Thanks to using most of the tips that I learned from the WPT Boot Camp that I attended, I finished August in the black.

September was starting to look like a different story.

I started out playing on various sites, trying to find which online sites contained softer tables for me to play on (meaning that they have people that played worse than I do).

I played on three different sites, DoylesRoom, FullTiltPoker, and Bodog Poker.

I lost two out of three sessions on Doyles.
I lost two out of three sessions playing “Rush Poker” on FTP.
I lost two out of three sessions playing on Bodog.

This was not at what I wanted to see after taking the two day WPT Boot Camp for cash game players.

It wasn’t until my last three sessions at FTP that I started to see the results that I had hoped for.

Overall, I have played twelve sessions in September; 7 losing, 5 winning.

As I look back over my sessions, I did see that I had not always stuck to using the methods learned at the camp. I would also let my emotion cloud my judgement and continue to bet or raise when it was clear that my opponent was calling because they had the better hand.

I also learned that playing on the Rush Tables on Full Tilt was probably not a good idea. Since players are moved from table to table after folding their hands, it was hard to build a table image. Also at the stakes I was playing, .02/.05 and .05/.10, some players would play any two cards.

I had one Rush Table game where I had KK and raised to 4x BB (four times the big blind) in order to try to get most of the players to fold. I had one caller, a larger stack than mine call. The flop was 789 of spades. That was not a good flop for me, but I still placed a continuation raise of about 3/4 of the pot, which was about 10% of my stack. A three of diamonds was the turn card. I again put in a raise of about 3/4 of the current pot, which now was about 25% of my stack. My opponent re-raised an amount which would put me all-in and I called.

He turned over 10s, 2c, giving him both a flush draw, a straight draw, and a straight flush draw. Using an odds calculator later, I saw that my pocket kings had more than a 65% chance of winning. But my opponent hit his miracle card of a 5 of spades on the river to make a flush, winning my entire stack.

I tried not to get too upset, but, I sorta felt like Phil Hellmuth: What was this guy thinking of calling my raises and re-raises with just a 10 – 2 off-suit. I had no idea what he was thinking and I will probably never know.
That was my lesson learned. So based on my bad experiences on the Rush Tables, I decided that I will stick to regular cash game tables.

Have you learned by playing what works and what doesn’t? How do you find what tables you should play on? Do the stakes matter – micro versus low?

Using Social Media Tools, I probably follow over 150 Poker Pros around the world.

I use Twitter, Google Reader, and Facebook to follow Pros that I find interesting.

Interesting, a majority of the Pros have large followings of Wannabes,  such as myself, but they do not necessarily follow many people themselves.

In the cases where I Tweet or Re-Tweet messages to or about these Pros, for the most part I get no response.

And that is ok. I get it. No problem. I mean if I had thousands of  followers tweeting me every day, I would not have time to play poker, let alone live a normal life (such as it is for a poker pro).

There are exceptions, as there are many thoughtful and authentically nice pros that feel they should respond back.  Thank you for taking the time to do so, but, you do not really have to do so for my sake.

Currently there is one pro poker player out there that is creating a fan base and a following that has me totally amazed. He appears to follow back almost everyone that follows him. You don’t see that very often. Even I follow only about 66% of the people that follow me.

For him, that appearently is a Win – Win situation. Or should I say Win - Nguyen?

I had not been following Scotty Nguyen until this years 2010 WSOP Main Event.

After I started following, I saw that Scotty Nguyen was very proactive in talking with his fans. He Tweets almost daily. Weekly, he offers a new Fan Picture of himself or him and his family.

Scotty has a complete merchandise line of “The Prince of Poker” going for him. He also sponsors contests with the prize being Scotty allowing a fan to interview him and have that interview posted on Scotty’s website.

He is using all the tools of Social Media at his disposal and he comes across as genuine and interested in others – check out his blog!

And his “baby” counter would be off the wall if you kept of each and every time he said “baby”.  Thank you Scotty, you are “The Prince of Poker”.

Do you think that this has improved Scotty’s image in the poker world?

Do you have any poker pros that you follow that are interactive with their fan base?

What would you like your favorite poker pro to do differently?

I have decided to start posting again. It may take some time for me to get back up to speed and to have something that might peak your interest. Or is that peek?

I know that I should post more – because that is a sure way that  I can get more traffic. And with more traffic, hopefully I will get more answers to questions that I have.

See Chris Brogan’s post – “One Big Traffic Secret“.

When I listen to my son, good things happen.  Amazing how life changes.

I have noticed of late that many of the poker bloggers that I follow have also slowed down.  Have we been drinking the same water? The biggest surprise to me was Doyle Brunson’s blog, last post was December 7th, 2009. How did I miss that?

I have Google Reader following over 150 poker related blogs, not counting my Social Media groups, Arts & Crafts, New Feeds and other fun stuff so I guess that I am not very observant after all. (And I wonder why I lose at playing poker).!

Have you slowed down your blogging? What has caused you to slow down or stop? What are you missing or what did you want to achieve?

Some time has passed since the end of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. It has also been over 3 weeks since I returned from the WPT Boot Camp for cash games.

Has the training changed my game?  Yes it has.

Has it changed my results?  Not noticeably. I might be losing at a slower rate than before.

Would I recommend going to a boot camp for poker? Yes I would.

I think it would help a losing player as well as a winning player.

A few years ago No Limit Holdem was played slightly less aggressive than it is today.

Too many people have seen either “Poker After Dark”, “The Big Game”, or other similar shows.  They have seen Tom Dwan raising under the gun with 10 2 off suit and win the pot.

To counter that trend, it requires that a poker player adjust his game to match the reality of what is currently being at the tables.

Has your game changed over the years?

Are you an ABC type of player?

Are you keeping up?

I spent two enjoyable and information filled days at the FoxWoods Casino attending the WPT BootCamp for Cash Game Players. There were 40+ attendees with almost 20% of the audience being female.

Our instructors were:  Lee Childs, Rick Fuller, Nick Brancato, and Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch.

Rebecca Joy, Event Coordinator at WPT Boot Camp, was the person behind the scenes that help to make things happen. Thank you, Rebecca.

The training took us from Pre-Flop play right down to river play.

The format was lecture, questions and answers, and then labs for each topic.

We were all giving a chance to play several hands of No Limit Holdem poker and then explain why we took the actions we did.

Being able to discuss my game was great and the pros told it like it was.

I took back some great ideas and concepts that I will work into my game.

I will let you know how it works out.

Have you ever had a chance to talk with the pros about your game?

What would you most important question be?

Do you feel it would help?

In just one week, I am going to be at Foxwoods for a two day WPT Cash Game Training Boot Camp.

How does one prepare for a training camp?

I am doing so by reading about poker, playing cash games, listening to podcasts and videocasts and just thinking about poker.

The training was a gift from @ChrisBrogan and Katrina Brogan and family and I am very thankful for the opportunity.

My training instructor is going to be @LeeChilds.

I realized I have posted about this before, but, now I am really getting excited about the prospect of face to face time with poker pros concerning how I play my game and what can I do to improve it.

Have any of you been to boot camps/training camps?  What has your experience been? Has it improved your game?

Update:  The list of instructors is as follows:

Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Lee Childs, Nick Brancato, Rick Fuller

Recently PokerStars started what they thought was an original idea, a “twitter poker league”.

Well, I hate to tell them, but the “Twitter Poker League” has been around a lot longer and has been on twitter a lot longer.

Best yet, there is no charge to be a member. Plus there are all kinds of rewards and camaraderie that cannot be measured in monetary amounts!

Check out the Twitter Poker Tour, the original Twitter poker league!

I think you will see that the “TPT” is the one.  Check it out and let me know what you think?

OhCaptain has planned and oranized a charity event to benefit the Ronald McDonald House charity. $5 of your buy-in goes to the Ronald McDonald House.

here’s the details:
Date: June 16
Place: FullTiltPoker
Time: 9PM CDT (Same time as Mookie)
It will actually be running in place of the Mookie. BDR will be broadcasting it.
Charity: Ronald McDonald House
$5 + $5(Tournament, charity)
Password= vegas1
Tournament#= 164273435

See the entire post by OhCaptain by following this link!

Give something back by playing. Dead money is accepted (if you don’t play).