I just spent the last few hours doing what I think a lot of casual gamblers do, though I sometimes am not so casual.  Between about 4 sites I played between 10-20 and 50-100.  I won every place I played.  I was running fairly decent.  Funny side affect of the WSOP is that you come home ready to crush souls because you are so pissed that you once again did not achieve your dream (though I am not really sure that winning the WSOP is my dream but that is another story). 

Instead of playing against another human beings intelligence I figured I was up about 3k so I played a little BlackJack.  I was down about 1k at one point and then got even and left.

That right there folks is how a lot of people gamble, their decisions are not based on that many factors other than where they have the most fun.  At no point playing BlackJack did I feel like I was getting a fair shake (even when I was even).  People gamble to escape their reality and provide a little excitement on an otherwise uneventful night.  If I had lost at either really nothing would be different, because the amount of money I would have lost would not have changed my life.

For the vast majority of poker players (and dare I say online BlackJack players) that is the case.

SpreadEagleZipline .com bitches! I actually am planning on popping up some videos once I am home and have a faster connection.  We have some funny stuff basically we were filming people as they were coming off the zipline and to slow down you have to spread eagle, so it kind of looked silly. 

Guy falling off zipline and guide shitting himself thinking he just lost his job .

I moved to Minnesota when I was 18 by 19 I met the woman I would eventually marry and I took her on a roller coaster ride that is still going on today. My first business was simple, there was no fresh shrimp in Minnesota and I thought I would be the man to deliver it. So off I went devising a scheme that involved ice chests and overnight delivery from Northwest Airlines (with a little help from some friends in La. where I am originally from). The idea was good enough, I went to the farmers market and I always sold all of the shrimp but often it was at cost to the farmers at the end of the day. Now that took some hustle but it did not take me away from having to work for someone else.

I am going to skip a few minor hustles but they are all similar to the shrimp idea. Low cost, easy to decide whether or not there was a market. Which brought me to sportscards. I was never really into sportscards as a collector, I was a speculator and I seemed to have a knack for micromarkets that not everyone has. For instance, I was into the business about 3 weeks before I figured out that promo cards were a big thing and they were cheap. All you really needed to do was be in the location they were being given out. So when I went to Chicago (3 weeks into this particular adventure) I saw people selling promo cards for $30 that people got for free when they came into the door. That was a bingo moment. I would go to the next big show and become one of these guys buying cards for $5 and selling them for $30. Then I got a little lucky, fact is, my idea was not spectacular, so I needed a little luck. On a hunch I drove to San Francisco to reap all of these promo cards that I was going to make a killing on. I had maybe $1000 on me, at the most $2000. As I went through the door they were handing out a hockey card, which greatly disappointed me, there was no way I was getting rich off of this thing, and that is when it occurred to me that this was not all that would be given out that day. Randomly they inserted Chris Webber limited edition autographs, I figured that out on instinct and nothing more. Now if I was an idiot I would have seen the hockey cards, got disappointed and went back to working for someone else. I turned about 50 of those cards Chris Webber cards into about $30,000 and that started me off on a journey that eventually saw me in debt over $100,000. A magnificent failure that has made me millions of dollars over the years. The lessons you learn in failure stick with you.

My next business was Beanie Babies as you have imagined by now (given the name). All of these examples have great and colorful stories of a time where I was willing to do anything or go anywhere to make a few dollars. I did not have a real good concept of a time/value equation, I just figured I was making good money and it was not like I had anything else to do with my time. My business partner and I came up with the idea to establish stores to buy Beanie Babies considering that the market was so hot that wholesale and retail were blurred, blah blah blah. While Beanie Babies was a great success I was still in a hole when it started so I did not break the bank, but I did well.

If you are still reading this you might be wondering what the hell this has to do with poker, after all this is a poker blog, right? Stick with me and I think I can make the connection.

Right around Beanie Babies was when I read Advanced Texas Holdem by David Sklansky. So as I was traveling the country opening up Beanie Baby stores I was also playing decent stakes even back then. Pretty much every card room I visited I was playing the highest games available, which usually maxed out at about 30-60 Limit Holdem. There really was not a lot of No Limit Holdem when I started and there were very few tournaments. I mostly was treading water paying for vacations and televisions and such, poker was a hobby but I wanted it to be more, there just were not enough games, not enough suckers and I was not good enough to quit what I was doing daily.

That took me into mortgages during the last mortgage boom, with the money I made from Beanie Babies I was buying a house and needed a small mortgage. I eventually began working with the company I got my mortgage from. I peaked at about 30-40 mortgages a month and it was really the first legitimate thing that I could talk about without feeling awkward. Though it was infinitely uninteresting it was based around markets and numbers and really worked to my strengths. I loved it. In fact, there really is not one thing that I can look back on and say I disliked because almost all of it had me dealing with people and that is what I like to do most.

They say that fortune favors the bold, well it sometimes helps to go broke too. When mortgages began to get slow I started playing more poker. Poker was on television now and I became obsessed with tournament strategy, if anyone can recall there was virtually nothing written on the subject at the time. Since I was a little ahead of the curve on new poker players I took to it well. So well that I quit my job. Folks I am going to tell you right now that is a tough conversation to have with your wife no matter how much money you are winning. Not to mention I had to let go of staff and have other mortgage guys wonder why the hell I would quit when I was doing so well.

Fact was the potential for poker just offered me more and I knew it was something I was passionate about so I would be able to give it my all. I wrote on a piece of paper that I would become a professional poker player before I was 50 and gave it my wife, who was then my fiancee just so she really understood what she was getting into. I have been doing this for about 5 years now. In that time I have moved from micro stakes to the highest limits available and then back to the middle. I have won a lot of tournaments at all levels. I am no huge baller but I am no sucker either. Along the way some people noticed that I had a bit of understanding of how business works and that has afforded me some consulting opportunities, which have been nice. It is a way to not be forced to play poker and as many of you know that is what I spend most of my time doing these days.

All along the way I tried to keep with a forward moving motion. My hustles now have respect for my time and family. I can not for instance just drive to San Francisco for 2 weeks on a hunch. I would challenge everyone playing poker today to consider whether their hustle is dramatically better than it was when you started. Have you plateaued? Or are you maintaining a forward moving motion?

No matter who you are or what you do, you should be getting better. Better does not have to mean you are making more money but it should factor into the equation. Most importantly any hustle is easier when you are passionate about it, if you have lost that passion try and regain it by doing what you like most. Trial and mostly error come easy to me, I am very forgiving to myself. For everyone that is not the case so try and see what works best for you. Your poker game should evolve in a way that has you waking up early because you are so excited about the opportunities that the day presents for you.

One last thing, taking extended breaks can do wonders when it comes to poker. Poker players have not figured out what a lot of people have that burn out is real and that time off from something can help you remember why you enjoyed it so much in the beginning.

There have definitely been some bumps along the way but I am having a good week so far heading into the weekend.. I was up 38k at my last post and then went on a pretty big downswing.  I ran good at 50/100 but ran so bad at 25/50 cap it was unbelievable.  As of right now here is where I’m at for the week: +44k on UltimateBet.. +15k on Fulltilt.  I am happy with my week for sure  I really should have done better on FT.. When I was running bad I added to it by tilting when I should have just quit.. dropped stakes.. and regrouped.. instead I blamed it on bad luck and allowed it to give me an excuse to gamble too much.  One day I will solve that problem and be a MUCH better player because of it..

I still have Saturday and Sunday to close out my week but I doubt I play that much.  It is 3:30 right now on Friday and I still haven’t decided if I am going to go back down to Louisville with my friends for the derby or not.  I feel worn down and might end up just staying here in Indy for the weekend.  If that is what I end up doing then I will probably get some extra time to “work”.  Sunday blog coming soon…

Good Luck,

Matt Humphrey

humphreyin@hotmail.com 

First off I wanted to thank everyone for all of their emails… it’s nice to see that so many people read and follow your progress.  I really haven’t played much since my end of last week mostly because I hung out with friends all weekend but also because I wanted to start my weeks on Mondays for now on.  I probably lost around 8k this weekend playing and ran really really bad in the cap games but it was bound to happen at some point. 

I am still playing some of my best poker but it really is hard not to open up my game too much when I feel like I am running good.  When things go well you sometimes feel like you can do no wrong.. which is true for poker and life in general.  Just as long as I keep starting off my sessions tight and then adjust accordingly the game then I will be fine.  I have played about 3 hours today and won a little over 7.5k.  There was a really bad player sitting at 50/100 CAP PLO and i played him for a little which is where most of my profit came from (6,700).

I am going to head to Louisville on Wednesday to play some in the PLO game down there (10/25)(50 straddle).. golf with a friend on Thursday.. play Friday down there.. and then Saturday is the Kentucky Derby.  I can’t wait to go since it will be my first time and it should be interesting since me and my 2 friends have NO WHERE to stay.. anyone have any ideas?  All the hotels seemed to be pretty well booked for up to 40 miles away.  So I am guessing our plan will be to go to the race then out to 4th street for the rest of the night.  So with all that information it won’t take a genius to realize I won’t have as much time to play online this week as last.  Today, Tomorrow, Thursday and some of Sunday.  I still think i should be able to win around 20k though which would be great and hopefully another 10k in the live games(however, usually it is either win 30k or lose 15k) …lol. 

I am going to try to talk about one hand every post from now on out but today I will just leave you with the biggest pot I’ve ever lost… luckily for me it happened like 6 months ago..  http://www.pokerhand.org/?2513213

Also, if you don’t get rakeback right now then email and I can help you out.

Enjoy Your Week and Good Luck,

Matt Humphrey

Humphreyin@hotmail.com

I have been playing a little more poker lately.  At this point I am so far out of the poker loop that it is almost scary.  I have been playing a lot of Limit Poker lately which is my strongest game.  It has been interesting one of the guys that I did not think was very good and that I have a significant edge over has been playing 200-400.  There are times where I play Heads Up well but I think I am actually a lot better 3 and 4 handed.  The person I am thinking of is a friend so I have stayed away from playing him.  The funny part is he likely thinks the same thing about me so I highly doubt he would mind the action.  Lately though I just can not muster the desire to play anything more than games that are basically just killing time.  I will say this though, Limit Poker on Cake has to be about the easiest games on the internet.  While I am about break even I do not think that is indicative of my win rate there over time.  The only problem is I am playing 20-40 and the games I would want to beat are 50-100 and higher.  I am sure some of the players are similar but usually that changes the lineup significantly.

It is interesting that the sites have started this nuclear war of high stakes poker, essentially causing a lot of players to go bust.  Personally I do not think there should be any game higher than say 10-20 NL online and 50-100 for Limit Poker.  The reason is simple, it will keep more money in the poker economy.  Sure a few players will miss the nose bleed stakes but what is happening now is people on tilt are essentially just blowing out.  I doubt any card room will make that change but it would be smart if they did and likely better for the long term health of poker.

This probably should not be the third item in a rambling blog but here it goes.  In the next month my hand replayer/stats analyzer should show its face.  It has been a long time coming but I think we finally got this right and if we did it should change poker in a major way allowing people to share hand histories easier and even allowing them some robust stats analysis.  We are still trying to nail down how we can make money off of it but I am pretty sure if we do it right that will not be an issue.

Just a quick update.  I ended up playing some online poker today once I arrived since there wasn’t much else to do …..and I am glad I did.  I started off playing 2/4 PLO on FullTilt but the games weren’t very good and it was a MAJOR grind, I ended up losing around 300-400.  Then I got onto UB and played some 5-10 PLO and played for about 3 hours and won close to 10k.  I will give exact numbers at the end of the challenge.  I will probably keep playing on UB since it is going so well on there and the games seem to have A TON more action.  Anyway, me and my friends Pat and Josh are about to head to Bellagio to eat at Noodles then maybe some poker.  I hear they have a pretty juicy 25/50 PLO game thats been going.

Good Luck,

Matt

I will change some of the info and names to make it not so obvious as to who the people are but this is one of the funnier stories (I am not sure if funny is the right word really) I have heard in a while. 

Two guys had basically been playing one account on Full Tilt and agreed that they would not take any out except for living and traveling expenses.  They also decided that they would travel the circuit playing tournaments and then playing online, which brought them to the Borgata.  Both of them had run well and their account was at 200k.  I am not going to bore you with the details because everyone knows what is coming.  They thought they found a soft spot in the 300-600 game playing limit poker.  Within 24 hours their account was dead bust.

This is where the story gets interesting maybe ironic (ok, funny really is a bad choice), the way the scene is described is almost like the end of a good war scene.  Fog everywhere, people walking around muttering wondering what just happened, that type of scene.  It was pretty clear that was all these kids had to the world.  At one point the bigger kid starts getting real angry and upset, his face turned a color of red (this is what I was told) faces shouldn’t turn.  At that point there was no reason in his mind.  If you have never been to the Borgata it is all glass, in his rage he ran at the glass as hard as he could trying to jump out (OK, now I feel like a bit of an ass for thinking it was funny).  As he hit the glass his head hit first and since he was not the first destitute gambler to think of this particular way to die he bounced off of the glass knocking himself out cold.