Matt Blogs the WSOP: Out of Limit Hold 'Em

Date: Thu, Jun 12, 2008 Professional Internet

I finished in 27th, for my second mediocre cash of the Series. I'll write a detailed post in the next day or two. For now I'll just say that I had very few hands work out for me over the two days of this tournament, and am actually not too disappointed to finish 27th.

Worst month of the year starting.

Date: Thu, Jun 12, 2008 Professional Internet

WSOP month of course! Man I can't stand it. The cash games dry up online and everyone starts talking about donkaments. :) Tournaments bore me to tears for several reasons:
1. Someone always wins the main event and becomes an instant celebrity. Online poker sites have in previous years tied up the winner to a million dollar plus deal which says to me backers should be demanding more. :) I'll happily give someone 100% of my winnings if I get backed into WSOP events in the hope of making money off any sponsorship deal. After all the final table will be a few months after, allowing plenty of time to get some advertising on my cap and shirt.
2. Tournaments always overshadow cash games. No matter your achievements, the public always ask the same question, "Won any tournaments?". Actually more recently it's turned into "Played any tournaments on TV?"

As it is though, I spent a few minutes thinking up a nice T-shirt to wear next time I visit the casino. Maybe we can get it added to the Stoxshop. :p

I'm not bitter at all about holdem.... Even though it's the greatest poker game ever thought up yet even the shockingly bad holdem books outsell 10 to 1 anything on omaha.
This month I've been reviewing Omaha sessions sent to me, after I promised to review the first 20 sent in, 5 done so far, be interesting to see how many others get sent in. On the most part what interests me the most is how many people don't start the video at the start of the session. I'm sure they just pick the section where they think all the action happened. :)
Errr, post getting long, better stop it now, I think I've achieved my goal at getting Leatherass off the front page. No, wait, that's not possible. Well at least he will be down at the bottom for a couple hours at least. :)

Matt Blogs the WSOP: Quick Update

Date: Wed, Jun 11, 2008 Professional Internet

Today I'm playing day two of the $2k Limit Hold 'Em event. I'm 54th out of 125 remaining, despite a slightly below-average stack of 14.3k. I'll write more at the end of the day.

Homestretch to the WSOP Main event

Date: Wed, Jun 11, 2008 Professional Internet

Hi guys -

I've been busy working on stoxpoker stuff leading up to the WSOP main event. We are going to have a booth at the Gaming Life Expo July 3rd-6th, and also are sharing space in 2+2's booth as well. We have been working on ideas and details for all of that - we hope to make a good presentation so if you are around stop by and say hello. The booth should have some coaches in it pretty much all the time.

Poker has been a bit average - In may I made 15k in 29k hands, both being low totals for me - I ran at a winrate of 1.63BB/100, which actually isn't too much below my long term winrate (which is a bit over 2.2 at the higher games in NL), but I lost at the wrong mix of limits. June is shaping up to be more of the same, I am up 20k in 18k hands, so while I realize the money numbers are good, I have become accustomed to expecting better. I hope to improve this in June and going forward, we will see.

I got to golf at harding park in san francisco last weekend. What a course! It gets a ton of play but was still in very good shape. The greens rolled very true and I made 3 birdies. I still shot a dismal 85 though - I'm feel like I'm close, but I'm just not putting up round in the 70s consistently yet. This summer may be my breakthrough summer.

Stoxpoker continues to grow and thrive and we are always on the lookout for new talent - if you or anyone you know might make a good stoxpoker instructor, please contact us as we would like to add some more coaching talent to our roster. We have a bit of an interview process - just fair warning.

I have a lot of video ideas in the queue but it will take me some time to make them so be patient please! I plan on doing part two of my recent LHE vid soon, then I will be making a 2 part low limit NLHE video, and a video on personal finance and investing.

You can discuss this blog here:

http://stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?p=86696#post86696

I Believe The Mind Is The Best Weapon

Date: Wed, Jun 11, 2008 Professional Internet

The title of this blog comes from the first 10 or so seconds of this you tube clip from Rambo First Blood Part II. There is no need to watch past the first 10 seconds unless you are as big of a Rambo fan as me…lol

Rambo is one of my favorite movies of all time and this exchange between Murdock and Rambo is one of my favorites. Murdock is proudly displaying all of this great equipment and says that he can just let the equipment do all of the work. Rambo says, "I believe the mind is the best weapon" and Murdock replies, "Times change." Rambo, having nothing of it, says, "For some people." I too believe the mind is the best weapon. The world is chock full of gadgets and various things that make life easier. But the mind is and always will be your most valuable asset. I heard a quote this weekend that went something like, "Back in the day people did a lot with a little and now they do a little with a lot." I have noticed that to be absolutely true in general terms. So many people these days are afraid to roll up their sleeves and do some work. They want everything else to do the work for them and that kind of attitude simply won't take a person to the top. Sure, you can skate by, but with only one life that you will ever get to live here on earth, don't you want more?

Of course the ultimate marriage of assets is to combine skill, all the latest and greatest gadgets and the ultimate weapon, your MIND. I think for people that are truly going to be the very best that they can be, they are going to be the ones who hone their skills with all of the technology now available and train their mind to be the best weapon it can possibly become. As you guys likely know from reading Jared's recent blog from a few days ago, we plan on giving you every tool necessary in our upcoming book. I am excited about it not only because it will be a fun project, but for everyone who reads it as well. We are going to give you the skills both for your poker game through my no limit instruction as well as for your mind which will be Jared's part in the book. When you guys finish reading this book you will have all the tools to make your mind the greatest weapon.

Some people pretend that the mental game in poker is not that big of a deal. Then on the flip side a sports psychologist might try and tell you that mastering the mental game is the most important. I'm here to cut through the bullshit and tell you what it is really like. Without solid poker skills, the mental game is not very important. But strong poker skills also don't mean anything if you are making egregious mistakes on the mental side. Why is it that so many great poker pros go busto? It is mostly because they lack the mental skills to play at the level that their actual poker skills dictate that they play. What good is it to be a great poker player if a good chunk of your time is spent tilting off your chips when things go poorly? Or watching TV because you can't get the motivation to play? Or starting off the session poorly because you did not go through a pre session routine so that you can play your best from the first hand to the last? Or….well there are so many that I could fill an entire blog. Instead we'll just fill a book : )

The bottom line is that both sides of the game are of tremendous importance and that is why we are going to provide both. Jared is going to write in great detail a program that will allow you to make your mind the best possible weapon. I am going to provide no limit instruction which will be presented in a different fashion than a traditional book. I have long believed that the key to no limit holdem is to identify common situations that you find yourself in hand after hand. That was the key to my huge improvement over the past 12 months. I spent countless hours thinking about not the really difficult spots you find yourself in every 500-1000 hands, but rather the situations you find yourself in just about every time you take a flop. So the focus of my instruction will be taking you through the thought process involved with these common situations. I am not going to go too in depth on the math side of these situations as that really isn't my cup of tea. I am not a math whiz. Mine will be very user friendly, however, and I think that the overwhelming majority of players will appreciate that it will be written in a user friendly manner.

The focus of the book is going to be on Jared's system though. His stuff is going to have a greater impact on your game than my instruction ever could I believe. I have seen what it has done for me and it has truly been incredible. I am making strides in my game and my life every week thanks to all that he has taught me. If I didn't believe so strongly in what is has done for me, I sure as heck wouldn't be collaborating on a book with him. His many clients are also raving about what he has done. Quite simply, his stuff is the wave of the future in poker and I am proud to say that when we complete this book, our reader's games' will never be the same. If you think about any other sport, in the early days people improved in ways that we now know are not nearly as effective as what is available today. 50 years ago in golf, for instance, pros hit balls into fields and then shagged them themselves or had a caddie stand out there with a mitt..lol. Today pros have cameras from 9 different angles with a coach who has spent his life studying the game. They have lauch monitors and sports psychologists and physical trainers. etc. With football there is even a more pronounced difference over the last 50 years. While we believe that this type of stuff is cutting edge here in 2008, it will be mainstream and possibly even entirely necessary in order to compete at the highest levels down the road. Like Jared said in his blog, we are excited about this project and plan on involving Stoxpoker members in someway although at this time we are not sure exactly how we will do that. We will certainly keep you posted, however.

I haven't played a whole lot since my last blog, but I did manage to win another 20k or so points and now am up well over 70k points on the month. I have been undoubtedly running well, but I can also confidently say that I am playing the best poker of my life. I have made some adjustments and also spent a ton of time studying some of what I now know were leaks, and am quite simply playing very well at the moment. I hope that I can continue to run well and play well. I am having a lot of fun with poker right now and am as exicted as I have been all year about the game. The plan is to grind hard for the next 2 weeks and then go to Nick's house for a little vacation towards the end of the month followed by the WSOP main event. Exciting stuff!

Discuss this blog here:
http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?p=86632#post86632

A Day I'll Never Forget

Date: Wed, Jun 11, 2008 Professional Internet

Yesterday I had a day that is simply hard to top. Last Fall in the University of Oregon fundraiser, I bought a round of golf for 4 with Mike Belotti. Mike is the head football coach at Oregon and is an Oregon legend to say the least. He is personally my favorite football coach as well. What I love about him is that he has the heart of a lion and is not afraid to make the play that he feels best even though it opens him to potential scrutiny if it doesn't work out. I feel like most coaches take the safe route and always call the play that makes sure they keep their job. Not Mike. He calls the play that he feels gives the team the best chance to win and the critics be damned. Far more often than not in my experience, the play works and Mike looks like a genius. I would need all my fingers and toes to count the number of times in the past few years where I have been in the stands after one of his ballsy play calls and shouted out, "NO WAY!!!!!! BELOTTI, YOU ARE SO BAD ASS!"

So needless to say I was very excited to get to spend the day with him. I had always heard he was a nice guy which was confirmed, and then some, yesterday. Our group consisted of Casey Martin who now coaches the golf team and was my former roomate, his brother Cam who is about as cool and fun of a guy as you could meet, my business partner, neighbor and great friend Rob and Belotti himself. We had a great time playing to say the least. Casey hit just about every shot where he was looking and shot a 67 in blustery conditions. Cam played reasonably well although I am not sure what he shot. Rob struggled some, but had a smile on his face all day. Mike hit a lot of good shots, but it was one of his first rounds of the year so he was a little rusty at times. I shot 73, but had to make a lot of good saves because I was struggling to find the fairway most of the day.

I got to ride in the cart with Mike and I made sure to take advantage and ask him a few questions I had always wanted to ask him. I also got to get a glimpse of how his mind works as well as what type of person he was. I am always interested to get a feel for how great minds, no matter what the profession, works. He was an even nicer guy than you could have possibly expected too. I had heard great things about him in the past, and even with that expectation he exceeded my expectations. He is truly a class act. He was candid with us throughout the day and seemed to actually genuinely enjoy the day which was nice. I was hoping we could all have a great time as I didn't want this to be a chore for him. He had a blast watching Casey stripe it down the middle all day. It sure is a shame that Casey wasn't blessed with two healthy legs because there is really no telling what he might have accomplished. He accomplished a ton in golf as it was so it is scary to think what might have been.

After the round we went in for a beer and my wife joined us. It was pretty funny to watch her when she got to meet Mike. I hadn't seen her that nervous since our wedding day…lol. Mike did a wonderful job in putting her at ease and we collectively had a great time just talking life and football after the round. We got some nice pictures with him (below) and he signed a football and a helmet for me which came at a perfect time. My wife has been

turning our basement into a Ducks shrine and adding these new souvenirs is going to make for an incredible addition.

I have more that I want to talk about in regards to poker and my upcoming book with Jared as well as some other stuff so I think I am just going to write another blog right on top of this one for archiving purposes. Anyway, just wanted to say that was truly about as fun of a day as I have ever had.

Discuss this blog here:

http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14140

Doctor's Visits

Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2008 Professional Internet

Well, I was on my internship and didn't feel right from the outset. I got to the doctor's and he said I had a real bad sinus infection which was causing my insanely painful headaches, sore throat, and ear pressure. I took all the meds only to not feel well again a week later when we made a trip to TN for work. This past weekend my ears have been throbbing, they feel like they are popping every time I swallow and nothing I took would ease the pain.

So I went to ER last night, and just received the phone call that I have 'mono'. This really blows, I cannot play any contact sports for a few months and recovery is a few weeks up to a few months. I have no idea how to even talk to my boss at the internship about it. I left him a message and am waiting to hear back. Also, should I pack up everything at my apartment in case I do not come back, its an 11 hour drive. If I don't and I end up not coming back then I would have to drive again. I think the EV of packing and unpacking far outweighs another 22 hours of driving so I guess I will.

Maybe it is a blessing in disguise and I will get to log tons of poker hands and do really well. To top it off I am on my back to the dentist to get a crown put on a chipped tooth. If anyone has had it I would appreciate a PM with what to expect. I will be updating this alot on my status as I will be bored and tired and not be able to do much for the next few weeks.

-Reese