Woke up this morning and went for a jog. I've been going to the gym off and on for the past six months (obviously more off than on, most recently due to injuries and illness) but this morning I decided even if I couldn't get to the gym I should at least make some effort to exercise. It was definitely less pleasant than the air conditioned cardio I usually enjoy at the gym, but that's the point. I'm actually excited to work this into my routine more often and see some improvement. The hills around here should whip me into shape in no time.
Yesterday was my day off and I spent it mostly reviewing and studying, as well as the greater part of this morning. I won't lie; I found time to sneak in some Black Ops and BC: Vietnam yesterday. Speaking, does anyone that reads my blog play either of those games on Xbox Live? Hit me up and we play sometime, my gamertag is bearNP.
So no complaints or great stories to share this time; but I would love to hear more feedback from those of you reading. Suggestions, shouts, insults, leave a message ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx-S83J_9yc
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Super Sunday
Quick update for those interested before I begin my Sunday; I went with my fiancée and her friend to Disney World on Friday. We had a really great time, which was surprising since I've always considered Disney World to be "children's parks". I guess I've finally grown up to the point where being hurdled through the air by tons of steel doesn't seem as appealing as it once was. Epcot is definitely my favorite park, I love the different countries and the architecture seems really authentic compared to pictures and movies I've seen. It's like a mini-vacation to Europe (and a few others) within my own backyard. It should also come as no surprise that Germany was by far my favorite country, and dinner there was awesome. The community style bier hall buffet was a nice change of pace from conventional dining settings. After dinner we stayed and watched their fireworks presentation which was by far one of the best if not THE BEST I've ever seen! I highly recommend this experience to anyone who hasn't been. Here's a few of my favorite photos from the afternoon; I hope everyone has an awesome Sunday grind! Ship somethin'~
P.S. If you are reading this and not following my blog, please sign in and take the time. It would encourage others to do the same and eventually I'm going to do some giveaways (Free Tilt money, private tournaments, coaching) to my Followers, so I want everyone to qualify for those promotions. Thanks guys I appreciate your support!!!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
So I decided to start a blog...
All of these other cool kids have blogs so I figured that I may as well start my own. I'm not huge on being public about seemingly trivial shit, however, it's has occurred to me that it would be unwise to not take advantage of such a great way to network with other players and market myself as at the same time. So here I am. I guess a little intro would be in order; my name is Brad, I play online poker full time at Full Tilt Poker. My player-name there is gbb187, but if you've made it this far I'm sure you already knew that. I started playing at Full Tilt in October of 2009, depositing ~$100 with the intentions of grinding single table tourneys or microcash to buy myself a new laptop.
My experience with poker prior to this included some limit cash on PartyPoker (before I turned 18 I found 2+2 and bought a few books, SSHE being the one I read the most. I was sure that I could make a fortune playing Limit Hold Em online). Shortly after I turned 18 I registered to PartyPoker and ran $50 up to 300ish in a few days and thought I was rich. I immediately cashed out most of the money and went to Spring Break with a few friends. Other activities were on my mind at that young age, and for some reason I just never really grasped how important it should have been to pursue poker. I got offered what was basically my dream job at that age (working the desk at an online gaming center) and the events that followed in the subsequent years kept me from ever exploring poker more than the occasional bar league game, home cash, or odd $50 donking online. UIGEA also had me thinking poker was illegal for a while so I just let go of the idea entirely (lol).
So here I am fresh into poker again in 2009 after a long hiatus and a friend had told me how well he was doing playing cash so I thought, hell, if this guy can do it, I'll have no problem! After I blew my first two 30$ buy-ins playing cash I reconsidered my plan heavily. I wasn't going to give up but I definitely needed to re-evaluate how good I was. I decided tournaments would be less variance for my BR (lol) and started playing $3 9 mans. Thankfully for me those players just happened to somehow be worse than I was and I showed a very slight profit, which coupled with the little bonus money I was earning, was enough to keep me afloat until one night in Novemeber when something special happened. With the help of Kyle "I GRIND THIS" O'neill I managed to take down 2nd in the Daily Dollar for 1k. Now I was rolled, and I vowed to myself that I wouldn't leave the 3's until I knew for sure I could beat the 6s. Kyle, being a 180man grinder on stars, suggested I play the 90man kos as they were similar payout structure. He armed me with some basic advice and there I was, off on my own to start carving out a destiny. Progress was slow. I was a winner, but not by too much. I posted on 2p2 fairly often, but found myself frustrated with how little I seemed to know compared to the rest of the posters, and also by the fact that I had to post so many hands because I had so many questions it made me seem lazy I guess. I knew my approach to getting better had to change.
I knew 2p2 had a coaching section, though I had never looked in it, and had no idea what to expect. I knew some players were "backed" and coached, so i thought to myself maybe I should look into this and see what my best options would be. I found a post by none other than BIGNATE904 himself, advertising cheap coaching for 90man KOs. It was like destiny, a winning player offering affordable coaching in the tournaments I was already playing. Nate and I worked out an agreement where we traded services and I began to see immediate results.
At this point, I had a daytime job that I was beginning to resent slightly, not only because I was now a hot-shot micro-grinder raking in ~$50 a day PLAYING A GAME, but because the management of this said establishment was less than rewarding to the few employees who actually tried to make it work. I guess subconsciously this lead to me making a moral (albeit stupid if I wanted to keep my job) decision to inform the owner about some of the shady going-ons at the establishment. People were unhappy once they learned about that and it lead to the manager firing me for reasons that she herself could not even come up with. At the time I was a bit devastated, as I was not quite ready to put all of my financial dependence into online poker, however, in hindsight it is these moments in where life thrusts you into the river, truly sink or swim, that creates who you really are, I suppose. At least it sounds good anyways :)
I once again had to tell myself that no matter what I could not screw this up. Since then I've made a few more friends in the community, moved up stakes, worked in some more MTTs, and have enjoyed more success doing this than I could have ever dreamed of. And yet still, my success pales in comparison to most of well known grinders. I have a lot of work to do, but I love it, and I'm excited to see what the future brings and now also excited to be able to share it here! If you made it this far, thanks for reading :)
My experience with poker prior to this included some limit cash on PartyPoker (before I turned 18 I found 2+2 and bought a few books, SSHE being the one I read the most. I was sure that I could make a fortune playing Limit Hold Em online). Shortly after I turned 18 I registered to PartyPoker and ran $50 up to 300ish in a few days and thought I was rich. I immediately cashed out most of the money and went to Spring Break with a few friends. Other activities were on my mind at that young age, and for some reason I just never really grasped how important it should have been to pursue poker. I got offered what was basically my dream job at that age (working the desk at an online gaming center) and the events that followed in the subsequent years kept me from ever exploring poker more than the occasional bar league game, home cash, or odd $50 donking online. UIGEA also had me thinking poker was illegal for a while so I just let go of the idea entirely (lol).
So here I am fresh into poker again in 2009 after a long hiatus and a friend had told me how well he was doing playing cash so I thought, hell, if this guy can do it, I'll have no problem! After I blew my first two 30$ buy-ins playing cash I reconsidered my plan heavily. I wasn't going to give up but I definitely needed to re-evaluate how good I was. I decided tournaments would be less variance for my BR (lol) and started playing $3 9 mans. Thankfully for me those players just happened to somehow be worse than I was and I showed a very slight profit, which coupled with the little bonus money I was earning, was enough to keep me afloat until one night in Novemeber when something special happened. With the help of Kyle "I GRIND THIS" O'neill I managed to take down 2nd in the Daily Dollar for 1k. Now I was rolled, and I vowed to myself that I wouldn't leave the 3's until I knew for sure I could beat the 6s. Kyle, being a 180man grinder on stars, suggested I play the 90man kos as they were similar payout structure. He armed me with some basic advice and there I was, off on my own to start carving out a destiny. Progress was slow. I was a winner, but not by too much. I posted on 2p2 fairly often, but found myself frustrated with how little I seemed to know compared to the rest of the posters, and also by the fact that I had to post so many hands because I had so many questions it made me seem lazy I guess. I knew my approach to getting better had to change.
I knew 2p2 had a coaching section, though I had never looked in it, and had no idea what to expect. I knew some players were "backed" and coached, so i thought to myself maybe I should look into this and see what my best options would be. I found a post by none other than BIGNATE904 himself, advertising cheap coaching for 90man KOs. It was like destiny, a winning player offering affordable coaching in the tournaments I was already playing. Nate and I worked out an agreement where we traded services and I began to see immediate results.
At this point, I had a daytime job that I was beginning to resent slightly, not only because I was now a hot-shot micro-grinder raking in ~$50 a day PLAYING A GAME, but because the management of this said establishment was less than rewarding to the few employees who actually tried to make it work. I guess subconsciously this lead to me making a moral (albeit stupid if I wanted to keep my job) decision to inform the owner about some of the shady going-ons at the establishment. People were unhappy once they learned about that and it lead to the manager firing me for reasons that she herself could not even come up with. At the time I was a bit devastated, as I was not quite ready to put all of my financial dependence into online poker, however, in hindsight it is these moments in where life thrusts you into the river, truly sink or swim, that creates who you really are, I suppose. At least it sounds good anyways :)
I once again had to tell myself that no matter what I could not screw this up. Since then I've made a few more friends in the community, moved up stakes, worked in some more MTTs, and have enjoyed more success doing this than I could have ever dreamed of. And yet still, my success pales in comparison to most of well known grinders. I have a lot of work to do, but I love it, and I'm excited to see what the future brings and now also excited to be able to share it here! If you made it this far, thanks for reading :)
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