Introduction
 

I am not a new member, but realized I never wrote a formal introduction. I have started and commented on a few posts in the past.

I started collecting in 1989 as a kid, and stopped somewhere around the end of high school. As I'm sure many of you have done, I've slowly been adding cards I always dreamed of owning as a kid, and a few I hadn't known about.

My collection so far is primarily post war, HOF rookies, and I'm working on a Mantle base run. I've purchased a few pre-war cards that I have found interesting, and am sure I'll continue to do so.

I've been working on getting some of my favorite cards up on a public site. There's a link to it in my signature if anyone wants to check it out.

I have found this site very informative, and am always learning something new. It's amazing how many experts there are here in different areas. I've made a few deals here, and have gotten assistance from other members buying cards elsewhere. I really enjoy reading all of the posts, and interacting with fellow collectors.

I guess that's about it, thanks for reading.

Welcome. New record has to be an introduction after 400+ posts.

I often wanted to comment that your screen name always stood out to me as soon as I first saw it on here. I love playing low-stakes poker myself. I first got into poker with the Moneymaker boom and ESPN showing it all the time. I have spent lots of time playing in Atlantic City, but now that poker is legal in Pennsylvania, I have several card rooms within 45 minutes of me as opposed to nearly three hours to A.C.

Pretty identical stories here Jesse.

HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Nice Wagner CJ :eek::eek::eek::eek:

+1

But it is barely a year old, According to you description.:D

It certainly looks older than a year. Actually I hadn't noticed on that site, just changed it now.

And Pete yea I was just checking out the site and realized I never did one of these intros. I wouldn't doubt post 400 is a record for one. Better late than never I guess.

And yea I do like to play poker but don't get to much anymore. I used to play pretty regularly but never won any big tournaments or anything. I won my buy-in for the WSOP a couple of times and played in the main event, but didn't cash.

When online poker was still open to Americans, I played almost exclusively tournaments and SNGs. Cash games seemed so boring to me online compared to the tournament poker ESPN would show all the time.

When I first started playing live in Atlantic City, I began with $40 tournaments at the Atlantic City Hilton (the cheapest tournament in all of A.C.) . I was so completely clueless when I first began playing live that I thought a person needed thousands of dollars to sit at a live cash game in a casino. Now, when I play live, I play almost exclusively cash games. I am usually pretty tight and nitty, which is often not the best strategy for tournament poker.

I know Limit Hold 'Em has been killed by NLHE, but I still like playing LHE when it comes to cash games. I play NLHE cash a few times a year, but I don't really have the stomach for the swings of NLHE cash games.

Yea I loved the single table SNGs on party poker. Sometimes I would have 5 or 6 going at a time, anywhere from $10 to $200 buy in depending on how I was feeling at the time. Swings can be pretty big there too.

I was never a limit fan, but have played quite a bit because the only casino that had good tournaments had a 1/2 texas 1/2 omaha h/l limit cash game that was usually the only one going. I rarely bought into a cash game for more than $1,000. Never a big time player, but it was fun. I prefer tournaments and would travel the circuit if I could win a big one or get a backer.

If you have not already read "The Moneymaker Effect," the book is a decent read for just a few dollars. Obviously, that story has been well-documented. But the book came out in 2013 and does have some information with which I was not previously familiar.

http://www.amazon.com/Moneymaker-Eff...eymaker+effect

Sam Farha said he had not slept for five days prior to the Main Event final table. Farha survived on mass quantities of Red Bull and coffee and literally fell asleep at the table when it got down to three-handed. Farha spent the entire night before the Main Event final table playing in a marathon cash game. Even going on no sleep, Farha said he thought the only way he could possibly lose heads up to Moneymaker would be if he died at the table.

I also never realized what a degenerate sports gambler Moneymaker was in that he once lost $60,000 in a single weekend betting on sports prior to his Main Event win.

I also liked Mike Matusow's "Check Raising the Devil" a lot.

My biggest individual score was a little over $1,900 as part of a table share from a bad beat jackpot. I chopped a few sub $100 tournaments in Atlantic City, but never for more than $1,200. When I have gone deep in tournaments in A.C., there has always been a chop.

I'll have to check that story out. I heard Moneymaker was broke within a year or two of winning. He had backers even for the online satellite, so he only got to keep a mil or so and lost all that sports betting. These were just rumors from other players but I had heard it enough to believe it.

I ran into him in the elevator on the way to play in the ME in 2005 and talked to him for a minute. He seemed friendly. Never played with him though. I heard he offered Farha a split when he had a 2 to 1 chip lead and Farha still said no.

The part about the chop offer to Farha is in the book. Moneymaker offered Farha an even chop while they were in the bathroom during a break while heads up. Farha counteroffered with a ridiculous offer that gave him nearly first-place money and Moneymaker declined the offer.

One of the shocking things to me about the book was that Howard Lederer actually surfaced following the Full Tilt debacle to offer comments on the 2003 Main Event and playing against Moneymaker. Dutch Boyd, Lederer and Farha all commented in the book that Moneymaker is a nice guy, but played terribly.

Another great part of the book was Phil Ivey discussing the ridiculous boat over boat hand against Moneymaker that knocked him out of the Main Event in 10th. Ivey called Barry Greenstein after getting knocked out and told Greenstein that he would not believe the beat that knocked him out of the Main Event. Greenstein replied that Ivey should have folded to Moneymaker's bet post-flop. Ivey was so shocked by the beat that he collected his winnings, then drove cross country straight through to New Jersey.

Welcome to the fray forum :).

Thanks Leon, and thanks for the kind words on the Wagner. I do love that card.

And yea that sounds like an interesting book. He did seem to get pretty lucky in a lot of key pots. I don't remember exactly how the action went pre-flop in that hand with Ivey, but if I remember right it was 99 vs AQ and he probably called a re-raise preflop. I don't know how you fold 9s to a player you view as weak to a 3 bet. Obviously when the money went in on an AA9 board neither player was getting away from the hand. Ivey was probably 75-85% to win that one depending on if it went in on the flop or turn. But yea a terrible beat to go out in 10th like that. I think rather than driving to atlantic city I would have walked to the nearest bar and pounded a few beers.

The hand was AQ vs. 99. Ivey just called pre-flop; he didn't three-bet. Flop came QQ6 and Moneymaker bet his three queens. Ivey hit a full house with a 9 on the turn, only to lose to a bigger full house with the ace on the river.

I apologize for hijacking your introduction thread into a poker discussion, but I have wanted to bring up the topic ever since I first saw your name on here. :)

No problem, other than just to introduce myself to those who don't know me I'm sure one purpose of these intros is to get a discussion going an meet fellow net54 members. My two hobbies are card collecting and poker and I enjoy talking about both.

Greenstein's criticism makes more sense in that context but I would have probably called one bet on a qq6 board with 9s as well and obviously would have felt great on the turn.

I don't know which one is worse, Ivey's loss in 10th with that ace on the river, or the guy last year who lost AA vs AA in the million dollar buy in a few short of the money.

Welcome.

I love Texas-hold-em. I watched the WSOP at times. I loves the great guys like Negranu and Mike the Mouth and the oldies. Nowday its a bunch of kiddies i see. I been to Biloxi a few times, but never played the tables.