mookie99

Congratulations to NomeyMyHomey on taking down his first Mookie title in as many tries. The newcomer was able to make it through 74 players for the big win. Here is his profile:

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Champion: NomeyMyHomey

Blog: Baird’s Blog

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Q: What is the story behind your ID, NomeyMyHomey?

NMH: Haha…well my handle on every other site I’ve ever played at is either ABaird84 or DuderinoAB. When I created my FTP account last year I never planned on playing there much (and I really haven’t). One of my friends is named Naomi and EVERYONE calls her Naomi my homey. She happened to be at my house when I created the account and she saw the Full Tilt Gnome avatar she yelled “Gnomey my homey!” I figured that sounded like fun, and here we are. I’d actually very much prefer to be known as “ABaird”, but I’ve definitely been called worse

Q: How did you get into poker?

NMH: Saw Moneymaker win the 2003 WSOPME and thought it looked like fun…before that I couldn’t have told you the hand rankings.

Q: Do you have any poker related goals and if so what are they?

NMH: Well, I am, more or less, a professional player. Techically I have a job, but about 60% of my income comes from poker. Most of my goals in life aren’t poker related actually. I don’t really have any desire to go play in the WSOP or anything like that…my biggest goals as far as playing are probably to move up to higher SNGs (I’m WAY overrolled for the games I play in and I’m killing them…there’s no good reason I don’t do this). My biggest goal concerning poker right now is to finish my book by the end of the year. I’m writing an instructional book for beginning to intermediate players for low to mid limit SNGs.

Q: What are key improvements that you’ve seen in your game over the last six months, and what is one priority you have for improving? (Submitted by CC)

NMH: Anyone who plays a significant amount of SNGs and studies them at all will be familiar with the concept of ICM. The biggest improvement in my game has been a greater understanding of this concept and the all in or fold process at the end of SNGs. I’ve had knowledge of it for probably a couple years but I’ve really gotten a more complete understanding of the theory and have
done a better job implementing it lately. My biggest priority right now is to improve my hand reading skills…playing SNGs can be pretty a pretty mechanical practice and its easy to let those skills slip. I’m realizing as I move up that that skill is still very important and I’ve neglected it.

Q: How would you describe your poker style?

NMH: I don’t really play cash games…ever. My tournament game is definitely TAG early and LAG late. Anyone who saw me play the Mookie last week knows that

Q: What would be your first piece of advice for someone wanting to learn to play poker? (Submitted by Maudie)

NMH: Practice proper bankroll management, don’t get too high or too low emotionally, and, even if you’re playing micro limits starting out, create good habits that will carry over when you move up if that’s your desire.

Q: What level of static do you get over your poker habit? (Submitted by Drewspop)

NMH: Most people either don’t care or think its really cool and want me to teach them and generally annoy me…not sure which I prefer. None of my friends play poker outside of the occasional home game which they don’t let me play in…haha. The few people who have a real problem with it I generally don’t get along with anyhow so o well I guess.

Q: What was the first poker blog you read?

NMH: My first exposure to poker blogs was doing a google search for SNG strategy in probably the summer of 2005ish. That brought up a post from F Train which quickly led me to another by PokerNerd (who was easily my favorite poker blogger ever).

Q: Who would be at your 6-handed SNG?

NMH: Michael Jordan (lifelong Chicago anything sports fan), Mike Ditka (he’s Da Coach!), PokerNerd (I play SNGs for a living and owe my start to him), Jesus (I think this would be interesting for a lot of reasons), my favorite college prof ever who was a regular in one of the home games I played in near campus (the school I went to had a policy against gambling so it was that much cooler that he played…kinda ironic that a good portion of my tuition was paid with gambling winnings), Me

Q: Between Nihilism and Masochism, which do you think better describes why you play poker? (Submitted by Iakaris)

NMH: I’d say playing poker results in me putting myself through a good deal of mental frustration that is self inflicted so Masochism.

Q: What’s the last book you have read?

NMH: Poker Book: Ace on the River by Barry Greenstien
Non-Poker Book: The Pursuit of Happiness (yes the one that inspired the movie)
I thought both were phenomenal

Q: Tell us a little known fact about yourself.

NMH: I was dropped out of a second story window when I was 5 weeks old…explains alot

Q: Who is your poker mentor? (Submitted by TFG)

NMH: I don’t really have one. Maybe some of the people who wrote some of the material I’ve learned from…but no one has really mentored me. I’ve never had a poker coach and I’ve never really discussed poker with anyone who was better than me for any significant amount of time. Most of the knowledge I have is stuff I learned on my own.

NomeyMyHomey’s question for the next Mookie champ…

Q: Do you enjoy poker? Why or why not?

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Congrats again to NomeyMyHomey and thanks for participating in this profile.

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