My name is Mike Arno

Im 37 years old.

Im married to my lovely wife Kathy for 15 years and we have a son Eric who is 14 .

We live in Syracuse NY.

I manage an auto part warehouse during the day and during the night Im a personal trainer at a local gym.

Ive been playing internet poker for only one year as of 8/20/04.

I currently play .25/.50 limit holdem on PokerStars.

My favorite site is ITH. It has alot to offer if your looking to improve your game.

My biggest thrill playing poker thus far has been the 18th place finish in my first tourney with over 1400 players. My biggest achievement I think thus far is the $50 dollars I doubled while learning to play the game at the .02/.04 micro-limit. That was a tuff one for me anyways.

I am currently working on the post-flop area of my game. When to bet the river for value is a tuff one for me.

If I could go back in time I would start off by reading Matthew's book and posting on this site. Unfortunately I didn't find his book or site until almost 9 months after I started playing.

My favorite players at this point are Matthew, Pilchard and Bugs. The hands they post are very interesting and really put your game on the right path. Matthews hands in his book are also great. I hope he has plans for including alot more of them in his next book!

Outside of poker I am a committed bodybuilder. I train at least 5 hours per week. Also before I found the game of poker I loved playing chess, unfortunately I only earned a rating of 1500 which is just above average for regular players.

One thing I've noticed about poker that makes me glad is that most players are not committed to improving their game which allows players like myself to be more likely to have profitable sessions. As a fitness trainer I know that improvement comes slowly in a step by step process. Over time the small gains turn into noticable improvements. To keep on the road to improvement you need to constantly work on achieving small goals while at the same time keeping the big picture in focus. I know the work I'm doing to improve my game will reap big profits for myself someday in the future. I'm currently working my way up through the limits and hope to make it to the $3/$6 tables or beyond and possibly make a nice 2nd income for me while having a blast at the same time.

Look Mike up in the forum!