I'm flying out to Florida tomorrow to play in the WSOP circuit event there and visit my parents. Hopefully it turns into an enjoyable and profitable extended weekend.

On March 7 and 8th I'm running a 2 day workshop titled "Inside the mind of Ari Engel: Turbo Edition". I'll be discussing my philosophy when it comes to the end game, short stack poker, game selection and other ideas that I find important to being a winning tournament player. If you're interested you can email me at TheBodogAri@gmail.com for more info.

I have a new website under construction. I'm hoping to have ariengel.com fully up and running by the end of March. My training business is at a crossroads and this is a very exciting time for me. I'm going to keep working hard to ensure that my students continue to hit big scores and improve their games. I'm looking forward to bigger and better things going forward.

I decided last minute to skip the Borgata WPT event, seemed a little crazy to fly cross country for just one tournament, and I kinda hate visiting the east coast during the winter. I had to get in my live poker fix though and luckily for me there was a sick event being held Caesar's Palace in Vegas. It was a $240 buyin, where the winner won a seat to the NBC Heads Up invitational (this was the only seat in which the public could win their way in). I built up a stack early in the event, then proceeded to suckout on a really good online player to build a really nice stack. I proceeded to play a little too loose, but was generally holding my own... got to play with a former student of mine. All was looking pretty good, until with about 40 left, I was moved to a table that featured Eric Baldwin and Justin Young. I lost a race to Eric Baldwin, got coolered in another pot, and then was left with 4-5bb and eventually lost. Not a big deal... But, the highlight of the day was playing with Doug Lee. I hadn't played with him for a while, (the last time we played- itm of the Caesars 1k HU where I won my 2nd ring) he both called me the biggest nit in the world and called my 14bb shove with q4). For those that don't know about Doug Lee, one of 2+2's longest threads is about him... http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...x-ever-229343/ He's basically a confirmed angle shooter, who has done tons of unethical and low things throughout his career. So it came as no surprise that he tried pulling an angle on our table that day. He posted the big blind and played out the hand and then the next hand the button was in front of him. The dealer started dealing and had almost completed when I protested saying that the button was in the wrong seat. I called Doug out for it, telling him no wonder everyone says you are an angle shooter and too his credit he didn't defend his actions. Luckily for me I woke up with a6 in the BB a few hands later when he shoved 9.8bb from the hijack with qt and knocked him out.

I launched a weekly review of some of the deep tournament runs I've made of late. This week was my first week running it and I was very happy with the turnout and the feedback from it. If you are interested in details, please email TheBodogAri@gmail.com.

This weeks marks the beginning of another Ftops series. I've played in 2 events so far with no success, but I'm looking forward to playing some more and hopefully hitting my first Ftops Jersey.

Things have been going great recently for me. I made a trip to Florida to visit my parents, but unfortunately had to skip PCA due to health issues, but all is for the best.
Looking at the weather reports, I'm so grateful to no longer be living in a cold-weather climate. Vegas during anytime but the summer has such great weather. It's hard to believe January can have this much sunshine in the northern hemisphere.
Anyone that knows me even casually knows that I used to drink way too much soda. I've been drinking over 24 cans a day of Diet Coke for years. Somehow I've quit cold turkey and its been over 3 weeks since I had my last soda. For some extra motivation TheLandlord (my former landlord in Brooklyn) and I have a 2 month bet going where if I either of drink a can of soda we have to pay the other person $20. So far TLL has slipped twice.. I have a perfect record still and don't plan on changing that.
In my last blog post, I mentioned a goal of being ranked in the top 100 on Pocketfives. Since that time I've cut down on my playing schedule a bunch, so barring some really big scores it seems like its unlikely to happen any time soon, but with poker you never know when the next heater might come.
One of the reasons why I've been playing lower volume has been an increase in students in recent times, they're progress has even astounded me. I'm very proud with the results of the students I've worked with and that has got me motivated to try and provide more avenues in training with the hopes of seeing some even larger scores from my students.