First Entry

I'm sitting here, at work.. it's 6:40am as I start writing this. I'm working a midnight to 8 shift at WJZ.. and we're pretty much done with everything at this point. I'm watching the news and trying to do something productive with my time.. so I decided to start up a blog..

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now.. mainly focusing on poker. I'm very analytical by nature, so poker has been a natural fit for me. I love talking out hands and strategy and honestly, documenting them like this always helps. It's good to look back on situations and see what I could've done differently.

No great news on poker today, no games to speak of.. so i'll use this post to profile some of the best players I know. All of them are friends of mine and I seriously hope we all go to Las Vegas one day to take the World Series by storm. I think we're capable..

George is one of the best players I've ever met. I'll talk a lot about him. I'd put him and I against any two players in Atlantic City. We've talked more about poker then I can begin to remember. I even remember the first hand I played against him. I spiked a set of 3s against his pocket 8s. I was a total fish then.. I probably lost it all back to him..
George changes gears very well.. but if I had to name his greatest strength, I'd say it's situation comprehension. When I say comprehension.. It's a combination of his hand reading ability.. which is excellent and his understanding of relative hand value. He rarely doesn't know what's going on in a hand.. George has made me a much much better player.
George is the only player I play on the third and fourth levels with. What I mean by that is:

First level: What I have
Second Level: What I think George has
Third Level: What I think, George thinks.. I have
Fourth Level: What George thinks, I think.. he has..


His brother, Mike, is also a good player. He's a different kind of player then us, and I say that solely based on our approach to the game. Mike tends to be more aggressive and bold in his plays.. but he also tends to know what's going on around him. Mike really relies on making YOU make the decision, and it's usually a tough one. He's a pressure player, always keeping people on their toes. If I had to name a fault in his game, I'd say it's FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome). He's a good player capable of out-playing you after the flop.. but I think he tries to do it too much at times. Mike has been one of my poker mentors over the last two years since I met him and George. He sometimes played hands in a way to test me in the past.. which I'd have to say has made me a better player because of it. I'll never forget this one hand we played at Stars n Bars at the Green Turtle..
I had K5 in the small blind, everyone folded around to me, I called... Mike's the big blind and checks. Flop is KQ2. I bet, Mike calls. Turn's a blank. I bet again, thinking back on it.. I bet timidly. Mike raises all-in. I felt like he had the Q and was bluffing me, I even told him that. I ended up folding and he shows me Q6 (of all the friggin hands, you'll hear more on that later). He told me he wanted me to call because I had absolutely nailed him but didn't pull the trigger. Never again.. that's all i'll say Mike..

Josh, another friend of mine, is someone I've played a lot with over the past year or so. The most interesting part of my story with him is how we met. A friend of mine from high school brough Josh to my house last summer when I hosted a game. I was a $10 buyin I think..here's the situation. End of the night.. I'm up to $33 or so and Josh has a little more. We had both been winning all night. This maniac kid raises, Josh calls, I call with 87 suited. The Flop comes K88. I completely ignored Josh in this hand and went after the other guy, who I'd been dying to take money from. Josh checks, I check, kid bets, Josh calls, I call. Turn is a blank. Josh checks, I bet about the pot, kid folds, Josh calls. (Now I'm shifting my attention to Josh, I'm reeling him in.) River is another blank. Josh bets, I raise, Josh goes all-in and I call. He flips over KK. He flopped the full house, took all of my money at my house. The first thing he says is "are you gonna invite me back?" Of course I was, I wanted to get even...
Josh is probably the tightest player of the people I've mentioned. He's loosed up a lot recently.. but he's still a very deciplined poker player. His greatest strength is he is a tough man to get all-in. He makes it hard to get a big chuck of money out of him. His ability to read others is progressing quickly.. I've seen him make huge strides in a short time. But one thing holding him back is that he tends to be... um....Hellmuthian in temprament.. He gets upset at times and it hurts him. He knows it though. When Josh is playing with confidence.. he really becomes a great player. I've seen it in spurts.. he's got it. Also, he doesn't play as much as the rest of us. Josh is one of my best friends on or off the table.


Chris (SanGabe) is another guy. The way I met him was interesting. He was bartending at a bill batemans near the college I went to. I went in one day and got some food, asked if the WSOP was on TV and off we went on endless poker conversation. I will honestly say without hestitation.. Chris was a wayyy better player than I when I met him. I donated more money at his house than I care to remember. (Fortunately, we only played for $20 buyin then) I had the perception Chris was a crazy-loose maniac when I met him... of course that was when I couldn't read anyone if they showed me their cards. I get along with him because of how we both approach poker. We both really care about getting better.. and always have.
As a player, Chris is a hard man to figure out. He is always solid.. but has these moments where he's either too loose or too tight. Chris tends to really having something when he bets at you more than once in a hand. It's a solid combination of tight-agressive when he's really on his game.. but he also changes gears better than most . I've seen him play crazy loose one hand.. and turn around and make an absolutely sick fold. I saw him lay down AK on a board of AA9J4 and he was right.. the other guy had pocket 9s.


Ok guys, I'm done writing.. I'm getting ready to leave. I'll post again soon, adding more player profiles as I go. If you actually took the time to read this long-winded blog, thanks..