new things. And when I find something new I like, stick with it. Take for example the guitar. It was just something I picked up after watching a Metallica/Godsmack concert a few years ago and it was fun. It still is fun. However, I've only half-assed learned to play. Instead of practicing, I get frustrated and wonder why my brain and fingers don't work together like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Maybe that's just another department where I'm lacking? Or maybe I'm just a lazy bitch that is too sorry to practice? Which seems more likely to you?

I've bored my readers to death with my numerous tirades about my job and the work environment. But the bottom line is that I've been here for 8 years now and not done one damn thing to help my situation. I've made no effort to make this job work any better for me and I've not made any efforts to find a new source of income either (not any real honest efforts anyway). Sometimes I'll find a stream of income that brings in a couple bucks here and there and then I just give up on it.

This is a lot more info that I really wanted to include on this blog, but I have to get stuff off my chest. TL;DR. The bottom line is that I have to give if I expect to receive. If I want my life to become better, I need to do more giving. I need to devote more time to my family, my friends, and becoming a better person. Sitting in front of the computer sulking about my bad luck and karma just hasn't been getting it done lately.

Book it!

Yesterday was an irritating day. Around 4:00, things were going smooth and then some douchebag "tech" calls me wanting help installing a tape drive on a Unix machine. Around 5:00, I realized that this just wasn't going to happen anytime soon and told the guy it was bowling time (not in so many words though). The drive home sucked because the wind was blowing 50mph the entire time. Then I sucked at bowling. Well, I sucked, ruled, then sucked again (128, 225, 162).

When I got home, I was just going to watch a Stoxpoker video. Ed Miller has just released a very good video on hand reading. Of course, when that was done, I couldn't help but fire up a few tables. I played about 175 hands in all and was hit with about 4 suckouts and 1 big cooler. The good news is that they were all against shorties. The better news is that I was able to stack a couple people myself and book a FUCKING WIN. It wasn't much, but it was nice. I thought about masturbating afterwards to celebrate, but then decided to just quit while I was ahead.

Tonight I'm back in grinding mode. The only things other than poker on my agenda are dinner with Mom and Lost. In between those 2, I have a couple hours to grind away. I feel confident in my game right now. I patched up some leaks that probably fueled my recent downswing. I'm making good decisions. I just need to stay on that even keel and let things work themselves out. They always have before.

Why me?

You ever just sit back and wonder why me? Honestly, I run bad at everything I do! It's gotten so bad this week that I'm afraid to even take a piss because gravity might change and the piss will fly up in my face or even worse my dick might fall off. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

So what can I do? I'm at the point where I'm about to make a list of all the bad things I've done in my life and go on a quest to right my wrongs. I'm about to break out a bible and start telling my neighbors they are all going to hell if they don't change their ways. I'm looking for little old ladies to push across the street. Anything to throw some good fucking karma my way!

Ok, I've had enough..where's the camera?

This is becoming a joke. I could fill a book with the set up/cold deck hands I've been part of the past 4 days. So ...

FUCK YOU POKER

And the horse you rode in on.. I'm taking a break.

Epic proportions

It seems like every other day I'm posting about a downswing on this blog. The beating continued yesterday. I decided to quit early and that was the only good beat of the day. I played 15 SnG's and had a 3rd place finish and a 1st place finish and 13 OOM's. Ugh. Check my sexy Sharkscope graph next time you get a chance. It's a beautiful upward rising slope util the end when it decides to shoot straight down.

Tonight is my poker night and I'm going to continue to grind. I haven't decided if I want to continue with SnG's or play some cash games. I think I want to play the cash games as they should be more profitable and less "variance prone".

My downswing now has reached around the equivalent of 17 buyins. That's definitely the largest downturn I've had in No Limit to date. What kills me is that I'm at the micros! I could probably play a tighter style and kill some of the variance that I catch at the tables. I'm probably going to do that too. I need to keep reminding myself that there's really not any reason to go beyond the ABC's at this point in my poker career.

One good thing about this misfortune I've received on the tables the last few days is that I'm not bitter about it. I've handled it all in stride. Sure I got a little frustrated at times. Yesterday, I just shook my head as my KK lost to ATo, AA lose to KK twice, and once to 77, and JJ lose to TT, all within 15 SnGs.

The only thing I can do is continue to grind and practice good bankroll management. The rest is up to the gods I guess. Maybe I'll donate to a charity or something to raise my Karma. I'm also contemplating moving my bankroll over to Poker Stars and giving it a go on there. I'm not sure if the games are any tougher/softer at their micros, but I know the software is better and so is the VIP program. We'll see, the grass is always greener you know.

Fuck, I didn't even realize it was St. Patricks day. What a dumbass holiday. Let's dress up in green, pretend we're a bunch of drunk Irish, and douche up the roads tonight when we drive our drunk asses home!

I really hate this holiday as there really isn't much to it other than drinking and the color green. So, this would be different than any other Irish person's normal day how? Oh! The color green, I get it.

If you're out drinking tonight, DO NOT FUCKING DRIVE! I don't care if it's a work night and the cops won't be out in full force. You are still a weapon behind that wheel and so help me, if you kill me or any of my friends or family in the process, vengence will be pursued!

Oh yeah and fuck St. Patrick's Day!

Supporting Local Music

Yes, another new project is in the works by yours truly. This is more of a hobby than anything. I'm building a website for local music. Not your locality, but mine! Southern WV gets crap as far as name brand talent. Occasionally you'll get a country singer or something to stop and sing for us. Once a decade Metallica will play in Roanoke, VA which is less than 2 hours away or someone good might come to Charlotte, NC which is 3 hours away. Other than that, you're stuck listening to the local bands.

For most people, being stuck with local talent might not sound all that great, but for me, I'd pick the local guys over the big name talent almost any day of the week. At least you know it's about the music with these guys and not the fame/fortune. Some of the talent sucks, but for the most part, I figure some of the local guys here can hang with just about anyone nationwide.

Myspace has created a breakthrough for local bands to show their talents to the world. It allows them to put up a website, show off a few songs, and maybe a few pics. I'd just like to take things a step further and allow these bands to have complete control of the site.

Here's the stuff I'd like to incorporate into the site:

• Allow bands to post unlimited songs for download and/or streaming
  
• Unlimited picture posting
  
• Custom schedules based on location, genre, band, etc.
  
• Allow bands to sell merchandise free of charge (all proceeds go to the bands)
  
• Make it easy for event organizers to contact bands and schedule gigs.
  
• Trading Post to allow bands to trade, sell, barter equipment between each other.
  

The main purpose of this site is to help the local music community. Local music has done so much for me over the past 3-4 years, it's unbelievable. It has been the one constant in my life that has held me together. I'm up for watching local music any day of the week, any time! This site is gonig to be my thank you to the local bands.

To make the site seemless, it will require some web programming that is beyond what I know how to do right now. So I'll have to do some learning to make this thing work. The first step is to see what kind of interest I get from the local bands and venues.

Bah

Friday was such a frustrating day for me. Any interaction I had with other people just resulted in more frustration. By the time 5:00 rolled around, I was ready to explode. My nerves were shot and I felt like a woman, almost in tears. I'm not sure what all triggered my frustrations. It was basically just a tough week and things just kept piling on until Friday I couldn't take it anymore. That evening, I abandoned all plans and just secluded myself from the outside world. I was in no state of mind to be on the poker tables, but I had to get away some how.

I did sit down to grind and continued to grind and grind. I wasn't getting stacked left and right, but I knew it was a bad session. I felt like I was constantly getting 3-bet before the flop or every time I whiffed a flop, my c-bet would get raised or if I did hit the flop, I got zero action. There were a few coolers and a few bad beats, but nothing out of the norm. It was just poker being a bastard again. I was a little amazed when it was all said and done and I had lost 3.5 buyins. I finally called it a bad night and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up early, eager to get those 3.5 buyins back. I did some datamining and studied a bit while I collected some data. Then I sit down at several juicy tables, only for things to continue to go bad. I played another marathon session and lost another 6 buyins. More of the same. No action when I flop good, crazy action when I flop weak. Over and over and over it went.

I decided to switch things up a bit after that. I had to take a break to work on my leaky toilet. This 30 minute job turned into a 3 hour ordeal with multiple trips to Lowes. Plumbing sucks. After that, I decided to play some $11+1 SnGs. I fired up 6 at a time and bam! I had a couple firsts, a 2nd, and a 3rd out of the 6 SNGs. Awesome! 3 buyins back in one round! Then I decided to brag on my blog and you all know how that goes.

I played some more sets, twice not cashing in a single tournament during a set. I mixed it up between the $6+.5's and the $11+1's. I continued to go downhill. Once I got to the bubble, I could do well. I have been studying ICM concepts and how to play the bubble in a SnG. At these limits, the opponents just let you run over them at the bubble. Occasionally you'll run into a good hand, but for the most part, you can take a sub-par chipstack with 4 people left and turn it into a monster chipstack in just a few hands. Once I got into the money, I'd do fairly well, claiming quite a few 1st place victories. Other than that though, I took a lot of tough beats. I can think of at least 4 runner runner beats I took Saturday and Sunday and that's just off the top of my head. I spent a lot of time cursing the poker Gods.

The only really good thing that happened over the weekend was me finally getting a chance to see The Poor Taters. This is probably the most talented local band around. Their genre of music is not that popular. It's not one that I turn to very often, but damn it's some mighty fine music. They write most of their own stuff. The dudes can flat out play their instruments including sometimes playing 2-3 instruments at a time. Ever see a dude play guitar, harmonica, and kazoo at the same time? I did Saturday night. Ever see someone play an upright bass and mandolin at the same time? I did. These guys are starting to make a name for themselves and I wouldn't be surprised if they get some notariety in the not-so-distant future. I know they'll be on the BBC network in November (hopefully with footage me breaking out the devil horns for the British cameraman). Local music seems to be the only hobby I have going outside of poker right now. I have picked up my guitar again and started playing. The show Saturday night had me learning some different tunes. I learned a couple Old Crowe Medicine Show tunes (very easy on guitar) that I can sing and strum to. So that's fun.

This evening, I would like to play some poker, but I'm not sure if I'll have time. I have some laundry to finish and I need to flush out a water cooler I scored for my house (free). I also am going to visit my parents to visit them this evening. I might just chill out with the guitar tonight. I'm having a decent day and I'd hate to run bad on the poker tables to spoil that :P Of course, I also need to learn how to "grind" when things go good instead of just doing all my extensive grinding when things go bad. I can play a session, win a lot early and I feel the need to book that win and quit. I can play the a session, lose a couple buyins quickly and I can sit and play all night long or at least until I get it all back.

If I don't play poker tonight, I'll definitely play tomorrow because Tuesday nights are poker nights for me.

TV Debut

I might be making my Television debut this November. No, I'm not at the final table of some random tournament nor am I the guy threatening to swan dive off the top of building. All I did was attend a music show.

I have some friends that I went to high school with that have started a new band. They are not your typical local cover band. These guys are an acoustic old time sounding string band. Think Old Crowe Medicine Show. They had a special guest singer with them Saturday night by the name of Charly Markwart. Evidently she's big time or an big time up and comer in that genre of music.

After the 1st set, these British guys show up. They were a film crew for the BBC. They were filming for a documentary on old time music. Now this band, The Poor Taters, is not your typical "old time" band. They just sound that way. They do cover a couple songs, most notably a Beatles and Rolling Stones song. Anway, the lead singer/guitarist/mandolin/harmonica/kazoo :) player was really excited when the British were making requests. Myspace has to be the best thing that ever happened to local music.

So the film crew filmed the 2nd set for their documentary. I may have made history in the process. I could be the first person in the history of the BBC to flash the devil horns to the camera at a old time music concert :) These boys are that damn good though!

White flag

I surrender. Poker, you have failed me yet again. Downswings cometh.

When all else fails

Play sit n goes. I decided to give the ring games a rest and play some SnG's. I played 6 $11+1 turbos and 9 $6.5's and ended up getting 4 buyins worth back into the bankroll. Only 5 more to go!

I'm due

I'm so damn due to run like God in superuser mode any day now. I've hit yet one more downswing. The count so far for the past 2 days is -9 buyins. UGH!

Is this not the coolest Full Tilt layout ever?

Whoops

Without really thinking, I registered for the $2000 guarantee Razz tourney and a $5.50 HORSE tourney. This should be fun trying to keep the games straight.

***

Well, it's easy when you bust out of the HORSE tourney in record time.

***

F Razz N The A

Good to be back

Man, it was nice to hit the tables again last night. I didn't want to quit, but eventually ran out of time. My results sucked again as I broke even on the session. I played well, but never really got into any good spots. I had a hard time staying at good tables too. It seemed like every time I would find a good table, the fish went broke or left and their seat got filled by another TAG.

Since I had a hard time finding the loose/passives, I figured last night would be a good time to change up my game and play against some TAGS. I opened up my range a bit and 3 bet more lightly than normal. It seemed to work too as I had some of them putting in money pretty lightly against me. It would have been a decent winning session too had my TPTK not got rivered by 2 pair (3 outter) and I not got cooled by a QQ vs. KK hand.

I was looking at my graph for the year. It has a nice upward slope to it. However, I'm sitting at the tail end of about a 5,000 hand break even stretch. Well, actually it's a 1000 hand downswing followed by 4000 hands of slowly crawling out.

I'm not sure how much poker I'm going to play tonight. I plan on visiting some friends this evening, so it all depends on how long I'm at their place. I would like to get a couple hours in at some point though. Saturday, I have to install a new shitter in the house, change oil in both vehicles, and go to the bank. I'm going to try to knock all that out as early as possible. If the weather is nice, I'm going golfing. If it sucks, I'm playing poker. Then, there's a concert that evening. However, after the concert, I'll be heading home and probably putting in a long session.

I'm anxious to get this $25NL level behind me for good. I can smell the end of the road, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm also anxious to see all this studying I've been doing start to pay off. My level of concentration at the tables is at an all time high and so is my confidence. Now if the damn Poker Gods would just help me out and let me win some money!

Been a few days

Tonight, it's back to the fun "grind" for me. I finally have a chance to sling some cards. I wish I wasn't strapped for cash right now because I'd definitely be down at the local card club slinging chips tonight. I just got my text message that they were running a $1/2 game tonight. Total donkfest. But, real life has taken all my real money and I'll be using my virtual chips tonight on the virtual felt. Fine with me as any poker is good poker at this point.

I've been doing a lot of studying in my spare time lately (not that I've had a whole lot). I've been reading various forums and going over old hands and just overall kinda have taken a step back and looked at my game over the past couple of years. I feel my game is so much better these days than 4 years ago (when I was actually winning decent money on the tables). However, I'm more humble these days than 4 years ago. I know that there is still a bunch of room for improvement. As I'm still human and make many mistakes on the poker table. Until I make 0 mistakes, I need to keep learning. That's the only way to take my game to the next level.... I gotta keep learning!

Practice makes perfect as well. What good is studying if you don't apply the concepts you learned and burn them into your brain? Otherwise, that concept that might make a 1 BB/100 difference in your winrate might get pushed on to the back burner and eventually just fade away as a distant memory, along with your extra 1 BB/100.

Since I'm way behind on my hands, I'm dedicating March to being a quality over quantity month. A month for learning. I still want to play a bunch more hands before April, but I would rather learn. So I'm going to spend a bit more time studying and when I do play, I'll be playing less tables. I want to focus on concepts I've learned and play a thinking mans game. Then as I learn more, I can add another table or 2.

Right now, I'm trying to build a foundation for my game. One that will allow me to get out of the microstakes and become a full fledged shark at the low to mid limits.

A tribute to The Wire

Two years ago I was introduced to the best television show ever made: The Wire. I was behind the times and didn't start watching until Season 4 had just ended. This show consumed me. It was brilliant, smart, and most of all entertaining. The character development of the show was awesome. You felt like you actually knew these people. I watched the final ever episode last night and felt like an era had ended.

Not many people know about The Wire...at least in my circle of friends. I do my best to spread the word because this show deserves to be watched by all. The show is based on Baltimore, MD and the drug trade. The best part is that the show successfully shows points of view from the drug dealers and from the police. And with that you grow to love both the dealers and the cops in the show.

The cops: Daniels, Carver, Herc, McNulty, Freamon, Kima, Bunk, Sydnor, Prezbo, Ralls, Jay, and Bunny Colvin. These are the men in blue that you grew to love over the 5 seaons.

The dealers: Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell, Slim Charles, Prop Joe, Bodie, D'angelo, Poot, Michael, Naymond, Wee Bay, Omar (awesome), Bubbles, Marlo Stanfield, Chris Partlow, Snoop, Cutty, Cheese Wagstaff. These were the "ganstas" of the show. They would put a bullet in your dome without hesitation.

Then there were just those involved such as the politicians: Clay Davis, Thomas Carcetti, Frank and Nick Sobotka.

When you think about it, this is an awesome list of characters and I'm probably only scratching the surface. But over the course of 5 seasons, we got to know all about these characters. You almost grew to love them all, no matter if they were good or bad.

The show is basically 1 huge movie that never gets boring. Season 1 starts us out in the project apartments where the low level slingers do their work. You are introduced to the middle management in the drug trade and the 2 kingpins that put it all together, Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell. Together, they took over the best drug areas in West Baltimore and started an empire. However, they felt constant pressure at the top because their product was sub-par and they knew it. However, they held the best real estate and that's what kept them going. Meanwhile the police start a new investigation unit and Barksdale is the #1 name on the list thanks to McNulty stirring up a little shit as he always does.



Season 2 was my favorite by far. This season takes us to the docks and explains how the drugs get into the country and how they make it into the hands of the dealers. The dock workers are an awesome group of characters in themselves. Nick and Frank Sobotka were my favorite characters of the entire series and they did all their work in season 2. The cops end up chasing down dock workers, but find out that the rabbit hole goes much deeper as they get into some real gangster stuff.



Season 3 takes us back out into the streets. Avon is back in business and wants his corners back. However, while in jail, Stringer has been running things more like a business and business is good. Stringer is more worried about getting in a connect to the good dope while Barksdale is looking to get his corners back. The cops are still chasing Stringer, but he's keeping his nose clean by doing more and more legit business, distancing himself from "The Game". This season introduces us to the politics of Baltimore. The politicians are even more criminal than than the drug dealers.




Season 4 stays in the streets, but gives us more of a perspective from the children's standpoint. With Avon and Stringer out of the picture, new blood Marlo Stanfield takes over all the good real estate. All the drug dealers form a co-op as well, getting a good connect to the best dope and pooling their money together to get the high volume deals. Marlo resists this co-op because he is a gangster at heart, but eventually goes along with it. However, he's constantly looking for a way to go out on his own. This time, the cops are chasing Marlo and his crew. A crew which is putting down a lot of bodies, but nobody can find them.



Season 5 is the final season of the saga. This season is more from the media side of things as we get a glimpse into the Baltimore Sun. we see that some of the children from season 4 have grown up and gotten into the game, some have gotten out. McNulty and Freamon are tired of the Baltimore PD's financial difficulties handed down by the mayor. They device a scheme to fund their own investigation into Marlo Stanfield to take him down once and for all.



If you've never watched The Wire, you are missing out. Fuck The Sopranos, Lost, 24, Grey's Anatomy, ER, whatever. The Wire has them all topped.

I hate my job part 98723562

I'm back to the office today and each day I rot in this hole just provides more motivation for me to grind out poker hands. I didn't mind the job when I was out on the road and not getting bombarded with tech support calls, interruptions from co-workers, and aggravation from the boss. I was doing my own thing. Then today comes and it sucks again. Yay!

I'm struggling to find poker time these days too which sucks. I had anticipated being able to grind out a ton of hands in the motel room Monday night, but I couldn't get the wireless internet working. Instead I watched a bunch of episodes of Family Guy.

Yesterday, I didn't get home until later and by the time I got settled down, it was almost bed time. So again, no poker. Tonight is bowling night which leaves zero time for poker.

Thankfully Thursday is just around the corner and so is grinding. I'll just have to wait it out until Thursday. Then I'll probably play as many hands as I can get in before Lost comes on. Friday I'm not sure about and Saturday, I might be able to play some later.

One thing I'm planning on doing Saturday is beginning the renovations on my poker office. I'm going to move everything out and start painting the room. Then I need to score a desk. I already scored a brand spanking new water cooler for the office. It's pretty sweet! I just need water for it. Total price...FREE! My mother's office throws away a lot of stuff like that for no good reason. I'm hoping they decided to get rid of a fancy executive desk soon!

Home Sweet Home

Well, the installation went off and was tough as I expected. I had everything going so damn smooth until about 5:00 yesterday evening. Just as I was about to make the new server live, they decided to do some housekeeping on the conglomerate of network cables (not my mess). This, in turn, broke everything. So then, I had to spend two hours last night weeding through tangles of cat 5 and guesstimating which patch panel port went to where. Awesome.

I'm not playing any poker tonight. I'm wore out right now and American Idol comes on in 30 minutes. I also have the last episode of The Wire to watch, plus a couple of movies from Netflix. Speaking of that, American Gangster wins the award for most boring gangster flick ever. What a turd that was.

Spring Forward

The roads got pretty treacherous last night, but I still made it to the Club to watch my favorite local band, Pieces of One play. They sounded pretty good with the new drummer and all. One thing that the show made me do is want to pick up the guitar again and bang on it a little bit. I might try to work on learning a new song today or something. Heck, I might even break out the electric guitar.

I never got a chance to play any more poker yesterday. A bunch of family came in and I had to go to a gay baby shower. It was pretty much hell all around. I felt like I was being punished for something. I love my immediate family, but as the branches go out on the family tree, everyone just seems so fake. I did find out that I have a 2^nd cousin who works as an FBI agent and lives in China. I thought that was neat. Then I also wondered who the fuck comes in from China to go to a baby shower?

I do plan on playing some cash games today as I'm hiding out from various family members lurking about the town. I also plan on playing the Loose Change Freeroll today at 3:00. Go big or go home is my method of play in that game. It's just such a huge EV tournament with only a couple hundred runners, a $5000 prize pool (or more) and ½ of the field sitting out. Unfortunately, I suck and can't get anything going in it.

I'm going out of town tomorrow. I was originally scheduled to be out of town for 3 days, but it has been trimmed back to 2. However, Monday night in a motel in a boring town = LOTS of poker. I just need to remember to pack my mouse. Playing with the laptop touchpad puts me on life tilt.

I really need to go to the grocery store, but I don't feel like putting up with the Sunday crowd. Plus the grocery store here sucks. I want to take the 20 minute trip down to Virginia and shop at the store across the border. I'm on the lookout for the store that has the best cuts of steak. All the ones around here have little mini steaks. I want to find a store that sells Man's steaks!

Lastly, I've been researching Macs. I think my next computer will be a Mac. There really is not much reason to stick around with Windows anymore. They pretty much ruined it for me with Vista. I really expected Vista to be the release where they caught up with Apple in the interface and stability departments and have failed miserably on both accounts. Let's face it though, the stability thing will never happen when you're going up against a FreeBSD based operating system. Unix > Windows every time! In the interface department, Apple will seem to always have the edge as well. The user interface department over at Apple seems to be an intuitive bunch of people. Whereas, the UI Dept at Microsoft seems to be a bunch of monkeys trying to decide how to add a few more security warnings that the user must click on. "Are you really really really sure you want to delete this email?".

This is how I get there?

This is a follow up to my Where do you want to be in 5 years blog. In that blog, I answered where I wanted to be in 5 years, but wasn't able to answer the question about how to get there. This post will hopefully be a gameplan for getting there.

So, how do I plan on living this free, hippy-style lifestyle that I lust so much after? I see 2 possible answers at this point in time: 1.) Winning the lottery and 2.) Poker. Since I don't play the lottery, I'm stuck with poker.

I've always won at poker. Reading my blogs, it might not seem like it, but I'm not one to brag a whole bunch in the blogs, because it's a sure fire way to piss off the poker gods and then cometh the hellfire, brimstone, and a huge downswing. However, I have always won at poker. Even before I started practicing bankroll management, I was a winner.

My problem is that 1.) I don't play enough and 2.) I have cashed out my bankroll a few times leaving myself with nothing left to build from. Now, that I'm at the end of the rope with the job, I'm going a different route. The bankroll is the bankroll come hell or high water. Nothing touches the bankroll unless it's to pay off a debt. I'm sick of being stuck in the donkey limits, making single digit per hour win rates.

I don't consider myself a world class player or anything, but I do consider myself much better than a lot of my opponents, even the better ones. I have worked on my game very hard the past 3-4 years. In fact, I bet I've put just as many hours into studying the game as I have actually playing it. Well, maybe not, but I have spent many an hour studying my game, others' games, and reading up on the game. Not to mention hands I've talked over with my poker playing friends.

I'm not sure if I'm good enough to make poker my sole source of income. That's why still don't plan to do that. However, what's stopping me from making poker my primary source of income? I could put in 25-30 hours a week without breaking a sweat. I would also have other sources of passive income as well.

Again, this is all hypothetical and definitely not my first "I wanna go pro" post. But let's say that I'm working up to this point. What would I need to do?

First thing's first is establish a bankroll. I'm working on that aspect right now and it's coming along slowly but surely. I'm spending less time in front of the TV and more time raising and folding. This has helped my bankroll so much. At what point do the tables give me a decent hourly rate? With the cost of living here in WV, I could definitely play $200NL full time and make enough to live. However, that's not what I want. I want to LIVE. Not as in MTV Cribs and Rolls Royces and shit. I'm talking about not struggling to get by. Being able to travel without having to "save up" for it. Stuff like that. So I figure getting into the mid limits is necessary. And that will require somewhere between $30K-50K in bankroll (for me to feel satisfield). Ok, so I'm 1/50th of the way there.

Next thing is to establish the rainy day money in case things go bad. I would need to have at least 1 year's expenses saved up in case I didn't make a dime at poker. I'd have a few months to figure out it ain't for me. I'd rather have $100K saved up just to be safe. So, we're talking about $130,000 and then thinking about it. Now I'm about 1/130th of the way there.

So, as you can see, I have these aspirations, but they are far from being reality. But it gives me a goal. Something to look forward too. If I can hit that $50K mark (which I'd really like to do by year end), then I can start seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

$130K might seem like a lofty number when your bankroll is 1/130th of that, but it's not a matter of "if", but "when" as long as I keep grinding and learning like I have been lately. I am working on my game constantly, trying to take it to the next level. Once you get to that next level, and then move up in limits, you start getting there exponentially faster. It's a tough road ahead, but one I'm willing to take at this point.

At the rate I'm going, I will die a young and unhappy man. Things need to change. I keep bettering myself in life, but don't get any happier. This might not even make me happier, but I guarantee you one thing. If I ever quit my job to play poker and it doesn't work out, I'd never come back. It would at least be the kick in the tail I need to pursue my dreams....whatever they may be at the time.

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

Have you ever been to an interview and been asked this question?

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"

It's a tough question. Every time I've heard an answer to it, the answer has been something along the lines of steady job, family, 2.3 kids, and a dog/cat. I find that answer to be a load of shit... at least from my point of view. But where do I want to be in 5 years?

Let me start off by telling you about the people I admire. My heroes and the people that I envy in life are the ones that do what they want, when they want. There seems to be no strings attached to these people's lifestyles. They don't worry about being tied down to a 9-5 job. They might still be working, but they do what they enjoy.

One example of a person I admire is Pauly. Aside from being a great writer, this dude is more admirable for his lifestyle. Don't get me wrong. I don't think what Pauly does for a living is a total vacation. But I can guarantee you one thing...he's having more fun than me. Some people might look at a free spirit such as Pauly and get jealous. I admire his life. I'm not sure I would want to do all the traveling he does, but let's just say his life ain't dull.

So where do I want to be in 5 years? The only answer I can come up with right now is that I want to be where I want to be in 5 years. Make sense? In 5 years, I want to be free from the ties of a 9-5 job (8-5 in my case with a 2 hour daily commute). Working a job is the one thing in life that makes me unhappy. I feel enslaved even though I have an easy job compared to 90% of the country. It's not really even the job that makes me feel like a slave though. It's the fact that I have to be here to get a paycheck.

What's even more depressing is that it keeps me from doing a lot of stuff that I'd like to do. I'd love to play daily golf tournaments during the summer. I'd love to visit various bodies of water and catch some fish. I'd love to experience Vegas, LA, New York, Japan, Australia, and a lot of Europe....shit...I'll even throw in Canada. I do get 2 weeks a year vacation, but that's not the same. A typical vacation for me ends up with about 3 days of fun and another 4 days of me dreading going back to work. It's sad but true.

I just want to do what I love. But what is it that I love? Let's see, I love to golf, fish, play poker, and listen to music. I love to hang out with friends. I love to visit new places. I love to be free. Basically, I'd love to be able to just wake up one morning and say "Fuck it! I'm going on a road trip" and then just disappear for a month or 2 exploring the world. But instead, I'm tied to this office and only allowed to stray away 2 weeks a year. That my friends is prison and not a life.

Basically, this life is sucking out all of my soul. I have lost all faith in humanity living for another 100 years. It's not going to be global warming or nuclear war that does us in. It's going to be sheer fucking stupidity and the fact that we can't do anything for ourselves. Once I'm in the office, I get bombarded with calls from people who can't think outside the box or even apply common sense to the business world. The business world is a joke in my book anyway. You have a few smart people leading the way with a bunch of monkeys sniffing their butts to get a paycheck every week. I guess I just don't like the smell of ass.

In 5 years, I'll be 35 years old. Approximately 1/2 way through a normal life. Have I enjoyed life thus far? I'll give that an astounding NO. The first 20 years or so was great. I was fed this line of bullshit from birth that if I get good grades, go to college, and eat my vegetables, I'll have a good job and live a happy life. Ok... I did the honor roll thing, got my degree, and got a good job, and I couldn't be more fucking miserable because of it.

"Just quit!" you say "And quit your fucking whining!".

I wish it were that easy. I might be happier, but I still wouldn't be able to do what I want to do because of the lack of income. How the hell can I get to Vegas or Europe without any money?

So where do I want to be in 5 years? I've explained that. Now how do I get there? That's a good question. I'm working on it. It's a baby steps sort of thing. I just have to keep looking ahead.

Bonnaroo!

Plans are being worked on for maybe making an appearance at Bonnaro this year. I was stoked to see the lineup. Metallica and Allman Brothers sealed the deal for me. Pearl Jam, I can tolerate. BB King?! Frickin' Sweet!

Relax

Last night was a good night for me all around. Poker went well and I just got a chance to unwind. Believe me! I needed it yesterday. The office job wore on my last nerve. I plan on doing the same for the remainder of the weekend as well. Just relaxing and unwinding. Anything to keep my mind off work. Because next week, I have a tough installation to do and I don't predict having a good time.

I started off last night by pulling up a bunch of tables on Full Tilt and just doing some datamining. While I waited, I fixed some dinner (nothing special...frozen pizza) and then watched a Stoxpoker video. The video was for motivational purposes mostly. I find that watching one of those videos before a session makes me want to play more. Motivation is good, right?

I started off quickly last night, winning a buy-in rather quickly. Then things got dead for a while. Then I turned into a total monkey for some reason dropping a couple buyins with a couple of horribly missplayed hands (on my part). Then I decided that I would either quit not or actually play like I had some sense.

So I decided to play like I had some sense. I induced a lot of action even though I was playing only a 24/20 style. That's not overly loose in my book. However, I did 3-bet a lot and I guess this was the trick. It seems like the 3-bet is one of the more powerful weapons at the lower stakes. Not many people do it. However, when I do it, even a lot of the regulars go stupid on how to play the hand and I get paid off with some weak sauce (when I actually make a hand). I also get sucked out on regularly too, but that's OK. I want them calling down light.

Anyway, I focused and played well for the duration of my session and things worked out pretty good as I won a few buyins for my efforts. It's nice to see some green numbers on Poker Tracker for a change.

I'm almost out of $25NL hell and would be if not for that damn water heater :) I can't really complain about my $25NL results though. Here are my stats so far for that level:




The full ring stats are way below expectation because I had a nasty run there at one point. I also have a hard time playing Full Ring anymore. I just don't have the patience, thus the dismal win rate.

I intend to play a lot of poker this weekend because the weather is supposed to be bad. I'm going to watch my Friends' band practice tonight for a bit and then play tomorrow night, but those are really my only plans.

I got nothing

Not much in the way of poker yesterday. I did manage to squeeze in a couple hundred hands.... at the limit tables. I know...cruising for a bruising and all that. The most amazing thing was that I made a profit. Again, not much, but it looks huge after my last few days of hanging around the dead even line.

As for tonight, the only thing I have on my schedule is to grind out some poker and watch Lost afterwards. I'm anxious to get back on the tables and kick this month in the ass!

I wanted to follow up on the 2 30-day challenges I have going on right now. First of all, the No Caffeine/Water thing is still going. By my calculations, I'm on day 19 of this challenge and doing good. I have been getting sick of water and turning to non-caffeine drinks such as juice and even a Sierra Mist at one time (ugh..who drinks that shit?). Overall, the only positive effect I'm feeling from this challenge is in my wallet, not buying a ton of soda. I drink mostly water that comes from my refrigerator door. Cheap!

My other challenge I have going on is much newer. Again, no real postive health effects yet, but I'm 4 days into my not eating out challenge. I've packed my lunch all 4 days this week and ate breakfast from the comforts of my computer desk. I've been eating mostly sandwiches and fruit for lunch. This morning I did have to get creative because I was out of ham and forgot to pick some up last night. I had a piece of steak left over from the other night that I cut up and put on bread with some A1...it was decent. I didn't buy enough stuff for sandwiches for the week last week, but I'll know better next week. I was in pretty good shape for the rest of my stuff though. I'll drop by the store this evening to replenish my lunch making supply.

I'm still contemplating a 30 day poker challenge, but have yet to come up with a good challenge to try yet. One idea that pop into my head is not looking at my account balances or profits for the remainder of the month. What do ya think? It doesn't force me to play a ton of hands which makes poker dull. However, it does force me to not be so results oriented and just play for the sake of playing. The only downside I see is how do I do it? I could just not pull up poker tracker, but I like to be able to review hands. This requires brining up the ring game menu. I also like to check my Ironman status, but this requires brining up the cashier window also. So I think I got a good challenge, but not a good way to do it.

USPS and Limit Holdem

I was cooking a ribeye last night and I use my cast iron skillet to sear the meat just like Alton Brown taught me. When I do this, it fills the house with smoke, so I open the patio door to let the smoke clear out during the cooking process. When I opened the door yesterday, I was surprised to see a big box laying in the middle of the yard. I went to investigate and it was from the FPP store. Sweet, my Stars schwag was here. I also found a letter about 10 feet from the box soaked from the rain.

I opened the box reluctantly expecting to see everything ruined from the rain, but thankfully Stars packed my items good. I got my Mercier poster and my Stoxtrader Limit Holdem book (Winning in tough Limit HOldem Games). As I was leaving for work this morning, I found another rain drenched bill laying in my front yard (on the opposite side of the house). I will be calling the postmaster about this problem!

I'm kind of excited to read Stox's limit holdem book. I still like limit holdem. I hate the results I get from the game and the swings it produces, but I love the fast action. I fear opening the book would open up that limit holdem can of worms again. That's OK though. I can still play well below my bankroll level if I want a limit fix.

Superuser Tuesday

In honor of Super Tuesday part two, I've decided to switch up my poker game a bit. Instead of going through the hassle of studying the game... Instead of putting my opponents on a range of hands and figuring my equity in pots.... Instead of calculating pot odds... Instead of doing all the things that make a good poker player, why not make it so much easier on myself? Why not invoke the SUPERUSER Code?

I thought about it long and hard. Sure this is a moral issue, but the money would be great! I could win huge tournaments and rape the cash games. Nobody would have an edge on me. To combat the moral dilemma, I could just donate like 1/2 my winnings to various charities. I'd be the Robin Hood of poker...ummm wait.. I'd be the Hillary Clinton of poker. I'd rob the profits from these greedy oil tycoons every time they sit at my virtual high stakes tables and I'd give 1/2 of it to the needy and keep the other 1/2 for myself.

Now that I've tackled the moral dilemma. How do I invoke my super user privileges? I searched 2+2 and even started a post. Nobody was willing to help. The information was not out there! I checked Mr. Google, Wikipedia, Ask Jeeves...hell, I even emailed Mark Seif (No answer). This was not going to be easy.

This would take some hacking. I started with the Full Tilt client and did a little reverse engineering. This led me to a portal where I could access the "server" side of the software. After some magical banging on my keyboard with both my fingers and my head, I was able to access Full Tilts main server! This is where all the magic begins. I was able to find all the sources and download them back to my PC without being detected by Full Tilt's security team. They were too busy chasing down bots on the penny tables to notice me. HDouble waved goodbye as I exited the server.

Once I had the sources, I relentlessly followed the code. These lines of code contained the answer to all my problems. Fortune! and if I get caught...fame! Then I came across a peculiar section of code. It had my screen name in it. Something about a perpetual doomswitch. However, after that...I found it. The Holy Grail of online poker...Full Tilt's superuser code. Could this be real? Only one way to find out.

I entered the code and was greeted with a "Welcome Scott Fischman" pop up window. This didn't surprise me much because I had read the code already (and saw the results of Sunday's big game). I then proceeded to sit down and challenge Phil Ivey to a death match. Well, what do you know...the first hand was dealt and I could see Ivey's hole cards plain as day. But were they really his hole cards or just a fake? I kept the pot small on the first hand and called down with my weaker hand...just to test the waters and make myself look legit. SUCCESS! I lost the hand, but I knew his hole cards. You are mine Mr. Ivey!

After 14 hours of heads up play, Phil Ivey and I were exactly dead even. What the fuck? I have superuser priviledges and still can't win? He folded every single time I was ahead. You've got to be kidding me! Phil Ivey has superuser priveledges too!! How far does the rabbit hole take us?

I decided battle between 2 superusers was pointless and a waste of time. I then dropped down and decided to play with Matusow. I doubled my bankroll within 30 minutes. After 2 hours, I was completely debt free. Another hour after that, I was calling in sick to work because I knew I wouldn't need that job anymore. I'm a friggin superuser and don't need no stinkin' peasant job! I cleaned Mike Matusow out by 5:30a.m.

My eyes were burning from the lack of sleep. My stomach was aching with hunger. Yet I couldn't stop. 8:30 a.m. rolled by and I was now a millionaire. By noon, I had enough money and started googling financial advisers. Then around 4:14 p.m., my body shut down from exhaustion. I had been up 48 hours and been on a crazy heater (self inflicted due to the superuser code). I passed out with my head on the keyboard for 19 straight hours. My keyboard was ruined from the drool. Luckily I had my laptop as a backup.

When I woke up, everything seemed like a dream. Had I really run my balance up to over $5 million? Did I really quit my job? Or was it all a dream? I went to check my Full Tilt balance and couldn't do it immediately because my keyboard was ruined. However, after firing up my laptop, I checked my Full Tilt balance and there is was... $5,001,327.98 I'm rich Bitch! Plus I had a couple hundred in rakeback coming my way as well.

There is so much I could do with $5 Million. However, I promised to donate half of it to charity. But why give away half of this money when I have no way of explaining to the IRS where that $2.5 Million came from? I'm guaranteeing myself a tax audit. Of course, I could just pay the taxes on the money. Only pros do that! I couldn't rightfully just keep the entire $5 Million though and not make due on my promise to help out the needy.

Then I was hit with a brilliant idea. Instead of sharing my wealth, how about I share the superuser code and allow others to gain their own wealth? That's the answer! So, for all you loyal readers, here it is.. the code that could change your online poker career and your LIFE forever.

Here are the superuser instructions:

1.) Log into Full Tilt as normal.
2.) Using your keyboard, enter the following code:

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A

3.) Once you open your first table, you should be greeted with this popup:

4.) Profit.

That's it. I require no compensation for this. I'm donating this super user code to the public absolutely free of charge. You are welcome.