Hey guys, haven't blogged in a while, been really busy with life and NHL 12 also came out recently which is always addicting to play for the first little bit. I've been playing mostly Ultimate hockey league on it where you try to build a sweet team from a shitty ass starting team by playing games and earning "eapucks" that you trade for players or you can buy packs with to get better players. You also have players that retire and you have to keep their contracts going among other things. Its like a combination between being a GM and playing with trading cards. I think one of the shittier things though is that you can just buy your way to the top as $$$ translates into x amount of EA pucks, so you can end up playing people with absolutely stacked teams while you have all horribly rated players so that mode usually wears out pretty quickly. Doubt it will ever change though since its just a cash machine for EA.

For NHL 11, they had the same thing and I spent like $10 bucks or something to build a pretty wicked team right away and then it became really tough to get action which is another flaw of the game. People will usually just leave right away before the game starts when they see your team is better than theirs. EA tried to make up for this by giving bonuses to you when you do well against a higher rated team or you lose pucks for leaving during the matchup screen but it really hasn't seemed to fix the issue yet since the pucks you get as a bonus for doing well against a better team doesnt seem to make up for the opportunity cost of playing someone weaker and doing well. But enough about video games, lets talk poker.

Still selling some action on the Wcoop Main Event so let me know if interested. I havent played as many wcoop events as I would have liked so far since most of them are at the wee hours of the morning for the west coasters like me. Almost all tournies start at 7am, some have started at 3am. I had played a few early on sleep deprived and did pretty well but I think it just messes up my schedule too much. I would sleep for 4 hours or so, wake up at 7am and play, bust out at like 2pm and then the rest of the day I'm barely awake. Still havent managed to fix my sleep schedule that much but it is a lot better than prior to wcoop. Now going to bed at around 2 or 3am a lot instead of 4 or 5am. So far Im like 0/5 but should have cashed the 6max event 1, ~1000 paid and I busted 1040th with KK vs AK in an absolute monster pot (over 200bbs when average was 60bbs) that wouldve put me 25th in chips with about a thousand ppl left on a super soft table. Was pretty soul crushing to play that long and go out in that manner. One of my euro friends did well in that tourny tho and finished like 18th or something so that was nice to see him do well.

I'm still waiting on FTP to hopefully revive itself although the situation is looking bleak. Gotta hope it all works out though =/

I'm also pretty much done reading elky's book so I will write a review on that pretty soon.

Working on a 100nl series since ppl requested that and the 50nl series was well received. Its a nice change up as well from the higher games and I feel like you get into a lot more postflop spots that are interesting rather than the higher games where a lot of play is preflop especially 100bbs deep.

Stay frosty,
Jma

Since blogging has recently spoken about issues with pokersites, just wanted to quickly say that williamhill has been annoying me a bit lately.

First I try to deposit via instadebit but it keeps asking me to convert it to $CAD when I try to do so. I end up speaking with the online support which takes forever. Seems like they are typing 3 words per minute or have a really hard time finding answers to things so it takes often a minute or two before you get a short response back. After like 20 minutes, I'm told that I should speak to my bank since they think it is cause I'm dealing with $CAD but I've used it already on every other poker site i play on with no issues, but I am redirected to my bank again.

Then I receive a call from security, which I do appreciate to protect the accounts of the players but regarding deposits its usually just the poker site covering its own ass incase of fraud so they dont have to eat the cost. I end up speaking with a girl who sounds really young with a valley girl type of accent... I pretty much picture myself talking to a blonde bimbo type and I'm also semi positive she was chewing gum while talking to me too. She doesnt do a horrible job with the security check but its definitely a chore to focus on what she's saying because of how she talks. She also ends up calling me Mr. James a few times lol. I wanted to ask her about instadebit and the deposit/withdrawal issues that come with it but she tells me that I have to go talk to customer service department instead without offering a transfer or anything. At least she sounded really hot.

Been busy with life stuff lately and haven't had much time to blog much less grind but definitely going to try to refocus a bit and start putting in hands again. It will probably also be a long grind in september as I'm planning on playing a ton of events via wcoop so I'm sure a lot of hands will be put in... so I feel the break I've taken isn't too bad. Sometimes taking a bit of time off is necessary to reignite that spark and drive it takes to endure the beats and variance as the games are getting tougher and tougher even at the lower midstakes games where many 5/10nl or 3/6 pros from a year ago now play regularly.

For the Coaching giveaway, I'd like to thank everyone for their interest and applications. It wasn't an easy decision as there were many great candidates. I decided to pick two people actually to receive an hour of coaching as it was so difficult to pick only one, and they were chosen because I felt that they would benefit the most out of all the applicants. So without further ado, I'd like to congratulate robbyd and the_student as I want to help you guys out a bit. PM me for further information. Also with the lower overall prices from most American players post black friday with coaching combined with my passion for coaching, I've decided to lower my hourly charge for personal coaching as well, hopefully making it more affordable for a lot of you guys. I'll have to get it updated in my bio but I'm going to drop my rate to $200/hr for the time being!!

Hope you guys are all doing well,
Jma

Hey y'all. Looking to sell some wcoop action at 10% markup for following events:

All of these are FR NLHE events.

Sept 6 - $1050 (600 worth)
Sept 11- $530 (265 worth)
Sept 13 -$1050 (600 worth)
Sept 18- $1050 (600 worth)
Sept 20- $1050 (600 worth)
Sept 25- 5200 Main (To be Decided)

PM me if interested, thanks!
I have paypal, stars, partypoker, Ipoker for payment
-Jma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbyFx...eature=related

Most results oriented person ever. Also seemed like she was blaming her boyfriend for taking the deal. What a hag. Also the show's host seemed like such an incompassionate dick

I went from laughing, to feeling bad, back to hysterical laughter. A nice rollercoaster of emotion ending on a smiling note. Check it out!

-Jma

As far as the coaching winner, still being decided upon will likely be named in my next post

With so much negative publicity revolving around poker these days, I feel like injecting some positive vibes back into things. Since Black Friday and the closing down of FTP, I have lost some students and have some more free time on my hands. I always feel like I'm also working harder on my game and learning as well when coaching students so its something I do enjoy. I've done tutoring work since way back when in high school and have often helped out some of my friends at university when they didn't understand certain concepts either. There is just something intrinsically valuable about helping others succeed and can make you feel a bit warm and fuzzier inside.

So I spoke about a promotion mentioned for twitter from my earlier posts and I've decided I'm going to give away an hour of coaching to someone or maybe two havent decided yet, to help improve their game! If you'd like to be considered, be following me & send me a PM to my twitter account (Jamesma87) describing why you should be chosen and a little background information about your poker career whether its recreational or professional playing doesnt matter. I will choose someone to tutor over the next week or so once all the applications come in and I have a chance to read through them.

I also promise not to tell you to play a really fishy player HU while you let me teamviewer you . If you are an American, thats fine we can spend the hour going over theory or hand histories that you have. I dont want to discriminate against you guys cuz you've had it pretty rough already.

Peace,
Jma

EDIT: I guess twitter messages dont have a lot of space so just PM it to my Leggo and I'll go through all the mail on here and then announce the winner sometime in the next couple weeks on my twitter

As most of you may have read on the 2+2 news,views gossip section, The portuguese prodigy jose girah Macedo had confessed to scamming people via teamviewer and also hosting group sweats via skype while playing online...After reading through all the clutter on 2+2, a lot of things have become more clear about the situation and more will likely come to light in the future. I am going to add a link to the cliffs for those who are not in the know as to whats going on.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...-scam-1079792/

A couple things though that dont add up:
A supposedly millionaire poker player scamming people for 30k+
A supposedly top world class poker player willing to leave poker completely to prevent the scandal from going public

Leaving poker for good if he is in fact a good player seems absolutely ludicrous. Someone who is so motivated to get to the top of the poker world is willing to quit forever so his name won't be tarnished... maybe but it seems doubtful considering the previous incidents that have already occured where Hastings, Sorel Mizzi, JJ prodigy, Townsend etc. all had their image tarnished although it would not be to the same extent as Jose in all fairness. However all of the pros continue to make a very nice living by playing the game and I would assume that would be regardless of how they are viewed by others when they can be making so much money an hour compared to any other occupation.

So more like it seems the possibility exists that he was a creation of other high stake players who perhaps agreed to give him some training and coaching as long as they would let his accounts be used from time to time by such and such high stake players. I'm not going to mention any names right now and what I think since I dont have all the information, but imo so far... with whats been revealed it does just seem like Girah was a bit of a puppet but then decided to run his own side operation. If you are running one scam of multiaccounting, why not try to find another means to make easy money as well. I dont believe atm though that any high stake player associated with Girah would condone his superusing activities but as far as MA'ing, I can see some players being able to justify it. Of course most of this is speculation as the only evidence that has come to light so far has been that Girah did scam people through teamviewer and Dogishead/Jungleman were willing to reimburse the people scammed.

It should also be noted although it kind of has been neglected for the time being that the people who came forth to expose the scandal were involved in the whole skype group with multiple people helping someone play a hand in real time so maybe them getting scammed was in a way some karma being paid back. If I recall correctly Hastings and Townsend reviewed hands between sessions vs isildur and took a lot of flaming for it, whereas this skype group seemed to be doing the same thing except in real time and with more people however they have kind of gone under the radar since they exposed Girah and I guess in a sense "make up for their sins" by alerting the rest of the community to an even bigger scandal.

Trust and reputation is one of the most important things in the poker world. Without having a good reputation, anything beyond poker in itself is almost unattainable. There will be no sponsorships, backers, coaching, etc. I think sometimes that there is almost a naivety among poker players, a lot of players are almost too trusting. One of my former students told me he wanted to get money online so he went to visit a high stakes player and left him 50k in cash without even getting confirmation that the transfer had arrived online. Of course there is a very minuscule chance of being ripped off in that type of situation when a guy has a good rep but even then I would be very cautious about leaving 50k with the other party still needing to fulfill their end of the bargain. If for whatever reason he chooses to take the money and run, there's almost no chance of ever seeing that money again but that is the kind of blind trust that can exist in the poker world...

I also feel like poker players as a whole are generally viewed with negativity by the general public and stories like this only go to support that view. I think people often see poker players as being untrustworthy, degenerate type of people among other things like being lazy etc. It just seems like there has been a lot of negative publicity for poker as of late and almost nothing positive... pretty disheartening.

The whole situation also brings into question the ethics involved within coaching. Poker is meant to be one player to a hand but it is ordinary in the coaching industry now for players to be able to do sweat sessions with a coach watching over them. However with the extremes that it has been pushed to by Girah and his skype group ( I do not wish to isolate him and friends as the sole group that does this as there are also other groups im sure but his is the only one that has come to light with the most publicity), having 4 or 5 people playing one hand at high stakes seems absurd and brings into question wether this type of coaching should be allowed at all. However I can't really see it being preventable which is one of the problems that will likely leave the situation widely unchanged. I think it'd be wise to play anything higher than 25/50nl at an actual casino or live game, unless one is willing to risk being against multiple players at once or are playing against people who have a well established reputation. With so much money involved, there is always bound to be people trying to get rich somehow.

This was a long post =/
-Jma

Been watching some movies in the past couple days to unwind after the grind. I saw True Grit which was a bit of a disappointment, not a horrible movie but wasnt that great. Very little action and all the old school western type of jargon just seemed to detract the movie a bit although I'm sure they were trying to keep it true to the book or how things actually were but it just didnt keep me all that enthralled.

However The Hurt Locker I thought was a really good movie. Kept me on the edge of my seat for a large portion of the film. My interest was piqued at the idea of someone becoming addicted to the thrill and excitement of war. A person's life becoming driven by the feelings that they get by putting oneself into dangerous, risky situations can be difficult to understand...but I guess it can be comparable to how a lot of degenerate gamblers live their life. Without the thrill of risking a significant part of a one's net worth or experiencing the euphoria from a big win, life can start to seem mundane or pointless. Even though gambling with important, meaningful money to someone is a less than ideal situation, the process is difficult to be stopped due to the feelings that result from it. Even some well known poker pros who should no doubt be well off, have become plagued by pit games or sportsbetting resulting in a crippled bankroll or staking arrangements in order for them to rebuild their life.

I started to wonder, if I am myself addicted to the thrill of gambling. I dont think I've ever gone on a stretch of more than 2 weeks without wagering money on something since high school so like 7 years ago. I also really enjoy the feelings and experience that comes from playing poker and winning. I guess the one saving grace I have is that I've never been a big "gambler" so there's a pretty solid chance I'll always end up sticking to skill games. If I had to walk away from poker for whatever reason, I wonder if I would soon find myself back in the game. But I dont foresee any circumstances in the near future where I would be straying away from the game that I've grown to love and has become such an integral part of my life. I feel blessed to be where I am so far but am focused on achieving even more in the next few years.

Jma out

Just going to do a quickie post tonight I think. With weather in Vancouver being less than stellar as of late, its been a bit easier for me to play some online poker and get some hands in. Although I hear that the weather is going to be real nice this week and that means it could be finally time to hit the beach. It seems like lot of poker players are trying to make their way to vancouver too. I'd love to meet Phil Galfond or Jungleman ( when he actually isnt rejected by customs) but have never really spoke to either so dont know if that will ever happen since I have no idea how to get in touch with them.

I've been working on my game a bit and trying to get through the Elky book as well but only about 42% done according to Kindle. Will def post the review when I manage to get through this. Have been watching the pokerstars big game as well and probably learning something subconsciously although probably bad habits at times lol. Season 2 has had a LOT better quality of loose cannons, I think mostly cause a lot of them seem to want to be pro poker players or already kinda do so for a living. Was kinda shitty seeing Jared Huggins nit it up and play pretty poorly after 2+2 do so much work to get him in there but at least he tried. 2+2 didnt get much mention in helping him but possibly do to conflict of interests in giving away free advertising with the show being sponsored by pokerstars I assume.

Its pretty sick how its a profitably it is for cannons to be pushing draws once postflop. Even assuming a cannon is up to 110k (10k own profit), if they have a minimal amount of equity on the flop they can essentially just jam all the money in at any time and insta profit. Even with 10% equity, they would lose their 10k if they get stacked 9/10 times so -90k but if they win that one time, they profit a total of 110+10=120k so on average would be making 3k each time. The one variable though is that 10k is a lot of money for most people to wager as a huge underdog so they end up not playing as aggressively as they should to preserve that money. I think its comparable to Deal or No Deal where its usually profitable to keep opening cases but most people will take the cash at some point when its too much to risk personally in exchange for the EV

My sleep schedule has been kinda messed up again. I think my body just naturally can go an extra hour or two a day without being tired so its hard for me to get into a constant schedule of going to sleep at a particular time. Maybe when I get older it will be different. Poker has been on my brain too much which is probably a good thing. I had dreams about poker for the first time in a long time last night. I used to have some pretty scary nightmares of bad beats but lately its been just me hustling some ppl. Must be a good sign.

I also have not forgotten about my Twitter promotion. Will post about it soon.
-Jma

Back home, feeling good and being more productive than ever. I'd attribute it to not having online poker around, being able to focus and increase my work ethic in vegas and coming back refreshed n energized. I've been busy working out again which I wasn't able to do much at all in Vegas with shitty training facilities where I was staying and being sick. Been grindin a fair bit and reading the Raiser's Edge by Elky and Tony Dunst. I'll give my review on the book when I finish getting through it but hopefully it will do something for my game. I've also noticed i've been blogging a lot lately, possibly just cause its become more habitual once I started doing it but I think also with me having more time in Vegas and being more productive now at home, its just a bit easier for me to find the time to write stuff out. I've been working hard on some new stuff to throw into my game and experimenting with some stuff which time will tell how if it goes well or if it needs to be tweaked a bit.

At home I've been reuniting with friends and missing old vegas friends as well. Denny and ur bro, Vince, K, Jeff, Matt, Tri and Eric was good chilling with u guys. Crispy and Russ, didnt see you guys much but will maybe get to hang with you more next summer. Living on my own this summer had the usual pros and cons of living alone. More freedom/privacy at the cost of less socialization. It was a nice change of pace though from the previous couple summers and gave me more time to reflect and focus. Next summer though I plan on joining up in a house with the crew again and there is a possibility of having an uber baller house next year just cuz of so many people staying under one roof. Or we could just all save money and get something reasonable but we'll see what happens.

I've also just hopped on Twitter and fired up an account. Jamesma87 I believe is the handle since TheRealJma was taken. Unfuckingbelievable. What exactly will I use twitter for? I'm not too sure right now, its ideal for mtt updates and whatnot but other than that its more of a facebook status update type of deal it seems like so far but maybe someone can help break it down how to use it properly in the comments section cause I'm still pretty noob at it. I assume #whatever will tag a post? Still have to figure out how to retweet and what not. But regardless in the next week or two, I'll be doing a special promotion for those who are following me on twitter to celebrate my introduction to it and getting into social networking more, so stay tuned for that cuz it definitely will be good.

Going to catch some z's
-Jma