Introduction

Ok, I guess I better start this with an introduction...

My name is Jesse Weller, and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. I am 18 years old and I am currently playing poker professionally online. At the moment, I play at www.pokerstars.com and www.fulltiltpoker.com, under the name JesseW316. Most likely if you are a reader of this blog you have heard of me through my ties at www.fullcontactpoker.com, where I am a veteran poster in the forums.

Right now, I am a college student at Maryville University in St. Louis, where I am studying psychology. Next year, however, it looks as though I will be transferring to the University of Missouri in Columbia (Mizzou), to continue my studies and broaden my horizons. Being around home is great sometimes, it allows me to live rent free and only have to worry about paying a minor number of bills to remain afloat. This allows me to strengthen my skills online at the lower to middle stakes without fear of going broke and not being able to live.

I think this is the most important part of what I do, the fact that I don't have to worry about going broke and can comfortably maneuver around the lower to middle stakes while I hone my skills to take shots at the upper levels allows me to really concentrate on every aspect of the game before moving up.

As I said, right now I'm playing at Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars exclusively, although I have probably played at every major site out there at one time or another.

At the moment, by active bankroll stands at around $3,000. I am currently switching constantly between large field MTT's with buy-ins from $3 to $50 and single table sit 'n' go tournaments from $10 to $30. I've never been much of a cash game player, but occasionally I'll sit down in a wide variety of them. You might find me at a no-limit hold'em or pot-limit omaha table with a $50 or $100 max buy-in, or more likely at anywhere from a 1/2 to a 3/6 HORSE table, where I will inevitably be frustrated by the doom switch during the Razz and Stud levels.

The purpose of this blog is to force me to think about my game in a different and more in-depth way. I feel that as it is now, I am going through the motions with my game and while that is successful against low-limit donks in online poker rooms, it does not allow me to really expand my abilities and gain a complete understanding of the game. My goal is to be able to compete with the best tournament players in the world online and not feel outclassed or out skilled.

I feel that writing this blog daily will force me to think and reason through every decision I make at the table while I'm playing. After all, if I don't think about all of my moves before I make them, and make mental notes of the players that I'm playing with on a consistent basis, I won't have anything to write and therefore won't be able to keep the blog going. So, I will make myself keep the blog going and therefore make myself think about my game in new ways.

Hopefully it will become a good read and I'll get some comments from everyone on my entries, constructive criticism is always welcome here and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on not only my playing and hand analysis, but on my writing style. Please drop a note with your thoughts, and thanks for reading!

Peace,
Jesse

and fuck Bill Frist