This week I have been in California for LAPC, an event run spectacularly by Matt Savage. I played cash for a few days, a mix of 10-20 and 20-40, and was spewing so much that I'm pleased to say I probably broke even. I can't once remember thinking "Hmm, this is relatively close, but I think it's a fold" and then actually folding. I can remember making numerous calls, including twice when people were bluffing with the best hand, where I said "Fuck this guy, he doesn't have it!"

That is some splendid thought process by a guy who runs a training site, eh?

Anyways, yesterday I played in the $10k HU tournament which got only 36 runners. I wound up winning my first 4 matches. Quick recap: I drew Nick Shulman first and beat him in level one with two pair vs pair + FD all in on the turn. I then drew KingDan who seemed to outplay me (I kept having 94) pretty good but it didn't matter (he is the best in the world at ~40bb HU tournament poker, "self-proclaimed") because I sucked out with KQ to aces, and on his birthday no less! I finally beat Vivek/Psyduck to end the day. Those first three draws were probably 3 of the top 5 players in the field, and considering I was probably playing my B game I was happy to luckbox my way into the Final Four. I beat Michael Binger to start the day today, and then lost to someone named Chris Moore who seemed to be a live donk but I think I had a bad read on him because he played pretty clowny and 3-bet quite a bit. Finally, I had to play the winner of the Loser's bracket, Vivek (again) and lost to him when I ran an unsuccessful bluff and then got AK to KK for the other half of my stack. I ended up placing third and winning $45k or so. I am not really unhappy with the results everything considered.

I started to get sick last night, probably from live poker and traveling in general. I am usually pretty good about taking care of myself, but somehow it's all just taken a toll on my body. I will use tonight to get to bed very early and tomorrow to do as little as possible so I can rest up for the Main on Friday. I would anticipate the Main Event being extremely soft and getting a ton of runners.

The thing that I continue to notice about poker (and perhaps gambling in a more broad sense) is how emotional it gets people. I realize that for many people this is their livelihood (or perhaps their kid's college fund) so it is important that their hand hold up or they make their flush draw, but as a logical human being I can't ever imagine playing in a game where your wins and losses directly effect the way that you feel. As a young poker player I was certainly guilty of caring too much, but it's important to train yourself to only care about the things that you can control. A combination of only caring about the things that you can control and preparing yourself to control them to the best of your ability will achieve you great success in the poker world. I can't imagine getting so upset about someone making a poor play (that I want them to make) or the dealer turning over a card that makes my opponent's hand best (it was, after all, my decision to make the wager against his range of hands anyways) anymore. I'm 23 and in the poker world I am a dinosaur. How does one know he is a dinosaur in online poker years? If you are from the United States and answer yes to the following question: Did you ever play on Party Poker?

I've lived and done more growing up than most people do in a lifetime in the last 5 years. Poker teaches you about managing your own finances, how to deal with the stresses of a difficult job, and how to find a social circle in such an isolated business. I've achieved enough to be well-known and revered in my profession, something that probably takes 5 times as long in other industries. What did I do to deserve such praise? I'm not really sure, to be honest, but it's given me an opportunity to improve on yet another area of my life. Dealing with detractors is something that anyone with any success will face. The more success that you have, the more haters you will have; some rappers would say the correlation is as constant as money and problems. What is nicest about the poker world is that it's barely real. I was able to meet some people this week that it was perceived online that I had bad blood with. What a relief it is to see how cool people are and laugh about grief and anger everyone once had over the internet (of all things).

I'm certainly in the "Poker isn't gambling boat." It would be impossible for someone who is as good as I am and who has made as much money as I have to be in any other boat. However, it's a little embarrassing to see people (to whom poker is gambling) get so worked up. I see people in the halls of the casino bitching about bad beats to their friends on the phone ("I limped and then he raised so I reraised and he went all in and so I called because I had aces and this guy turns over jacks! What do you know jack on the flop it happens everytime!") and talking about how they're going to win this next tournament ("because the donkeys can't win everytime!"). I bet if you talked to every poker player you'd have 2/3 (or more) who are convinced they are a winning player, but in reality it's probably barely 1/3 by the time you pay rake and tip (and state taxes of California!). I suppose this isn't really even something that is poker related-- some people just need to realize what they are good at and stick to it. If they want to be a weekend warrior at poker, that's fine, but you can't play for stakes you can't afford.

The moral of the blog? I'm not really sure. Don't take poker too seriously, getting your blood pressure worked up about anything is almost always a waste of time-- getting it worked up about something that is out of your control is even less constructive.

On a final note, congratulations to Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger for his 10th place finish in the Venetian NAPT. He finished one place better than I predicted him to, and he three barrel bluffed it off which is even more admirable. Also, good luck to Ashton "The One Man Wolfpack" Griffin who is representing Leggo in the Venetian High Roller. He won his table yesterday over legendary Chris Moneymaker!

You know, that awkward time where people argue about whether the date is the 18th or the 19th. I'm out in CA at the moment for some LAPC and Vegas stuff. Mostly, I am just a lazy poker player who is concerned with nearly everything but poker, but I do plan on playing a few of the big events out here and maybe even some cash if I get ambitious.

Anyways, I'm here to complain and moan mostly. A couple of days ago before I got out here I had to get plates for my car (because they got destroyed in the mail, along with my title and other pertinent information. It is luckychewy's fault, don't get me started...), so I got up early to get my new title and then head over to the DMV to get plates. The plan was to get it all taken care of and get to LA in time for the Chinese Poker tournament (which I was pretty excited about). Needless to say, that didn't happen. Things never go according to plan, but I guess that is half of the fun (most of the time). I waited 5 hours at the DMV. I could not make this shit up. There must have been 750 people there (no exaggeration) and people were creating their own parking spaces. I'm just a midwest kid, but I've never seen that kind of volume. I ended up driving to LA the same day.

So now I'm in LA a little later than planned. I can proudly say that I didn't do a single constructive thing today except a half-ass lift, but I will call it a rest day after yesterday's fiasco. Even God rested on the 7th day!

This weekend I'm headed to Phoenix to play pick-up basketball on the Phoenix Suns homecourt. I'm pretty excited, although I'm sure I'll be drained after a game or two because of the added length. I'm sure some kind of trip report will come!

Super Bowl Sunday: Had just a few people over, played card games (not poker, obviously) before and after the game. Lost a very small amount, had a couple of good sweats, and would've lost a lot more had the Saints not won. Thoroughly enjoyed the Super Bowl though, and it played out about how I expected it to (high scoring game but not as high scoring as people thought it would be, first big mistake costs that team the game, Brees and Manning are both spectacular, etc.).

February 8th: My dad and my two uncles came down for my father's birthday. We went to dinner at a steakhouse and then to the Butler basketball game. Surprisingly, this is the first time I've gotten to see the Bulldogs play this year, which is a shame because they are fantastic. I will try to go to a tournament game if it's convenient, and I'll definitely go to a bunch of games next year (I've even though about starting a basketball blog and watching a ton of basketball next year in general). My family is crazy, at one point in time at dinner my dad said that this was like something out of a Seinfeld episode; a good time was had by all.

February 9th-10th: Went to my buddy's house and grinded a lot of Mario Kart for Wii. Thinking about buying it myself, but it doesn't seem like it'd be any fun without 3 or 4 players at all times. Also played some high stakes chinese ($1/point).

February 11th: Started lifting again getting over my lower back problems, although I'm still a little nervous about it. Stuck to mostly machine stuff and anything that didn't put a lot of stress on my core or back.

February 12th: Gosh, I thought I did more this week that was interesting, but I suppose I really haven't. I watched a little college basketball, watched a few Wire episodes since my roomate is watching it now,

February 13th: Spent an hour in traffic for what is usually a 5 minute drive to the Fashion Mall. I went there to see why CDs weren't working on my Apple, but there were a million people in the Apple store and no appointments available. I was irate because of the traffic and whatnot and I told the guy point blank that I bought two computers from this location in the last two months and was planning on using Apple for my business computers, he didn't look like he cared so I just left. I'm still pissed about this although I guess it is my own fault for not calling. I used to think there wasn't much traffic in Indianapolis, but with it growing as fast as it is and the construction going on, it's pretty annoying (I'm also used to being out at weird times and late at night, you can't really complain about traffic if you're hardly awake when other people in the real world are awake).

Finally, I need my loyal blog readers to pick my next series for the traveling I have forthcoming: Deadwood or Six Feed Under? I don't know much about either show but I've heard that Deadwood got cancelled early so it doesn't have a "real" ending, which is kind of weird to me. Also, please don't post your own favorite show, no one fucking cares what your favorite show is, it's strictly between these two shows.

Anyways, first series to 3 votes will get DL'ed on my itunes and watched on my flight Monday. Do not post spoilers in the comment section of my blog, I will delete them and perma-ban your ass from Leggo forever (I can do that, you know), even if you are a coach.

One of our newest Leggo coaches, boywonder, has ventured into The Cage to answer all of your questions about him and his poker game. I mention this for a few reasons.

Ben posts screen shots of his success and claims to win at rates that people hadn't won at over large samples since 2007. Because of the nature of making poker videos, he has decided not to make public his screen name on his primary poker site(s). This is a decision which we respect here at Leggo: from my experience in working with Ben, his ability to articulate thoughts make him a valuable asset making videos at any stakes on any site (or power point videos, of course).

However, Ben has decided to release the name of his screen name to me. I have cross checked with his HEM and PTR in ways that I feel comfortable putting my reputation behind his results. Ben has indeed won greater than six figures over several hundred thousand hands at mid-stakes for a winrate of over 4 PTBB/100 (spanning over about the last 6 months, sick work ethic). These numbers, as well as his primary site(s) are kept intentionally vague to protect his identity (maybe his screen name should be Clark Kent?). I am flattered that he choose me as the keeper of this information and I'm also flattered that he feels my reputation is strong enough to fight the naysayers.

I'm very excited that Ben has agreed to become a Leggo coach since he was so sought after-- I felt like we signed a prized free agent. He gets added to such a stacked roster. I hate to toot our own horn (I don't actually hate it at all), but Leggo is crushing shorthanded NLHE cash games. What a bunch of great additions grogheadflow, shootaa, boywonder and oldjude have been to an already stacked roster.

A Second link to boywonder's Cage, because thats how legendary of a thread it'll be, believe dat.

OK guys, here's what we're looking for:

• Saints with the spread.
• Saints to win @ moneyline.
  
• TAILS (easy money)
• Under 56.5
• First score is NOT a Passing TD
• Manning Passing Yards > Brees Passing Yards
• Stover Points > Hartley Points
• Dallas Clark will score a TD
• Colts make first challenge
• Over 200 yards rushing combined
• Final Total Score Even
  
• Colts 6 Saints 1
• Colts 0 Saints 5
• Colts 4 Saints 9
• Colts 5 Saints 8
• Colts 4 Saints 2
• Colts 9 Saints 6

Yes, those are really the numbers that I drew. You'd think spending a small fortune on squares would yield a decent sweat, but my plan is pretty much to forget what numbers I have and hope I super luckbox something and come back to my Full Tilt account with some extra five figure sum of money in it that I did not previously have.

I just wanted to mention this quickly so that you guys can sweat with me (please help me use the power of positive thinking to win millions tomorrow). Also, I heard a rumor that boywonder was going in the Cage this week... I better start thinking of what to ask him!

Good morning faithful blog readers. I promised an update on how January treated me, and here it is.

Poker has been okay. I think I made about 100 in January between poker and coaching, although 2/3 of that was from the PCA cash. Still, given the fact that I spent the first half of the month in the Bahamas, I can't really complain with that number. I felt like I probably played my C+ game of poker. I started out winning quite a bit at 5-10 and 10-20 but playing badly, then I started to play well and run really badly. All in all, I think I might have won ~10k or something at those stakes with a decent volume of hands. I've started February doing more Leggo related things and less actual playing, although my results over a small sample have been good. I think I've finally remembered how to play poker.

In other news, I grinded out the first two seasons of Breaking Bad over the past few days. I have to say that I'm quite undecided about it so far (Skip the remainder of this paragraph if you don't want to see spoilers). On one hand, the storyline is fantastic. The acting is great, the pace is good; I am almost always compelled to watch the next episode, although they usually don't go over the edge to make cheesy cliffhangers. On the other hand, I have a problem with watching TV. I like when I can cheer for a character and I like when characters make good decisions (or, frankly, the decisions that I would make). I know, I know, most "good" TV doesn't allow me to enjoy it. [Sidenote: The Wire is simply an entirely different entity-- I look at the characters objectively, it has more of a documentary-esque feel to it.] However, it's really tough to watch Breaking Bad when I have such difficulty figuring out how I'm supposed to feel about Walt or Jesse. I keep wanting to root for Walt, but he keeps doing uncharacteristic things that make me question his motives and priorities. Jesse on the other hand is supposed to be a train-wreck, I think-- we want to turn away and pray that he turns his life around to reflect the upper-middle class upbringing that he was given, but we "know" that for the sake of the show he will pretty much always end up making a stupid decision. And finally, I'm a little uneasy about the way the second season ended. I usually like things to get tied up relatively nicely with a minor cliffhanger between seasons, but I felt like there were just a lot of things open for interpretation.

Before Breaking Bad, I watched the second season of Sons of Anarchy. My friend, a true TV-grinder who suffers from temporary insanity, told me that Sons of Anarchy was better than The Wire. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he said that, perhaps recency bias? Anyways, I'm sure he just needs a second or third or fourth viewing of The Wire, since it ages like fine wine. Sons of Anarchy is kind of cool though, sort of like the 'Sopranos on bikes' (I can't take credit for that comparison, I read someone say that on 2+2). If you've seen the Sopranos and not SoA, the comparison is rooted in the amount of importance of family, the impression that they give back to the community, and the ridiculous amount of stereotypes based on race (in SoA there is basically a gang for every race, LOL). I don't think I could really write as much about SoA as I could about Breaking Bad though, it's more bad ass than complex (although there are certainly some layered characters, especially the protagonist). The one thing I will say is that even though I was enthralled by S2, I thought it ended with just a little too much on its plate.

A week ago I was in a pretty good routine of lifting and playing basketball. I wasn't eating very well, but I had gotten over some food poisoning and was strong again. However, I think around Tuesday I was playing basketball and must've come down wrong after a jumpshot and threw out my lower back. I have no idea what is happening, but I was basically completely out of commission for a few days and I'm still in a lot of pain. I went to the chiropractor the last few days and am trying to stretch it out. I haven't really iced it much, but I'm not sure how much that would matter anyways. I guess I just have to rest it and give it some time, although I don't know how a problem like this will solve itself. I had never really had many lower back problems prior to this, although I have extensive neck problems and have also had major problems between my shoulder blades. It's tough getting old!

The Super Bowl is coming up in a couple of days. I'm going with the Saints with the spread and also the Saints with the moneyline. I think the moneyline is a nice bet getting almost 2 to 1 vigfree. I make it a point to not bet much on sports, but it's fun to have a little sweat... although I'd imagine a little sweat for me is a pretty big sweat for other people. I feel a little dirty going against the hometown Colts, but I'm a Bears fan. I guess a win would be "good for the city," but whatever. Really, I'm not cheering for anyone on Sunday, but I do think it's got the potential to be a hell of a good game. I'm sure the rest of February will be a fun month as well, and I head out to LAPC in a few weeks.

I'm sure you guys appreciate all the cool shit going on at Leggo, I definitely appreciate everyone (active coaches and members alike) partaking in the fun.

As promised...

The PCA is nostalgic for me. It was the place that I met so many poker friends. I first went 5 years ago. I played mostly 2-4 (yes I know, it is very rare for somewhere to spread 2-4 instead of 2-5, but they did) with a $400 max buy in. I lost my ass, then I won it back, then I lost my ass again, then I ended up winning money on the trip, somehow. I remember everyone nitting it up in these games, and I had just learned how awesome it was to bet-3-bet with a draw. Man, I was cool. I remember Jimmie Guinther and myself sneaking extra chips into the 2-4 game when we re-bought. We would have black or green chips hidden in our hand, and when we're rake in a small pot we'd fluff it up and chuckle as we raked it in, "Gee, that pot was a bit bigger than I thought!?"

Fast forward to 2010. This year the weather was terrible (violent winds!) and I was determined to make a run in the Main (since I couldn't lay on the beach anyways). I even told the gf beforehand that I was going to try and win the tournament (I did not quite do that last year, when I decided I would rather lay around and eat strawberries and whip cream off of her than win the tournament so I bet-3-bet bottom pair and a backdoor flush draw into middle set). So I did try to win the tournament, and I came relatively close.

When you actually try to win live tournaments, it winds up pretty much being a blurr. I woke up everyday and walked 20 minutes to the tournament room from clear across the resort. I was okay with this walk because I enjoy walking (and driving) by myself because it gives me a chance to think. Most days this was a pleasant walk, and I never rush because I like to be calm before a poker tournament. So, for four or five or six days or however long I was in the tournament: I got to the tournament, usually put on my headphones, and grinded a Chinese Poker application on my iTouch. I'd occasionally slide my headphones off to glare at someone or pretend like I was listening, but most of the time I was just feeling some Third Eye Blind or Jason Mraz or Billy Joel.

I did this day in and day out. About every level or so I would play a moderately interesting hand or I would bluff off some chips. The latter happened more than the former, but I won enough flips and got enough coolers that I was able to cruise down to the final 3 or 4 tables I think. I wish I could tell you some awesome and detailed report like Craig or Clayton or Jay might, but I can only remember a few things. I didn't have a bunch of chips until day three or four. I got a bunch of them and then I gave some back by getting coolered. I hovered until the day that I busted, where I ran it up to over average, played a few hands badly, got QQ to TT on T84r to put me back down to ~20 bbs, and then lost a flip with KJss to tens preflop-- ten in the door! (How's that for Reader's Digest condensed version?) Close friend of www.Leggopoker.com Jimmie Guinther got just a little bit further than I did, as did Luc, (Eagles, who keeps a blog on Leggo).

The rest of the trip was just okay. The 15% mandatory gratuity that is added to everything is really annoying. It's sort of a chicken and egg thing-- did the people who work at the Atlantis start giving shitty service before the 15% mandatory gratuity was added or was the 15% gratuity added which made the Atlantis employees even lazier? I remember Jimmie getting a bottle of Dom last year for like $400 and then guy who literally reaches up 2 feet and hands him the bottle also charges 15% grat... seriously?

The eating establishments there are okay, but again the service is terrible. I guess I am so used to the competition in Vegas that I forget what happens when there is a Monopoly and it's nearly irrelevant how they treat their guests because the Atlantis owns all of Paradise Island.

Our room was pretty nice since it was in the Cove, but if we hadn't gotten the Poker Stars rate for those Cove rooms, it would've been pretty poor value (I think Cove rooms normally go for ~$800 a night). As it is they really weren't that great, but you're pretty much just paying for the location. We had a pretty nice view and the room setup was nice, I guess I am just being a complainer because for $800 a night I assume there will be someone available in our room to rub my feet and slob on my knob at all times.

I think there was about 1.5 days of good sun in the 10 days we were there. That is a pretty poor ratio, and it was definitely the worst weather I've ever had while I was down there. I might be a bit biased, but I would really like to go somewhere sunny right now. Granted it is a 'brisk' 21 degrees in Indy right now, but I just think my life would be better if I could leave my fucking house.

Poker has been a little different this month, I thought it'd be fun to grind some 5-10 and 10-20 to try and start playing better, but that hasn't really worked. Coaching has been good though and a welcomed change of pace. My next blog will likely detail my results this month since I have been on the grind. Hopefully, if I play well enough, I'll get to record a few more sessions of me 6 tabling 5-10 6m. Those games have been fun, but have played relatively nitty I think.

I'll go ahead and tell you right now though that my next video is me playing Rush .5-1 on Full Tilt. It's not even really an educational video, it's just me spewing a zillion buy ins left and right and talking about how quickly I can lose my money... definitely poker entertainment more than anything else. Until next time...

Following my PCA cash for $66,000, I've decided I'm not going to play any poker in January. I am just not playing well. I think about stuff well, but my self-control and concentration is not where it should be. I have gotten sloppy (I talked about this in my previous blog).

The good news is my mind is still sharp as a tack. So, I've decided I'm going to do two things in January. First, I'm going to coach-- as much as I possibly can. I'll be coaching for $1200/hr, but will bump it down to $1100/hr for those who book five sessions in advance. Additionally, if you bought the Memoirs or are a Leggo coach, I will coach for $1000/hr. I will be doing this starting Friday, January 15th until Saturday, January 30th. I am on EST (which I believe is the Poker Stars clock time), and will be coaching from around noon to around midnight, whenever I have people scheduled. So if you're interested, send me a PM and we will book something right away (there will be some exceptions on weekend nights when I'm busy and won't be able to coach). I usually am not interested in coaching and give people some BS excuse about why I don't want to do it, but for these two weeks I'll be pumping out the information into the online poker community. I will coach HU or 6m.

A few things:
1. I am not interested in staking anyone or doing any profit sharing.
2. If you cannot afford 4-figures an hour, do not PM me. I do not want to hear someone PM me and say, "Man, that was like 1/4 of my bankroll! I thought I would learn how to do magic with your coaching! You are the devil!"
3. Please come prepared. Have something to talk about and a list of questions for downtime (or some hands to go over). You will get out of the coaching what you put into it-- but you can't just be like "Hey Aaron, can you talk about Global Warming?" because a. I don't know anything about global warming and . The question is not very specific.

Second, I'm finally going to get around to making a 6 tabling 5-10 video. I think I'm going to play 10,000 hands of 5-10 in January (this doesn't count as playing poker since it's not 25-50+ HU ) in order to "prepare" for this series of videos. I want to get a lot of footage and only put the most interesting parts in (well, realistically I would like it to be a good mix of boring grinding and exciting big pots and weird situations). Anyways, I just want it to be an awesome video series. Not sure what you should expect the first one, a week or 10 days I'd imagine.

Finally, I will have a little bit of a trip report from the PCA I suppose and a little video of the view from our room when my next blog goes up, but to be honest I spent nearly 4 days of my trip grinding in the Main so there aren't as many great stories as there should have been.

Over and out.

2009 treated me alright. I was a lost soul in 2009, mostly. In '08, I was so dedicated, so new to the HSNL scene... so green. I was so driven to make a million, and then I did... and then I was proud. I had the money, I had a name for myself. I probably only made half or two-thirds of that in 2009. I probably played half as much, maybe less. I hated putting in the hours, would often take off a few weeks at a time. I find myself unable to put in long sessions, more prone to tilt and bad play and justifying playing badly with some B.S. that I know is B.S. The thing is, I don't really care. I mean, it would be like... "Jesus, I like $100k last night," but then I had more money. There was always more money. There is always more money. For the most part, I play within my bankroll, so there will always be more money until I decide I just don't want to play poker anymore. It's not fun to be un-motivated.

Lately though, I've been getting a lot of action at 25-50 HU. I'm very happy about this. I'm not really playing that well.. I'd say between my C and B- game, if I had to guess. Today I played one hand really well, and a dozen or so pretty poorly. The rest I played okay, I suppose. It's hard to rate how well I'm playing, to be honest. Sometimes I'll be playing too straightforwardly and auto-piloting; other times I'll be thinking too hard and second guess myself. The extremes, in this case, are just really not good. I need to sharpen my skills when I'm focusing so that I'm tuned in to making the best play. I think that'll be my New Year's resolution: To be a better professional poker player.

Business related things went pretty well though this year. Leggo is doing well: Our last few pros to come on have been fantastic and our community is stronger than it ever was. The people who are here really make up the site. I think the great thing about Leggo is that you can be as important as you want. Probability's latest blog post is a great example. He saw the makings of something awesome and pestered people until he could become part of it. Now, he's a huge, huge part of it. Everyone in the community can be as big of a part of Leggo as they want.

Life went pretty well. I dealt with a tragic passing of one of my cousins who was only 18. That was difficult for me because it forced me to deal with mortality, a subject that poker players are generally so unfamiliar with. I guess unfamiliar is the wrong word here... uncomfortable isn't good either. Suffice it to say that poker players are used to focusing on positive things and dealing with the swings of winning and losing money, not the swings of life and death. I had to confront some things, and it's difficult. It's tough to look inside yourself and be able to watch yourself having emotions. It's tough to try to figure out if you can control them or not, if you want to control them, and if you should control them.

I guess what I'm saying is that 2009 was an alright year, all things considered. I think I would be doing okay if 2010 went about the way 2009 went, but I think I'm going to strive for greatness. I think I'm going to try to go the extra mile so that when I'm writing a blog post on this precise day one year from now I can say that 2010 was fuckin' awesome.

The best way to start off the year is to bring on a coveted new pro. Everyone wanted to sign this guy, and he choose us. It makes me feel so great-- like Leggo is really doing something right. So today we present to you boywonder. I'm not sure if I should be releasing this sensitive information, but when I took a look at his first poker video I couldn't find many (if any) criticisms. I usually have a mouthful of negative comments about everything I watch poker related, but this video was fantastic. And then... he decided that the video wasn't good enough, and that he could improve upon it. I watched almost an hour of one of the best poker videos I had seen (this guy instantly moved into my second favorite video producer list, sorry Sauce123 and BobboFitos, try making a few videos every once in a while and you might overtake him again ) and then he decided he was going to improve upon it... Cool. It's the kind of work ethic that I'm trying to mimic in 2010.

A bunch of other cool things are going on at Leggo (as if you didn't know), including K_Man being part of Team Poker Star Online Pro (or-- something like that, I think). He is going to try and put in the real work and make SNE, I believe. Jesus, good-freaking-luck (seriously, you will have our support.. maybe put a little less time into the intros, I don't think you have the free time, haha).

I feel like there are a million things I've wanted to blog about, but I knocked a few of them off the list with this post. I'm headed to the PCA in a few days. I am stoked to have been upgraded to the Cove, which I hear is very legit. The PCA is the PCA. It's not glamorous or anything, it's a week in warm weather (it's not sweltering hot or anything, but it usually stays in the 70s and sometimes touches the mid-80s) with a bunch of poker players. It's also somewhat of a tradition. I met a lot of my best poker friends down there, and this is like the 5th or 6th year I'll be heading down there. I found the key to happiness at the PCA last year though: bring a girl.

Ho-Ho-Ho.

Since I'm Polish and sort've catholic we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. We eat pierogis and break oplatki and exchange gifts and whatnot with my mom's side of the family. I generally enjoy my family, although when I say that I mean relative to what I'd imagine other people's families are like. I think mine is probably in the top 1 or 2 percentile when making that comparison.

The problem is that family is family. It's very hard because they want to know what is going on in my life. Although it is very kind of them to ask, it's really hard to explain Leggo to them (they want to know how my business venture is), explain poker to them (they want to know how lucky I've been lately, I try to tell them I don't gamble), and explain what it's like to a few cars and never spend more than a few weeks in the same zip code. It's just a weird life. I remember years ago MTV was looking for interesting online poker players in some kind of "True Life: I live a double life" episode. I have absolutely no idea if that ever aired or not, but it is absolutely true that we live a double life.

I am someone on here that I sort of am in real life, but not really. My personality obviously shines through in my blog and forum posts and in my videos. I like to talk a lot and general clown around a lot (to be modest ob both fronts). Yet, this isn't real life. This is the internet. And my stardom was made because I put some time into a video game, basically. I learned how to reason and solve problems in such a quick and efficient manner I was able to rise to the level that I'm at today. Is that admirable? I'm not sure, maybe. It certainly seems that popular online poker players are admired, I don't know that it makes what we do worthy of that admiration.

My point is that I hate talking about what I do with anyone who isn't familiar with the online poker landscape. It's so difficult to explain to people how many games I play at once, why I play online instead of live, why I can't win when I play live (lol, almost had a WPT final table there!), when they'll see me on TV (I guess they don't get G4)... and any one of the dozens or hundreds of questions they could ask me that is repetitive. Honestly though, I bet a lot of people are better at talking to people about it than I am. I think of someone like Rob (Bobbo obv) and I feel like they are generally so much more positive than I am that they would be okay with talking to people about it. I generally get annoyed with people quickly, although my friend Starkey says that I've been very calm lately. I don't know what to attribute that to.

Enough about the annoyingness of the holidays. I have decided (tentatively) that Chewy and I will make an addition to the Memoirs that deals with exclusively Heads Up play. It probably won't be too long, maybe a total of a few hours of coverage, but I think it'll be very, very good since we're both so much better than we were a year or 18 months ago. So, keep your eye out for that, and if you've already bought the Memoirs.. congrats! It'll be great and we hope that if you don't play HU already you will start when (if?) this comes out.

Speaking of luckychewy, he wrote a strategy article here, in the Private Strategy Forum that deals with running the streets and common Heads Up spots that people struggle with. It's very good poker content, check it out if you get a second.

I'm hesitant to announce anything yet, but we'll have a new pro come 2010. He's been coveted by a lot of training sites for a while now and I'm very pleased that he liked what we had to offer best . Hopefully his first video will be available for your viewing pleasure in a week or so. I'm anxious and nervous that this is the new guy that puts us even further over the top as the #1 site for midstakes 6-max.

We've got a little Christmas treat for you guys as well, I hope you enjoy it. It's hard as fuck to do a 4 tabling video against a good player Heads Up and provide insight on the action! Hope everyone gets everything they want for Christmas and no one shoots their eye out.