I started blogging on Leggo in February of 2009. At the time, I was dead broke. living at my parents home in Jupiter, Florida. There I was... A broke degen with no college degree, tons of debt, no job prospects, and very little hope for the future. I had come off a terrible experience in France, where I busto'ed my roll and essentially ruined my rep in the online community. Life couldn't get worse. I was depressed and really had no idea what the fuck I was going to do...

Desperate for money, I scrambled for work. I went door to door at every business within 10 miles of my house (since I didn't have a car), to try and get a job. I remember it being humid as shit outside, dressed in long pants, tie, and dress shirt. I went everywhere, from Blockbuster, to Publix (grocery store), to Sprint, where I finally got an interview and then eventually landed a position. I remember how happy I was when I landed a job working in sales at Sprint. I didn't care what kind of a job I had. All that mattered was I had a job and I could start making money. For two months, I sold phones, kissed soccer mom's asses, and grinded out the 9 to 5. That feeling of happiness was short lived. Within no time, I started hating going to work every day. I felt like such an underachiever. A kid who had gotten a 1450 on his SAT, working at Sprint...WTF... I worked my ass off in that Sprint job, but eventually was laid off when corporate was forced to make cuts. Upon hearing the news, I couldn't fucking believe that I had gotten fired. I remember going into my bosses office and cursing him out, explaining how I was the hardest worker in the entire store and how I couldn't believe he had the balls to fire me.

Once again, I was back to square one. I had shit to show for money. All the money I had made at Sprint went towards paying down my debt. So to the newspapers I went, once again desperate for anyone that would hire me. I made tons of phone calls and eventually got an interview with a local oil and gas company. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world when I walked into that office the next day. Everything about the company was professional and the staff represented itself extremely well. The staff had a few questions about me not having a college degree but decided to hire me anyways due to my hustler's spirit (their exact words). I told them about poker, all about my experience at Sprint, I told them everything, and they hired me on the spot.

I worked at that place for one month. The people at the job were great. Hard working, determined, ambitious. In theory, it should have been a great place for me to work. But once again, it took no time before I started hating going into work every day. Telemarketing just wasn't for me. I was on the phone all day, trying to tell stock to business owners who hated pieces of shit like me who tried to sell them product they had no interest in. 99 percent of the people I called didn't give me the time of day. I fucking hated that job with a passion..

It was about this time that I decided to give poker a second chance. I had owed money to a friend of mine, many of you probably have played with: S U F F E R on UB. He had staked me for 50nl HU, money which I eventually degened off, prior to me leaving for France. I had maintained contact with him over AIM and he decided to give me a second chance, staking me for 10nl on FTP with a starting bankroll of $200.

So all the while working at this oil and gas company, I started grinded 10nl on FTP. Now mind you, my parents were pretty much banning me from poker and wouldn't let me play inside their house, so I had to play late at night when they were asleep. At the time, I questioned my parents' decision to not let me play poker, but looking back, I think it was more than reasonable considering poker had caused nothing but problems in my life.

So late at night, I started putting in hands. During my time at the oil and gas company, all I could think about was poker. I would print off threads from 2p2 and bring them to work and read them during lunch and any downtime I had. I was determined to succeed in poker. I remember getting off to a rocky start. I dropped I think 7 buyins of my 20 buyin roll my first night playing. I immediately started 12 tabling, since I knew 10nl was soft and that I could kill the games. I stayed disciplined and eventually ran my roll up to 1k playing 10 and eventually 25nl.

I continued grinding out micros until one night at 3am my father walked in on me playing. He had made a rule that if he caught me playing poker, I would be kicked out of the house. I didn't think he really would do so but sure enough he followed through on his promise. He also called me a scumbag for playing and eventually threatened legal action if he ever saw me playing again in the house. Now, at the time, I didn't know anyone in the area, so once again I was in panic mode. I needed to get the fuck out. I had approx 1k in my checking account and 1k online... The very next day I quit my job and decided to move to Michigan and live with a friend of mine and try to make poker work.

So up to East Lansing I went, where I stayed with my friend Brian. Once again, without a job. But this time was different. I had some confidence. I had just started playing nl50 hu again. I knew how bad players were at that level. And furthermore, I had found something I loved doing. I was determined to grind it out. I didn't care that I was a staked pro playing 50nl. I knew I was going to make it.

The first week I was in East Lansing, I made 2k at 50nl. Pretty crazy timing to run good, but damn I fucking needed it. Over the next couple of months, I continued to crush 50nl. I finally managed to muster up enough balls to start taking shots at 100nl. I experienced immediate success there. I started crushing 100nl. Meanwhile, I was working on my game like crazy. Doing everything I could to improve. After everything I had been through, I wanted it so fucking bad.

200nl was a bit of an adjustment for me. I lost 10 buyins or so when I first started playing and was scared to play 200 for a while. I eventually grinded that money back at 100. I should mention that my entire run at 50 and 100nl I was still being staked by S U F F E R. While this was cool in that I didn't have to worry about going broke, I was passing up a TON of money by not playing on my own roll. During this time, it was extremely hard for me to make money. I was playing micros, giving away half my winnings, while still having to cash out for rent + expenses every month.

Eventually, I started playing on my own roll, starting with 1k online. Once again, I ran good when I really needed it. Before long, I started crushing 200nl. It was about this time, that I was presented with the opportunity to go to Mexico.

Mexico took my game to the next level. Being around other good players inspired me to work on my game and just gave me the confidence to start playing higher. I lived in Mexico for roughly 4 months. With the help of Toocrispy, Lostnthesaus, Jaymesbond, Reefypoopoo, Robin Ripper, Jnuey, Slow Habit, and others, I started to crush poker. I started having 10k months, something I never dreamed of when I was grinded 10nl in the wee hours of the morning in my parents house.

For the last four...

Taking a day off from poker today so I figured I might as well post a long overdue update.

Been home for about two weeks now. After coming from the fast paced Vegas lifestyle, living at home has been a nice change of pace. I'm quite happy with how it's working out so far.

Over the last couple years, I've come to learn that balance is the most important key to success as a poker player. Eating home cooked meals, helping my mom around the house, playing video games with my sisters, all these fairly standard/normal family things should help keep me balanced. At this point in my life, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm very optimistic about the coming months. I'll be free of all distractions and can really dedicate myself to both studying and grinding lots of hours.

Vegas was pretty lowkey this year, much different than in years past. Our house was fairly far from the strip and we only had two cars, so we ended up spending the majority of time at the house. This was cool by me since I had already experienced the hotels and the general degeneracy of the strip. As shown in Probability's blog, the house was pretty sweet. I already knew Crispy, Nuey, Jeff, and Jaymes before Vegas but the new guys, David, Brad, and Greg were all chill and fit in right away, which made for a great group. Was also nice seeing Tri and Reefy again who I had previously roomed with in Mexico.

While I was out in Vegas, I was hooping pretty much every day at 24 hr fitness. My game has severely deteriorated over the years, but I still love to play. The highlight of the trip was beating Ae Jones, Anksy, and the Ashman in 5 on 5. I shot and played terribly but I did manage to hit the game winning 3 after several failed attempts. I think everyone in our house considers those guys to be poker legends/role models, so beating them in any competitive endeavor was pretty sweet. I think we cared much more about winning then they did, but whatever, it was still pretty cool beating a team of millionaires.

Poker had been going pretty well, until the last couple of days. The pattern has been crushing 100-400NL and then getting crushed at my limited shots at 600 and 1KNL. I had my worst losing day yesterday which obviously sucked, but felt like I handled it pretty well. All in all though, I'm pretty happy with my progress. I haven't been putting in that much volume, so my results haven't been super stellar, but my hourly is right around $75, which I'm pretty happy with.

That's all I got for now. Heading to Miami for 4th of July weekend with some friends so pretty excited for that. Later all and gl in Vegas/donkaments in July

After a 3 month long stay in Mexico, I am back in the states. It's been a nice change of pace in the sense that I've been able to clear my mind and actually play some poker. Living abroad is great, it's just tough to live that lifestyle and still be able to play well and work your game on a daily basis.

Poker has been going great so far this month. I'm taking shots at 2/4 and 3/6 again and am feeling confident in my game. I've moved some of my action off FTP and am now game selecting across multiple sites. For the past few weeks, I have been pretty good about studying poker. I think its showing signs of growth as a pro that I'm actively trying to learn even though I know I'm running like god. I'm usually pretty focused and motivated when I'm breaking even or losing but in the past, I've sort of just coasted and have gotten lazy during heaters. I just finished Let There Be Rage and am going to start Exploiting Regulars next. For those of you breaking even and struggling with poker, I just want to emphasize how important it is to keep learning. Keep working on your game yo.

Life outside of poker is also going quite well. Jaymes Bond just got into town yesterday afternoon. We had a great time at the Tigers-Yankees game, although we left after the 6th inning due to it being cold lol. Thankfully, we leave for Mexico in just a few days.

After that its off to Vegas. I am going to be playing basketball every day over the next month to try and get in playing shape. I was going fairly regularly with Jeff prior to hurting my ankle. That put me out for a good two weeks. Definitely looking forward to ballin with the new crew. We should have some pretty competitive two on two games. I have no idea how good Jaymes is but Crispy is solid for someone who has never played organized basketball and Jeff is very good. With Jeff's body type, you'd expect him to be a Corliss Williamson type player, but he actually surprises you, and plays a finesse game, relying on a deadly mid range jumpshot. I'd like to gamble in Vegas on three point shooting if anyone is interested. Not large bets, just $50-$100 per game or so, and I'd be willing to shoot against anyone. Looking forward to playing on 5 on 5 with some of u guys as well. FWIW, I'm pretty much looking to play whenever anyone else wants to, so just let me know.

Thats all I got for now. Take care and see u guys soon.

Hello all. Yes yes, I know I haven't blogged in two months. Sorry for the lack of consistent updates. I am a terrible blogger and much too lazy to keep up with a consistent writing schedule.

First things first, I want to to give attention to a post Lostnthesaus made in regards to an opening that we have in our poker house in La Paz for the months of of April and May. Contact me or Lost by PM if you are interested. http://www.leggopoker.com/blogs/lost...xico-7492.html

As some of you know, I came down to La Paz at the beginning of February with Toocrispy and lived in a house with poker players Reefypoopoo and Jordan "The Jem" during the month of February. Slow Habit (Tri), his gf Julia, and his brother Chau also stayed with us for the first week prior to Jordan and Reefy's arrival. The other poker house in La Paz consisted of Lostnthesaus (Jeff), Robbin Ripper, and JNuey. February was an amazing month. Cool people, amazing food, hot women, beautiful weather and beaches, and just all around good times.

Here is a video of me eating a hamburgasa on the streets courtesy of Slow Habit aka vietstunner. http://www.youtube.com/user/DailyVar.../2/X9MWVJ2ul4o

Midway through the month of February, I decided that I really liked La Paz and wanted to stay another month. My only concern was that all of my friends would be leaving, going their separate directions, either traveling to Thailand, or returning home to US/Canada. So far, everything has been cool. Even though it has been much more quiet without everyone around, I'm definitely enjoying myself. I've been spending most of my time just wandering around the city of La Paz, taking some pictures during the day, eating at new restaurants, going to the beach, and just taking in the sites.

I've met two different girls that I've gotten semi serious with in the month and some days I've been here. The first girl, Fernanda, I met at Papa's and Beer (a local club) on the night of my birthday during the first week we were here in La Paz. We had a VIP room and some bottles and everyone was dancing and having a good time. We started talking and went on multiple dates together. Her English is pretty decent and she has a twin sister named Natalia. Here are some pics of us at Sushi Zone

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/p3030022.jpg/

http://img517.imageshack.us/i/p3030007f.jpg/

The other girl I've been talking to, I just recently met at a sports bar that is not too far from my house. I approached Giovanna while she was working, serving me drinks night when I just randomly stopped in. Pics of Giovanna

http://img696.imageshack.us/i/p3060030d.jpg/

http://img341.imageshack.us/i/p3060037.jpg/

February was a good month as far as poker goes. Low volume but solid results. I played Robin heads up which was fun, other than the fact that he ran like god in all the big pots. Unfortunately, poker hasn't been going to well so far in March. I started out on a 4k downer, losing some at both 2/4 HU and 2/4 6 max. I've been playing some on Cake and have been mixing in some 6 max with my usual hu routine. FTP has been pretty meh. I've been trying to play more 2/4 HU but there are no games that run and I have been been running bad at 1/2. Even though I'm on a bit of a dowswing, I'm very confident in my game and know that things will turn around soon.

That's all I got for now. Now that I'm finished writing this, I remember why I don't like to blog any more. Wayyy too time consuming for my tastes lol. Anyways, take care and good luck at the tables.

Peaaccceee
-Kyle

First, props to Clayton for stepping up and calling FTP out on their current HU structure-

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...rarchy-685529/.

I would advise all HU pros or even players who just enjoy playing HU to support this initiative. It makes me sick to log on everyday and see the same usual suspects hoarding the A tables. It's no surprise that the biggest bumhunters are often the same guys who you see at these A tables. Guys like ProfessorK have completely manipulated the system to a point where he is sitting at only A tables from $1/2 through $5/10. The situation is obviously severely flawed and in need of change.

On a personal note, I have already accomplished some of my goals I set out for 2010. It's been easier than expected to get some of these things done since poker has been going quite well. Besides a brief 10k breakeven, I've been winning pretty steadily. I took a shot at 2/4 where I got stuck 3 buyins real quickly but battled back to finish up 3 buyins. Besides playing my regular games, I've started playing some of the deep hu games, which so far have been very profitable. I've been getting action from a reg who I am very confident I have a big edge on across six tables. His only stipulation is that when he doubles up on a specific table, he leaves that tables and opens 2 more buying in for 200bb. So basically what has happened is we start out 3 tabling or so and then we 6 table for a while and then I stack him on a bunch of tables and by the end of the session we are 2 tabling before he quits me

On the IRL front, I've been playing quite a bit of Fifa '10 with toocrispy over the past week or so. I fucking hate that game. I've been getting owned so hard. Inspired by the epic TRs, I'm thinking about booking Mexico for the month of Feb. I'm not sure if its going to happen yet but its looking very likely. I don't want to stray from my routine and my financial goals for the year but I think Mexico is too good of an experience to pass on. Plus, my birthday is coming up and it would be awesome to celebrate by doing something out of the ordinary for once.

That's all I got for now. Enjoy the football games today and take care.

-Kyle

Over the course of the last month or so, I've watched Dexter, Californication, and Survivor: Samoa.

I enjoyed Dexter and would rate the seasons 2>4>3>1. Dexter, himself, is an amazing character. Interesting, likable, humorous, what more can I say, he pretty much makes the show what it is. My one major complaint with Dexter would be the secondary characters. Simply stated, they are horrible. Deb is painfully annoying and every time she opens her mouth I cringe. Batista and Laguerta add literally nothing to the show. I find Rita to be incredibly bland and for the life of me cant see why Dexter is with her. There are a few secondary characters I like but certainly not many. I liked Lundy's character, the Trinity Killer, and also thought Oscar Prada got pretty cool once he started getting crazy.

Californication I sort of gave up on for a while, but I've recently started catching up with season 3. I'm glad that I did because its been my favorite season so far. Ashley Madison, the stripper from Hank's class is smoking hot. Certainly not as hot as Karen but still ridiculous nonetheless. For those who haven't seen the latest season, I won't give spoilers but Hank solidifies his status as The Alpha Male and an inspiration for all men.

I know Survivor isn't that popular anymore among college kids and before I started watching this season, I literally hadn't watched even a single episode since the first season. I'm must say, I'm glad I picked it back up again. I greatly enjoyed the new season. For those who have seen the show, I'm sure you watched the reunion where the question was posed: who played a better game Russel or Natalie? Imo Russel was completely delusion if he ever thought he was going to win. I'm not sure if Natalie's strategy was intentional (lets be real it wasn't) but her strategy was certainly revolutionary. Riding the coat-tails of the alpha dog seems like the optimal strategy. You ensure yourself a spot in the top 3 with subtle conniving while making sure not to piss any off so every views you as sweet and innocent come the final vote. EZ game.

Alright enough of the TV talk lol. So in my last post, I talked about my New Year's Resolutions where the common theme was to rid my ways of being a life fish. I'm happy to say I've already put the plan in action. I wrote out goals for myself with how I'm going to achieve my financial objectives and set dates to shoot for in regards to paying everything off. It's a good start imo. I'm reading a great book right now called The Success Principles (Canfield) that is giving me some interesting ideas and providing great motivation towards improving my quality of life. I've also added three additional goals for the New Year. I want to learn Spanish (probably will use Rosetta) so that when I am robust I can travel to Mexico, Spain, Costa Rica, etc. I also want to learn how to golf and will take a few private lessons once the weather starts to get better. My final goal for the year is to read 1 book per week. I have plenty of free time and I find that reading clears my head and is certainly more productive than wasting time on 2p2 etc.

One other thing I want to comment on before I wrap this up is how important finding an ideal sleep schedule is as a poker player. Over the past month or so, I've experimented with several different sleep schedules. First, I tried waking up at 10am which meant going to bed by 11pm. This seems to be the most normal schedule but for me it pretty much failed. The problem with waking up at 10am is that by the time the games start getting good (4pm-12am), I was already tired from working out + anything else I did during the day. I've found the ideal schedule for me is to wake up between 1 and 2pm. That way, I can wake up eat something, work out, take a shower, review my play from the day before, cruise the forums for a bit, and by then the games are good.

Alright this was kind of a long one but thanks for reading. Hope everyone has an enjoyable New Years and best of luck in 2010.

-Kyle

It's been a while since I've last updated. In the coming months, I'm going to try to keep it more consistent with the updates.

First things first, I went to Vegas for my friends 21st birthday and had a great time out there. I played some live poker, mostly at the beginning of the trip before I got burned out and reminded why I hate live poker so much. I played in maybe one or two action filled games, the rest were just filled with nitty regulars who wouldn't put money in without the mortal nuts.

As far as restaurants we went to, Naked Fish was bomb as advertised, while Lotus of Siam was surprisingly disappointing. It could have been because we got the buffet but I just wasn't all that impressed with anything I had there. We were very impressed with Diablo's, a little Mexican place right on the strip that had $3 dollar Margarita's and amazing steak and chicken fajitas. Noodles Asia was also very good, as was the Grand Lux Cafe.

Entertainment at the beginning of the trip mostly involved betting on sports at the Venetian. The Venetian Sportsbook was really great with comfortable seating and great drink specials. When you make a bet at the sportsbook, they give u these free drink cards, so needless to say, we got pretty smashed both Saturday and Sunday during college and pro football. I lost a lot of money on both USC and Oregon, but still had a great time. The main lesson I learned through this experience was if a line seems too good to be true, it probably is. Most of the time, Vegas simply knows more than you.

By the end of the trip, we finally had some girls to hang out with and by then, everyone wanted to just say F poker and have a good time. Anyways, back-story behind meeting these girls, I was chilling at the pool, reading my newly signed copy of Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball". I was sufficiently drunk enough at the time having just "Went Yard" to go up and introduce myself to three girls while I was of course alone, since Crispy and Brian had ditched me to go play poker. For those of you that don't know, "going yard" is the act of drinking one of those extra tall and hilariously overpriced drinks that you can get by the pool. Anyways, back to the girls, they turned out to be pretty crazy. One of them was batshit insane babbling all sorts of nonsense, one of them was a mother, and the anomaly of the group was fairly normal.

Other highlights from the trip include my freestyle in front of the 24 hour Denny's against this British Rapper. I felt like I held my own, promptly destroying him for the first couple of rounds before he completely obliterated my world with one punchline to finish me off. It was very fun though, one of my favorite moments from the trip. There's a youtube clip of it. I'll try to put it up soon.

Another thing that I enjoyed was slot racing with my friends. Basically, the object of slot racing is to see who can lose their money the fastest, while obviously taking advantage of the free drinks that accompanied it. We made propbets on the side and the first guy to get to zero was pronounced the winner. Well, let me tell you, slot races are incredibly rigged. My friend Brian won every single time. He also won every single flip to see who got to sleep in the beds, since there were three of us and only two beds. The first night I leveled Crispy pretty hard, since he was a retard and decided to sleep on the floor, instead of just requesting a cot. He was the only one of us who slept on the floor the entire trip. Overall though, it was a great time. Tons of fun and I can't wait to go back.

Since coming back from Vegas, poker has been up and down. It started off pretty terribly where I ran 14 buyins below ev in 4k hands, but since then I've been crushing. I've been pretty productive as far as IRL stuff goes, eating healthy and working out every day. That's all I got for now. Wish everyone GL at the tables. Take care~

Most poker players seem to think they understand the concept of variance. By the time you've become a winning player, you realize you cannot gamble above your means and must play within your roll to offset the inherent swings of the game. Yet, even though most of us have at least a basic understanding of variance, only a small percentage of players are able to think rationally and act logically when variance is at its worst.

There are two dominant attitudes among poker players. Those that are emotionally affected by variance and those that are not. The former personality type is far more common, even amongst winning players. Why is this you might ask? Certain players may be predisposed to handling variance well due to certain personality traits, while the opposite is certainly true for players who tend to get emotional and have a tough time dealing with variance. In spite of your natural personality type, my personal opinion is that with experience and due diligence, any poker player can at least improve their ability to cope with variance.

Take the cast from 2m2mm. The vast spectrum of how players handle variance is certainly well represented on the show. On one side, you have Krantz and Ansky, who clearly are emotionally affected by the monetary swings of the game. This is apparent in their attitudes both on and off the tables. If either player has a poor session, their happiness and overall mood clearly suffers throughout the rest of the day. I remember one episode where Krantz has to take a leave of absence from the show because he is so mentally unstable from losing money at poker. For someone who both coaches and plays the highest stakes online, this was pretty eye opening and seemed a bit ridiculous. On the other hand of the spectrum, you have Whitelime and Flawless. I don't think I've ever heard Whitelime complain about running bad. Flawless is the same way. When Krantz or Ansky gets emotional, I've noticed that Flawless actually tries making fun of them to show them just how absurd they are acting.

My personal ability to cope with variance still leaves a lot to be desired. One of these days, I'm going to film myself playing a session. I'm quite curious to see just how absurd my body language and temperament looks on camera. I oftentimes yell at my monitor or break things in an attempt to release my rage. I've been playing long enough where I thought I'd just grow out of this behavior. The truth of the matter though is it hasn't happened yet. In order for me to get better at handling variance, I'm going to need to consciously focus on controlling my emotions, until I get to the point where I am completely indifferent to my results. I certainly have a long way to go but admitting as such is a great first step.

I know I will have conquered my inability to deal with variance when I am satisfied with my sessions regardless of the outcome. Instead of going off the deep end when I lose, I need to think to myself, "so what, you lost some money playing online poker, big deal". Remember, its just a job, not your life. Treat it as such.

Hopefully you all can take something out of this post. Best of luck at the tables

First off, let me start by venting my frustrations. I have played 3800 hands in October and have been hit n run at an ungodly frequency. Every single player I face (both regs and fish) either a) leaves as soon as they double up or b) leaves as soon as I am regaining momentum and mounting a comeback. I am running almost 9 buyins below ev (graph to come) and even though my redline is higher than its ever been (I used to have the tagfish redline), I cannot win a pot at showdown to save my life. OK, /Whine.

I did however play an epic match the other night at 1/2. I caught the tail end of a tilting regulars session (he was running like Satan, I would have been tilted too) and immediately put my name on the waiting list. I was praying for him to quit and my prayers were answered when he finally waved the red flag and I had the fish and his 500bbs all to my self. I sat, ran like God, and had his stack in 67 hands. Now, this is all pretty unspectacular, but my reason for telling this story is because there was history between me and this particular fish. I had played him earlier in the day at .50/1 and he had amassed a 400bb stack (running like the Messiah) and of course, hit n runs me when he has to take his "pee break" and never comes back. So it turns out that sometimes there is justice in poker after all, just not all the time.

Besides some spewy calls, a few costly misclicks, and numerous nonsensical bluffs, I'm actually happy with how I've been playing lately. I've been studying poker a ton lately and even though my results haven't been great, I definitely feel like I am improving. I took 2p2er Irockhoes' advice to heart. Basically what he said, is if you really want to get good at poker, you need to spend just as much time studying the game as playing it. And that's exactly what I've been doing lately.

I know its pretty much blasphemy to shout on a non-Leggo coach on here, but I've learned so much from this particular guy that it definitely bares mentioning. Hunter Bick, aka BeachJustice, on FullTilt is an absolutely sick HUNL video producer and coach. As soon as I can afford his services, I am insta-booking sessions with him. In his video's, he talks about non-obvious ways to determine whether your opponent is a good player or a fish. The way to find out he says, is to look for the thin value bets. Any donkey can make a "sick" A high call or sometimes even call down larger bluffs, but it takes a good player to valuebet third pair on the river when it is correct to do so.

Another part of my game I've been experimenting with lately is overbets. I've found that overbetting works best when you a) have the nuts or near nuts and you are fairly confident that your opponent has a strong hand or b) when it's obvious that your opponent wants to go to showdown as quickly as possible. Thus far, its worked out pretty well. It's interesting to see how regs and fish adjust and how spazzy they can get when you overbet.

Oh and one more thing, I feel like a complete POS for not being a leggo subscriber. Probability gave me that one week free subscription and I was obviously impressed with the site's content, esp for someone who strives to move up to MSNL within the coming months. Furthermore, I am somehow a "featured blog member", even though I don't think this blog is particularly interesting or consider myself a very good writer, so to have featured blog status and not actually be a member of the site is just plain wrong. You rub my back, I rub yours. Probability or anyone other LP higher up that reads this, if you accept full tilt transfers, I will sign up tomorrow, guransheed.

What is up everyone? First things first, I'm officially done getting staked and now playing on my own roll. My stake lasted 165k hands and went well overall, but in the end, my backer and I had different ideas on the direction we were headed. I wanted to take shots at higher games and he wanted me to continue grinding low-mid stakes HU games. In the end, I guess everything worked out for the best. Since taking my own action, I've been smashing it to a total of +44 buyins between $.25/$.50 and $.50/$1. This breaks down to 13bb/100 in just under 15k hands. Even though the sample is obviously small and statistically insignificant, I must admit that I'm very relieved to get off to a good start on my own roll.

My plans for the month of October are to play at least 1k hands a day at the very minimum. I'm at the point in my progression as a player where I know I have a big edge in my games. These days, I rarely-almost never feel like I'm being challenged at 50c/$1. The mental side of my game, which has taken literally forever to mature, is finally starting to get to the point where you could categorize me as a sane human. I'm eating healthy and working out on a daily basis. I feel good as a whole and am excited with my progression. I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but I strongly feel that you will see me crushing midstakes HU within the next couple of months.

On the IRL front, I went to the Notre Dame Michigan State game in South Bend a few weekends ago. We had a pretty good time tailgating with the hated Notre Dame Fans. I'm pretty much a self acclaimed legendary bags player after my performance this weekend. I single handedly carried my team to propbet victory in spite of spotting our adversary 6 points. The particular tailgate we were at was pretty much the nuts, featuring a free open bar and tons of delicious food. The game itself was pretty eventful with Crispy almost getting kicked out after getting in a fight with some ND kid.

I have a trip to LV booked coming up soon and I couldn't be more excited. I've thought about this a lot and I've decided I want to play very little poker during the trip. If I had to breakdown how I wanted to spend my time it would be 1/4 sight-seeing, 1/4 relaxing by the pools, 1/8 poker, 1/8 other gambling, 1/4 restaurants/entertainment. Crispy and I have a total volume prop bet for the month of October and the winner has agreed to put their earnings on a single number in roulette, so I'll be looking forward to that, since he is lazy and I am obviously a lock. I plan on frequenting Naked Fish/Nobu, since I've heard nothing but good reviews about both places. I also can't wait to hit up the Bellagio seafood buffet, since that was probably my favorite meal from my last LV trip.

That's really all I have for now. Best of luck to everyone in their respective games and grind hard this month!