CARDRUNNERS
What's Your Edge
Taylor Caby: Poker Blog
Ever wonder what Team CardRunners looks like out on the golf course? Me neither, but apparently someone with access to a video camera did. Just kidding, Alex (nomo4life) took some videos of our recent trip to Miami. There are a few noteworthy ones I felt like I should post here:
Muddywater on the links. Background: Andrew is a pretty decent golfer who hit probably the worst drive of his life here. He ripped the next one 280 down the middle, but obviously it was cut from this video. Note Menlo trying to hide his laughter right after the shot.
Me looking a lot better than I am. In case you can't hear my banter, I've posted it below.
Me: Stinger, you're not going to like this......it's going to be within about ten feet.
::Swings:: - shot lands about 20 feet away and eventually rolls to within 15 feet.
Me: There we gooooo
Stinger: aww, fuck you
Me: That's two unit's my friend.
Overall, Miami was a great time. We took 8 Truly Free Poker Training members who had earned over 15k+ FTP Points in at least one month. We stayed at the Gansevoort Hotel, played golf, went out to nice dinners, had drinks, did some leakfinder videos, played some beach volleyball, and basically just chilled the f out a lot. Unfortunately, Scott (IRock) separated his shoulder playing beach volleyball and had to go to the hospital. It was pretty funny because after he got it fixed up, he left in a sling and couldn't get a shirt on. We had to go to a CVS at midnight to fill his prescription. Trust me, my idea of fun is filling a percoset prescription during the middle of the night with a guy who has no shirt on, it's an experience everyone should try.
Fun fact: The bellhop recognized me.......for my FTP Academy video! He was like...hey, I've seen you before...I've watched your FTPA video. Was pretty funny, we pimped out CR to him pretty hard, hopefully he eventually comes on over here.
It was just a really enjoyable trip though, getting to meet CR members is always fun. I don't get to see the CR Pros as much as I'd like, so it was nice to have a good group of them down there too.
Finally, someone posted on my last blog that he is in a contest to try to win the "ultimate" wedding or something. Well i clicked through and apparently his soon-to-be wife helped him lose over 225 pounds and now they are going to get married. Pretty damn cool, I hope you guys win this contest. If you don't win, I at least hope you have a happy life together, not a bad consolation prize I suppose.
Good luck in life and at the tables.
Taylor
Wedding Contest
Feb 28, 10 23:58:42
I should have posted the prediction videos of everyone. I think Wiggins guessed he'd shoot a 95.
Mar 9, 10 17:44:56
funny how you can tell wiggins is easily the best golfer there just by looking at his swing, and yet he hits that drive lol.
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I'm having a hard time coming up with blog titles. I used to sit around and try to think of clever titles, oh, the younger days.
-We have been working for quite some time on a new version of the CR website. It's going to be a lot better, basically just a better version of the current site with some new bells and whistles. I think it will be better from both a member's perspective and from a business perspective. I'm never shy about admitting that we are in fact running a business, even though most think of CR as a place to hang out and improve their poker game. I think it's key to find that happy balance between doing everything you possibly can to give maximum value for your customers dollar, while also holding the financial health of the company in high regard. Most of the time, the right decisions are good in both scenarios, but there are times when you'll have to make sacrifices on one side for the other. I think that over the past year we have really done a nice job with that mix. Our Truly Free Poker Training promotion is unlike anything else on the 'net and it gives people such a great deal on the best poker training money doesn't have to buy! We've partnered on a FTP rakeback offer (click the red rakeback link on the top nav) that costs us money -- we are giving away free product, 3 months of CR and a HEM license, so that customers can get a great deal that is unmatched anywhere else on the net. I guess what I'm getting at is, I think we're really finding a good mix between doing things that benefit the customers and the company. That was really our biggest guiding principal in the newest iteration of the CR website, which I'm really hopeful you guys like. It should be out sometime in early April, but I don't know an exact date yet.
It's been a fun time so far, we've launched a new website, a new "app store," partnered with software such as Table Ninja and Leak Buster, and added some pretty cool functionality to the core software. I've always been impressed with the HEM software and their company as a whole, but after working with these guys for a few months I am even more impressed with what they do. From the developers to the support guys, everyone is great to work with and it's just a really fun company to be a part of. I should say "thanks" to everyone involved in the project, both on the CR and HEM side, I'm really fortunate to be working with and learning from all of you.
Taylor
Feb 21, 10 22:32:26
and the ones that dont are the ones that think they are running bad all year and that online is rigged
Feb 21, 10 23:34:49
i have both pt3 and HEM because i bought pt3 for NLHE before HEM and then get HEM for omaha, kinda annoying but anwaysy
I think HEM is alot better, you can do alot more and the basic setup has way more infortmation to offer than pt3 basic setup. Pt3 HUD popup is terrible until you edit it where as HEM it shows you there VPIP from every position among other things, which I think is a great.
HEM > Pt3.
Feb 22, 10 01:37:46
Your blog sucks and it is boring hahahaha. Joking bud, but I thought you were going to add something awesome in there for me
Feb 22, 10 09:27:37
I thought my joining was going to be a part of this exciting piece of CR :-(
Feb 22, 10 10:17:08
+1 to that ^.
Not a huge fan of PT3 but it's the only major mac alternative.
Feb 22, 10 12:14:45
alex -- obv you joining is exciting, but i haven't been working on that for over a year! we'll get to that post 6 months later, ha ha.. (jk)
Feb 22, 10 12:15:11
Raftery is the man...i love him
i love when he says vern, especially if it's not vern.
Feb 22, 10 16:23:40
I just lost all the (significant) respect I had for you based on your liking Bill Raftery. He tilts me more than I thought possible. I hate his random inflections, his awful catch phrases and his general senility. Yesterday, while doing the OSU/MSU game, he called his partner Ian Eagle "Vern" (Lunquist, who he often partners with) at least 6 times, almost like he's on auto-pilot. Just thinking about it gets me angry.
BAH!
Feb 22, 10 22:02:39
Yeah HEM kills PT3 I used PT3 before switching to HEM and everything about it is better, it's hud has way more stats, easier to use and setup, way less buggy than PT3 that froze on me all the time.
Seriously though you need a mac version my gf's dad has been wanting me to teach him how to play for ages but I have to keep saying I can't whilst you have a mac. You'll get one more CR member out of it once I have him winning at the low stakes.
Feb 23, 10 15:29:39
+1 above.
Definitely prefer HEM compared to PT3. Pretty much every pokerplayer I know uses it.
Feb 24, 10 17:04:54
Im stoked to see what you and the HEM guys do. I'm sure it will revolutionize the software side of poker assistance.
Feb 26, 10 16:37:09
Hi Taylor,
I sent a comment to Brian T. as well. I am looking for the CR community to help me out. I entered into a ultimate wedding contest with my fiance' and was hoping you guys could help us get votes. We have a great love story. She helped me lose over 225 pounds in a Wellness program and we fell in love. You can check out the link for more information. It would mean the world to me if you could throw a shout out in your blog though. Here is the link.
http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/25951
Thank you SOOO MUCH! You guys run a GREAT site!
Gary
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Hi, short update again. This week was a hectic one. We had a lot of people in town that usually work remotely, and it was some long hours at work. I also managed to have some fun over the past week or so, I guess I'll just list off some random stuff. I will keep this short as I am about to do a power-hour with some friends so we can re-live our glory days of 5ish years ago.
Taylor
***UPDATE***
The Pizza was fantastic, I have to admit. I HIGHLY recommend getting the BBQ Sauce with chicken, for your standard BBQ Chicken Pizza. Please refer to that as the "tay," btw. Funny story, the Pizza took way too long to get here (like an hour when it said it would be 30 minutes), so on the page where it gives you detailed information of where your pizza is you can also leave comments. I left the following comment:
"Pizza supposedly left the store 30 minutes ago and is still not here. I will be blogging about this experience, blogs.cardrunners.com/taylor, please let me know if you can do something for me."
I'd say 10% chance someone gets in touch with me and gives me a coupon, I know I do things like that when I see people saying nice things about CR. I hope I get some Dominos coupons....I'll let you guys know if I do.
Seriously though, get that pizza, it's really good. Unanimously agreed upon by all eaters that for 12 bucks for 2 pizzas was a very good deal. I also recommend the sandwiches if you are looking for a sandwich that sort of tastes like Pizza.
Jan 31, 10 08:26:58
the dominos pizza here is some of the best around. i also love ordering online, it's very well made.
Jan 31, 10 09:06:22
i remember your rants on how bad domino's pizza was last year. i look forward to hearing the update.
Jan 31, 10 10:14:26
I miss Domios, my university campus is out of town and they wont deliver here.
Jan 31, 10 15:53:23
hey maybe they didn't fart on your sandwich or stick the cheese up their noses.
Jan 31, 10 19:03:10
Pick up artist skillz? Don't u have a gf? She has to read this blog lol...
Jan 31, 10 20:06:22
We got a cpl Dominoes pizzas yesterday to watch Kansas-Kansas St. game. Took over an hour when they said 30-40 minutes as well ... but we thought it was really good. Much better than it used to be. HOOK ME UP TOO, DOMINOES
Jan 31, 10 20:42:10
During the same year, they also introduced the Pizza Tracker, an online application that allows customers to view the status of their order in a simulated "real time" progress bar.
Feb 1, 10 00:18:47
i went to a pauly d dj event. hilarious. totally worth it. the pics are priceless.
Feb 1, 10 00:21:47
Oh my God dude.....so I had about 12 friends over on Friday afternoon and everyone was really hungry so we ordered Domino's. Was supposed to take 30-40 mins. After an hour I called them and said that my order was late and this had happened last week as well (it did). They put me on with a manager and he was not apologetic in any way and just kept making excuses. He also told me that the food was on the way. I hung up after that.
40 minutes later, the pizza still wasn't there! I called back and asked the manager how it's taking over 40 more min when my house is 5 min away and the pizza was 'on the way', he just keeps making up complete bs excuses. I told him to cancel the order. 10 mins later after we already ordered something else, the delivery driver shows up. I tell her that I cancelled the order and to just send it back, then 5 min later she comes back and says the pizza is just going to get thrown away anyway so my roommate offers her \$5 and she gives it to us. This was 3 XL pizzas so solid bargain, but man what an awful experience. The manager has no business being in the service industry. Never ordering from Ithaca Domino's again.
Feb 1, 10 14:41:36
FYI - Joes on Weed is having a couple Jersey Shore events in the next month. I know youre a fellow Illinois guy, so I'm assuming youre familiar with the place!
Feb 1, 10 23:20:35
Dominos changed their recipe but it is yet to be seen if they will change their slogan from "If you don't get diarrhea in 30 minutes or less, then your pizza is free" Time will tell.
-Matt
Feb 2, 10 16:05:32
wow taylor your like a multi millionaire and your looking for free dominoes coupons??? What kind of tightass are you and how is that a funny story lol loser. you obviously got bullied at school!
Feb 3, 10 15:15:50
smc,
yes, i was bullied a lot as a kid. i think your assessment is accurate -- i am a loser and i like to use coupons, two qualities that bullies love to hate.
gl
Feb 7, 10 14:23:34
Haters gonna hate. Go get em Tay.
Clearly the WSOP CR party NEEDS to have Jwowww slutting it up... that is all.
Feb 17, 10 07:13:07
ordered a pizza from chicago dominoes, after waiting 2.5 hours for arrival and doing some very mean commenting on our pizza status, we walked down to the store upon which we saw about 200 pizza stacked in dissaray, apparently the football playoffs created an overload (this was game b4 superbowl) and about 10 dominoes employees stood basically in aw of the mess they hand in front of them. I proceeded to walk up and tell one of the employees to give me 3 pizzas.
He asked which ones were mine, where upon i looked at him and told him to pick any 3 he wanted, he did so and without asking if I had paid or had any proof of me ordering. We recieved a phone call an hour later (3.5 hours now) asking if we still wanted our pizzas which we told them no ty we got pizza somewhere else....result: dont order from dominoes there so many good za places in chi, try chili mac's five way chili thin crust its chronic!
Mar 15, 10 06:25:07
I recently read flights to florida Thomas Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter milwaukee condos It wasn’t the most fast-paced book, and the message that got across montreal hotel reservations to me most clearly was that 17th century London was a terrible, terrible place flights to amsterdam But it still had some pretty good stories about Isaac Newton.
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Hey guys. Been almost a month since I updated. It's funny, because I read a lot of poker player's blogs and I get kinda pissed when they don't update. Typical hypocritical poker player's mentality, I guess. That's one thing I like about Phil Galfond's blog, he updates it pretty regularly even just to say "hey, I haven't been doing a lot lately." I like that, maybe I will get back to that.
Jan 19, 10 20:07:47 Played a session of rush poker today and people are supernits. Lots of fun today but will get kinda boring playing each hand 'in a vacuum' imo.
Jan 20, 10 00:37:17 You should prob also mention that you get insta dealt a new hand after you fold. lol@ folding and just moving onto onther table.
Jan 20, 10 12:50:52 "It's hard to get reads on players because you are constantly playing with new people. Current HUDs don't work on these tables, and bumhunting is impossible. Kudos to FTP..."
Jan 20, 10 16:19:10 Players who are rakeback pros will love this im sure. Seems like u could play an insane amount of hands 4 tabling this.
Jan 20, 10 16:20:26 Max,
Jan 20, 10 16:24:20 Also,
Jan 21, 10 17:41:35 Rush Poker is a brilliant idea by FTP!! Why not get more hands in and reward those who get rakeback with tons of volume??!! After playing at the 25NL and 50NL level, strategy is pretty simple and I've been able to use a system I put together pretty well at these tables with amazing results so far (nice bankroll addition). Taylor - Is CardRunners gonna do a Poker Instructional/Intro Video on Rush Poker?
Jan 22, 10 01:20:46 In all fairness, the lack of a HUD is a minor inconvenience at most. The determined HUDbot can still leave their PT3/HEM open and manually search for a player when they're involved in a significant hand. I don't find it viable or useful to do so at 50NL since there are too many players for the HUD to give any meaningful data and because I find it difficult to keep up with it while playing 4 tables, but for those who consider the HUD more important there will always be work-arounds as long as hand histories are available.
Jan 22, 10 10:10:28 A rush HUD will be out in an upgrade for PT3 or HEM soon, you can count on that.
Jan 22, 10 13:03:24 That's also true. TableNinja uses screen scraping and operates within FTP's rules, so I'd be surprised if it was very long before one of PT3/HEM came out with a Rush HUD.
Jan 22, 10 15:53:34 vvega,
Jan 24, 10 15:19:02 Seriously....Let's blog about the new FTP gayness game that we are responsible for pushing.
Jan 25, 10 12:59:35 haha, you've been hating on me and my company for a few years now.
Feb 18, 10 22:31:42 You’ll join a large player pool and face a different table of opponents every hand you play. When you fold your hand, you’ll be rushed to another table for a new hand right away.
Mar 15, 10 06:31:47 Nowadays, boston condos has given many the opportunity to fly to their starting point, and often to do different sections in successive years. Some people set out on the caribbean vacations for spiritual reasons; many others find spiritual reasons along flights to australia the Way as they meet other pilgrims, attend pilgrim masses in churches and monasteries and cathedrals, and see the large infrastructure of buildings provided for pilgrims over many mexicana airlines centuries.
Anyway, here for two reasons. The first is just to say hello and also mention that I wrote a really long post about a week ago but I basically forgot about it. I had some video I took over the Holidays I wanted to share, but I have been lazy about getting it off my flip thing onto my computer. I'll post that later this week.
Check it out here: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/rush-poker
Also, remember, you can get CardRunners completely for free just by playing at FTP -- no need to create a new FTP account, no hit to your rakeback, doesn't cost any points or money: www.trulyfreepokertraining.com
Are you serious? How could Rush poker be a good thing? Since poker is a game of incomplete information this move by FTP is horrendous! Why would you want to limit the amount of information you can get even more?
Crucial things (all essential to winning poker) like table selection, position (in relation to certain players) and READS go out the window.
Might as well go play Keno for God's sake!
I should have been more clear with my post. You can get reads, it's just not as simple as installing a piece of software or using sites that are against the TOS (but not enforced) to do so.
This benefits the players who actually work to find their own edges. Before rush poker, the single most important thing to winning at poker was good table selection.
There are a lot of different strategies that can be applied to Rush poker that couldn't be applied to a normal game due to software/tracking sites.
Finally, don't discount how important it is for fish to be having fun. I can comfortably say that Rush poker is a lot of fun.
At present, there are tons of players in the player pool. At high stakes, I expect a typical rush game to have significantly less, maybe 50 players in the pool at a time. You'll be seeing the same players over and over again, just in differnt situations, without the luxury of using products that are against the TOS, without the ability to bumhunt, etc. I think this is a net positive for the online poker community.
our first Rush vid was released last night. it's a FR vid.
this weekend we are releasing a 6max micro stakes strategy vid.
late next week we will have a .5/1 6max strategy vid from a Team CR pro.
gl
tay
I have no fking idea why I come here to read this shit even once a month. I seriously hate what you douchebags stand fr and represent. This blog entry just reinforces that.
The most of you are cheaters and have played a part in fucking up the online game.
go busto PLS
it's people like you that motivate me in life. i actually mean that, i do much better when there is a little bit of adversity. thanks for creating that in your very own special way.
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Joey "jcl" Lawrence has become quite a popular pro this year. I think he flies a bit under the radar because he is new to the video making scene, but if anyone is interested in reading about a "it can happen to you" CR success story, he's a great example. A lot of people ask me if it is still possible "in this day and age" of online poker to move from a small stakes beginner to being a high stakes reg. I'll admit, it's tough, but it can happen. Give his latest blog a read, it's really pretty awesome.
He's got a HSNL video coming out tomorrow and his previous videos at CR have been pretty fantastic. Give 'em a watch, who knows, maybe next year it could you be!
Anyone else have any poker/CR success stories for 2009? Give me a shout in the comments and I'll link you in a later blog. I'd love to do some interviews with you guys in the beginning of 2010. Best story in the comments wins a CR hoodie...it's gotta be real, though :).
Talk to you later guys, have a safe holiday.
Taylor
Link: http://blogs.cardrunners.com/jcl/2009-a-breakout-year
Dec 25, 09 03:44:06
Merry Xmas
My story, is not a success story (yet), but something that I think is pertinent to share in the context of Taylor's blog post above.
I've been playing (ie depositing fairly frequently) over the past 2 years ... and needless to say without too much 'success'. Whilst I felt I played well live (being a winning player in cash & MTT's), I just couldn't convert this into my online results.
In September of this year I decided to join a training site as I was about to be home for 2 weeks due to surgery (fwiw - torn achilles tendon), and felt that the time I would have to myself, would be ideal to start to learn what the online world knows and what I'm missing.
So from late October to early November & after scanning a few video's I decided to concentrate on SNG's - as I felt this would protect me from the tilt sessions that I often found myself in when playing cash games.
Next step was to watch Jackals' and Braminc's videos, and thankfully found instant success! My PT3 graph was going in the right direction, and my ROI over the 100-odd games after watching these vid's was an impressive +21% .... yeah baby!!!
So by mid/late November, I thought I learned everything I needed to and found my poker home.
But alas, that feeling was only momentarily ... sigh... then b/n late November & mid December the "inevitable" variance started to kick in and that positive ROI started to shrink at a rapid rate.... to the point of going to breakeven... what THE ??!?!!?
I thought that I only had to watch a few videos and bingo ... I shall become the poker guru that I envied so often.
Then 2 weeks ago, after reading a few posts in the forums, I realised that I had to CONSTANTLY evolve my learning and understanding of poker, and I thus found myself going back to where I started - reviewing the forums, watching at least 5-7 CR videos a week, and reviewing HH's ... something that I thought I wouldn't need to do.
Anyway, after reading JCL's blog and reading Brian's well on 2+2 over the past 2 days, I have come to the realisation that I can get to where I want to be ... I just have to .. no no MUST .... keeping learning and challenging myself in this game that they call poker.
Cheers
Dec 25, 09 23:59:17
ok,iam in a pretty bad state of mind now, and running like crap at plo, so i am going to write this to cheer myself up.
i started playing poker in 2006 i think during the whole poker boom thing and was the biggest degenerate, i must have busted about 300
50-100\$ and must of blown like 30-40 1k+bankrolls in one night, i had my moments where i cashed out 5k once and some more, but overall i was a huge degen that chased losses and was mostly broke.i think i was down about 10-15k from 2006-2008 and iam a colege student. late 2008 i found 2p2 and started visiting the psychology section started reading forums,etc... and thats where my new poker personality developed.from late august 2008 to about march 2009 i was doing ok, but i would stil have huge setbacks due to tilt control and bad br managment. at the time i was delivering pizza for a local restaurant. i finally decided that if i am ever going to ever be a winning player i would have to master the emotional intelligence and work on my game.
it was late august 2009 and i was taking summer classes and i had decided that this was it,
so i bought a 1month stox membership with 5000 fpp points and watched all the jared tendler vids, i also bought kill tilt now, your worst poker enemy, elements of poker and the poker mindset. i studied all of this while taking notes and tips from every piece in my tilt diary. and the results were very good. i have not worked for the past 4 months, was able to pay for fall semester+go on vacation(amsterdam) and live a comfortable lifestyle. also going to canada for the newyear's to clear my head as i feel like i've been on tilt for the past week and can't get nothing going. so i am just going to relax for the next week and start fresh next year.
my goals for 2010 will most likely focus on mostly school,but thats another story,might start a blog, but ayways thanks for the vids and happy holidays
Dec 26, 09 22:47:23
In December of 2008, I was sitting in a card room waiting for my spot to open up on 2/3 nl hold em. It was some cardroom outside of Spokane, WA. I lived a shitty live. I traveled 50 weeks out of the year for work. I was making good money, but the only thing I could do to cope with my hate for my job was play poker. I thought I was awesome. I had, on multiple occasions, ran 200 dollar buyins into 1500-2000. I thought I could be a great player. It was at this time, as I was waiting for a spot, that I was reading one of the free magazines. There was an interview with one of the inet kids, and he mentioned CR and how well it worked for him. I didnt put to much into it at the time, but I still remember reading that line.
In January of this year, I decided to return to school for my Masters Degree. I started to occasionally play poker online. I bought a pc, installed HEM, and was learning what online poker was all about. I didnt take it to serious though.
Then august came. I started an FTP account with RB through CR. I signed up for TFPT. I started to play. I put 500 on ftp, and played 25NL. I shortly ran it up to 1K, at which point I took at shot at 50NL. I got broke off. I ended up complaining about it in the chat room, where I met someone offering cheap coaching. I started taking lessons. It really helped. I turned my ways around at 25NL. During this time, I was watching videos, reading the forums, and joined a group that started out of the forums. With all these things centered around CR, my game started to take off. I put in a lot of hands. I play a lot. I try to improve my game. And with the help of CR, it has worked. I went from depositing money on FTP to grind 25NL on August 23rd of this year, and I am currently taking shots at 200NL. It is only a matter of time that I reach higher limits. I have also been keeping a blog about my journey. It isnt updated as much as it should be, but its a good read for the people out there trying to do the same thing.
So yeah, CR has been a huge help. I look back at what I thought I knew playing live poker, and it was nothing. I was a horrible player. But over the last couple months, with the time and dedication, I am climbing the latter. I want to make it to the limits that JCL is playing, but I also want to make it to be a CR instructor one day as well. Then maybe one day, some guy will be in a cardroom reading my interview, and I will be talking about CR, and it will start his journey into gaining knowledge about this beautiful game.
Jan 4, 10 09:30:48
i turned a \$600 roll into \$120k this year, climbing fron 25nl to 1knl, I don't have a blog but could start one maybe if I wasn't so lazy :D
Jan 10, 10 06:46:23
how u can do that omgczzarr lol.
me 50 and my goal is nl100 but so many swing so i cant for the moment
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Now, let's talk about the things I don't spend money on. I always thought I would want a really nice collection of watches. It seemed to me that having a lot of nice watches was a symbol of success in the world. After buying one, it's clear I'll never make a point to start a collection, but I do see myself getting a nice watch or two sometime down the line. When I was 19 I set a goal to own a BMW by the time I was 30. I bought one (used, 3 series, nothing over the top) when I turned 23, and it's arguably been a pretty poor purchase. I don't drive often, I don't know much about cars, and I don't find a whole lot of additional satisfaction in owning an entry level luxury vehicle. I thought I would want to own a bunch of real estate because "that's what rich people do." Well, I bought a place when I graduated but have since moved out and have been renting for a few years. I still get questions all the time as to why I am "burning money" renting, but it's been one of the best decisions of my life. If anyone is genuinely curious, I'll do another blog post about that, just let me know.
Alright, time to go play some hoops. I'm headed to Dallas for a day at Jim's sweatshop then I'll be back in Chicago until the New Year. Good luck in life and at the tables.
Taylor
Dec 14, 09 20:05:37
do you still live in wicker? if so, you have quite a few excellent restaurants to choose from. (if you haven't been to mana yet, you must go.)
Dec 14, 09 22:28:12
Taylor,
I would be interested in hearing your blog about why your decision to rent over owning was one of the best of your life.
Dec 14, 09 22:32:43
Taylor,
I would be interested in hearing your reasoning for renting over buying.
Dec 14, 09 23:11:10
lol that watch is 80 bucks? i think id rather by a cheap fake one no offense. also you can spend money on escorts or strippers which is intangible and you dont forget that so i totally agree with that whole argument
Dec 14, 09 23:11:13
lol that watch is 80 bucks? i think id rather by a cheap fake one no offense. also you can spend money on escorts or strippers which is intangible and you dont forget that so i totally agree with that whole argument
Dec 15, 09 00:37:50
definitely would love a blog post about why you feel renting rather than buying was a better decision for you
Dec 15, 09 05:26:59
I personally would love a blog about why the bulls suck so bad and how John Salmons somehow manages to shoot 17% 3 point shooting when I bet on them to cover and 85% when I bet against them.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Dec 15, 09 08:21:45
its like someone took fashion and vomited over it...
i think there is nothing wrong with having a nice tastefull understaed but decent quality watch that you dont make a big deal out of - I dress probably in a similar vibe to you - as in clothes that are cut well and are a good quality but I HATE lables and would never wear something that said Gucci or DG or w/e insanity people feel they need to wear in order to satisfy their ego, showing others they are rich. I wear this watch:
http://flylyf.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/36065_l-600x958.png
Dec 15, 09 11:01:03
that watch is kinda ugly dude. make your rolex the daily wear imo. and buy a patek as a special watch. :)
Dec 15, 09 12:27:54
i think taylor found a girlfriend somewhere during that chonicalization of events and decided he didn't need to impress the ladies anymore.
Dec 15, 09 13:39:21
Not feeling it, but I do agree with your point of view overall, cool post.
Dec 15, 09 14:08:13
I think you should go out one night wearing both that watch and the Rolex.
Dec 15, 09 17:51:45
Hey Taylor I'm curious as to why you rent over own- also it'd be good to see you in the CR chat more often.
Dec 15, 09 19:02:00
i understand how you feel.
a couple weeks ago i downgraded myself to amex green.
Dec 15, 09 23:30:10
never really understood the whole watch thing, even if you're the type that keeps track of time-don't most people have cell phones now?
Use money to do cool stuff.
Go to the oscars, get good seats when the bears make the superbowl. etc....
Dec 16, 09 00:22:17
I like how you put things in perspective.
I say buy whatever your heart desires, no matter how funny the watch may look. jk
I'm also a fan of having nice stuff without the flashy logo or brand name proclaiming itself to the world. They have a certain air of dignity about them.
I'd also like to hear you talk about renting vs owning.
Dec 16, 09 00:28:26
Eww that watch is uglier than that robot looking dude in the hot chicks with douchebags pic. And make the rent vs own blog I am very interested
Dec 16, 09 17:05:50
I would be interested in hearing your reasoning for renting over buying.
Dec 17, 09 07:14:02
I happen to find most flamboyantly high status and or expensive stuff to be signs of weak character. It has the opposite of the desired effect. When I see someone pull up in a really, really expensive car it makes me think they're insecure. The cheapest watch will keep time just as well as the most expensive. Arriving in an expensive car instead of a Honda really doesn't make your life any better. People will say they're paying for 'performance' or something which is silly.
I don't mind expensive things, except when they aren't really any better than inexpensive things, or when the whole point is to show people you've got money.
Dec 18, 09 17:44:48
@StayingWarm A loan is never a hedge against inflation. The interest on a loan will always cost more than the inflation of the dollar over the same period. Otherwise you could make a killing taking on loans and selling them back for a profit :p
The only thing that hedges against inflation is something that maintains or rises in value. A house can be a hedge against inflation, but only if you own enough of it to offset the interest on any mortgage on the home.
Dec 19, 09 05:05:43
I'm curious as to why you think renting is better than buying for sure. My goals for next yr were to buy a BMW and buy a house. This blog post is telling me I might regret both?!? :)
Dec 21, 09 13:19:09
i almost bought a Breitling but changed my mind because of the same reasons u stopped wearing rolex.. have bought this one http://www.casio.co.uk/Products/Watches/G-Shock/GW-M5600-1ER/At_a_Glance/
a bit retro.. now about yours i think its even more coll not sure if to change though ;)
Dec 21, 09 13:57:39
(I hope) what Taylor is trying to say is that he learned not that real estate is a bad investment (no time to buy any market like when it's down) but that it is bad to consider OWNING YOUR OWN HOME an investment. The reason is simple; you need to live somewhere. Say you buy a home for $300k. A boom hits and in a few years it's worth $600k. You can sell it and make money, but you're forced to decide between 1) moving to a lower cost market where you can get a nice house for less \$, 2) downgrading in the market you live (i.e. putting your initial $300k into another home, which you could have originally bought for $150k so it's not nearly as nice as what you're used to) or 3) renting and hoping prices go down. All three of those require some level of personal sacrifice (especially as you get older and get a wife and kids). It's best to take the mindset of using your personal residence for strictly non-montary reasons.<BR><BR>
The only caveat is that your personal residence is still used, consciously or not, for investment purposes - only as a leveraged hedge on inflation. Hedge on inflation b/c you're paying back money you borrowed today with money from tomorrow (which, history has shown us, will usually be worth less than money today. If your parents bought there house 30 years ago, $1 would have gotten them into a movie. Now it takes $15 to do the same thing. I'd sure rather pay back the $300k on my house in 30 years - or over 30 years - than with todays dollars). And leveraged b/c obviously you only put a % down on a house (unless you're an uber-baller poker stud) so you get 5x or more of the value of inflation (assuming you put 20% down) as a benefit.<BR><BR>
So, own a home b/c it adds to your life satisfaction and take pleasure in knowing you're paying the bank back with dollars that aren't as valuable as the ones you borrowed. But then go out and buy some investment property. If you're willing to put sweat equity in (renovating houses, managing apartments, etc) the ROI on investment real estate will blow away 90%+ of other investments. But that's another story.
Cheers<BR><BR>
EDIT - Wants is correct (couple notes below); I was simplifying a complex topic as I thought it would work here. Buying a house isn't the best way to hedge against inflation (if you're that concerned, but a raw materials fund or inflation-adjusted TIPs) but it is a great side benefit when you buy something for the primary benefit of satisfaction of having a place to live (and, as some of you know, to make your wife happy)
Dec 21, 09 17:02:07
I think you should obviously spend your money on things that are both tangible and intangible, like a butler. The service would be tangible, but your relationship with your Alfred-esque batman-style butler would last a lifetime.
Also maybe a segway.
Dec 22, 09 13:17:49
You should consider investing. It is not "flashy", is extremely intellectually stimulating, is highly rewarding when done well, etc. For example, I own shares of Coca-Cola (KO), which I bought this summer. Now whenever I see somebody drinking a Coke Zero, it makes me feel good. Plus I get dividends every 90 days and I can watch my investment grow in value over time. Similarly, I own shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns GEICO. Whenever I see the Gecko, I not only laugh, I also mentally register another cha-ching in the bank account - positive EV, if you like. Investing is sorta like having a kid that you can watch grow and mature over time - except the kid PAYS YOU (not vice versa). FWIW, I've studied Buffett's investing methodology [based on the famous Margin of Safety] intensely for several years and can provide you insight into how it works if you are interested.
BTW, I own a \$20 Tommy Hilfiger watch that my Aunt gave me for Christmas 2 years ago (retail value - \$80 - she got it on sale), and it's damn nice - better than a Rolex, b/c it was a present. Peace.
Dec 22, 09 21:10:37
What you do doesn't necessarily have to be self-serving.
As long as you're not hurting yourself or anyone else then that is what it's all about in my book.
Dec 23, 09 23:36:23
I really don't get all the watch thing.
When I had a real job, the "which watch do you have ?" subject was a recurring one.
What, you spend a ton of money to buy an object that is nowadays totally useless because everybody has a cellphone,
So what's really the point ?
What do you think you achieve by buying a watch ?
By wearing a watch, you just want to show other peoples your social status. The more expensive the watch is, the higher status you want to be part of (doesn't mean you are). Nowadays, buying an expensive watch is the same thing that was buying a name in the times of aristocracy in europe.
In a way, you must have very low self-esteem if you need to BUY a watch to get the consideration you want from other people.
And what kind of consideration ? "This guy has a Rolex"...and so ? does it makes you good, more interesting, or smarter ?
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Hey all,
When reflecting on the match, it's hard for me not to get a little bit nostalgic. I've known Brian Hastings since he was 16 years old. Yes, he was playing online poker at 16 years old. Yes (big lol) his math teacher at the time introduced him to poker. Brian was one of the first CardRunners members, signing up within a few weeks of our site launching. At the time he was mostly a SNG and MTT player, playing in the $100 sng's and mtt's at UB. I still remember filming one of my first videos at CR, a $200 SNG that I filmed in Andrew's room at our frat house. CardRunners had opened about a week before this video was filmed and we had maybe 50 members (not bad actually, lol). There was a guy in my SNG named Stinger885, and I remembered seeing his name on the message boards and Andrew told me he was a good player. In the end, we got down to heads up in the SNG and Brian beat me. I should go back and watch that video, I remember him being very competent and actually pushing me around a bit, back at a time when nobody pushed anyone around.
Within a few weeks we were poker buddies, chatting on AIM and the CR message boards. Brian started to work his way into the cash games and pretty quickly moved up to the $1knl+ games. Although I'm sure Brian would say that CardRunners helped him, he's one of the more "natural" poker players I have met. He's a sharp kid that has a pretty strong understanding of how other people are thinking and trying to win in a given game. It was no surprise to me that Brian moved up to the bigger games on the internet by 2006, and I still remember the first time he told me he was learning PLO. I told him I thought it was cool but that I didn't see a reason to because of how much money you can make at NLHE. Heh, I might have been wrong there, just goes to show how easy it is to be VERY wrong about something even when would consider yourself an expert on the subject.
I'm just really happy for Brian, but I should also mention Cole and Brian T. because they have all done well in the high stakes games over the past six months or so. I can assure you that those three guys have worked harder on their games than anyone you will meet. I'm sure they would all say they have a ways to go, but to go from not playing anything other than NL to playing pretty much all the games on the internet at the highest level is ANY amount of time is pretty impressive. It took them less than a couple of years, in some of their cases, maybe less than a year. People on the internet love to say disparaging things about successful people, so it sucks reading people saying things such as "they were colluding." First of all, I challenge anyone to try to group play 6 tables of HU PLO against a wild opponent. It would be a death wish. Anyone who watched the match saw how fast the action was, it was hard to keep up with it just watching, much less playing, and even much less, playing and talking about hands. It would be more credible to accuse them of switching off back and forth with who is clicking the mouse, which would be difficult while Brian is going to school in Ithica, New York, and the other two are in California and Washington, DC, respectively. The simple truth is that Brian T. and Brian H. have both worked hard on their games, both had a chance to play Isildur at mega high stakes, both took a shot, and Brian H. was fortunate to come out on top. It could have been anyone that day, it could have been Ivey, Antonius, Zigmund, whomever was fortunate to catch a good run of cards at the tail end of a long Isildur session. Hell, it could have been Isildur, the way he was going, it wouldn't have surprised me to see him win 4 million that night. It wouldn't surprise me to log on tonight and see it happen, either.
In poker, like in the real world, the hardest working, smartest people tend to have the most success. Notice that I said hardest working first, and that's what I think is most important here. These guys have worked harder on their games than anyone I know, and it doesn't hurt that they all happen to be some of the smartest people I know as well. I feel very lucky to have been able to learn about the game from each of them, and even luckier to consider them friends. Do I think that Brian H. ran really hot yesterday? Yeah, he would say the same. What people don't tend to talk about is just how poorly Brian T. ran before him. I don't remember the exact figure but it was something like 2 million below expectation in all-in pots. I'm shocked he was able to keep it together as much as he did, I could not have done that.
Dec 9, 09 17:20:57
I found this post by stinger on pocketfives last night...oh how times have changed.
My First Post
Stinger885 (United States)
07-06-2005 10:25 PM
Hello all. My name is Brian and I've been going on this site for several weeks now looking at some of the great stuff. Today I tripled my bankroll by winning the UB 1:00 \$2500 guaranteed tourney and cashing for \$912.60. I just want to say thanks to all whose posts I have read to improve my game and good luck at the tables!
Dec 9, 09 18:34:38
Great post Taylor, love hearing the old stories.
Glad you made mention that Brian T ran poorly and kept competing well as well.
Dec 9, 09 18:44:06
Taylor,
Awesome post and I can't tell you how much it means to me to hear you say all those generous things about me. It means a lot coming from you especially.
damnIsuck,
Oh. My. God.
Dec 9, 09 19:39:26
Stinger Owns
Spudt24 (United States) 86 Posts. Joined 07-25-2005.
02-14-2006 9:17 PM
After reading about the same people "owning" the same MTTs, as well as, players blowing off school, I'd like to give a huge shout out to Stinger885.
Currently ranked 46th on the tournament leader board at extremetilt, and he's not even a "regular" MTTer, this includes 2 wins and 5 final tables on just UB.
Destroying 10-25 nl and now playing 25-50 nl. (Was playing 1-2 6 months ago). Crushing Party cash games too.
Going to Cornell next year to pursue engineering and to enjoy being young.
Kid is wise way beyond his years, is a class act at the table, and is probably the most respected member of CardRunners. His advice on the forums alone, make membership worth it.
Continue your success, buddy. You deserve it.
Dec 9, 09 20:09:36
I met stinger in vegas, and was stunned by how down to earth he was. Truly a class act. Props Stinger!
Dec 11, 09 12:30:29
Dec 11, 09 12:28:58
Juha Helppi
[Click to delete comment.] [Click to edit comment.]
Hi, Taylor.
I'm from finland and my friend has met Juha Helppi. I've understood that he's a real character.
That's a nice way of saying he's a bit of a asshole.
- LoveisHell
Dec 12, 09 06:29:52
Hi Taylor,
Plz man, make Jungleman a CR pro and ask him for some HU lessons.
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First things first, happy belated Thanksgiving to all of the Americans. We got a nice little Thanksgiving present this year with the news that the UIGEA deadline has been extended another six months. That's pretty damn good news, tip of the cap to everyone involved in the fight.
I flew into London a couple of days before the event and spent most of my time being jet lagged and sleeping during the day while laying awake at night playing poker in bed. The FTP Pros stayed at the Twickenham Rugby stadium which was pretty cool. I think it's the biggest rugby stadium in the world and is where London's team plays. There is a really nice gym attached to it as well so I got a chance to go workout a few times and generally enjoyed just bumming around the stadium area.
On day 1 I got to the set a few hours before we were starting, did makeup/interviews, met with some of FTP's people and just hung out. I was getting my makeup done next to Jennifer Tilly which was interesting. Chalk that up to one of those things you'd "never think you'd do," getting makeup done (yikes) next to a hot girl you've watched in movies for a good ten plus years. She and Phil Laak were asking about CardRunners and said that they tell their friends to watch the videos if they ever have questions about poker. Jennifer told me that she doesn't have time to watch very many videos anymore but still pays every month, to which I said "nice, keep doing that." I don't know if anyone watched this episode but Jennifer had an extremely low-cut shirt on showing off her figure and honestly she looked pretty damn good. Everyone was pretty much openly checking her out in the makeup room/studio and I didn't really know what to make of that. Phil seemed like a really cool boyfriend though, I'm sure she gets hit on everywhere she goes as an actress and good looking woman, but he said a few comments that basically poked fun at the obvious fact that everyone in the whole place was staring at his girlfriend. I soon would find out that I'd have to adopt a strategy I've never used before at the poker tables: make sure you don't get caught staring at the person next to you's cleavage while on TV. Something tells me Gus would have thought this strategy is nonsense but I digress.
So we were seated for the 6 handed SNG and I told myself I wasn't going to give any chips away. All of the players at the table (besides Jennifer) were pros and I'd surely have to run good to advance in this thing, but the worst thing you can do in this structure is just piss chips away raising too much trash or bluffing needlessly. I've been guilty of both of these in the past so it's fairly significant that I successfully didn't do either of these during this match. I was able to push Chris Ferguson off a slightly better hand by betting the flop and turn with a straight and flush draw, he folded A high. That's really the only semi interesting situation I can remember, I won a flip with TT v QJ to eventually knock out Chris, and slowly chipped up along the way as it didn't seem like anyone was really eager to come over the top of me. I talked to the internet qualifer, Bobby, after the match and he told me that he was pissed because he didn't come over the top of me a few times, mostly because he thoguht there were better spots at the table and didn't really want to mix it up too much with me. I think my table presence was fine and the fact that I was playing fairly solidly but still capable of getting out of line made for an overall nice expectation from playing at that first table.
As everyone reading this knows, though, it all comes down to the cards and I was lucky to have my good hands hold. I got down to heads up with Gus, him having a 2-1 chiplead or so. He whittled me down just a bit (I thought he played well) before I got it all in a couple times as a favorite and my hands held (A9 v kx and then something else where I dominated him). After winning these two all-ins, which were fairly standard when you are down to 10bb's or so, I had a pretty sizable chip lead over Gus. We went on a little break and Gus and I were chatting randomly about stuff. He seemed like a likable guy, asked a bit about CardRunners, and lol, he asked if I played poker. I think he thought i was just some kid who invented poker training and hired people to make videos. He looked surprised to hear that I've played for a living for 5 years and mostly play HUNLHE. Gus talked a bit about the mix gmaes that have been running on FTP and said he's done pretty well in them overall but PLO has been tough. From playing with him for a few hours live and from listening to his interview before the match started, I can really tell Gus is a phenomenal tourney player. Like anyone else, he makes mistakes, but he puts a lot of pressure on everyone at the table and that type of strategy works especially well against the fairly soft fields that most tournaments have.
My next match was another pretty tough table. There was one unknown (who got knocked out on like the third hand KK to AA), Antonio Esfandiari, Tom Dwan, David Chiu, James Aikenhead, and Dag Mikkelson. There wasn't really anything all that notable about this match except for Antonio being Antonio, which always makes for a fairly entertaining time. Tom got coolered really badly losing QQ to KK when he had a pretty decent stack; nothing you can do at a shallow stacked SNG when that happens. I was super card dead the whole time, and ended out getting it all in with K6ss v TT and sucking out. I ended out knocking Antonio out on the final table bubble with A6 v QT, honestly I don't know if calling off A6 in the SB v Antonios cutoff shove was right (i don't remember the exact bb's so I won't try to guess, it was something between 8-11). I asked about 5-6 people that I respect and I got the answers split down the middle, so I guess the answer is "it's close." I'm freaking glad the hand held and I'm very surprised it did in fact, it was almost a weird feeling once the hand was over and everyone in the studio was congratulating us on making the final table.
I had a very hard time with that situation. I am very bad at acepting compliments or congratulations on things, I just get really weird and awkward when there is positive attention on me. Maybe just attention on me in general, I don't know. We were all sitting there as the cameras were all over us and they were preparing for interviews and I was just thinking to myself that I didn't really know how to feel and I knew I was glad I made it but I just felt uncomfortable. I've always wanted to make a major final table and I'm super glad to have a chance to win a TV event, but it's sort of like when I made it it didn't really feel exactly like I thought it would. I mean, I'm no different than I was the day before that event yet now suddently I have made a TV final table and lots of people have been saying how awesome I must have played to beat a tough field. I really want to tell people that while I think I played well, I mostly just feel like I ran pretty good and didn't make any mistakes. Maybe thats what tournament poker is, you just play solid and every once in awhile you run good and then everyone will tell you how great you are. If it wasn't for lots of people having watched my CR videos, I don't think very many people would have said I was great at poker from the years and years of cash game hands. I guess that's just it, I just don't feel like I deserve "congratulations" for making one final table. I wish someone would come up to me and say "hey man, great job starting out being a broke college kid and figuring out a ridiculously profitable strategy for exploiting thousands and thousands of recreational online poker players at the cash game tables. Oh, and fuck off for teaching thousands and thousands more this strategy." At any rate, maybe my grandkids someday will be able to see the film of me winning a 20k buy-in poker tourney. After watching it they will likely ask me if they can have 20k to go to the movies, with hyper-inflation and all.
This random train of thought sort of reminds me of when I talk poker with my girlfriend. She doesn't play, although she is learning for our next trip to vegas (look out small stakes poker rooms), but we talk about poker pretty regularly. We don't talk specific hands obviously, but general concepts and psychology of the game and of just being in the industry. Every single time I bust out of a tournament my response is the same: "I feel like I played pretty well today, I got [insert # here] place, got my money in in a pretty standard spot and couldn't win the pot. Yep, that's how poker tournaments are, you lose, lose, lose, lose etc etc. and then you go win a few hundred grand." The best feeling of this final table was to be able to tell her "Yep, this is it, this is one of those times where I hopefully win enough to make up for all those crappy finishes over the past few years." Part of me just hopes she actually believes i know WTF I am talking about, not that one tournament really validates anytihng anyway.
So, what's next. I'll play some 6max SNG's online for the next day or two to sharpen up. Tomorrow there is press/photo stuff all day and then I might try to go into central London at night to hang out. The tournament starts at roughly 6 London time on Friday and I think you can stream it online, I'll have someone post something on the CR forums and Dashboard once we figure out where that will be.
Thanks for reading, wish me luck, I promise if I win I'll post something emo about how it didn't feel like I thought it would. Just kidding, I actually feel like bringing home 500k might feel exactly like I think it will :)
Oh, last thing, Lana will kill me if I don't mention this. We have a cool promotion going where you can win 1% of my final table winnings. All you have to do is register for Truly Free Poker Training (which is totally free and takes 1 minute to do). We'll pick one random person who will get a nice little payday out of it. Check out www.CardRunners.com/pieceoftaylor for all the info. A lot of people have entered so far, and if a lot of people are doing something, you should do it too.
Taylor
Dec 2, 09 20:20:25
I wish someone would come up to me and say "hey man, great job starting out being a broke college kid and figuring out a ridiculously profitable strategy for exploiting thousands and thousands of recreational online poker players at the cash game tables. Oh, and fuck off for teaching thousands and thousands more this strategy."
Awesome thought.... good luck Taylor
Dec 3, 09 08:56:03
hey man, great job starting out being a broke college kid and figuring out a ridiculously profitable strategy for exploiting thousands and thousands of recreational online poker players at the cash game tables. Oh, and fuck off for teaching thousands and thousands more this strategy
Oh and gl! :)
Dec 3, 09 19:29:12
20k for a movie with hyper-inflation. nicely done.
let me know if you are in champaign anytime soon
gl in the tourney obviously
Dec 4, 09 08:45:23
good luck taylor. i be rooting for ya when i sit down tonight to watch the show
Dec 5, 09 00:45:33
that comment about what u say to ur girlfriend is to standard. i use exactly the same speech with her and family!
contratz.
Feb 18, 10 22:25:43
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Mar 15, 10 06:26:49
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Hey guys,
A really sad day for the whole CardRunners community. Longtime member "Lou Pinella" passed away this past week. I don't know very many details but I heard he was in a car accident, so tragic.
Lou was one of the first members of CardRunners, way back at the end of August in 2005. We looked back and found some old posts of Lou's, he was around from the beginning and was one of the most active forum members at CR. Lou was actually the most prolific poster at CR on version 1.0 of our site, which was active until roughly September of 2007.
I spent about an hour last night looking back and reading old posts by Lou and basically a lot of the early CR posts. Lou was really like a father figure to the CR community, as well as Andrew and I , from the beginning of the site. He was the first to congratulate us when we had a good run at the tables, got our degrees, added new features or pros to the site, and was also the first to ream us out if he thought we messed up.
People that are new to CR don't realize that this was a VERY small, tight-knit community of maybe 30-40 "regulars" for the first six months to a year. Poker Training was something that was looked at as overpriced and taught by internet kids who didn't know what they were talking about. It used to frustrate me to no end when losing poker players would scoff at the idea of paying us $30/month for education and act like we were flat out ripping people off. Now, over four years later, CardRunners has basically created an industry and is a popular destination for thousands of people every day.
I got a chance to meet Lou in person in Vegas two summers ago. He hung out with us at Blush at the Wynn and then the next day at our house in Las Vegas. It's crazy to think that I would never see him again after those two days of hanging out, I really thought that Lou would be around CR forever, he's was a "lifer" so to speak.
Some people might think it's weird to be really shaken up over someone's death when you've only met them in person for a few hours. If you knew what Lou meant to the CardRunners community (and I'm sure to everyone he knew in real life) you would realize that it's not weird at all. He came for the poker strategy and he stayed to share his life strategy. I have to say his life strategy was unique; in a world full of weak players he was the guy who wouldn't fold his button if he was dealt only one card. In a world where everyone on the internet feels like they have a license to show the world their insecurities, Lou was just an old fashioned good guy who told it like it was but was still a friend to everyone.
Lou loved his son and his wife more than anything else, basketball and poker were a distant second. If by some chance they read this I hope they know what a good person Lou was, through and through.
As I reflect on Lou's death I am reminded again how much the CardRunners community means to me. We've all been through a lot together, some of us have been here for over four years, watching the videos, reading the blogs, posting on the forums, and spending a piece of our days together talking about poker and probably even more time not talking about poker. I just wanted to thank everyone that's been around these parts, whether it's for a day or years or some time in between, it's been a great ride so far.
Rest in Peace, Lou Pinella.
Nov 21, 09 13:40:36
Sad to hear
best wishes
I believe life is a revolving door so he lives on somewhere
Nov 21, 09 18:57:39
I am driving up to Seattle tomorrow night and will attend the service Monday morning. I will be bringing with me several CR members farewells to David 'LP' Doerr. I will report back after my trip. If you would like to write something to be shared with Patrice and Davis, feel free to email me at zimba@pokercurious.com
Nov 21, 09 22:53:27
Good post, Taylor. I have read the vast majority of Lou's posts on the forums and always found him very friendly. Sucks terribly when someone leaves us early. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
Nov 22, 09 03:38:00
I just got home from a party this evening and was super happy till i read this blog post. I remember lou as well from 2006 and even tho I didn't know him personally it almost brings me to tears that someone that halped me along the way has gone through such a tragedy and is no longer here with us. I am so sad to hear this and hopefully everyone else is safe this evening :(...... RIP
Nov 23, 09 08:18:27
Very sad, Lou is the guy who recruited me to CR, although I never met him in person, he was a good friend and will be missed by all.
RIP Lou
Nov 23, 09 09:13:57
Wow, I'm in shock reading this. So tragic. Lou was such a great guy and I knew him from the beginning of CardRunners.
Even though I never met him in person, he always messaged me, asking how school was going and giving me advice on the business I started. I could tell that he really took pride in helping young people develop, learn, and grow.
Nov 29, 09 22:17:03
very sad to hear. i read and enjoyed many of his posts but didn't know him personally. RIP.
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xoxo
taylor
http://blogs.cardrunners.com/BLAG
Nov 18, 09 01:30:45
jus saw the thread where u gave the guy his money back and id just like to say that you are an excellent human being
good karma for life i expect
Feb 12, 10 23:51:04
Thank you for sharing this valuable story. Right now I'm busy with my work for oracle certification training after this i will back soon.
Feb 27, 10 11:33:35
It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Poker hasn’t really picked up any for me, but I felt hawaii vacations like I should keep writing in this blog and try my best to keep european vacations alive in some way. Today I’m going to searching out a las vegas hotels and write not about myself, but about online poker and recent events. My topic is vague enough that this post may wander through different topics, but it will be centered around Isildur and his recent appearance in high stakes online poker. It is largely a product of my curiosity, experience, and las vegas flights and I hope that some of these ideas might speak to some of you as well.
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Hey all,
Just wanted to post a few things while I'm sitting around relaxing. Planning on meeting some friends out at a bar in a few minutes.
I released a high stakes leakfinder video today. It was tough for me to do this video because CR pro jcl played Phil Galfond, a very tough player who was playing an even more unorthodox style than he usually does. It's something that I talked about in the video, but it's worth doing whatever you can to give your opponents situations and information they aren't used to dealing with. Any successful online player sees the same situations thousands and thousands of times. In many ways, most of our decisions are made without much thought. This is a good thing, it allows us to play many tables in a profitable manner. Checking to the raiser, re-raising 3-4x preflop, betting 1/2-full put most of the time, etc. are all things we see in literally almost every hand we play. When you see a player making unusual (but thoughtful) decisions, even if on that hand alone (in a vacuum, as many say) will show less of a profit than a more "standard" strategy, it becomes very difficult to deal with. There's merit to adjusting your play in this manner to give your tougher opponents, the ones who watch training videos and generally play in an "optimal" manner, something new and difficult to deal with at the tables. At any rate, this is a short tangent, but what I'm trying to say is that you might check out this video because I think there was some good discussion and some overall tough decisions. It's probably a good video to watch if you are a 1/2-10/20 heads up player.
What else, oh yeah, durrr signed to Team FTP, congrats to him. Pretty awesome that "one of us," a young, mostly online player made it to highest sponsorship level you can get in poker. If any online player deserves it, it's gotta be Tom. I played with Tom fairly regularly for a few years and he's one of the good guys, really there isn't a bad thing to say about him.
Sorry if this sounds like a CardRuners commercial, I'm not good at or much into the self-promotion stuff, but there's something else you should check out. I have never played Triple Draw I honestly might start on account of Lee P's latest Triple Draw Video. If you know me, you know I'm not going to sit here and tell you to watch a Triple Draw video if it's not a video you should watch. There's not much else to be said than that, it's worth watching. I tell you what, if you watch it and you think it wasn't worth watching, leave a comment here and I'll make it up to you. Maybe guest CTZ host, CR t-shirt, or I'll just snub you because I do that sometimes. But seriously...watch it.
Alright...enough pimping of products I believe in and have a financial interest in promoting. Let's see..Main Event final table just happened. I gotta say, it was pretty fun to watch the Main Event this year. I watched this year's main event more than I had watched the previous 3 combined. After 2005 or 2006 I got really tired of TV poker because "OH MY GOD they aren't the best players in the world" and "oh my god AK beat 66 AIPF." Well now I think I appreciate it for what it is, mindless entertainment that can be pretty downright funny. I mean there are some freaking characters every year in the WSOP. Hellmuth goes crazy every year, some older guy just runs the table completely over, someone wins every all-in and becomes famous because of it. Frankly I think it's pretty cool. Even my parents were asking me about the main event, it's just a pretty damn big spectacle and it's almost embarassing to not know anything about what happened in it over the past few years. Count me as "back" as a poker fan.
This was a pretty terrible post, there was actually something else I wanted to say here but I can't even remember what it is. I have a real post updating you guys on my life over the past month or so but I don't have time to finish it. That should be coming soon, I'm feeling more motivated to write.
gl
Taylor
Nov 16, 09 03:55:12
I watch a lot of tv poker, not because its always quality play, but sometimes its just nice to mindlessly watch something like that and you can kind of feel the excitement of the people who are playing for a lot of money. For pokertainment and some truely bad play, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHnTcxGDLOc
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Hey all, I have a long-ish blog post coming later tonight, but because this is time-sensitive I'll post something short now. PokerNews is hosting a charity poker tournament tonight to help fight breast cancer. I'm not involved in any way other than hoping the poker community can raise a lot of cash for the cause, but you might want to check it out if you play on PokerStars. I'd love to play actually but my freaking PokerStars account has been locked for a long time. That's actually a funny story, PokerStars has called Cole, Stinger, and some other random CR people asking them "what their association is with the GreenPlastic." I'm not a bad guy!!!!
Anyway, here's the link, check it out. If someone wants to swap some money with me FTP -> Stars I'll donate something to the cause.
ttyl.
link: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/11/help-fight-breast-cancer--play-in-the-bad-beat-on-poker-7523.htm
Nov 13, 09 00:00:15
don't think I can play, but Ill swap money with you if you want.
shut a pm
Dec 11, 09 12:28:58
Hi, Taylor.
I'm from finland and my friend has met Juha Helppi. I've understood that he's a real character.
That's a nice way of saying he's a bit of a asshole.
- LoveisHell
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You guys have bailed me out of some big problems in the past so here is my idea and let's hope someone can come through! I want to be Craig Sager of TNT. If you don't watch sports you probably have no idea who he is but that's not really the point, google him if you are curious. If anyone can come up with a good store (ideally has a Chicago location) where I can get a ridiculous Craig Sager outfit or knows somewhere online that can ship something in a day or two, that'd be great. If I find the right online place I could probably just have them ship it out to where I'm going to be this weekend (LA).
If I can't figure out something good here I'll just go to a costume store and buy something standardish. I just want to be Craig Sager and I haven't had any time to make it happen.
If you help me out I will make it up to you somehow. Reasonable requests will be honored (note: i determine what's reasonable, suggested request = some free CR gear/months added to your subscription, if you play HUNLHE I'll do a leakfinder video for you, etc.)
Thanks!
Taylor
ps - i have a decent blog entry I have been working on but just haven't been able to complete. I'll post something legitimate later this week. xo
Oct 19, 09 20:09:25
Can't you just google Disco Suit Stores? I think a lot of his suits are from that era. No direct links sorry, but I dunno if you did a search through those style of stores.
Oh yeah, pictures are totally necessary imo.
Oct 19, 09 20:56:35
The stuff I found sucks. The guy wears really nice suits that are just ugly as hell. Ideally I need to find a deptartment store where I can buy a high quality ugly suit. I can't believe I just typed that.
Oct 19, 09 21:53:17
there's a store on clark and division right off the clark redline stop. check there.
Oct 20, 09 00:01:09
yarly, you could do this costume justice from a thrift store. that and a come-over style wig and a microphone would do it
Oct 20, 09 00:05:51
Taylor,
I imagine anywhere you can find something along the lines of Elton John stage attire your in the ballpark, Craig Sager seems to fall neatly into that category with his own attire.
Oct 20, 09 01:00:06
if you look at his outfits a lot of his stuff is mixed and matched like he'll have a red jacket white shirt and a blue bow tie. You should do the same. This site is alright www.menswearhouse.com/ http://www.indochino.com/ www.paulfredrick.com/
Oct 20, 09 14:11:22
http://www.ataghi.com/main.html
Here's where he actually buys his clothes. Probably expensive as shit though. Although I'd imagine they would overnight it to you.
Oct 20, 09 14:33:23
Hi GP,
I cannot help you with your costume idea, but if that falls through and you need some backups. I have 2 ideas for you.
1. Nudist on Strike. You take a poster board, write the slogan 'Hell No We Wont Show' undeneath writing 'Nudist on Strike'. Punch 2 holes in the top corners for the rope to hang it around your neck. ANd dress normally.
2. This costume I borrowed from a friend and I am actually doing it this year. I think it's brilliantly funny. I am felting numbers onto a plain t-shirt. Ie, the number 1, 2, 3, etc probably to 9, and maybe 2 of each. When somebody asks me what I am, my response will be 'Someone you can count on'
Goodluck this halloween with your costume selection.
Oct 20, 09 22:19:56
I went as Sager 3 years ago and found everything at the Salvation Army. I went to the one on Roosevelt in Oak Park. The key is to get the hair right. Obviously none of the girls knew who he was but all of the guys thought it was hilarious.
Also...get a mic to carry around and ask people questions.
Oct 22, 09 15:07:01
My buddy goes as a sportscaster just about every year, mixed in with the bud lite guy last year. Sager wasnt that funny, no one knew who he was. I say suck it up and go as the jamaican bobsled team haha!
Oct 29, 09 10:34:49
go as an snl chicago superfan, there are a bunch of resale shopws on the north side that sell the old ass bears knit sweaters, then all you need is a hareas hat, a mustache, and some aviators, then get a few guys to do it with you, easy cheap and awesome, have one guy do bears, one bulls, etc.
Nov 1, 09 09:22:09
Just wanted to give you a heads up that the Chicago Poker Classic at The Shoe is running a heads up tourney as one of the events. Thay are adding some money and a Porsche. Limited to 64 players.
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Hey all,
Here's a good way of looking at it. Poker, depending on the games you are playing in, is either like riding a bike or weightlifting. Once you get to a certain level, you're never going to regress so much that you couldn't hop into a game with weak opponents and be a huge favorite. If I didn't play a hand for 10 years, drank 10 beers, then went to play against a bunch of Asian businessmen, I'd still bet on myself. There's just no way I'm going to forget to fold 4-9 offsuit and to play a lot of hands on or near the button. This is realistically all I need to know and I'd have a huge advantage over the average high stakes mega fish.
Continuing on the update of what I've been up to in real life, Cole and Larissa came into town this weekend. We met up for drinks at the Dana Hotel and then met up with Andrew and Julia for dinner at Moto. You can find stuff online about Moto I'm sure but honestly the food was freaking bizarre. I guess the best way to start off explaining was that you actually eat the menu. Other things we ate included something that looked exactly like a Cigar (but was really a Cuban pork sandwhich), a duck sandwich that looked exactly like a cannoli, a bowl of corn flakes with strawberries that were frozen in (i think) liquid nitrogen so that when you bit into the food cold steam would literally shoot out of your notes and mouth, and the list goes on. In fact, it was a 20 course meal that took about 4 hours to complete, so by the end of 20 different foods and wines I was full and pretty tipsy. Thankfully I didn't lose credit card roulette which made the very enjoyable evening that much more fun.
That's probably it I guess. Bye.
I've done a poor job self-promoting CardRunners in general over the last year or so, the least I can do is let people know that it's absolutely free if you play at FTP. You have my word that this is absolutely free and is the best deal in the world for getting high quality poker training.
Oct 5, 09 19:30:53
halloween party at playboy mansion sounds pretty terrible. ;-) def bummed i missed the dave n busters party!
Oct 5, 09 20:25:15
Are you implying that Asians are fish? Should I be ashamed?
Safe travels man, hope you kick ass on international tv. Get Gustav to do a CTZ video with Wiggins!
Oct 5, 09 22:36:34
great post. glad you are blogging again. it's cool to see you take a more vested interest in what goes on in the day to day stuff with your members. really looking forward to whatever you have planned.
Oct 5, 09 22:47:30
I really love reading your blog, it is super inspirational to me to grind poker and get rich. Moar blog!
Oct 6, 09 07:32:09
lol @ gus on ctz
Tay you absolutely have to make some kind of reference to the PA vs Tilly hand if you ever get in a pot with her.
Oct 6, 09 13:15:34
While you are in London see if you can cop a feel on Tilly's ginormous (o)(o) hooters . That would be AWESOME!
Oct 6, 09 14:09:39
that coin game at d&b is a ticket goldmine. i have the entire cast of five foot tall stuffed loony tunes characters thanks to it.
Oct 8, 09 00:17:54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO6G6_hndbk&feature=player_embedded
This video is 10x better. the grandma actually hits the kid. its fucking brilliant
Oct 8, 09 00:18:56
sorry, this is in response to a video taylor put in his blog a while back ago. i came across a better vid
Oct 8, 09 13:59:34
its great you hit the target and keep getting charged..awesome, I love it!!!!!
Oct 17, 09 20:01:52
Evening Taylor - I am a student living & playing in london. I met up with Brian Hastings when he was in town. If you fancy going for lunch with some other student UK poker players it would be awesome.
Let me know by PM.
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Hey, this is going to be quick and I'll have a better update this weekend. The man/mtyh Cole is coming into town this weekend and Andrew and I want to show him a good time on Saturday night. We're trying to get a reservation at a really nice or cool restaurant but last minute it's really hard to do that.
If anyone reading this has any connections at a place like Moto, Alinea, Charlie Trotters, or something similarly impossible to get good last minute reservations, we'd really appreciate something. We'd need it for six people and anything before 8 oclock works. If you can help some brothers out we'll hook you or your friends up with CR gear, subscriptions, or anything else that's reasonable. Just PM me or email support@cardrunners and have them forward it my way.
Thanks!
Oct 1, 09 15:33:55
go to the restaurant with hundreds in your pocket.
approach host stand.
drop bills.
this works nearly 100% of the time.
Oct 1, 09 16:35:59
i can't, taylor, but i can recommend two places that are incredible.
avec (which is in the west loop)
cafe baba reeba
you'll need to make reservations by tomorrow afternoon if you'd like to hit either. cafe baba reeba is frequented by TONS of beautiful women.
Oct 1, 09 16:37:25
Try this: walk into the place, look around for the table you would like to sit at. Take your time, no rush. Once you're pretty sure you know where you wanna sit, pull out your gun...
Oct 1, 09 17:53:11
been to cafe baba reeba. really fun place but we are looking for a dif type of place for this weekend.
Oct 1, 09 19:13:14
well, if you like tapas-style dining, Mana on Divison and Wolcot is fantastic. it's a vegetarian place.
Oct 1, 09 22:03:54
Send the cr assistant, hopefully a hot chick, and have her talk to the maitre'd of the restaurant, and with some "direct incentive" \$, im sure he can arrange something...
Oct 2, 09 05:41:06
i have never been to a restaurant that pays the host so much they will not make room for someone with \$100.
Oct 3, 09 12:14:20
I see Cr members are really connected...lol
I say go to the "King Of fries"...No major lineups
p.s. Im a extra large...ty
Oct 5, 09 11:07:25
I was in town the weekend before and don't recall being taken out for "a good time," that's prolly cuz I was too drunk to remember it though :P
Oct 13, 09 00:44:08
its the 4 best restaurant in the nation in ahead of TAO in vegas which is 7 but i assume most that money is alcohol related.. if your interested give me a call or PM me. i run their retirement plan. the wait is usually like 30 min - hour on weekends. not sure i can get you in the first time, but i can get you a pass so future you wouldn't have to wait in line.
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For a few weeks in mid 2006, right after I graduated college, I used a program called Trillian which aggregates instant messenger services so you can login with one name and be signed into AIM, MSN, etc. At the time, all of the Euros were using MSN and Americans using AIM, so it was annoying to have to go back and forth and having different windows popping up. Today, just about everyone I talk to regularly uses Gchat and most of the Euros at least have AIM if they don't have Gchat. A program like this really isn't necessary for me now, but man am I glad I used it. I was going through some old files and I found that I had AIM chat logs from 2006 still saved. On one of my old computers I know I have some for 2004/2005 as well, but I can't seem to find them.
I would give anything to be able to have an archive of all my old chats. It's hilarious to see some of the dumb stuff my friends and I used to say and do, and it's eye opening to me just how much has changed in my life in 3 short years. Just over this two week sample of chats, I talked to probably 5-10 people I haven't even talked to since those very chats, and it's almost painful to look at some of my conversation's with Andrew about CR. One in particular went something like this:
Taylor: Hey, we should start writing blogs at CR.
Andrew: Yea?
Taylor: Mostly poker, but we could also talk about our lives.
Taylor: Probably everyday, if not very close to it.
Random person (3:30PM): Hey Taylor, what's going on?
Taylor: (3:31PM) Not much, just waking up.
Taylor: As soon as my mom will drive me over.
Taylor: Not really, maybe 1.5 hours a day or so.
Sep 23, 09 11:26:54
to be honest I can't believe that there isn't a website devoted to old chat logs. I found them pretty funny and assume I have some funny ones
Sep 23, 09 12:25:19
fun blog. dig up some more. also tell andrew to blog or something. he was always one of my favorite blogs and its like he doesnt even exist anymore on CR.
Sep 23, 09 12:57:41
Friend: Hey, when are you coming over to drink?
Taylor: As soon as my mom will drive me over.
Pure classic.
Sep 23, 09 14:18:22
i would love to hear what's what. also, my mom never drove me to my friend's house so i could get my drink on
Sep 23, 09 14:35:10
what stakes were you playin when you could avg 2-3k a day that easily. Dear god i hope poker legislation changes soon
Sep 24, 09 16:37:38
Taylor: (3:31PM) Not much, just waking up.
little close to home with this one.
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This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday I woke up and didn't feel like heading into the office. I had a few hours of phone calls to do and some emails to follow up on, so I spent most of the morning catching up on the latter and the afternoon doing the former. My new building doesn't have in unit laundry, so I put off doing laundry as much as humanly possible because the 30 floor trek downstairs to the laundry facilities sort of sucks. I'm still not sold it's much worse than having in unit laundry, actually, because although it is a huge pain in the ass to do not be able to do laundry 10 steps from your bedroom, it's nice to do three loads at once and have all of your laundry for two weeks finished in two hours. I go through a TON of clothes because I play basketball 3-4 times per week, which results in most days of the week wearing two different sets of clothes, more if I'm going out to eat or to a bar.
Melissa and I came home, watched some of Dexter season one, then I decided to order the Mayweather fight and we were going to watch it in bed. My friends tell me what follows is just about as typical of a "Taylor" story as you can find. The background is that we don't have HD TV in our bedroom. I don't really care about HD much, expect when watching sports, and Melissa doesn't care at all. So we decided not to spend the extra cash on HD cable in our bedroom. I would also estimate I only watch about two hours of TV per month in the bedroom, so it's really not something I care much about anyway. So, because I'm not thinking, I order the HD version of the Mayweather fight on our bedroom TV. Well, we don't get HD in there, so the picture is blank. Now, I would argue that if you order the HD version, the non HD version should be available to you as well. Not the case. Furthermore, you can't watch the HD version on any other TV's, so when I went to the living room to try to watch it, it was blank as well. So basically I spent $50 on a fight I couldn't even watch, which was both stupid on my part and ridiculous on the cable companies (Comcast) part. I decided that out of principle I wouldn't re-order the fight and instead just went to bed. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't waste the extra cash as I heard the fight was pretty bad, but as I'm writing this out, it's hard to justify not spending 2.5oz's worth of overpriced japanese steak on some quality entertainment.
I got home, ate some mac n cheese, and spent maybe three hours on phone calls for CR. That's the downside of working for an online business, there never is any time away from the business it seems.
Anyway, that was my weekend. I'll try to write something more interesting at some point this week. Good luck at the tables and in life.
Taylor
Sep 21, 09 18:27:14
lol who is your intended audience?
Andrew "muddywater" Wiggins?
Is the <insert screen name> really necessary?
Sep 21, 09 21:58:19
That's funny, I pretty much had the same exact experience when I got my apartment out here. The broker even told me heat was included, which wasn't the case. Oh well, being able to do multiple loads of laundry at once does rock though.
Sep 21, 09 23:36:40
I'm a huge nit about HD now after having it for over a year. "Going green" story is really funny. You messed up the namedrop though, it's Andrew "muddy trousers" Wigginton
Sep 22, 09 13:23:00
I was at the fight - the first two undercards were pretty good. The main event wasn't a great fight in the sense of being competitive, but it was a pretty awesome performance by Floyd. If you just enjoy watching the pinnacle of the sport today, then it's worth watching, if you want high drama about the result, then no. HBO will replay it this weekend if you want to watch....
Sep 22, 09 15:08:14
nomo -- i like to call people by their poker names when it's absolutely inappropriate to do so. i've known andrew for 7 years now, we hardly ever talk about poker, i just felt like calling him "muddywater" because no one calls him that.
stinger - you are right.
brue - i'll check it out this weekend.
all - love you love your show
Sep 23, 09 04:42:42
Quick tip for Comcast PPV ordering. You can get the PPV on all of your cable boxes, but you have to call in and order it over the phone (and make sure you tell them to put it on all of your cable boxes). It's a really stupid system, but if you order it through the box it only orders it for that box (and yes I think it should give you the HD and Standard too).
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Many of the 15 year olds who read this blog may have heard that Kanye West dissed Taylor Swift the other night at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Well Kanye, that's for shit, you should know Taylor's stick up for each other. If you are older than 15 and did not see this, here:
So Taylor Swift won an award and was giving her speech when Kanye came in and basically said that Beyonce deserved the award. It was a pretty bush-league move by Kanye and I think he got thrown out of the building afterwards. Apparently Kanye went on Leno last night and apologized for the move, but I doubt he's actually too apologetic. Talking about Kanye reminds me of when I went to a Kanye concert in college. That was an experience, Kanye kept yelling about hating white people which made us feel really awkward at the show. It was actually a really good show, nonetheless.
On a slightly unrelated note, I have to say I'm a pretty big fan of Taylor Swift. I think she's 19 or 20 and writes a lot of her own music, is a great singer, and seems pretty cool in the five minutes of talking I've seen from her. I'm not a huge country music fan myself but a lot her stuff is really more pop music anyway. She's gotta be one of the biggest stars in music today and that's impressive at such a young age. After doing some googling it looks like Taylor even made out with some other dude named Taylor, so I guess she isn't worried about being namecestious. Yeah, I said that. If you read this Taylor, keep fighting the good fight and call me if you are in Chicago, we can go kick Kanye's ass (kidding, especially if you are my girlfriend or Kanye's entourage/lawyer).
Jim (CR's COO, founder of Stoxpoker and ThisIsTheNuts) and I got back Sunday night from a trip to Budapest, Hungary. Not too much that I care to blog about the trip actually. Meetings, a very little bit of sight-seeing, and a decent amount of booze and networking was the story of the trip. I did really enjoy the architecture, some authentic Hungarian food, and some authentic American food (McDonald's). If you're ever in Budapest, I definitely recommend going to the club "Bed." I'm not the biggest club guy around but it was pretty freakin' amazing.
Anyway, gotta work. Good luck.
Taylor
Sep 15, 09 12:31:22
Kanye is such an unreal raging douche.. His concert at Lollapalooza however many years ago was the most disappointing live music show I've ever been to, and it was in Chicago of all places. Taylor looks like she's about to cry :(
Sep 15, 09 12:40:40
You have to admit...the incident is goin to make for great lyrics in the near future...
"Like at the MTV awards,I stole her mike, she starting crying, blah blah blah"
Sep 15, 09 13:03:46
http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1143799745/Carlos_Mencia_Takes_Down_Kanye_West
FYP
Sep 15, 09 15:07:48
This made me lawl hard. Tay you should watch the Fishdicks episode of South Park.
Sep 15, 09 15:39:45
I hear he likes the white pussy tho. Just white dudes that he hates. He's black though, so he gets away with it
Sep 15, 09 16:45:05
Oh man if she actually did cry when he did that on stage *gulp*
Definetly check this out: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ikickdogs/--46e1-lke/
Sep 15, 09 16:53:48
man, taylor, you're in hungary and you're eating mcdonalds! where's your sense of adventure?! there are like 10 of them in lincoln park.
Sep 16, 09 19:05:22
Yo Taylor (Caby), I'm happy for you, and I'ma let you finish, but Brian Townsend has one of the best blogs of all time!
..ONE OF THE BEST BLOGS OF ALL TIME!
And on topic, I thing a lot of people have gone too far on it. Yeah Kanye did something stupid, but tons of people are getting on their high moral horse and are threatening to never listen to him again, or never buy a CD of his, that's pretty friggin' extreme. I like his music, and if he acts like a prick off track then that's his problem, it ain't gonna stop me listening to him..
Sep 17, 09 05:49:36
shes 17 years old from what i hear.. might be wrong.. but kayne is the biggest dbag of them all. He belongs with the black panthers. I wish you (you went to his concert a while ago) and every other white person dont go to him shows. he spews hate towards white people. racist prick.
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There's probably a few reasons why things have changed. The biggest is simply that I am much busier than I was back then. CardRunners is 10x as big and probably requires 5x the work as it once did. Gone are the days when people I know are going out 4 days a week so I can pretty much pick and choose a time I want to have fun and it will happen. Poker is also considerably harder so to get good results you need to put in more time at the tables and also spend more time away from the tables. This is actually fine in my book, poker is more about the challenge to me now than just a pure money-making endeavor. It's funny in that regard, in 2003 it was such a great challenge to learn the game and a seemingly good way to make a few bucks for beer money. In 2004 I really came into my own and about halfway through the year realized I was better than anyone I had ever played online (results showed that too). In 2005-2006 it was all about exploiting that edge and getting the hands in, simply put, it was a challenge no more. 2007-2008 poker took a major backseat to CR as CR was a bigger challenge and I was searching for something to really devote my time and energy to. I guess I have a little bit of Brian T. in me because when something doesn't seem like a challenge anymore or if I am not really improving at it I get very bored of it. Maybe that's how everyone is, I don't know.
Anyway, I think all those things have contributed to the blog not being as good as I think it can be. I'm trying though, if I get emo enough I'll post something interesting.
Taylor
Sep 8, 09 10:50:05
What a way to open the season. Let's see if the D can improve and if the receivers can do what Jay needs them to.
Sep 8, 09 12:40:25
F Da Bears.
WhoDey All the Way
Btw, Budapest is probably one of the best names for a capital of a country. It just rolls of the tongue so nicely.
And if you want some video content, I'll play you HU at 50 NLHU....25/.50 blinds of course :o)
Sep 8, 09 13:30:52
whoa at your flight. i've got forte and bears D in two of my leagues, so i'll be cheering a bit for them this year. i've already found a place that shows nfl in london, thankfully. :)
Sep 8, 09 14:01:11
I live in Budapest, how long are you staying here for?
I live pretty close to the Eastern Rail Station (Keleti in Hungarian), and as I see your conference is gonna be at SYMA center, which is a block away.
Pm me if you are interested in meeting up.
Sep 9, 09 04:56:16
Dude,
I don't mean to be a jerk, but it seems like you got some growing up to do. It's shouldn't be your priority to care about what people who wish they were in your shoes say about you on the forums. It's all part of the fame and your family needs to understand that.
Write what you want because they will write crap about you as soon as you hit a down streak anyways. Look at what they said about Townsend and what they are currently saying about Durrrr and Lars. The rail is full of fickle idiots.
Sep 9, 09 11:11:01
suprised u went on high stakes poker if ur afraid of family members seein u lost a bunch of money in a session. seems like it'd look worse losing 100k on television.
Sep 9, 09 11:47:28
SOUP,
I could do that. Or I could just not write at all. That's what I choose to do sometimes, and I decided to write about it....because that's what I wanted to write about.
Sep 9, 09 13:29:44
.......because blog writer doesn't hustle fish into paying him to blog often enough
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It is Christmas time in August for me, ladies and gentleman. Please note that by "ladies" I mean my mother, who is likely the only female reader of this blog. Today at 12:01AM, Madden NFL 2010 hit the shelves. I would consider myself a Madden junkie, I've been playing it since 1991 and I'd say I've purchased about 13 of the 20 Maddens that have been made. Considering that they are about $50/pop, that's $650 plus tax that I have spent on John Madden's video game. That's pretty crazy when you think about it. When you think about it some more, it's almost a good investment because I probably play about 3 hours a week, putting the effective cost at about thirty cents per hour. The only time I didn't really play much Madden was sophomore-senior year in college, when I was addicted to internet poker. I'll take this time to apologize to my overlord John Madden, I will buy three copies of the game this year to make up for your missed royalties during '03-'06. I should also tell you that it was nothing personal, I didn't do much of anything those years besides play poker or go to school/bars.
Later,
Taylor
Aug 14, 09 22:49:21
I was walking through an electronics store today... and although I'm not a fan... I really thought it was a real game. Even when you get up close it looks phenomenal and I almost got it.
Aug 14, 09 23:25:45
fewer wordy blog entries, more animated gifs. daut got it right on that one.
Aug 15, 09 06:27:40
"I realize that as soon as I post this I'll go on a huge downswing and my gf will break up with me, but screw it, I'm feeling good!"
LOL
Aug 24, 09 20:13:56
taylor, your blog is great as it is. You write really cool stories about whats been going on in your life and your perspectives. Its great.
Don't tailor it to us-- as someone else said-- just be yourself. That's what makes it a great read.
Thanks for the updates!!
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Hi.
Short internet brag post forthcoming. Unfortunately this is the internet and not real life so brags aren't really brags, but I guess it's still worth something and since I'm on the internet I can post it comfortably. As an aside, I was reminded again last week of how I really do live in two different worlds, real life and internet world, when I met some new people and casually mentioned "yeah, I talked about that in a blog post last week." It immediately dawned on me that there is a distinct type of person that you can talk about your blog with, and if you aren't sure if the person you are talking to is in that category, you don't mention the fact that you blog. Oh, internet world....
On the CR side of things, I've got a video coming out Wednesday and also have a few more to be released this month. You'll be Green Plastic'd out by end of August. Also, I've never blogged about it before, but we've launched CardRunners Rakeback at FTP about two months ago. I'm really happy with it because we've got the best deal around -- all you have to do is sign up for a rakeback account, rake $100, and you earn a free copy of Hold'em Manager and 3 months of CardRunners (or Stoxpoker), no strings attached! The best part is that you still get monthly rakeback and you are still eligible for Free Poker Training at Full Tilt Poker. This is the biggest no brainer deal for anyone who is looking to get serious about their game.
Taylor
Aug 10, 09 18:57:49
LoL people always just brag when they blog... never blog about negative things ;-)
Alex
Aug 10, 09 22:21:04
I am curious how does it work when you host an event? Do they pay for your entry? Can you rebuy as many times as you want? Do they get a percentage if they buy you in?
Aug 11, 09 18:55:19
Do I have to do this for every computer I play on? I wish I would have known this, I have wondered for years how to get it on full tilt with out creating a brand new account and new name, etc, losing all ftp etc. Good luck in the tourney
Aug 11, 09 21:40:08
mgbrant,
this is only for NEW FTP customers. if you already have a FTP account, the rules state that you must use that one. that's just FTP's policy and we support it.
Taylor
Aug 12, 09 21:15:42
about my chat question
great blog, definatly gonna read more of them.
About my invite question on the Full Tilt chat, We host a private tournament on full tilt on friday, we is "FTP Hooligans" , a so called pokerclan. It is our first official game as clan and we would like some pro's to join us of course. So we kindly invite you to join friday the 14th on full tilt poker, use tournament id:102763940 to find it and use axehandle as password
hope you will join our game, gl on the felts either way :D
Aug 13, 09 08:52:19
Nice to see PokerPlayer mentioned in the blog Taylor. Keep up the good work on the site and hopefully we'll get your blog in our pages again soon!
Aug 13, 09 22:59:14
Love reading your blog Taylor...a very solid combination of poker talk and things going on in your life. Glad to see it was recognized and hope you're doing well at the tables
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Well, that changes when summer rolls around. Since I've been back in Chicago, I've been out doing stuff all the time. It's great, I feel busy and stimulated. I've been back to putting in some good hours at CardRunners as well. It's crazy, I feel like I'm more productive at work when I'm busy doing lots of things. I think I prioritize my time really well when I have a lot of things to do. When I know I'm not doing much at night or on the weekends, I'll put work off and then get it done too sloppily or not as spend as much time on it as I'd like to.
Another phenomenon I've been dealing with lately is something that most people probably don't ever experience and it's sort of new to me as well. Typically, when you have a job, you go to work, do whatever you are supposed to be doing, collect a salary, and go home and live your life. Then there are people who are "workaholics" who take all of their work home, constantly are thinking about things they can be working on, and are basically just 110% committed to their jobs. This is the way you have to be when you are starting your own business. There's just so much to do and not enough time in the day to get things finished.
When I graduated college in 2006 until probably mid 2008, this is how my life was. I took one full day off from CR over the course of two years. This meant no emails, no forums, no phone calls, etc. Even on Christmas and New Years Day I at least put in a small amount of time. Starting in mid 2008, we merged with Stoxpoker, added people to the management team, really built out our support staff, and basically had a process in place so that the founders and management are really just there to watch over things, as opposed to lead and do everything on the website. I should simultaneously say thanks to the more experienced people we brought into the business (you know who you are) and also pat myself on the back for having the foresight to realize that a 23 year old doesn't have the skills to run a business of CR's size and should get some help from people people with more experience than he does.
Jul 31, 09 19:57:31
That's some mighty fine bloggin there. I'm looking forward to your stand-up act, someone youtube it plz =)
Aug 1, 09 05:23:49
Wish I was older and could have run the online streets and come up with CR before u did :(
Aug 1, 09 14:49:05
You should be really proud of how far you've come with this business. Its gratifying to see you progress from early stages of poker levels and to also see this company do so well.
I have been self-employed myself for 10+ years. The freedom is great, yet you always have your mind on issues, so it's never total freedom. Reflecting some more -- its kind of like raising children as well -- always on your mind!
Aug 12, 09 20:35:53
great blog, definatly gonna read more of them.
About my invite question on the Full Tilt chat, We host a private tournament on full tilt on friday, we is "FTP Hooligans" , a so called pokerclan. It is our first official game as clan and we would like some pro's to join us of course. So we kindly invite you to join friday the 14th on full tilt poker, use tournament id:102763940 to find it and use axehandle as password
hope you will join our game, gl on the felts either way :D
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Here are some things that I find funny:
These videos are funny. I've watched them a lot this weekend and I'm on the fence as to whether or not they are staged. Watch them all before reading my analysis.
Arguments for being staged:
It is ranked as one of the most popular "partner" videos on YouTube. I'm pretty sure "partner" means that it's someone who has bought advertising or placement on YouTube, but I don't know for sure.
I can't imagine buying that truck for a kid with such massive anger management issues. Any parent would have known that this child's perceived social status is dependent on the car he drives, so buying him something like this would clearly set him into a rage. I'm pretty sure the only type of kid that would drive this car is the cool slacker type or someone who really can only afford a $200 truck.
This family clearly has some money. There is a Hummer in the driveway, both kids have WoW subscriptions ($15/mo), the younger brother has a video camera which almost undoubtedly cost more than the 16th birthday present for Steven. So why on earth would they have a microwave that is so old and crappy? I'm pretty sure you could get a decent microwave for less than the truck they bought the kid. If it took seven minutes to cook a TV dinner, I think I'd probably pull a Steven on it.
Arguments for it being real:
I'm nearly positive that someone couldn't fake being as pissed off as Steven was in the first video. One of my friends and I both tried to fake a freak out like that and he hurt his throat and I got a headache really quickly. It's hard to act like that.
It appears like there family members, including grandparents, in the truck video. I don't think grandparents would really want to be in a YouTube joke video where their grand kid is humiliated in front of millions of people. I suppose it's possible they just hired some extras and these aren't real grandparents, I guess.
Anyway, let me know what you think. I'm curious to see what CR members think about whether this is fake or real.
Also, I was on Urban Dictionary yesterday and I looked up my last name. Here is what it said:
| 1. | caby | 16 up, 2 down   |
|
an uberly hot guy that you want to be with every second of everyday (even though hes total jackass to you all the time)
*** cabys also enjoy activitiys such as getting drunk getting high and sneaking out at night**** oh my god. jason is a toatal caby......
|
||
This is awesome. I'm pretty sure that every guy secretly wants to be "a caby" at least for one day in his life. This was clearly written by a girl who was totally screwed over by some guy with the last name Caby. My favorite part about it is that he not only does he get drunk and high with regularity, he has the audacity to "sneak out at night." ha ha ha
All right, bedtime, peace.
Taylor
Jul 27, 09 00:03:20
yeah i had the same thoughts on those videos that the first one has to be real because surely no kids willing to have that of them on the net especially with the remote control ass move and if it is fake that kids the best actor of his generation, But then the truck and guitar ones seemed a bit unrealistic to me.
Jul 27, 09 00:21:52
maybe the first one is real then they decided to roll with it and fake a cupple more?
Jul 27, 09 03:48:12
first one has to be real- its probably him on tilt after a bad beat.
Jul 27, 09 04:22:50
the problem i have is the kids "rants" dont start until after the camera has been set, like maybe the first one is real, but the second one, as the brother is explaining whats going on, if it were real, wouldnt we be able to hear the other brother in the background ranting already???
also, he doesnt hit the top of the truck very hard... or break any windows, leads me to believe that it was staged, if he really was pissed off and wanted to make a statement, then a statement woulda been made. why is the mom more concerned about shutting the camera off than her crazy son???
Jul 27, 09 09:37:20
They do appear to have some money but the kid is playing on his moms laptop in the living room. This makes me find the broken microwave fitting into their house, and b/c of the \$, Steven will know that breaking those things wont be as big of a deal. The guitar one looks really fake though.
Jul 27, 09 12:21:27
100% staged..who sticks a remote control up their ass when they are pissed? and in the truck video one of the extras has a line that confirmed how much this was all a stage
Jul 27, 09 21:34:25
Those videos were hilar...thanks for the laughs.
I could probably do a few freakouts from some PLO hands that I've played in recent days though, so I feel for the kid.
As for your Urban Dictionary Definition... it sure beats the hell out of mine.
I looked up Huang, here's what I found:
the male genitalia; also known as part of the phrase "lee's huang"
also known as "wang", "shlong", "tally-whacker", "penis", "cock", etc.
You win
Alex
Jul 28, 09 15:12:50
hopefully fake, or this kid is going to get some hard lessons real soon. Can you imagine having him as a college roommate
Jul 29, 09 06:16:57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO30g3s-FmE&feature=related
Watch this one.. same freakout scene different person.
Jul 30, 09 20:07:33
wow how bad r these videos? incredible that u find them funny, i mean i mightave found them funny in 5th grade
Jul 31, 09 02:37:48
" This was clearly written by a girl who was totally screwed over by some guy with the last name Caby. "
lol, any particular memories come to mind? =D
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Hey all, With the blinds at 12K/24K ante 3K a player raised from under the gun and Ward came along for the ride. The flop came 7 Ward: 8 With Taylor “GreenPlastic” Caby and several of Joe’s friends on the rail (and almost forcing it to collapse), the dealer peeled over the A
Been a week since I've updated, hi. After about six weeks in Las Vegas I'm back in Chicago for the foreseeable future. I'll tell you a little bit about the past week, which has been, without question, one of the most memorable of my life. I've never experienced such a mix of such euphoric highs and agonizing lows in such a small window of time. Enjoy, I'm writing this down now so I can look back in the distant future and try to recapture just how this felt.
To start, I'll pick up where I left off with the Main Event. I really felt great after the first two days. I don't think I could have played any better, I made one big hand in 18 hours of play and managed to chip up from 30k starting stack to 134k, giving myself a stack that was about 20% above average. I laid down a set, made some other laydowns that in the past I would have begrudgingly called and chalked up to "can't fold, it's a live tournament." I also made some hero calls that were correct. In short, I felt proud that I had actually given a live tournament 110% effort and the results were there.
As soon as I got home from Day 2 I knew something wasn't right. I blogged about this just a bit, but I felt horribly. I spent the two "off days" between day two and three laying in bed. I probably slept about 16 hours a day. The night before day three I woke up in my hotel bed, soaking wet, sweating like crazy. It was so bad that I had to go take a shower and then lay on top of the sheets in the corner of the bed because the whole king bed was just soaked. Anyway, I was feeling probably 70% or so by the time the tournament started at noon. It was just frustrating to me to go in with a pretty big stack but still feeling crappy. I proceeded to draw a horrible table and play what I would call C poker. No excuses, I was really trying, there were just a few plays that I wish I could take back. I gave it my best shot though, and eventually went out on a 65/35 type hand, standard.
So great, I thought to myself. I had a big stack, played over 24 hours of live poker and had nothing to show for it, I'm feeling crappy, and I'm ready to get out of Vegas. Then I headed over to check on my friend Joe (LatestLines2). Joe had a pretty big stack for all of day 1 and 2, so I was expecting him to be cruising along as usual. Joe had something like 300k at this point, when the average stack was maybe 180k.
Now, a little background on Joe. He's one of the nicest kids you'll ever meet, poker player or not. He plays SnG's professionally, grinding out the $100+ SnG's for what amounts to a comfortable living. He's never really cared too much about playing as high stakes as possible, any sort of fame or recognition, but he's a really good player. He could definitely beat high stakes cash games if he put his mind to it. He'll play a ton of volume for a month or two, then just inexplicably take a month off, go to Disneyworld, hang out with friends, and just enjoy himself. Not a bad lifestyle, indeed.
Anyway, Joe is such a solid player that I'll gladly put him into pretty much any tournament if he ever wants to play one. Stinger talked him into playing the main event and we bought some action. So fast forward to this point near the end of Day 3 and I am really frustrated. I've just finished a blog about how I can just feel something good about to happen to me, I'm due fo some good luck, yet I just bust out of the Main Event and got sick at the absolute worst time. Since there were only about 900 people left in the tournament at this point, I decided I'd stick around and see how far Joe could make it.
By the time the bubble burst, Joe had built up a stack of like 500k or something like that. Stinger and I were feeling pretty good because by the end of day 4 I think his stack put him in 30th place with 400 or so people left to go. I kept pushing my rental car and hotel room one day back every day, expecting Joe to catch some bad beat and bust any minute now.
I'll tell you one thing, sweating someone you really want to do well in a live tournament is infinitely more stressful than playing in a live tournament. I was a freaking MESS on the side watching Joe's action. He wasn't even playing a ton of hands, but everytime he was in one I was absolutely going insane. You sort of "have to be there" to understand, but think about this. When your guy raises, you don't know if you want a call or a fold. When you get a call, THEN you have to hope that his hand holds up if it's good which is the most stressful thing in the world. Someone came up to me at one point and said "Taylor, the pokernews people were laughing at how nervous you look watching Joe." I was like "Yeah, can't you tell? I'm a wreck, this is the most stressful thing I've ever done."
During day 5 and 6, Stinger, Bruce, and I went to the Rio's poker room to play some small stakes to kill time. I just couldn't stomach watching Joe the whole day, so I would get into a 1-2 or 2-5 game and just sweat the pokernews updates for a couple hours. These games turned out to quite fun and profitable, I think I managed to win about $1500 in 5 hours of play or so. We had a pretty fun table the first day, with this crazy asian gambler who bought in for 2k at 2-5, plus Mickey Appleman who talked to us a fair bit about sports betting. Mickey also seemed to think that many of the online kids who have had success will go broke, which I don't necessarily disagree with, I just don't think it will be me. I'm not sure he agreed with that, ha ha, oh well. Stinger and I both managed to successfully kamikaze bluff the asian guy, which let me tell you, was generally NOT a smart move. I decided to barrel three streets OOP into the guy, finally getting him to fold on the river. While he was tanking, I ordered a burger from the restaurant and was carrying on a conversation with the left side of the table. I think this helped my cause, because after a few minutes he mucked the hand. I showed him the hand and Mickey looked at me like I was the biggest fool in the world. Truthfully, I might have been.
So eventually near the end of Day 6, Joe has something like 1.4mm and the average stack is probably just a bit more than that. He's got a decent table, nothing too difficult but not an easy one. There's 110 players left at this point, and we're really starting to think he might be able to make a deep run. I'll just paste the PocketFivesLive news coverage of this hand, because I really can't do the situation too much more justice:
Joe Wards Off Elimination by Brett on 07.13.09, 9:02 pm
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward is running well during this year’s WSOP Main Event. He’ll tell you that himself, especially after the way he scooped a massive pot just minutes ago to double up to nearly 3 million chips.
65
and the two players got into a raising war that resulted in all of Ward’s chips going in with a chance for him to double up or go home:8
Opponent: J
J on the turn. No help to Ward. He needed a nine, four or eight to stave off elimination. The river: the 4, giving Ward a straight and sending his rail into a frenzy. Caby was so excited that he actually ran between the ropes and into the tournament area, causing a secrurity guard to give him one last warning before he’d be thrown out. Ward, meanwhile, began stacking an enormous pile of chips that total 2.8 million, placing him around 20th out of 107 players still in the field. The current average is 1.8 million.
Wow. We were going crazy. Anyone that knows me or has played with me knows I'm generally a pretty laid back guy. Something just came over us and we HAD to sweat that action. The floor guy wasn't letting us in to see the turn and river but with all the time we had invested watching this tournament and because I wanted this so badly for Joe we just had to sweat it out. When Joe binked off the straight I immediately ran over to him, hugged him, and we were just jumping up and down like crazy. The ESPN cameras were all over us and it was total euphoria. I've never felt a feeling like that, Stinger and I agreed it was the best sweat of our lives, even though we had both had some pretty serious high stakes hands to sweat out. My whole body was shaking after this pot. It's really weird, it was like the adrenaline or whatever it was was just causing me to hardly be able to function. I think it was a combination of having felt like I've run pretty damn awful so far this year and also wanting this so badly for Joe. I told my friends, I'd rather have a piece of Joe and have him win the main event than have me win the whole thing for 8 million. That's how much I really wanted the kid to do well, he's that type of guy.
Okay, so Joe was onto day 7. There were 80 people left or so and his stack was basically average. Not a whole lot happened to be quite honest, he was chipped up just a little bit when he smooth called an EP's raise with KK, the blinds squeezed, EP reshoved, and Joe called it off. He was up against QQ and JJ! He knocked out both of these guys, and with 36 people left, he was in 8th place! This was the most unbelievable feeling ever, Joe was in great position with only four tables to go!
Of course, who but Phil Ivey gets moved two to Joe's right. Joe had played with Ivey for about 4 hours already so he felt about as comfortable as you can feel, but it wasn't a great draw. The very next hand, Joe picked up KK again and raised from UTG. Ivey called with 97cc, and eventually took about 1mm from Joe on Q7473 board. Joe was down to about 9mm, with the average stack at 5.75mm or so. Only a couple hands later, Joe got it all in with KK v AA, total cooler. KK couldn't suck out and he was again down below average. He stayed steady for a couple hours, and eventually got it all in with 66 v AQ. Thankfully, he won the flip and was now in about 20th place with 28 people left.
About six short stacks doubled through when the following hand came up. Keep in mind we had been sweating Joe for about 4 full days now and about 9 hours so far on this day. Cutoff raises to 250k at 50/100 blinds, joe makes it 950k on the button, cutoff shoves all in for 4.4million, Joe goes "well, it's time to gamble," and calls with AK. Cutoff shows AQ and Joe is looking great! I am SOOO nervous at this point, I can't even see the cards because there is a swarm of people and and media watching. I knew there was no way I could pull a bush-league move like last time and run out there, so I just decided I'd watch Joe's reaction and sweat his face. ESPN makes the dealers wait for like 30 seconds between each action, so on with the sweat. Joe looked calm after the flop, I knew we were okay. One of my friends goes "King! King!" And someone at the table turns to him and goes "the King will give the other guy more straight outs, he'll have four outs instead of three." My friend goes, "DEUCE, DEUCE!" Haha, it was pretty funny.
Turn was a deuce! AT82 board, Joe needs to dodge a Queen on the river and he will have 8.8 million in chips, putting him in 10th place with 28 to go. I turned to the pokernews guy next to me and said "only a queen can hurt him, right?" He said, "yep, looking good, just needs to dodge a queen." I still couldn't see the board at this point so I sweated Joe's face once again. River: death. I knew it immediately by Joe's reaction. He turned and yelled an expletive and threw his hat at the rail. In what will certainly be good TV this fall, Joe's fate was sealed with Queen on the river. It was the most agonizing thing I've ever seen. Joe was one card away from timely double up, a big stack with 28 people to go, and he couldn't dodge the Queen. The whole room was cheering because now we were down to our final 27, I felt so bad for him. We walked over to meet him, asked if he wanted a beer, and he said "no, got a gun?" It was a pretty funny moment that thankfully we have all sinced laughed about.
The floor guy counted out all of Joe's chips. Joe was outchipped by a mere 200k, or two big blinds. We immediately left the building, I went home, booked a flight for the next morning, took a shower, and met the guys at the blackjack tables at the Encore.
We played about an hour of blackjack. We talked about nothing besides the poker tournament, and almost nothing besides that last hand. The floor guy didn't really seem to understand why we kept talking about it, but no one really wanted to let him know just how big of a deal having a non Q river would have been. Joe ended out cashing for $250k for his troubles, a great run that he should be proud of, but we couldn't quite help but wonder what would have happened if that river had been a different card. I decided to bet whatever money I had on me on my last hand. It turned out to be about $1100. I wanted to lose it. Something felt right about leaving Vegas with an empty pocket to go along with my empty dream of Joe final tabling the Main Event.
My hand played out like this: Dealer showing a T, I get dealt 15. Apparently the right play is to surrender. I was in no mood to surrender, having felt so crappy and just wanting some pain, but I felt like if I'm going to be playing blackjack, I should always at least be making the right plays. I surrender and get $550 back. Joe is next to me, he hits, and of course, it's my 21 card, a 6 :(. Oh well, I think, I'm not looking for anything but pain. Next hand, I bust, and walk up dejectedly to my room.
All in all, it was a great summer in Las Vegas. Thanks to Joe, I had a nice little score and a very profitable summer. I'll never forget us celebrating that 4 on the river, the agoniziing defeat on Day 7, and all of the good times in between. I recently blogged about how I was due or some good luck, and this life experience was worth more to me than any amount of money I could have won. Being 25 and spending the summer in Las Vegas with some of your closest friends is an experience that most people will never get to have. It's amazing that it took a crappy beat in an inoportune situation to pick me up from my preverbial funk, but I feel better now. I'm ready to get back to the grind at the CR office and take on whatever is coming next. This truly was one fine week, and I'm really glad I was able to experience it. Good luck and thanks for reading.
Taylor
Jul 19, 09 12:46:37
just wanted to say I always appreciate your emotional honesty when you write, it's refreshing to read..
gotta say though, if joe's a REALLY good guy, he wouldn't be wearing that ub patch :)
Jul 19, 09 13:30:21
Thanks for this entry, Taylor. For all those of us that were back playing the 0.01-0.02 with Joe to goof around at 3 a.m. back in 2004, I'm sure you can imagine how much we were all along for this ride. I was sitting down in Costa Rica in front of my computer at 2 a.m. hitting refresh over and over, hoping for updates that would tell me Joe had picked up more chips. Man it hurt when he busted....I went to bed very upset, and I didn't even have any money on the line.
All in all a fantastic run, and a great recap of it here... I think the trends say that the W is coming next year. I'm going to have to get a piece just in case!
Jul 19, 09 15:30:56
Gordo,
He tried to get Stars or FTP or anyone else. UB was the only one offering and htey paid him almost 5 figures for one day of wearing the logo.
Jul 19, 09 16:18:28
Wow the blog is back! Great entry, I'm glad you wrote it up. I'll write one of my own too but you did the Joe sweat tons of justice, I just can't wait for the TV coverage now
Jul 20, 09 12:19:06
Great entry, Taylor. I agree with Stinger and am ready for the TV coverage.
Jul 20, 09 13:04:40
I love reading your blog and this one of the best ive read.
Thanks man
Jul 22, 09 12:00:58
Great Entry! I was sweating the action on twitter and wsop.com but this made me feel like I was there. Amazing.
Congrats and solid performance LL2.
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Hey all,
It's the end of another summer at the World Series of Poker. I've really enjoyed this one, I don't feel quite as burned out as I usually do. I made sure to really take time and enjoy this summer because I sort of realized I never know when this could all be over and it's a pretty cool experience to be able to live in a 9 bedroom house in Las Vegas with a bunch of great guys. I expect to do it again next year, but ya never know.
With being sick for three days and playing 3 full days of poker in the Main Event I have such an unbelievable backlog of work to catch up with. I'm going to start pounding some of it out this morning but this whole week should be kind of crappy in that regard. I've also got two videos I need to put audio to and also one video I need to produce and then do the audio.
I'm still waiting to book my flight because one of my housemates and good friends' Joe is still in the main event. He's got 1.12m chips when the average is something like 450k. There's 407 people left right now and I'd say he's probably in like 25th place. There is nothing I would rather see than for Joe to win the main event. You will not find a nicer guy in or out of poker and if I could pick one person in the world to win this tournament Joe would absolutely be that guy.
He made a deep run last year, finished 218th after a heartbreaking elimination hand to Gus Hansen, and I think he's poised to do even better this year. I'll be sweating him until he busts out, while trying to get some work done in the mornings and evenings.
Good luck, see everyone from Chicago soon enough.
Taylor
PS - Good luck to Cole, who has also made a deep run. I'm sure there are people still in that I'm forgetting, also, gl.
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oh well, better luck next time. good luck to everyone who is still in. btw, i'm still sick, and it sucks. some people are saying that lots of people have a flu that's like the swine flu but i don't know if i believe that. i might go to the doctor tomorrow.
Jul 11, 09 14:40:40
if it's like mine you'll have sore throat for 3-4 days, be really tired, and then get a head cold a day or two later. i'm still in head cold mode, it sucks :(
feel better and nice run!
Jul 11, 09 18:17:58
them's the breaks dude
3:2 dogs for the win... heh
better luck next time!
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Anyway, I'm at a hotel now because our lease is up on our house. I'm going to go watch "He's Just Not That Into You" and get some sleep, hopefully tomorrow goes well!
Taylor
Jul 10, 09 07:58:54
Don't take more than the recommended dosage: http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20090701/fda-may-restrict-acetaminophen .
Jul 10, 09 08:03:31
psh acetaminophen is nothing I'd be more worried about the movie he is about to go watch!
Jul 10, 09 12:41:36
Good choice of film, honest, Scarlett Johannson get's her jubblies out, very nice indeed, made my night
:)
Jul 10, 09 15:53:55
Same shit I got brother, been in bed for 2 days. Theraflu and Niquil have helped a bit though.
Jul 10, 09 15:54:15
Same shit I got brother, been in bed for 2 days. Theraflu and Niquil have helped a bit though.
Jul 11, 09 02:45:28
Big name movies..but i did not like it...
found the acting lame...
good luck in main event (if ur still in )
peace
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First I should give the obligatory "follow me on Twitter" for poker updates. My url is twitter.com/taylorcaby. I have yet to decide if I will continue to use twitter after the WSOP, but it's the best way to give poker updates to friends. Either way, you can be sure I won't be one of those people who will be tweeting everything from "just waking up" to "nothing exciting happened today...i'm bored." Monks.
I had a pretty miserable table draw again on Day two. The first table was full of pretty aggro players, two pros I had seen on TV (one was the guy who got 2nd in the 50k Horse last year), but did have a few week spots. It didn't really matter because it broke in about an hour.
My next table was actually much worse. There was one player who I would classify as weak that had over 100k for most of the day. Then there were about 4 MTT/cash pros that each had 100k+ as well. At the time when I got moved to the table I had about 45k, after working my starting stack up from 36k with a few standard situations. I guess the only interesting hands are: limper limps EP, I limp Q8cc on the cutoff, blinds call. Flop is QTc7c which is basically Christmas for me. The only problem is the early limper decides to just ship 14k into the ~3k pot. I really don't know what to do here because I reallly didn't think the guy was weak but I figure he never does this with a set and he does it with lots of combo draws, some of which I crush, so I might as well call and I'm risking less than half my stack.
He flips over AQo and I'm very much alive but not in ideal shape. Turn is an Ace which is not good, but river fills my flush and I'm thinking wow, maybe I was due for some of that good luck that I blogged about yesterday.
Ten hands later I raise 99 in LP and am called by the BB who is name pro that I don't know his name. I'm pretty sure I've seen him on TV and he knows Norman Chad and I saw him in the FTP lounge so he's gotta be someone. Anyway, flop is T96ddd, I have no diamonds obviously but I have a set. I bet like 1600 into 3k or something like that, whatever standard was at the time. He thinks for a bit and calls. Turn comes a black 3, nothing doing. He checks, I bet 3800. He thinks for about 30 seconds and makes it 13k. I have NO idea what he can have here, or if he can be value raising worse? Honestly this spot sucks because I felt like he thinks I'm just barreling a ton here and figures he might be able to push me off overcards and a diamond.
I decide to call knowing I've got outs and he could be bluffing, I'll evaluate the river. My stack before this call is about 50k, so I'll have about 40k after I make it (average at this point is 50k). River bricks and he thinks for a little and bets 19k. Great. His body language seemed very confident and he didn't seem like a crazy player, but at the same time, I'm sure he thinks I am peeling some diamonds and could also have overpairs + diamond etc. I went into the tank for probably 3-4 minutes, the longest I think I have ever gone into the fish tank and after apologizing a lot for taking so long I decided to muck the hand.
He said, "jacks?" I told him that I had jacks beat by quite a bit. He goes, "trust me, you were drawing dead with whatever you had." I was a bit puzzled and then he said, "I flopped the straight flush, 78dd, good fold kid" He could have been messing with me but I'd give it 75%+ that he was telling the truth. I should also add that this was the only laydown I made all day, most of the other times I wasn't sure what to do I called and was right. Nice to run good.
So I move to the table that I will be at for most of the rest of the day (with the big stacks and mostly good players). I am getting 3-bet incessantly and the table is quite aggro. I basically just bided my time, working my stack up to about 47k over two hours or so when I finally flopped good. I'm not going to talk about any more hands for the rest of the day because I don't really want to get into too many specifics of how I'm playing now that we are getting to day 3 and I'm sure people I'm playing will read this. I finished the day at 133k and I was never all-in for my stack or had any really crazy beats/hands.
I got a chance to talk to Isaac B (who is still in) on most of the breaks and after the tournament I pledge to make a short powerpoint video talking about live tournaments adjustments for online cash game players. It's not going to be anything super complicated, just some thoughts i've got and I assume there are some online cash players who are just turning 21 that could benefit from watching. I wish I knew what I know now about live tournaments, I'd certainly have lost less than 100k in them at this point :). If you hate this idea please say so because I won't waste my time. xoxo
Anyway, gl, see you guys out there. I'll be back in Chicago as soon as I bust.
Taylor
Jul 8, 09 17:06:13
i like the video idea. reach out to other live mtt pros for additional input also. thanks
Jul 8, 09 17:06:17
I really like the video idea for live tourney adjustments, hope to see it down the line sometime.
Jul 8, 09 18:07:56
you mean, after you win!!! Come on man, don't create a self fulfilling prophecy of you busting!
Jul 8, 09 19:31:10
"Either way, you can be sure I won't be one of those people who will be tweeting everything from "just waking up" to "nothing exciting happened today...i'm bored."
Thank you for this!
Jul 8, 09 20:29:00
it sounds like he was telling the truth, and it sounds like youre in the zone! gl !
Jul 8, 09 23:09:41
coold idea for a video, just don't make it a friday video and its all good
Jul 9, 09 03:22:53
Love the way u talk about other pros: "Think I saw him on Tv..Know Norman Chad"
Meanwhile is prob Ivey or Gus...
lol
Jul 9, 09 18:45:36
i only hate it because its going to open so many people's eyes on how easily they can adjust to improve their odds in these things. Basically revert back 2 years from where online poker is today and you will be thinking on the right level.
Jul 9, 09 18:59:40
Plz make the vid - after playing events in the series it's something I've thought quite a bit about and realized that cash is wayyyy different than tournies. Way more than meets the eye and there's lots of things I have yet to learn about them.
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Anyway, I think the guy kinda believes me but he called me back today and said he talked to his neighbors and they didn't really remember what the guy looked like but he was with a girl. He called me back on a blocked number too, so I don't know what that means, maybe he doesn't want me to have his information? At any rate, we'll see if I hear back from him again, but I'm expecting to have to deal with this over the next few days. Guy, if you've googled my name and are reading this blog, I didn't do it!!!
I see kids laughing over and over talking about how bad these fields are but when I see some of them at my table or hear about hands they are just throwing their money away. It's annoying as hell because some of these online players, particularly the cash game players, come out here thinking they are God's gift to poker and that it's just so funny how bad everyone else is at poker. Honestly, who the hell do you think you are? You're good at a game and if you had any sense you would shut the hell up about it so as to not kill your action and to also keep the fish from realizing they are making mistakes. It's just mind boggling how delusional some internet poker players are, particularly when online cash game players take to the live MTT fields. Keep in mind this observation is coming from someone who has little to no tournament success to speak of, but I wouldn't say it if I wasn't quite sure it was true. It's just annoying to see so many people just blatantly disrespecting their opponents and in many ways the game itself.
We eventually parked and had a really great day. Fishing, jumping of the top of the boat into the lake, swimming, drinking, grilling, watching fireworks, there was a little bit of everything. It was an all-American day that was capped off with an hour or two at a beachside bar. Lake Havasu is a pretty crazy place. We weren't able to get a spot in the "party" cove where apparently girls get naked all the time and there is tons of spring-breakesque debauchery, but even just sitting at the beachside bar we looked into some boats where there were topless women hanging out with dudes on the boat. It was crazy because we were no more than 20 feet away from them and they were still topless and also their young children were on the boat too. I don't know what to think about that.
Taylor
Jul 7, 09 05:34:57
Tay,
Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this blog and please keep em coming. I've been to Havasu twice as well and had a blast but we were tied up in the "party cove", there is also a cool sandbar kinda on the other side of the lake where you can park and just walk around in ankle/mid-shin level water.
-Hokulea
P.S. I also do hate the berating players... just be humble, have fun with people and win their money. Ivey is the most popular/best player in poker and you don't hear him talking shit or bragging or anything else of that manner. Hopefully one day these kids learn.
Jul 7, 09 06:05:39
i couldnt agree more about not talking about anything poker related / strategy because id prefer fish dont get better, but you saying it REALLY GRINDS MY GEARS. you a