Poker Coaching/Club Championship

The past week or two have been pretty interesting to say the least. My wife is now just days away from having our son. She is due August 23rd, but senses he may be coming early. She is often correct when she has feeling about things so I am definitely preparing myself for that possibility. To say I am excited would be quite an understatement.

The other thing I am really excited about is how well poker coaching is going. My goal for poker coaching was to eventually build up to two full days (Mondays and Tuesdays) a week of coaching. I like coaching and always have. I have made instructional videos, articles and written two books, but have generally only taken on one or two students a year simply because anything more than that would have prevented me from playing poker myself. But now that playing poker isn't a great option for me as an American, I have plenty of time to coach students. In my last post, I mentioned that I thought some of the small to mid stakes Poker Stars regulars should really consider hiring me as a coach. I think I can be of great help with Poker Stars regulars specifically because I can give away all of my reads without any worry that I will face those opponents again anytime soon, and have a good feel for how to handle those games specifically. Many of the Poker Stars regulars have in fact reached out to me and I am really enjoying working with them as well as everyone else I am working with of course.

In less than one month of offering coaching, I am already completely booked on Mondays and Tuesdays for several months now and since I am greatly enjoying working with my clients, I have decided to add an extra day of coaching each week to accommodate the demand. So for anyone still interested, please contact me at dustys64@hotmail.com. If a 3rd day a week proves to not be enough time to meet the demand, I will consider a fourth day, but probably not until the weather starts to turn dramatically south here in Oregon which is usually the first week of November. I am enjoying playing golf far too much to want to give up more than 3 days a week away from golf at this point in the season.

Speaking of golf, I am proud to report that I was able to win the Pumpkin Ridge Club Championship this past weekend. It was a pretty thrilling victory for someone who has been away from competitive golf for so long. It is my first multi day tournament in 2 years and it's been 7 full years since I have played the game with any consistency. It is my first win since my heart attack in 2004, and carries special meaning because I was able to win on a golf course with a lot of good players and at the same site as Tiger Woods won his 3rd US Amateur in 1996. In fact, they used many of the same crazy pins as they did for that historic final round when Tiger beat Steve Scott in extra holes.

I was also proud of the victory because after swinging the golf club pretty well all summer, I just didn't have anywhere near my best stuff tee to green in the club championship. I was battling my swing pretty hard, but was happy with how I was able to manage my game. On the 2nd hole of my first round, I hit an 8 iron to the par 3 and came out of my shot a little bit and it landed on the right fringe 30 feet from the hole. Unfortunately it landed on a sprinkler head and kicked into a hazard 20 yards over the green that is normally out of play and made a triple. Nice start!

I shot 41 on the front on day 1 and fought back with a 33 on the back to salvage a 74. On day 2 I hit the ball just awful. I was somehow 2 under after 8 during that round, but it was all smoke in mirrors. I wound up with a hard fought 72.

Going into the last day, I knew I needed a good round to win, but got off to a horrible start and was 3 over after 4 holes heading into the most difficult stretch of golf on the course. Hole #5 is one of the hardest par 3s you can play with a 3.4 stroke average in the US Amateur. Hole #6 is 460 yards with water and trees everywhere and hole #7 is 630 yards with one of the hardest tee shots to hit the fairway on you can ever play. So I was worried with the way I was hitting the ball that the whole tournament could end for me with a few more bad swings. But I hit a 4 iron on #5 to 10 feet and made par, birdied #6 with two good shots and canned a 20 footer for birdie and then made a scrappy par on #7.

I went to the back nine tied for the lead and decided that I just needed to dig deep and play the golf I know I am capable of. I hit a 5 iron to 10 feet and parred #10. Hooked my tee shot into the bunker on #11, but after a nice recovery from under the lip, hit a sand wedge from 117 yards to a foot and birdied #11 which was when many players from the club came out to watch us all dual it out. Maybe I got inspired, who knows.

I hit a poor wedge to the par 3 #12 which had a very scary pin and didn't get up and down and made 4 on #12. But then on #13 I stuffed another wedge to 3 feet after a big drive and made birdie. On the par 5 #14 I blocked a tee shot, but hit a nice recovery down the fairway and clipped a lob wedge to a nasty pin to a hard green over water to 4 feet for another birdie. On #15 I hit a 7 iron as pure as I could and the ball landed 2 inches from the cup before settling 7 feet away. I hit a good putt but misread it to make a par. On #16 I hit my 2nd shot to 30 feet down a ridge which was a tough 2 putt. I hit a great putt and buried it for another birdie. Knowing I had the lead at this point and also knowing that I still wasn't swinging it well, I played it safe with a 3 iron off the 17th tee. I then hit my 2ns shot 40 feet past the cup because the pin was in an impossible spot to get it up and down from and 2 putted for par.

#18 is one of the hardest driving holes on the course. The hole is a par 5 with a ditch all along the left side that cuts across the fairway short of the green. This is the hole Annika Sorenstam lost the US Open years ago. It is one of the most feared par 5s you can play so given I had a lead, hit 3 wood off the tee to be safe. It must have been the adrenaline, I am not sure, but I hit a 3 wood 295 yards down the middle and then another 3 wood from 260 uphill to the green 20 feet from the cup. I 2 putted from there for a closing birdie and the Club Championship was mine with a nice 32 on the back nine to close it out!