2009 Featured Members

FCP is a community driven website with some truly amazing members who have achieved some remarkable goals. FCP recognizes those members who regularly contribute to the FCP Poker Forums or excel in playing poker both live or online. Our administrative staff carefully selects a new member to feature throughout our website for a two week period not only to boost egos but also to give respect back to the community.

FCP Featured Members:

December 1st, 2009: theresa113

In celebration of FCP’s 5th year anniversary, we turn our attention to one of FCP’s oldest active members. Theresa has been here since the beginning and is the first female to crack our featured member list!

Like many others before her, she discovered Full Contact Poker by following Daniel’s written blog. Being a respected member from the get go, she soon earned moderator privileges to help maintain FCP’s poker forum. “I enjoy being active in the forum, but I must admit the past few years I have been more of a reader than a contributor. My contribution is cleaning up Spam, especially on the weekends,” says Theresa. “My favorite thing about this place is the diversity of subjects discussed by poker players.”

Theresa is a recreational poker player who enjoys the atmosphere and energy of playing at the tables. She considers poker a hobby and calls herself a poker fan more so than a player. “I started watching poker on TV when Carlos Mortensen won the Word Series Main Event. I became intrigued. When I saw Layne Flack play on the World Poker Tour, I got hooked and started playing online. Then I saw Daniel and he blew me away. Before work each morning, I would read the news and Daniel’s blog. That is how I signed up the first day the forum opened.”

Since joining FCP, Theresa has made some new friends over the years. Some of the members who have since become a part of her online life include: XX44466XX and gatortom64. “I have also met most of the Army and spent time with them in Vegas. However, I feel like I know a little bit about most members since I browse and read a lot of the forum.”

 

November 1st, 2009: vbnautilus

Jonas (vbnautilus) is a professor at a large university where he does research in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience involves trying to understand how the mind and brain work. About 5 years ago he was introduced to poker and realized that it was all about studying what people do and how they think.

Although Jonas started out playing poker online, he quickly discovered live poker since he lives in L.A. Today, Jonas plays mostly live cash games, at Commerce Casino and Hollywood Park. “One of the things I have studied in my work is how the brain understands the intentions and actions of other people, so I feel like live poker is a direct application of that knowledge,” says Jonas.

FCP has also been a home for Jonas for several years and he’s become a wonderful contributor to the FCP Forums. He’s organized numerous $4.40 poker challenges for the FCP community and built a website that tracked everyones results for each tournament teams played in.. “The 4.40 Tournament Tracker has been one of my proudest achievements in writing poker-related software,” says Jonas. “Recently I have worked with qyayqi to create the web’s best poker hand history converter.”

“I got involved with FCP after reading Daniel’s blog but stuck around for the great people, the extensive poker knowledge, and the great sense of humor of so many of the members here. I have made some real friends here and am very proud to be part of this community.”

 

October 1st, 2009: Moneyball16

After seeing Rounders on TV and Daniel Negreanu on Off The Record, Dana (Moneyball16) started playing poker in the summer of 2004. He got the urge to play when a game broke out at a family function, he finished in 2nd place and was hooked ever since. He picked up Super System and within a couple of weeks he was running $5 home game going in his basement during his senior year in High School.

His skills quickly developed as he started building his bankroll. “I was always one of the better players in these games and the winnings from them gave me a bit of a bankroll to work with and one that I have never busted,” says Dana. He continued to read books, watch poker on TV and shortly after found Daniel’s Blog and FCP Forums. “I mostly lurked for a while then after playing Limit Hold’em semi regularly at my local casino (gambling age is 18 here), while taking classes at the University of Lethbridge, and playing home games I started posting regularly in the LHE strategy forums.”

Over the next couple of years he would regularly play 4/8 – 5/10 LHE and later 1/2NL. He also deposited $40 on PokerStars and fortunately has never had to reload since by grinding his way up playing low stakes limit online. As his poker sessions lengthened his academics began to slip and he eventually called it quits to pursue his poker career full-time. “After school I grinded 2/4-15/30 LHE online for about 5 months and after that I switched to NL fulltime”. Since 2008, he’s been playing 2/4 and 3/6 NL cash games online and 2-7 Triple Draw.

Dana also played 4 of the smaller events at the 2009 WSOP and had 2 cashes. A 60th in the $1500 NL Shootout and a 81st in a $1500 NL freezeout for $5,236 and $5,293 respectively. “I stayed in one of the FCP houses for 4 weeks during the summer and met a lot of cool, well known posters.”

At the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), Dana played in 8 events, cashing in 5 including the $5k Main Event, 18th in the 2-7 Triple Draw and most notably a 2nd place in event 23 the $320NL (10 minute levels) for $94,329.01.

In the future Dana plans on continuing to play online cash primarily, taking more shots at higher stakes and entering a few more live tournaments such as the BC Poker Championship in November, The Canadian HU Poker Championship in Calgary in the spring and a larger schedule of events at the 2010 WSOP.

“Some FCPers that have been important in my development as a poker player is my boy radmanjeff, the oldschool LHE guys like Zach, actuary, RiseOrFall, looshle (I’m sure I’m missing a bunch more) that were there to post and discuss hands and more recently empythree, Gary212121 and the guys I lived with in and spent time with in Vegas over the summer, there were quite a few, but primarily Snamuh, Gilbertology and Troyomac.”

 

September 1st, 2009: no not baxter

Like so many others, Mike started playing poker because of Chris Moneymaker’s televised WSOP Main Event win. Since it aired, him and his friends started playing a lot of home games. FCP members alanstats, Dapper Dan G, and gibler123 were regulars in the games. Mike eventually found online poker and started playing play money and freerolls.

“I remember one time, I was out golfing with my dad and I told him that my back was hurting or something and I needed to go home after 9 holes. The truth was, there was some sick freeroll I did not want to miss!” Mike said. Once Mike started to deposit money online he stumbled upon FCP because of Daniel’s blog. “Over the next year or two, you could say I was pretty addicted,” said Mike. “I thought I was going to be a superstar.” However, like so many others Mike continued to lose deposit after deposit and lost around $600-$800 before finally started to build a roll. For the next few years or so he would play mostly MTTs.

Eventually, Mike got backed by BKiCe around the summer of 2007. Mike claims that this was the turning point of his poker career. “BKiCe really helped me to learn so many new concepts in poker. Not only the fundamentals, but he really helped me with the mental side of poker too. I really cannot thank him enough for everything he has done.”

Over the next two years Mike had some pretty nice scores and some big near misses. Some of his biggest scores during this time was winning the Pokerstars Wednesday $320 for approximately $39k and winning a Sunday $163 for about $21k. He also chopped a live $900 tournament for approximately $23k. Then in March of 2009, Mike got 2nd in a $150 rebuy for approximately $44k.

Mike played in 4 events at the 2009 WSOP but unfortuntatley couldn’t bring home a win. However he has since gone on a tear and which started with a 2nd place finish in the Pokerstars Sunday $109 for $18k. A few days later he chopped a live $350 tournament at the Mohegan Sun for $12k. Mike then went on to get 3rd in the FTOPS $216 HA event for about $26k. In August 2009 he final tabled the $100 rebuys on Pokerstars 4 times, with 3 wins for approximately $60k. Two of the wins came on back to back nights and he even won a $109 turbo during one of those nights too.

“From here on out, I plan to continue to play online tournaments, but I also plan to travel to some of the live series like the Borgata series coming up and Aruba in October. I think I actually enjoy live tournaments more because I do not play them as much and it is good to try different things, but it also feels extraordinary when you ship a big live tournament. I have also recently been focusing more on cash games, especially PLO.”

“There are a ton of people who really helped me throughout my poker career and I will try to name a few but I am sure I am going to leave some people out. BKiCe, vtlaxer09, bootswild, gibler123, wandigo, GrinderMJ, pocktdeuces, govshark2, bearw8, Dapper Dan G, msals, and my parents were all very helpful.”

 

August 1st, 2009: zimmer4141

Brian Zimcosky started playing online poker in July of 2004. He deposited $200 and started donking around in small SNG’s, not really knowing what he was doing. He ultimately lost all of that but $5, but was deteremined not to redeposit. Suddenly he started running well and built a small bankroll. It was around this time in March of 2005 when Brian discovered FCP.

“I then realized how much I had to improve about my game, and started improving rapidly thanks to strategy advice from people like Bizzle, Therrin, KDawg, and all of the old guard who helped me out,” said Brian. In June of 2005, Zimmer had his first big tournament run where he about $8,500 in a week. That kick started his bankroll and allowed him to keep playing tournaments and cash games. He kept playing mostly tournaments and some cash games, then had his biggest moment in June 2007.

He had just finished his freshman year of college, where he had switched to mostly NL cash due to time constrictions. That summer he won the PokerStars $150 for $31k. “In that tournament, I had a long HU battle where I took a couple of real bad beats and came out on top,” said Brian. From there he moved up from 1/2 to 2/4, and developed his current plan of playing about 95% cash games and 5% MTTs. He’s moved up as high as 5/10, and July 1st of this year, he moved back to 1/2, partly because of bankroll reasons, partly because of confidence issues. Then on July 12th, zimmer shocked the FCP Community by winning the Sunday Million for $231k!

“This has presented me a ton of opportunities to play professionally. I plan on finishing out my undergrad education at the greatest University in the world, the University of Michigan. From there I’ll probably be at the WSOP next summer, and then move on from there in whatever I want to do.”

“I would like to thank a ton of FCPers who have had a huge influence on my life. I’d like to thank the strat posters who molded my game through the years (JC, Hoosier, Looshle, Bizzle, MK, Acid_Knight, Jordan, Mark, RDog, anybody else who I left off I’m sorry). Most of all I’d like to thank the Sick Thread. Honestly, I have no idea where I would be without these guys. I started posting in the Sick Thread as a weird awkward 17 year old senior in high school. Because of them I learned how to be social, never take anything too seriously, and in general how to live life. So thanks to speedz99, Ron Mexico, Tactical Bear, strategy, Ouch-8s, JBrad, and all the old school Sick Threaders like turd ferguson, hobbes, mrdannyg, timdog, habs fan, etc… I hope to be a member of FCP for years to come, and am happy to be a part of a community like this.”

 

July 1st, 2009: Wandigo

An FCP Member since 2005, Ken Coppens started playing poker when he was 20 in a friends garage using bolts & washers for chips. Eventually he started playing a weekly game with friends that turned into a 2 year league. Every week he would arrive early to set up, run the tournament and play. He logged everyone’s finish for a end-of-the-year playoff for trophies that he had made. Shortly after he moved on and started playing live charity events that happened about once a month as well as local games in different locations 2-3 times a week. Ken decided to deposit online and give $11 sngs a try. After running his initial deposit up to $500 and withdrawing he moved on to other sites, but consistently busted with no bankroll management.

Ken discovered FCP through Daniel Negreanu’s written Blog. He joined the forums and deposited in to the FCP card room and started playing in the Negreanu Open. His first bankroll started when a few FCP members tried a thing called “flipaments.” He ran hotter than everyone on the forum that night and went from about $20 to $500 in that single night. Shortly after he started getting coaching and staked in tournaments that saw him play $4.40 180-man SNGs up to $22 and mid-stake tournaments. After several wins and much success, Ken progressed to play MTTs up to $1K and $100r.

His biggest win came in the summer of 08 when he took down a $200K Sunday Major for $45,000, then a few weeks later won the PokerStars $25K for $17,000. More recently, Ken won a trip to the Playboy Mansion for the party of his life and won the PokerStars $55r for $9000.

“It was through FCP that over the last 3 or 4 years, I’ve become such good friends with great people and brilliant poker minds,” says Ken.

“BKiCe, GrinderMJ, no not baxter, markysals, gibler321, Chong94, ForRealDD & bearw8 have all been huge influences in my poker career and are my close friends that I talk to on a daily basis. Sigh i hope i didn’t forget anyone =\”

 

June 1st, 2009: gibler321

Harrison Gimbel, AKA gibler321, started playing poker in his early teens. His brother (dapper dan g), who was 15 at the time, would go to a weekly home game with his school friends for a small $10 or $20 buy in. It was typically hosted by Mike (no not baxter), who even built his own poker table. It would vary from a cash game to a tournament depending on the amount of players.

When Harrison was a toddler, his mom would call him the “me too kid”. This is because whenever his brother did something that he wanted to do, Harrison would say “me too”. His brother was always the nicest kid, so he would let him tag along with him to his friend’s home games. Since then, Harrison really hasn’t looked back.

Harrison plays a lot of MTTs up to $1k and the $109r. His biggest cash was in the PokerStars weekly $1k where he placed 2nd for $57,377.50. He’s never really been an online cash game player, tournaments has always been his love. Since he’s only recently turned 18, he doesn’t have a lot of experience playing live poker, but he has played some cash games; $1/2 NLHE; $2/5 NLHE; $5/10 NLHE; all $100 max buy in in the state of FL. Florida is implementing a new system for poker that will allow for bigger buy ins, unfortunately for Harrison they are raising the legal age to play poker from 18 to 21.

Harrison joined FCP in the summer of 2006 and credits no not baxter for a lot of his success. “I got into FCP because of no not baxter,” said Harrison. “He has really been a huge key for me being the poker player I am today.”

UPDATE November 16th, 2009: gibler321 wins $150+$12 on PokerStars for $25,000!

UPDATE November 9th, 2009: gibler321 finishes 6th in Sunday Million and cashes for over $47,000!

UPDATE June 22nd, 2009: Harrison Gimbel wins Florida Championship and $65,000!

 

May 1st, 2009: Vtlaxer09

A.G. Winchester (Vtlaxer09) is a long time FCP Member and a valuable contributor to the FCP Community. He started playing poker in his senior year of high school with the lacrosse team, playing small $5 SNGs. When he got to college in the fall of ’05, his freshman roommate introduced him to online poker where played the occasional SNG before regularly depositing $50. He never really took poker seriously but was fortunate enough to win an $8.80 satellite to a Sunday major tournament in the summer of ’07 where he finished 2nd for $65,000.

It was right around that time that A.G. discovered FCP and in February ’08 he was fortunate enough to be picked by TJ (Whatarunaa) to be mentored and coached. “I learned so much from him and was sooo lucky to have been able to learn from him,” says A.G. After a few months of coaching and reviewing hand histories with TJ, he started taking poker seriously and has enjoyed a fair amount of success since. The biggest came recently when he won 3 consecutive $10,000+ prize pool tournaments on 3 different online sites within 48 hours. He received the Triple Crown award from PocketFives for his accomplishment.

“There are a ton of people who have helped my game so much but I have to include specifically ah2388, king1305, tehtoe, highwaystar, and everyone in the challenge thread. And obviously my mom, who does everything for me.”

 

April 1st, 2009: silkyjonson

Like many others, silkyjonson, AKA Paul started playing poker after the Moneymaker boom. He started with friends playing small tournaments for fun in Windsor and says he had no clue what he was doing.

Paul found FCP through reading Daniel’s poker blog and got involved with the forums after signing up for FCP’s old poker room. His first online tournament he ever played was the Weekend at Daniels freeroll where he finished 2nd. Initially he felt he came across pretty rude on the forums and admits he wasn’t really there to learn and didn’t play poker as seriously as most.

In 2004 Paul moved to Florida for school and having a lot of time to himself he started to play more poker. He played in a regularly Friday and Saturday game spreading $5-$10 limit Omaha hi/lo and Limit Hold’em. Between those games he started playing NL cash games online. He read a little to help improve his game and did ok in the $5-$10 game mostly because everyone else was really bad. He ran up his account a couple of times but had no bankroll management skills and usually failed. Paul would grind $1-$2 and $2-$5NL at Casino Windsor when he was home from school for the summers.

Paul continued to grind and built up most of his bankroll playing tournaments and PLO cash games online. He graduated from pharmacy school and has been playing for a living since 2007 but is currently working towards getting a job and plans on playing and working part time to stay balanced. He credits most of his success he’s had to just always trying to improve through self reflection and learning from better players.

Paul currently plays online tournaments exclusively up to $1k’s in HORSE, PLO and NL. He also plans on playing some events at the WSOP this summer. His biggest score to date was recently a $1K buy in tournament win for $43,000 in early March, 2009.

 

March 1st, 2009: Bizzle

Pete (Bizzle) started playing poker when he was in high school, mostly due to the fact that as a swimmer they had to be up at 7 AM Saturday mornings, so they couldn’t go do “fun” stuff on Friday nights. He got pretty decent at the game (or so he thought) and started going to Turning Stone where he did fairly well. During college one summer he decided to play cards instead of getting the usual lifeguard job. He drove to Turning Stone a lot and made more money playing 5/10 LHE than he would have working at a pool.

After a friend of his shattered a bone and was bedridden, he convinced Pete to deposit online and give online poker a shot. So he started out playing mostly $50 Rebuy and $100k guaranteed Sunday tournaments.

Pete got into FCP right around this time. He used to read Daniels blog and read a lot of the forum. He started posting in the tournament strategy forums and met a lot of people who really helped define his game; PMJackson, Zimmer, Grinder, strategy, therrinn, mk, and DragonDrake (strategy’s brother) being the ones who had the most profound impact. A few summers later he went out to Vegas to play a couple WSOP prelim events and stayed with PMJackson, TMay, SBRounder, looshle, and PrtyPSux. He learned more in the 3 weeks that he lived with them than he had in his entire career to that point. Between that summer, numerous conversations with mk, and the following summer living in Vegas he developed a lot of ideas in terms of how he approached playing within a bankroll and reaching new goals for the future that are really different from the normal set of goals that seem to proliferate throughout the forum.

Currently, Pete is living in Rochester, working as a systems engineer (a job he loves), coaching and swimming with a group of college swimmers, and playing poker in sporadic volume.

 

February 1st, 2009: RDog

Rod’s poker obsession began in 2003/2004 when some of his friends started playing tournaments regularly. He later decided to deposit some money online and start playing tournaments. Early on he finshed 11th in a $100,000 tournament for $1200. That was the beginning of his poker bankroll. Not long after that Rod started playing a lot of tournaments and making a pretty good side income outside of his regular job. He claims he wasn’t very good at the time but that everyone else was simply worse.

A few months before signing up, Rod found FCP and at some point started talking poker with Markysals and HoosierAlum. “Hoos always told me to get into cash and I just wish I would have listened to him earlier,” said Rod.

Rod was crushed when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed and his favorite online sites closed. That didn’t stop him though, he continued to play tournaments on the most popular sites including PokerStars. In early 2007 Rod started playing more cash games, primarily because of the Challenge Thread that Chucksty started. In July of 2007 he decided to quit his corporate job and play poker full time while working on other business ideas. He got coaching from Hoos (who by that time was playing mid-high stakes cash games) which helped transform him from a tourney player to a cash player. It was also around this time he started talking to Pocktdeuces, who was playing in many of the same games he was.

“I think having someone I could talk a ton with that was going through the same things helped immensely,” said Rod.

2008 was his first full year playing full time and overall he says it went very well.

“Primarily I mass tabled (10-12 tables) 1/2 NL with some 2/4 NL mixed in. This year I have started mixing in a lot more 2/4 up to 5/10. I think besides the people from the Challenge Thread, having people that take poker seriously to talk to every day really keeps you focused.”

For more information on Rod’s success, visit “The Well: RDog” where he’s answered FCPers questions.