McManus is a real last name!

[mikegmi2]

Ah ok yea, like a way of telling the barrels you just smashed or the fireball you just jumped to get out of your way..."on your bike" with your weaksauce.

[lakeman421]

My 4th grade teacher was Mrs. McManus.  This name has been a major influence on my life.  I doubt she ever called me a poser though.

[stella_blue]

My 4th grade teacher was Mrs. McManus.  This name has been a major influence on my life.  I doubt she ever called me a poser though.

As far as you know.   

"Mr. and Mrs. Lakeman, thank you so much for stopping by.  It's always a pleasure meeting the parents of my students.  Robbie is a bright, insightful, and inquisitive child.  He excels in math, science, and spelling.  On the other hand, he doesn't always pay attention, occasionally disrupts my classroom with immature behavior, and rarely turns in his homework assignments on time.  I'm convinced he has the potential to be a straight "A" student, if he wasn't such a poser."

[LMDAVE]

Why was it thought that the name didn't exist in the first place?

[Bliss1083]

Totally unrelated but since wsop was brought up I always thought Jesus ferguson would be a good bill Mitchell.

[lakeman421]

My 4th grade teacher was Mrs. McManus.  This name has been a major influence on my life.  I doubt she ever called me a poser though.

As far as you know.   

"Mr. and Mrs. Lakeman, thank you so much for stopping by.  It's always a pleasure meeting the parents of my students.  Robbie is a bright, insightful, and inquisitive child.  He excels in math, science, and spelling.  On the other hand, he doesn't always pay attention, occasionally disrupts my classroom with immature behavior, and rarely turns in his homework assignments on time.  I'm convinced he has the potential to be a straight "A" student, if he wasn't such a poser."

That was extremely accurate of what my teachers always said about me.

[ChrisP]

Totally unrelated but since wsop was brought up I always thought Jesus ferguson would be a good bill Mitchell.

Yeah well, Chris Ferguson can give me my 700 dollar Full Tilt balance back first.

Of course, Black Friday is the only reason I'm here at all so I guess I got something for my money.

(This is now a poker thread)

[stella_blue]

That was extremely accurate of what my teachers always said about me.

Yeah, my 9th grade history teacher told my parents I was defiant, because I always leaned back in my chair with arms folded, refusing to take any notes.

To the best of my knowledge, he has never survived the L3-2 conveyor stage, even when the free pass is available.   

[Bliss1083]

Chris. Sorry man. I read something about that scam. Not sure but they made characters that could see opponents cards and bet according to what they were up against or fold all together. I forgot all about that. Is that what you're talking about?

[mikegmi2]

No, that happened on UB (Ultimate Bet).  Someone was using a master account to be able to see all the hole cards of the other players at the table.  They basically played it stupidly and won nearly every hand...which got the attention of some of the other smart high stakes players...who did an analysis of like 100,000 hands of this cheating player.  Their win rate was like 100 standard deviations above the average or something ridiculous like that.

I used to play a lot on Poker Stars, and would always wonder if anything like this was going on.  When I finally heard this story, and that they actually tracked down the cheater and somewhat brought them to justice (I don't think the people that were cheated out of their money were ever refunded, but the cheater was shut down)...I was pretty shocked...actually I was floored....I couldn't believe it, but also kinda relieved because my suspicions were true.  I stopped playing online poker after that.

Full Tilt basically got shut down along with many other online poker sites operating for US customers.  Black Friday was the day the sites were taken over by the US Government.  I remember trying to go to Full Tilt and nothing but some generic white webpage with text on it came up.  I guess most of the players never got their money back once the site was shut down.  Total loss.

Sorry you lost some money from that Chris, that sucks.

[lifereboot]

I'm interested in the documentary "Bet Raise Fold" (previously had a working title of "Boom") which covers the lives of rising poker stars before the "Black Friday" April 15 2011, and the aftermath.

BET RAISE FOLD: Official Trailer

I tried playing poker professionally for 9 months through PartyPoker.com, had a good thing going for a while until they started satellites for the WSOP.  I needed to finish top 12 to win a $11,000 WSOP prize package ($10k for the WSOP buy-in, $1k for the trip).  Out of 660 players I placed 28th and I went full tilt after that loss.  Holding AA and he had KK, he raised all in before the flop I called and he tripped up.  I had more money than him so I wasn't out of the tournament at that moment, but I never recovered.  If my AA held up I would have coasted into the top 12, and would have been the youngest player in the WSOP that year.  I also think that my life today would be quite different.

I wrote up a longer explanation of my experience with online poker on my blog, if anyone's interested: http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/how-to-conquer-addiction/

[mikegmi2]

That's weird.  I had a similar situation but in a cash game...with basically the same final outcome.  Same exact hands, my AA vs. KK pre flop, all in, about an $800 pot, K came on the river and I lost.  Went on tilt from there and slowly lost my bankroll over a period of a few months.  Lifetime I am probably even.  Lost about $1000 initially, then built up my account to like $2000...then lost it all back.

People will argue that skill is the absolute main factor for becoming a great poker player, but I feel that is BS.

Being in control of your emotions, and sadly luck, are more important in my opinion.  Anyone can understand poker and play the odds correctly...it doesn't take a genius to understand pot odds and all the math involved...and once you get to that level, that group of people with a great understanding of the game...it's all about emotion and luck.  Emotion is key.  Fear and greed do not mix well with anger.

[mikegmi2]

Is that documentary out yet Shaun?  I would like to watch it.  I guess maybe I should google it.

Speaking of poker crashes, I used to run a charity poker room (never made a dime, but raised about $60k in 2.5 years for local charities, which i'll always be happy about), and ours was a smaller room compared to others, like Snookers Poker Room (started out as a few poker tables inside a pool hall / bar...but the location was perfect, and it grew into the biggest poker room in Michigan...bigger than even the 3 large casinos we have in Detroit).  Well the Michigan Charitable Gaming Division regulated all of the charity poker rooms in the state, up until last September.  At that time, the Michigan Gaming Control Board (the big boys, who regulate the casinos) took over regulation of all charity poker rooms.  I predicted Snookers was going down.  Sure enough, they were out of business a few months later.  Don, the owner of Snookers, was making around $1M a year, maybe more.  There was a $25,000 chip sales cap per day, per charity.  Snookers, at their peak, was running 6-8 charities per day.  It was insane.  All gone now.

Joe Cada, 2009 WSOP winner, opened a room (cough cough, I mean his Dad opened a poker room...you can't play in a charity poker room as the owner...and he wanted to play there to bring in players) a few miles down the road from Snookers, and they were doing well too, but I believe they're out of business too now? 

It's just kinda crazy how these things pop up and do so well, then come crashing down.

One thing on my bucket list is to play in the WSOP Main Event.  Maybe i'll get back into poker after I stop being a DK poser.

[TheSunshineFund]

A few friends and I played part time in Atlantic City about once a month or so off and on for close to 10 years playing as low as 1/2 NLHE and 4/8 Stud to as high as 5/10 NLHE.  Through solid bankroll management and good game selection (this is where it is helpful to be part of a group) I was able to eventually pay for a decent chunk of my house.  I stopped playing once we bought the house back in 2009, but then I saw King of Kong and I found something sort of new to try (rediscover). 

Some people have a regular home game....we had a regular road game....

On my bike......

[mikegmi2]

Nice!  I still have market trading in my sites as a way to do exactly that.  I have been at it for around 10 years now on and off.

Are you saying you reached your goals through collusion?  Or just that your group of friends helped you emotionally, etc.