Fedor Holz retired at a young age, Doug Polk, Alec Torelli, Daniel Negreanu and plenty more have their vlogs, podcasts, Youtube channels. Some pros turn to coaching, seminars. Some create their own apps, run poker rooms, online sites, become affiliates.
We all love poker, but the dream is not to make money from playing poker, the dream is to play poker as a hobby but making tonnes of money from stuff related to poker, or using poker winnings to start a successful business.
Poker is tough, it takes a lot of time, energy, study, mental strength, emotional sacrifice, discipline, and risks. Only a handful of players can play at the top level for years, and not many can survive the swings, not just financially but emotionally and mentally. The longest session I have played was 56 hours non-stop, but at my age now I can't do that anymore. I find myself losing focus after 5 or 6 hours and sometimes even nodding off! So physically it takes a toll as well.
The dream is making enough money to live well, and playing poker as a side income or hobby, or a way to maintain your status in the poker world. I don't want to be a grinder, not many people wants to be.
I recently reached my first milestone about 7 weeks ago. This week I am celebrating my second milestone. I am not going into details about what this milestone is, because there are people who know me personally that reads this blog. I recently even received an email blackmailing me for money. It was laughable considering I have had run ins with the authorities before, and I know what is legal what isn't. I've learned my lessons and I probably know more about these laws than most people. Nothing can intimidate me as I have done nothing wrong and plus I have proof of blackmail and extortion. Those are serious felonies if you ask me.
What I can say is I am blessed to be in this position. It's been a long time coming but I think I am finally going where I need to be heading. I have put in a lot of work, studying, humble hours of learning and observing, networking, and maybe, maybe it is starting to pay off.
Thursday, 6 July 2017
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Finally a good result in Macau
I have been complaining a lot about Macau. Still 0 tournament cashes, and usually end of having losing trips, thanks to no small part the very attractive table games (but I have controlled). Recently I decided to take a trip and it didn't start the way I liked.
First day I dropped about USD 4000 in one night. I am like, here we go again. The next day I clawed back a bit. And finally I had a great session and you big fish fed me yummy sashimi! These guys were calling a "flush" as "same color" and two pairs as "dubs". Immediately I knew they were for the taking.
First hand I literally just sat down. I had 33 on cut off. Someone opened, 3 callers, I called, the two fish called. Flop was 1063. Everyone checked, fish #1 leads out a small bet, 2 callers (apparently many people knew they were fishes too), I just called. Turn was an 8 plus a flush draw. Another player opened this time. Could he have 79? Maybe but I was not going to fold my straight. I played it snug and just called again, and fish reraises. The guy folded so I am very happy about that. I went for another reraise so that I can get it all in on the river. He calls. River another 8. I got my boat. I jammed and he called. Chaching, USD 2.4k pot.
Couple of hands after, I had T9 of clubs. Flop comes 653 three clubs! Guy opens, another guy raises, I was worried I was drawing dead but I just flat. Fish flats. Turn is a blank. Guy checks, I bet, fish calls, guy folds. River was a blank King. I thought to myself what kind of value can I get? I am hoping this guy had a King high flush draw and hit his king. I bet and he did have a king and called. He had K2 with a club.
I continued to run good and went on to recover all my losses from the day before, and that night won another few K to make it a good trip! Stayed at the Grand Lapa hotel. It is one of the older hotels in Macau but it has been refurbished. A bit out of the way from the city but it has a really nice resort area with pools and stuff. Loved it. Nice buffet dinner too. Would recommend this hotel.
Overall a pretty nice trip. Great getaway and a good result. Dropped back a bit when I couldn't resist some table games, but I was happy with the result at the end.
First day I dropped about USD 4000 in one night. I am like, here we go again. The next day I clawed back a bit. And finally I had a great session and you big fish fed me yummy sashimi! These guys were calling a "flush" as "same color" and two pairs as "dubs". Immediately I knew they were for the taking.
First hand I literally just sat down. I had 33 on cut off. Someone opened, 3 callers, I called, the two fish called. Flop was 1063. Everyone checked, fish #1 leads out a small bet, 2 callers (apparently many people knew they were fishes too), I just called. Turn was an 8 plus a flush draw. Another player opened this time. Could he have 79? Maybe but I was not going to fold my straight. I played it snug and just called again, and fish reraises. The guy folded so I am very happy about that. I went for another reraise so that I can get it all in on the river. He calls. River another 8. I got my boat. I jammed and he called. Chaching, USD 2.4k pot.
Couple of hands after, I had T9 of clubs. Flop comes 653 three clubs! Guy opens, another guy raises, I was worried I was drawing dead but I just flat. Fish flats. Turn is a blank. Guy checks, I bet, fish calls, guy folds. River was a blank King. I thought to myself what kind of value can I get? I am hoping this guy had a King high flush draw and hit his king. I bet and he did have a king and called. He had K2 with a club.
I continued to run good and went on to recover all my losses from the day before, and that night won another few K to make it a good trip! Stayed at the Grand Lapa hotel. It is one of the older hotels in Macau but it has been refurbished. A bit out of the way from the city but it has a really nice resort area with pools and stuff. Loved it. Nice buffet dinner too. Would recommend this hotel.
Overall a pretty nice trip. Great getaway and a good result. Dropped back a bit when I couldn't resist some table games, but I was happy with the result at the end.
Thursday, 18 May 2017
My latest update
Sorry guys I haven't been writing much. But April/May has been a really busy time for me. Work wise, business wise and poker wise. Just thought I dropped you guys an update as not to disappoint, and one of the new year resolutions for 2017 was to maintain a blog and post regularly.
If you haven't yet, you can follow me on Instagram where I am more regular in my posts (search for HappyRiverPoker) I have a twitter account but I rarely use it.
In April I got involved in a new platform called PPpoker. It is a club based game platform where you can play poker with friends within your club. I am involved in a club called APL (Asia Poker League - ID 11111) and we have about 850 players since it's inception 5 weeks ago. Our players come from different countries around the world, mainly Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UK, USA and Canada. However the best part about this platform is the players are fishy as hell!
(update Feb 2018, now we have 5000 players and counting)
I have been doing really well here and now I am more of a PLO player where I find value games to play and grind it out. Since the club started 5 weeks ago, I am a good amount. I am not going to mention how much, but I must say it has made me consider quitting my job.
The problem is, many people want to play PLO but they don't know how to. What are good hands, power of position, ranges, blockers, etc. If you have the time, and the patience, and bankroll to handle the variance, you can make a killing. Out of the 850 players in the club, I am the top winner of the list.
The games are fun and available almost 24/7, action is fast and furious, fishes are plenty and fat, time for some omega 3 I say!
If you are interested to know more, please contact me on happyriverpoker@gmail.com, or add me on Instagram (happyriverpoker) or Facebook (peternegreanu@gmail.com - don't send email to this address though)
If you haven't yet, you can follow me on Instagram where I am more regular in my posts (search for HappyRiverPoker) I have a twitter account but I rarely use it.
In April I got involved in a new platform called PPpoker. It is a club based game platform where you can play poker with friends within your club. I am involved in a club called APL (Asia Poker League - ID 11111) and we have about 850 players since it's inception 5 weeks ago. Our players come from different countries around the world, mainly Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UK, USA and Canada. However the best part about this platform is the players are fishy as hell!
(update Feb 2018, now we have 5000 players and counting)
I have been doing really well here and now I am more of a PLO player where I find value games to play and grind it out. Since the club started 5 weeks ago, I am a good amount. I am not going to mention how much, but I must say it has made me consider quitting my job.
The problem is, many people want to play PLO but they don't know how to. What are good hands, power of position, ranges, blockers, etc. If you have the time, and the patience, and bankroll to handle the variance, you can make a killing. Out of the 850 players in the club, I am the top winner of the list.
The games are fun and available almost 24/7, action is fast and furious, fishes are plenty and fat, time for some omega 3 I say!
If you are interested to know more, please contact me on happyriverpoker@gmail.com, or add me on Instagram (happyriverpoker) or Facebook (peternegreanu@gmail.com - don't send email to this address though)
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
Pot Limit Omaha is like a hot bitch!
Players who have played PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) will tell you they have a love hate relationship with the game. I describe it as having a relationship with a hot bitch. Sometimes you're in heaven and you feel like the luckiest guy in the world, but at times you hate yourself for loving her. (*singing* I hate myself for loving you... can't break free from the things that you do....)
Recently I have been playing more PLO on a pppoker club (id: 11111). Things have been going okay but last night I had the biggest score.
That's me, wobuhuiwan (it means "I don't know how to play" in Mandarin) Here I'm up 4061 chips in one session. Sorry I haven't been posting much cause I have been involved in so many projects lately but having a good time. So far I have had a good month. I am up about USD 8k in poker profits and rakeback in April. I will write an Omaha article later this month I hope. I can't say I'm a good player in Omaha, but on this club, it is quite easy to win for me.
Anyway, just wanted to write an article as I recently heard that some people regularly check my blog for updates. Sorry to have disappointed you lately. I will try to write more posts when I can. This coming weekend I will be playing the main event at the Pokerstars Platinum Series in Macau. It has been a while I've played in a tournament. Hopefully I can do well and break my duck in Macau! If you know me personally, I am selling my action as well. Let me know if you're interested to buy.
Remember you can reach out to me on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook by adding Happyriverpoker.
Recently I have been playing more PLO on a pppoker club (id: 11111). Things have been going okay but last night I had the biggest score.
That's me, wobuhuiwan (it means "I don't know how to play" in Mandarin) Here I'm up 4061 chips in one session. Sorry I haven't been posting much cause I have been involved in so many projects lately but having a good time. So far I have had a good month. I am up about USD 8k in poker profits and rakeback in April. I will write an Omaha article later this month I hope. I can't say I'm a good player in Omaha, but on this club, it is quite easy to win for me.
Anyway, just wanted to write an article as I recently heard that some people regularly check my blog for updates. Sorry to have disappointed you lately. I will try to write more posts when I can. This coming weekend I will be playing the main event at the Pokerstars Platinum Series in Macau. It has been a while I've played in a tournament. Hopefully I can do well and break my duck in Macau! If you know me personally, I am selling my action as well. Let me know if you're interested to buy.
Remember you can reach out to me on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook by adding Happyriverpoker.
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
Latest updates, Self Ban, Online Scores, etc.
It has been a while since my last post. One of my resolutions was to keep this blog live and active. Sorry I have been really busy with life, work, poker and play. So let's get into it.
Live games: Still doing well on 5/10 but as soon as I venture to the other side and also bigger games, I got crushed. So I gave myself a ban from playing anything bigger than 5/10 until the 27th of August 2017. Haha. I have stopped for almost a month now, but let's see if I have the discipline to stay away.
Recently I played on Natural8 again. First week I did really well, I booked a USD 3k profit week and after rakeback the grand total was around USD 3600. 3rd day into the second week and I'm up USD 700 with another USD 500 or so in rakeback. This week has been grindy and rollercoaster like. This morning I was up USD 300, then down to negative 800 for the week, but I grinded it back in 4 hours and booked a 700 profit.
The games are really soft, but you gotta find your groove in it. First of all I think you need a decent bankroll. There are some pros playing as well so you gotta recognize who they are and stay away. There are so many betting patterns to pick up, after a while, it is almost playing face up against some players. There are fishes and boy they are bad! Let me share with you one of them. I am sorry to name names but the pictures show the nick clearly. I guess I can edit it out but I suck at photo editing and I really don't have the time. So please forgive me Zizon007.
Soon after playing with Zizon007, I quickly realized that he was playing really badly and I think he was tilted too. Just from playing 1/2, he lost 2-3k in one hour or so. So I targeted him. Isolated him whenever I can.
First one was this hand. He raise pre UTG and I called with 99 on the small blind. I flopped top set with 3 clubs. I check raised him, he calls. Turns I boat up. So I checked to him. He shoves on me! Jack high flush draw, I showed super strength check raising the flop. Anyways I obliged and boom. $414 pot.
Soon after he was pretty tilted I suppose. Preflop he raised on the sb, I reraised with my queens. He shoves, I snap. Pretty standard steam play I guess! Thanks Zizon007
Today I played this hand and I think I played it reasonably well. Villain is an aggressive player, likes to make moves so I elected to just flat his 3b in position. Flop I hit top pair. He bets pretty small, I just call. turn I boat up so I check behind. River he checks. I thought the best way to extract maximum value is to shove and hope for a call. And he did! Quads baby!
Anyway, pretty good 2 weeks so far. I hope it goes on. I am playing fearless poker and I think I might have found my online style. Let's not get too excited just yet, but I will keep you guys updated!
Sign up at Natural8.com using the code FREEBONUS for great rakebacks and bonuses! Or add me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook by searching "Happyriverpoker"
Live games: Still doing well on 5/10 but as soon as I venture to the other side and also bigger games, I got crushed. So I gave myself a ban from playing anything bigger than 5/10 until the 27th of August 2017. Haha. I have stopped for almost a month now, but let's see if I have the discipline to stay away.
Recently I played on Natural8 again. First week I did really well, I booked a USD 3k profit week and after rakeback the grand total was around USD 3600. 3rd day into the second week and I'm up USD 700 with another USD 500 or so in rakeback. This week has been grindy and rollercoaster like. This morning I was up USD 300, then down to negative 800 for the week, but I grinded it back in 4 hours and booked a 700 profit.
The games are really soft, but you gotta find your groove in it. First of all I think you need a decent bankroll. There are some pros playing as well so you gotta recognize who they are and stay away. There are so many betting patterns to pick up, after a while, it is almost playing face up against some players. There are fishes and boy they are bad! Let me share with you one of them. I am sorry to name names but the pictures show the nick clearly. I guess I can edit it out but I suck at photo editing and I really don't have the time. So please forgive me Zizon007.
Soon after playing with Zizon007, I quickly realized that he was playing really badly and I think he was tilted too. Just from playing 1/2, he lost 2-3k in one hour or so. So I targeted him. Isolated him whenever I can.
First one was this hand. He raise pre UTG and I called with 99 on the small blind. I flopped top set with 3 clubs. I check raised him, he calls. Turns I boat up. So I checked to him. He shoves on me! Jack high flush draw, I showed super strength check raising the flop. Anyways I obliged and boom. $414 pot.
Today I played this hand and I think I played it reasonably well. Villain is an aggressive player, likes to make moves so I elected to just flat his 3b in position. Flop I hit top pair. He bets pretty small, I just call. turn I boat up so I check behind. River he checks. I thought the best way to extract maximum value is to shove and hope for a call. And he did! Quads baby!
Anyway, pretty good 2 weeks so far. I hope it goes on. I am playing fearless poker and I think I might have found my online style. Let's not get too excited just yet, but I will keep you guys updated!
Sign up at Natural8.com using the code FREEBONUS for great rakebacks and bonuses! Or add me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook by searching "Happyriverpoker"
Monday, 6 February 2017
Poker in Seoul - REVIEW
A while back I wrote something about this already but I just came back from Seoul so I thought I give another update.
The first poker room is at Paradise Casino (Walkerhill). Every taxi driver knows Walkerhill. Can't miss it. They even have free shuttle buses from Gangbyeon Subway station and Gwangnaru Subway station) Games are 1000/2000 and 2000/5000 (about USD 1/2, 2/5) and there's a bad beat jackpot that gets up to USD 20k at times. Games are quite soft, action is decent, not a lot of pros on 1/2.
There's another casino called Seven Luck, they have a poker room too, but games are sporadic, and I have not played there myself. But it is centrally located in Gangnam.
Seoul is freaking cold in winter, but it is a nice city overall. Very modern, although I still feel a bit behind compared to Tokyo, but has a nice mix of culture, history and modern metropolitan. The people rarely speak English, and when they do, usually at native level because many Koreans grew up in America or Canada are now back in Seoul.
Nice to hold a 1 million chip!
I've got the NUTS!
One thing I like about this room is free drinks (even alcohol) and free frozen yogurt, and I like mine with nuts! Usually people would tip the waitress $1 but that's still not bad. Great service, dealers are pretty fast, games are 24/7, highly recommend.There's another casino called Seven Luck, they have a poker room too, but games are sporadic, and I have not played there myself. But it is centrally located in Gangnam.
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Happy New Year and New Year Resolutions
Happy New Year everyone wherever you are! Thanks for your continued support of me and my blog. I will continue to update it with interesting sharings and poker stories.
2016 was an up-and-down year for me.
2016 Snapshot
- I kept my blog active
- Made new poker friends (Alec Torelli, Lo Shing Fung, Robbie Strazynski, etc)
- Kept my instagram active
- I have a new "mascot"
Goals for 2017
- Continue to improve my game
- Travel for poker but stay away from Macau
- Improve my discipline
- Improve my memory and mental stamina
- Save up for a month-long trip to Vegas
2016 was an up-and-down year for me.
2016 Snapshot
- I kept my blog active
- Made new poker friends (Alec Torelli, Lo Shing Fung, Robbie Strazynski, etc)
- Kept my instagram active
- I have a new "mascot"
My new "mascot" in action
- I have improved my game - I got myself a coach!
- 70% winning rate at my home game
- 1 Final Table out of 11 tourneys (not great)
- Mixed results in Macau
Goals for 2017
- Continue to improve my game
- Travel for poker but stay away from Macau
- Improve my discipline
- Improve my memory and mental stamina
- Save up for a month-long trip to Vegas
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