Just wanted to do a little testimony for my friend/coach Matt "Probability". So here goes.....

Matt is just awesome. He has to be one of the coolest people you will ever meet in the poker world. He started coaching me way back when I was struggling at 50nl. I was just some underage kid marginally grinding microstakes, but he didn't care. He treated me like an actual person and helped me plug many leaks in my weak game. Well, long story short I am now 18 and taking shots at 400nl successfully when like about 4 months ago I was at 50nl. Whether you play full ring or 6 max, Matt is the man to be coached by at SSNL. Not only is he a great coach , he's also a great friend to have in the poker world. And now that he is Greg's protege, he will only get better and better and his hourly coaching rate will only go higher and higher. So book him for a few sessions now while you can still afford his hourly rate because he will probably be at 1knl in no time.

I promise

My $100 fantasy football league's draft is in a few hours. I don't know how much you guys know about FF, but it is so ****ing addicting. My goal for this draft is to try and get some STUD QB/WR combos like Brady/Moss/Welker, Manning/Wayne/Harrison, Romo/Owens/Crayton. **** running backs imo, they are waaaay overrated with our league's scoring system.

So yea I'm a huge NFL and college football fanatic. I also love playing it every chance I get. I usually try to play like once a week in pick-up games at the park or the ymca etc but I haven't been able to get a game going in like a month or two. Do you guys know of any men's national recreational leagues (tackle or flag, doesn't matter) that I can check out if they are in the area?

This is just a little update for those of you who read my last blog and still care about what exactly happened to me........

"Then, my world came crashing down all in one night......."

Well not really, but I thought it did at the time. My parents got divorced and I was forced to choose which parent to live with. My mom was moving to North Carolina and my dad was staying in Ohio. I haven't really told too many people about this but I was absolutely crushed by this news. I was only like 15 years old at the time and had to make of one the most life changing decisions of my life. I could either live with my dad and finish high school with all my friends etc. or move with my mom and have a chance at a whole new and potentially better life. Not to mention, I only had about 3 months from being told they were divorcing to make my ultimatum. That decision tore me up for almost everyday of those 3 months. So much so that I lost all focus on sports, I just wanted to spend as much time with family and friends as humanly possible. I have always loved both my parents equally and they have always been the two greatest people in my life. I really had no clue what I wanted to do. Then one day my dad took me on a fishing trip and we had a really long talk about my life and future. And then he eventually told me that he thinks I should move with my mom because there will be so much more potential for a better life with her. To give up the opportunity of being with your son everyday and watching him grow up, all because you think he could be happier elsewhere, has to be one of the most selfless things I have ever seen someone do. And to this day I still admire him for his bravery in that ordeal.

So yeah, he gave my mom full custody and we moved to NC together in 2005. I still go up to Ohio most holidays and part of every summer to see family and party with friends, but not near enough to make up for how much I miss them. But long story short, it turned out to be a happy ending because both my parents have found new spouses and I have made a lot of friends down here.

I've never had a blog before and tbh never really wanted one because I'm not into the whole bragging about poker wins/whining about loses thing. But I LOVE reading blogs and do so semi-religiously. (If you have a blog on here or CR, chances are I'm an avid reader of it.) So yeah, I have decided to give back to the poker community a little bit and chronicle my degenerate college life into text for the whole interweb to read.

Here goes nothing........

My name is Ryan and I am an 18 year old rising college freshman at UNC. I am originally from THE boring ass farm state of Ohio but moved to North Carolina about 3 years ago and am loving every minute of it. In Ohio, my main focuses in life were wrestling and football. I was absolutely consumed by those two sports from 7th-10th grade. I will never forget my first year of wrestling in 7th grade. My record was like 2-17(lol) and I always did terrible at meets and tournaments. I had no clue what was wrong with me, I just couldn't win a match. So I was pretty much traumatized and hated wrestling at the end of my 7th grade season. And yet, I was so intrigued at how some of the kids I was wrestling were so good and I was so bad. Therefore, I made up my mind that I wanted to stop losing at this stupid sport and prove to everyone(see: myself) that I was somebody. That summer going into my 8th grade year was the most life changing experience of my life. I was so focused on winning(or rather not losing) that I went to about 4 different camps that summer and lifted/trained in my spare time for the whole 3 months of summer and up until the beginning of wrestling season in October. Needless to say, I went 20-2 my 8th grade year and won the following awards in my conference: Most pins, Most nearfalls, Most takedowns, Most improved, and 125lbs and under MVP. Then in my freshman year I wrestled at the 112lbs. varsity weight class and went 24-6, got 1st at sectionals, 2nd at Districts, and 4th at the State Championships for the 112 pound weight class. I felt like I was on top of the world because I had shattered my goal to at least be a winning wrestler in high school and instead WAS THE 4TH BEST WRESTLER at my weight class/division in the STATE.

Then, my world came crashing down all in one night.......

This is probably getting too tl;dr so I think I'll leave you guys with that and finish my "autobiography" in a later entry.


Peace for now