I have had a lot of thoughts and musings regarding the poker world lately. So I thought I would compile them into one blog here for whatever it’s worth.

- I guess you could say the timing of my last blog railing against Annie Duke and her Epic Poker League was pretty funny. I just got through calling her brother Howard Lederer the “Bernie Madoff of Poker” and two days later I read a headline news story calling FTP (for which Howard is a significant shareholder and Board member) a “Ponzi scheme.” I wouldn’t go so far as to label it that myself, but there is no question at this point that they were paying themselves with player funds, so call it what you want, that SOB still belongs in prison.

For that matter, you can go ahead and throw anyone else who was “in the know” (it will be interesting to find out how many of our poker heroes that entails) regarding FTP in there as well. Maybe they can all go the the same prison and play poker against each other. The loser must “drop the soap” in the showers. That seems to be a fitting payback for Howard Lederer, a man who made himself out to be a poker superstar when he was terrible at poker. Now maybe he might wish he had simply tried to improve his poker game rather than trying to think he was above the law and run an online poker room from the United States.

I was always amazed that those guys tried to get away with that. I don’t care how good their lawyers were and how well they tried to create a firewall between their shell company and Full Tilt Poker, you still have to be able to sleep at night don’t ya? They thought they had a loophole around the very clear law that has always existed which says that you can not own or operate an online gaming business from the United States. I guess they thought their shell company (Tiltware and now Pocket Kings ltd.) would always keep them protected. Well, they were wrong.

I guess in retrospect we as poker players probably should have had better sense than we had. Why would we expect someone with the mentality of trying to skirt the law in the manner that they did (and flaunt it once they felt they were successful) to also run their business in an ethical way? Anyone with that kind of mentality would surely have to be a strong candidate to do other shady things. Man, I kind of feel a little dumb now for buying in to their whole facade. I hope we see a lot of jail time for these folks involved in this mess.

- Now that such a large number of poker players have been involved in scams as I pointed out in my last blog, and the FTP squad will almost surely never see another endorsement dollar ever again (unless the people paying them are stupid), who the hell are the Las Vegas poker rooms going to endorse if/when online poker becomes licensed and regulated? Who will their “red pros” be? If you think about it, there aren’t many poker players left!

A lot depends on who the sponsors are. For example, Phil Hellmuth should be fine to endorse an online Vegas run poker room (think MGMpoker.com or Wynnpoker.com etc.). But if our goal is to get major Fortune 500 brands sponsoring poker players at some point (by wearing clothing at the tables much like golfers wear a major companies logo), in my opinion Hellmuth is screwed. Him continuing to support UB after all of their disasters and also him just looking like a fool on TV all the time isn’t going to ever land him a Fortune 500 brand. I think he really shot himself in the foot for the long term, but my guess is he probably made more money than he will ever need, so maybe he is the smart one haha.

That being said, I am SHOCKED that Hellmuth and Annie Duke haven’t come across more scrutiny over their UB relationship considering they were essentially paid with player funds as well. I mean UB can’t pay everyone now right? And Hellmuth has a truckload of UB money. How is that any different than the situation with Lederer, Furgueson, Furst etc? Why are we so comfortable asking them to return the money but not Hellmuth and Duke? Shoot, I know I wouldn’t want to be thought of as a thief if for example my brother were to do something sketchy, so I don’t want to draw the comparison that Annie deserves to be investigated simply because her brother is a crook, but often times the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and Annie has an eerily similar situation. I don’t understand why she is getting a free pass here.

It will be interesting to see who the Vegas casinos choose to endorse their online poker rooms whenever that day comes. My guess is that they will be looking for people who don’t have any baggage. Since the industry will be essentially resetting itself, my hope is that they choose people who were able to stay out of the criminal side of the game of poker and look for representatives who people can actually trust. But the list is so short now!

I guess this is a good example of how doing the right thing in life might actually reward you in the long run. Every prominent player who maintained a clean image and ignored temptation to become a crook has now watched their stock go up tremendously in a licensed and regulated poker environment. Congrats to everyone who falls under the category!

- I do want to applaud Tom Dwan for opening himself up to the poker community by doing open Q & As as well as interviews. He made himself available to answering questions to Noah Stephens-Davidowitz, who in my opinion is easily the most respected poker journalist in the world right now. He runs a site called Subject Poker which is designed to be site containing hard hitting journalism that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the poker industry today. If you want the real scoop on what is going on in our industry, Subject Poker is very clearly the best website for that.

Back to Dwan though. I think Dwan’s promise to return every cent he was paid from FTP is a great gesture. He plans to return over a million dollars to the players. He is the only player who has stepped up to this point and I think this is a very smart and noble move by Tom Dwan. He was also able to answer a number of tough questions. In some of his interviews, even he has admitted that he still thinks he might be somewhat jaded on his perspective regarding some of the people running FTP because he was friends with them at one point. So he seems somewhat reluctant to fully admit that some of his friends are in fact scumbag criminals, although he has admitted that there is no question that some are. My 2 cents would be that Tom Dwan ought to have a “come to Jesus” (and I don’t mean Jesus Furgueson!) moment with himself and just realize that any of his friends who he even thinks “might” be a criminal, IS a criminal.

I have had a very similar situation in my past, and it always takes awhile to be truly convinced that your friends or business partners are indeed scumbags. But in the end, I did come to realize that in my situation that my friends and business partners were all scumbags. I think Tom Dwan is young and it is hard to fault him. But he is going to realize that if it looks like scum, smells like scum and acts like scum, IT IS SCUM!

- I think it will be interesting to see how the FTP mess affects our prospects of fully licensed and regulated online poker. On one hand, it could be viewed as the poster child for why we do need licensing and regulation. On the other hand, it could be viewed as the exact reason why the government should just continue tokill the industry the way they have been. We are all obviously hoping for the former, but man, who knows. This is UGLY!

Within 10 minutes of FTP being labeled a “Ponzi scheme” by the DOJ, I had like 10 emails of the mainstream news article being forwarded to me from friends who don’t even play online poker. I will never know their honest opinions on how they perceive this stuff as I am sure they wouldn’t want to make me feel badly, but you never know how people perceive this stuff. Sure, every sensible person I talk to agrees that the industry should be regulated, but our country is not run by sensible people.

- They say congress has a 12% approval rating right now. This doesn’t make sense because only 1% of the country is rich.

Have you ever met one of these “12% ers”? I would sure be interested to know what categories these people fall under. For example, are they all people who spend under 1 hour a year reading the news? Are they mentally challenged in some way? Are they very poor and have no access to information they way other folks do? Are they people who try and just stay positive no matter what their circumstances? Are they lobbyists that are getting everything they want? I would be interested to know who these people are because I have personally never met one of these exotic “12% ers”?

- I was thinking the other day that the FTP saga would make for an amazing movie someday. Then I saw on 2+2 that they were already throwing around names for what that movie might be called. I do think it would make an amazing movie. You reading this Hollywood?

- Oh what the hell I’m just going to say this: Man am I glad I endorsed Poker Stars and not FTP!

FTP would not have been possible post 2008 for me. I would have taken a pro spot prior to that if offered, but once I realized that they could not prove they were segregating player accounts, I would not have represented them. Once I found that out, I always kept my FTP balances much, much lower than Poker Stars. I was never afraid to keep basically any amount in my account in Poker Stars money, but always cashed out of FTP as fast as I made it, for the most part. Eventually I quit playing on the site in early 2010.

- Finally, I am going to end this blog with a completely shameless plug for my book Treat Your Poker Like A Business Since so many folks are trying to earn money in poker illegitimately, for those who are looking to do things the “right way”, this book is perfect for you.

What is going on these days in the poker community? It seems not a day goes where we find out on 2+2 that someone isn’t scamming someone. I think we have had 5 or 6 such incidents in the past few weeks alone. Then we obviously have the Full Tilt and UB mess. Geez, what an industry I am a part of! To be honest, it has been very disheartening to see all of this go on. I badly want to be proud of the industry I am involved in, but it is becoming increasingly difficult with all of the scams that are going on.

I think this points towards why we need licensed and regulated online poker so badly. I hope that in the future once we clearly establish all of the rules on everything, that it calls for player penalties much like the SEC might (not that they catch or even bother to try and catch everyone) throw a person in jail for fraud in the financial services industry.

Honestly, jail is where a long list of these poker scammers belong. I know us poker players seem to be fighting to eliminate player penalties, but I wish we wouldn’t. Once the rules are clearly in place, there is just too much money floating around in the poker economy to let people off the hook. As it stands right now, a loss of reputation and likely ostracism from the poker community are really the only things deterring people from trying to pull off these scams. I am sorry, but if the worst thing that happens to someone for trying to scam people out of 6 figures is that they get called out on 2+2 (which has now devolved into the TMZ for poker) is simply not enough of a deterrent. These scammers belong in jail!

The problem is there is no leadership. Leadership needs to start from the top. Sadly, just this week the Epic Poker League, which is essentially trying to become the PGA Tour of poker, stiffed a guy out of $20,000. Annie Duke (aka the Sarah Palin of poker) and her Epic Poker League told a winner of a satellite event into an Epic Poker League event that they couldn’t play the event itself because of a prior conviction as a sex offender. Not only did the league decide that this person should not be allowed to compete in the event proper, but also stole the $20,000 the man won fair and square. All they did was refund the man’s entry fee and tell him to go away, essentially. How much do you want to bet that had he not won, not in a million years could he have asked for his money back on the grounds that he shouldn’t have been able to play. They basically just free rolled the guy.

The irony in this is astounding. Annie Duke herself used to pimp UB which has stolen tens of millions (if not more) for a large fee (and to my knowledge has kept all the money) and rumor has it, has had a number of shady dealings in the past. Her own brother is basically the Bernie Madoff of poker. Yet she is the one telling others that they are too shady to allow a seat in her Epic Poker League, and stealing money from them in the process. Of course if you are on of her friends like Mike Matusow who is a convicted felon, then that is obviously not a problem. What a world we live in!

I wish the poker community could simply keep their lying to the tables! The lying I am referring to is bluffing, of course. I guess in a way we are all highly trained and skilled liars. But the decent ones draw the line at the tables, and others take it a bit further, which is unfortunate. I honestly don’t know if it will ever change. As much as I want this mind sport (which is what poker is now considered according to the IMSA) to become like the sport I most love, golf, I have lost pretty much all hope in that.

Golf has its share of issues as well, but they pale in comparison to poker. About the biggest scandal that comes along in golf is finding out someone smoked pot or got a DUI or something. You never hear about people cheating or pulling off scams. In fact, it is routine for players to call penalties on themselves even when no one other than themselves witnessed the infraction! Even the Tiger Woods “scandal” really is not that much of a scandal at all. He cheated on his wife like crazy. So does half or more of married couples. Besides, that is away from the sport itself. Tiger hasn’t cheated anyone on the golf course.

I think moving forward we need to have some clear boundaries and some stiff penalties. We have a Wild, Wild West right now in poker. And the rules haven’t always been clear. Obviously when Eli Elezra is going on TV and talking about how he has 16 FTP accounts in his name, he clearly didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong. Shoot, I would venture to guess at some point in their career, almost every well known poker player has had a second account or done something technically wrong. The vast majority had no idea they were doing anything wrong because the code of ethics in poker was evolving and there wasn’t a clear consensus on things the way there is now.

My hope is that we can get things cleared up when we finally license and regulate poker. I hope the true crooks out there (not someone who just has a relatively minor infraction like having a 2nd account when they are a small to midstakes full ring player) get treated the way they would in any other industry. I mean, why would we lobby for any other way? Imagine if someone in any other industry tried to steal 6 figures from people and after they stole from you, about the best recourse you had was to post on an internet forum hoping that somehow you would get some money back? I mean what a joke! We need laws with strong deterrents just like they have in any other industry and when people cheat, there needs to be a much cleaner way of reporting it and hopefully some penalties that fit the crime.

My post Black Friday days have sure gone a lot differently than pre Black Friday, mostly for the good fortunately. After both my daughter and my son peeing on me, along with my son spitting up on me several times, my daughter and I made our way to the grocery store. We have been doing a lot of stuff together lately (she’s about 2 years old) and it has been pretty fun. She ate an entire apple in the grocery store and did the Hokey Poker in the frozen foods aisle! This is quite a departure from my typical pre Black Friday day when I was mostly grinding high stakes poker online for most of the day.

While poker will forever make me look at money a lot differently than before, I have started to reach a middle ground I believe. My wife and I were reminiscing today about the good old days of online poker. For our first anniversary (which was four years ago last week) we stayed at a posh hotel and went wine tasting. We got pretty drunk and bought a case of wine at every winery we went to. I think I probably spent $4-5k on that 3 day trip and didn’t even think twice about it. In fact, I probably made twice that money back within a day or two of returning to the tables. I certainly didn’t think much about spending money, but did manage to save the vast majority I made, mostly because I knew a day like Black Friday could come and also because I was playing so much poker I didn’t even have time to spend much.

Things are still great even without poker, but I don’t care how much I have in the bank, I will never spend more than I have coming in each month. These days I have only a fraction of what I used to make coming in, so I have started to look at prices of things a lot more and almost became physically ill in the grocery store when I realized that the Goat’s milk I buy my daughter cost $17 a gallon! She needs to drink a lot of that, since it is her doctor’s orders, but geez! Hopefully congress can pull their heads out of their asses soon enough and we can all get back to playing poker again. I need it to pay for milk! Before nothing really bothered me. If our water heater went out, heck, that was just a continuation bet at the games I was playing, no biggie. Or at least that was the way I looked at it. At least until poker comes back, needless to say, that is not how I will be looking at it moving forward.

So long as poker returns, I will probably be forever grateful for poker vanishing overnight. I have gotten the chance to spend so much quality time with my family. My daughter Lennon and I are like best friends these days. We have been doing virtually everything together since my wife is occupied with our newborn. We have water balloon fights, color, watch Elmo and Blue’s Clues, go to the water park, do the Hokey Pokey, read books, play with flash cards and countless other things. I even took her to the golf course for the first time and she had a blast. I can just tell the way she is looking at me that she is really enjoying it. She behaves extremely well with me and virtually always has a smile on her face. I can’t imagine having more fun than I am having with her. I hope she feels the same way.

Words can not describe how awesome the past few months have been. My golf game has been arguably better than it has ever been. I have been playing a lot more golf lately with some pretty good results. I reached a +4 handicap which is as low as I have ever been. I won my club championship last month and just last week, had probably the most fun I have ever had on the golf course playing in the Idaho Open. I honestly didn’t have any expectations going into the event. I just wanted to compete and have fun. I figured the field would be decent, but not great. Boy was I wrong! Turns out the Nationwide Tour was off that week and with the Nationwide tour coming to Boise the following week, many of the tour pros came to the Idaho Open to tune up for the Nationwide event. There were probably 30 players with some level of Nationwide or PGA tour experience and then there was me who was playing in his first pro event since my heart attack 7 years ago haha.

I ended up having (for me anyway) somewhat of a magical week. I started off with a 65 on day 1 to end the day in 3rd place. I followed it up with a 67 on day 2 and found myself in the 2nd to last pairing with a legitimate chance to win with one more great round. I birdied 3 of my first 4 holes of the final round to grab a share of the lead. The wheels came off after that and after a double bogey on the final hole, shot a 73 to come in 18th place. While it probably looks like I choked, I honestly didn’t. I was having a great time out there and I am just simply not as good as those guys. I just began playing again a couple of months ago and to even do as well as I did was far beyond anything I even knew I was capable of at this point. It was probably the most positive experience I have had on the golf course in my entire professional career. Going into the last day, I was actually watching a current active PGA Tour pro (Troy Merrit) tee off in front of me because I was beating him! I mean that is sort of like a dream for me. I got to play with Clay Ogden in the final round and he played in the Master’s Tournament a few years ago. The whole thing was just nuts. If you want to check out the scores, you can do so by clicking Idaho Open Scores

In the last month I have had a great time with my students teaching them poker, witnessed the birth of my son which was one of the most powerful experiences of my life, got to play a ton of golf, won the club championship, had a chance to win the Idaho Open with 14 holes to go, and compiled so many positive experiences with my daughter. I just don’t know how it could get much better than that. If poker was still around, I am sure I would have just sat with a bunch of miserable people at the WSOP (not everyone is miserable of course, but it sure seems like that when you play those things) and spent most of the rest of the time in front of a computer screen. No thanks!

I do miss the ability to just print money on the computer of course. And I obviously realize that if poker never comes back, at some point I am going to have to do something to get the money train going again, and it likely won’t be as fun, easy or as profitable as poker. But for now anyway, I am pretty content to be in the situation I am in.

The good Oregon weather is on its last legs. We are probably about 4-5 weeks away from our standard terrible fall, winter and spring months. Right now I do know at least one thing that I am going to be doing and that is finishing
Treat Your Poker Like A Business 2 . I have toyed around with the idea of also writing another book, but I am not sure if I will or not. I might wait and see if the “Super Committee” will finally agree to license and regulate online poker by the end of the year. As I understand it, they have until their winter recess to find at least 1.5 trillion dollars in budget savings. With poker generating about $50B over 10 years in tax revenue, I am optimistic that they will once and for all pull their heads out of their asses, but I honestly don’t know why I am optimistic considering they fuck up just about everything that they get their hands on. But that is a discussion for another day.

Lastly, if anyone was in contact me about coaching and didn’t receive a reply, that is because my coaching email address was hacked. Please write me again at Leatherasscoaching@gmail.com And if you are a new prospective student, please write me there as well if you are interested in coaching. I am close to reaching my maximum number of students, so please write me soon if you are interested.

The past week has been like a dream. I couldn’t ask for it to go any better. After the birth of my son 8 days ago, our primary hope was that our baby would be chill and our daughter would not become jealous. Our dreams were answered (so far anyway). Our baby literally NEVER cries. He just starts to fuss a little when he is hungry, but he mostly just sleeps and eats. You would hardly even know he is in the house.

Our daughter is not jealous in the least. In fact, her brother is about all she can think about. She asks for him all day long and just gives him about 5 or 10 kisses every time she walks up to him. She has been about the best big sister you can hope for, and as parents, my wife and I are getting a tremendous amount of pride and satisfaction with our family right now. It is so great to see our daughter so happy and our son not having to suffer with colic like our daughter did.

I have also gotten a little bit of an itch to play some poker lately. I have been logging a few hours here and there at the small stakes games on Black Chip poker. I haven’t done any good, but that’s just how poker goes sometimes. I have been playing well and I have no doubt that the time I have spent coaching has actually done wonders for my game. I have spent a lot of time fiddling with HEM and Flopzilla which is always a good thing. I have done a lot of work with those tools in the past, but often times I am spending so much time playing that I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like working on my game. Now that I am doing so much coaching, I have been using HEM a lot with my students and just loving it. What an amazing tool it is, not that that is a new feeling for me.

One bummer lately is that my email address was hacked. It wasn’t my primary email address, but rather the one I use for junk mail that I also recently used for prospective students to reach me at. The hacker runs bad because they sent an email to all of my contacts claiming that I was broke and in the UK needing funds sent to me so I could get home. Anyone who knows me well enough to consider sending me money would have a tough time believing that a bankroll nit like me would be broke and I most certainly would not be in the UK at the same time my child was just being born! So whatever scumbag did that (can you imagine how sad your life must be that you resort to stuff like that to make money?), they sure didn’t have a whole lot of success which is good.

For anyone that wants to reach me for coaching, please don’t use the email address that was hacked. And if you sent me a message on that address and I don’t reply, please resend it to Leatherasscoaching@gmail.com. For more information on my coaching, you can go to this page: Coaching Page

The coaching has been very exciting for me. I have always loved to coach, but just didn’t have the time to do it for so long. So I did coaching for the masses through videos, articles and books. But now that I have some time to do some 1 on 1 coaching, it is really a special thrill for me. When students write me with their success stories, it really makes my day. I am not the type who is just doing to to make money. Granted, the money coming in is nice which is a big reason why I am doing it. But I have coached golf since I was a teenager, and poker as soon as I switched from golf to poker, so I guess you can say it is in my blood. I am not claiming I am great at it, but I do give everything I have during the sessions I have together and take genuine interest in my student’s success.

Real briefly, after catching up on the Girah/DIH/Jungleman scandal, I have to say it is really sad to see so much of this stuff going on in poker. For whatever it’s worth, for all of the up and comers out there, please play the game right and don’t do this type of stuff. Everyone loses when this stuff goes on. And don’t forget that life is long and these things don’t go away when you are caught. Try googling all of those clowns right now. On the first page is a headline that basically says they are crooks. That stuff will follow them forever no matter what they try and do in their life.

Poker is probably going to be legal here in a matter of months or a few years in the United States. With that will come so many opportunities for so many great things for you if you are currently a great player or are trying to become one. Don’t piss it away by trying to make a quick buck. Not only will you get caught a high percentage of the time, but even if you don’t, you are heading down a path that will cost you money or your dignity (and when you get older you will realize that is more important than money) in the long run. There is no substitute for good old fashioned hard work.

Take it from someone who has a couple of kids now. Even though I would love to have some more money to be able to take even better care of them than I already do and provide greater security in the long run, most of all I want them to be able to look up to their father as someone they can respect. We are in a new age these days where you can’t just do shitty things and sweep it under the rug. Stuff will follow you forever. How do you think Tiger Woods or Brett Favre are going to feel when their kids read their sexts or see picture of their penis? And how will that impact their kids?

Please everyone, think things through. And do things the right way. I know I am probably sounding like a preachy old man here, but I care about the game of poker and human being in general. I hate to see this stuff happen. And even if we are throwing out the moral argument here, it is still -EV to take risks like these folks and many folks before them have taken. Many a great player has pissed away their entire reputation over trying to win some relatively small amount of money. And think how badly that might cost them in the long run? For all we know, poker could be as huge as the NFL someday. What kind of endorsement dollars might be out there for the best players? And do you think Buick or Cadillac, Nike or Microsoft is going to take a gamble on a poker player who when you google them one of the first things you see is that they are a crook? Talk about -EV.

On Tuesday my son, Corbett Payne Schmidt, was born at 13:20. He is 8 pounds, 12, ounces and is 22 inches long. He is a pretty big boy!

My wife picked out the name Corbett, and I picked out Payne as his middle name. I picked out the name Payne after my hero growing up, Payne Stewart, who unfortunately died in a plane crash in the fall of 1999. Payne Stewart was famous for winning 3 major championships including the 1989 PGA, 1991 US Open and most memorably, the 1999 US Open after drilling a 15 foot putt to beat Phil Mickelson by 1 stroke. To go to show what a class act Payne Stewart was, after making the putt which caused him to leap in the air and hug his caddy, he immediately went over to Phil and grabbed his face and said, “You’re going to be a father! There is no better feeling than that!” Phil’s child was due the following day. Payne did this because he knew Phil was trying to win his first major and he surely had to be incredibly disappointed. But after Payne did that for him, he felt a lot better immediately.

Phil later said Payne was right, there was no better feeling than becoming a father. While I certainly can’t claim to know what it would be like to win the US Open, I can say that after twice knowing the feeling of what it is like to become a father, I can’t imagine Payne Stewart being wrong about that one. It would be hard to feel better than the feeling of seeing your child’s face for the first time and holding him in your arms.

Everything has gone perfectly. My wife is doing great and most memorably, my almost 2 year old daughter has been on cloud 9 since having a brother. We were worried about how she might react since like any 2 year old, she loves all the attention. We weren’t sure how she would feel about having to share, but it is almost like she grew up overnight. She seems to sense that she is part of a unit that is greater than just herself, and has been as loving towards her brother as a human being could possibly be. She makes her excited face every time she walks in the room to see him and has probably leaned in to kiss him at least 500 times. Of all the great things I can take away from this experience, that is possibly the best part. I definitely now have a feeling like my family is complete, and now it is just all about enjoying the ride.

The most thought provoking thing about my life so far is that I feel that ever since I was a just 6 or 7 years old, I have always been very forward looking. I didn’t much enjoy the concept of being a kid because I was always working towards accomplishing something that I could only achieve as an adult. For example, as a kid, I simply hated the fact that I wasn’t strong enough to play the PGA Tour regardless of whether I attained the skills necessary to do so. I just wanted to grow up so badly and not have any obstacles to success. Don’t ask me why I was thinking about these things when most kids were probably not even giving that type of thing much, if any thought at all. But that is just the way I have always thought, for better or worse. But now that I have two kids of my own and have accomplished a few things as an adult along the way, one of the most difficult things for me has simply been enjoying the present time. For some reason I do feel like that is something I might be able to do at this point, at least decently anyway, since the birth of Corbett. I feel like I have a better sense that NOW is the time I have been waiting for. Our family is complete, and thanks to a lot of my hard work along with a few good breaks, I am in a pretty good position to really enjoy it.

We should be able to go home from the hospital in a couple of days. We definitely have our work cut out for us right now. Having two kids won’t be easy, especially when one is a newborn. But I think it is going to be memorable and that is really what it is all about for me. I LOATHE doing things that aren’t memorable. I like to do things that are hard to forget, as often as possible. For example, if I were to play poker day after day for a month, I could never tell you 5 years later how any one of those particular days went at the tables. But if I were to travel somewhere and see new places, or play a golf tournament somewhere, I might just remember every place I saw or every shot I hit 5 years later. So I love doing memorable things for those reasons. So no matter how hard it might be the next few weeks, or probably months, I definitely look forward to an experience I will never forget. And the feeling of watching my daughter play with Corbett and the time I will spend holding him in my arms as he is struggling to go to sleep or eat, is sure to be unforgettable.

The past week or two have been pretty interesting to say the least. My wife is now just days away from having our son. She is due August 23rd, but senses he may be coming early. She is often correct when she has feeling about things so I am definitely preparing myself for that possibility. To say I am excited would be quite an understatement.

The other thing I am really excited about is how well poker coaching is going. My goal for poker coaching was to eventually build up to two full days (Mondays and Tuesdays) a week of coaching. I like coaching and always have. I have made instructional videos, articles and written two books, but have generally only taken on one or two students a year simply because anything more than that would have prevented me from playing poker myself. But now that playing poker isn’t a great option for me as an American, I have plenty of time to coach students. In my last post, I mentioned that I thought some of the small to mid stakes Poker Stars regulars should really consider hiring me as a coach. I think I can be of great help with Poker Stars regulars specifically because I can give away all of my reads without any worry that I will face those opponents again anytime soon, and have a good feel for how to handle those games specifically. Many of the Poker Stars regulars have in fact reached out to me and I am really enjoying working with them as well as everyone else I am working with of course.

In less than one month of offering coaching, I am already completely booked on Mondays and Tuesdays for several months now and since I am greatly enjoying working with my clients, I have decided to add an extra day of coaching each week to accommodate the demand. So for anyone still interested, please contact me at dustys64@hotmail.com. If a 3rd day a week proves to not be enough time to meet the demand, I will consider a fourth day, but probably not until the weather starts to turn dramatically south here in Oregon which is usually the first week of November. I am enjoying playing golf far too much to want to give up more than 3 days a week away from golf at this point in the season.

Speaking of golf, I am proud to report that I was able to win the Pumpkin Ridge Club Championship this past weekend. It was a pretty thrilling victory for someone who has been away from competitive golf for so long. It is my first multi day tournament in 2 years and it’s been 7 full years since I have played the game with any consistency. It is my first win since my heart attack in 2004, and carries special meaning because I was able to win on a golf course with a lot of good players and at the same site as Tiger Woods won his 3rd US Amateur in 1996. In fact, they used many of the same crazy pins as they did for that historic final round when Tiger beat Steve Scott in extra holes.

I was also proud of the victory because after swinging the golf club pretty well all summer, I just didn’t have anywhere near my best stuff tee to green in the club championship. I was battling my swing pretty hard, but was happy with how I was able to manage my game. On the 2nd hole of my first round, I hit an 8 iron to the par 3 and came out of my shot a little bit and it landed on the right fringe 30 feet from the hole. Unfortunately it landed on a sprinkler head and kicked into a hazard 20 yards over the green that is normally out of play and made a triple. Nice start!

I shot 41 on the front on day 1 and fought back with a 33 on the back to salvage a 74. On day 2 I hit the ball just awful. I was somehow 2 under after 8 during that round, but it was all smoke in mirrors. I wound up with a hard fought 72.

Going into the last day, I knew I needed a good round to win, but got off to a horrible start and was 3 over after 4 holes heading into the most difficult stretch of golf on the course. Hole #5 is one of the hardest par 3s you can play with a 3.4 stroke average in the US Amateur. Hole #6 is 460 yards with water and trees everywhere and hole #7 is 630 yards with one of the hardest tee shots to hit the fairway on you can ever play. So I was worried with the way I was hitting the ball that the whole tournament could end for me with a few more bad swings. But I hit a 4 iron on #5 to 10 feet and made par, birdied #6 with two good shots and canned a 20 footer for birdie and then made a scrappy par on #7.

I went to the back nine tied for the lead and decided that I just needed to dig deep and play the golf I know I am capable of. I hit a 5 iron to 10 feet and parred #10. Hooked my tee shot into the bunker on #11, but after a nice recovery from under the lip, hit a sand wedge from 117 yards to a foot and birdied #11 which was when many players from the club came out to watch us all dual it out. Maybe I got inspired, who knows.

I hit a poor wedge to the par 3 #12 which had a very scary pin and didn’t get up and down and made 4 on #12. But then on #13 I stuffed another wedge to 3 feet after a big drive and made birdie. On the par 5 #14 I blocked a tee shot, but hit a nice recovery down the fairway and clipped a lob wedge to a nasty pin to a hard green over water to 4 feet for another birdie. On #15 I hit a 7 iron as pure as I could and the ball landed 2 inches from the cup before settling 7 feet away. I hit a good putt but misread it to make a par. On #16 I hit my 2nd shot to 30 feet down a ridge which was a tough 2 putt. I hit a great putt and buried it for another birdie. Knowing I had the lead at this point and also knowing that I still wasn’t swinging it well, I played it safe with a 3 iron off the 17th tee. I then hit my 2ns shot 40 feet past the cup because the pin was in an impossible spot to get it up and down from and 2 putted for par.

#18 is one of the hardest driving holes on the course. The hole is a par 5 with a ditch all along the left side that cuts across the fairway short of the green. This is the hole Annika Sorenstam lost the US Open years ago. It is one of the most feared par 5s you can play so given I had a lead, hit 3 wood off the tee to be safe. It must have been the adrenaline, I am not sure, but I hit a 3 wood 295 yards down the middle and then another 3 wood from 260 uphill to the green 20 feet from the cup. I 2 putted from there for a closing birdie and the Club Championship was mine with a nice 32 on the back nine to close it out!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty exciting on the golf course. I am continuing to make strides in my game. I am getting much better about judging distances on all types of shots and starting to understand my golf swing and its tendencies much better as I become much more comfortable out on the golf course. In fact on Sunday I had one of the more exciting rounds of golf I have ever played. I played my home course of Pumpkin Ridge golf club (Witch Hollow course) with the Sunday morning scratch game and got things off to a great start making a 15 footer for birdie on #1. I played a cautious 8 iron on #2 to 30 feet from the cup putting straight uphill and buried that putt to go 2 under. I played another cautious iron shot to the safe side of the pin and 2 putted for a par on #3.

On hole 4 I bombed a long drive and had 5 iron coming in on the par 5 #4. I hit a poor iron shot to the far left of the green and 3 putted for par. #5 is treacherous long par 3 over water and I hit it to 12 feet and made the birdie putt. On #6 I hit a towering 8 iron to 5 feet and made the tricky down hill putt to go 4 under. On #7 I blocked my tee shot out of bounds and made a double bogey 7 to fall back to 2 under. I hit a great 2nd shot into #8 to a brutally hard pin placement and made the 7 footer to go to 3 under. I made routine pars on #9 and #10 to stay at 3 under.

I bombed a drive on #11 and hit a 3 wood to 30 feet for eagle and after leaving my eagle putt well short, made a good putt to go 4 under. I hung a putt on the lip on #12 from 20 feet and then hit a crafty wedge to 7 feet on #13 and made the putt to go 5 under. On #14 I hit a great drive over the corner of the bunkers and hit my iron shot to the front fringe for an eagle chance. I elected to chip the ball because of a poor lie and chipped it in for eagle to go to 7 under par. I then hit a superb iron shot to 3 feet on the par 3 #15 and made the knee knocker down the hill to go 8 under!

I lipped out a birdie putt on #16 and then after a pulled tee shot on #17, hit a towering hooking 9 iron from 172 yards (I normally only hit a 9 iron 155 yards, but I could feel so much adrenaline my experience has taught me that I hit the ball much further in those circumstances) to 15 feet and narrowly missed the putt because of a misread.

#18 is a really hard but potentially rewarding par 5. There is a hazard left and right. I was pretty nervous on this tee shot because I knew if I hit a good one, I was shotting 62, 63, or 64. But I could really ruin a great round with one bad swing. Back when I was playing competitively I would from time to time make a bad swing in these situations which I knew was due to the pressure. But I was able to apply much of what Jared Tendler (author of The Mental Game of Poker) has taught me in poker to golf, and I decided to enjoy the challenge of hitting the shot and decided I was going to take the mindset of trying to show off rather than fear the shot. I had the mentality of, “Hey, let’s show people how you finish off a great round.” I pured my tee shot down the middle and hit a solid 3 iron just short and left of the green. My pitch shot was a little more difficult than I had anticipated with a ridge just left of the pin that takes the shot off of the green and down a swale. I had to land it in a very small area and with spin to get it close.

Unfortunately I didn’t pull off the shot and landed short of my mark causing me to come up 15 feet short. I missed the putt and made par to shoot and 8 under 64. To shoot 8 under with several lip outs, an OB (2 stroke penalty) and a 3 putt is as mentally captivating of a round that I can play. I was mentally a bit loopy after the round. I just felt like shouting and releasing all of the pent up emotion or something along those lines. Those rounds are much easier to handle when you are playing a ton of competitive golf. But to have a round like that going just 6 weeks after I started playing again after a huge layoff, was pretty trying. But I pulled it off and played as well as I can play, so I was pretty happy about that.

The rest of my time has been mostly spent with my family. I have been taking my daughter to her swim lessons every morning at 10:30 and getting in the pool with her. It is really special to be able to have that time with her. She is just a fantastic and pleasant little kid who has such a fun personality. She smiles a ton and seems very happy in general. She has her little fussy moments like any child does, but overall she seems to really have a lot of passion for life. She really enjoys it and it sure has been great to get to watch it all. One of the greatest gift perhaps that poker has given me is the time that both my wife and I get to spend with her. Without poker, we could very well have each been working a job and would have missed out of so many great moments with her. I always told my wife while I was grinding so much poker before we had kids that while I know it was tough on her for me to be working so much, she would be grateful for it when we had children and didn’t have to work so hard. We are both very happy about that decision.

I want to let everyone know that my calendar is filling up for private coaching. You can read this post for more information. One thing I want to point out is that since I am an American and will almost assuredly not play on Poker Stars ever again due to the legal situation for us Americans, all of the small to mid stakes grinders on Poker Stars should really think about hiring me as their coach. Because I have played so much at all limits between 1/2nl and 25/50nl over the last 4 years on Poker Stars. I have reads on an incredible amount of opponents across those limits and having been one of the biggest winners on that site over the least 4 years, I think I can be an especially valuable resource for anyone playing in those games. I would never give my reads before Black Friday, but now I really have no reason to protect them anymore.

After giving it significant consideration for the past few months, I have decided to take on a limited number of students for private coaching. While I have immensely enjoyed some time away from poker, I realized that I do miss being involved with the game of poker in some capacity. So I have decided to dedicate 2 days a week to coaching poker.

I have also decided to drop my coaching rates to a level that is more affordable for the small and mid stakes players looking to take their game to the next level. In the past I have charged anywhere from $750-$1,000 an hour. But now that I am not playing online right now due to Black Friday, I no longer have a huge opportunity cost associated with me coaching. As a result, I will offer my coaching services at the following rates:

No Limit Holdem Cash Games Coaching Rates:

One-on-one coaching Hourly rate: $300

Group Coaching (parties of 5 or less) hourly rate: $500

Day Fee: $2,000. My day fee includes 8 hours of one-on-one poker coaching (4 hours of coaching, then a 1 hour break, followed by 4 more hours of coaching).

Packages: 1. One-on-one packages of 10 hours – $2,750
2. Group coaching packages (parties of 5 or less) of 10 hours – $4,500

Create your own coaching package: If you have any ideas on how I can assist you in a way not already mentioned, don’t hesitate to write me. In the past I have given live coaching seminars, speaking engagements and even instructed folks who have purchased golf/poker packages because they were looking to get better at both golf and poker. However, please do not contact me about any revenue sharing based coaching as I will not give those types of arrangements any consideration.

My poker resume’:

Arguably played more hands of mid to high stakes no limit holdem of anyone in the world
Profited over $4,000,000 in online cash games in my career which is arguably more than anyone at my stakes in online poker history
The highest win rate in mid to high stakes games on Poker Stars in 2007 and 2008
Poker Stars Team Online pro from 2010-2011
Among the first Supernova elites to earn that status exclusively through no limit holdem cash games (2007)
Author of Treat Your Poker Like A Business and Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth
Produced over 100 coaching videos for various online training sites
Written over 50 published articles, most of which appear in Card Player magazine
One of the first poker professionals to be featured in Sports Illustrated magazine as part of a 6 page spread
Competed in and served as a color analyst for the PartyPoker.com Big Game IV and V
Earned over $1,000,000 in online cash games from 2009-2011
My story has been written about in Golf Magazine, Fairways and Greens, Golf Week,Golf World and the Portland Oregonian, as well as on ESPN, cnn.com, wallstreetjournal.com, forbes.com, fortune.com, espn.com, golfdigest.com and golf.com, among many others

What will a coaching session with me look like?:

If you are interested in just an hour or two of coaching, my main priority will be to make sure you get plenty of value out of our lesson. How I accomplish this is to spend the majority of our time together going over Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker 3 statistics in great detail. I will match your numbers with mine, and go over every important statistic line by line and give you a framework for what you need to adjust and the direction I would like to see you take your game.

If you are able to spend 10 hours or more together, then a typical 10 hour series will look something like this:

- 30 minutes reviewing your Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker 3 results.

- 1 hour watching you play at the tables where I will be spending the bulk of my time answering your questions and taking extensive notes on your play as well as the thought process I perceive that you have.

- 30 minutes to 1 hour reviewing the main things I want to work on in your game based on what I have gathered from the first 90 minutes of working together.

- 7 to 8 hours of a mixture of watching you play, reviewing hands that you have saved from sessions, using various tools to teach important concepts that I would like to see you work on, Q and A time as well as simply spending time “talking poker” in a way that is helpful to the student.

How Important is your Red Line (AKA W$w/oSD) and can you help me with it?

It is HUGE. There are an incredible number of professional poker players who struggle to win money when the pot does not go to showdown and it is probably the number one reason so many players stay at the same limit longer than they would like. For example, if you are losing $200 or $300 a day playing 1/2nl, then your success each day is entirely dependent upon how well you run when the pot does go to showdown. And not only do you become too dependent on how well you run when the pot does go to showdown, but you have to win back the $200 or $300 a day you are getting outplayed, simply to break even.

Another way to look at it is that day after day, I can mostly control how well I do without showdown. If I play 5,000 hands in a day, I can win money when I see a flop between 48 and 52% almost without exception. But what I can never control is how well I do when the pot does go to showdown. Some days I lose $15,000 and some days I win $15,000. There is a huge amount of variance associated with how well I do when the pot goes to showdown since after all, we are playing a card game. So I like to try and focus on what I can control. I can win money nearly every time in non showdown pots which then reduces the impact of how well I run with showdown. The more you play a style of poker that you can have a greater amount of control over your results day after day or week after week, the less variance you will have. And not only will you have less variance, but better results too because the plays you are using to win money in non showdown pots are profitable additions to your arsenal.

All that being said, the non showdown statistic is somewhat complex and can give you misleading results. For example, I would never recommend playing a style that won too much money in non showdown pots. Some of the biggest losers in poker history are ones who have simply tried to run people over and win every single pot. To use an extreme example, if I shoved all in preflop with my entire range, then I would crush non showdown pots, but eventually go broke. So the main objective is balance.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Do you consider yourself a full ring expert as well as a 6 max expert?

Yes. I have historically had a slightly higher win rate at full ring than 6 max, but I think that is mostly due to players being generally tougher at 6 max. I consider myself adept at both.

2. My red line (the line in a Holdem Manager graph that reflects how much you win or lose w/o showdown) trends negative. Can you help me fix this?

If there is one thing that I think I can help you the most with, this might be it. I actually struggled with my own red line last year and took a 1 month break from playing poker, instead spending my time away from the tables for hundreds of hours working on a resolution to this issue. I’ve done extensive work and analysis on this exact situation. After I returned to poker I had a positive red line and had one of the best win rates in mid stakes games on Poker Stars until I stopped playing in mid April.

3. Will you teach me a short stack strategy?

No. I am most proficient in 100BB and deep stack (250BB+) play. I think teaching short stacking is to do my students and the game of poker a disservice.

4. Are your coaching dates flexible?

Somewhat. I would like to do the bulk of my coaching on Mondays and Tuesdays, but can be flexible from time to time if needed. Since I am expecting most of my students to reside outside of the U.S.A., it is likely much of the coaching will be done during evening or night hours (morning for me, evening/nights for the international student) since it will be 8 or more hours earlier for me. However, if the student has a strong desire to learn, I am going to be inclined to find time for that student.

5. What do you look for in a student?

I am looking for students who have a similar passion for the game of poker as myself. I think if the student has a strong desire to learn, they will get a tremendous amount of benefit from my coaching because the more passionate they are, the better and better I will coach them since passion is infectious. I have no desire to work with anyone who isn’t going to take their games seriously. I have had a nearly impeccable track record of taking my students games to their desired levels and sometimes beyond. 3 of my students have gone on to make over $1,000,000 playing poker and several more have gone from micro and small stakes players to making over $100,000 a year on average.

6. I don’t have very much money, so how much do you think I can benefit from one or two lessons?

It is highly probable that even one session will be +EV for you in the sense that you stand to make more money as a result of the lesson than the cost of the lesson itself. And if that is all you have in your budget, then it will likely be worthwhile. However, I am most anxious to work with people who have a decent enough bankroll that they can participate in a more long term relationship between coach and student. When I was a small stakes grinder in 2005 and 2006, I took a portion of my bankroll and used it for private coaching. I recouped my coaching expenses in short order and it made an unbelievable difference in how I approached the game of poker. Since I have been on the other side of a student/coach relationship and seen how powerful an investment in my game with a top notch professional can be, I am a huge believer in that process.

If my coaching fees are simply too much money for you to afford right now, I would highly recommend watching my training videos as well as reading my books and contacting me at a later date when you feel you are in a better position to work with me.

7. What types of payment methods do you accept?

Bank Of America online transfer
Wire transfer
Direct Bank Transfer
Moneybookers
Mailed cashier’s check or money order (must be received before we begin working. I will split all mailing costs)
Chase Quick Pay
Pay Pal

8. How can I contact you about your coaching services:

The best way to reach me is via email at Leatherasscoaching@gmail.com. You can also reach me via Facebook.

9. What does “group coaching” mean?

Group coaching can be done one of two ways. The best way is for a group to come together and pool their money to make the coaching more affordable. Before our sessions, I would ask the group to get together and compile all of the things that they collectively struggle with the most. We would then go over the group’s most burning questions. After an hour or two of going over the group’s questions, I will then have a much better understanding of where their games are at and can put together materials that I can teach to the group that is custom fit to where their games are at. It is likely that I will be emailing the group from time to time to prepare for our next session together and be sure that I am going over the most pertinent information needed to take the group’s game to the next level.

Another way to do it is to email me and let me know you are interested in group coaching. Based on your win rate and stakes you are playing, I will attempt to pair together groups of people who seem to be of similar skill sets and design a course tailored for that group specifically prior to our session. This is not as good of an option in my opinion than coming to me with your own predetermined group, but at the same time, it is significantly cheaper for the student to learn this way. Groups of 5 would bring each student’s share at only $100 an hour which is 1/3 of the individual rate.

10. Can lessons be done in person?

Only in special cases. My aim is to conduct all lessons over the computer using Skype and/or Teamviewer.com. If you wish to meet with me in person, you must book at least 1 full day ($2k day fee) and you will be responsible for any potential travel costs. If you live in Portland, OR area, and you want to meet face to face, you must book at least 4 hours at a time.

11. What is the main problem most players have?

The abilities of my students range greatly. I have worked with some students who are simply trying to get started in their poker careers with the goal of transitioning from their current careers into a poker career. I have worked with students who are huge winners in poker who probably play 98% as well as me and are just trying to shave some of the small leaks in their game. Most students that I work with are pros or semi pros who generally struggle with their red lines (aka W$w/oSD) and approach the game from a perspective that is a little tighter than what I would like to see. Having a poor red line is something many pros struggle with and something that I am confident we can fix in 10 hours or less in most cases.

Phil,

As you know, I co wrote a book titled Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth. I have also written a few articles about what I would like to see change in poker to clean up our “sport.” In these articles, I did pick on you a little for some of your antics. I feel strongly that the game of poker may have the potential to some day attract major corporate sponsors, and I stated that I didn’t think some of your antics (as well as those of many, many others) were doing poker any favors.

Given your recent performance, I have received numerous messages from people asking me if I feel stupid or not given the title of our most recent book. Truthfully, I don’t. This is a quote of mine from a recent article I wrote about you: …there is no question that Phil can return to the top of poker. Anyone who can have the kind of success that he has enjoyed in the past, knows what it takes to get to the top. But if Phil is going to spend his time partying with rappers and not doing the things that made him great in the first place, then he has no chance to return to the top. I think the thing that irks me the most is that Phil acts as if he can have his cake and eat it too. He wants to claim he is “the best no limit holdem player in the world BY FAR” yet isn’t putting anywhere near the amount of work into his game to be there. His claim may have been true long ago, but he is nowhere near that level currently. But he has gotten to the top before and he can do it again. It certainly won’t be easy for him, but if he can channel the same passion for the game that got him to the top of the poker world years ago, then there is no question he knows what it takes to get back to that point and I believe he can do it.

My understanding is that you have put some tremendous work into yourself and your poker game this year. With that, congratulations on your performance at the WSOP! While I know you would have liked to have added another bracelet (or three) to your outstanding tournament career, getting heads up in three bracelet events is a tremendous accomplishment and you deserve a lot of respect for that performance. I understand that you have put some time and energy into your game as of late and with your recent performance, I don’t think anyone will doubt that you are playing some exceptional poker. As I stated previously, with hard work and determination, there is no question that you are a great player and I am happy for you that you showed the poker world that you are still among the game’s elite.

What I think is so great about what you have done this year is that not only did you perform exceptionally well at this years WSOP, but you certainly seem to have done a lot of work in terms of how you conduct yourself at the tables. And that is what I think you should be most proud of. It was great to see you perform so well while showing people that you can win and lose with grace. In fact, you remind me of Bobby Jones (13 time major championship winner in golf in the 1920s) when he was a work in progress in the early 1920s.. Bobby Jones was an exceptional talent at golf, but was known more for his awful behavior on the golf course more than for his golf game. Realizing this was a problem, Bobby worked hard to act as well as he played the game, and in no time at all had completely reversed the way people thought of him. In fact, he actually went down as one of the great gentlemen of the game when it was all said and done. Bobby hung a quote in his office (which I also hang in mine since Bobby is somewhat of a hero to me) that said, “For when the one great scorer comes to write against your name, he writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.”

I hope this message makes its way to you. I really and truly want to express that I am very happy for you. I am very happy that you have turned a corner with your poker game and your behavior. I think in time, the game itself will thank you as well. Let’s face it, you are a mega star in the game of poker. And in every major sport, the stars have always been rewarded for behaving in a way that ultimately makes themselves and the game look good. Sure, people can line their pockets in the short term by acting in a fashion that generates interest. But over the long haul, it is critical to both the mega star and the game they play, that they behave in a way that ultimately makes themselves and their sport look good to the general public. And when up and comers are seeing you profit off of behaving the way you do, it inspires others to do the same. Ultimately, the very game that has given you so much, suffers. While any sport can handle a few of their pros routinely acting outside of accepted norms, the very foundation of any major sport is built upon a solid group of individuals that kids can look up to and want to emulate. With that in mind, I would encourage you to keep doing what you are doing as of late. The game needs the “new” Phil Hellmuth.

Sincerely,

Dusty Schmidt

As I said before, I bailed on the WSOP this year when the cash games at 5/10nl and up completely sucked this year. I suppose I could have grinded the games all summer and made a few bucks, but to have the chance to play a lot of golf and be home with my family swayed me towards coming home to Portland, Oregon. The summers in Portland are arguably about as good as anywhere in the world. Reasonable humidity and high 70s to low 80s temperatures along with a membership to Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club make it tempting to just enjoy the summer on the golf course which is what I have decided to do.

The first week back out on the golf course (for those that are new to my blogs, I used to be a professional golfer before becoming a poker pro) I decided to spend entirely on the range and short game areas. I made some grip changes as well as changes to my swing plane that I thought would help me hit the ball a lot better. This week I decided to test out where I was at on the golf course after a week of practice and so far the results have been mixed. The swing changes allowed me to hit the ball much further and with a much more controlled ball flight. On the flip side, I had no idea where my misses would be and also struggled with adjusting to my new found length with my irons. In the 5 rounds I have played so far I shot 74,71,80,71, and 67. The 67 was pretty special because we played the golf course tipped out and in a stiff rain for a number of holes.

Something really clicked for me about 30 hours ago when I was standing on the 13th fairway yesterday. I blocked my tee shot right of the 13th fairway which is not where you want to miss the ball because you will be blocked out by the trees. I was 4 over par for the round and not feeling too happy about my game. But I realized why my timing was off as I was walking to my tee shot and made an on the fly adjustment. I found my ball in the tress and there was actually a gap in the trees if I could hit a towering 8 iron under one tree and over another. I pulled off the shot and hit it 20 feet over the top of the flag and made the putt for a birdie. I then hit a 315 yard drive on the par 5 and went for the green in two and stuffed it to 8 feet. I made the eagle! I then finished with 2 more birdies to shoot 5 under par for my last 6 holes to shoot a 71.

Today I was able to carry over the positive vibes and got on a bit of a tear. I birdied the 2nd hole, made bogey on 3, hit it in the water on 4 but saved a par with a miracle up and down. I hit a 4 iron on the par 3 5th from 217 yards to birdie range and made the putt. I made another bogey and came to a 475 yard par 4 with water left and right the whole way. It is one of the hardest holes I have ever played and hit a perfect drive and a 6 iron from 190 yards to 20 feet and drilled the putt! I made 4 more birdies by the 15th hole and wound up with a 67 on the day. While a 71 and a 67 is far from what I would describe as my best stuff, I think the stretch I had from the 13th hole to the 12th hole today is without a doubt the best golf I have ever played in my entire life. From the 13th hole yesterday until the 12th hole today, I was 9 under par on a golf course that has hosted a U.S. Amateur (won by Tiger) and the women’s and senior’s U.S. Open. I can definitely say that I have never played a better 18 holes given the difficulty of the golf course. Now of course it is not an official score of 9 under for 18 holes because it was part of 2 rounds of golf, but finding out that I am capable (after years away from the game for the most part) of that type of golf really excited me today.

I’m not going to get ahead of myself and think that maybe I should give the PGA Tour another run because I am at peace with the fact that I am probably just not good enough for the tour, but it was exciting nonetheless. When you play that type of golf the people playing with you always start saying stuff like, “Why don’t you give try and play out on the tour. You can make it. Look at how you are playing?” But the thing is that while there is no question that the type of golf I just played would beat Tiger Woods 95 times out of a 100, there is a monumental difference between doing it a few times here and there and playing consistent top level golf day in and day out. I have never had that kind of consistency. I can be explosive from time to time, but that is a far cry from playing on the “show.” I would like to start competing here and there though. I think that would be fun.

I think if poker goes legal here in the U.S., there is a good chance that I will have the peace of mind to play a lot more golf tournaments. Knowing poker could die at any minute and given the life changing sums of money I was making, I guess I never really felt comfortable taking a lot of time away from poker to play golf. I always said to people who would encourage me to play more golf, “Hey, if I had a contract telling me online poker will always be healthy for as long as I’m alive, I would definitely pursue my golf. But I gotta make hay while the sun shines and until it is legalized, I’m going to play it safe and work hard on it.” And I am glad I did. I know a lot of other poker pros who were really good at struggling big time right now and I am able to play golf everyday without any worry. So while I am glad that I did what I did, it was always unsettling because there is no question my heart and soul belong with golf. Poker will always be 2nd place. That doesn’t mean that I won’t play a ton of poker over the years because I probably will, but let’s just say I sure wish I could make the money I make with poker through golf. Unfortunately the odds of that ever happening are slim to none.

For all of the golfers out there, I hope you enjoy your summer and are able to get out on the golf course a ton!