If you are a poker player, you can't really schedule your sleep. Sometimes it is because of poker, but frequently it is just because poker is a (relatively) low responsibility gig where you don't have to be awake at any given time (caveat: some things are only open for a few hours during the day-- the post office, doctor's office, etc.). People really only have sleep "schedules" because they have to get up for something or they enjoy a routine. I am not sure if I fit into one of those categories (the first, never; the second, from time to time).

I usually just don't really care what my sleep schedule is. It rarely matters. I travel a lot, I try to adjust it from time to time if I have to be awake for something, but other than that, I sleep when I'm tired. Sick life, eh?

My hours of slumber have been all over the place the last few weeks since I changed time zones a few times. I'm not too worried about it, I usually just book my next flight around it so I can sleep on the plane.

I find myself a little high strung before bed from time to time and am (half-heartedly) looking for a remedy. It's been watching Deadwood lately, but for those of you who know the show, that isn't the best late night formula (although it is better than playing poker**). I keep meaning to do like 15 minutes of reading or something before bed, but it seems like it gets my mind too active. I don't think I'm a warm milk kind of guy either.

I just wrote three or four paragraphs but my internet went out and I'm not going to write them again.

Cliffnotes:

Went to Alinea, fancy restaurant in Chicago. Was not overly impressed, although it was certainly innovative and a dining experience different from any I have had before. Was a really funny night in general.

My buddy has a place up in the River North of Chicago, in fact he just bought a condo. Seems like a pretty cool neighborhood, got me thinking what it would be like to truly live in the City instead of the suburbs. I don't really think it is my kind of thing, I really like having room and the ability to jump in my car and go wherever I want-- having everything in walking distance is kind of cool though. I'll probably never know what it's like to live downtown in a big city like that.

We've been grinding Mario Kart for several weeks now. It's cool playing with the steering wheel on the Wii. Luckychewy thinks it's the best video game ever-- butNahhhhh, that would be GoldenEye!

Check out our video schedule lately, it's pretty fantastic. I am always shocked when Leggo isn't mentioned among on top of the shorthanded NLHE category of training sites. In fact, I'm patting myself on the back right now... I think I might've just strained something.

This week I have been in California for LAPC, an event run spectacularly by Matt Savage. I played cash for a few days, a mix of 10-20 and 20-40, and was spewing so much that I'm pleased to say I probably broke even. I can't once remember thinking "Hmm, this is relatively close, but I think it's a fold" and then actually folding. I can remember making numerous calls, including twice when people were bluffing with the best hand, where I said "Fuck this guy, he doesn't have it!"

That is some splendid thought process by a guy who runs a training site, eh?

Anyways, yesterday I played in the $10k HU tournament which got only 36 runners. I wound up winning my first 4 matches. Quick recap: I drew Nick Shulman first and beat him in level one with two pair vs pair + FD all in on the turn. I then drew KingDan who seemed to outplay me (I kept having 94) pretty good but it didn't matter (he is the best in the world at ~40bb HU tournament poker, "self-proclaimed") because I sucked out with KQ to aces, and on his birthday no less! I finally beat Vivek/Psyduck to end the day. Those first three draws were probably 3 of the top 5 players in the field, and considering I was probably playing my B game I was happy to luckbox my way into the Final Four. I beat Michael Binger to start the day today, and then lost to someone named Chris Moore who seemed to be a live donk but I think I had a bad read on him because he played pretty clowny and 3-bet quite a bit. Finally, I had to play the winner of the Loser's bracket, Vivek (again) and lost to him when I ran an unsuccessful bluff and then got AK to KK for the other half of my stack. I ended up placing third and winning $45k or so. I am not really unhappy with the results everything considered.

I started to get sick last night, probably from live poker and traveling in general. I am usually pretty good about taking care of myself, but somehow it's all just taken a toll on my body. I will use tonight to get to bed very early and tomorrow to do as little as possible so I can rest up for the Main on Friday. I would anticipate the Main Event being extremely soft and getting a ton of runners.

The thing that I continue to notice about poker (and perhaps gambling in a more broad sense) is how emotional it gets people. I realize that for many people this is their livelihood (or perhaps their kid's college fund) so it is important that their hand hold up or they make their flush draw, but as a logical human being I can't ever imagine playing in a game where your wins and losses directly effect the way that you feel. As a young poker player I was certainly guilty of caring too much, but it's important to train yourself to only care about the things that you can control. A combination of only caring about the things that you can control and preparing yourself to control them to the best of your ability will achieve you great success in the poker world. I can't imagine getting so upset about someone making a poor play (that I want them to make) or the dealer turning over a card that makes my opponent's hand best (it was, after all, my decision to make the wager against his range of hands anyways) anymore. I'm 23 and in the poker world I am a dinosaur. How does one know he is a dinosaur in online poker years? If you are from the United States and answer yes to the following question: Did you ever play on Party Poker?

I've lived and done more growing up than most people do in a lifetime in the last 5 years. Poker teaches you about managing your own finances, how to deal with the stresses of a difficult job, and how to find a social circle in such an isolated business. I've achieved enough to be well-known and revered in my profession, something that probably takes 5 times as long in other industries. What did I do to deserve such praise? I'm not really sure, to be honest, but it's given me an opportunity to improve on yet another area of my life. Dealing with detractors is something that anyone with any success will face. The more success that you have, the more haters you will have; some rappers would say the correlation is as constant as money and problems. What is nicest about the poker world is that it's barely real. I was able to meet some people this week that it was perceived online that I had bad blood with. What a relief it is to see how cool people are and laugh about grief and anger everyone once had over the internet (of all things).

I'm certainly in the "Poker isn't gambling boat." It would be impossible for someone who is as good as I am and who has made as much money as I have to be in any other boat. However, it's a little embarrassing to see people (to whom poker is gambling) get so worked up. I see people in the halls of the casino bitching about bad beats to their friends on the phone ("I limped and then he raised so I reraised and he went all in and so I called because I had aces and this guy turns over jacks! What do you know jack on the flop it happens everytime!") and talking about how they're going to win this next tournament ("because the donkeys can't win everytime!"). I bet if you talked to every poker player you'd have 2/3 (or more) who are convinced they are a winning player, but in reality it's probably barely 1/3 by the time you pay rake and tip (and state taxes of California!). I suppose this isn't really even something that is poker related-- some people just need to realize what they are good at and stick to it. If they want to be a weekend warrior at poker, that's fine, but you can't play for stakes you can't afford.

The moral of the blog? I'm not really sure. Don't take poker too seriously, getting your blood pressure worked up about anything is almost always a waste of time-- getting it worked up about something that is out of your control is even less constructive.

On a final note, congratulations to Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger for his 10th place finish in the Venetian NAPT. He finished one place better than I predicted him to, and he three barrel bluffed it off which is even more admirable. Also, good luck to Ashton "The One Man Wolfpack" Griffin who is representing Leggo in the Venetian High Roller. He won his table yesterday over legendary Chris Moneymaker!

You know, that awkward time where people argue about whether the date is the 18th or the 19th. I'm out in CA at the moment for some LAPC and Vegas stuff. Mostly, I am just a lazy poker player who is concerned with nearly everything but poker, but I do plan on playing a few of the big events out here and maybe even some cash if I get ambitious.

Anyways, I'm here to complain and moan mostly. A couple of days ago before I got out here I had to get plates for my car (because they got destroyed in the mail, along with my title and other pertinent information. It is luckychewy's fault, don't get me started...), so I got up early to get my new title and then head over to the DMV to get plates. The plan was to get it all taken care of and get to LA in time for the Chinese Poker tournament (which I was pretty excited about). Needless to say, that didn't happen. Things never go according to plan, but I guess that is half of the fun (most of the time). I waited 5 hours at the DMV. I could not make this shit up. There must have been 750 people there (no exaggeration) and people were creating their own parking spaces. I'm just a midwest kid, but I've never seen that kind of volume. I ended up driving to LA the same day.

So now I'm in LA a little later than planned. I can proudly say that I didn't do a single constructive thing today except a half-ass lift, but I will call it a rest day after yesterday's fiasco. Even God rested on the 7th day!

This weekend I'm headed to Phoenix to play pick-up basketball on the Phoenix Suns homecourt. I'm pretty excited, although I'm sure I'll be drained after a game or two because of the added length. I'm sure some kind of trip report will come!

Super Bowl Sunday: Had just a few people over, played card games (not poker, obviously) before and after the game. Lost a very small amount, had a couple of good sweats, and would've lost a lot more had the Saints not won. Thoroughly enjoyed the Super Bowl though, and it played out about how I expected it to (high scoring game but not as high scoring as people thought it would be, first big mistake costs that team the game, Brees and Manning are both spectacular, etc.).

February 8th: My dad and my two uncles came down for my father's birthday. We went to dinner at a steakhouse and then to the Butler basketball game. Surprisingly, this is the first time I've gotten to see the Bulldogs play this year, which is a shame because they are fantastic. I will try to go to a tournament game if it's convenient, and I'll definitely go to a bunch of games next year (I've even though about starting a basketball blog and watching a ton of basketball next year in general). My family is crazy, at one point in time at dinner my dad said that this was like something out of a Seinfeld episode; a good time was had by all.

February 9th-10th: Went to my buddy's house and grinded a lot of Mario Kart for Wii. Thinking about buying it myself, but it doesn't seem like it'd be any fun without 3 or 4 players at all times. Also played some high stakes chinese ($1/point).

February 11th: Started lifting again getting over my lower back problems, although I'm still a little nervous about it. Stuck to mostly machine stuff and anything that didn't put a lot of stress on my core or back.

February 12th: Gosh, I thought I did more this week that was interesting, but I suppose I really haven't. I watched a little college basketball, watched a few Wire episodes since my roomate is watching it now,

February 13th: Spent an hour in traffic for what is usually a 5 minute drive to the Fashion Mall. I went there to see why CDs weren't working on my Apple, but there were a million people in the Apple store and no appointments available. I was irate because of the traffic and whatnot and I told the guy point blank that I bought two computers from this location in the last two months and was planning on using Apple for my business computers, he didn't look like he cared so I just left. I'm still pissed about this although I guess it is my own fault for not calling. I used to think there wasn't much traffic in Indianapolis, but with it growing as fast as it is and the construction going on, it's pretty annoying (I'm also used to being out at weird times and late at night, you can't really complain about traffic if you're hardly awake when other people in the real world are awake).

Finally, I need my loyal blog readers to pick my next series for the traveling I have forthcoming: Deadwood or Six Feed Under? I don't know much about either show but I've heard that Deadwood got cancelled early so it doesn't have a "real" ending, which is kind of weird to me. Also, please don't post your own favorite show, no one fucking cares what your favorite show is, it's strictly between these two shows.

Anyways, first series to 3 votes will get DL'ed on my itunes and watched on my flight Monday. Do not post spoilers in the comment section of my blog, I will delete them and perma-ban your ass from Leggo forever (I can do that, you know), even if you are a coach.

One of our newest Leggo coaches, boywonder, has ventured into The Cage to answer all of your questions about him and his poker game. I mention this for a few reasons.

Ben posts screen shots of his success and claims to win at rates that people hadn't won at over large samples since 2007. Because of the nature of making poker videos, he has decided not to make public his screen name on his primary poker site(s). This is a decision which we respect here at Leggo: from my experience in working with Ben, his ability to articulate thoughts make him a valuable asset making videos at any stakes on any site (or power point videos, of course).

However, Ben has decided to release the name of his screen name to me. I have cross checked with his HEM and PTR in ways that I feel comfortable putting my reputation behind his results. Ben has indeed won greater than six figures over several hundred thousand hands at mid-stakes for a winrate of over 4 PTBB/100 (spanning over about the last 6 months, sick work ethic). These numbers, as well as his primary site(s) are kept intentionally vague to protect his identity (maybe his screen name should be Clark Kent?). I am flattered that he choose me as the keeper of this information and I'm also flattered that he feels my reputation is strong enough to fight the naysayers.

I'm very excited that Ben has agreed to become a Leggo coach since he was so sought after-- I felt like we signed a prized free agent. He gets added to such a stacked roster. I hate to toot our own horn (I don't actually hate it at all), but Leggo is crushing shorthanded NLHE cash games. What a bunch of great additions grogheadflow, shootaa, boywonder and oldjude have been to an already stacked roster.

A Second link to boywonder's Cage, because thats how legendary of a thread it'll be, believe dat.

OK guys, here's what we're looking for:

• Saints with the spread.
• Saints to win @ moneyline.
  
• TAILS (easy money)
• Under 56.5
• First score is NOT a Passing TD
• Manning Passing Yards > Brees Passing Yards
• Stover Points > Hartley Points
• Dallas Clark will score a TD
• Colts make first challenge
• Over 200 yards rushing combined
• Final Total Score Even
  
• Colts 6 Saints 1
• Colts 0 Saints 5
• Colts 4 Saints 9
• Colts 5 Saints 8
• Colts 4 Saints 2
• Colts 9 Saints 6

Yes, those are really the numbers that I drew. You'd think spending a small fortune on squares would yield a decent sweat, but my plan is pretty much to forget what numbers I have and hope I super luckbox something and come back to my Full Tilt account with some extra five figure sum of money in it that I did not previously have.

I just wanted to mention this quickly so that you guys can sweat with me (please help me use the power of positive thinking to win millions tomorrow). Also, I heard a rumor that boywonder was going in the Cage this week... I better start thinking of what to ask him!

Good morning faithful blog readers. I promised an update on how January treated me, and here it is.

Poker has been okay. I think I made about 100 in January between poker and coaching, although 2/3 of that was from the PCA cash. Still, given the fact that I spent the first half of the month in the Bahamas, I can't really complain with that number. I felt like I probably played my C+ game of poker. I started out winning quite a bit at 5-10 and 10-20 but playing badly, then I started to play well and run really badly. All in all, I think I might have won ~10k or something at those stakes with a decent volume of hands. I've started February doing more Leggo related things and less actual playing, although my results over a small sample have been good. I think I've finally remembered how to play poker.

In other news, I grinded out the first two seasons of Breaking Bad over the past few days. I have to say that I'm quite undecided about it so far (Skip the remainder of this paragraph if you don't want to see spoilers). On one hand, the storyline is fantastic. The acting is great, the pace is good; I am almost always compelled to watch the next episode, although they usually don't go over the edge to make cheesy cliffhangers. On the other hand, I have a problem with watching TV. I like when I can cheer for a character and I like when characters make good decisions (or, frankly, the decisions that I would make). I know, I know, most "good" TV doesn't allow me to enjoy it. [Sidenote: The Wire is simply an entirely different entity-- I look at the characters objectively, it has more of a documentary-esque feel to it.] However, it's really tough to watch Breaking Bad when I have such difficulty figuring out how I'm supposed to feel about Walt or Jesse. I keep wanting to root for Walt, but he keeps doing uncharacteristic things that make me question his motives and priorities. Jesse on the other hand is supposed to be a train-wreck, I think-- we want to turn away and pray that he turns his life around to reflect the upper-middle class upbringing that he was given, but we "know" that for the sake of the show he will pretty much always end up making a stupid decision. And finally, I'm a little uneasy about the way the second season ended. I usually like things to get tied up relatively nicely with a minor cliffhanger between seasons, but I felt like there were just a lot of things open for interpretation.

Before Breaking Bad, I watched the second season of Sons of Anarchy. My friend, a true TV-grinder who suffers from temporary insanity, told me that Sons of Anarchy was better than The Wire. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he said that, perhaps recency bias? Anyways, I'm sure he just needs a second or third or fourth viewing of The Wire, since it ages like fine wine. Sons of Anarchy is kind of cool though, sort of like the 'Sopranos on bikes' (I can't take credit for that comparison, I read someone say that on 2+2). If you've seen the Sopranos and not SoA, the comparison is rooted in the amount of importance of family, the impression that they give back to the community, and the ridiculous amount of stereotypes based on race (in SoA there is basically a gang for every race, LOL). I don't think I could really write as much about SoA as I could about Breaking Bad though, it's more bad ass than complex (although there are certainly some layered characters, especially the protagonist). The one thing I will say is that even though I was enthralled by S2, I thought it ended with just a little too much on its plate.

A week ago I was in a pretty good routine of lifting and playing basketball. I wasn't eating very well, but I had gotten over some food poisoning and was strong again. However, I think around Tuesday I was playing basketball and must've come down wrong after a jumpshot and threw out my lower back. I have no idea what is happening, but I was basically completely out of commission for a few days and I'm still in a lot of pain. I went to the chiropractor the last few days and am trying to stretch it out. I haven't really iced it much, but I'm not sure how much that would matter anyways. I guess I just have to rest it and give it some time, although I don't know how a problem like this will solve itself. I had never really had many lower back problems prior to this, although I have extensive neck problems and have also had major problems between my shoulder blades. It's tough getting old!

The Super Bowl is coming up in a couple of days. I'm going with the Saints with the spread and also the Saints with the moneyline. I think the moneyline is a nice bet getting almost 2 to 1 vigfree. I make it a point to not bet much on sports, but it's fun to have a little sweat... although I'd imagine a little sweat for me is a pretty big sweat for other people. I feel a little dirty going against the hometown Colts, but I'm a Bears fan. I guess a win would be "good for the city," but whatever. Really, I'm not cheering for anyone on Sunday, but I do think it's got the potential to be a hell of a good game. I'm sure the rest of February will be a fun month as well, and I head out to LAPC in a few weeks.

I'm sure you guys appreciate all the cool shit going on at Leggo, I definitely appreciate everyone (active coaches and members alike) partaking in the fun.

As promised...

The PCA is nostalgic for me. It was the place that I met so many poker friends. I first went 5 years ago. I played mostly 2-4 (yes I know, it is very rare for somewhere to spread 2-4 instead of 2-5, but they did) with a $400 max buy in. I lost my ass, then I won it back, then I lost my ass again, then I ended up winning money on the trip, somehow. I remember everyone nitting it up in these games, and I had just learned how awesome it was to bet-3-bet with a draw. Man, I was cool. I remember Jimmie Guinther and myself sneaking extra chips into the 2-4 game when we re-bought. We would have black or green chips hidden in our hand, and when we're rake in a small pot we'd fluff it up and chuckle as we raked it in, "Gee, that pot was a bit bigger than I thought!?"

Fast forward to 2010. This year the weather was terrible (violent winds!) and I was determined to make a run in the Main (since I couldn't lay on the beach anyways). I even told the gf beforehand that I was going to try and win the tournament (I did not quite do that last year, when I decided I would rather lay around and eat strawberries and whip cream off of her than win the tournament so I bet-3-bet bottom pair and a backdoor flush draw into middle set). So I did try to win the tournament, and I came relatively close.

When you actually try to win live tournaments, it winds up pretty much being a blurr. I woke up everyday and walked 20 minutes to the tournament room from clear across the resort. I was okay with this walk because I enjoy walking (and driving) by myself because it gives me a chance to think. Most days this was a pleasant walk, and I never rush because I like to be calm before a poker tournament. So, for four or five or six days or however long I was in the tournament: I got to the tournament, usually put on my headphones, and grinded a Chinese Poker application on my iTouch. I'd occasionally slide my headphones off to glare at someone or pretend like I was listening, but most of the time I was just feeling some Third Eye Blind or Jason Mraz or Billy Joel.

I did this day in and day out. About every level or so I would play a moderately interesting hand or I would bluff off some chips. The latter happened more than the former, but I won enough flips and got enough coolers that I was able to cruise down to the final 3 or 4 tables I think. I wish I could tell you some awesome and detailed report like Craig or Clayton or Jay might, but I can only remember a few things. I didn't have a bunch of chips until day three or four. I got a bunch of them and then I gave some back by getting coolered. I hovered until the day that I busted, where I ran it up to over average, played a few hands badly, got QQ to TT on T84r to put me back down to ~20 bbs, and then lost a flip with KJss to tens preflop-- ten in the door! (How's that for Reader's Digest condensed version?) Close friend of www.Leggopoker.com Jimmie Guinther got just a little bit further than I did, as did Luc, (Eagles, who keeps a blog on Leggo).

The rest of the trip was just okay. The 15% mandatory gratuity that is added to everything is really annoying. It's sort of a chicken and egg thing-- did the people who work at the Atlantis start giving shitty service before the 15% mandatory gratuity was added or was the 15% gratuity added which made the Atlantis employees even lazier? I remember Jimmie getting a bottle of Dom last year for like $400 and then guy who literally reaches up 2 feet and hands him the bottle also charges 15% grat... seriously?

The eating establishments there are okay, but again the service is terrible. I guess I am so used to the competition in Vegas that I forget what happens when there is a Monopoly and it's nearly irrelevant how they treat their guests because the Atlantis owns all of Paradise Island.

Our room was pretty nice since it was in the Cove, but if we hadn't gotten the Poker Stars rate for those Cove rooms, it would've been pretty poor value (I think Cove rooms normally go for ~$800 a night). As it is they really weren't that great, but you're pretty much just paying for the location. We had a pretty nice view and the room setup was nice, I guess I am just being a complainer because for $800 a night I assume there will be someone available in our room to rub my feet and slob on my knob at all times.

I think there was about 1.5 days of good sun in the 10 days we were there. That is a pretty poor ratio, and it was definitely the worst weather I've ever had while I was down there. I might be a bit biased, but I would really like to go somewhere sunny right now. Granted it is a 'brisk' 21 degrees in Indy right now, but I just think my life would be better if I could leave my fucking house.

Poker has been a little different this month, I thought it'd be fun to grind some 5-10 and 10-20 to try and start playing better, but that hasn't really worked. Coaching has been good though and a welcomed change of pace. My next blog will likely detail my results this month since I have been on the grind. Hopefully, if I play well enough, I'll get to record a few more sessions of me 6 tabling 5-10 6m. Those games have been fun, but have played relatively nitty I think.

I'll go ahead and tell you right now though that my next video is me playing Rush .5-1 on Full Tilt. It's not even really an educational video, it's just me spewing a zillion buy ins left and right and talking about how quickly I can lose my money... definitely poker entertainment more than anything else. Until next time...

Following my PCA cash for $66,000, I've decided I'm not going to play any poker in January. I am just not playing well. I think about stuff well, but my self-control and concentration is not where it should be. I have gotten sloppy (I talked about this in my previous blog).

The good news is my mind is still sharp as a tack. So, I've decided I'm going to do two things in January. First, I'm going to coach-- as much as I possibly can. I'll be coaching for $1200/hr, but will bump it down to $1100/hr for those who book five sessions in advance. Additionally, if you bought the Memoirs or are a Leggo coach, I will coach for $1000/hr. I will be doing this starting Friday, January 15th until Saturday, January 30th. I am on EST (which I believe is the Poker Stars clock time), and will be coaching from around noon to around midnight, whenever I have people scheduled. So if you're interested, send me a PM and we will book something right away (there will be some exceptions on weekend nights when I'm busy and won't be able to coach). I usually am not interested in coaching and give people some BS excuse about why I don't want to do it, but for these two weeks I'll be pumping out the information into the online poker community. I will coach HU or 6m.

A few things:
1. I am not interested in staking anyone or doing any profit sharing.
2. If you cannot afford 4-figures an hour, do not PM me. I do not want to hear someone PM me and say, "Man, that was like 1/4 of my bankroll! I thought I would learn how to do magic with your coaching! You are the devil!"
3. Please come prepared. Have something to talk about and a list of questions for downtime (or some hands to go over). You will get out of the coaching what you put into it-- but you can't just be like "Hey Aaron, can you talk about Global Warming?" because a. I don't know anything about global warming and . The question is not very specific.

Second, I'm finally going to get around to making a 6 tabling 5-10 video. I think I'm going to play 10,000 hands of 5-10 in January (this doesn't count as playing poker since it's not 25-50+ HU ) in order to "prepare" for this series of videos. I want to get a lot of footage and only put the most interesting parts in (well, realistically I would like it to be a good mix of boring grinding and exciting big pots and weird situations). Anyways, I just want it to be an awesome video series. Not sure what you should expect the first one, a week or 10 days I'd imagine.

Finally, I will have a little bit of a trip report from the PCA I suppose and a little video of the view from our room when my next blog goes up, but to be honest I spent nearly 4 days of my trip grinding in the Main so there aren't as many great stories as there should have been.

Over and out.