Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

Haha, welcome back to the blog. I have chosen a sparkling glitter gif of a royal flush. Gay?  A little bit but relevant… indeed it is.

The first part of my two part session at 100nl premiered on Cardrunners.com today. And in the 1 and a half footage, I managed to make a royal flush. It was pretty awesome. But aside from that fun, the video is pretty good discusses alot of concepts I think are gonna be vital for any 100nl reg or 50nl reg.

Make sure if you watch it to leave a rating and comments about things you really liked or disliked. That’s the only way I know what to fix in the next videos. Also any questions i’m more than happy to answer.

Onto my July, I have been grinding a ton of 1/2nl after taking basically the first week of july off thanks to a trip to TN. I am up to 20k hands in about a week of play, which is pretty unheard of for me. I have been playing really well, and running pretty average. If july keeps going well, I’ll likely be taking full shots at 2/4 again in August. That said, I seem to always move up and get knocked right back down.

I have also been coaching a ton recently. I did a well for 2p2 and Cardrunners and it seemed to create alot of interest in my coaching services which was a great reward for doing the wells. I am pretty excited to get started with all the new students I picked up. Next week should be a busy one.

That’s basically all the updates I got. I’ll update again by the end of the month.

My video premiered on Monday. I’m not gonna lie I was pretty nervous that people would think I played like a total monkey or wouldn’t follow my thoughts. Well to this point, disaster averted. I have been amazed by the awesome reception my video has received. I was expecting a few people to either “disagree” with something I said, or be pissed at something I did in the video. On the contrary, I even received a few PMs informing me how much people enjoyed it. I am pretty overwhelmed with the love shown. I also received a PM with a few possible pointers for making the video and I greatly appreciated that too. So to everyone, thanks and if you have some ideas for a way to improve the next video, please I’m all ears.

I’d like to give a special shoutout to Micah from CR. It might be his job is to make graphics and animations but I was amazed with the job he did for mine on the main page. For those that want to see it, its still on the main CR page. If you read this blog a little late, a screenshot from the animation is the main picture for this post.

One more thing before I get into talking about the next video. I received a PM from a player on one of my tables in the video that is a CR member. He was actually a regular in what was probably the most interesting hand of the video. He sent me the HH from his end. He seemed less than thrilled he got outplayed but I don’t think there was a ton he could do in that spot. That said, hopefully he learned a few trick. Now all I need is the HH from CRxHodd showing me his A9cc and I’ll be a true genius. Here’s the link: http://weaktight.com/2398014 In future videos, I suppose I should be gentle with my explanations of HH’s.

I’m going to start working on my next videos shortly. I’ve had a few recommendations but I think i’m going to focus on the differences between the limits with my own personal touch in a series of videos. Something similar to what Nolan did on DC 2 years back. That was always one of my favorite full ring series when I was struggling and Nolan made it all that much better. Just a few preliminary ideas so we’ll see. Any topic suggestions would be greatly appreciated… I think everything has been done to some extent by someone else. But any ideas that you guys feel you would like to hear me explain would be greatly appreciated. Anyone interested in a leakfinder? Haha I’m sure that will generate comments. Leave them and if you haven’t posted before have no fear, you will get approved for comments.

So not to freak anyone out, but I cashed out for the first time since June 1st 4 days ago. I got the e-mail saying that it was pending approval. It still hasn’t been approved and normally it takes less than 48 hours to get approval for bank wires.

I’m not that worried, but its still a little alarming considering I’ve gotten paid via rakeback and coaching. Both were pretty quickly approved. Seriously though, I’m not freaked. I’d say I’m at code yellow at the moment. And a rare doubleflyish picture that has somewhat funny ramifications.

Onto other things, my june has been a pretty ridiculous month so far. I am running pretty damn well (10 bi’s above EV) but yet still not crushing as hard as I think I should be. I feel like I’m really on top of the 1/2nl games these days as I pretty fear no regs but maybe mamba and ren. Not to mention, I look at the 2/4nl games and they don’t look that tough. I played a session at 2/4nl earlier this month and was shocked how many of the regs have really glaring leaks still. I guess its not too surprising but I just get this idea in my head that all regs at 2/4+ are going to be playing perfect games for the most part since that is the highest you can play full ring consistently. There’s a reason they aren’t playing 10/20nl 6m I suppose.

Back to the month at hand, I’ve already grinded close to 40k hands and I’m feeling really good about the developments in my game over the last 6 months. I have become a reg leak finding machine since the games have gone super-reggy. Hopefully the 10 bi’s, I’m up in EV don’t come crashing down this month. It is nice to run hot for once and I am great appreciative to be on the other end for if only a month.

My first Cardrunners video is set to debut Monday. If you look on the main menu of cardrunners, you will see my video listed as the only thing offered on monday. I feel like the video was pretty good. I played rather agressively and made the point of hammering home how to beat down 50nl (and 100nl) regs. The video is at 50nl but the regs at 100nl have alot of the same leaks I’m pointing out on the video. Hopefully people don’t just see my PTR and think “breakeven nit” and completely discredit the ideas in the video. If you have a membership, check it out and critique or praise it on monday. Whichever is necessary… and don’t bother looking at my PTR plz.

On a different note, I got a big weekend/week of friends. I have about 12 people in town for 2 different weddings in the DC area. Luckily for me, I’m on the outside of the “bubble” and didn’t get invited to either. It’s guys from my fraternity that I was friends with but by no means would call on a daily basis or even a basis for that matter. Either way, my house is the launching pad for people staying here. My buddy, Fuppnasty on FTP, just got here as well. I managed to get myself sick last night, which was lame but luckily I think tonight is gonna be the big party night. Also after everyone leaves on sunday night, I have another visitor coming into town. Mr. AlwaysLimp will be coming down to DC for a few days. I think we are just gonna play golf, poker and drink for the 3-4 days he’s here. It should be a good time, and 200nl gets a break from 2 pretty good regs in the process too. I’ll post an update after the video drops and likely at the end of the month.

.Well hello boys and girls… I got alot of really positive feedback from the last post and if you enjoyed that last post, you’ll likely really enjoy this news…

I officially signed on to be a video producer for Cardrunners this week. I will be producing low and micro-stakes full ring videos for them. I’m sure alot of you know that I’ve been doing private coaching through Cardrunners for a few years, and now am very excited to have this opportunity to coach on a larger scale. My first video is going to premiere on Monday, June 21st.

I’ve come such a long way in poker, and I’d say 90% of the progress is thanks to Cardrunners. So i’m gonna use this blog to reminisce about my Cardrunners experience. It starts for me being a very recreational poker player in about 2006. I use to play just drunken sit and gos with the occasional cash game mixed in. I played with several members of my fraternity. I don’t have a clue where I first heard about cardrunners, but I remember with great detail watching that very first demo video on the front page of the site. I watched it with my roommate at the time, Josh. We both watched the 10 minute demo. After we picked our mouthes off the floor, we created a shrine proclaiming that Taylor Caby was the best poker player alive . We realized we had no idea how to really play poker.

At the time the cost of cardrunners I believe was $25/month with a $100 signup fee. That was alot of money for us back in the day. So me and one of my best friends, Steve, decided to split the cost of the account and start learning to play poker. Within 2 months, It was apparent I was going to be the only person using the account since Steve hadn’t signed on nor paid me in the 2 months. I decided to devote myself to one discipline of poker and I chose the one I was best at… Full ring. I started 4-tabling 25nl about that time while watching every video I could get my hands on on Cardrunners.

I slowly learned to 8-table and then to 12-table and then to 16-table. I moved up to 400nl in a matter of a year (the games were softer back then). Those 400nl tables played more like the 100nl tables nowadays. I always had a dream of creating a video that blew someone’s mind like Taylor’s did for me. I always pretended to be a “Cardrunner’s Pro” when I made my little videos for the “member’s contribution” forum on CR. I said I wanted critiques but I didn’t. I wanted to show everyone how far I had come. About 2 years ago, I contacted Cardrunners about wanting to make videos for them. I was put in touch with Brian Townsend and he told me to create a video and send it in. I created a video and it was a total disaster (which of course I didn’t realize at the time). I remember making the main theme of the video “Calling in position with QK and beating pocket pairs”. It was ridiculous. I held my breathe and got the rejection e-mail. I was sad but it only forced me to work harder on my game. I watched that video recently, and my god, was I bad.

I have been active on the Cardrunner’s Full ring thread for over 3 years and would like to think i’ve helped tons of guys get better. I came in with such guys as “AlwaysLimp” and “Using_It”. We always discussed full ring strategy on those forums while helping the lower level guys. I’ve given so much of my time to that community, I’m so happy to finally get a chance to coach on a large stage

As I sent in my QA video (a sample video that CR uses to test if you are CR worthy), I never had a doubt I was going to get the gig. It was so different than that first shot I sent to Townsend. I am finally ready and have finally made my game good enough to have alot to give back.  I am excited about the video premiere whether people love it or hate it. I finally get my wish of 3 years ago.

I mentioned it before but It looks like its here to stay… If you like the blog, You’ll likely like the twitter updates. I rarely update it with poker info but if ya like funny comments, sarcasm and useless info feel free to follow me. My twitter is “DamnRinger”. First name Eric.