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Thursday, November 5, 2009 - Liv Boeree

I’m here at Foxwoods (for those that don’t know, it’s a casino complex in the middle of nowhere in particular in Connecticut) and I’ve been playing three days solid trying to win my seat into the WPT. It’s not going well so far. I got pretty close by winning my way into the final act but then bombed from that so now I’ve only got a day left to get in. Argh! Anyway, gotta keep positive so fingers crossed today’s the day. One good thing that has come of the trip so far however was being invited to go over to ESPN to film an episode of the Inside Deal. Appearing on the show with me was Chad Brown, who’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met through poker. We got to see all the famous studios in ESPN and shown all around the complex, which is HUGE. I’m fairly sure I saw some famous American sports stars but being from the wrong side of the pond I couldn’t tell you who they were! Anyway, the episode is here and ready for viewing… http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4619206

Gotta love our acting! Ahem…

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“This Rock Gathers No Moss”

Monday, October 19, 2009 - Joe Sebok

Man, how time does fly.  Seems like just yesterday I was in LA and then today I’m in…well, LA.  That’s after hitting New York City, London, and Aruba, of course.  Love my job!  I’m a lucky dude, for sure.  I was a little bummed about the Aruba trip though…
 
I managed to last almost to the first break, so that’s something I suppose.  Haha.  I picked up KK after a Layne Flack under-the-gun raise, and an Eric ‘basebaldy’ Baldwin reraise.  Now, I know Eric’s got a hand in the first level there, but y’know, I’ve got two Kings!  I four-bet it and Layne decides to get out of the way at that point.  Eric flat-calls and I really didn’t like it at all.  To make matters worse the flop comes down, Q108(two clubs), which basically means I am in serious trouble against every single hand he would have called with except two Jacks.  Ugh, no good.  I actually caught a break here though as he decided to bet out, thus allowing me to keep the pot small by not raising.  I just called and we saw a turn of the 4 of clubs, which I thoughts was a great card as I had the King of clubs in my hand.  Eric checked over and I didn’t see much point in betting here.  If he had me beat, let’s keep it small.  If I’ve got him, I’m not giving too many outs by checking, so I did so.  Then a great thing happened, or so I thought, the 9 of clubs hit the river, giving me the second nuts.  That’s the funny thing about the second nuts though, someone can have the actual NUTS!  Aya…
 
Eric bet out and I made a crying call.  “Aces with Ace of clubs?”, I asked him.  He nodded and showed them to me.  Ouch.  In actuality though I was pretty lucky that I only lost about half of my stack on this hand.   Sadly for me though, I managed to pick up two Kings again (!) about 15 hands later.  I ended up losing the rest of my stack on that hand when my opponent made quads on me.  Bingo bango bongo.  Out.
 
I was pretty bummed for a little while.  First big UB event after joining the team and I managed the make the least amount of noise possible, which sucks.  The truth is though that busting in Aruba just isn’t as bad as busting anywhere else.  There’s way too much to do to stay down for long, and that was the case as I hit the beach pretty quickly.
 
The rest of the week was a blast, as it always is in Aruba.  Beach, cocktails, sun, partying, and some poker made the week excellent.  Life ain’t too bad…it really ain’t.  One night we actually engaged in the old standby from my radio show days: cocktails and $1-$2 no limit.  This game is always unbelievably sick and always brings a ridiculous cast of characters.  In this game we had myself, Joe Stapleton, Amanda Leatherman, Gavin Smith, Shawn Rice, Alex Schoenberg, and a few other assorted characters.  We all have a penchant for just shoving it in the middle during those games, and this one was no exception.  I was the lucky one that night though, as my hands were continually better (which was strange) and they always held up (which was even stranger), so I made out of the night with…wait for it… a $4,000 win (!!!).  That’s just an absurd win at that level of stakes, so I was pretty stoked.  Sorry, big Gavin!  He shipped quite a bit over to me throughout the night.
 
Lots of work to do now that I’m back home in LA, but no rest for the wicked as we head to Vegas for the Bellagio WPT event next week.  Send me some positive vibeage and let’s make something good happen, ya’ll…talk soon!
 
peace,
J

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Hi All!

Friday, September 18, 2009 - Michaelbinger

It has been a busy week since I last wrote! I’ve embarked on a 5 week multi-purpose/multi-destination trip. First stop was a 4 day vacation in the Hamptons. It was nice and relaxing… had massages, hung by the pool, some online poker. From there I spent a few days in NYC hanging out with friends. Good times. I went sailing for the first time last Thursday… out in Long Island Sound. A friend that I met in Guyana on the volunteer mission I did with Victor Ramdin this summer… Craig, a doctor from NY… has a 37 foot sailboat. It was very windy and wavy, which makes for exciting sailing! Seemed like most of the time the boat was at a 45 degree angle. It’s tough to steer the boat in a straight line in those conditions…

From there I went to Philly for the wedding of my good friend/agent/manager Eric Brewstein and Michelle. I was a groomsman so had to show up a day early for the rehearsal. The wedding day itself was spectacular… there were two weddings: First a Catholic ceremony appropriate to the brides family. After that a Jewish ceremony for Eric’s family. The party afterwards was amazing. I tore up the dance floor all night, which is scary because I usually never dance! But the band, the atmosphere , and the company was that good.

Anyway, this Sunday I played some online tournies and cash games, including the $530 buy-in on Ultimate Bet, which I final tabled and took 7th place.

I am going to film a poker show called Inside Deal for ESPN this week and then off to Raleigh to see my Mom and family. It will be great to see everyone as I haven’t been home since Christmas.

From there to the Borgata for the WPT event, then London for the WSOP Europe, and finally Aruba before getting home in October.

 For now I’m off to bed…
Michael Binger

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Hi from Oklahoma

Friday, August 28, 2009 - Michaelbinger

Hi all,

I am in, of all places, Thackerville Oklahoma. Obviously to play poker :) The Winstar Casino here has a $2100 buy-in tourney with a 3 million guarantee! They have had 4 day ones… Today is the last… Looks like they will end up with 1100-1200 players, meaning there will be an overlay of $600k-800k. That is great value, especially given relatively weak field here. Actually I am very surprised they are able to get such a large turnout for a 2k in the middle of Oklahoma… 
Apparently they have been running satelites for months and to a lot of players in the region this is the biggest event of the year.

Anyway, things have started off nicely… I have triple the average stack early on. But still along way to go and the structure is fast.

Last week I was in LA for the WPT Legends at the Bike… Busted at the end of day 1 with aces versus kings preflop. I then spent a few days at the Commerce playing cash games… Wish I could say it went well, but I ended up taking one of the biggest losses in my life playing 400-800 mix games. I haven’t played that big in a while so it was painful to run as bad as I did.

After OK I am headed home to vegas for a few weeks before a heavy travel schedule in September. NC to see Mom, Philly for a wedding, AC for Borgata, London for WSOP Europe,  then Aruba for the UB classic!

Best of luck!
Michael Binger

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Looking Ahead, Poker and the Road

Saturday, August 22, 2009 - Brandon Cantu

 The past few days I have been looking at my schedule for the upcoming months.  I will be traveling quite a bit and look forward to seeing as much of the world as much as possible each year.  Traveling has becoming one of my favorite past times and has become a traditional post World Series of Poker activity.

Last year, immediately after the WSOP, I traveled to Costa Rica and Nicaragua with my agent and good friend, Matt Palmer.  As I have previously mentioned, I have stayed in Vegas since the WSOP lounging at home, playing a ton on UltimateBet.com and just relaxing.  However, I now have the itch to get on some planes, play some poker and visit some destination spots. 

Looking ahead in August, I will be heading to the World Poker Tour’s “Legends of Poker” at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California on August 22nd.  After winning my second WSOP bracelet this year, I wouldn’t mind making a strong run at another WPT victory. My stay in California will be about a week.

After the Bike tournament, I return to Vegas to quickly repack for the next stop, which is Portland, OR, for my 10 Year Class Reunion.  Though I get back regularly with all the boys and old friends; 3-on-3 basketball tournaments, Holiday parties, some NBA games, etc., I look forward to seeing classmates who I have lost ties with.   All in all, it will be good to be back in my hometown.  Portland weather is perfect this time of year and will be an added bonus to reconnecting with old friends.

After a week or so back home, I will again return to Las Vegas planning to play online before heading out to London for the WSOP Europe.  Two of my good hometown friends, Tony and Dave traveled with me last year.  We were able to travel Europe a bit after the WSOPE and this year should be quite similar.  This year I plan on traveling to Amsterdam, a destination I look forward to exploring for a few days I have free time.  This year I will be traveling with poker player and friend, Allie Prescott.  He and I both traveled to Venice for the WPT event and are going to continue our adventures post WSOPE. 

Once the European travels are done, I will be flying directly to UltimateBet.com’s Aruba Classic, October 3rd – 10th.  I am very excited for this tournament.  Not only because Aruba is beautiful and that I will have friends attending, but that I am a sponsored UltimateBet Pro.  It almost feels like it will be a “home game” for me.  It will be nice to see some of the UB staff I met at the WSOP this summer, as well as play and visit with all the other UB Pros. 

I feel lucky to have the opportunity to see so much of the world.  Safe travels to everyone else that is also making the rounds the next few months.  Good luck.

Brandon Cantu 

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Live poker!!!

Friday, August 21, 2009 - Michaelbinger

Hi all! I’m in LA for a few days playing live poker for the first time in a month… Good to get back into it after a much needed respite! I played the 1k HORSE tourney at the Bicycle Casino on Tuesday. Was doing well until I got set under set in the hold ‘em round to lose more than half my stack. Then got all in with a pat 6-5-4-3-A in Razz on 5th street against someone with 2-K showing… He caught perfect perfect to bust me. But all is good… I ended up winning 2nd place money in a PLO cash game at the Commerce that night. Today I’m playing my favorite game: no-limit 2-7 single draw. It’s a big game with $200-400 blinds and an ante of $100 per person. So far so good I’m up a decent amount. Oh I almost forgot yesterday I had an awesome day… a great lunch with some friends followed by wine and games by the pool. I walked into the Commerce at 8pm and immediately ran into some friends heading out to dinner at this great Italian restaurant (Mozza). Had an amazing 4 hour dinner. Basically spent the entire day eating good food, drinking good wine, and hanging with good people. Hard to beat that! Saturday I’m playing the $10k WPT Legends tourney at the Bike… Wish me luck! Michael Binger

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I’m still here!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - Roothlus

Hey guys. It’s been a wee bit since I last blogged. Not going to lie, I’ve been a blogging hiatus. The WSOP kind of totally consumed me but don’t fret my blogettes, I’m back!  This year’s WSOP was definitely one I’d like to forget. I played 21 events with only 2 cashes for a whopping total of $10k. I will say this though, I definitely ran bad but I wasn’t too happy with my play this year. I had a great year last year with 6 cashes in 17 events so the fact that I didn’t have a great WSOP wasn’t a huge surprise to me. I do think I learned a bit and improved my game throughout it, which is all you can do when trying to get through a rough patch like this.

I saw the Main Event as a last chance to salvage a subpar year but that didn’t go well either. Although, I definitely played excellent throughout the tournament my bustout hand was not my finest moment. I didn’t make a mistake in the hand but I accidentally angleshot and accidentally slowrolled a guy in the same hand. I stress that it was completely unintentional and I would never do that to anyone period. I decided to setmine with 66 against a tight good player and the flop came A96 rainbow. The raiser bet 6800 and when I went to call an extra 5k chip stuck to my fingers and I made it 11800. I was forced to make it 13600. I didn’t mean to do it but it accidentally worked out. So I go back to listening my music and I expect him to take a while. About five minutes go by and I look at him and it looks like he’s in the tank and he never motioned like he was shoving or anything. I look at the dealer and he gives me a blank stare. Two more minutes go by and the dealer motions to me that it’s on me. Apparently he went all in within 30 seconds of my minraise but I never noticed it and everyone thought I was in deep thought. I say to the guy, “I’m so sorry, I call” and flip over my set of sixes. The guy says “It’s cool man” and flips over a set of Aces. LOL. Funny how it worked out. Definitely one of the more interesting hands I’ve ever played.

I took it easy the end of July and wanted nothing to do with poker. At the very end of July I moved to Los Angeles finally. I’m rooming with another poker player, Amak316, and a good friend of mine. I’m ecstatic for the move and I know that I will really enjoy it. We decided to go to San Diego for a few days and I’m not sure which city is better but man is it a close decision.  I’ve even been a decent sleep schedule compared to my Las Vegas schedule. On a good day I’d be waking up at 12PM in Las Vegas. That’s me sleeping in LA. And yes, I know 12PM is still super late but I’m a poker player, whaddya want from me? 

Last Sunday I played had a pretty good win of $38k when I won the 50 rebuy. I’m not joking the person I played heads up could’ve been in a freeroll and been a losing player hah. Even though I really didn’t have to put too much effort into heads up, a win is a win! And there’s no better feeling than winning a tournament. I’m playing the Bike WPT next week and hopefully I’ll carry my online success over to that.  I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. I’m definitely due to make a big live run before the end of the year.  So wish me luck! Next time I talk to you I’ll have a WPT win under my belt ;) . Peace guys.

–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
P.S. Look for upcoming training videos of me at DeepstackUniversity.com

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Greetings Ultimate Bettors!

Monday, August 17, 2009 - Bryan Devonshire

My name is Bryan Devonshire, aka “Devo”, simply for the reason that Coach could say, “Damnit Devo!” and, “Devonshire!” in the same number of syllables.  He was a fan of fitting colorful metaphors into sentences, and a four syllable last name just wouldn’t cut it.  Since then it’s stuck. 

Many of y’all probably haven’t heard of me simply because my exposure to the main stream has been minimal.  I’ve played on one TV table, the 2008 Reno WPT in which I finished 2nd, drawing out my heads up battle vs. Lee Markholt for two glorious hands in which I folded my button in the first and then got it in on the turn stone dead in the 2nd.  At least I bet/shoved the turn eh?  LOL. 

I’ve been blogging for a long time.  I started a personal blog in 2004 to connect with the students I was working with at Gateway Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, CO.  That was the last “real” job that I ever had, working part time and supplementing my income by spending enough time on Party Poker that I was able to collect some of the free money being given away.  I moved from Colorado Springs to Minnesota to get married, that lasted 8 months, and at the tail end of that I went to Las Vegas for the 2006 WSOP.

My start in poker came years before though sometime around the period in my life when girls became interesting.  My dad ran a home game for as long as I can remember, standard kitchen table nickel-dime-quarter games with friends and family.  Baseball, Dr. Pepper, Criss-Cross, and Eight and Twenty-Eight were family favorites.  My grandfather retired in Carson City, NV, and my dad loved the gamble, so I was around casinos usually about four times a year.  Circus Circus was my Disneyland. 

Shortly after turning 18 I wandered into San Manuel Indian Casino and Bingo Hall, played 1-5 no ante Stud, won $65 and thought I was the best.  Made a trip to Pechanga back when they were in the tent (this is 1999), played 1-5 Stud8, won with a strategy of playing any two of three good cards = good starting hand, and then played Caribbean Stud where I said, “It’s weird that they pay more for a flush than a straight, since  a straight beats a flush.” 

I then started college at the University of Southern California as an Architecture major.  I also discovered Planet Poker, bonus whoring, and Fake Surf.  I hit many online casinos for the deposit bonus, bet the pass and don’t pass, meet required bets, then withdrawal.  I walked into the Commerce for the first time in 2000 as a 19 year old, and spend a lot of time climbing the latter to 15-30 limit hold’em where I usually lost it all.  I started keeping records somewhere in 2001, and after turning 21 and finally getting carded, I won 2 tourneys and made one final table in the same weekend.  I won the Hustler morning $30 rebuy, where I thought the rebuy period was a game seeing who could spend the least, loaded my surfboard onto my 1995 Honda Civic, and drove up the coast.  I played in a tourney on Saturday at Chumash Casino in Santa Barbara, a $1k guarantee, and at that final table they gave the 10 of us $100 in red chips.  One $5 blind I think.  You could quit the tourney and cash in your chips any time you had the smallest stack.  I think I cashed out for like $95.  Then came home and won the Hustler tourney again on Sunday.  T’was fun. 

I dropped out of college December 2002, not for poker, but to pursue a career in the wilderness industry.  In the summer of 1999, 2000, and 2002 I worked at a camp called Forest Home in So Cal and loved it.  I also worked with Bel Air Presbyterian Church which had a whitewater rafting program that I was trained in, the company that trained me I ended up working for (Whitewater Voyages), and that led me to Peak 3 Outfitters, now out of business, that offered me a full time position as an “Adventure Guide” with the intention of me starting a whitewater program and them teaching me everything else.  I was trained in Wilderness First Aid, how to guide Climbing, Mountain Biking, Caving, High and Low Ropes, all season Mountaineering, and Lumberjacking.  Unfortunately that summer I spent more time cutting down trees, chopping wood, and getting addicted to Skoal than I did guiding and ended up leaving the company at the end of my first season. 

Jobless I started playing online, and by the time I won my first $10 online donkament in November 2003 I had pretty much given up looking for a job.  Then I went broke in January because it turns out that $1k wasn’t enough of a bankroll to 4 table 3-6 limit hold’em, got a job as an armed security guard in Colorado Springs which turned out to save my life, because my guiding buddies climbed a peak that March that I couldn’t go on because of said job.  On the descent they triggered an avalanche which killed my friend Kyle who was in the lead, right where I would have been had I been there also.  I rustled enough money to get a roll going by April 2004, started the job at Gateway in May (they paid $900/month), and made ends meet through poker along the way. 

In the spring of 2005 I worked as a prop(ositional) player at Buffalo Bill’s in Cripple Creek, CO where I was paid $10/hr plus benefits to play 2-5 spread limit hold’em on my own money 40hrs a week.  Over four months I beat the game for $17/hr in addition to wage, quit to guide the Kern river in Cali in 2005 before moving to Minnesota, and after that self-induced train wreck I found myself at the 2006 WSOP to play tourneys. 

I had been playing 15-30 LHE regularly in Minnesota and built myself a decent little roll which skyrocketed  in event #1, the $500 employees event.  I used my valid Colorado gaming license to enter and two days later took 2nd in my 1st WSOP event ever for $66k.  I then promptly lost $40k back over the course of the summer, flew back to MN to sign papers, pack, and leave, and wanted to live with my brother Jared.  He wanted to get out of So Cal, I wanted to get back west, we wanted to be in warm near water, were thinking Laughlin, and ended up in Henderson as close to Lake Mead as we could get.  I crushed limit hold’em games around town fall of 2006, took 2nd in best all around at the Canterbury Fall Classic, and then won a $300 tourney over Jon Turner by sucking out on his aces at Commerce in November.  I was playing 100-200 LHE at this point and winning, but decided that I was going to play every event in the December Bellagio tourneys and lost most of my strong roll again. 

Then in April 2007 while playing 15-30 LHE at the Wynn, I spied a juicy 100-200 mix game that I told my buddy about, he put me in the game within 15 mins of his arrival, and the biggest fish in the game eventually ended up giving me a shot at playing satellites into the WPT $25k.  In the 1st, a $3k sit-n-go, I busted within ten minutes.  I’m sure he was like, “WTF?!?”  But, on the 2nd, I got heads up with Kevin Song with a 3-2 chip lead, then negotiated a deal where my backer gave Kevin some dollars and we took the seat.  I eventually finished a gross 64th place for $46k after a sick orbit of poker.  We stayed together through the WSOP, I took another 2nd in event 9, $1500 Omaha 8, losing to Alex Kravchenko in very disappointing fashion.  I deserved that one.  By the time the main rolled around he had lost all the money I had won for him by playing big PLO, and since a crazy chick threatened to kill me I skipped the 2007 main and took it on the lam.

I dilapidated the roll again by November 2007 by playing too many big online tourneys, signed with my current backers, had a 50k and a 20k online score in Feb 2008, the 2nd in Reno for 271k, then 12th in the $25k for 131k, and then took a motorcycle trip to Vancouver, BC for the launch of WPT Canada.  I won the first event on my own wasted on Sleaman’s Honey Brown, a $500 tourney for 53k Canadian, which was good news because when I brought it back to the Bellagio then they gave me more American money than I gave them Canadian.

Since then I don’t have much to brag about poker wise, as if I really had much to brag about in the first place, but good news/bad news for me I’ve always kind of put poker 2nd to life.  I have loved poker for the freedom that it’s given me to go and experience the world at the pace that I would prefer to, and it’s allowed me to make more money than any other menial job that I could have pulled off in the last dozen years.  I really didn’t accept poker as a long term thing until last year, as the fluctuation and stress is significantly underrated to those who don’t do this full time.  The ability to generate passive income through poker with the various things I have been involved in has been a blessing, and I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to travel, the opportunity to play on the world’s stage, and the community of friends I’ve met along the way. 

I’ll be firing a unique blog here every week, I hope you enjoy it.  You can reach me at maverickusc@gmail.com or playing on Ultimate Bet as BRYAN_DEVO. 

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Hi all!

Friday, August 14, 2009 - Michaelbinger

It’s been a busy week here at home… between traveling a bunch earlier in the year and then being consumed with the WSOP I have a ton of
real life obligations. So mostly I’ve been trying to get caught up in my life. I have to say it’s a nice feeling being able to see my desktop again!

Also working on getting back into a solid healthy routine… working out every day… either swimming laps or in the gym. And I’ve been enjoying doing some cooking
around the house.

I hadn’t played any poker since the WSOP until this week…. been playing a bit online. Doing well so far in the cash games (including the 7-2 bonus games on UB).

I spent a while today figuring out my schedule for the next few weeks. There are always so many travel options to poker tournaments… and as someone who loves travel and loves poker tournaments sometimes it is hard to say no.
Just in the next month I could go to Macau (APT and APPT), LA (WPT at the Bicycle Casino), Cannes (for the Partouche tournament), Barcelona (EPT), Cyprus (WPT), Atlantic City (Borgata WPT), and Foxwoods (2k Deepstack). Or I could stay at home and play online and play some of the tournies coming up at the Hard Rock Casino. What to do what to do!?!
I’ve realized that sometimes I just need a break and too much travel just wears me thin.  So I decided to pass on Macau (even though I really want to go sometime soon). Instead I’m probably going to play some of the events in LA at the Bike and here in Vegas at the Hard Rock. And definitely the Borgata in Sept. And maybe Cannes and Barcelona! Damn I’m a junky. And of course at the end of September there’s the WSOP Europe in London and then straight to Aruba the first week of October!

Off to watch a movie with my brother…

Best of luck,
Michael Binger

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Focus is the key

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - P0ker H0

From my first days of playing poker, I loved the game!  My love for poker was so intense it was the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last thing on my mind before falling asleep.  I even dreamed of winning big tournaments!  In my early days of poker, I got really lucky and won my very first live tournament I ever played at the Four Queens in Las Vegas for about 20K, and the flame has been burning ever since.  Then about ten years ago, when the online boom hit, it really gave me the chance to take my game to the next level and play full time.  It wasn’t easy, though.  I remember stealing the quarters out of my pinball machines and pool tables at my bar to get money to make deposits to my account just so I could keep playing.

As my luck turned into skill and I became a lot better, I started winning satellites to go play in WPT and WSOP events.  I’ve had many opportunities to experience playing in live events in such places as France, the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America, all across the United States, and of course the best of them all, Aruba!

I started living the dream of playing poker and it took me a while, but I realized my love of playing poker wasn’t as strong as my love of being a poker player. I found myself caught up in all the glamour and excitement of being a professional poker player…… the parties, meeting celebrities, visiting exotic locations, the money and notoriety of it all.   

I think it’s very important for all poker players to stay focused on the game and not the stuff that comes with it. The game is hard enough as it is without all the distractions.  Stay focused and never stop loving the game.  That’s my goal from here on out……Good luck at the tables!

H0

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