Finally a Chance...

to "Make it Happen". Years and years ago I had a dream of someday having a shot at making some real money in the poker world. I was able to play in a tournament on television back in 2006 and after failing to win the $500,000 first place I had no choice but to return back to my career in the military (not that I'm complaining about an amazing 12 years in the Marine Corps). I have had small chances here and there to play the game I love but never on poker's grandest stage, the World Series of Poker.

It cracks me up reading back 4-5 years ago on this thing and reliving some crazy trips to Las Vegas to play in cash games and poker tournaments. I have met some amazing people over the years at poker tables from Atlantic City, NJ to Sydney, Australia to Singapore to Las Vegas, NV. I have even had a few offers of sponsorship but have never been able to fully take advantage of them and "take a shot". The time has finally come where I have received yet another offer and I'm at a place in my career where I am able to take a couple weeks off to head out to Las Vegas.

While I will avoid the exact financial arrangements of this poker trip, I will say that I am extremely excited to get this started and finally have a shot at making some life changing money. I am also well aware how difficult it will be to make any meaningful money.

I tried to get this blog going again when I lived in Washington DC back in 2009/2010 and was starting to play a little more online poker but I just never got around to doing it. Now this opportunity has arisen and here I am. Other than some status updates on Facebook I figured this would be the best way to keep people informed of how things are going at the tables.

Like I said above, I lived in DC for a year while I was at Expeditionary Warfare School and never really got the chance to play any live poker. When I was able to, I played some online tournaments here and there on Pokerstars. For those of you who don't know, "Black Friday" occurred last spring and online poker has become a thing of the past for the time being. There wasn't really any poker to write about for the rest of 2010. I also met someone that was competing for a larger and larger portion of my time. About 6 months prior I met an amazingly gorgeous young lady named Jennifer Pitu.

While she still lives in DC and I now live in Texas we are never more than a short 13 hours of plane rides and rental cars apart (sense sarcasm) I am currently an Instructor Pilot at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas with the VT-22 Golden Eagles. We fly the T-45C Goshawk and train the next generation of America's finest Naval Aviators.

I have been stationed here for two years now and with one more year left I have begun to explore options that will get me back to DC next summer (I know Jenn has her fingers crossed)

Other than the flying, I have rediscovered my love for playing poker since arriving here in Texas. I have met scores of people that have local home games and have been lucky enough to have a game I can play in 7 days a week if I desired to. It was after nearly two years that I received a couple phones calls from friends trying to get my email address for a friend of a friend that I played poker with back in the day. I received an email a couple days later with an offer that will finally give me a shot out in Las Vegas. In 5 days, on June 29th, I am flying out to Vegas for 16 days of craziness at the poker tables. I am starting out with some small tournaments between the World Series ($1,000 and $1,500 No Limit Holdem Events) and the Venetian Deepstack Series ($600, $1,100, $1,600, and $2,500 NL Holdem Events) and will fill in the rest of my time with various cash games. My backer has paid for my plane ticket and hotel room for the two weeks but has given me the ability make my own schedule throughout so that I can maximize my playing time, and hopefully, success.

Be sure to check out the blog and on Facebook regularly starting next week for updates.

Last year first place in the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series of Poker was $8.7 million dollars!

The 2012 Main Event starts on July 7th and I will be there...

Poker...

I have been on hiatus from both the blog and the online poker world for a little while. I started playing a little more after New Years. Not a lot of great results. In addition to getting serious about getting in shape I have also began to focus a little more on poker when I get the chance to play it. I KNOW I have what it takes to make some money in this game but have never had any luck online. I have played great in live cash games and tournaments but online I have struggled. Hopefully things are changing! Yesterday made my first final table of 2010 at the $22 6-Max and finished 5th for $555. I was a little disappointed but should know by now that K6 suited always loses to K4 offsuit when it really matters (Dreaded 4 on the River). LOL oh well felt good to outlast 495 of them I guess. Well later today I saw that David "TheMaven" Chicotsky posted that his student, Orel Hershiser, took down last nights $22 Big Ante tourney. Well that was motivation to give it a try tonight and I made my second final table in less than 24 hours. The big difference was this time I was able to outlast the entire field for my first ever online win. I have certainly had bigger cashes but this was the first time I have ever "Closed the Deal". Hears to many many many more of them this year.

I will try and get a "Life" blog out when I get the chance. A LOT has happened since my last posts before Key West in April of 2009. Wow a long time. Till then...

The Pokerstars Monkey Competition

Ok here it is...

Back in January I logged in to play a little poker on Pokerstars.com. Every time you log in there is a quick pop-up letting you know what's new on the site. Well there was a pop-up talking about a promotion that stars was running that involved purchasing a stuffed monkey for 1,000 FPPs. (For those that don't know. These are Frequent Player Point not unlike VIP clubs at casinos. Points are earned for certain amounts of gameplay which in turn can be turned in for merchandise. To this day I have bought 2 Ipods, 13 Poker books, a Bose Sound Dock, Poker Chips, and a $1,000 Cannon Digital Rebel EOS camera.)

This promotion was that if you bought one of these 1,000 pt monkeys you were to go out across the world and take pictures with it. The most creative photo would win 100,000 FPPs. 50K to second and 25K to third. I had been saving up points for nearly 7 months and was up to 96,000 FPPs. My goal was eventually to get the LG 50" Plasma TV for 150,000. I was getting very close when this promotion came up.

I ordered the monkey and received it in late January. As most of you know I was still not flying due to my snowboarding accident at Big Bear the day after Christmas. The deadline for the photo competition was March 1st so I was running out of time. Fortunately I flew the third week of Feb and took the stuffed Monkey along for a ride with me. I took a couple pictures with the damn thing and then took one last one on the deck outside the jet so they knew it was me that took them.

I honestly forgot about it but saw that they were announcing the winners shortly after I got back from my marathon trip to Key West. Here was how I found out initially.

http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/store/promotions/monkey/



Absolutely ridiculous that I won after 4,800 entries from all over the world. So... now I had almost 200,000 points in my account and it was time to get a badass TV. Well I looked into the TV that was being offered for 150,000 points. Turns out that was a 2007 TV from LG and was only a $1,700 Plasma. I remember seeing that there was a way to get certificates and looked into it. There were $1,000 certificates available for 62,500 FPPs a piece so in the end I got three of them with my points and bought a Samsung 63" Plasma. It just came out on the 1st of June and is being delivered to my pad in DC. Yes I will have to write more on that soon. Very excited to say the least on that topic.

Well to wrap this up.... I was contacted by someone from Pokerstars and he wanted to interview me for an article on the Pokerstars website. I was really happy with how it turned out. Check it out.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2009/maverick-monkey-nets-pilot-100000-fpps-040010.html

Finally getting back...

Well I finally made it back to Key West on the first of April. We ended up being drunk late into the second of April as it turns out. Turns out the entire month of April was much of the same once the entire squadron made it down to the keys. We were scheduled to complete 144 sorties over the following 18 days but we only ended up getting about 70 max I think. I was only scheduled to fly like two times but ended up getting to fly six times. All six times I took a young wingman up to West Palm beach down through Miami where we jumped on the IR 053. The 053 is a low level route where we get to drop down to 500 feet and 500 mph and fly the length of the Florida Keys. Each and every time it got more and more fun as we got to buzz over fleets of fishing boats. I have always wondered what it looks like from their perspective. I imagine most of them are used to it and it is no longer cool to them. Here is a look at the shallow, clear water of the keys from above.



Most of the jets ended up leaving around the 22nd of April except for 2 that were having major maintenance done on them. I was picked to stay behind and bring one of them back as well as our XO, Maj Tre "Cheez" DelPizzo. At this point the last thing I needed was another week down there but I knew there would be a couple more fun times to be had. I really wish I was able to recap some of the more fun moments from the trip but those who know me know that I black out after about 3 drinks. Key West was no different. This picture defined our trip to Key West that is for sure!




Well it was finally time to get out of FL. One of jets were ready to be flown to make sure it was good to fly back to AZ. I took the jet up to Tampa and across to Miami and back to Key West and it performed as planned. Cheez took the other jet up and it was ready to take back as well. We left on the 29th after a solid 35 days in Key West and I could feel my liver rejoicing as I left the ground. I think my Iphone was as well after I lost the first one on April 5th and had to fork over another $500 for a new one. (Thank God ITunes saves all of your contacts!) We flew one leg and decided to stop in Pensacola for the night. When I was a student in flight school there was a place called The Fish House downtown that was an ok place for dinner but not much nightlife. Turns out this is now an amazing place. Wednesday night at The Fish House will be a night I hope to experience many more times.

We left the next morning and planned to make a stop in Midland, TX for gas and lunch and then we would finish the trip to Yuma. After a quick trip to TX we ate some lunch and were getting ready to make the final leg. About 8 minutes after takeoff I realized I proved once again I was an absolute idiot! I left my Iphone (Less than 25 days old) on the fuel tank of the jet when I took off. Though this was not the first time I had lost a phone (obviously) it was the first time I had lost a phone completely sober. Turns out I dont need a drop of alcohol in my system to be a complete moron. My phone was found 4 days later. At least half of the screen was on the runways anyways. Apple will officially never go out of business as long as I own an Iphone.

Well we made it back to Yuma at last and I couldn't wait to finally sleep in my own bed. I got home, took a shower, and laid down on the couch to catch up on TV. WAIT.... remember I am a complete moron. I never paid my cable bill while I was in Key West so my cable was turned off. Yes this means internet as well! So here I am laying on my couch with NO phone, NO cable, NO internet... I thought to myself this is a good chance to get caught up on my prereq reading for Expeditionary Warfare School. I grabbed the book Landscape Turned Red about the Battle of Antietam and turned to page I. Wait a second no page one? I haven't read a book in like... maybe 3rd grade. What is with page I, II, III... to damn XIVX or some shit??? Apparently at some point since gradeschool it became important to write a 600 page preface to the book thanking everyone from your Grandma to your pet toad. Needless to say I never even made it to the "actual" page 1. I only made it to like XII before I passed out on the couch. I woke up about 9 hours later at 4am and was able to get 30 min of sleep in my bed before going to the rifle range. Yes I am a Marine Captain going back to the rifle range so I can get one last Expert Rifle Award for my uniform. I would have to wait until Friday night before I would get to sleep in my bed finally.

I spent the next week of work with 3am alarm clocks so that I could be at the armory by 4am everyday to draw my weapon. The idea of trying for a 4th Expert Award seemed worse and worse everyday. At least now I had yet another Iphone and cable coming once again. Amazing how relaxing that weekend was though without any modern technology whatsoever except for running with my IPod. It was a ridiculously long week but worth it in the end as I secured my final Expert Rifleman award of my career.


On May 6th I received an email from Pokerstars that I will talk about in my next blog. This one has been ridiculous enough as it is. I guess that happens when you wait two months in between posts.

Now I am sitting in Raleigh visiting two old roomies from college, Greg and Lindsay. Tomorrow I will be heading up to DC to start the search for a place to stay for the next year while I attend school in Quantico and party it up at Jon Schaafsma's wedding in VA on Saturday. I only have about 3 more weeks left in Yuma when I get back and prob about 1 or 2 more flights left as well. It has been a great time but I am SOOOO ready to get out of Yuma.

Much overdue!

Ok a new blog is coming very soon. I am back from my month long booze coma in Key West and have a lot going on these days. More soon....

Spring Break Retirement Party

Ok, am I officially too freaking old for Spring Break? Nate Lie you are most certainly right "As I get older..." Lake Havasu was an absolute blast that I will never forget. Details will be saved for drunken nights with my friends but it was pretty crazy. Four days there had my liver screaming at me to stop.

Did I listen....

Of Course not. It got back to Yuma at 7pm Sunday night with my alarm set at 4am for a 6am flight to Key West. This time for another 4 days. Hands down one of my favorite cities on the face of the earth. This was like my 6th time back and one of the best for sure. Couldn't have been a better time to be down there either as it was St Patty's Day on the second day in town. Irish Kevin's and Finnigan's Wake were rockin a little harder than usual. Lots of Green and Lots of hours of blackout. It is a shame I have to go back for 26 days starting on April 1st. (My Liver will pray I am saying April fools that day as I board my flight)

To keep this short.... I am absolutely NOT too old for Spring Break just too old to start drinking from noon to 3am for 6 of 7 consecutive days. jesus

Cant wait to tell you all about it sometime... out

Lake Havasu

Am I too old for Spring Break? I will find out this weekend!