My year to date - good news bad news thing

Great post Paul and like it or not you and Bobby are thrust into the role of mentors. I do believe this is a good thing for you both. Your correct not many of us here have the opportunity's to talk to players with the experience's you have. Will be great to follow your progress through the upper limits.

You must of jonesed weeding yourself off poker  becuase you use to play none stop

I use to play all the time as well now I play while I'm trading FOREX Markets and Options play during the NY Market day I play the bankroll game there as well the rule of thunb in the markets is never risk more then 5% of your bank on one play I have a hugh account so I can play options in 100 contracts each contract gives you the right but not the obligation to buy/sell 100 shares so I'm playing 10,000 share sizes at a time I worked my way up from 1 contract sizes or 100 shares sizes to where I'm at now so I know what it takes to move from level to level I'm in the game and markets for the fun and game of it now and have a system that works for me which inculdes stop losses and limit orders I don't go for home runs either I look for plays that would give a regulae stock player %10 gains which can give an options play a nice 100 to 120% return pending how much the premuim moved during my plays. I'm not one of these guys that gaamble son earnings reports and plays for the !0,000% options returns I do however trade alot so by the end of the year I have overall return that does equal or maybe even surpasses those gambling fools. 

Great post, Beanie, and thanks for the update.  Even if you think you were the recipient of a good run, I'm glad it happened to ya.  Happy holidays, friend.

I have written this post a million times and deleted most of them, this is what sitandgopro is talking about.

In 2003 I play my first big buyin event, that was UB's Aruba event at the time I was relatively successful in the mortgage world.  I won 3 satellites that year, first brought you to Aruba, the other 2 paid cash, which I believe was $6000 each. I was day one chip leader made the money but still had a lot to learn.

2004 was my biggest year in poker, I played most of the WPT events and a few of the WSOP events.  My biggest accomplishments that year was that I bubbled the WPT France, it was totally gross, we were on the bubble for almost 4 hours, I decided to look up Aces with AK I was one of the big stacks in the room, reflecting back (and I do often) I played it badly, lesson learned.  I was also top 5 in chips after day 1 of the WSOP (the year Raymer one, I am in the intro saying "wooooooooo" my friends still tease me about that.  I came in 158th for 15k (I think).  I won over 100k in Aruba seats that year on UB and almost 20 seats to the stone cold nuts a $2500 event on UB.  I also "took a shot" on a shared bankroll in the 25-50 game on UB, then the biggest game on the internet.  When everything was said and done I had won about 700k that year playing relatively low stakes.  It was my best year in poker.  Because of my success I met some very influential people in poker and began doing some consulting and affiliate work.  While everyone else was focused on poker it wasn't lost on me that waves of people were flowing into poker and I wanted a piece of that.  There was no name for what I was doing at the time, I basically cut people in on my earnings, later it would be known as rakeback.  Weekly rakeback payments was a result something I started.  

2005 wasn't too shabby either, I came out the gate crushing.  Mostly I played limit poker at the time (I quit playing 25-50 after losing a pot over 30k to Ben Affleck).  Once March had come I had very few losing days, I had a span where I had winning sessions for 2 months straight), I had won about 300k and I could officially call myself a poker millionaire.  It was a real time for reflection for me.  My only goal as a poker player was to some day play the WSOP, I didn't really care which one.  My friends were having a ton of success and while I never was backed I never struggled to put together an entry for any event.  If I had to borrow I would hit the computer and grind it back.  That became grueling, my wife was incredibly supportive at this time but I struggle with distraction normally and I found myself walking in a daze most of the time.  The only moments of clarity I had was at a poker table.  That needed to change.  I skipped the 2005 WSOP in an effort to get back some clarity.  I still regret that but it did set things up nicely for my future.

After that, well, came this, Bobby and I have been working on this for 3 years.  We both believed that the internet was headed to cloud based systems (in the browser) and by the looks of it we have been proven correct.  It has been frustrating because our budget isn't without limit, while I have continued to do well with rakeback the UIEGA stuff definitely hurt.  We have also encountered many hurdles.  In 2006 I came in 252nd in the WSOP main event (the Jamie Gold year).  I had a ton of interesting hands with Daniel Negreanu that I knew would be on TV but none were.  The only reporting of our battles was where Cardplayer would say and Daniel Negreanu once again faces elmination with his Q5 vs HISOPPONENT's A5 (I liked it and changed a few of my screen names to HISOPPONENT).  That was really my best shot at a final table in the main event even though I got closer in 2004.  

In 2008 I was once again the day one chip leader for most of the day with over 100k in chips within about 3 hours.  I don't think people realize how good the play becomes after a few days.  Most of those players aren't slouches.  You can amass a lot of chips early but spots get tougher later on.

This year I was having severe sleep issues and had to miss the main event, instead I tagged along on a vacation with my wife and kids to Vancouver island and the Northwest Washington state.  We had a great time.  I didn't regret missing it this time however.

I pretty much play what I want to play now.  Playing any higher than say 5-10 isn't something I am looking to do anytime soon.  To do it right you would need not only to review your own play but to keep tabs on your opponents in a way that takes up a lot of time. 

One thing I didn't mention was about a 2 week period where I took on Jamie Gold on Aced poker at 50-100.  Eventually I just took a third of a buddy.  I think we were the only people that didn't crush him.

Jamie's still playing online as "Pachabell" on FTP from what I hear.

well the difference is he was being staked and virtually no one could get money on the site.

are you the guy at 0:13? :)

I was wearing black and had on a visor.  The story of the wooooooooo is that I had just lost a big hand and I really didn't have enough chips to fold virtually any hand from the small blind.  When ESPN heard that I didn't look at my cards they wanted to film it.  My opponent had Aces and proudly turned them over.  I waited to turn my cards until the river (I think you have to turn them up now if both players are all in).  As I flipped the first card over it hit the board, I just had a feeling the second one did as well.  Turns out I went runner runner to make two pair.  I wasn't hamming it up for the camera though, it was a genuine woooooooooo I had just taken a horrible beat with QQ vs AJ (all in pre, the guy called the all in just trying to get lucky and said as much).  The hand after the wooooooooo hand was my bust out hand.  I tried to beat AK with AQ.