http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problogs Blog entries from PXF Poker Pros Wed, 16 May 2012 16:23:47 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100863/?t=pxf PXF LEGEND MSCELL WILL BE LEADING THE CHAT TONIGHT..........GO GO GO HIM PLEASE EVERYONE SHOW UP. Wed, 16 May 2012 16:23:47 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100860/?t=pxf I was able to get back from the wedding around 1am (we HAD to get wawa sandwiches on the way home which took an extra hour for some annoying reason) and did my best to fall asleep immediately. I had my alarm set for 6:30am prepared for a 7am departure time. My friend and his dad came to pick me up and they were as surprised as I was to see my waiting outside right on time. The car ride lasted about 2 hours and I may have nodded off for about 10 minutes total but really I was just more excited than tired... Wed, 16 May 2012 13:53:33 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100859/?t=pxf So Ive been in Canada staying with my Mother-in-law since Saturday and basically just grinding my face off. Its been really great to just have a peaceful environment to grind everyday. The results havent come yet, but Ive had a few final tables including a 3rd in 50r for $7500. I just havent quite won the late flip or held in the showdown but that will change. SCOOP has been pretty disappointing thus far. I got coolered out and slowrolled in the 1k last night which is kind of ridiculous considering its one of the biggest online tourneys of the year... Wed, 16 May 2012 12:15:46 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100858/?t=pxf Today I will be perparing user "marcel" for his upcoming live event by reviewing a hh of his, and planning for what to expect at the live tournament. Tomorrow is up in the air.....might be going to Ranger game! If so I will get a worthy replacement until I get back. Tue, 15 May 2012 11:29:40 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100857/?t=pxf Hello All! I'm pretty excited to be at pokerxfactor. I've known Mscell, Improved, andRyanGHall for a long time now and I'm happy to be working with friends on atraining site. On top of that the list of pros here is top notch. Bax and Sheets are legends in this community and will be fun to hear there take on alot of spots and to talk a little shop with them. And hopefully I have a littleto offer as well;). Going to give you guys my little poker story, I don't tell it too often, andI'm sure it's similar to a lot of them out there... Mon, 14 May 2012 08:18:19 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100856/?t=pxf Okay, now that things have finally calmed down a bit I can everyone up to speed on the latest things going on in my life. I had written a few blogs about my concerns regarding the wedding and the tough mudder and I must say everything went down about as well as possible.The weekend of the wedding was pretty hectic though I must say. Since I own a big car (Acura MDX) I did most of the driving. With the venue being in Philadelphia a good amount of that driving was through the city. My duties included carting people around, airport pickups, and carrying of all sorts of boxes... Thu, 10 May 2012 13:59:24 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100855/?t=pxf In my last blog I discussed an interesting hand from a live tournament, and I will lead off this blog with one as well. It was from the same tournament. The villian in this hand is a older Italian gentleman that plays a ton on the live circuit here in Vegas. Ive played with him on many occasions and is a loose cannon to say the least. He bluffs a lot, in bad spots, but is also very sticky and doesn't fold too much of anything. With the blinds at 200/400 and 25 ante, I have roughly 90k and the villian has about 60k... Tue, 08 May 2012 13:46:07 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100854/?t=pxf Been a slow week for playing poker, but a busy one for working on it. Spent part of the week with Fox ttesting and tweaking the alogrithm for our new Tournament Efficiency Rating. Spent the rest of it coding, testing, tweaking, recoding, retesting, retweaking, and recoding our TER Calculator. Total geeky fun. The TER calculator gives you the means to rate poker tournaments scientifically. No more guesswork on which structure is better—just enter the info into the TER calculator and let it rate the tournament for you... Tue, 08 May 2012 11:18:12 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100853/?t=pxf Today I will be reviewing thyrandall's hhs, so feel free to join me to berate!Tomorrow night I am not sure, although I will definitely be there, barring another last minute Barry Manilow concert.See you guys there! Tue, 08 May 2012 08:45:55 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100852/?t=pxf Last summer Black Friday crushed my plans of playing in the WSOP, but this year I’ll be reporting it— oh sweet irony. I landed an internship with PokerNews.com for the 2012 WSOP! I’ll be in Vegas for the duration of the series, providing written content for “The Muck," ( http://www.pokernews.com/muck/).In addition to contributing written content, I hope to shoot and edit video for PokerNews as well. I just completed a T.V. broadcast class in school, where we wrote, shot, edited, and anchored a weekly newscast for my campus new station... Mon, 07 May 2012 21:54:52 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100851/?t=pxf Hey everyone,As usual, long time no blog. This time I don't really feel much at fault, as its been an extremely busy few weeks for me. This is also why I've only been able to put out one short video on "Session Management" and still have 2-3 videos with set topics in the works that I will need to find time to finish. Since we are forced to take a five-day break at work at some pt during the year for compliance reasons (don't ask), I decided that since I was set to start trading on Monday (moving up from being a trading assistant) that now was the perfect time to take it... Sun, 06 May 2012 18:13:57 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100850/?t=pxf It's been a while since my last blog and not a whole lot has happened. I've been playing a decent amount online but breaking around even. It's been pretty frustrating for the most part, with lots of close calls. I'm pretty excited about the start of SCOOP though. I really feel like I'm ready to win a major tournament and won't consider SCOOP a success unless I do. Anyways good luck to everyone the next few weeks. It should be a lot of fun. Sat, 05 May 2012 12:51:13 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100849/?t=pxf Being the local Las Vegas resident that I am, I pretty much play all of the local tournament series that are running during any given time. This means I play with the same people a lot, which is a good thing because you pick up on a lot of things they do or don't do. And can exploit those tendencies. There is one particular hand from a $550MTT that I'd like to discuss in this blog, and I think I should put a disclaimer like they do on Jackass. Don't try and recreate these hands at home :) Hand 1: 75/150 level Hero 30k Villian 60k... Thu, 03 May 2012 12:53:28 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100848/?t=pxf Hi gang,Sheets can't make the chat tonight so I'll be taking his place. Hopefully we can run good and get a good sweat going! Wed, 02 May 2012 20:05:52 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100847/?t=pxf It was my birthday yesterday, and I find the completion of another trip around the sun is always a good time to reflect upon one's life and where one is in it. Reflection #1 — Christ, I'm old!Not really, but I now make the same noises my father made when I get up off the couch. Every time. I think that's a real bad sign.Reflection #2 — Poker is easy!Not really, but it's feeling that way lately. When you stay calm at the table, and have a plan for every hand you play, you rarely end up in tough spots... Tue, 01 May 2012 16:24:54 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100846/?t=pxf Today I will be reviewing a lower stakes mtt of one of the subs...... Tomorrow night is up in the air. Tue, 01 May 2012 10:46:06 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100845/?t=pxf Apparently when you notice marked cards at the table you should just keep your mouth shut and act oblivious. Clearly I won't do that, but I'm pretty annoyed that some idiot filed a cheating complaint with the Iowa gaming commission because I pointed out that the aces were marked in a deck at the final table of a circuit event. I'm not annoyed that he reported it, I'm annoyed that he thought it was me that should be reported and that I was the one cheating. Let's start with the story as it happened... Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:26:07 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100844/?t=pxf Today was a brutal day of poker... just one of those days where you can't win an all-in, you know? Very frustrating, so let's not talk about that.Tomorrow Steph and I are going to the Jays game to see Yu Darvish pitch. I have a feeling he's going to get (unrightfully and unmercifully) booed in Toronto. In the offseason, there were a lot of reports saying that Toronto was going to win the bid for him so all the fans got into a frenzy. It turns out that Toronto didn't likely bid very high at all and he ended up with Texas... Mon, 30 Apr 2012 01:39:42 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100843/?t=pxf It looks like there may finally be a hint of daylight at the end of the Full Tilt Poker tunnel. At least as far as getting our money back. With the Tapie Group deal done, now enter Poker Stars into the mix. The rumors are that they are in negotiations with the US DOJ, trying to buy Full Tilt. Furthermore, (and this is the good part) the rumor is that they are trying to pay back Full Tilt player balances. This is probably the best news the players have received since Black Friday with respect to receiving our money from Full Tilt... Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:46:21 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100842/?t=pxf Playing the Heartland Poker Tour main event tonight, and it figures to be a huge prize pool with four starting flights. Over/Under at 412 entrants. Shoot me an email if you are in town for the events, first drink is on PXF! We also just launched forums on TourneyTracks, hopefully it will get people a little more interested in interacting with the site and helping us out with content. http://www.tourneytracks.com/forumsRecorded some of my heads up series last night, and got some stuff ready for a series of exercises too... Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:29:29 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100841/?t=pxf While the news from yesterday was very abrupt and out of the blue. It raised a lot of interesting questions about where the future of online poker will be in the next 6-18months. For those that somehow havent heard, the acquisition of FTP by Groupe Bernard Tapie is officially dead, there license to AGCC has been withdrawn etc. While at first glance this seems like an awful development for our hopes of getting FTP balances back, it seems to be the sunset of Black Friday and the sunrise of new hope for online poker... Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:16:23 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100840/?t=pxf So, in my last blog, before it got too long, I said I was going to post the reply that I think about every time I'm actually writing a patient response to someone who wants to take a lesson or two and play for a living. Let my preface this by saying that many of my students are very serious about poker and a good number of them have stuck with it and now play for a living. Not everyone who emails me about lessons or playing for a living is a bonehead or a has such a lack of commitment, in fact most of them are smart solid players who want to improve and put inthe work... Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:55:56 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100839/?t=pxf Today we will be reviewing the sunday million ft run by sub moukari........... Tomorrow live sweat i think! Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:01:54 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100838/?t=pxf So I got to Cabo San Lucas Mexico on the 14th and immediately had some great success, as I got 3rd place in the Big $162 for $10,600. I also got 5th in the 109 turbo for another $4500. I was poised to have an awesome week down here, but unforunately that was not the reality. I went the rest of the trip without a winning session. I had 3 7th place finishes in 1 day, 2 10ths and numerous 11ths-18ths. I remembered how much variance Pokerstars has because of the ultra laggy and just plain undisciplined play by most of the players... Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:10:07 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100837/?t=pxf It's been a rotten few weeks of tournament poker, running fairly deep in everything with no big cashes. I did chop the final event in Council Bluffs, but I haven't done anything more than min cash since then, and it's getting frustrating as live poker often does. A 10 tournament streak without a cash is common in MTT play, and online that used to be less than a day. Now it's two or three weeks! I'll be playing the $1,000 buy-in event at Running Aces tomorrow, and a deep run in that event would be a nice way to turn things around... Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:34:21 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100836/?t=pxf Playing in a Spring Classic event, the following hand occurred:Table is very limpy and passive except for one player two to my left who is a bit more creative than the rest. He is the villain in this story.I raise a limper with Q9d in the cutoff. This is pretty standard. Blinds are 300-600 with an ante and there's a lot of chips in there to take. In these fields, themid-pos limp reraise is extremely rare. When these people limp, they mean it! Villain calls on the button and limper folds. With his player type, I immediately put him on a speculative hand: suited connectors or even gappers or a small pair... Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:47:55 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100835/?t=pxf “Where were you on Black Friday?” It’s the question posed in the opening frames of the documentary “All In: The Poker Movie.” Intended for a poker savvy audience, “All In” succeeds in its mission to show that poker is entrenched in American culture as much as baseball and apple pie while declaring the actions of the D.O.J a social injustice. However, with a running time of over two hours the message seems long winded and repetitive at times. Director Douglas Tirola does an admirable job chronicling the worldwide poker boom... Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:06:58 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100834/?t=pxf Today we will be revieweing nakkehais 100rb run (another one....woot), and possibly chatting with hazzy who made the ft of the ukipt !!!! (woot woot). Maybe another hh too. Tomorrow night probably live sweat but who knows!? Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:33:06 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100833/?t=pxf Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the dreaded Black Friday. I can hardly believe it has been a year already and I must say I am pretty sad that there hasn't been any hard evidence of the return of online poker in the states. I know it takes forever to get anything done but honestly I think the waiting and getting strung along is the worst thing for me at the moment. I would rather be told a date that it would come back or even that there will be no more online poker in the US, because at least with that I can move on to something else immediately... Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:30:51 -0400 http://www.pokerxfactor.com/problog/view/100832/?t=pxf Played a deepstacked $125 at Running Aces' Spring Poker Classic tonight. Had ran my original 20k starting stack up to almost 100k when this hand came up. I was on the button holding a pair of sevens. Big blind was a tournament pro I know who was a bit shortstacked with about 50k. Blinds were 2000/4000 with a 500 ante. All fold to me and I raise to 11k.The SB was short-stacked as well, and I could have raised more to put maximum pressure onthe blinds and not open myself up to a all in reraise... Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:14:39 -0400