Sorry for the lack of updates! I'm currently in my Vegas house. I've been playing some tournaments, playing some cash, and going out. One of our housemates, Danny, currently is in the middle of the most epic text with a girl from last night. He hooked up with her at GhostBar, and tentatively planned to meet up tonight. He almost threw it away with a text this morning, but we countered with a brilliant cover up (which works no matter how she interprets it). Here are the texts and timestamps, enjoy:

Headed from GhostBar to Playboy Club at Palms:

Danny (2:29 AM): I'm headed down soon with some mates after this drink*. x
Danny (2:31 AM): I'm bloody horney.**
Girl (2:31 AM): Haha! Oh yeah?
Danny (2:52 AM): I'm in here, come find me. x
Girl (2:52 AM): Easter egg hunt?
Girl (3:42 AM):Favorite color?
Danny (1:28 PM): Good morning! How you feeling today? Just had a sausage and egg sandwich mmm. What are you and your ladies plans for today and tonight? x
Danny (6:02 PM): Hey, it's Danny from ghost bar last night. Just got my phone back from some creepy guy, and it was covered in egg and sausage grease... You're still in Vegas?***

*Previous sentence constructed by Greg
**Previous sentence constructed by Derek
*** Team effort

We'll see how it plays out!

I am a fan of the Mohegan Sun. It's a bigger and better and more sophisticated Turningstone, but the problem for me is it's equidistant from Atlantic City, so it's never really worth it to go.

I busted out of the main in level 4. Went from 30k (starting stack) to 1850 chips in the first level on a single hand!

50/100. I raise UTG1 with AsQd. UTG2 calls, he's been fairly loose. Flop comes J57r. I cbet and he calls. Turn K, bringing a spade draw. I'm pretty sure he's floating me. I check, he bets 1100 into a 1500ish, I c/r to 3500. He calls fairly quickly, river is a 3s. I think and bet 5400, he raises to 11000, I shove for about 30k total. He tanks and calls with QTss.

I am left with 1850 chips at 50/100 after the hand, but work my way up to 16000. I then get QQ AIPF vs. AK at 150/300, lose on a board of Q5AAA. I'm very happy about how I played in the tournament, and I'm very happy that I had 1850 left 30 minutes into the tournament and wasn't phased at all. I didn't tilt stick in my stack at all, and put myself in a position where I was a coinflip away from bringing 6% of a stacking size back to over 30k. I'll probably play the 2k tomorrow, as the structure looks decent enough.

Yes I know I still have lots of people that have more information from me for coaching. Know that I will get to everyone, as I promised, and know that it will take a little while. I planned on doing this as a one week thing, and instead of turning people away, it's just gonna turn into 2 months straight of coaching. I promise I will get to everyone though.

I am finishing up re-contacting everyone for the coaching. For those who I have not gotten in contact with yet, please make a video (video only, no audio/commentary) of you playing in the games you want the lesson to be on. Make the video about 1 hour in length, and we will go over it in the lesson.

I have found this is the most effective ways to do lessons with those who's games I am unfamiliar with, so it's appropriate to almost everyone. Of course, if you think you are an exception, just mention it to me and we can discuss it.

Here's a link on how to make videos:

http://www.leggopoker.com/forums/mem...ideo-4452.html

What I have decided to do is make a master list, in order, of people I owe lessons to. You will go on the list based on the order you requested a lesson. Whenever I have some spare time, I will go down the list (in order) and see if you are available. So on and so forth. I think this method is the best because it's fair to the people that had lessons I had to cancel/asked first, and makes it a little easier on my erratic schedule.

If you haven't heard from me yet you will; just wanted everyone to be up to date in the mean time.

Greg

PS Everyone seems to be really appreciate about the lessons, pricing, and even my difficult schedule in the past couple weeks. I really enjoy seeing you guys genuinely happy, and it definitely is positive reinforcement for stuff like this

So, I was very busy this week and had to cancel a few lessons. If I do not IM you in the next couple of days, it is because I lost your IM (sorry there have been about 40 people interested so far). If this happens, PM me on here and I will schedule something ASAP.

Thanks

After I made my previous post, I thought a lot about what a few respondents said about the lack of opportunity for smaller stakes players to receive high quality coaching due to the price barrier. Although Reid and I both brought up various points regarding why the status quo is in place and why it will not change, I still think it would be fun to mix it up for a little.

Over the next week or so, I have some spare time and am not planning on playing much poker. I was also admittedly inspired by the responses in my last blog post (I do read and consider what everyone says). So, for this very short period of time, to just throw a curve ball out there, I'm going to offer coaching for $200/hr. A few thoughts/comments:

-I don't have unlimited time and therefore cannot guarantee anything beyond a single two hour session per person interested (this is a very temporary thing after all). Let me know if you would want more though, and I will see how everything goes.
-This offer extends to all my current and former students as well, and they will get priority over those who I have never coached before. I'm sure you see why this is fair.
-Payment must be sent ahead of time.
-You can record the lesson to review for your own personal benefit.
-I may be a few minutes late for a lesson (I'm usually not and I usually say if I will). I may also have to reschedule the lesson and will try to give 24 hours of notice if this is the case.
The price is already as low as I can go, unless you are some extenuating circumstance (if you believe yourself to be let me know and I will make some decision).
-You will get 100% of my effort and it will be identical to lessons that I currently do.

Well, that's kind of it. PM me on here to get the ball rolling. Make sure you include what you are playing right now, what you are looking to get out of this, and when you will be available over the next week.

For those of you playing NL50-100, I may still have something for you up my sleeve. I will see how this goes and then make a decision.

Greg

EDIT: I got a ton of requests, and have vowed to give everyone a chance. It's going to take a couple of weeks because I don't have tons of spare time after a few more days, but rest assured everyone will get a chance. I will not be taking further requests after March 21. PM me again if 3 days have passed and I have not replied to you.

Recently, it seems as though there as been a decent push against coaching in the form of stuff like random posts on 2p2. The training sites are then burnt at the stake for not protecting players against coaches that may not develop on all of a student's dreams. Ironically, training sites do the most out of everything out there for coaching.

I'll use myself as an example. I've been making videos since late 2007, among the longest of anyone out there. If I had to guess, I would say that I have make more high stakes (5/10+) videos than anyone else online (I just counted -- there are 35 of those such videos on Leggo and I really, really, doubt someone has more). I've coached a laundry list of individuals and taken many of them up the chain from midstakes to highstakes. I get so much satisfaction from seeing someone work hard and improve. There has yet to be a student who has thought my coaching wasn't worth it -- I say this because I truly pride myself on providing a quality product. The one constant that I almost always hear from prospective students is: "I've seen your videos and I think you explain your thought process the best/among the best out of all the videos I've watched." Let's face it: coaching isn't about how well someone plays poker. That's a REQUIREMENT. The good news is you literally get to watch and determine if someone is good from their videos! (Luckily, I own everyone in my 5/10 videos, examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). I have no sympathy for anyone who jumps on a coach, knowing very little about him, and not being confident on his abilities to play poker. If you are unsure, watch their videos and speak to people. Ask them questions in their threads and see if you are getting the responses that will make you feel satisfied!

Once you determine that they have the ability to play winning poker when they choose to, you must now determine if they have the ability to teach winning poker. Many potentially coaches fail point a, but most fail point b. When I saw posts attacking training sites, I slapped my head and said, "Wow, well, training sites give prospective students the closest thing to a test drive of a coaching session there is in the poker world!"

I would say that if a coach makes good or great videos, that's generally enough to assume that you will have a great coaching experience. However, if you really need more certainty, just ask him to give a few references of past or present students. Ask them at what level they started, where they are now, what difference coaching has made, and if the whole thing was worth it. The last bit of clarification you are looking for here is a coach's ability to take someone else's game (which is most likely fundamentally different than his own), and evolve it along it's own path.

I made this post because I coach and I am damn proud of the effort I put into it. So, I think it's a joke when someone takes a torch and lights the fire in the form of a 2p2 thread saying something to the effect of "I know someone who had a bad coaching experience, so coaching in general is a scam."

So, the second part of my 5/10 series will go up on Thursday I believe. Although I think the first part was unique in all the great discussion generated from a few plays I chose to make (you should really read the thread HERE if you haven't yet), part two was more of the standard/"boring" me making plays that make you guys go ooh and ahh . So, definitely check out part two when it comes out.


In other news, Danielle and I arrived in sunny Mexico yesterday for a vacation! She had some time off from school, and we have both been working a lot, so we decided to take a relaxing vacation. We were able to get a good rate at the Excellence Club resort at Playa Mujeres, about 25 miles north of the Cancun airport. This is going to be the first trip I've taken in a while where I won't have to worry about putting in work hours, so it'll be really fun to just get away for the 5 nights that we are staying.

So far, the resort perfect and seems to focus on the things that Danielle and I really enjoy (qualtiy facilities, cleanliness, great food, activities, variety, relaxation, pampering ). I'll get some pictures up when I get back. Last night, we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant (they have five restaurants exclusively open for dinner so we are going to try them each once -- eight restaurants total), and they gave us the most amazing dinner coffee in the history of the world. They brought a pushable stove top out, and the chef set some brandy on fire in the cups. After heating up some other ingredients in our glasses, he began to pour various alcohol ingredients back and forth between two fountain pouring cups about two feet apart. Oh, the liquid was literally on fire. So, picture fire flowing back and forth between two cups as the chef lifts one and then the other. I don't have pictures because we didn't bring a camera to dinner, but that will definitely be changing for the rest of the trip! The end package seemed to be coffee, brandy, kahlua, vanilla ice cream, and maybe something else I didn't notice.


I haven't played golf in years, but Greg Norman designed a course here so I'll probably saddle up for half a round. Danielle can be my caddy!


I'll still be online during the week, but obviously not with the frequency of which I am now. I've been spending a lot of time in the middle stakes and small stakes NL forums of Leggo, so post some hands and I'll give them some answers! In fact, I've posted a thread requesting SSNL players to list some of the concepts they struggle with. I promise those will participate will not be disappointed!

Well, back to the beach for me.

I just wanted to post to let everyone know that Part 1 of my 5/10 miniseries is hot off the presses. I would encourage everyone to watch the video and then join in the discussion that we are having in the forums. I have already been convinced that I made one suboptimal play I didn't mention in the video as a result of the back and forth banter.

However, the questions I am being asked are fantastic and really allow me to verbalize some very important topics in the form of long winded responses. So, absolutely watch the video Here and join in the discussion Here. It gets everyone better!

--------------------------------------

So, yesterday was Valentine's Day. Danielle and I went shopping on Broadway by Houston street and wandered into a Bebe. As it turns out, the store had just opened on Thursday, and we fit the part enough to be invited to their private opening party that is supposed to consist of media and random special guests/celebrities walking around drinking unimaginably fruity/girly drinks and socializing. It's today at 6 but we are debating going.

For dinner, we went to Eleven Madison Park. This restaurant was our first experience with ritzy French food in NYC, and it went about how we expected it to. Great service, relaxing atmosphere, and overpriced food. Actually, they tried to sit us in this crappy table where we were both facing the same direction, and we asked them for a different table. Impressed by our request, they moved us to the best table in the house (they mentioned that "team members" get this table when they come in to dine, and also bluntly said it was the best table a few times ).

We enjoyed the meal, and were all ready for our after-dessert items, when the host swung by. He explained that we had another item still to come out, but that we could take a tour of the kitchen if we wanted. I was confused because I had not seen any other guests waltz into the kitchen during our meal, but we graciously accepted the offer. So, we went in and saw the [very large] kitchen, and met the head chef. It was pretty cool to see everything running so effectively yet so precisely, and added a good amount to the overall experience.

On the way out, they sat us at their private lounge and we finished the meal with some macaroons and after-dinner brandy. I'm pretty sure they knew it was a special night for us and added those extra touches to drive home the evening. All in all, it was a fun and special experience and worth trying, but I'm a guido at heart so I prefer Italian restaurants where the waiters bring you bonus dishes because they are worried you aren't full enough from the previous three courses.

So, I went to the tail end of the Borgata Winter Open in Atlantic City. I arrived on Wednesday, and played the 2k HU NL tournament starting Thursday. It was a test of stamina. The average match took two hours, and the bracket was double elimination. Foreshadowing, losing and entering the loser's bracket is a huge disadvantage.

In the first round I drew Gavin Smith and was able to defeat him. In the next round I played a large Italian man name Tommy and was able to win as well.

In the third round, I would up losing to a nice guy named Rob. I thought I played a "B" game, but got him to not care about winning by the end of the match. Starting starts were 25k, and I was down to 8k at one point, but battled back to 17k. At 150/300, he limped the button and I raised to 1300 with AQo. The flop was A53fd and he called my bet. Turn To I bet again and he calls. River 2o I go all in and he calls with 43 for the rivered straight, and I'm off to the losers bracket.

There were 64 entrants into the tournament and only 6 got paid. 4 from the winners bracket, and 2 from the losers bracket. I admittedly didn't think about this as I was playing any of my matches, but realized afterwards that it kind of was critical for me to win my early matches. Had I beat Rob, I only would have needed to win one additional match to make the money. However, now that I was in the loser's bracket, I needed to win four more matches to make the money.

It was around 4:30 PM, and my next match was at 9 PM. I went and hung out with some friends, and then returned to play. Well, the 7 PM match that led into mine went 4.5 hours, so I waited there until 11:30 to play the winner. I played a very nice woman and was able to grind her down for the victory.

In my next match, which started at 1:30 AM I played chook2121 (I think that's his online name). He was the champion of the last 2k HU tournament the Borgata ran. After the match we did the standard "I'm so-n-so online" banter, but during the match I kept quiet when he was asking me who I was. I actually ran a big bluff all in when he donked three times on a montone T3Q flop, turn 3 river x, and he folded J3 face up. I didn't know what he specifically had, but I felt he was pretty strong based on the dynamic (of course I thought he was good enough to fold a strong hand). Additionally, I didn't think he thought I would make a huge bluff as I hadn't done anything but smallish bluffs up to that point. So, I went for it and luckily it worked out.

I ended at 3:30, and want to give a shout of to Jason "Klink." He sweated a good chunk of both matches that night and helped me get through.

I woke up the next day at 9:30 and went in to play at 11 AM against the people who had lost their last match of the day and had been resting since 7 PM. I played the champion from the last Borgata HU tournament (it was a 1k) and was fortunate enough to beat him, so I moved on to the bubble match. I wound up playing Jeff Madsen who actually gets a decent amount of credit from online people for his live play. However, I guess he was fatigued because I sucked out in two consecutive small pots and he imploded. So, I went marching through the money into the final 6. Of course, Madsen won the main for $625k so who's laughing now!

I played Rob again, and played very well this time. The tournament was a very lax environment -- Rob and I each had a spectator hanging out at the table. My dad actually came down for the weekend to hang out so it was nice that he was able to watch up close (although he seemed engrossed with the ponies!). I was dealt a disappointing loss when I got Rob to start shoving 85% of hand with around 20bbs. I lost a 20bb pot A9 < QQ, a 40bb pot A9 < QJ, won a 40bb pot KJ > K8, and lost when I was covered by 1k with A8 < KQ. So, what can you do other than get it in ahead and hope for the best.

The main event was slightly uneventful. I made it to day two and lost when I had a big stack (our table was ridiculously deep stacked, average was probably 65k at this point). I open to 2400 in EP with KK at 500/1k with 110k, Gavin Smith calls in LMP with 250k, an online limit holdem player who was playing every hand calls OTB with 115k, and the BB shoves with 6k total. I re-iso to something like 17k, expecting the limit guy to call because he's literally playing nearly every hand. He does, and I CRAI on a 89J fd board over his bet of 20k (he's betting 100% of the time here). He tanks for a while, says "I'm not good enough to fold this", and proceeds to call it off with 89. I blank and I'm out just like that. I literally left AC 30 minutes later.


Shout out to Kingsofcards (Tom Marchese) for placing third for $190k and Dave Fox for finishing 7th good for $92k.

Other than that, I've been hanging out in NYC. I've met some new friends, and I'm had more video troubles. Apparently, Windows 7 is a different beast than Vista when it comes to Windows Media Player, so I'm trying to figure that out. However, I promise to have those videos out soon!

My prediction for tomorrow is that the Colts will win, but I'm rooting for a good, high scoring game (with the Saints squeaking out in the end).

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to drop in and say that my computer is no longer capable of making videos. I ordered a new one yesterday and it should be here tomorrow or the next day. I have footage for a 5/10 series saved and ready to go.

Additionally, if you would like to play me HU for a video, I am taking volunteers/challengers! Just let me know here.

PCA was fun. ME couldn't get anything going on day 2, got 2nd in some dinky HU NL event out of 64. I'll be in AC for the tail end of the Borgata Winter Open if anyone will be there.

A more detailed update to come!


Greg