Are you ready?

I am not sure if anyone will really notice, but I have done some work to my blog and my website. Not a bunch of huge changes, more of some updating and tweaking. My van has been out of commission since Saturday so I have had some extra time to kill. Luckily though, I will be attempting to get my van fixed tomorrow.

I have not been doing a whole lot, just mostly relaxing and watching sports. But, I am excited about the WSOPc in January. This stop at Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK draws a huge crowd and they have the ability to handle it, it's a pretty sweet place. Oklahoma is lucky to have several decent Casinos with nice poker rooms. In Tulsa we have three Casinos that offer poker including Hard Rock, Riverspirit, and Osage. Hard Rock and Riverspirit are quite a bit busier than Osage but three options is awesome. Along with those three in Tulsa I can travel less than two hours and be at Cherokee Siloam or Roland, Riverwind in OKC, or Downstream near Joplin, MO. Within three hours we have Choctaw Casino in Durant and Winstar Casino in Thackerville. Several reasonable options for Oklahoma.

I know I appreciate living near several Casinos with poker and I wouldn't want to lose the ability to drive fifteen minutes to play, even if it is usually 1/2 no limit. Our 1/2 no limit has a $300 max buy-in which allows for a decent game. I believe there is only one Casino around here with a $200 max on 1/2 and that is Downstream near Joplin, MO. But, to be honest that is possibly my least favorite room and I don't go there much. They do hold a couple decent tournaments a year so I will give them another chance to impress me.

I sent in a new article to pocketfives.com today and I am really proud of this one. Keep an eye out for it and please leave a comment after you read it. I will admit after my first couple articles I began to get a little nervous thinking I might run out of things to write about, but amazingly enough the topics keep coming. I hope some of y'all enjoy my articles and are able to gain something from them. I have enjoyed getting better at writing and I have a deep love for poker and improving.

Variance101 is still slowly growing and getting positive feedback. The activity in the chat has picked up a little and I think some of my constant reminders of thoughts to keep the improvement up is sinking in. We had a few awesome hand discussions in the chat today along with a couple of links posted where a #TeamVariance101 member commented on a hand post in the pocketfives.com forums and we would follow suit. Talking poker is by far one of the best ways to improve.

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information visit http://variance101.com/# or email me at variance101@gmail.com. 

Happy Holidays

How about I give y'all a little update of my past few days. Friday I played a $60+$10 live mtt at Hard Rock Tulsa that had 58 players, I went out 6th with AA, meh. Saturday I went back to Hard Rock for a $120+$10 and built up a nice stack early before a buddy got it in real bad and then hit a 5-outer. Also during that MTT I had my hand killed by a dealer for having my phone face up when the first card came off the deck. They have been tweaking the phone rule and its in the hyper paranoid stage right now. To be honest I am not sure if it will get any better or if we will just all have to adjust.

Saturday night after being at home relaxing for a while I decided to go get some food and my van took a big shit. I just recently had a belt start squealing a little and had called my friend with plans to see him on the 26th, but my van had other plans. Needless to say I will be relaxing and watching some sports as I don't see me getting out much until I can get my van fixed.

Sunday while chatting in the #TeamVariance101 chat on Skype I got the urge to fire at a couple online MTTs. I'll be honest ever since Merge stop allowing player to player transfers I have not been to keen on playing online in the US. I haven't given up all hope on Lock and Bovado, but Merge is on really thin ice and I would not trust them right now. I happened to have enough on Lock to fire at the $11 10k and the $109 100k so thats what I did. I built decent stacks in both early before running into a couple coolers. I put on my best short-stack ninja gear that lasted for a while but in the end I came up short. It was fun to sling some chips around though.

I feel my poker game is in a great place and I have been talking a ton of poker the last two months. I have been working with a few local live players and we have been talking a lot of poker. I also have been spending a lot of time thinking of ways to help them improve which is still thinking poker and it all helps me too.

I hope all the poker grinders are doing well and have a place to play. I sure hope the online scene for the US straightens out, but I am not sure when that will happen. Hopefully most of y'all have live MTT series within a reasonable distance you can travel to like I do. Let's all finish off 2012 with a bang and start preparing for an amazing 2013.

I did some work on http://variance101.com and set-up the mobile version too, so if you have some time check it out. Happy Holidays everyone!

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.

Upswaanngg!

The last month or so I have had some of the most productive and satisfying times of 2012. I was able to win an event at the Hard Rock Poker Open in Tulsa, OK and 3-way chop another. I also stone bubbled the 100k gtd. and felt I played really well. Then comes the Reindeer Games Series in Siloam Springs, OK and I was able to get 5th in the first event and 3rd in the Main Event. To bubble the 100k, get 5th at Siloam, and to get 3rd in the Main, the villains had to suck-out as I got the chips in good every time. I  feel I have been playing fairly well and I am confident in my game, planning, and decision making.

My next trip will be the WSOPc in Durant, OK at the Choctaw Casino Jan. 10th through the 20th. There are several well structured ring events that I plan on taking advantage of. I will be putting a package together over the next couple of days so keep an eye out. This WSOPc stop in Durant has been very successful over the last two years and gets huge turnouts for all the events. I plan on continuing to prepare and improve and put myself in a spot to do some good.

Variance101 is still going pretty good. I am hoping my recent successes along with the successes of three of my local students will open a few players eyes to coaching in the area. I was contacted by a couple players that wanted to get started and plan on working with them soon. I truly think it would amaze almost every player I come in to contact with how much they could improve their profit by limiting a few mistakes. When taking poker lessons most players are not taught how to play, they are simply taught how to make a few better decisions and limit mistakes. Mistakes like paying bad prices on speculative hands and flatting, especially out of position, can be avoided. With knowledge of a few simple default rules that we can learn not to break, a player can instantly be playing a couple levels better. Then when they learn to have a plan and think ahead a little more the game becomes a lot easier.

Good luck to all the grinders out there. I have a few friends that traveled out of the country to play online and I hope they are doing great. I also have several friends grinding the US online scene along with some live series and I also hope they are doing great. Lets all continue to improve and hopefully we all have an excellent improvement based routine to keep improving in this ever evolving game of skill.

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.

Rolling with it

I have been fairly busy this week. Tuesday I drove about an hour and fifteen minutes away to the Oklahoma/Arkansas border to play the first event of the Reindeer Games Series at Cherokee Casino in West Siloam Springs, OK. The first event was a $100 re-entry event with a $10 add-on and I took 5th for 1k. Wednesday they had a $100 mtt with $20 re-buys and I chose to stay in Tulsa. Thursday they had a $150 entry partners event with a $20 add-on and my partner and I got 10th but no money. Tonight, which was Friday they had a $230 re-entry 15k gtd with a $20 add-on. They called it a deepstack but then gave us 8k in chips and surprised us with a $20 add-on for the other 7k to make it a deepstack. The structure was decent, they only skip about four important levels. I went out with 3 tables left in a hand where we got over 40bbs a piece all-in pre. I had QQ and the villain had J9o, he made a straight. Although I wasn't able to do well I was still happy because my good friend Tim got 6th for $1300 and really played well, congrats Tim.

Overall the tournamnets have been decent, but Thursday when they made both partners do a dealer add-on for $10 to make it $20 in add-on for a $150 mtt, and tonight when they got a $20 add-on for a $230 mtt and the fact there was nothing posted anywhere really had me annoyed. That is just way to much for that size of a buy-in. I asked one of the managers why it was $20 and he said that last time it was $15 and they had a problem and needed to make it an even number this time, so they chose $20, how covenient. Dealer add-ons should be in relation to the buy-in and the fees. In my opinion anything under a $500 buy-in should never have more than a $10 dealer add-on. For buy-ins between $500 and $1,000 maybe $15, and $1,000 and above maybe $20. But, I could also make sense of the dealer add-on never being more than $10 and then the winners will probably start tipping a little more again.

I made a post on twitter that also posted to Facebook about my disgust with the overcharging on such a small buy-in and I was surprised at the mixed responses. Several obviously understood my points and supported me, but a few bias Casino workers only saw the good of padding their own pockets and I don't think put any thought to the fact that they should not be overcharging their customers and run off more players. I just applauded Hard Rock Tulsa for their improved structure and reduced fees during the recent Hard Rock Poker Open, as they built the add-on into the prize-pool and reduced it a little. I praised them and offered several tips that I think will help drive in more business for the next event. I am all about Oklahoma poker and I will speak my mind and try to help where I can. We need to stand up and let them know that this overcharging should not go on.

Variance101 is still going strong, I have given a couple lessons this week and spent some time working with a couple live players as well. The variance101 poker chat is still alive and well and I stop by there a few times a day to try and get my poker discussion on. Also keep your eye out for a new article on BRM that should be published on P5s soon.

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.

Reindeer Games

Today I will be heading to West Siloam Springs, OK for the first MTT of the Reindeer Games Series at the Cherokee Casino. Today is just a $100 7pm MTT with 1k added money so I doubt I could reach the all time winnings list if I win, but that doesn't mean I won't be trying. Obviously I would be happy with a win, and any profit is great! I also plan on playing a $230 15k  on Friday, possibly a $150 double stack on Saturday, and a $330 25k Main Event on Sunday. There is even a chance I go Thursday night with a friend to play a $150 entry partners MTT where two players, play one stack, alternating every thirty minutes. This series is being held on the Oklahoma/Northwest Arkansas border and although it won't be huge, they do a good job running the events.

I have been fairly busy this week giving lessons and talking poker. I have given lessons to a couple of #TeamVariance101 members, but have also been working a lot with three close friends and we have been talking poker non-stop. In my opinion talking poker is by far one of the best ways to improve. I actually went over the same HH with three different guys mostly recreating the same discussions that I felt was very valuable. Some players get caught up in the fact that review takes so much work and they would rather just play. But, if we can find the time to do some review and talk poker, the playing will get easier and easier and should definitely be more profitable.

I finished another article yesterday that should be published on pocketfives.com pretty soon. This most recent article touches base with a point made in a previous article about how BRM, Variance, and Emotion all tie together and then I expanded and talked more about BRM. I personally don't know where other writers draw their inspiration from, but for me personally I have been writing about things I have been encountering or going through. This last couple weeks I have had BRM discussions with several people and they seem to be making the same common mistakes, so I thought I would try and help.

Best of luck to all the grinders, and have a Merry Christmas season!

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.

Hello All

Sorry for not blogging much these last few weeks. I have found myself without as much to say. One of the main reasons for my lack of posting is that I haven't been playing very much. I did play a live MTT series recently and was able to have some mild success, but for the most part I have not been playing much. In May I started back grinding online and that lasted a few months, but when Merge removed the ability to make player to player transfers I found myself deciding to take a step back. I still have a few funds on Lock, but I play on a Mac they do not have a true Mac Client. They are Mac compatible but they are skating around the issue and running Lock through a windows program on a Mac which requires excessive double clicking. It is still playable but a little annoying.

I do plan on making it to a couple more live series in the future. Next week there is a small one in West Siloam Springs, OK called Reindeer Games, and in January I plan on going to the WSOPc stop in Durant, OK. I will be putting a package together for the WSOPc stop so keep an eye out for it. I mostly pimped out my last package on Facebook, but I will make sure to say something in my blog so anyone interested will have the chance to email for the information or to buy a piece.

Variance101 is still going well. I do not have as many students as I would like or could handle, but business is slowly growing and I am getting better at poker and coaching everyday. I had an amazing two hour lesson with one of my most promising friend/students last night. I am so impressed with how far he has come in a few months. Granted he already had a solid base and a good table presence, but after getting him to understand more about the mistakes we can't allow ourselves to make, getting him to think things through and have a plan, and a little help on sizing and value this guy is crushing. Amazingly enough when a player takes poker lessons they are not coached on how to play poker, they are coached on how to make less mistakes and get more value and equity out of their stack and plays.

I would like to wish a Merry Christmas Season to all the poker players out there. Remember, in poker you will get back out of it what you put into it. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Good luck to all the grinders, make sure you are giving your all!

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.

#Grinding

The last week has been full of lots of poker as I grinded almost every day in the Hard Rock Poker Open in Tulsa, Ok. I was able to start the series off with a bang by winning the 1st $230 event on Friday the 23rd of Nov. for 5k. I was also able to chop a 10am $60 event 3-ways for about $500. Unfortunately that was the end of my cashes as I made two other final tables but failed to make the money and I stone bubbled the 100k guaranteed event over the final weekend. Overall it was a decent series and I was glad to make some money.

On top of having a decent series I was also happy to engage in a few decent poker conversations. I was also pleased to meet a few players that had been reading my blog and articles and talk to them in person. I am still surprised at the level of play I see at these live events. It is amazing how many players have been playing for years and have never seen a shove chart. These players are usually the ones paying more than 5% of effective stacks to call with speculative hands, and opening into shortys and being surprised when they shove.

I think ego and a lack of any kind of continuing improvement work are the main reasons behind the level of play. So many players feel they play decent and are content with that. If they only knew how much they could improve after even just one lesson.

Variance101 is going well and I have a few lessons booked for this week. The poker chat has been active and several players have been making deep runs whether it be online or live. Thank you #TeamVariance101 you are all doing a great job.

Variance101 is still going strong. I have picked up a few new students and the chat room has been active. If anyone is wanting lessons or has any questions contact me at variance101@gmail.com and visit http://variance101.com/