Hey guys,

I wanted to make a quick post to direct you to this thread:

http://www.bluefirepoker.com/thread.aspx?thrid=3122

We are looking to hire a new employee here at BFP.  Check out the thread if you are interested.

-Jaxx 

Hey guys,

I am laying bed trying to get to sleep, so I will do my best to keep this short.  I am trying to stick to a slightly more reasonable sleep schedule by "real" world standards.  It isn't too beneficial for me to get up every day at 7am as the games I play don't run consistently at that time on US sites, but I am hoping to get up between 9 and 10 for awhile and see how it goes.

I wrote out my goals for the year this year as I used to do.  This includes both professional and personal goals.  I did this several years ago and took time each week or so to evaluate my progress the week before.  I haven't done this in the past few years, but I am going to try and get back on it.  I may talk more about this in another post if I choose to discuss the goals more specifically.  Either way, I am glad that I have some direction right now.  Hopefully it lasts more than a few weeks as most anything resembling a new years resolution seems destine to fail.

For the most part, everything has been great lately.  I went to my cousin's wedding and to Florida with my family.  It was a great break from poker and really was a fun week with my family.  Somehow everything went well with 8 of us in one house in Florida (2 parents, 3 sons, and 2 girlfriends and a wife).  Everyone got along great and had fun despite the weather being pretty cold for Florida.

Since I got home I have played less poker than I would like to have, but it has gone very well.  I am pretty exciting about 2010 as far as poker is concerned.  My band also spent all day yesterday in the recording studio as we are working on getting a few more tracks recorded professionally.  We have done a few tracks in the past and hope to get 3 more done in the next few weeks.

Well, I better cut myself off here, so I go to sleep.  I just want to quickly mention that if you are planning to donate any money to the Haiti Disaster Relief, consider donating on PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker.  They both are collecting donations via account transfers and they are matching all donated funds.  Its a great way to make your donation dollars go further.  I believe they are both donating to the Red Cross, FWIW.  Take a look at the respective pages for exact details.  I plan to make a decent-sized donation some time in the next day or two.

-Jaxx

Happy Belated New Year, Blog Readers!

I have been very busy the last few weeks.  As I mentioned in my last post, I went home for 5 days for Christmas.  I spent a lot of time with family and got some good time in with friends.  We got 25 inches of snow while I was there, and it was kind of nice over Christmas.  Its been a long time since I have been "snowed-in."

I spent a couple days player poker and coaching when I got back into town. Poker didn't go well during those days, but the rest of December was pretty good, so I can't complain too much.  I'll get to more poker stuff later in this post.

On Thursday, I went to a party one of my best friends has every year.  As always, it was a blast.  He never disappoints when he puts together a party.  We had a good amount of people come in from out of town and a lot of people from around here.  Not much to say regarding details, but we killed it.

On Friday, my band played at The Fine Line Music Cafe in downtown Minneapolis.  It is a great venue and was a pretty fun gig.  We had a good turnout including some left-over people who came to town for New Year's.  My parents were even in town.  Of course it wasn't perfect as I broke strings on my primary guitar right away and had to play my backup which I don't play very often and didn't sound great as my equipment was setup for my main guitar.  My voice was also a little raw from the night before (lots of booz and hanging around a fog machine too long), but it wasn't disastrous.  As with any performance, most people probably didn't even notice.  I didn't feel great about it, but I had fun, and I think we sounded all right overall.

6 hours after the gig ended, I had to get up to drive 4 hours to Steven's Point, WI for my cousin's wedding.  I managed to sleep an hour and a half (I suck at falling asleep) before I got up and got ready.  We spent most of the day driving tired, but it was definitely worth it.  Growing up, I was very close to my cousin, and I couldn't imagine missing her wedding.  She seems very happy and her new husband is a great guy.

Now I am back home for 24 more hours before I leave for Florida with my family/wife/brothers' girlfriends.  I have a lot to do today before leaving, but then I get to take it easy for the rest of the week in Florida.  My mom is really looking forward to the trip, so I hope everyone is reasonable when we are out there so she can have a great time.  My mom lives for family trips, Disney, and just spending time with her children.  I will do my best to make sure she has a good time.  She has had a lot of stresses recently (that I would prefer not to discuss).  This should be a good break for her.

Finally, I should discuss poker in 2009 briefly.  It certainly was a successful year.  In terms of online cash games (by bread and butter), I had my best year to date.  I spent a lot on the variance-fest that is the World Series, along with a lot on other investments, life, and effectively "double-paid" my taxes last year.  The estimated payments I sent in in 2008 were substantially less than what I owed as they were based on 2007 income.  So I paid a large chunk at the beginning of the year and then started large estimated payments for 2009.

Basically, it ended up with me having quite a bit less in liquid assets than I would prefer.  As result, I have played a bit lower than normal at the end of the year.  I am building up my online roll again, though, and look forward to getting back into more 25/50+ in 2010.  I feel like I have a good shot at having a big year.  The extent of how big it will be is heavily dependent on how much volume I put in and variance.  Basically, if I run good in the right spots, I could end up playing a lot of 25/50+ right away.  Even if I spend a few months playing more 10/20 and 5/10, its still a very good living, so I am not sure how aggressive I will be with bankroll management.  We will see.  

Either way, I feel really good about my game right now.  I spent a lot of time last year working on my PLO game, and I feel like I have become very good while still improving at NL.  I also spent a fair amount of time playing tournaments, so I feel good as a donkament player as well.  I think I have a lot of options now considering I feel great in 6-max and heads up in both games along with my ability to compete in tournaments.  I probably won't play a ton of tourneys, but a good run in one is always a possibility that could give me a great bump in my earnings this year.

I have also gotten into coaching this year along with training at BlueFire.  BFP has been a great experience, and I look forward to continuing to push new content in 2010.  I have two concept series going that have gotten great reviews, and I plan to continue adding to them as much as I can find time too.  They always take more time, but I think the classroom-style videos are very efficient ways to teach.  As expected, as I continue to make videos, I think I am improving a lot as a teacher.  The same goes with coaching which I have really been enjoying as of late.  Talking about a game that I love with other intelligent/passionate players really is a great time.  It is awesome that I get paid for it.  I plan to continue making several videos a month, and coaching a few times a week throughout all of 2010.  It is a great way for me to diversify my ability to make a living through poker.  It is also very gratifying to help players improve.  Becoming successful at poker has improved my life so much, and I really enjoy watching others move up and have similar experiences to me.

I use the word "great" a TON when I write.  Maybe I should work on that along with shortening my sentences. :-)

I was going to post on other life goals for this year, but this post has gotten too long already. I will save that for another post.

Happy 2010 everyone.  Only 5 more years until we are living in the land of Back to the Future 2.  I can't wait until I get my hover-car!

-Jaxx

Hey guys,

I am back in my home town for the holidays.  In proper ND fashion, we may be getting several feet of snow over the next few days.  Its kind of nice during Christmas, to be honest.  I am not a fan of the cold or the snow during 99% of the year, but around Christmas, its cool stuff.

I hope you all are doing well.

Happy Holidays!

-Jaxx

Hey guys,

I wanted to direct all members to this forum post:

http://www.bluefirepoker.com/thread.aspx?postid=9959#post9959

We are having some minor issues with the sort function on our video page.  It is my understanding that they are working on it right now.

Basically, new vids don't appear at the top of the page right now.  In order to fix the problem, go to "type" filter at the top of the page and choose english.  That should fix it until they take care of the issue.

I have a new vid up today (SSNL) and Phil had one up Friday.  They just don't show up at the top right now.

Should be fixed soon,

-Jaxx

Hey guys,

I wanted to post a quick update on coaching.  I have been getting a fair amount of PMs  and emails about coaching lately.  While I really appreciate all of the interest, I should let you know that I am currently maxed out on the number of students I will take on at one time.  If you email me (pbjaxxpoker@gmail.com) that you are interested I will be sure to respond to let you know that I got your email and I will put you on the waiting list.  I am coaching more students now than I have in the past, so the waits shouldn't be as long, but it still may be awhile.

I hope you are all doing well,

-Jaxx

Hey guys,

I recently decided to do a few Small Stakes vids since most of our members are small stakes players. I am pretty excited about a few of the videos I am planning, and I hope they are well received.  

What I am primarily planning to do is a short series of a few concept/classroom-style videos as my previous concept vids were really well received.  To start, though, I played some 1/2NL and put together a video of live (pretty readless) play.  It is good for me to go back and play some small stakes again before teaching on it as the games have changed a bit since I played 1/2.  I will probably do this one more time as I dive further into the concept vids.

I hope you guys enjoy the 1/2 session that is going up today, and I am excited to release some concept videos directed towards small/mid-stakes players.  Any ideas you guys have for the concept vids, feel free to let me know.  I mention in today's vid that I am going to be demonstrating how to exploit specific weaknesses in these games with the classroom series.  If there are any styles or actions that you have a hard time combating, let me know.

-Jaxx 

Hey guys,

So I have had a few whiney posts lately to vent about running bad.  Well, I have been running good lately *knock on wood*, so I feel like I should at least mention that too in the blog so all the poker talk isn't complaining.  As usual, I am very excited to play poker since i have been running good.  I will do my best to play a lot in the next couple weeks as I will end up having to take some time off.

Unfortunately, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 is an outstanding game.  I say unfortunately because it makes it hard for me to do much besides play that game when I am not pokering/socializing right now.  I have a decent amount of other things to do for life right now, so hopefully I can spend a few hours away from a computer/TV screen over the next few days.  I am really addicted to that damn game.  When a game is good, I feel like its an insane value.  I have no idea how many millions were spent on the development of the game, and I am sure they are making an obscene amount of money on it, but I think paying $60 for the amount of hours of enjoyment I get out of this is a great deal.

I have been coaching more lately than I have in the past, and I am really enjoying it.  A lot of it is due to the fact that my current students are very smart guys and are very knowledgeable about poker.  I think I am going to start maintaining a steady amount of coaching in my schedule next year.  Its a great way to mix up the daily poker grind, and I am sure it makes me a better player as well.

-Jaxx

Hey blog readers,

I am off to my home town for the first time in almost a year for Thanksgiving.  Ill likely write an update while I am there as I have been slacking on the blog lately.  Things are still meh as far as poker is concerned, but its turning around.  The hardest part about it all has been the great games that have been running during a time where I really can't sit that high.  I could always sell my action, but I don't like playing without a big piece of myself.  Hopefully we can have more games like this in a month or two after I get back to having a more comfortable roll.

Happy Thanksgiving

-Jaxx 

 So I am officially running epically bad.  I am pretty sure this is the worst I have ever run.  Primarily on FTP of course.  I wish I could find a way to quit playing there, but it is unrealistic as a US player IMO. 

That is the whole point of this post.  I am just sad to be running so awful.  Poker really is a hard way to make an easy living sometime.  Someone boomswitch me please.  I need it.

Other than that, life is still good as always.

-Jaxx

(See the post below from ~1 hour ago)

Well,

I am pretty much over the tilt already.  Prob like 75% past it.  At least I never let poker bother me for too long.  I am gonna go out to eat with the wife (and booz a bit), then go buy Modern Warfare 2 for the 360 and waste half the night on it.  I will probably party too hard all weekend too.

I wish I would have made 3 folds I didn't today, but other than that, whatevs, life is good.

-Jaxx 

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. 

Things have been pretty good, but as of right now, I am on crazy tilt.

These hands weren't necessarily the biggest of today, but they came pretty much back to back when I was already tilted.

FWIW, against this villain, I think both of these calls were marginal at best and probably both folds.  Nope, thats not even right.  They are def both folds.  Its hard to do when on super tilt, though.

Hand 1:

Full Tilt Poker PL Omaha - $5/$10 Ring (3 handed)

Starting Stacks:
Seat : BB ($)
Seat 1: BTN (Hero) ($2069)
Seat 2: SB ($2979.75)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with 
   

Hero raises $30, SB raises $90, Hero calls $60

Flop: ($180) - 2 players 
  
SB bets $120, Hero calls $120

Turn: ($420) - 3 players 
   
, SB bets $280, Hero calls $280

River: ($980) - 3 players 
    
SB checks, Hero bets $777, SB all-in $2489.75, , Hero all-in $802

Final pot: $4,137.50 ($0.50 rake)

Results below:
SB has a full house, Aces full of Nines
   

SB wins $4137.50 from main pot

Hand 2:

Full Tilt Poker PL Omaha - $5/$10 Ring (3 handed)

Starting Stacks:
Seat : SB ($)
Seat 1: BB (Hero) ($2040)
Seat 2: BTN ($5008.25)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 
   

BTN raises $30, Hero raises $90, BTN calls $60

Flop: ($180) - 2 players 
  
Hero bets $122, BTN calls $122

Turn: ($424) - 2 players 
   
Hero bets $311, BTN calls $311

River: ($1046) - 3 players 
    
Hero bets $777, BTN raises $1554, , Hero all-in $740

Final pot: $4,079.50 ($0.50 rake)

Results below:
BTN has a flush, Ace high
   

BTN wins $4079.50 from main pot

Today sucks.  This is just a big whiney tilt post, and I'm not gonna feel bad about it. Poker is evil sometimes, and I get to vent in my blog cuz I don't vent to hardly anyone IRL.

Hope you guys are doing better than I am.

-Jaxx 

 Halloween was a blast this year.

Hey,

Quick drunk post here.  

I have received a lot of requests for PLO videos recently - at the tables, through 2p2, and even a couple in the comments in my blogs.

The video that I have up to be released in the next day is half PLO and half NL heads-up.  I think the series will get substantially more interesting as it goes on, but I still recommend checking out part 1 to anyone looking to see some more PLO content on BFP.  Be sure to check out future installments.

Gnight.

-Jaxx 

Hey,

I just had a friend stay with me for a couple days when I wasn't expecting it.  A very good friend of mine just finished a year in a Afghanistan working for the Army.  He isn't in the military, but a civilian engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers.  Anyway, he called on Sunday night cuz he was gonna be stranded in MPLS for the night.  He changed his flight out to Tuesday, and we hung out for a couple days. As expected, we had a lot of fun.

Now I am ready to get back to grinding.  As I said before, I am trying to get a lot of hands in right now to rebuild my online roll.  I am still playing mostly 5/10 for a little while to recover after taking a lot of money offline.  I don't want to deposit, so I am doing a little rebuild.  Its good for me to do this every once in awhile.  If nothing else, it helps with confidence to reprove to yourself that you can grind back up to the higher stakes when necessary.  In reality, I am mostly playing PLO anyway, so doing well in the 5/10 games there is even more valuable.  While I have had very good PLO results, I haven't spent much time at 5/10 and lower, so its good to prove to myself that my success hasn't been dominated by variance.  

More than anything, I am really happy that I am still having a lot of fun playing PLO. I have been playing professionally for 2 years now, and I always assumed I would be pretty bored with poker by now.  SInce I have spent more time on PLO along with making vids in NL, I am still enjoying poker.  In a few months, I will probably tackle some of the other limit games, so I can feel comfortable in the 7 and 8-game mixed games.  Spending a fair amount of the last few months on live tourneys has also kept me interested and learning (even though live tourneys get boring).

-Jaxx