The Samurai is BACK to teh Grind !

Now playing on the Merge Network and True Poker.com under sn SamuraiCardMaster

Here is me mashing buttons again on my 22" widescreen :-)

A wise man(My Father William Linville) once told me to "find something that you love to do and get someone to pay you to do it and you will never work a day in your life" ..

Well after 4/15/11(Black Friday of online Poker) when The Unites States Dept of Justice shut down all three major sites serving US customers I soon found out the old cliche' that "you never know what you have until it is gone" !

Just recently in late December the U.S. DOJ made an official statement that online poker is not illegal. The Department of Justice clarification that the Wire Act of 1961 – a major overarching Federal bill – only applies to sports betting, the DOJ has presumably given the green light for intrastate internet gambling.

Gambling law expert I. Nelson Rose called the DOJ’s opinion, which was made public just two days before Christmas, “a gift to the states, which can now raise hundreds of millions of dollars and create thousands of jobs because there is no other Federal law that would apply to intrastate gambling...

So now a lot of entrepreneurs are getting back into the business of poker and I recently found a sponsor/full-time Backer on 2+2.com

So I will be back to grinding, will not quit my day job for now as I think it would be wise to be patient but it feels great to get back to doing what I love again :-)

I will be posting more frequent blogs again and i wish everyone gl on & off the felt....

Sad day when they are leaving rather than coming...

As you enter NYC Harbor you will see the Statue of Liberty and on it you will read the words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe freedom"

A clear symbol of what freedoms and liberties were meant over 200 years ago when our founders signed the Declaration of Independence.




Poker was invented in 1864 in a 52-card deck in the version of 7-card stud on the riverboats of the Mississippi river.

The first fully functional digital computer ENIAC was completed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania.

The first internet was up and running in America ARPANET at Stanford Research Institute in 1969.

The first "real money" online poker site was running on Jan 1, 1998 Planet Poker founded by Mike Caro.

The UIGEA/ Unlawful internet gaming Act was passed on Sept 30, 2006 making it illegal for banks in the US to process gaming online transactions thus making it virtually impossible for Americans to play online even though poker itself is and was not illegal.

"Black Friday" April 15, 2011 the United States Dept of Justice seizes the Domains and shuts down and indicts most of the major online poker sites that served US customers in the years after the UIGEA was passed.

This great nation that I love invented this game I love. We marketed it and popularized it and then big corporate America, who is behind the passing of the UIGEA and the DOJ indictments, has now made it where we (America, the "Land of the free" ???) are one of only a few nations that now fully has made it where its citizens cannot play online poker !

Yes that is right, countries like China, Iran, former Soviet Union all allow their people to fully play online with no Govt involvement at all !

Because of this I now know many people whom I met through the poker world have immigrated to other countries such as Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica etc etc where they can be free to play the game they love because they cannot do so in the United States of America !!

Once again I quote: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe freedom"..

What have we done to ourselves ? And what can we do to fix it ? Some groups like the PPA are fighting for Federal Legislation that regulates online poker and will set up licensing fees and tax it. This may seem like a good idea and it certainly might be better than conditions pre "Black Friday" as online poker operated with minimum accountability. But if we allow big business such as Harrahs Corporation and people like Senator Harry Reid of Nevada to get their way we will have a much worse scenario that would give us few sites to play on all owned by a few people which would be really bad for the players.

Even if you do not play poker, PLEASE understand this fight is not just about poker, it is about what it is to be an American ! People are now leaving the US and going to other countries where they are finding the kind of freedoms we once delivered ! That alone should scare any red blooded American.

The work force

It has been almost 4 years since I have had any kind of job at all in the work force, and almost 10 years since I have worked steadily for a company.

Poker has certainly taken up a lot of good years of my work life. But I have no regrets as I got to do something I loved. Although there were many ups & downs in my poker career I cannot allow myself to believe that I made the wrong choices with regards to what I chose to do for a living.


One of my favorite lines in Rounders is when Mike McD asked his professor if he "had it to do all over again would he make the same choices?" He simply replied; "what choice" ...

Many times in life we go down certain paths and they may lead to places we did not intend to go to. However, if life truly is a journey then we cannot spend too much time in thoughts about past choices and what others may or may not think of us. I believe as Doctor Steven Covey says: "success is success with self". Ultimately we must answer to ourselves.

With that in mind I have decided that I will no longer play poker fulltime for my profession. I am going to re-enter the work force. I believe that I have much to contribute in terms of what I can accomplish in many areas of the work place.

I am intrigued by technology and specifically electronics. So for now I am going to look for trade schools to get started in the trades and then look to further my education and hopefully become an engineer. I know what I can do when I work hard and I look forward to all the challenges I will face which are many.

I will always play the game I love at the highest level I am capable and never cease to improve and learn/grow, it will now just be more part time and treated as such in terms of how much time and resources I will spend on the game. I plan to always participate in live series tournaments including a yearly sabbatical at the WSOP in Las Vegas:-)

I will continue to blog about my poker experiences, but I will also transform and add to this blog my new passion to return to work and the pursuit of my goals in the work place.

I wish everyone a great week on & off the felt and may God bless and protect us all in our everyday lives.

tough ending to WSOP

I missed out on 7 or 8 of my last tournaments at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas including the $10k Main Event due to some nagging Health issues. I had ran out of my Diabetic medication and along with my diet for 3 weeks in Vegas and a little too much beer I got really sick and according to my Doctor was in serious danger zone for a diabetic coma, kidney shutting down and some other very serious possibilities.

I spent the last 4 days before I left in bed. I tried to get my doctor to forward a prescription to Vegas but he refused and told me to report to him or go to the hospital. Since I have no current health insurance(one of the very serious drawbacks to playing poker for a living) my Mom and I decided it best for me to come home and see my family Doctor.

I had hoped to return for the Main Event but my health is more important so I decided to stay home and get myself straightened out and prepare for next year.

I want to thank Max Katz and Brad McFarland for investing in me this year and I apologize for not being able to follow through.

I may not blog for a while as there is no online poker for now obviously and my live game is going to be put on hold for a while while I focus on my health and getting myself back into really good shape in order to become even a better player longterm.

I may also have to find a regular job and rebuild financially as well as taking care of some debts. I view all this as a challenge and I am not afraid of some good old fashion hard work.

Have a great summer everyone and I will check in and blog something from time to time with some updates....

World series of poker

I have been in Vegas for 15 days. I am one small cash for 15 tournaments. I am playing well and I still have 10-12 more events including the Main Event so I am feeling good.

Vegas can pray on peoples weaknesses in terms of nightlife and of course gambling. I am and have been committed to being disciplined in my diet, taking daily walks and saying no to too much nightlife.


In 15 days I have went out late one night so I feel good about that. I'm going to keep on playing my best and focusing and I believe good things will happen.

I wish everyone a great week on & off the felt :-)

WSOP 2011

I am leaving Tuesday (6/7) going to Las Vegas for the annual World Series of Poker. I will arrive about 8pm and will be staying at the RIO from June 7th until the end of the Main Event sometime in mid July.

Here is the my base schedule that I will be playing(first group is my early/smaller tournaments I'll be playing for the first 2 weeks)

Wed June 8th- $125 + $10 NLHE @ Golden Nugget
Thursday June 9th - $225 + $10 NLHE @ Golden Nugget
Friday June 10th- $200 + $10 NLHE @ Binions
Saturday June 11th- $340 + $10 @ Venetian
Sunday June 12th- $340 + $10 @ Venetian
Monday June 13th- $225 + $10 @ Golden Nugget
Tuesday June 14th- $200 + $10 @ Binions
Wed June 15th- $125 + $10 @ Golden Nugget
Thursday June 16th- $340 + $10 @ Venetian
Friday June 17th- $200 + $10 @ Binions

(2nd group are the WSOP & Venetian Events including the $10k Main Event in July)

6/18 Venetian $550 NLHE
6/21 WSOP $2500 NLHE
6/22 WSOP $1500 NLHE
6/23 Venetian $1070 NLHE
6/24 Venetian $1590 NLHE
6/25 WSOP $1500 NLHE
6/26 WSOP $1000 NLHE
6/28 WSOP $1500 NLHE
6/30 Venetian $340 NLHE
7/1 Venetian $550 NLHE
7/2 WSOP $1000 NLHE
7/7 WSOP $10k MAIN EVENT

I will be updating my progress/chip counts/ etc throughout the day via www.twitter.com I am SamuraiPlaya on twitter

I will also post daily results on facebook and a complete win/loss results here on my Blog..

I want to thank my sponsors who have invested in me as well as my private backer and friend Brad McFarland, without these people I would not be able to travel and compete at these levels as a professional.

Wish me luck :-) and have a great week everone on & off the felt...

Vegas / conditioning

Heading to Vegas for WSOP 2011 in 2 weeeks :-) One thing that I have been doing is walking, eating right and working out and I will continue to do so throughout the summer and get myself back into shape.

The famous Jack Lalane pictured here inspires me too. He lived to be 97 and almost to his death was in great shape !

I believe that being physically fit will help me mentally at the tables as well... Have a great day ev1 and remember it is never too late to be in great shape !