I just made a video for you guys at 200nl 6m with some of my students from my group lessons and wow, what a head****. There was so much meta-game between all of us, it was insane. It was pretty rare to see a single-raised, if not double-raised, pot pre-flop and there was just general insanity everywhere. I can't wait to release it, hopefully in the next few days because tomorrow I'm going to Charlotte with some friends to party.
One of my friends got scammed out of his spring break, so we're hanging out and I'm trying (as much as one is able to in NC) to show him a good time while everyone else he knows is at a beach somewhere. We're going to get a suite in downtown and get bottle service at some medium-one man's Vegas-wannabe club, so I'm pretty excited. We also plan on rock climbing at Inner Peaks and shopping at all the high-end places, dropping buy-ins.
After that, I'm going to Tahoe to do some boarding. I plan on getting a lesson there and working on getting better. I think it'll be the trip before my last trip of the season, unless I start going to Canada or somewhere super cold. Well, I'm going to grind some and try to not think I'm playing 50/40 anymore.
This one cuts to Elky doing things pretty quickly:
This one's in German, but you can see a few more things go down.
Doyle probably would've pulled up a weed.
Incidentally, I just ordered delivery from a place across the street and I'm still in my pajamas at 330pm. I guess that's pretty standard, but I just wanted to hear you guys say you do that too
Hey guys, so I just wanted to say for those of you who missed my last post, I'm organizing a LeggoPoker snowboarding / skiing trip for sometime around the end of March or beginning of April. The location is kind of up in the air, so any suggestions are certainly welcome. I'm looking for something with an introductory park area so I can try to kill myself grinding some rails, etc, but not completely kill myself. Guys, if you're interested, leave a comment here or Facebook me. I'm going to make a Facebook group to keep things organized and so we can figure out exactly what we're going to do.
Secondly, welcome Nutsinho! Rich is the fucking man, so I'm pretty happy to see him making videos and being signed on as a LeggoPoker pro. Every time we talk about poker it's an eye opening experience. If you haven't seen his video, it's up now and it's very good. I gave it a 10.0 and learned a lot, which is a rare thing since a lot of videos are regurgitation of other peoples' videos. So, welcome Rich!
Lastly, and I can't believe I'm even addressing this in my blog, if you guys have seen the comments section of Greg's blog lately, it's blown up with people accusing people who offer coaching services to be scammers. Some of the worry is warranted after the entire Jason Ho scandal, but I think you guys need to realize the difference between teaching someone to lose at 400nl for like 100k and teaching them to move well beyond that for a lot less.
I'd like to take this opportunity to ad hoc reject each and every one of peoples' arguments that coaching is a scam (mostly from comments in Greg's blog). While I do this, I ask that you listen to this song:
Price The reason I charge what I charge isn't arbitrary, it has to do with my hourly rate. I think it's fairly obvious that coaching should be a mutually beneficial relationship and one worth both of the peoples' time. If you're learning to snowboard, are you going to cry at Shaun White for not taking time to give you lessons for the price a random board instructor costs at Ski School USA? Seems like some of you would. Is Mr. White going to tell an intro boarding the same things that the Ski School guy would? Maybe. He'll do it faster and better, but it's probably going to be tough for you to understand all his talk about how to do the perfect 1080 quadruple mctwist when you're just trying to stand up so you can get down the mountain without wiping out.
I'm no Shaun White of poker, but I'll say that I'm getting pretty solid and that I can help out 50nl players with their leaks as much as the next Leggo coach. I'm trying to offer nuanced advice to people who have leaks so small that they don't even know what they are and probably can't find them in a training video. Like their frequencies here might be a bit off, or you're misunderstanding why people did this, etc. I'm talking about things that someone else is going to have to see and understand by talking with them and seeing their specific thought processes in certain spots.
Experience Some people say I don't have enough experience coaching. I've coached over 50 different people and I've had one single person complain because I didn't teach a "style that he wanted to learn." I teach readjustments and ways to think about the game, not a concrete style of play or system. I think your poker style should be an extension of your personality and naturally work for you as you play, but also there are times, just like in real life, where that personality needs a little push to shine through. I'm not asking people to pay me to tell them what to think, I'm trying to help people learn what they should be thinking about and then go from there.
Student Success Level I've heard so many success stories after lessons, it's ridiculous. It's almost like a broken record now after a theory lesson. I'll get emails or see posts saying how much this idea turned someone's game around and helped their win rate so much, etc etc etc. I've never heard a single comment said about my coaching from a student in a negative way. More importantly, if I did, I would fix it immediately. I work hard to see that all these guys succeed and that haters can't debunk all my hard work with comments here or there.
Coaching "Hourly" I touched on this issue a bit earlier, but there are tons of other factors other than that one hour time slot for which people are paying. I spend so much time AIMing students, answering emails and PMs, making theory presentations, grinding math for students, and even IMing students to see if things are going ok, that that "hourly" you are criticizing me about is probably close to half of what you think you're talking about. I truly do care about my student's progression in the game, and I like to think it shows.
I didn't write out everything because I'm going to work on my book some and go see Alice in Wonderland with some friends. Hope this gives the haters something to think about.
So I just got back from this place called Snow Shoe that is in West VA and wow are my legs tired! Imagine the above picture +2ft or more of snow on literally everything because it had been snowing there for the past 2 weeks straight (ty global warming / snow gods). A few of my friends came over the night before we all left at 330am and asked me, again, if I'd change my mind and come with them. I did.
I only knew one of the six people I went with as an old friend from high school and from the wrestling team, but after a few 8 hour car rides and lots of near-death icy road experiences, friendships form quickly. Everyone except one other sir was skiing, with a great range of skill from those being awarded racing scholarships to those who were going for the first time. Luckily, I had a snowboarding buddy named David I just met who is a pretty cool dude. We spent most of the time hanging together and he'd wait for me after I ate it a few times here and there because I'm such a boss.
After we parted ways from the true beginners and the slopes / lifts were all groomed and in working order, we enjoyed the widowmaker a few times that you'll notice as the straight line of doom on the far left of the map of the resort. I'm still kind of meh at boarding and so I had to plow down the beginning when it was ultra steep most of the time. A few times, I said f**k it and just decided to carve it up as best I could. Once I had a close call and once I was nearly widowed with a broken tail bone. Everything's still in working order and I feel like I got better again, so all's well.
I have a few students and former students who like to board, so I'm hoping to get a trip going soon. Maybe something ala CTS where I talk about 3 betting for a few minutes in exchange for some boarding lessons Half-kidding. So LMK if you want to set up something (jaymes, brandon, whoever!) after I get back from Tahoe / NYC, which should be late March.
I've sent out a PM explaining how I'm going to do the group lesson video thing and the time for which I'm shooting. Poker is going well, nothing surprising really anywhere, still making some money, still teaching up a storm.
I don't want the winter to end so I can keep boarding... I also can't wait for Vegas this summer! Tough life / must be nice.
Hey guys, specifically members of my group lessons! I want to see if there's any interest in doing a video in which we all play one another? It would be fun to get owned by things I showed you to do
So lately, I've just been grinding the big 4: book, gym, poker, and coaching. I haven't been on pace with the book, but everything else is going fine.
I'm not grinding the other 3 enough because I spent the weekend volunteering at my high school because we held the NC private school wrestling state tourney this year. It was awesome to see all the little dudes who were 80lb 7th graders my senior year just destroying people. I saw a lot of people's younger brothers, people I'd wrestled and befriended from other schools around NC, wrestling, too. I love how the sport pretty much forces you to find something inside yourself and put it on the mat. Although most of the time it doesn't seem like a team sport, the camaraderie and selflessness found within the sport are lifelong bonds. Everyone has so much respect for each other, it's an awesome thing to revisit.
Poker has been going pretty well lately. I had one pretty bad session that I followed up with a good session. I had a few hands in which I think I've been missing some thin value and so I've plugged a few leaks in my game in the past weeks, which is nice because it's increasingly rare that something pops up that's recognizable without grinding a lot of math or opponent specific reads + math.
Here's a tough hand I just had that I posted in the HSNL strategy forum.
I keep being happy about my results as of late, but I'm even more excited how close I am to being able to beat 5k for a decent clip. All of those guys are very good and I'm pretty certain I have what it takes to be winning in those games for a decent amount. I'm doing a pretty shitty job this "month" about putting in hands. It sucks that there are only 28 days and that I've been busy for a lot of those days doing non-poker and non-poker playing poker things.
I bought this movie:
Billy Zane plays The Phantom. Need I say more?
Anyways, I'm feeling great about things lately and I'm excited because I have some fun traveling coming up soon. I'm going to go to Boston to hang out with some poker buds who play higher than me, hopefully learn a few things from them and party off our faces. I have a snowboarding trip planned for Tahoe and I'm supposed to visit one of my best friends in NYC where I plan to light a lot of money on fire buying tons of great food and drinks and custom suit things.
Hey guys, just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that the sign ups for my group coaching program are stopping for the next two months after the 14th of February.
If you guys need some more details, check out my first blog post about it HERE. If you have any questions that aren't answered there or want to hear some more testimonials from former students, feel free to PM me or email me at shootaa@leggopoker.com .
Take care guys! I'm looking forward to getting these groups up and running.
UNC lost 64-54, but the game was very close up until the end. I was expecting a huge blowout, tbh. Both teams played pretty terribly at times and UNC is definitely very young. I'm looking forward to seeing them two years from now for sure.
After the game I went out with my buddy Jon and met some friends at Top of the Hill. I tried some interesting drinks including a Nergroni, which I'm going to try making on my own. If it's still as bad as the one I had at toppo, gg that drink. I ordered this:
which is the quintessential bartender's guide to cocktails. It's survived almost a century now and was born in the era when cocktails were taken seriously. I'm looking forward to reading up now and I'll leave you guys with what I've found to be my favorite drink so far.
Reid's Old Fashioned
1 cherry
1 cube of sugar
lemon zest
1 orange slice
1-2 dash of angostura bitters
2oz Baker's Whiskey
1 splash of soda
Muddle the cherry and cube of sugar until there are no more sugar crystals. Add the bourbon, angostura bitters, and splash of soda water. Stir with a long spoon. Place the orange in along with the oil from the twisted lemon zest and the lemon zest into the drink to preserve clarity of the drink. Serve warm.
Hope you guys enjoy.
-Reid
BTW, group lesson sign up and payment deadline is coming up... it looks like I'm going to have three groups this time, which is pretty great. GL all you MSNL people who didn't sign up because you're about to get blasted with awesomeness.
Hey guys. I'm coming at you to let you know that the first group of two for my group lessons has filled and that there won't be much more room for sign ups for the next few months as I'm taking five more lucky souls to robusto land. So PM me, email me, 2p2 me. Hurry up or you'll miss the boat and it'll be a more expensive ticket next time the ship docks (how long can I keep up the boat metaphor?)
Here's my last blog post if you guys need some information about how things are going to work in the group lessons as well as descriptions about signing up and some former student reviews of my group lessons. Lesson description and reviews.
I allllllllllmost got back onto a good sleeping schedule thanks to some later afternoon super bowl alcohol consumption. But after going to bed at 11pm, I woke up at 330am wide awake. I guess my body thought it was a nap. So I wrote a few pages in my book, for which I need to do a lot more work. It's cool though because I can see the final product starting to come together and I'm honestly pretty impressed with myself about how it's turning out.
I've also been getting back into lifting since I've had enough of a regular schedule, meaning I've been at home and not flying across the country / world somewhere, to keep myself in check.
I've been re-reading a lot of my favorite book on lifting. It's not that I've read a lot, but this one is so amazingly detailed from tips on everything you could imagine like nutrition, specific exercises, weak-point training (not that I'll worry about that for another 15 pounds or so), and ways to pick up the intensity. I'm very excited because I've already put on about 5 or 6 pounds in the past few weeks, I've been eating better, and I've burned a bit of fat. So the plan is to be putting The Situation to shame in a few months by putting on about 15 more pounds of muscle and get up to around 175lbs (yes, I'm tiny).
Arnold is the man.
I think that's about it for now guys. I hope you're doing well and I hope you get yourselves together and sign up for my groups so I can help you to win more monays. Check out my new 200nl video that just came out, it's like a little taste for you.
Half-kidding. So LMK if you want to set up something (jaymes, brandon, whoever!) after I get back from Tahoe / NYC, which should be late March.
