Quest for the Top 10

I have to admit these past few months have been more than hectic for me. I never really imagined that I would be able to get to the level I have finally achieved in online poker, and now that I’m here it’s just made me more hungry to improve my game. The Sunday Million win on Full Tilt Poker launched a snowball effect for me, giving me the confidence to continue rising in the online tournament rankings and perhaps it also brought with it some needed run-good momentum. Now I’m in striking distance of the coveted top ten as posted on the infamous Pocketfives.com top 100 rankings.

For those who aren’t aware this ranking system is a world renowned system based on both statistics and the opinions of top ranked players. In order to keep these rankings as current as possible, scores progressively go down every few months after the initial score. All of these factors make it the most accurate ranking system possible, and because of this it is viewed as the standard for online poker tournament rankings. Before this year I had been sporadically moving up and down in these rankings never getting higher than the top 50, and for that reason I never really gave too much thought to them. However much like someone who jumps on the bandwagon when their local team finally goes deep in a sport and makes it to the championships (You know who you are), I finally got interested once I actually had a shot at the glory that is the top ten too be placed in a list along with the greats of the game like Gboro780, Moorman1, and DJK123.

Right now I find myself hovering in the top 20 on the rankings, on the strength of a few nice wins after the Million, the biggest being a win in the UB $500 150k guaranteed tournament for right around 40k. I feel pretty blessed to have had the success I’ve had these past few months, and I believe that as long as I continue to dedicate myself to improving my game that I may actually have a snowballs chance in hell at cracking the top ten. The way I see it the only real obstacles in my path are 1. time since my huge score will go down in value very soon here and with that that will come a noticeable decrease in my score 2. the cruel bitch that is MTT variance.

Poker is a very streaky game, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I have been on one hell of a hot streak lately.
The problem is that during these streaks we get so used to winning that we hardly even appreciate the success we are having because we just begin to expect it. I’m telling you now that if you find yourself in this spot definitely make the most of each win. Go pop Cristal at the club and make it rain as the kids say these days, because a few weeks later the inevitable downswing will once again rear its ugly head leaving you wondering if all those scores were just a fluke and if you will ever be able to have that kind of run again. This is actually the number one thing that frustrates me the most about poker. It’s not about the bad beats, it’s the fact that a month ago it seemed like I was winning everything and now I can’t even cash in a $30r tournament. After the years I’ve put into poker I’ve realized that this is only part of the game, but some of the best advice I can give to someone who just got into the game and is running like god is to strap yourself in because it’s not always going to be rainbows and butterflies. Variance can mess with your psyche more than the most psycho girlfriend you have ever had, and for this reason I think it will be my biggest obstacle in my quest for the top ten.

Time is also definitely a factor since I know longer have any desire to grind all day sessions 5 days a week. I actually have cut down my volume substantially, and some weeks I only play 2 days. These next few weeks I will be in Vegas trying to break my live curse, so that gives me even less time since I’ll more than likely only be playing online on Sundays out here. I really can’t see myself grinding online with all the distractions of Sin City looming in the background. Really all it takes is one more decently big score though and maybe a little bit more love from the pro poll and I should be able to make it happen. One time for the kid?

It is definitely time for a much deserved and needed vacation from the online felt, so I’ll be in Vegas the next 3 weeks at the WSOP attempting to not suck at live poker. For those interested in keeping up with my status out here you can follow me on Twitter @endlessj. Yea that’s right I’m on Twitter now, feel free to hate all you want. I’ve said it a few times before, but I really think this is going to be my year at the series. I’m so sure of it that I’m even playing the main event this year. Hopefully I’ll see some of you guys out here in Vegas, and if you recognize me come up and say what’s up. I also plan to keep the blog updated while I’m out here so check back soon.

If you would like to check out some of my earlier work go to pokerworks.com where i have been a contributing writer for over a year