(Pretty long post, sorry.. feeling chatty tonight I guess!)

Hello all,

Brand new to TPE, was previously a sub of PokerXFactor since late 2006 (which is nearly as long as those guys have been around).  Feel like I've learned a lot from their videos over the years, but I felt like I was just ready for a change of pace from what's being offered on PXF currently.  So far what I'm seeing here on TPE has been very good, and I love the fact that I can download vids directly and watch offline – huge selling point for me!!  I have a couple of modded XBOX's running XBMC, so it's pretty awesome being able to watch training videos on the 50″ TV while kicking back on the couch 🙂

So what else… I guess some background info might be interesting enough.  Got into poker on a more serious level right at the tail end of 2006, primarily because I stumbled upon the Aruba Poker Classic while on a trip with my girlfriend at the time.  Funny thing with that story is, I'm sitting in the Philadelphia airport waiting to catch our Aruba flight, and there's this very small Asian man sitting across from us with a hat pulled down over his eyes trying to sleep.  I'm thinking “that guy looks familiar… I think it's Men the Master”.  And sure enough, it was Men waiting for the same Aruba flight.  I'm well aware of all the cheating stores about Men, and his behavior in televised tournaments is well documented… but remember now, at the time I was pretty naive to the world of poker, and this was a cool coincidence to be on his flight.  He was very approachable, and invited me to sit and bullshit about poker for awhile.  So we chatted for probably 10 minutes or so, he tells me how he loves his fans, and he likes to have fun when he plays… “not like Howard Lederer” he says, “who always has a frown on his face”.  Kind of funny in hindsight thinking about that convo now…

I was in Aruba simply for vacaction with the girlfriend, and had no idea the tournament was going on that week.  So for the whole week there was poker and “poker celebrities” EVERYWHERE, and for someone that was already into the game, and very much a fan of it on TV… it was pretty great.  The biggest thing I took from that trip was just encountering many different players and personalities, some young, some older that were just making BANK playing online.  I had dabbled a little bit with online poker prior to this trip, but after having seen some of these guys that were really making it happen online, I was sold.  I came home with a new enthusiasm that I was going to get better, and step up my poker playing efforts both live and online – that's probably around the time I joined PXF.

Fast forward to today, just about 4yrs later…… I've had some decent success in Live tournaments, and some sporadic success with online MTT's.  For awhile I was specializing in single table SNG's, and spent a LOT of time focusing my efforts on them.  I'm probably an 8% ROI winner in those games overall, which is about right as a sustainable win rate in today's SNG climate.  I definitely have NOT put in the volume of online MTT's that I should have over the years, given the actual knowledge I have of tournament play.  I think my biggest obstacle with this has been my own focus factor, and my ability (or should I say inability) to sit and grind out a good structured MTT for 7+ hours when you go deep.  Hell even the non-turbo 180's on Stars take 4 – 5 hours start to finish.

This and bankroll issues over the years have definitely held me back from moving to that “next step” that I felt I would be at by now.  Without a doubt I've done better overall in LIVE casino MTT's, but this is not to say I'm giving up on online MTT's by any means 🙂  In fact, this may come off sounding like a brag (and I guess it is to a degree)… but I've been watching Hitthepanda's LIVE 180-man bankroll builder series, and for the past two nights have been playing some $2.20's to get a better feel for the turbo structure and push/fold ranges.  Last night I had a couple of cashes and final tables, but nothing spectacular – booked a very small win for the session overall.  Then tonight I fired up two $2.20's…. and ended up pulling down two 1st place finishes back to back, in the only two tournies I played for the night.

Granted, I was running like God… my AK all in pre for right around 20bb over a standard raise cracked AA when I hit trip K's, and one or two 3-outers along the way.  But without a doubt, I was playing a different style after watching these vids then I had normally played before in turbo 180's.  I never really played them as a push/fold game simply looking for good spots with +EV hands when you have as much as 15-20bb.  Always played them more like a standard MTT, and in the process looking back at that type of strategy, you simply don't find enough spots with premiums to get your chips in due to the fast nature of the turbo structure.

So before I go on typing away all night, I'm gonna wrap up this post.  Looking forward to being part of the TPE community, and getting involved in some good strategy discussions.  Always just kind of lurked on the PXF forums, but looking to change that up and be more active on this forum.  Hope my post entertained you guys a bit, and didn't put anyone to sleep 🙂

PA_Kid