August Update
There are a few things I want to share with you but first I want to let you know how I have been doing on the tables. I won the $109 mtt on full tilt that starts at noon eastern time yesterday. That is also the same tournament that I made a video about. It is the second time I have won it.
I also finished 3rd in another mtt a few days ago. We made a deal at the end and I must say I love the new deal making feature on full tilt. It reduces the variance that is left at the end of big mtts. A coin flip at the end can cost you thousands and the deal making feature makes it more attractive for me to play mtts more often. Overall, I have made $8200 profit for the month so far.
I have been lazy with updating this blog, but I stay on top of answering the questions you guys have almost everyday.
I talked with Stinko_Mikko about staking/coaching in great detail a few days ago. He has started a program to train and stake poker players that want to get better. I have been thinking about doing this and I want to gauge the interest. If there are enough people interested I may do it. Here is how it works:
You will move to the city I live in for 6 weeks (just outside Grand Rapids MI). A group of you could rent a house togeather. I will train you to crush the 90 man sngs on fulltilt everyday. You will be expected to play poker 12 hours a day everyday for 6 weeks. I will provide you a bankroll to start playing. We will split the profits you make 60% for you and 40% for me. Stinko has done this already with a group of 6 players and he said most of them were fish starting out. 3 of them made $5,000 for the 6 weeks. 2 made $10,000 and 1 made $20,000. So if you would be interested in applying to train with me for 6 weeks let me know on this blog and if there is enough interest I may do it.
Comments
hi mate i already contacted u for shadow session and i think your idea is really good i would be interest .am leaving in montreal so i think it wouldnt be too complicated to come , would just have to talk about certain think , but count me as in .hope to see u soon.
Allright i'm 100% in. How many more people do you need to set this up ? When are you planning to do this? If the project works i would like to ask you some more specific questions. Do we play on our actual account? How many table do you want us to play? Are you ok with 45 player games also cuz there isnt so many 90 mans runnin' at the same time. And many more things i want to clarify but i'm pretty sure you already set it up so.
Hit me up
jockmygame, you can put your email on here and I will contact you.
I prefer the 90 mans because the bounties will reduce your variance. I am fine with you playing 45 mans but that will be determined on an individual basis based on were you are at with your game. I would like to do this in the next couple of months. You will play on your actual accounts. I want you to play as many tables as you can profitably play and if it is only 2 I will work with you to get you upto 12.
hey Mark, could you send my an e-mail so we can discuss about the project, please contact me at : maxtheog@gmail.com
thanks
hey mark, my email is: jockmystyle@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you soon!
hi,
mark if u get a chance check out my 45man sng stats, i am interested but i would prefer u email me. email is dhall180@hotmail.com
thanks,
dwh1969
Hey, Mark... instead of me getting there, why don't you plan a "holiday" to Naples, Italy? You stay here for 6 (or more) weeks... I give complete hospitality to you at no fee at all and we'll make all that training/staking... what do you think?
what a great chance to improve my game. count me in will you forward me some details about the ideas to claygavin@hotmail.com
Definitely interested. Winning low stakes SNG player (as in not a fish 
)
Drop me an email at ciocanu_magic@hotmail.com
If it pushes through - would need a bit of heads up to sort out the travel plans (yes I will be coming from abroad )
Ok, so it looks like so far we have : Calitry, ruthless99, maxtheog, and jockmygame are 100% ready to go. If I missed anyone please let me know. I am shooting for sometime in september/october to start. The people traveling to Michigan will be responsible for renting the house. You guys can save money by doing it together. I will rent an office or someplace similar to play poker and get the internet set up.
Hey Mark -
I have a friend that lives in Grand Rapids and I have talked to her about this. I know I am new to poker and dont have enough games to evaluate. But you did say your friend was able to turn fish into winning players. Anyway, my motivation is this: I have a place I could stay for free and I dont mind sharing my profits with you for 6 weeks because for me it is all about becoming a better player, which I have no doubt will happen if this event takes place. However, I cannot afford to move from $5 games to $50 games suddenly for hundreds of games a day for 6 weeks. I wouldnt mind staying at low stakes on my own account and money and sharing profit for you looking over my shoulder and making me better. But I could easily understand if that is not worth your time and effort, especially if you are in a room full of people playing high-stakes that you are trying to monitor. I dont want to impose, but would like the chance to improve my game... but no problem if I'm not what you are looking for.
Hey Mark,
I am definitely interested in doing this. I usually 12-16 table the 11-26$ 45 mans on full tilt and i do have a positive ROI (changethief8). If you could please contact me so i can learn more of the details about the program/living arrangements that would be great. Thank you for the opportunity and hope to hear from you.
Hey, Mark and the other fellows, please take a look at here. That's what someone can do watching Pimpindonks' videos again and again. If I am able to do this, try to imagine what will be able to do who will move to Mark's to get coached and staked by him.
It's time to fly to Michigan, mates (if only I could, I would be the first one getting on the airplane)
Good luck to the new "Pimpindonkers team" and long life to Mark! 
I did some checking on vacant offices in my area and the minimum lease time I have found is 1 year. I am going to have a hard time getting an office landlord to agree to a 6 week lease.
I started this post with the hope that there would be significant interest in a training/staking program. It has now been 8 days since this has been up and I would estimate the interest to be low to moderate. If I have to lease an office for 1 year I would need to keep the training classes going consecutively one after another. That is quite a commitment for me to make, without having run one yet. I would also have to provide computers and the internet. I am not ready to make that commitment.
I know some of you are eager to do this, but from my standpoint I need to make at least the same amount of money I make playing poker and with all the expenses involved I am not convinced that will happen. I do think everyone involved would make good money off of the deal. Teaching the game would be something new and interesting for me to do that is the appeal for me. However, I do still need to provide for my family and at this point I don't think there are enough committed people. I will leave this blog entry up so if there is a sudden spike in interest maybe we can proceed further, but at this point I think there are only 6 people.
Mark, I think you could just use a room or two of your house. You could buy an adsl wireless router-modem (30$) and require that each of your students brings his own notebook. No charge at all for you, this way.
Or, if you don't like that, you can still consider just staking (without coaching or training) people whose graph is sufficiently good.
Or, finally, you can do this
Hey Mark,
I am very interested. If you would like to sharkscope me my name is
Lucid Thought on FTP. I agree that you are losing money because of the lack of people, but if the opportunity ever arises please consider me. If it makes a difference I could drive to MI and bring my monitors and computer with me.
Thanks,
Etan
lucid_thought@hotmail.com
hi .mark , for the computer part i think everyone could agree no problem to bring their equipement, as for people i dont know for u but i dont think that more than 6 people at a time would be good i think 5-6 would be perfect, as for renting a place am sure you could find a place to rent where people agree to sign per month , in my town their is not alot but their is some place that you can rent for 1 -2 month for people in vacation look in local paper or local internet, i think we could even rent the place for the 6 people and play in the same place we sleep so dont need for u to rent an office we could split at 6 the home. so you would only have to pay for the internet , and i wouldnt even mind pay for it.Am sure their is a way to arrange ,you should just talk to the 6 people concerned . so your only real invest would have to be bankroll we could fix all the rest together you and the 6 other people concern.
i think we should all talk together so we could arrange the fee so you dont have nothin to pay except for bankroll. hope we can find a way to make this happen.
ps: a good way for u to bring more interest would be to make a first group so then after people we be able to leave feedback on how it worked good .then you should be able to gain more interest.
Hi Mark,
I'd be very interested as would a friend of mine, from Ireland, we would both love to quit our jobs and do this for a living, if u have any interest my e-mail is lesoosten@gmail.com. All the best
Les
yeah I think instead of the office we should do it in the house we're renting at so it'll cut the cost. So I guess the trick is to find a house to rent for 6 weeks. Also, I think the ones that are committed into doing this should get each other AIM SNs along and with Mark's so that we can communicate more efficiently. I think a lot of us want to make this happen and are willingly to make sacrifices and any accomadations (sp?) like bringing our own laptops/computers.
AIM: steve1ai
I agree, since i am really motivated for this project to work I am sure we can find a way get this done. I just downloaded AIM so here's my account for those who are part of this project:
I am pretty comfortable with the idea of jock and ruth concerning the apartment. We could all get together and find a place where we could set our things and play in the same place we live so we won't have to travel from one place to another everyday and it's gonna be less expensive for you Mark. We all play home on our computer so if this was another problem I am pretty sure we could all bring our stuff and once again you won't have to pay anything for that. In this way, your first group won't cost you anything except the time you'll take to teach us. If you also could tell us where you would like us to live, like the city and the neighbor if you want we could browse the internet on our sides and see if one of us can catch a deal for a place we could rent during those 6 weeks.
whoever is committed please, either instant message me or MAXtheOG. We're already in contact with each other and would like the others too. Let's make Mark's job a little easier by getting in touch with each other directly instead of having Mark be the middle man. That way he can talk to us as a group instead of having to talk to us individually. I was thinking we all meet up in chatroom later this week to discuss what questions or ideas we might have for Mark.
AIM: steve1ai
I don't see any problem with staying and playing in the same place. It's actually more convenient than moving between "office" and "home". I can see already the people involved have no problem sharing the place - myself included. If we can't rent it for 6 weeks we can get it for 8 weeks (2 months). There should be options.
I can bring my laptop as well to play on. Screen space might not be enough to multi table for long hours but I am sure I can find a second hand LCD or something to hook up to it.
Moreover - for Mark - I think it's a much more sensible approach of trying it out with one team - seeing how it works out - before making the commitment to rent space for one year and other such investments. What if it doesn't work how you expected? What if you're not making enough money? What if ... anything? At least you can try it out without making a long term commitment. I would say this is the best approach.
We bring our stuff - as much as we can - we share the place, we play there, we hook up with internet ... and that's it. We're good to go. I don't think any of us is too picky - we can deal with anything.
If there is a will there is a way
jockmygame I added you on my AIM already.
My own AIM nick is : nibre2009 - and I am online usually between 7 pm - 10 am ET (I'm in a different timezone that's why the funny hours But I can come online whenever it's best for the majority.
Let's make this thing work!
Alright guys I can see some of you really want this to happen and will do whatever it takes to make it happen. I like the idea of just doing this at the house for the first class and see how it goes.
I also agree it will be more cost effective to bring your own computers. They need to meet a couple requirements though. They need to be fast enough to run 12 tables and you must have poker tracker or holdem manager on them. So if you don't have one of these programs you will need to get it. The $90 investment in the program will be made back easily from the information you gain on your opponents.
I agree we need to get on aim to communicate more effectively. So whoever is interested in poker training with PimpinDonks for 6 weeks in Michigan, get on aim on Wednesday, August 26th at 7pm. At 7pm send a message to steve1ai and we will discuss the program in greater detail set up dates etc...
steve1ai let me know if that is ok with you. I will contact you then also.
Nice! Sounds like a plan!
We can "test" our computer/laptop & home by running 12-15 tables at once to make sure it can handle it - using the 1 cent cash tables or whatever.
I'm using HM & SNG Wiz for my own play so that shouldn't be a problem. I think most of the other guys have it as well.
Anyway 7 pm, 26th Aug (ET - New York time - I suppose) - it's a date.
Just to be absolutely sure about the time, as I'm coming from GMT+2 timezone:
ET - New York time is the same as GMT-5?
http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.php
Otherwise, see on on Wednesday,
Calitry
Pimpindonks,
I would be interested in doing something with you, however I go to school and wouldnt be able to do it. If you would be interested in doin coaching in another form you can email me.
PimpinDonks i am from spain.In someday you what to came here i invite you for free.I have a house in madrid and in Barcelona.The only thing is you teach me a little poker and i accept work 6 days at week 12 hours ands 40% for you and house free:) if you read this tell me something for speak.i am serius.Thanks
how about you pay the rent for the house since you have all the cash..lol