Nice Stack in $5k at Bike/30th B Day Today!

Posted by Leatherass

Yesterday I played in what was the NAPT at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. I caught a very lucky card to stay alive in the tournament and from that point on I really played well and got a hold of some chips by days end. I ended up with 116,200 chips which is about double average at this point. We started with 30,000 chips.

I don't really know much about the poker tournament scene to be honest. I was told that my table draw was absurdly difficult with a bunch of top internet tournament pros, but as a cash game player and having deep stacks, I am pretty sure I had a pretty significant edge on my opponents at this stage in the tournament. Once we get down towards the later stages (hopefully I make it that far!) then that is more where they know what they are doing and I probably have a thing or two to learn. In the meantime, I hope to get a hold of as many chips as possible before we get down to the point where I am less experienced.

As I write this I am playing in the Poker Stars Sunday $5M which looks like it will boast about a $12M prize pool with about 60,000 runners. This is pretty amazing and is definitely an encouraging sign for poker in general. Nice work Poker Stars!!

Today also happens to be my 30th birthday! Yeah, yeah I know. Playing poker on my 30th birthday lol. Because my B day fell on a Sunday and getting people together was difficult, I am going to celebrate it with friends next Saturday. It will be more fun to celebrate it on a Saturday so that way friends of mine who work weekdays can party it up and have fun.

Which reminds me, I decided to run a huge 30% off sale on all of the books I have authored for the entire month of March in celebration of my 30th birthday. So if you have been meaning to buy Treat Your Poker Like A Business or Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth, then you can get them cheap right now. For the month of March, Treat Your Poker Like A Business is now only $27.99 and Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth is $34.99.

In my obviously biased opinion, I think this is one of the better investments you can make in your game. Because we are a niche publisher and I have to take so much time away from my game to write books, I price them a little bit higher than most books so I can justify the time I take away from my game to write them. But at least for the month of March, the books are competitively priced with other books so I hope you take advantage of this offer. You can check it out here: Dustyschmidt.net

Poker/Daughter/Deuce Plays/Supwitchugirl

Posted by Leatherass

The other night I had a fun little night on Poker Stars. My wife went to bed early so I decided to play some late night tourneys on Poker Stars (no I don’t have better things than work after I am supposed to be relaxing after work lol). After feeling like I was going to play tournaments for the next 100 years and just get relentlessly coolered in them, I was the one doing some coolering of my own for once! I entered 5 tournaments the other night and shipped 2 of them! Now they weren’t anything to get super excited about given one of them was $682 for 1st and the other one was $3,200, but it just felt great to get some momentum late in a tournament. So while I am certainly not retiring after wins this small, it actually has done a lot to reduce my pessimism in tournaments. It is in fact possible to run well in a tournament! I have proof now!

My daughter has been a blast to watch lately. She is finally walking around now and it is pretty cool to witness that. I try to be a cheerleader for her as much as possible and you can tell she likes to be cheered on when she walks because her face lights up so much. It definitely feels a little funky to transition from watching Elmo with her or acting like she won the Super Bowl because she took some steps, to then go to the tables and ruthlessly check raise some guy in a big pot, but I will say that it sure makes the bad times a lot easier to come home and just mess around with her. It also keeps me focused as a poker player because ultimately what college she goes to or what other opportunities I may be able to create for her in the future are dependent on how often these check raises work! It’s an unorthodox way to be paying for her college, but hey it works and like I said, having something to play for keeps me focused pretty well.

The 2nd part of my interview on Deuce Plays recently went up here

I hope you guys enjoy this interview. For anyone looking to improve their poker game, this interview may be for you. In part 1 last week we talked mostly about my story and poker legislation etc, but this entire show is dedicated to some of the more interesting chapters and hands from our latest book,Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth . If you are interested in the book, I would recommend listening to this podcast and it should give you a really good idea of what the book can do for your game. If you have no interest in the book, but are looking for what amounts to free poker instruction, I think you can find some pretty decent nuggets in this interview. Either way, as always, thanks for the support for everyone who listens or happens to pick up a copy of my book.

I may be putting up another blog post pretty soon with a video I made with the supwitchugirls today. For those who are wondering who the heck they are, they are a group of Oregon students who made songs about the Oregon Ducks football team that they put up on the internet. I think they put them up fairly innocently and were part of class projects they were doing. But these songs weren’t just listened to by their facebook friends, they captured the interest of the entire state of Oregon and beyond! The songs are really well done and now have millions and millions of views on youtube. The school has even played their youtube videos on the jumbo tron at Autzen Stadium and they are household names in Oregon. Here is a link to their latest video which I absolutely love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_P1PPy7FTo

I am going to play some poker for the next 2 days and then on Sunday I will head to Phoenix for the Oregon/Auburn title game. I am pretty nervous and excited at the same time. I can’t believe that the Ducks have a chance to win it all in just 4 days. Wow! Getting chills here at the computer just thinking about it. Crazy stuff. I was lucky enough to have priority as a season ticket holder to get some half decent seats at face value so that was pretty nice. I also gambled it up a bit and booked my flights from Oregon to Phoenix 3 weeks before the end of the season and that is paying off nicely because we have the exact itinerary we want and I only paid $175 a ticket roundtrip. For the Rose Bowl last year I waited until a few days after we clinched a spot in the game and the plane tickets were mostly sold out or there were random middle seats for $750, so I decided it was well worth the gamble this year to book early especially considering it seemed absurdly unlikely that anyone was going to beat us. I’m glad I did!

Deuce Plays

Posted by Leatherass

The past week has been pretty cool. My daughter Lennon was unbelievably fun to watch at Christmas. Pretty much everyone in the family got her a gift and she was having so much fun playing with all of them. And we were having a ton of fun watching her play with them. There were so many priceless moments. For several years now my wife have been celebrating Christmas, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as it was this year.

It’s amazing what having a little one will do to you. I have always had a sense that my kids would be the thing that would mean the most to me once I had one, but man, after having a little one around, it is way more amazing than I ever could have imagined. You can’t really explain why just watching her eat a pear for breakfast or even watching her just sleep on the baby monitor is so awesome, but for everyone out there who is a parent themselves, I’m sure you know what I am talking about. Fun stuff.

The main purpose of this blog was actually to give out a link to an interview I did with Bart Hanson that came out today. I have done a number of interviews over the years and Bart is definitely up there with some of the best interviewers I know. To my knowledge, he plays poker pretty darn well and is on the up and up with pretty much all things poker so that makes for a pretty fun interview, especially when we have the entire length of the show.

We got to talking a lot about Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth , the state of the poker games, shortstacking, poker legislation, a little bit about my own story, treating poker like a business, and many other pretty interesting things. I felt pretty good about how the interview went considering so many of the questions were really right up my alley. I feel like I have about as much experience playing online poker as just about anyone, so to get to talk about all kinds of poker issues is something I feel pretty confident about. Hopefully you enjoy the interview. Here is a link to it: http://www.deucescracked.com/podcasts

I hope everyone has a great end to their year. I am going to do a ‘year in review" post here in the next week. I think the year has had a lot to reflect on and while it wasn’t an exceptional year in some regards, I learned a lot from it and I think I can apply a lot of what I learned to have a big 2011 or 2012. I hope your year treated you well and have a great new years.

Poker Stars Tournaments

Posted by Leatherass

I am really looking forward to putting a heavy emphasis on tournaments for 2011. I have been gearing up for them by playing more of them and trying to understand ranges as well as various inflection points. It is important to have a solid understanding of ranges as well as how your play can be influenced based on payout structures and things like your “M” and "Q’ etc.

So far it has been pretty interesting. One thing that is sure fun as well as encouraging is to get the opportunity to play with so many weak players. It does get old bashing heads against so many tough players in the cash games I play in so it is quite a relief when you see people make such awful mistakes. Another thing that is very encouraging to me is that I do not feel that the tournament players that are among the winners appear particularly tough as well. I have seen many guys who have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournaments make just awful decisions that can not be defended. So that was encouraging too. I feel like I can jump right in these things and expect to do pretty well in the long run. Tournaments are never going to be something that you can crush month after month or even year after year. So much depends on such a small sample size that there is no question that the guy/gal winning player of the year was most likely to simply be the luckiest amongst the top players.

Either way, I am looking to try and get some thrills out of poker again. It is hard to get the blood flowing playing 5/10nl when you have done it for millions of hands. Win rates are shrinking all the time at cash games. That is no secret. When I was winning 7 figures a year grinding 5/10 and 10/20, it could be a very large mistake to play tournaments and sacrifice so much opportunity cost from the cash tables. But at this point, I am not sure if there is more money in NL cash games or tournaments for me to be honest. There is certainly more upside to the tournaments, but there is also some downside as well as some inevitable brutal variance. So I have decided to focus on tournaments every Sunday on Poker Stars as well as all of the COOP events that run a few times a year. I will also be competing in the WSOP for the entire series next year. So I guess that will be a lot of tournaments. I still intend to play the bulk of my hands at the cash games tables however.

Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth has been continuing to get solid reviews. I have been very pleased so far with what everyone has told me and Paul about our book. One professional review that was done on the book said it was aimed to improve the games of anyone who either wasn’t a beginner or a high stakes player. So I thought that was pretty perfect because that is exactly who we intended it for. We feel the book is something you can build your game around since it focuses so heavily on play from each and every position against so many player types. And so far people seem to be liking it so Paul and I are pretty stoked. We have several more professional reviews by poker journalists so when we get those I will be sure to link them in here in case anyone is curios about it.

Good luck to everyone at the tables and I hope the new year treats you well!

Hellmuth/Tournaments/HEM Discussion

Posted by Leatherass

The past week or two has been a lot of fun. First off it has been pretty funny reading everyone’s take on my latest book, Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth There have been many articles out discussing the book’s title, but I’m hoping that we get some discussing the content of the book itself. So far the user reviews have been all positive so far. That is obviously great to hear. When you put a book out into the world which in turn leaves you pretty vulnerable since you know that if you make even one mistake or you explained even one concept improperly, you are going to get crucified.

The articles about the book I find most laughable are the ones that go something like this,“Who does this Schmidt kid think he is? How dare he question the champ. How many bracelets does this kid have anyway? ZERO. And he’s telling a guy with 11 that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?” Those ones always make me laugh. I think what many are forgetting is that this is a no limit holdem cash game book. This has nothing to do with tournaments whatsoever. Sure, the cash game advice will apply very well in the early stages of tournaments when stacks are deep, but the fact that Phil has won 11 bracelets and that somehow means he knows more than me about no limit holdem cash games, well, that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me.

The bottom line is this. I play cash games and Phil plays tournaments, for the most part. We both sometimes play each others games, but we both definitely fall into two separate categories as players. Writers can speculate all they want. That is their job and they are good at it. I have no problem with that. But if Phil was really a great cash game player and thought I wasn’t any good, we’d be playing heads up. Because there is no way a poker player is going to pass up on playing big stakes against someone else who they thought was far inferior. I would never turn down an offer to play someone I was substantially better than in a high stakes HU match and neither would Phil. I haven’t gotten any messages as far as I can tell about any offers to play Phil and you can guarantee I won’t. And that’s pretty much all anyone needs to know to figure out this whole debate. Because I know that’s sure not a match I would run from.

I played most of the Sunday tournaments at Poker Stars a few days ago. In the interest of making poker more fun and mixing up the grind, I am going to play as many tournaments as I can enter on Poker Stars on Sundays indefinitely. I recently worked out a deal with a good friend where I am sponsoring him in tournaments. He is off to a great start after binking the $109r on Stars for $80,000 a couple of weeks ago. And while it has been a lot of fun to sweat him, I also decided to spend a good deal of time learning how to play tournaments in the later stages in an effort to both improve my own tournament game as well as develop some concepts for my friend.

I did countless hours of work on that in the past month and I am feeling very good about my tournament game. I have a little bit of a unique strategy in that I try to play as much after the flop as possible. I have just noticed that so many of even the so called “good” or even “great” tournament players have post flop games that I doubt would succeed at even low stakes cash games, so I try to take them out of their usual shove game as much as possible and make them think postflop. So far I am pleased with how I am playing these tournaments, but I’ve only played the past 2 Sundays and while I made one final table, not much has gone my way yet. Hopefully it will one day though.

The rest of my work time has been spent playing some cash game hands here and there and also working hard on my game away from the table. I have really tried to examine each and every thing I do at the tables. I am scouring my game for any inefficiencies and just eliminating every weak aspect I can find. What is pretty interesting for all of the Holdem Manager junkies out there is that I have forever played a game that got crushed at non showdown pots. In fact, I looked over the hands I played in 2007 and 2008, years in which I made well over a million dollars at mostly 5/10nl, and noticed that I lost around 50 cents a hand without showdown. I played a game that induced so many bluffs and I worked so hard at trying to maximize value against my opponent’s ranges, primarily through letting them keep the lead or take the lead in the pot, and it was very effective. I won nearly 5ptbb/100 those two years. Today, however, that strategy doesn’t really work in my opinion because guys are so much better at figuring out what is going on in a hand and making correct adjustments.

In fact, when I was struggling with my results, my non showdown got even worse, but I also wasn’t maximizing my value at showdown pots, so I was essentially experiencing the worst of all worlds. So now I am really focused on the non showdown number and getting that in a spot where it is relatively neutral. So far in the 12k or so hands I have played since I went to work specifically on this aspect of my game, I am up like $1,000 without showdown. So I am very pleased with the progress there. I am have much better game plans now on how to handle my opponent’s ranges. I am still a long, long way from where I want to be though. For now I will continue to limit my play at the tables and spend most of my time working on my game in an effort to take it about 47 levels higher than my game is right now. I’m shooting for the moon, I guess you could say. But I feel like now is the perfect time to do it. Bankroll is of no concern to me right now so that frees me up really well. Secondly, the games are so hard right now that there is much less value in trying to bang out tons of hands each day. So I figure I need to get my win rate much, much higher which in turn will help me down the line. Anytime the value in grinding goes down, the value in studying the game goes up. When I was making 5ptbb/100 at 5/10nl, there was little reason to take time away to work on my game. But if I feel my edge is only 1ptbb/100, let’s say, then that is a great time to work on my game because I am not losing nearly as much by not playing.

Thanks again to all of the people who are putting their trust in me as a poker coach. I really appreciate that so many people are ordering Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth despite there not being one single professional review yet. With my last book, Treat Your Poker Like A Business, the book was such a quick read that people would get it and read it in a day and put reviews up. My latest book is nearly 400 pages, so reviews are much more slow to come, but please continue to check in at my website as well will be putting reviews up as they come in. Thanks everyone. Have a great holiday season with your families and at the tables if you happen to play some cards.

What Can You Compare This To?

Posted by Leatherass

I was hanging out with my wife tonight and we got to talking a bit about local politics and somehow we got to talking about the current laws regarding online poker in the state of Washington. Now obviously we all know that they are moronic (for those that aren't aware, it is a felony carrying a 6 month jail sentence if you are caught playing online poker), but I got to thinking just how moronic these laws really are.

Then I had a thought. There is a casino minutes north of Oregon in the state of Washington called La Centre. They spread poker there and it is perfectly legal to play. So I got to thinking, what if you brought your laptop into the casino and sat at a poker table and played online poker while you are playing live poker? People do this from time to time at live poker tournaments. You could in that situation simultaneously be doing the exact same thing and it be both perfectly legal and a felony at the same time. Play poker on a laptop = 6 months in jail but playing poker inside the casino and you are welcomed.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any law that exists where you can be performing the exact same activity in the exact same location and time, in addition, no particular licenses or prerequisites need to be obtained either way (which would preclude anyone saying for example, driving a car without a license). Anyone got anything? Is this not the most absurd law in the United States?

Retiring From Massive Grinding

Posted by Leatherass

Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth

Posted by Leatherass

A couple of weeks ago I announced that our latest book titled, Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth, was available for pre orders. Today, it is now available for immediate download in e book version at dustyschmidt.net . Additionally, we are still taking pre orders for the hard copy which will ship in early January or possibly sooner if everything moves along quicker than we anticipate.

Much has been made of the title of the book, but now it is the moment of truth for the content of the book. We feel confident that the content will be worth every dollar and minute (we never want to devalue or ignore the importance of time) you spend on the book, but it will be exciting to see what non biased people think. So please don't hesitate to send me a message on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/dusty.schmidt"> Facebook </a>  or write me personally at  info@dustyschmidt.net to share your thoughts on the book.

The book aims to accomplish several things. Here are a few of the main priorities:

1. To teach people how to think like a poker pro:
The thought is that there will never be a book that covers how to play every type of hand from every position on every type of board texture against every opponent type. A book such as that never has and never will exist. Because there will never be a book like that, it is critical that people learn to approach situations in poker correctly. Our aim is to essentially teach you the equations that go into solving problems in poker and then it is up to you to plug in the numbers and solve for the problem. Our feeling is that so few people know what the equations are (and the word equation may or may not be literal depending on the situation) and that is why most people struggle with poker.

2.To correct all of the bad advice out there:
Our belief is that there are a lot of well intentioned poker pros out there who developed names for themselves through various poker accomplishments, who are spreading very poor advice that is hurting your game. I don’t think it is their intent to do that necessarily, I just think that the game has passed them by and they are giving advice that used to work for them, but is mostly irrelevant for today’s games. The game of poker has evolved at a break neck pace over the past handful of years. And while pros like Paul Hoppe and I have been grinding millions of hands and have a feel for the game that can only come through grinding day in and day out, most of the advice in books are from folks such as Phil Hellmuth who are busy being ambassadors for poker while we are grinding away late into the night, immersed in games. For these reasons we believe that we are in tune with the games in a way that no other authors can lay claim and are in a much better position to give advice that will work today, not advice that was once effective, but is now mostly garbage.

3.To often teach by example:
This book is long on examples. We feel that putting the reader in our shoes as often as possible is an effective way to teach the game. Lots of books use examples, so we realize this does not make the book unique, but we do feel that it is an effective tool and one which we use often in the book. The book is essentially 3 parts. Part 1 is 50 chapters long, with each chapter dedicated to a piece of bad or often misused advice that we frequently hear. Within these 50 chapters, we use loads of hand examples, charts and equations in addition to the text. Part 2 is entirely hand examples followed by text explaining why we made every play we made and how you can use these strategies at the tables. Part 3 is a quiz that is a legitimate quiz, but does inject a fair amount of humor in it as well. I wasn’t a big fan of school back in the day, and as a result aim in this book to keep it as fun as possible. I don’t want anyone feeling like they are bored reading anything I put out. So Paul and I aimed to keep this book as lighthearted as possible, while at the same time maintaining strong educational qualities.

Paul Hoppe and I hope you enjoy Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth. If you already ordered the book, you will get an email containing the e book today. If you come to order it on our website today, you will be given instructions on how to download the book once you purchase your copy. I hope you enjoy!

HEM $ (EV Adjusted)

Posted by Leatherass

Maybe this is a super ignorant blog post, I don't know. I'm kind of phrasing this as a question to some folks out there. I have not been able to find an answer to this on the internet, but is Holdem Manager $ (EV adjusted) stat flawed? My reasons for being curious about this is:

• I have about a dozen poker buddies I communicate with frequently and ALL of them are behind EV for 2010.
• I compiled all of my poker hands since 2007 and imported them into my brand new copy of HEM and I am appr. $345,000 behind EV. I actually ran $80,000 above EV in 2007 which isn't too surprising because I had the best WR on the internet for my stakes, but am $425,000 behind EV starting in 2008. 3 straight years of being 6 figures behind EV either makes me incredibly unlucky (which feeling wise, that seems to make sense because the last 3 years have left me scratching my head a lot wondering what I have to do to run well) or the stat is flawed.

Anyway, I am super frustrated right now and trying to search for answers for things. Poker has just gone miserably for me this month. I squeaked by to barely keep my monthly winning streak alive, but only because of the help of bonuses. I ran another $30k+ behind EV again this month and while I know I have some work to do in some spots in my game that are not up to snuff in these extraordinarily tough mid-high stakes online game on Poker Stars, I can take some peace of mind in knowing that I am running awful. Unless I am not haha!! That's why I'm curious to know about the legitimacy of this Holdem Manager statistic.

Announcing The Release Of My New Book!

Posted by Leatherass

Can’t Beat Em, Cheat Em

Posted by Leatherass

http://www.oneclicksportsnow.com/ncaa/oregon-ducks/22019/YouTube-Video-Cal-Football-Player-Fakes-Injury/

This stuff has been going on all year against the Ducks because we move at such a fast pace on offense that other teams are trying to buy time so they can catch their breath. Stanford did it, as did Tennessee, ASU and to a smaller extent, every other team we have played. The NCAA needs to review this stuff and come up with some better rules other than making an “injured” player sit out only one play. I think there should be suspensions and/or maybe some sort of tiered system where you get one injury a quarter and on the second one your player has to sit out for an entire quarter and on the third one (or beyond) maybe the entire game. I’m not an expert, so I don’t know what is fair and what isn’t, but I do know it in unfair when the team you are playing against is faking injuries multiple times on a single drive and all they have to do is sit out one play and then they can come right back. Big whoop! That’s almost like getting a free timeout because they can just have one of their no name players fake an injury and then they aren’t even really getting penalized.

I hope the NCAA does some reviewing of this rule in the off season to protect the integrity of the game of football. Because apparently many of the coaches who are telling their players to fake injuries don’t really have much integrity themselves.

College Football Saturday!

Posted by Leatherass

Just as a follow up to my last blog about sports betting, I'm not sure how much I like Oregon and the over anymore after Nate Costa got injured last week. A lot of the reason that picking them all year has been so lucrative was that Oregon was clearly being under estimated by most people all season. The reason for my 13-1 record this year on sports betting mostly Oregon is that I saw by week 2 or 3 what everyone figured out in week 9 or 10 when it comes to how sick good Oregon is. I was fairly confident we would destroy everyone like we did or at least felt confident enough to place all of the large wagers that I made. I also knew that unlike most teams who blow people out and start trying to run the clock down towards the end of the game, that Oregon would keep trying to pummel teams until the game clock read 0. This makes a huge difference for lines and the over.

But now the cat is out of the bag AND Costa (Oregon's solid back up) is gone, I am not sure they are such a good bet. I think that Costa being gone means we may start to shut er down when victory is imminent the way most teams do. That's my guess anyway. I think not having Costa is HUGE for the lines and I think today's 19.5 point spread against Cal is a good one. I am not going to touch it. I am pretty much just packing it in for the rest of the season when it comes to college football betting. I think the low lying fruit has been picked when it comes to Oregon anyway. I did make one bet today and I took USC and the points. USC is getting 4 and a half against Arizona on the road. I think it is far from a lock, but I will happily take USC and the points against what I think is a highly over rated AZ team. They got their solid record playing a soft schedule to start the year and I think they are going to lose most or maybe all of their remaining games. At least I hope I am right because Oregon has them next on their schedule! Here's to sweating the USC and Oregon games tonight in the Punta Cana sports book in the Hard Rock casino!!

Punta Cana Is The Nuts

Posted by Leatherass

I'm here at the Punta Cana Poker Classic in the Dominican Republic and I'm not sure how you top this place. It is like heaven on earth; an adult version of Disneyland. It has everything you could ever want and it is on a tropical beach. I'm not sure you could dream up a better place if you tried. There are some great players here too. Doyle is here along with Mike Caro and Dewey Tomko, among others. It's just been a fantastic event overall.

I'm still alive in the tournament, but ended the day pretty disappointed. I worked it up from our starting stack of 15,000 chips to 78,000 and then crashed and burned. Lost 4 straight all ins. KQ into 88, QQ into AA (which I think I should have laid down preflop given the action. Probably my only regrettable decision of the event so far), AQ into A5 on an A62 flop when my opponent turned a 5 and JJ into AK where the same opponent binked an A on the turn. All in all I was really pleased with my play as well as how my experience at the WSOP is paying off. I feel very comfortable live versus how I felt last April playing the Big Game in London. I am really enjoying live play much more than online which is much different than how I felt before this year. I just love having time to think and coming up with a lot of outside the box stuff that has proven very effective, versus online where you mostly due the first thing that comes to you when you have 18 tables flashing in your face.

I am going into day 2 at chip average and hope to get some momentum going in my favor. It really stunk to be doing so well and then love 4 straight all ins, but at least I'm still here and if I can win my next 4 straight all ins I will have a chance to do just about anything.

Lennon building Up Her College Fund At An Early Age

Posted by Leatherass

I was grinding 15 tables on my laptop today when my daughter crawled up to me and started waving at me. I looked at her and kinda waved back and smiled at her. She then got all excited and reached in to give me a kiss and while she was giving me a kiss she slapped the keyboard which lead to this happening:

PokerStars Game #52030718601:  Hold'em No Limit ($3/$6 USD) - 2010/11/01 16:06:31 PT [2010/11/01 19:06:31 ET]
Table 'Periphas II' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: mbolt1 ($724 in chips)
Seat 2: AlexanderT ($1130 in chips)
Seat 4: z0di@c ($1292.45 in chips)
Seat 5: eiszwitscher ($676.10 in chips)
Seat 6: Leatherass9 ($1237.90 in chips)
mbolt1: posts small blind $3
AlexanderT: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Leatherass9 [8h 3d]
z0di@c: raises $12 to $18
eiszwitscher: raises $33 to $51
Leatherass9: raises $33 to $84
mbolt1: folds
AlexanderT: folds
z0di@c: folds
eiszwitscher: calls $33
*** FLOP *** [7d 2h Ah]
eiszwitscher: checks
Leatherass9: bets $72
eiszwitscher: calls $72
*** TURN *** [7d 2h Ah] [8c]
eiszwitscher: checks
Leatherass9: checks
*** RIVER *** [7d 2h Ah 8c] [8d]
eiszwitscher: bets $204
Leatherass9: raises $877.90 to $1081.90 and is all-in
eiszwitscher: folds
Uncalled bet ($877.90) returned to Leatherass9
Leatherass9 collected $745 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $747 | Rake $2
Board [7d 2h Ah 8c 8d]
Seat 1: mbolt1 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: AlexanderT (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: z0di@c folded before Flop
Seat 5: eiszwitscher folded on the River
Seat 6: Leatherass9 (button) collected ($745)

Wanna Make The Easiest Money In The World?

Posted by Leatherass

Just bet Oregon to the over every week.

That's what I have been doing since the season began and I think I have found an even easier way to make money than sitting in my boxers playing online poker. I just slap down large sums of money, sit in front of the TV or go to Autzen stadium and watch the Ducks run down the field and into the end zone every time.  It's great! Along with a 3 other games I have bet, I am now 11-0 for the season and have made a grip of money. Actually I am technically 10-1 because I mis clicked on one of my bets and took the under on accident. I was pissed when I came home and saw my account balance decrease lol. I was like WTF and noticed that I bet the under. Doh!!

I suppose the bookmakers have to create a line that will divide the action evenly, so they are producing these lines. But in being a very close follower of the program I am just scratching my heads at these lines every week wondering why these bookmakers are passing out free money! Of course I realize that they are in the business of just setting a line that will divide the money evenly, not necessarily setting a line on what they think will actually happen, and therein lies the potential profit which is great.

I am not going to get overly cocky and think we are a lock to win the title game or anything. We have a long, long road ahead of us just within our own conference, much less possibly playing in a title game against another great team. But I would ABSOLUTELY take Oregon against anyone for lots of money. I would take Oregon and people can pick any team in football and I fancy Oregon's chances of going all the way over any other team's chances.

I'm going to throw something out there that I believe is true and I am confident will be shown to be true as this season plays out. Sure I risk looking like an idiot here if we go out and lose our very next game, but I am confident we won't. And if we do, well, I have made myself to look like an idiot plenty of times, so no biggie Chip Kelly is BY A MILE the best coach in football PERIOD right now. I look at football as being a lot like poker. Chip Kelly has devised a scheme that is the most progressive and downright superior to the scheme everyone else is running. Chip is a lot like Cole South (CTS) was back 3 or 4 years ago when he practically invented the ultra LAG style of online poker. Cole just decimated people at the tables because he essentially ran a scheme at the tables that was so far ahead of the curve that it was going to take players a long, long time to catch up to.

That is where Oregon is right now. Sure, maybe someone beats them somehow. Sure, maybe we get a key injury or just have a day where we don't execute the scheme very well. But the scheme itself is light years ahead of where everyone else is. It is sheer genius and coaches are scrambling to find some way to figure out what to do about it. And simply put, they can not. And more than likely, they will not for a year or two. I think Oregon is going to pretty much manhandle each and every opponent they play for a year or two until people figure out how to handle our superior coaching. Much like how most of us figured out how to handle Cole South (not that he still isn't a great player, but he certainly isn't decimating opponents anywhere in the realm of the way he did a few years back).

As a fan, I am going to enjoy this and hope the stars align and we win a national title at least once before the other coaches in the country start catching up. Because right now Chip is the best "poker player" on the field every Saturday. In fact, what's even more remarkable is that I used to think Harbaugh over at Stanford understood football EV better than anyone. He understood when you should always go for it on 4th down (because your EV of trying to maintain the ball and give yourself a chance to score is higher than the EV of punting, for example) where other coaches who don't understand football EV (like Neuheisel is one of the worst imo) didn't. But Chip is the best I have seen. I have for a couple of seasons now tried to work on EV calcs for certain plays in football based on historical data and a few other tools and my EV calcs have shown (although I am not saying they are for sure perfect calculations, but rather good ballparks) that most coaches are way too passive. Much in the same way that most poker players are way too passive and have a poor understanding of ranges, football coaches are often times clueless.

I am going to write a column for Card Player on this topic, so I don't want to use all of my material in this blog, but essentially most football coaches have very little understanding of the EV of football scenarios. A great example was when we played UCLA last week. UCLA twice kicked a field goal on 4th and short when they were still somewhat in the game. Now when you are playing the Oregon Ducks on the road and you are a massive underdog in the game, quite frankly you are an idiot if you are going to kick a field goal on 4th and short. You need to be taking chances to win, not kicking some conservative field goal like you are a favorite against a bad team and just want to put points on the board. If I was the owner of UCLA (which I realize is impossible) football, I snap fire Neuheisel for blatant negligence on understanding the game he is supposed to be coaching. Then in one of the ultimate ironies, he went for it late in the 4th quarter on a 4th and long instead of kicking the field goal when they were down by 50 and had no chance to win. I mean seriously Neuheisel?

Anyway, bottom line is that Chip is light years ahead of most of these other coaches. Harbaugh and Chip are probably the two best imo and it is fun to watch because Chip just gets these close football EV calls right. When I watch other football teams on TV, I am screaming at the TV at times watching these coaches make decisions like the ones Neuheisel made against us to kick on 4th and short. So it is fun to watch Chip because I never really notice him making any calls in close spots that are -EV. He pretty much always nails it. I am not saying anything about his play calling, because I am not in a position to do that. But as for the plays I can PROVE are mistakes, I just don't see Chip making any of those.

Go Ducks!!!!!!!!!

In Trying To Prevent A Heart Attack, I Almost Had One!

Posted by Leatherass

I swear sometimes I feel like Larry David. Truth be told, I often feel like you could get a pretty good Curb Your Enthusiasm season just out of the material from my life alone. I don't know how I do it, but I end up in the most amazing circumstances all the time. I suppose some of the time it is attributable to the fact that I tend to not just nod my head and move on in various situations. Usually I am the one that questions things and annoys people who are used to just calling the shots uncontested.

The latest episode in my life occurred recently when I noticed that I was about on my last heart med that I have taken every day for the past years.  No big deal I thought, I can just call in a refill and pick it up in a few hours. Except when I went to call it in, I was reminded that on the bottom of the bottle there is a line that tells me how many refills I have left and that number read zero. So the pharmacy told me there is nothing they can do without a note from my Dr.

After hanging up with the pharmacist I called my cardiologist to see if he wouldn't mind ringing the pharmacy for me and extending my refill. That was when I was told that my cardiologist quit working at the hospital and that I was assigned another Dr.  So I asked to be transferred to him. I got on the line with him and explained that I was in need of a refill and he told me that it would be unethical to give me a refill because he had never seen me and it had (by a whole 3 days) been over a year since my last visit to their hospital. I told him that I appreciated his position, however these meds were critical to my health and my cardiologist said under no circumstances should I ever discontinue taking these medications cold turkey or ever for for that matter.

Much to my complete shock, the Dr. insisted that it would be unethical for me to write him a prescription for my meds. At this point I started to get a little upset and asked him how he felt it was ethical to deny medication to someone who was in need of medication with the consequences for denying me medication could mean a heart attack or even death. He just said there was nothing he could do and I reminded him that he was supposed to be in the business of helping people and not letting bureaucracy trump get in the way. He could tell I was getting pretty pissed off and suggested to me that I could simply book an appointment with him and he would then prescribe the medication to me at that visit.

I was transferred to his nurse who then told me that the soonest available appointment was an entire MONTH later! I asked to be transferred back to the Dr. and got on the phone with him. I told him that he was booked for a month and how was I supposed to survive without medication until then?  He tried to explain to me how his hands were tied and I just cut him off and said, "Stop this BS. I want to know how I can get my medication that I need to live?."  At this point I am already brainstorming how I might be able to get meds in some alternative fashion or maybe even contacting their general counsel at the hospital and explaining that I wasn't going to take no for an answer when finally he gave me an option. It was a pretty shitty option, but at least it gave me a somewhat reasonable path to getting my meds. He said I could go to a walk in clinic and be seen by a Dr. who would more than likely prescribe me my medication.

So I promptly hung up with him and called the walk in clinic. Now, it is total BS that I even have to do this because the hospital I go to (OHSU) has seen me plenty and has for quite awhile now prescribed my meds for me.  How it is unethical for a cardiologist at the hospital I visit to prescribe me my meds and ethical for some random general practitioner at some clinic to give me my meds who doesn't know me from Adam blows my mind.  But either way, at least I had an option. In fact, after calling them, it sounded like a pretty good option because they were only 10 minutes away and the person at the front desk told me it was an unusually slow day and I could see a Dr. immediately.

I hopped in the car and showed up to a room with about a half dozen people in there waiting to see a Dr.  The guy at the front desk said, "Oh, you must be the one that I spoke with on the phone. Man, it was amazing as soon as I told you it was a slow day, 8 people showed up hahahahaha." Yeah, real hilarious buddy!  I can barely contain my laughter.

So after waiting for about 2 hours to see a Dr. I get called to the back by the nurse. The nurse was fantastic. He was very pleasant to be around and I got to thinking, "Hey, maybe these walk in clinics aren't so bad after all."  We made some small talk and I explained to him that I felt really bad to be taking a spot away from some of the others in the lobby who clearly needed to see a Dr. unlike me who just needs a refill.  He said it was no big deal and that a Dr. would be in shortly.

A woman walked in who appeared to be a pleasant person. She was smiling and asked me how I was doing etc. I told her that everything was good, but due to a bunch of OHSU bureaucracy, I needed her help obtaining a refill for my meds. She asked me about my history and I told her I had a vasal spasm heart attack at 23 years old and have been taking meds ever since. She asked me what they were and I told her.  Then she asked me if I took any supplements and that is where the fun started.

I told her that yes I was taking a number of supplements. I told her I was taking CoQ10, fish oils, an all natural cholesterol reducer (sold at Whole Foods) and a vegetable supplement (also sold at Whole Foods) because I never get enough veggies. After each and every supplement I told her about, she rolled her eyes. I thought this was pretty strange as there is no Dr. worth a lick who would roll their eyes at that roster of supplements given my circumstances.  And as much as I usually would say something like, "What are you rolling your eyes at?" I decided to keep my Larry David mouth shut and just make sure I got my meds.

After she was done rolling her eyes, she said, "Why, pray tell, are you taking this many supplements?"  I explained to her that on a weekly basis I see a naturopathic chiropractor who suggested these supplements. The fish oil, I told her, was recommended to me by Daniel Amen (the leading brain Dr. who regularly appears on Larry King who also happens to be my best friends uncle and someone who I've hung out with a fair bit). At that point she looked at me incredulously and said, "You have seen a naturopath 52 times since you have seen a real Dr.?"  I told her that indeed I had and that I have never felt better in my life since I began doing that. I also reminded her that my cardiologist only recommends I visit him once a year anyway, so at this point I was a whole 3 days late on that.

She sighed and said, "Well, I hope you haven't completely destroyed your liver with all of these supplements you are taking. Hang tight and someone will be in here to draw blood and make sure you don't have extensive liver damage."  I told her that I just had my liver checked out 2 months ago when I had blood work done so that was unnecessary.  She said that we better check it again and walked out the door very quickly. I called out, "Ma'am wait.  Ma'am."  She slowly opened the door and said, "It's DOCTOR."  At this point my Larry Davidness kicked in. I honestly couldn't help myself. I said, "Whatever. Can you answer 2 questions for me? 1. What does the results of my blood test, good or bad, have to do with me getting my medication? 2. How can you be so concerned with what the supplements might be doing to my liver, yet have no concern with what the actual medications might be doing to my liver?" She didn't answer and just said she would be back to have my blood drawn. I repeated to her that I just had my blood checked 2 months ago and that I was refusing the blood test. She said, "Fine. I will note that patient refuses blood work" and promptly slammed the door so loud that you could feel the entire building rattle. There is no question in my mind that every single person in the building heard that sound.

So I'm sitting in the hospital and I have no clue what on earth is going to happen next. Is she coming back with a prescription? Am I just going to sit there until i get the hint that I am supposed to leave?  I texted my wife, "Well, Larry did it again. I don't think I am getting my meds. I can't believe what is going on. You won't believe what's happening when I tell you." About 5 minutes passed and the Dr. (I hate to even use that term with this woman as it is a bitch slap across the face to all the real doctors out there who understand basic things about the human body) walked in the room. She handed me my prescription and said, "Good luck to you" and promptly turned around and walked right out of the room. I was actually pretty stoked. I thought for a minute I wasn't even getting my meds, however, I think she realized that if she didn't give me my meds, she was going to be in for a huge battle and I would surely be telling her superior about how I was disrespected etc which could be a serious issue for her.

So yeah, that's my story. I kinda couldn't believe my day. In fact my heart rhythm was pretty terrible for about 2 days after that incident. My heart was jumping all around and behaving erratically and it didn't feel good. And to think, this was caused by the people who were supposed to be helping me.

Punta Cana!!

Posted by Leatherass

I am very excited to say that I will be joining Doyle Brunson at the Punta Cana poker tournament at the Hard Rock Hotel.  It will be quite a thrill to play alongside the legend himself.  Shoot, it will be thrilling enough just to meet him.  The event is Nov 10th-14th in Punta Cana which is in the Dominican Republic.  I am really looking forward to competing in the event.  It sounds like a dream working vacation really.  We are staying in an ocean front hotel that is all inclusive.  The golf is supposed to be amazing.  There is a Jack Nicklaus designed course on site and there is another golf course I may try and play about 60 miles away called Casa De Campo (Teeth of the dog) which is ranked in the top 50 courses in the world.

I am going to bring my wife.  She is really looking forward to a trip like this.  After spending an entire year caring 24/7 for our daughter, I am excited for her that she is getting a chance to take a vacation and get some good sleep.

If anyone is interested in playing, I would take a look into it right now.  The field is going to be filled with amateur players and if you are living in a cold weather place, this is a great place to get away that you know will have perfect weather virtually every day.

Poker Is An Awesome Industry

Posted by Leatherass

I was just thinking today how fortunate I was to discover poker and have it become my career.  Sure, I bitch and moan like everyone else about running bad.  I also DESPISE a lot of high stakes poker players because it seems to be dominated by a bunch of little rich (or at least relatively rich for their age) 22 year old punks who are arrogant and rude.  But there are a lot of good ones though too.  Some of my best friends are poker players and I am definitely proud that the young guns like Phil Galfond and Tom Dwan are such great representatives of the game.  They are the good guys.  But man, there are A TON of complete assholes playing poker too.

As much as I may get down on the fact that I regularly sit with so many rude young punks all day, at least it is online and I don't have to deal with them in person.  Also, there are rude people in every profession, so it's not like I could just do something else and avoid those types of people.  But what I love about poker so much is the freedom and most of all, the low expectations, that's right, the low expectations that people have for poker players.

If I was a doctor, a lawyer, a PGA tour player or some other profession where there is a lot of pressure to be someone you likely are not, man, I think I would really hate that.  I LOVE the fact that people don't really expect much of guys like me.  If I happen to let out an untimely F bomb or dress in a way that is substandard for the occasion, people are like, "Well, he's a poker player.  What did you expect?"  Or when it comes to being endorsed by a company, if I say something or do something that would be disappointing to a big time conservative corporation, the sponsors I have in poker probably could care less.  I mean, if I did something REALLY terrible, then they would have a problem with that of course.  But if you think about some athlete who is endorsed by some company that is really conservative, they would probably have a heart attack and snap fire people for doing things like speaking their mind in a non PC way.

Now Tiger Woods had things blow up in his face as we all well know.  But he spent years cultivating a squeaky clean image for a reason.  He was marketable for them because he was no neutral for so long.  He never mentioned his political preference, didn't mention religion etc.  He avoided anything controversial that would possibly make him less marketable and he got a billion dollars in endorsements in part because of that.  Now things blew up in his face eventually, but if he was a poker player, not one single company would've cared.  But because he was a golfer, many of them dropped him instantly.  That's because they had high expectations for him.

Anyway, I don't know why I was thinking about that today, but it really means a lot to me.  I could never try to be someone else other than me.  I enjoy doing my thing and I can't really put a price on it.  And if for some reason me being me isn't good enough for whatever company wants me to represent them, then so be it.  That is obviously not my hope at all, but at the same time I will pay my bills just fine which is a good feeling to have.  I try and do the "right thing" because I believe in doing the "right thing" not because I am being paid to do that.

Poker is so unique in that way.  I mean take Daniel Negreanu for example.  He writes a very open blog that has been read by probably millions of people.  He is not afraid to take a stance on things which is what I love about him.  I think it is so cool that we are in an industry like this that is so tolerant.  Daniel could never get away with this if he was a PGA Tour player.  I mean he could, but it would likely cost him some tremendous endorsement opportunities with a lot of companies that had some big bucks they'd be willing to give him to endorse their product.

I happen to largely agree with what Daniel writes about, but he has said plenty of things that have gotten under some people's skin.  I can relate, because I have done that plenty in my poker career as well and dealt with the people who have complained.  What I thought was so beautiful was that he said something (I can't even remember what it was) that pissed off a TON of people and they in turn wrote Poker Stars to complain.  Poker Stars basically said that Daniel is his own person and they do not feel that they own what comes out of his mouth, good or bad.  I thought that was so cool for such a massive company to have the balls to not cave in to some random people who had a problem with something he said.  So many companies are so weak when it comes to that.  They don't want to deal with some disgruntled customers for a few days (which is about how long they will care before they are on to the next thing anyway) so they end up firing their spokesperson which I think is ridiculous.

That reminds me of when Augusta National (who runs the Masters Tournament) was in hot water because they didn't have any female members.  Now, I am pretty mixed on that one, but that is besides the point.  Augusta was told by Martha Burke, the head of the National Women's Counsel that they were going to boycott the tournament and their sponsors etc.  And Augusta got up in front of the world in a press conference and said they were "not going to change their rules at the point of a bayonet."  They basically told Martha to piss off and when she threatened to boycott their sponsors, Augusta just ran their entire event with no sponsors!  They went to the sponsors first and said that they didn't want their money that year and televised the entire event out of pocket!  That's so baller.

To conclude, I love the poker industry.  Maybe they don't worry about stuff other companies worry about because people don't expect much from us poker players anyway.  Or maybe they do it because they are much more progressive minded than a lot of other industries.  Who knows.  All I know is I am happy to be in poker. It is truly where I belong.

Random Thoughts/Tom Dwan Analysis

Posted by Leatherass

The journey of being a poker pro has been quite a thrill over the past several years.  I started poker as a 23 year old kid looking for a 2nd shot to do something for a living that would be both competitive and potentially lucrative.  I had only known a life of golf having worked towards a goal of playing the PGA tour since I was 8 years old and had never given a whole lot of thought to doing anything other than playing golf on the PGA Tour.  But then life threw a curve ball at me in the form of a vasal spasm induced heart attack at the age of 23.  With golf looking to be a next to impossible task to achieve and in need of something else to try and be competitive with and have a chance to make life changing sums of money, I turned my attention towards poker in the winter of 2004.

What has transpired since then has blown my mind.  Not simply because it worked out great and I was fortunate enough to actually make life changing sums of money from poker, but rather what poker has taught me.  Poker has, quite frankly, changed my life in ways that I never could have imagined.  I guess when you play a game as much as I have (going on 9 million hands now) it is bound to teach you something, but I think poker has a special quality about it that sets it apart.  What that quality is is understanding things very literally such as: In a heads up pot the pot is $1,000 (your $500 and your opponent's $500) and you have 45% equity at the point in time when the time the money goes in, no matter what happens, your EV in that spot is -$25.  You can win the pot or you can lose the pot, it doesn't matter.  Your equity is 45% and if you did that every hand you would lose $25 a hand.  But the other quality poker teaches you is how dynamic the game is.  People often talk about poker as if there are absolute truths in the game.  As an instructor, very rarely do I ever use the word NEVER or ALWAYS.  It is usually OFTEN or USUALLY NOT.  The reason why is that there are so few situations that occur in poker that there is a definitive answer to.  You can't say NEVER call with bottom pair, because I did that for my entire stack 2 times alone yesterday and was correct!  But generally speaking, it is not a good idea to do that.

Anyway, where am I going with this?  Simply put, poker has taught me the ingredients of how to be a successful person at anything I am capable of doing.  It has taught me the value in hard work, staying disciplined, making frequent logical decisions at a fast pace based on information I have gathered, how to handle ups and downs, the value in saving, making fact based decisions rather than letting emotion drive decisions, the importance of trying to do the right thing in life, how to value the worth of your time and probably a jillion other things.  In fact, I am so confident that poker is one of the best ways to improve your intelligence that if someone came to me and said that they had 2 years to become significantly smarter, I would tell them to play as much poker as possible.  I would not tell them to go to Yale, or Harvard or any other big time school.  I would tell them to play poker.  I'm being serious here too.  If you can figure out what it takes to play poker at a high level and actually sustain yourself at that level for the long haul (that is the big catch) without going broke or frequently playing with your whole bankroll on the line, you will do just fine in life.

I know I get a little flack at times for being so high on Tom Dwan, but he is a perfect example of what I am talking about.  Tom Dwan, without question is a genius.  I believe that if there were enough money on the line and maybe he was looking for a new challenge, he could accomplish some amazing things in life.  All you have to do is listen to him talk.  The director's cuts of Poker After Dark are a great place to learn poker.  In these episodes Tom explains why he does what he does and it is quite obvious to me that he is a brilliant mind.  Sort of like an Einstein of the poker profession.  The scary thing is that I think he will actually only get better with age. If he decides to start playing a little more scared because maybe he gets a wife and kids some day and develops a different perspective on money, then maybe I will be wrong.  But I actually don't think that will happen to him and I think if anything he will stay slightly more disciplined and maybe even toss a few hands away (not a ton, but a few plays here and there that I am sure are losers).  The other thing I think he will figure out better is to understand tighter opponent's ranges.  I think Dwan faces a challenge that so many geniuses face and that is the problem of trying to dumb yourself down to understand others better.  I think Tom make an occasional awful call down when he plays some of the softer opponents in these TV cash games.  I

Tom thinks in such a way that is like 9 stratospheres higher than some of the opponents at the table.  I mean when he's at a cash game table with Lederer, Matusow, Hellmuth and Allen Meltzer, Tom will sometimes make a call down that just isn't good.  He knows a guy like Ivey or Patrick can have a bluff in a certain spot x% of the time and his little genius brain is computing everything and he winds up making a great calls versus their ranges.  But in those same spots, I think he struggles to really adjust to people who can really never be bluffing in certain spots and makes loose call downs.  Anyway, the kid is a sick genius and I think that in time, he may even surpass Ivey as the best poker player in the world.  I certainly know one thing that would fast track that goal in a major hurry and that would be if he started working with poker mental game coach Jared Tendler.  If Tom is serious about becoming the best he can be, Jared is his ticket.  Jared helped me make millions at the tables and if he ever got to work with someone as scary talented as Tom, he could fast track Dwan to the top of the poker world in short order I believe.

I'm sorry this post is a little scattered.  I guess I am on a bit of a tangent and am in no mood to edit this thing.  Today I spent a lot of time writing.  I am in the final stages of getting my latest poker strategy book together.  We are in the 2nd round of edits and I think there was a lot of stuff in there that really was thought provoking for me.  For some reason while I was writing today I was going over the material and realizing the power of some of these statements in the copy when applied both in poker and in other areas of life.  For some reason the thing that stood out to me most was a statement that was made that said the main difference between being good and great is the ability to not tilt.  It sounds so simple, but it is true.  I think what it made me think of was in golf, no one really laughs at the thought that in a physical game like golf where you use your physical talents to hit a golf ball, that it would be such a mental game.  They say golf is 90% mental and 10% mental.  Now I played the game for a living for awhile and there is definitely a lot of physical stuff to it, but when it comes to the best players, it really is all mental.  But in poker, to say that poker is a mental game is like "duh."  But it is JUST like golf in that it is 90% mental.  The trick is getting people to think of your arsenal of plays as being like your physical game, but your ability to stick with your playbook when you are tilting, tired, playing for big money etc. is really what separates the men from the boys.

I have tried to explain it a million times in my material, and I will do it once more right now.  If you are going to make just one 10 big blind mental mistake every hour that you could have avoided, (which is nothing) and you play 500 hands an hour, that is 2 big blinds per hundred off your win rate.  2 big blinds per hundred for even a 100nl player is 2 cents a hand or $10 an hour if they play 500 hands an hour.  If you play 2000 hours a year, that is $20,000 a year.  If you play a 50 year career (can you imagine grinding .5/1 for 50 years?  That would drive a man insane lol) that's a million dollars. Now if you play 5/10nl, that same mistake costs you $200,000 a year or $10m over a 50 year career.  That's right, one stupid mental mistake that only cost 1/10th of a buy in every hour and you could have made enough money to feed a small country.  Now if you consider that money likely would have been invested and say doubled every seven to ten years, well then now you're talking enough money to buy a country!!!  So needless to say playing your A game each and every day has some value.

An additional point to make about that is this how delusional most players I play against every day are.  I will have to admit, I get a lot of crap at the tables.  Truth be told, I would say half of the regulars I compete against are (online anyway) about the biggest assholes I have ever come across.  In the last month alone, I have had 6 different people at my tables who after I stacked them, said they wish that I either died of my first heart attack or that they hope I have another one soon and that it finishes me!!  This is no joke.  I also hear all the time about how it is a joke that I am a team Poker Stars pro and they are not.  If you look up their results, most of these people have made well under 10% of what I have made at the tables and furthermore, do they not have any clue at all about anything?  Do they think wishing people a heart attack at the tables is helping their cause to become a team Poker Stars pro?  I mean Stars vets the people they bring on board and when a guy has 5 chat bans for wishing people a quick death and tells recreational players that they hope their mom gets cancer, do they honestly think a multi billion dollar corporation is going to want anything to do with them?  I mean, poker is as lenient as it comes and they still are never going to want to associate themselves with immature punks like that.  It just blows my mind.

Oh, I know what my point actually was haha.  What I meant to say was that all of these people who play really, really good poker when they are on their game don't have any concept of the fact that how good your A game is is next to meaningless.  This is the case in all sports.  Shoot, there are basketball players on playgrounds in New York who could make some of the less flashy NBA players look like they belong playing in junior college if they were judged only on the coolest or most impressive things they can do on the court.  But basketball is about being well rounded and bringing your best stuff to the court every game.  You have to stay disciplined etc.  The flashy guys in poker don't realize that how good your A game is doesn't mean shit.  For example, let's say this flashy reg whose A game may actually be better than me for example goes on tilt once a week and bombs off 10 buy ins each time.  I NEVER do stuff like that.  So even if he outplayed people when he was playing well to the tune of 6 buy ins or the equivalent of 60 10 bb pots that he outplayed people out of, he is still 4 buy ins behind a guy who didn't find a way through exceptional talent to outplay someone in a marginal spot.  Which actually brings me back to Tom Dwan.  Dwan can do both.  He will outplay you AND not bomb off 10 stacks when he is on tlit.  This is why I think he's the #2 poker player in the world.

It’s 2010 And You Still Can’t Clone Yourself?

Posted by Leatherass

If there were somehow an option where I could clone myself for a couple of weeks, I would certainly be paying pretty much whatever it took to do that.  I basically have 5 different things that I really wanted to do and 3 of them are at the same time.  Right now I am on Chicago on a layover waiting to fly into Charlotte so I can be a part of Matt Bolt's (Mbolt1) wedding.  I am really pumped for that on it's own merit, but it probably could not possibly come at a worst time with my Oregon Ducks playing Stanford on Saturday at Autzen stadium.  ESPN's Game Day is coming and well, I should just stop writing because I pretty much want to throw up (like literally throw up uncontrollably for hours) just thinking about missing that game.  I never miss a Ducks home game, and even attend about half of the road games every year.  So wow, it is going to be tough to miss it.

To complicate matters I am a huge golf fan and the Ryder Cup is this weekend as well.  Missing that has been something that I have barely even thought about relative to missing the Ducks game, but to me anyway, it is pretty much like being a huge soccer game and having to miss the World Cup.  No fun there.  I also catch a cold about 75% of the time I get on a plane historically, so I may be signing up for a cold as well to rub insult into injury.  Anyway, enough of that.  On the bright note, I am incredibly pumped to see Bolt and his bride tie the not.  I am definitely a big fan of theirs and even though it is going to be tough missing out on some things to be there, I couldn't be more excited or happy to get to not only see them tie the knot, but also get to see a bunch of other poker buddies like Forcewithme, Beach Justice and well, there is no clever way to say his name other than to just call him Jared Tendler.  We are all playing golf tomorrow which is going to be quite a group!!  I was too lazy to bring my golf clubs on the flight, so I will have to borrow someone's clubs and likely shoot about 80 with them haha.  I never play worth a darn with other clubs, but I weighed that against the pain of bringing them on the trip and the likelihood they get lost or delayed and decided to just leave them behind.

Next weekend is my daughter Lennon's first birthday!!!  As some of you may know, Lennon is a name we picked out for her 6 months before she was born in honor of John Lennon.  On the day she was born, Oct 9th, I got a text from a friend saying, "OMG I can't believe your daughter was born on John Lennon's birthday!!"  I had no idea it was his birthday.  Lennon was due on Nov 2nd, so her coming on Oct 9th was quite a surprise.  So later that day I did some research and discovered that John Lennon was born at 6:24PM in London.  I then asked the nurse what time she was born and she said 10:24AM here is Portland, Oregon.  10:24 AM in Portland is 6:24 PM in England, so lo and behold they were born at the EXACT SAME TIME!!  Crazy stuff.

So the weekend of her birthday also coincides with a trip to Bandon Dunes I was invited to go on with some PGA tour players, including one who shot a 59 this year on tour.  Definitely a tough break to have to miss that, but they are playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Lennon's birthday is on Saturday, so there is just no way to enjoy the trip without having to miss her birthday, and as much as I would love the Bandon trip and as much as I know she doesn't even know it's her birthday, I don't want to start off her life not being there for her.  One of my main goals in life was to raise a family the right way after being frustrated with the way I was brought up, so I don't want to start off right away as a flaky Dad.

Poker in September went reasonably well.  I'm done playing for the month and ended up winning about $40,000 on the month.  I will certainly take it because I didn't play too many days of poker. I spent a lot of time on vacation, and being sick with an infection as well as working really hard on my book as we reach the home stretch.  So to scratch out $40,000 playing part time was definitely nice.  I also spent a lot of time working on my game which I think will serve me quite well as I am really going to be grinding a lot more hands than I have in awhile in November and December as I close in on SuperNova Elite.  I am way behind right now with about 640,000 VPP's. but I planned on having a busy end to the year and have cleared out my schedule mostly in Novemeber and December so I can take care of business at the tables.

Well, Go Ducks, Go Lennon and I hope everyone crushes it at the tables!

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Me You Are A Patriot

Posted by Leatherass

Well, I can't believe what just happened again today in the political football game (with real lives) being played once again by our politicians. Our senators stood on the floor of congress and essentially told a large group of people fighting each and every day to protect our lives that they will not fight for them. I would say I am speechless at how something like this could happen, but nothing surprises me anymore and I am after all, writing this blog.

Maybe I am unusual in this regard, maybe I'm not. But I view what anyone who defends our country as someone I respect more than anyone else. I am more impressed with what they do than what a guy like Michael Jordan did. To me, there is nothing in this world that compares to what a military man or woman does. They have all my respect. If I called the shots, those in the military would have a unparalleled pension, the best health care in the world and be made to feel like what they accomplished is greater than just about anything. Honestly, it's sad that someone like me gets accolades for doing things like sitting in front of a computer screen and raising fish. The folks in the military, those are the people that should be looked up to. I may take some winnings here and there and donate it to those less fortunate, but big whoop. The people in the military lay their LIVES on the line to help others.

They see things that most people only see in the movies. They have to live the rest of their lives having had that experience and many, if not most, deal with that difficult time period in their lives on a daily basis, if they are lucky enough to make it back home. Most have severe mental hurdles to overcome. Many have physical problems from the time they spent at war. Yet they still fight on each and every day while so many of us get to enjoy our lives here in the United States relatively safe and sound. And back home what are we doing to these people? Well, we send them into war over a bunch of lies (and for those of you that disagree, cmon, get with it, it's 2010, it is a FACT that we lied are way into war in Iraq). We give them worse health care coverage than most industrialized nations would give a homeless person. We give them inadequate at best mental health care that is essential for them to recover from the mental trauma they have endured. And then if that's not bad enough, today we told them that they are essentially something less than a human being.

How does this happen? How can someone like John Mccain, a self proclaimed ware hero and someone who tried to parlay his own fake patriotism into gaining control of the most powerful position in the world, tell people that because of what they do in the bedroom that they are less than someone who does something a little different (and often times similar!!) in their bedroom?

Who gives a shit? I mean honestly it's one thing if you are bothered by what a gay person might do. It's America, so yes you are entitled to your own opinion. But for God's sake, how do you actually legislate in such a way where your own personal morality detracts from the dignity of another person?

I would like to ask all of the folks out there who actually do side with all the neo cons (the same folks who have tried to tout their own fake patriotism to win political points) in the Senate in today's Don't Ask, Don't Tell vote one simple question. In a way, we are going back to when we were all 5 years old and our parents were teaching us the concept of "do unto others" and the concept of "You know what you did to little Johnny today? How would that make you feel if someone did that to you?" And my question is this. Please, take 1 minute of your time and bear with me here. Close your eyes an imagine what it must be like fighting a war in the middle east. Imagine being away from everyone you love. Imagine not knowing if you would see tomorrow. Imagine all of the luxuries you enjoy are taken away from you. Imagine all of the things you would see over there and all of the fucked up emotional shit you would deal with each and every day. Imagine watching your friends in your platoon get blown away. Watching them take their last breath. Imagine what you would give to be home with your family, enjoying Christmas or a nice night out with your significant other. Imagine what you would give for even a day of that?

Now imagine that in order to deal with all of this, you have a great sense of pride that you develop for what it is you are doing. You may not have a lot going for you at the moment in terms of what a civilian might think of, but what you have is a sense of pride that is unmatched for what you do on a daily basis. You know that what you are doing is for your country and if something does happen to you, you will die with dignity. And then you find out that the entity that you are protecting, the guts you have spilled, both literally and figuratively, are all for an entity that views you as something beneath a human being. They are sending a very loud and very clear message, that you are to be tolerated, but nothing more. And if they have it their way, you will never be truly dignified as a human being the way they define a human being.

How might this make you feel? How would you feel if you were them? How would you feel that because you were born attracted to the same sex (again, if you don't think so, get with it, it's 2010, it's a FACT you are most likely born gay) as opposed to the opposite sex, that you are, in the eyes of the country you fight for each every day, something less than all the rest of your peers? Now please try and think about this and tell me how you could possibly vote the way you did? How?

I Need Your Help

Posted by Leatherass

The poker strategy book is going great so far.  Paul Hoppe and I are really making some great progress and we have really had a lot of fun writing this book so far.  Paul is a great guy with a great attitude, and I feel very fortunate to have such a great writing partner and great poker mind to collaborate with.

Essentially the book is going to break down into 3 major sections.  I will put the final outline of the book up for everyone to see before it goes to print, but for now we are going to leave it a little more vague as we will be doing some adding and subtracting before the book goes to print.  Section 1 is essentially 50 chapters on what I have found to be the biggest misconceptions and/or biggest mistakes poker players make at the poker tables.  Each mistake or misconception will be its' own chapter much like in Treat Your Poker Like A Business, which was essentially a collection of the 50 most important things you can do to monetize your poker game, along with several chapters of poker strategy.

Section 2 is going to be an undetermined number of "Hands With Leatherass."  In this chapter, I will take you through some critical hands I have played and analyze them in such a way that you can get inside why I did what I did and relate that back to how it can help you at the tables.  This type of learning tends to be hugely popular and because of that, we felt it was a good idea to include such a section in our book.  Section 3 will be a quiz that will be 50 questions long, with 1 question each that correlates with the 50 chapters in the book.  So for example, quiz question #14 will be a question that will correspond to chapter #14 in the book.  So if you nail all the questions, then you likely have very little reason to go back and read the book.  But if you miss questions 12, 17 and 27, then you can go back to those chapters and review them to make sure you are solid with what we have taught and then you can be ready to kick ass and take names at the tables!!!

The reason I am telling you all about this is that I need your help.  We would like to hear from the people we are writing this book for what they would like to see talked about in the book.  Is there a mistake you feel you are making that you want to be addressed in the book?  Is there some piece of advice that you hear on TV or from friends at the tables that you are skeptical about?  Please let us know.  Remember, the concept of the book is to address the 50 biggest mistakes and/or misconceptions people have about poker.  So any questions along those lines would be great.

The reason I like to write books that deal with things like the 50 biggest mistakes and or misconceptions is because it gets straight to the point and fixes the leaks in your game that you are possibly making.  While dense strategy books filled with elaborate equations and philosophies have their place, I feel it is much more effective to have straight to the point, winning advice, that you can translate into cash in your pocket immediately.  You won't have to sift through a manual to find any gems here.  This book won't be filled with a bunch of fluff.  Our aim with every sentence will be to carry your game forward, much like a running back, into the end zone and towards a pile of cash.  But before we submit the final draft to go to print, we want to hear from you first.  What do you want to read about?  What questions have been bugging you forever?  Are you tired of not knowing what to do when you are out of position in a raised flop against an aggressive player and you have 88 on a T52 flop and your opponent bets the flop and the turn?  These problems are not easy to solve, and our mission is to answer all of these tough, burning questions that most poker players have.

Please reach out to me in any way you can.  Thank you so much.

Here are the ways of letting me know what you want to see in our book:

Email: info@dustyschmidt.net
Facebook message:    <a href="http://www.facebook.com/dusty.schmidt">Facebook</a>
Card Player: simply post below in the comments section under your Card Player screen name
<a href="http://www.dragthebar.com/?aid=5 ">Dragthebar</a> : There is a thread in the NL holdem General and theory section titled, "I need your help."

WCOOP/Golf/Books/Man Code WTF?

Posted by Leatherass

This week has been nuts.  I have had a cold all week and granted, I haven't moved from my couch in a week other than to go to the gym to shoot some baskets this morning, but still I feel like I haven't stopped working.  I have hosted 3 final tables of WCOOP events on Poker Stars.  I have played 2 final tables myself in tournaments as well as played 20,000 hands of cash games.  I have done quite a bit of work on my new strategy book and oddly enough my media/publishing business, Imagine Media, experienced some serious mainstream publicity this week.

I noticed some people in various poker forums who thought it was pretty "interesting" that Imagine Media is involved with the Bachelor Pad winner's latest book.  There were some, let's use the word "clever" remarks made online, but anyway, yeah, my company is in fact involved with these projects. We recently published two books written by two of the biggest reality TV stars going right now.  Jesse Kovacs, or "Kovacs" as he is known on the Bachelor Pad, wrote The Young and the Thirsty: 25 California Wines for the New School Drinker which we were happy to publish.  Then last night we released our latest creation with Bachelor Pad winner David Good. David became well known for his many references on a past season of the Bacehlorette to the "Man Code."  He would say, "You can't do that.  That breaks the Man Code dude." So naturally David wrote a really fun and interesting book called Man Code: A Woman's Guide To Cracking The Tough Guy.  His book created quite a buzz in the gossip community getting written up in People Magazine among many other gossip related websites and magazines!  It was pretty cool to see a book that is under our Imagine Media umbrella receive such intense interest.  Anyway, exciting stuff for our young company.  We started with just my one book and now we have 4 with 2 more scheduled to be released before year end.  I guess for the guy who has one of the largest private collections of golf books and once won a book reading contest in 3rd grade, owning a publishing company is a natural fit for me anyway.  I can't wait when some day we maybe have a few hundred titles.  Then I can have a room in my house dedicated to all of the books we've published.  That would be awesome!!  It's fun to dream anyway.

Today is an off day for me from the WCOOP.  I have been grinding like crazy at both cash and tournaments, and like I wrote yesterday, it  has resulted in a tidy $20,000 profit, so it's nice to be rewarded for my efforts, especially when I haven't been feeling well.  Had I played all week while sick (although I have gotten some great rest when not playing) and lost, man that would've been tough.

For all the golfers out there, how much does it suck that Tiger is playing so poorly?  It is almost strange to watch huh?  It's like I actually am surprised when he plays well now, not when he plays poorly, like I used to be.  I think he is actually going to come back better than ever though.  Even though he got great results with Hank Haney, I think it was in spite of, not because of, him.  Hank is an awful golf coach in my opinion.  I have very little respect for his philosophy and think if Tiger had just gone to a guy like Sean Foley right off the bat he would've been much better off.  In fact, I think he'd have 20 majors right now if he had seen Foley first and passed on Haney.  Foley has an understanding of the swing that few on earth have.  He is the only one who can quite literally prove why his theory works from a physics standpoint.  Once Tiger finally gets a chance to fully understand what Foley is teaching and gets time to make the changes and feel comfortable with them, barring injuries and/or additional personal life issues, I see him having a grand slam year before he's through.  With Foley's techniques, Tiger will be unbeatable in my opinion.

Well, gotta run.  Gonna go play with my daughter for a little before I'm back to work.

WCOOPen It Up This Week

Posted by Leatherass

The WSOP Lacks Common Sense

Posted by Leatherass

I have been fighting a cold the last 2 days which has really sucked. I get colds fairly infrequently these days (maybe 1-2 times a year), but man when I do get them, they are really bad colds. Luckily I don’t have anywhere to be for a week and the World Championship of Online Poker on Poker Stars is running, so I can just be a sick bum laying around all day playing for a bracelet!!! Not a bad gig. So far the series itself has been fairly quiet for me, but I have been playing a ton of tournaments the last 2 days on Poker Stars, most of which are non bracelet events. I did make two final tables this week coming in third for $14,000 and 6th for $1,000 in a small field $55 tournament. I am starting to get the hang of tournaments, but I have a very long way being primarily a cash game pro. I have a lot to learn which actually kinda excites me. Not that I don’t have things to learn as a cash pro, but I’m definitely much closer to the ceiling in cash games than I am in tournaments.

One thing that is nice about playing in the online version of the World Series of Poker is that you can’t be victim of a dumb ruling like you can in the World Series of Poker in Vegas. Being sick and having more time to bum around, I have been reading some of the Cardplayer blogs and noticed this whole Prahlad Friedman controversy. I guess if I’m going to weigh in on that one, I don’t think you can really fault Prahlad. I have been in a similar position at the World Series and things happen so fast and a bunch of men in suits who approach the table make such quick and authoritative decisions that it feels almost pointless getting involved. I think Prahlad realized that and just let those guys do their thing. Obviously anyone with a brain knows he called and knows he should have been out of the tournament, but no matter if Prahlad begged them to eliminate him from the event, the ruling wasn’t going to change.

You see, that is just the problem with the World Series of Poker. It is run (not all of the staff, but unfortunately most of the higher ups) by people who lack basic common sense. I have been to the World Series numerous times, but this past summer was the first time I played most of the Series. I had heard of some of the horror stories of bad rulings, but I needed to see it for myself. And what I walked away with kinda blew my mind. I guess when you see these confident men in suits running one of the biggest events in the world, you just expect that things will be done right. But as I played the series, I realized that the main reason they must wear suits is to over compensate for their lack of basic common sense that most 4th graders have. Let me give you the run down of a few experiences I had or observed while I was there:

1. The Prahlad incident. Seriously? Why on earth would you ever make the ruling that a clock ends at one? Has a clock ever ended at one for any situation in any sport (or pseudo sport like poker) ever? Is it possible that the floor person just wanted to make history in the same way Jim Joyce did (the ump that blew the perfect game call). I mean this HAS to go down as one of the dumbest things ever caught on national television. Amiright? Who could argue that? The entire table knew he called. Prahlad knew he called. And the best argument is one that Daniel pointed out. In poker the clock has no relevance to the game like it does in football or basketball where the clock is everything. What a tournament director with common sense would prioritize is not the clock in the most absolute terms (even though he ended the clock at one which is even more insane) but rather the player’s intent. Prahlad’s intent was to call. So if it’s close at all with respect to the clock, since the clock has basically no relevance in poker the way it does some other sports, you just rule intent and Prahlad’s intent was to call. And anyone with any common sense agrees with this. I don’t think I am going out on a limb in saying that. Sure, maybe the floor person can make mistakes or maybe he got nervous due to the magnitude of the situation. Fine, that stuff happens, but don’t rule so authoritatively then!! Bring on other floor persons and put your collective heads together. The floor person didn’t do that. He ruled like a child who was on the playground who wanted his ball back at all costs. He wanted his stupid ruling to stand at all costs and he wasn’t going to even listen to reason.

2. The infamous “going broke to someone not in the tournament hand.” My friend John Mcclain (who I was backing for the series) neraly went broke to a guy who wasn’t even registered in the tournament. For those who are just reading about this for the first time, my friend John lost a bunch of chips in a $1,500 WSOP event to a guy who registered for some poker tournament in the Rio poker room which is in the casino, and somehow ended up in the convention center at the Rio and sat down at a World Series of Poker event!! He somehow was able to sit down and receive chips from the dealer despite not having the credentials to do so. Then when my friend John nearly went bust to him shortly before they finally caught the error, the floor ruled that John lost his chips “in good faith” to the man NOT in the tournament lol. I told John to tell the floor that he entered the World Series of Poker “in good faith” that he was going to play only against other people who also were playing in the World Series of Poker! After going back and forth for a few days with the head guys of the World Series of Poker, they made a final ruling that John was entitled to nothing! We were asking for a free entry into a similar event since John’s event was essentially ruined by their oversight and poor ruling during the playing of the event, but they told him to pound sand. Again, basic common sense says that no where in any sport can you lost the game to someone not in the event. Can you strike out to a pitcher who came out of the stands? Can you get tackled before the end zone by the mascot? Can your free throw get blocked by a guy running across the floor? I just don’t understand how anyone with any common sense can make a ruling like this.

3. This is small, but was my lone personal experience this year. It does illustrate how the floor people lack common sense though. I was in day 1 of the main event and I was in a pot where I flopped a strong draw of some kind. I wasn’t sure where the action was at in the hand, but I sensed it might be my turn. I looked at the guy to the right of me who had cards in his hand if he had checked. He said “yes, I checked.” The dealer then skipped my turn and the guy to the left of me checked. I then shouted out “Whoa, what are you doing? I never even acted.” The dealer called the floor and the entire table told the floor that I hadn’t acted yet. The floor person asked the dealer what happened and the dealer said, “I thought he said ‘check’ but it turns out he was asking the guy next to him if he had ‘checked’.” The floor then ruled that I had checked! I told the floor guy, “Are you kidding me? The entire table agreed that I didn’t check. Who are you protecting here? I asked if the guy to the right of me checked, I never checked.” The floor person just started walking away and said “Dealer you can carry on dealing.” Now it turns out I ended up winning the pot anyway, so it worked out just fine, but again, why aren’t they using common sense? If everyone says I hadn’t acted yet, then why would you rule against the entire table? What sense does that make. The idea is to get the intent of the players’ actions to most closely reflect your ruling at all times. Sure there may be times where your hands are tied as a floor person and you may have to rule against intent. But for the most part, you just want to get the intent right. And especially don’t rule against intent when the entire table is unanimously in favor of something.

To me, the World Series of Poker would be well served to fire who ever is in charge and bring on Mad Marty Wilson. I played in the Party Poker Big game in London this year and Mad Marty was the director. Marty and I talked about his style of directing tournaments and he said that first and foremost he wants the intent of the player’s actions to stand when at all possible. Marty is HUGE on intent. There were times when he ruled that a person had made a certain bet or check when technically the rules said Marty he should have done otherwise. But Marty would ask the player and everyone else at the table what they thought the player’s intent was and if it was obvious that the player meant to bet $5,000 for example, then he would rule that the player bet $5,000. He wasn’t going to let some stupid technicality get in the way of the spirit of the game and the players’ actions. Marty is a man who has a lot of common sense.

I guess what inspired this blog is not only all of the dumb ass things the WSOP is doing, but also so much of what has gone on in golf and all of their insane rulings lately (I won’t list them because if you are a golfer then you know what I’m talking about and if you aren’t then I’m sure you don’t care anyway). It just pisses me off when people make such powerful rulings on important things just because “a rule is a rule” or whatever stupid logic they use. I just wish more people had the balls as well as the decency (yes, sometimes both are required depending on the magnitude of the situation) to just try and do the right thing based on common sense. Why do people who enforce rules have such an ego about it? Why do they take it so personally? It’s almost like they thrive on these situations where they get to say “a rule is a rule” or “I’m the tournament director here buddy and what I say goes.” It’s like dude, you are not that cool. No one cares. Just use common sense so the rest of us can get what we deserve out of these competitions.