Exercising social control in poker

I don't have too much to report regarding my own play of late. However, I have been delivering some seriously good vibes to my friends who keep going deep in big tourneys. In fact, it seems like recently everyone around me in our little entourage has been doing well, and...more

All Posts

Schedule? What schedule?

It's tough to be a live-plus-online pro in Asia. Unlike Europe, which has lots of live events fairly close together and friendly online tournament times, Asian live tournaments are far-flung and major online tournaments start in the middle of the night. Since the start of the year from Singapore to...more

All Posts

A call for a committee

We have good tournament directors around the world, but sometimes they and their partners make really bad decisions, and often the reason that they do is they aren't playing poker every day. What we need to have happen at all major events is to have a committee of players who...more

All Posts

Playing a different angle

My PLO results since the middle of last year have been kind of frustrating. They've forced me to think about Omaha and poker in general in ways that I never did before. I thought back across my poker career. I started off playing limit hold'em. Then I transitioned to no-limit...more

All Posts

Tilting?

For the last year I've been trying hard to improve my online cash games. I'd always played cash games before I got into tournaments, but when I started having tournament success I stopped playing them for a while. When I got back to them I kind of felt stuck. The...more

All Posts

The scenic route to Monaco

I didn't have much sleep before going to the EPT Final, because my nephew was born at 5am on day 1a. Obviously I had to stay in London to rail that in. Luckily, I was playing day 1b. So, after an hour's sleep and a dawn hospital visit to meet...more

All Posts

Back to my roots

Before I got into poker I was a professional billiards player. I had quite a bit of success in my home country of Romania and in the rest of Europe. As a professional, I practiced a lot. If a big tournament was coming up, I would practice seven to eight...more

All Posts

Japanese perfection

I just got back a few weeks ago from a trip to Japan. I went right before WSOP Asia Pacific, and I am really glad I did because I'll be busy over the next couple of months with the EPT and SCOOP, and then with the WSOP this summer. I...more

All Posts

Laxxed

I spent some time in Canada this spring trying to get in some relaxation time. I've been playing a lot online, but also trying to take breaks, too, to keep myself alert and focused. One thing I like to do when not playing is to watch various television series like...more

All Posts

Teaching the game

In addition to playing a pretty full schedule this year, I've gotten back into teaching poker more regularly as well, and it has really been rewarding to do so. I obviously started out as an amateur player, then shortly after winning the WSOP Main Event in 2003 I began to...more

All Posts
» Read all