Adam Junglen

I’ve been living back in Ohio for a couple weeks now. Surprisingly I don’t have a huge pit in my stomach asking myself “what have I done?!?!”

The next tournament I’ll be playing is NAPT Mohegan Sun. I haven’t played much poker at all lately and told myself I wouldn’t play until the next time I really felt like it. I’m going back to my old approach of less quantity, higher quality play. Only playing events I feel like and schedule them in advance. These are all things I could get away with not doing (or half-assedly doing) when I lived in Vegas, because it all came to me. It’s a weird psychological thing, but I’m sure it’s part of the reason why my live results suffered last year.

Anyways, I am looking forward to the Mohegan Sun event. After the NAPT I’m probably gonna drop by the Borgata in Atlantic City for their tourney series, which has a $7.5k HR and $3k ME. I’ll see how I feel after Mohegan and go from there.

Later,

- Adam

If you told me when I was first moving into Panorama Towers (the place I wanted to live in since I was 18), that I’d be excited to move back to Ohio after one year, I’d have laughed. Especially if you told me I’d be leaving after one of the better years of my career financially, both in poker and business investments (which was the end result).

Well, poker’s pretty much consumed me the last 5 years. It was all I thought about. It feels great to move out of Vegas and take a step back from everything. I almost feel like a different person. It’s a relief. The Vegas lifestyle is just not something I desire to be apart of. It’s a tough city. It’s next to impossible to meet someone who isn’t a stripper, hooker (pardon me, “escort”), shady, and/or crazy etc etc. I certainly don’t need to live in Vegas to do my job, especially with the live poker economy the way it is (doubt you’ll see me playing too many Bellagio tourneys this year).

When I was packing up a bunch of my things were never unpacked from when I initially moved in….12 months ago. I never went to get a Nevada ID. I think that in my subconscious, I never moved in.

The last day before I left I did some work with WSOP Academy over at Caesars. Knowing full well the target audience is inexperienced amateurs I went in with an open, positive attitude and it ended up being a good experience. I thought it was pretty funny when I sat down at one of the tables and they all agreed I was a better dealer than the other pro’s there instructing.

“Go figure, the internet player with 7 fingers is the best dealer here!”

My badass dealing skills probably made a bit more sense after I informed them I performed as a magician at private parties and restaurants when I was in grade school. I’ve been dealing with cards for as long as I can remember.

Well, I’m currently in Omaha, NE with my dad. He’s been helping me move and we’ve just wrapped up the third day of travel. We should make it make home by tomorrow night. I’m just staying at my parents until I find my own place. Already have a few realtors talking to me despite not yet being in the state, lol. I’m looking forward to going out and checking out properties. Specifically, I’ve been looking at contemporary lofts, condos and lakehouses. I’m looking forward to having my own home base away from poker.

If I’m taking a step back from poker, I must be taking a step towards something, right? I’m considering doing some more tournament coaching/staking. Maybe I’ll finally go over that FTOPS ME hand history for PokerVT. I might open my own gamestore. I’ve been researching real estate. I could goto school and study subjects relevant to my agricultural investments. I’ve been talking with an old friend I used to play baseball with and am going to get involved helping coach his team.

I mean, I can pretty much do whatever I want.

When was the last time I had a blog entry this long, positive, open and honest?

Feels great!

Later,

- Adam

It’s just about been a year since I first moved to LV. With my lease at Panorama coming up, I’ve decided to go month to month with intention of moving back to Ohio once I’ve got my moving plans figured out – which I should by the end of March. As much fun as it’s been living in Las Vegas, it just isn’t for me. There might be a time in my life when I decide to buy a place in Vegas, but I don’t think renting year round is necessary. This isn’t a quitting poker post. I’ll still come out for all the big events, but I really don’t need to be playing all of the marginal prelim’s filled with competent/solid locals. I’ve also noticed I play much better after traveling, treat it much more business like.

After playing poker the last few years I’ve realized how much free time I have. I really should put it to good use. Although I’m not sure what I’d study at this very moment, the thought of going to school no longer leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, I never did goto college. Poker just kind of “happened” to me. I was just a kid on crutches, graduated HS, and started having six figure scores. Maybe it’s time I really challenge myself and become an intellectual. I just don’t have the same passion for poker as I once did. I never thought playing poker was reaching my full potential as a human. It’s been a great resource and has left with me a lot of great travels/experiences. However it will not consume my entire life.

Last time I posted I had mentioned handling my audit and how I thought the IRS owed me some money. Well guess what? They canceled my audit case. El oh el, leave me alone IRS, kthx!

My life ramble is over. Maybe I’ll start updating more often.

Shrug. Later,

- Adam

I’ve been home from the Bahamas for about a week now. I didn’t make any noise at the PCA, just a couple of Day 2′s; the main and $5k PLO. I left happy with my play and irritated at Atlantis, which is starting to seem standard.

William Thorson was on my direct left in the $5k PLO and after building his 15k starting stack up to 60k he went on break after 150/300 and sat out the rest of the day (2/400, 3/600, 4/800, 60min levels), coming back to 45k at 500/1k with 16 left (8 paid, 1st 110k) on day 2. I stayed like a sucker and played the tournament, ended the day with 72k. I busted out in ridiculous fashion early on day 2 and William ended up winning/chopping 3 handed. I ran into him at a bar after the event and he explained he was “out buying a suit” while he was sitting out. Then he “ran into some friends” and one thing led to another etc, lol. Nice life, William.

I’m back in Ohio, still waiting on being audited. For some bizarre reason the case seems to be moving at a slower pace now that I’m fairly certain they owe me money. Imagine that?

I’m going to be skipping Biloxi and possibly Borgata as well. I’ll be grinding online tourneys (FTP 2xing guarantees and UBOC) for the rest of this month. Get my audit (aka bank error in your favor) taken care of, then head back west for LAPC and NAPT.

That’s all for now.

Later,

- Adam

This is now the third year I’ve come to Atlantis in the Bahamas for the PCA. I was 19 the first time and it was my first live major event. Right after I flew to Australia for the Aussie Millions. Since then it’s become the second biggest (and juiciest) tournament of the year.

I’m looking to start the year off strong. I’ve done a lot of thinking and analyzing of my play and feel very good coming into the new year. It’s amazing how in poker, the more you learn, the more you realize you have SO much more to learn. There aren’t too many things in this world like that.

After the PCA and side events I’m going back to Ohio. Gotta take care of the audit and then oral surgery. Long story short, since I was born in South Korea my biological parents didn’t have the benefit of fluoride in their water. So I’ve got crappy teeth and need a handful of implants. At this point I practically enjoy the feeling of being put to sleep, it’s just another annoying thing that needs to be done.

In other news, Shaun informed me he’s going to move out in 5-6 months. He’s going to travel Europe or something. He’s still one of the handful of people I trust implicitly, no dramatic falling out (aside from him and tournament poker). I’ve got lots of options, so we’ll just see what happens. I’m definitely staying in the same place in Panorama through the WSOP, but after that I can basically do whatever I want….and I’m a big fan of doing whatever I want.

Later,

Adam

Well, I’m back home in Ohio for the holidays with my family. December was a pretty hectic month for me. Between a business trip to New Mexico, a week of 12+hr days grinding Bellagio tourneys, and being audited by the IRS, (plus all the Christmas/family stuff) I’ve had my hands full.

A couple weeks ago I got a scary looking big envelope from the IRS. Sighhhh, it was in fact an audit notice. I’ve been on the phone with an IRS agent and my accountant the past few weeks organizing my records and going through the motions. I’m not nearly as worried about it now as I was when I first got the notice. It wouldn’t surprise me if the US government owed me money when it’s all said and done. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a pain in the ass though.

I’ve got a good accountant and have kept good records, so there’s not much to worry about. I’m working on getting the case moved to Akron so I don’t have to fly my accountant out to Vegas. I’m crossing my fingers it doesn’t interfere with the PCA. I doubt it will and the IRS seem fairly accommodating – but its a possibility. I’ll probably give an audit trip report when it’s all said and done. Several of my peers have asked about it and with our profession it’s probably something we’ll all have to deal with at least a couple times in our lives. Best be prepared.

I ended up breaking even during the Five Diamond series. For the most part I’m pretty happy with how I played and managed to build stacks in every tourney I played during the series. I took 4th in the $1.5kr plo tourney which covered the rest of the series. I made a semi deep run in the main event, busting out near the end of Day 3. I caught a flight back to Ohio shortly after being eliminated for Christmas.

It’s nice to be home for now though. The weather in Ohio isn’t too bad and I’ve had a nice time celebrating Christmas with my family. Looking forward to hanging out with friends and then (barring an audit scheduling conflict) headin to the Bahamas for the PCA. I’m ready for the new year.

Happy Holidays everyone,

- Adam