It has been interesting to watch this Jason Ho (a recently banned Stoxpoker.com coach) thing explode on the internet. I am not going to comment on whether I believe all of the allegations are true or not, but I do know from my experience that he made attempts to try and scam me as well earlier this year. He kept trying to get in touch with me about trading services. He claimed he could help me out with some areas in my game and that I could help him. He was a big math guy (or so he claimed) and I have no clue about how to figure out most of the math related poker stuff so I agreed to talk with him on the phone.

To read the rest of this post, click here.

I’m so grateful that Card Player Magazine put me on their Generation Next list. I’m sure there are lots of folks who belong on this list. Who do you think is GenNext?

The past couple of days have been pretty cool. My computer continues to give me troubles, but while it has been getting worked on I have been going to the golf course getting my game ready for the Pebble Beach Pro Am tournament that I am leaving for in 10 days. The preparation has gone really well so far and my ball striking has been excellent. I am going to play a few rounds this week with the Oregon Ducks golf team and that should also help me figure out where my game is at. I am a volunteer asst. coach for the Oregon Ducks, so it is great to be able to help the kids out and get to play some golf with them as well.

I really want to applaud FTP for getting rid of the short stackers. One thing that has really bothered me is that A. they even exist and B. that people have such a great misunderstanding of what short stacking is and the implications it can have on the game of poker.

To read more, please click here.

I’m honored that Card Player asked me to come on as a columnist and blogger. My first column will appear in this week’s edition, and I’ll continue to write every other week. This is a huge honor for me, as Card Player is the pinnacle of poker media. Here’s the blog:

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Well, this is my first blog here at Cardplayer and I couldn’t be more excited about it. While this if my first blog for Cardplayer, I am somewhat of a seasoned blogger actually. I wrote 400 blogs for http://www.Stoxpoker.com before resigning as a coach and joining http://www.dragthebar.com 2 weeks ago.

For those who have never seen my blogs before, I guess I am sort of a pretty off the cuff, open sort of guy. I get a lot of people tell me that my blog is pretty entertaining because it is typically full of poker results, stories about my life and I am just pretty open and honest about stuff. If I suck at poker for a little while, I will tell you that. If I am playing great, I will tell you that too. I just tell it like I see it and hope for the best haha.

To read more, CLICK HERE.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for not blogging more lately. Just got off back to back vacations. Life’s rough!

Here’s a really cool new story I did with Poker Curious. It’s very insightful, and I hope you like it!

For the past few days I have been at a resort along the Oregon coast with my wife, my mother in law and my wife’s aunt. We have had a great time so far and my mother in law and aunt have been kind enough to watch our newborn baby which has allowed my wife and I to actually go out for a drink and a nice meal for the first time in what seems like forever.

We have been looking forward to this trip for quite awhile because we have nearly forgotten what it is like to have an adult conversation and be able to have a few drinks, relax and not worry about our daughter’s every move. But one thing I have learned over the years is that the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” like existence that is my life never makes things that simple.

The town we are in is pretty quit right now because it is out of season for the resort we are at. As a result there were very few people in the 4 star restaurant that they have on site. When we arrived we were pretty stoked about that because we figured it would be nice and quiet and we could enjoy each others company and get excellent service. NOT! When we got there there was only one other group dining. That group happened to be a man and a woman and……..of course, a baby. That’s right, a baby. Of course there is a baby at a 4 star restaurant when there are only 2 other people in the entire place. Of course they had the one Godforsaken thing we were trying to get away from!

And this wasn’t just your average baby just sleeping the evening away. This was a screaming, demanding baby who was letting out blood curdling screams in the restaurant…lol. We couldn’t even believe this was happening. Well, the thing is, we could actually. You see my wife and I have a standing joke that I am being followed around with cameras 24/7 like the movie The Truman Show. My life has been so crazy and has had so many inexplicable things that seem to happen all the time that it just doesn’t even seem like it could be real. My good friend Matt Amen (Forcewithme9 to the poker community) says he can’t even believe how so many crazy things happen to me..lol.

So naturally when the baby was screaming I was kind of nodding to her and saying, “I wonder where they are hiding the cameras this time?” Then just when we were about to leave we overheard them say they should probably get going. But not 2 minutes later the waiter came by and the wife decided she’d changed her mind and asked the waiter for a dessert menu. No joke! I then leaned over to my wife and said, “It wouldn’t have been good for the ratings if they had simply walked out of the restaurant.”

After that we pretty much threw our arms up in the air. I got the waiter over and thankfully they had an upstairs bar area and the waiter was kind enough to move us upstairs and serve us up there.

The other random “Truman show” like thing that happened was when we got to the restaurant the waiter said, “It’s good to have the two of you back.” We dined there last summer and we did in fact have the same waiter, but how the hell does he remember us? He then asked us if we  would like the same seat as last time?” and promptly sat us right where we sat last time we were there 6 months ago. Scary….

Obviously I am joking about the Truman show thing, but it truly is incredible all of the things that I go through in this life. My life has got to be about the least boring thing in the world. I have actually come to not really plan anything more than a few weeks in advance because my life seems to take so many twists and turns all the time that planning seems to make no sense. And I do get plenty of really weird things that leave that .01 percent chance open that maybe, just maybe the whole world is leveling me and you guys are watching me as I type this right now….haha

Hey Friends!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be at DragTheBar.com. I’m really stoked to be coming on as an instructor, writing blogs, making videos, contributing to forums and just participating in such a great community in general. I really feel like my best poker instruction is ahead of me, and I can’t wait to put that content on DragTheBar.com.

For those who’ve followed my blog and watched my videos in the past, I want to assure you that my independent streak will remain the same. I’ll be the same straight-talking Leatherass. I made the move here, first and foremost, because of the people. Hunter Bick, Phil Nagy, Korey Gillis and all involved have a brilliant vision for this company — one I wanted to get on board with right away. They’re real visionaries and are setting the curve in the poker community. I’m grateful that they’ve given me a incredible latitude and creative freedom. They like what I represent, and have given me the latitude to take my instruction in some exciting directions. I love teaching, and coming here has me feeling like my old self again.

They’ve also got a great bunch of coaches on their site. All of them are proven, long-term winners, and I consider them to be really strong teachers, too. It’s not enough for an instructor to simply be a good player; he has to be well spoken and empathetic to those further down the learning curve. DragTheBar has managed to amass a crew that is strong on all fronts.

Unfortunately, this announcement coincides with my being on long-scheduled vacations this weekend and next. Despite that, I’ll be in forums and helping people out with their games as much as I possibly can. I’m going to be active now and really active later.

For those of you who are not presently DragTheBar.com members, I encourage you to click here to get started. I’m sure you’ll share my opinion that it is the most complete instructional site on the Internet.

Looking forward to the days ahead,

Dusty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dusty ‘Leatherass’ Schmidt Joins DragTheBar.com As Lead Instructor

Emerging instructional site adds legendary player/coach to roster

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — January 7, 2010 — Emerging poker-training site DragTheBar.com (www.dragthebar.com) announced today that leading online player and coach Dusty Schmidt, aka “Leatherass9,” has joined the company as a lead instructor. Schmidt’s first blog was posted on the site late Thursday.

“Dusty is one of the top mid-to-high-stakes players in the world, period,” DragTheBar.com CEO and professional poker player Hunter Bick said. “He’s played so many hands at such a high win rate that his depth is simply unmatched. But as good a player as he is, he’s an even better instructor. It’s unusual to find someone who can do both. We don’t want our site to just have good poker players as coaches — they must be well spoken and great teachers too. Dusty embodies those qualities better than anyone.”

Bick, who founded DragTheBar.com in June with partners Phil Nagy and Korey Gillis, said Schmidt will blog, make poker videos and actively participate in member forums.

“Dusty is a huge asset,” Bick said. “Just a few years ago he was playing low stakes, so he knows where those players are coming from and he can help them accelerate their learning process. Our members will benefit greatly by having such an incredible instructor at their disposal.”

Schmidt comes to DragTheBar.com on the heels of a three-year tenure as lead instructor at Stoxpoker.com, from which he resigned last week.

“I couldn’t be more excited about coming to DragTheBar.com,” Schmidt said. “I was feeling as though I was getting away from my teaching roots a little bit and this allows me to do what I love and do best. The relationship just feels really, really good. They support my interests, and in turn I’m looking forward to watching this site become the finest in the world in very short order. I can’t wait to get involved with their members and watch them improve as poker players.”

Schmidt’s story is the stuff of poker legend. A renowned “grinder,” he’s played nearly 7 million hands of online poker over more than 10,000 hours during his five-year career. He’s won over $3 million over that period, and has never had a losing month.

In 2007, Schmidt achieved Poker Stars’ SuperNova Elite status in just eight months while playing high-stakes cash games exclusively. He posted the world’s highest win rate in both 5/10 NL and 10/20 NL in both 2007 and 2008. In a four-month period between Nov. 2007 and Feb. 2008, Schmidt won in excess of $600,000 in high-stakes cash games. In Nov. 2008, Schmidt posted a 1.2 million-hand graph on a TwoPlusTwo.com forum which some called the greatest graph in online history.

Prior to his start in poker, Schmidt was a top-ranked golfer who broke two of Tiger Woods’ junior records. He was the leading money winner on the Golden States Tour when, at age 23, he suffered a career-ending heart attack. He first took up poker as a means of paying his mounting medical bills, putting his last $1,000 online and playing as many as 400 hours a month in an effort to get ahead.

Today Schmidt, 28, plays as high as 25/50 NL, often playing as many as 20 tables at once. A successful entrepreneur, Schmidt recently released the top-selling book, Treat Your Poker Like A Business, available at www.dustyschmidt.net. The book focuses on teaching players to monetize their poker skill and creating a significant revenue stream by employing tried-and-true business principles.

“Poker has done a tremendous amount for me in terms of the independence and quality of life I’m able to experience now,” Schmidt says. “I like to think that I have something to offer all poker players, from those who view it as recreational to aspiring pros who want to turn the game into something more serious than a hobby.”

Schmidt becomes the 11^th coach at DragTheBar.com, which boasts some of the world’s top online-poker instructors, as well as affordable membership and rakeback options at a variety of poker rooms. The site’s poker-training videos and poker software are not digital-rights managed and are compatible with iPods and other MP3 players. The site also features games besides poker, including backgammon, coached by world champion Bill Robertie.

“Bringing Dusty on adds even more depth to our already outstanding coaching lineup,” said Bick, who himself has been a poker instructor for more than two years. “The future is very bright.”

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Press contact:

Phil Nagy

877-494-8331

phil@dragthebar.com

This blog was posted on the Stoxpoker website earlier tonight:

“I will admit I never really thought this day would come, but due to irreconcilable differences with Stoxpoker/Cardrunners, I am resigning as a lead coach.

I want to thank everyone who watched my videos and followed my blogs over the past three years here at Stoxpoker.com. It was you guys who kept me going during some of these difficult times with Stoxpoker/Cardrunners. One of the most rewarding things in my life is all of the messages and emails I have received from so many people from so many different backgrounds who wrote me looking for help with their games or their lives. I took great pleasure in helping out each and every one of you. I can honestly say that I poured my soul into this company and it saddens me greatly to no longer be a part of the Stoxpoker.com community.

As some of you may know, I started at Stoxpoker.com as a low-limit grinder just trying to make ends meet. After spending the better part of six months watching videos and participating in the forums, I eventually became a coach and shortly after that, became a co-owner of Stoxpoker.com. After working my way through the ranks, I immediately wanted to give back to the community that helped get me where I was, which is the primary thing that kept me here at Stoxpoker.com.

For those who wish to continue following my blog, it will continue to be maintained at http://www.dustyschmidt.net . In the coming days and at an appropriate time, I will announce which training site I will begin making videos for.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the fantastic experiences. I really enjoyed my time here helping out so many members. Stoxpoker.com truly is a great community and I will miss it greatly.

Sincerely,

Dusty Schmidt