First off, I need to say that I love the fact that you referred to me as “a young guy”. You referenced earlier your ”table image”, as this is often overlooked by many in poker. I love the fact that immediately my table image is that of a younger player – which stereotypically would mean that I’m an aggressive player. The truth is, I’m in my mid 30’s, married, and have two beautiful children.

Combined this stereotype with the fact that I played about 8 of the first 10 hands when I sat down next to you, and my table image surely is set in your mind. The truth is….. I play very similar to your style! It just so happens that I had fantastic starting cards with either a pocket pair or AJ and higher in those initial hands.
Of course, you are judging me with just about 50 hands played together while I now get to judge you after reading your blog)

Math is important, I can tell that you highly value this as well (All poker players should, but many are either to lazy, or just can’t quickly crunch the numbers in the moment) Combined this with your reading skills .. and you are off and running.

“I suspect Thievery” … table image to a “T”. Sure I had QQ but I was a little concerned. You image in my mind was a conservative, highly math oriented type of player. I needed to take pause with your reraise. I took my time as I was thinking that yes, you could have AA or KK. Perhaps you have AK with your reraise and am I ready to put most of my chips at risk getting down to bubble time? I reluctantly called and was pleased to see my QQ well ahead of 88.

In the end, I was surprised when you turned over 88, but my table image got you in the end.

I see many parallels in our play and wish you the best of luck. The fact that you have the freedom to embark on a 30 days of poker experience makes me jealous. I applaud your ongoing blog and hope that in the end, you not only come on in the financially positive, but also learn a great deal about your own play as well. Good luck my friend ?

(Here’s an email that I sent my poker buddies back home about today at Hard Rock)

Well, I decided to take a vacation from my vacation and grab the
rental car and drive down to Tampa from Orlando. Hard Rock casino was
only about 60 miles away. Large poker room, about double Seneca
size… roughly 50 tables. Jumped into the 12:30 $100 + 20
tournament.

26 players

After I limped into the final table of 9 as the short stack, I won a
race 1010 vs AK, and then I was in cruise
control mode picking up few decent sized pots and eliminating 2 players.. And by the way – I flopped quad 10′s earlier in the tournament. Got down to the final 4 and we decided to chop $2,600
4 ways.

Took a break, ate dinner and regrouped for a cash session.

1 – 2 NL, played well for a few hours. the table directly next to me
hit the bad beat. $160,000!! The room went nuts… for roughly 30
minutes, there was so much “buzz”in the room, that it was difficult to
even hear the players/dealer at my table.

End of story, I turned $210 at the cash table into around $500 and
left. Great Casino day for me leaving up just shy of $800 and I was home
before dark.

If you ever want to catch up on hand scenarios, or want to bounce ideas off of me… get a hold of me at *redacted*. I certainly do not think I am gods gift to poker, but as I said, I see parallels in our game, and perhaps we can make each other better in the end. Thanks – Chris.

Add in the dealer toke and it is 24.24%.
If you tip any winnings after the SNG it really skyrockets!!

How bout that for my blog title;

POKER
You can’t beat luck!

written by T.E. “I wanna be a poker star but I keep losing to all these other lucky bastards” Adams

Whatcha think??