Feeling good

I can't help but wonder how some people can be so unhealthy when playing poker. I totally understand that it is probably convenient as we sit at the table for hours to order food to the table and eat there. I see guys that are way overweight, drinking soda, eating burgers and fries on a daily basis. Even though they might be successful at the time, I do not see it as a recipe for success in the long run!

It is proven that a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise increases stamina and focus. Not only that, I also believe that heart attacks, high cholesterol, some diabetes & some cancers are directly related to what someone eats. If you are going to eat bad and eventually get sick, how are you going to produce at the poker table?

It just takes a little of willpower and very little time to eat right and stay active. I personally eat a vegan diet, which I believe to be the healthiest of all. But while you might not be ready to go 100% that route, eating that way a few times a week or adding veggies to your menu will definitely make a difference on your health! When ordering at the table, there are plenty of salads to chose from, soups or anything that is low fat & has a side of veggies would work. Please stay away from fried stuff, greasy fast food and simple carbohydrates (sugar, white pasta, white bread). Also, it only takes an hour of your day to exercise! There are so many fun ways to do it too: Hiking, yoga, walking, jogging, gym or any sports such as tennis, baseball and hockey. The hardest part is actually putting your mind into it! Once you find something you like, it's actually fun, it feels good and gets you out of the house.

Obviously, drugs and/or alcohol on a regular basis are also a bad idea. There is no way your brain can function properly if you are affected or on the after affects of drugs or alcohol. Even if it seems like a no-brainer, I keep seeing it and sadly those people eventually come out losing.

Feeling good is everything when hitting the tables. If you feel good, you will make the right decisions, you will be focused and in the end you will be a winning player.

Cash games: Table selection

Remember the real state saying: Location, location, location? Well, I couldn't agree more in regards to poker. Table selection is everything in cash games if you want to show a continuous profit.

Since the WSOP, I have been focusing back on what I do best: cash games and I’ve been on an amazing winning rush this whole time. I started to think I was indestructible. However, can you be that lucky for that long or is there something that you do that others do not?


I know that I am really good at selecting the right game. I usually play small to medium stakes game, anything between 1/3 NL, 2/5 NL and 5/10 NL. I strongly believe that I was not "lucky" for two months straight, I just picked the softest game and kept showing a profit in the end. When doing so, one must leave the ego at the door. Let me give you some examples:

-If you sit in a smaller game while waiting for a seat in the bigger one and start winning very easily, when the seat does open up in the bigger game, there is NO reason you should take it. If you are running over that lower stake table, stay there. You are in it to make money, and you are.

-If you are playing in a game and you know all the players and they are all solid, why would you want to play that game? You want to pick a softer one. It's OK if there are a few solid players at the table, but you need a few that are weaker so that you get paid off when you do get a great hand. There is nothing worse than flopping a monster and having a great player making a hero fold with the 2nd nuts!

-Look around the casino... which table is having fun, drinking, gambling & playing big pots? That's the table you want! No matter what the limit is, as long as it fits your bankroll, jump in!

-If things are not going your way, do not hesitate to ask for a table change. If there are no good games, you are not doing great and it doesn't look like it's going to improve: Quit! Come back later, go to a different casino or take the day off, poker is not going anywhere. There's always tomorrow!

So that's why I get seen playing different size games. If you call yourself a 5/10 NL player and are not willing to lower your limit to pick the right game, you will encounter many losses on days that could have been lucrative if you had not let your self-esteem get in the way.

Time of the day is also important. Weekends can be good but you have to think that ALL the pro's are out playing. It's important to keep a log of your winnings, but also a log of where and when you play; to know which hours are the best for you.

I personally think that weekends are good in the afternoon. Most man at the table have dinner plans with their wife at around 7pm and only have a few hours to play. This makes them willing to gamble. They will overplay hands to try and make fast money, which unfortunately for them, is not the way to go!

Also on the weekend, most tourist go clubbing, they do not hit the tables before 2-3am, before that time, you will most likely (of course not always) find yourself with pro's waiting for the action to start. Sometimes after 2-3am the game can get really juicy.

Sundays are excellent! If you are not grinding online, you should hit the casino. It's usually most people's last day off and they are willing to play and gamble! There won't be as many games, but they should be great!

Weekdays can be hit or miss. Therefore you must be even more vigilant in your game selection and even more willing to play lower stakes.

Look for casinos with big conventions, after 6pm when their show is over, many business men will play for fun. Look for schedules online and follow the big ones.

Promotional tournaments (WPT, Deepstacks, etc.) also bring great action! They can also be great to follow.

I hope these tips helped you. You don't run lucky for so many months straight; you just pick your spots better than most.

WIPHOF and stuff

I haven't blog much lately; I’ve been spending the end of the summer taking a lot of time off. My daughter was visiting for a few weeks and I didn't play while she was here. I just enjoyed the time I had with her. She went back to Canada last week where she is studying. I am very proud of her.

I went to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony last Friday. This year's inductee's were Jennifer Harman, Kathy Leibert, and Billie Brown. The ceremony had a great set up at the Golden Nugget and was hosted by 2009 Women in Poker Hall of Fame inductee Jan Fisher who did an amazing job. That woman could definitely be a stand-up comedian! They had a silent auction benefiting Poker Gives and a great dinner followed by music and dancing. Ex-commissioner of the World Series of Poker Jeffrey Pollack was the guest speaker. He’s speech was great on women in poker and his thoughts on men crashing the ladies event, which obviously he did not agree with!

I have mainly been focusing on live cash games this week. I have been hopping around to pretty much every casino in town doing what I do best: playing cash games! I have had a VERY lucrative week! My win rate in cash games is extremely high; I sometimes wonder why I even bother playing tournament. Oh wait, I know why, prestige and big prize pools! At the end of the day, cash games are my money maker and I am definitely gonna be putting more focus on them in the months to come. I am not saying that I won't play any tournaments; I just won't play as many.

WCOOP is also going, I cashed in one event but nothing crazy. I will be playing more this week and keep you posted on how it goes. I am also planning on playing the charity event for Poker Give on the 17th at 1pm at Aria. It's a great charity and they have tournaments all month long across the U.S. You can look up the schedule on this link: http://www.pokergives.org/nationalpokermonth.shtml.

Life after the WSOP

It was so nice to enjoy some time off after the six week WSOP rush. I didn't play much poker the last few weeks and just had some ME time, which means lots of yoga, working out, shopping and time with family/pets/friends.



Last week I took a mini vacation to Utah with my daughter and we enjoyed a bunch of outdoor activities. We had an amazing time. We went shopping, to the movies, to the mountains and to a water park. We also tried a bunch of vegan restaurants, including a vegan pastry shop (City Cake and Cafe) that had a huge selection of vegan sweets, so we were pretty much in vegan heaven. My daughter is the one who turned me vegan by showing me some video's on animal abuse. I really enjoy spending time with her. We are on the same page on so many issues and we have a great Mother/daughter relationship.



While in Utah, she suggested that we go to a homeless shelter to play with the kids and read them bedtime stories. So we did. It was heartbreaking to know the kids where homeless. However they were happy, they looked at us with the biggest smile on their face. Most of them were excited to have us there and spent as much time as they could with us. I will never complain about a bad day, especially after seeing these kids make the most of their situation. It was a very humbling experience.


I am now back and planning on working a tight poker schedule. There are a few online tournaments that I am planning on playing on a daily basis; in the evenings I will concentrate on cash games (online and live). I also want to improve my mix games; I am really into Razz right now. Obviously, Sunday will be all online tournaments. The nice thing is that I will be home a lot more. I’ll be working a crazy amount of hours, but that doesn't bother me.
I already had a few cashes and two final table, including one win, in the last two days so it's definitely a good start.

WSOP 2010 coming to an end.

I played the WSOP main event last week. I was so excited to play and felt so good about how I would do but somehow, I ran so bad that day and nothing was going my way. I actually can't remember the last time I had such a bad day in poker! AA then KK cracked, Top 2 pairs were no good, draws would not come, I missed most flops and my bluffs were getting called or raised. I lost pots after pots. The worst part is that I had a really easy table draw. Except for Michael Binger, none of the players at my table were pro's and I really was wondering what a few of them were doing playing a 10k event as they were pretty bad players! But luck was on their side not mine. Even though I kept positive that everything would turn around and stayed focused, it didn't and I was eliminated on day one after dinner break.

I took the week off from poker to regroup and relax. Except from playing a few online tourneys when I got really bored, I mainly focused on catching up with friends and spending time at home with my pets. I needed that... The last few weeks have been crazy and exhausting to say the least!



I did go to a few WSOP closing party last week end. Poker Listings was hosting a house party for the departure of Lara Miller last Saturday. For those who do not know Lara, she is a personal Publicist. Her list of clients includes some of the big names in poker such as Phil Helmuth, The Brunson's and Erica Schoenberg just to name a few. She is totally addicted to adventures and has decided to leave everything behind and go on a world trip, where she is going to volunteer and help people in need. I admire her for her courage to just turn the page and do something that she truly wants. You guys can follow her blog at http://www.vagabondlara.com/. It was a beautiful setting, the party was great and a lot of people came to give her farewell. She will be missed!

The following night I went to the Pokerstars private WSOP ending party with special guest Snoop Dogg. It was held at Rain nightclub at The Palms. I went with Tom McEvoy, His beautiful wife Yolanda and my girlfriend Demetria. The place was packed! It definitely was a lot of fun, Snoop's Performance was great and to top it off, at the end of the night as we were leaving, Demetria and I got invited to meet Snoop Dogg. So we met him, took a few pics, but to be quite honest, it was not our scene! There were about 20 groupies in there wanting to meet him, the room smelled of... Hum, hum... you know, this "thing" he is known to enjoy smoking and it was a bit awkward. So we left shortly after meeting him, happy that we did. It was just a fun night overall and I am glad that I went and caught up with friends.




I have a few friends still going strong on day 6 of the main event WSOP. I think it would be awesome to see Michael Mizrachi win another championship bracelet this year but I am also rooting for Adam Levi, David Benyamine, Jean Robert Bellande and Joseph "subiime" Cheong. I can't wait to see who will be the final nine!

I am taking the week off and will be back at online grinding after the week end. I am excited about a few things to come in many aspects of my life. I will keep you all posted as they develop.

This year is a good one!

Living the dream!

My head is spinning trying to think of everything that's happened since my last blog!

Well, for one thing, there was lots and lots of poker. But what else is new? Oh yes, I got back to practicing yoga... And it's totally awesome! I find that when I go through stressful periods and I have lots on my mind, all I need to do is just go to a yoga class and through stretching, doing the poses, breathing and meditating, everything seems to clear up and then it becomes obvious as of what I should do and where I should put my focus. It's hard to explain but as I let go of what's on my mind, the answers come to me. I used to do heaps of yoga and the 2 studios I liked going closed down so I stopped practicing. I found a few new places lately that I have tried and liked and I am definitely back into it. I feel so much more empowered and relaxed after a good class!

I have also tried very hard to get into the WSOP main event. From backing deals to trying and satellite my seat. I did not want to spend 10k on a seat, as much as I believe in myself, a lot can happen in a tournament that is beyond my control and the price of that tournament is way over what I allow myself considering the size of my bankroll!!

So this week, I grinder my way up...I played a one table satellite for $175 and chopped it where I got about $800 and decided to invest in the $550 mega satellite. I didn't do too well in the first one but tried the same routine the following day. Now, you guys have to understand that lately, I have been doing a lot of visualization about the WSOP Main Event and I could actually see myself playing it. I felt very strongly about this to a point that it seemed nearly impossible that I was not going to make it. I was extremely positive about playing it and doing well at it. Well, sure enough, as I was playing my second Mega, I got a text from a friend with an offer for a full backing deal for the WSOP Main Event. I was very happy and accepted the offer! Then, of course, with all this boosting, I went on and did really good in the tournament. We made a deal at the end when we reached 27 players and split the total prize pool for $8700 each with a little less for the short stack and more for the few bigger ones (out of 500 entries, 23 players were supposed to be getting a 10k seat). I couldn't be happier! A good cash and a full staking deal on the same night!!

I am obviously all pumped up as I am writing this and can't wait to play day 1-D of the Main event at the World Series on Thursday! In the mean time... Yoga, positive thinking, visualization (I actually am gonna sleep with a bunch of chips in my bed to feel being surrounded by them! No joke!) I am totally grateful for all the opportunities that are coming my way and my friends who are cheering for me!

Life is goooooooood!

Women in poker Hall of Fame

I was just looking at the nominations for the induction to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and here are my thoughts:

Betty Carey: Great choice! Although I have never played with her, I have heard of her and she is one of the pioneering fearless lady players.

Phyllis Caro: Seems like she has worked in many different aspect of the industry and as brought a lot to it. I like that.

Nani Dollison: This girl has 3 bracelets and quite a great poker folio! Although she seems to have slowed down in the last 2 years, the previous ones are quite impressive. She is also a supporter of ladies events and plays them frequently.

Annie Duke: With her winning records, her WSOP bracelet, her books, poker video's, charity work and constant teaching and contribution to the game she definitely deserves to be in a Poker Hall of Fame. Maybe not the woman's one though, as she is not a supporter of ladies events. If you look under the rules for elections, under the 3rd rule it clearly states: "Eligible Candidates for Induction — Candidates to be eligible must meet the following requirements:
-Player/industry leader must be a proponent of women's poker. Even is she does not play in women's events, she must support them."

Jennifer Harman: Definitely a good choice, with 2 bracelets, amazing results and charity work. Although she unfortunately does not play ladies events, she does not seem to object to them.

Kathy Liebert: As far as tournament results this girl is quite a machine!!! She has made over 5.3 million in tournament career winnings over the years and is still going strong. She also once was a ladies event player.

JJ Liu: She plays it all... main events, ladies events, mix games... you name the tournament and she plays, and wins too! This lady is always so sweet and well dressed, yet fearless and very aggressive at the table!

My number one pick goes to Kathy Liebert for her constant records, for being the highest tournament winner and her support of ladies events. My second choice is going to either JJ Liu or Nani Dollison for their continuous support of ladies events and for kicking ass at poker! I still have a few days to make up my mind on who to pick. :)

I am definitely looking forward to the ceremony on September 3rd!