First Post

So, I woke up this morning feeling like I have alot to say and needed to find something to help clear my mind. I am not much of a writer, but I feel like starting this blog and posting on a regular basis will help keep my head clear, help my investments, and my poker game as well.

My name is Andrew Ferguson, I am from Maryland, and I'm currently a senior at University of Maryland as an economics major. Despite never really being motivated for school I still feel like the situations that are thrown at you while being in college are extremely important to growing as a person and an entrepreneur.

Back in 2003 everybody knows all too well that Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP main event and created the "Poker Boom." After all of the attention poker received from ESPN it lured me in not as a poker player but as a business opportunity. Unlike many professional poker players out there I first entered this market as a poker affiliate.

My First website in the poker industry was cfpokermoney.com which I focused mostly on promoting Pokerheaven, and a few other small sites. This was by far the tackiest looking website I have ever seen and it did not make a dime until I had the idea of creating a Pokerheaven poker gift card. The poker gift cards worked just like any other gift card except it was for online poker. I started out by selling these on ebay which I was selling anywhere from 10-20 $50 gift cards a day which had an incredible conversion rate because people realized this was a new easy way to deposit money onto an online poker room.

So, after starting my first poker website and establishing myself as a poker affiliate I started to meet all of these people that played poker for a living which i thought was just complete nonsense because I didnt really understand the game and just thought it was gambling. I found this incredibly intriguing that you could actually make a substantial income playing a card game, so I began playing with play money on party poker, and freerolls on basically every website that offered any type of freeroll because I knew if I used my own money it would just be throwing money away. Shortly after starting these freerolls I realized how much I sucked at poker, but actually managed to win a freeroll on pokerroom for $500. Still not really knowing anything about the strategy or theory of poker I went on to play 1/2 Limit Holdem, occasionally jumping up to 5/10 without any knowledge of bankroll management and soon enough busted my first poker bankroll. After this I wanted to really take the time to learn and study the game, so I read basically every website I could find information on Limit holdem. After reading an abundance of information on Limit cash games and bankroll management I decided to start playing freerolls again even though I still didnt know much about NL or tournaments in general. I managed to win another freeroll on Pokerroom.com but this time for only $250. For the most part I stuck to Limit cash games up to 30/60 using proper bankroll management for the next year and grinded up a decent bankroll. Eventually, I got very very VERY bored with limit holdem and couldnt even force myself to sit down and play anymore even though I was making decent money doing it. So, I took a fairly extended break and joined twoplustwo.com and a few other forums and began learning NL holdem and tournaments.

Back in February 2006 I started a website called PSMoney.com which is now one of the largest Pokerstars T$/W$ exchange services. Just this past week I sold the website to get equity out of it, but I will still be the CEO and own a decent percentage of the company. Another website that I started which has been more of a hobby than anything is PSStakes.com which is a community that brings together investors looking to "stake" or "back" poker players.

While running PSMoney i have had the privilege of meeting and speaking with many professional poker players which has been nice because I was very interested in learning more about NL cash games and tournaments. I read as much as I possibly could and talked strategy with many other players on AIM and began playing 1/2 NL cash games in august of 2005. So, this is how I met my friend Faraz Jaka aka the-toilet who is an absolutely incredible NL cash game and tournament poker player. He offered to coach and back me in all online poker tournaments, so we agreed on a deal and for the last 10 months I have been working with him on my tournament game and played 2/4 to 5/10 NL 9max cash games on the side with my own bankroll, and moved up to 10/25 to 25/50 heads up NL and 6max cash games on UB in September.

Currently I have stopped playing all cash games, so that I can focus on becoming a dominant tournament player, and continue building my block of businesses.

Well that pretty much sums up my life in the poker world up to this point, and will be posting details on my sessions, investments, business stuff, hand histories, random drunk posts, or just whatever I feel like posting hopefully on a regular basis.