Blech

The ankle grabbing continues. Nothing else to say.

Back to the grind

Well I am playing a normal schedule again finally. Unfortunately it isn't going that well, but I always get frustrated when I don't win.

I played mistakefree which is really all I can ask for - the cards will come however they end up getting spit out.

Chula's surgery is scheduled but I was surprised it takes so long to get her operated on. Her surgery isn't for another 2 weeks still, so she will be 3 legged for a while yet.

Hopefully tonight will go better than this aft did.

Chula - our 3 legged wonderdog

So I took our dog to the vet today because she has been 3 legged for the last week after doing something when she was sprinting off of her leash. Turns out she has ruptured one of her knee ligaments so it looks like she will be getting surgery sometime this week. We really do treat her as our baby so we both just hope that the surgery is uneventful and successful because although she does pretty well for just using 3 legs she really does look pretty pathetic right now.

Blech

I got deep in the Second chance tourney on Stars, which has a first place prize of 50k, only to have my AA cracked when we were down to the final 4 tables.

I know it's a part of the game, but when I get that close to such a big score it still stings quite a bit.

I think I played basically flawlessly today tho, so hopefully it should be just a matter of time.

On a non-poker related note, our dog injured herself last week so I am taking her to the vet tomorrow. We're thinking she's probably going to need surgery since she isn't putting any weight on her hind leg so hopefully it won't be too traumatic or expensive of an ordeal.

Close...

but no cigar.

I got 7th in the $50 rebuy on stars for a little under $2k. I took a horrendous beat against the chip leader when we got all the money in on the turn, but I can't win em all. Still doesn't mean I don't get frustrated though.

Ok back to playing for reals

I am at the Audi place getting our car its 5,000 mile service so I figured I might as well update since I have the time.

I finally got a full session in yesterday and felt I played well so I feel it's just a matter of getting my hours in and results should follow.

Playing with two monitors on a computer that doesn't crash felt really nice.

It looks like I might catch up with a couple of highschool friends this weekend so I am looking forward to that.

My WSOP plans are also progressing. I have sold out (or reserved) about half of the shares I have put out. So hopefully I can get the other half sold out in the next couple of months and then I will actually be able to play the entire series this year. We'll see...

Other than that, it's just the same old, same old.

Finally feeling truly professional

So the new computer is now set up and today I got the cable for the second monitor and somehow figured out how to set that up as well, so I now truly feel professional. I have two monitors (can fit up to 6 tables without overlap on each), my new tracking software is set-up (I got Hold'em Manager), I managed to get my new printer to work even though it is set-up for windows xp and my new computer came with Vista, and my computer is running fast and isn't crashing on me whenever I play on Fulltilt.

Now all I need to do is get back to playing. This week should finally be back to basically normal so I should get some volume in again.

Back Home

I am home and getting resettled. I went and picked up my new computer from FedEx yesterday (my wife wasn't around the three times they tried to deliver it since she works 100 hours a week) and got it set up so I am ready to play today. Unfortunately the monitor did not come with one of the cables I need, so I will be playing with just one monitor still, but it will come. I still haven't kicked this cold and the cough is just bugging me more than anything at this point.

Anyhoo, I'm back, I should be playing again starting today.

Reuniting and it feels it so good...

So last night I met up with one of my old Peace Corps friends who is living in D.C. and we had a joint poker game with some of her and her boyfriend's friends as well as some of my poker buddies. One of the few downfalls of my profession is the social isolation - I just don't get in contact with that many people on a day to day basis since all I do is play poker from my garage. So it was nice to actually talk with people face to face.

Today we went to the Maryland/Pennsylvania border and joined up with another of my old Peace Corps friends and her boyfriend at a ski resort. I just chilled in the nice 60 degree weather enjoying the sun and reading the paper as they frolicked on the slopes. We then had a nice dinner and good stiff drinks and just enjoyed shooting the shit and reminiscing. The one thing that is always good to remember is that even if you don't keep in super good contact with good people everything still basically falls into place when you meet up again because good people are just good people.

Anyhoo, I had a great time, I wish Charmian could have been with me because I know she would have enjoyed it too, and I hope that people will come by and visit us whenever they are in the in Northern Cal. area.

Some culture

My mom wanted to go see a dance performance at the Kennedy Center and didn't want to go alone so used me as an escort. It was an Alvin Ailey dance performance which I guess is supposed to mean something to anyone who knows anything about dance, which I do not. But we got the added benefit that the Obama's decided to come watch as well and the crowd went into a tizzy when it realized they would be watching with the president. Our seats were basically directly below his - the presidential seats are the front center seats of the balcony - so we didn't get to see his face but we saw his hand whenever he stood up to wave. To be honest I had more fun watching the crowd ogle at him and take pictures with their cellphones than I would have in joining them. Anyhoo, I am not a big dance guy but these dancers were so powerful and the music so good that I would have enjoyed even without the added Obama show.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with peace corps and poker friends and playing a home game which should be fun.

Off to D.C.

I'm just going for like 5 days to visit my mom but it should be fun. It looks like I have some hockey, poker, reuniting, and eating good food on the agenda.

Jonesing to Play

My new computer has not arrived yet and I gave my old one to my younger brother so I am sitting and waiting and continuing not to play. I leave for D.C. on Wednesday to visit my mom and hopefully catch up with some Peace Corps/poker/old Madison friends and will then be back the following Tuesday. So it looks like the lack of volume will continue.

I also added the number of shares I am selling for my WSOP action to 1000 (for $50 each) so that each share is .1% of my action instead of the original 100 shares I had planned on) as it looked like there were some smaller bankrolled players who wanted to invest in me but couldn't. So if $50 is more to your liking then feel free to invest.

WSOP Ad

Ok the ad is up. Hopefully it takes off - it not, I have time to tweak it.

http://forum.parttimepoker.com/showthread.php?t=481205

S.B.

Turns out we can steal internet access if I am out on the porch of my mother-in-law's so I have time for a quick post. I absolutely love this town, the weather is great, I am always welcomed back to this noon basketball game which I started playing in back when I was in college like 15 years ago, and it's just a beautiful environment. We are hoping to move back here at some point in the future, hopefully not more than 5 years from now.

Anyhoo, vacation continues to go well, I am enjoying eating well but also getting out and excercising and I am finally feeling better too.

We should be heading back up to Sac-town on Saturday and I am hoping to get a full day in on Sunday.

Preliminary WSOP Plans

So after thinking about it a bit today, I have preliminarily decided that I am going to try and get $50k worth of backing. This should be more than enough to cover every WSOP that I would want to play. I am going to be selling them as $500 shares so each share will be 1% of my WSOP action. Any money left over will be distributed back to my stakers in the percentage they bought in me (e.g. if someone buys 10 shares or 10% of me and I only spend 30k then that person would receive $2k back which is 10% of the 20k that would be left over).

I don't want to get bogged down with makeup so I am going to be offering a straight up 66.67%/33.33% deal where my backers get 2/3 of any profit I make and I get the other 1/3.

I will be paying for all incidentals (transport/housing/food/etc.) on my own dime.

I am not sure how the RIO does taxes - if they take a percentage out beforehand then any distributions will be made after taxes. If they don't then each staker will get there full share and will be responsible for paying their own taxes.

I will be making an ad on parttimepoker next week with all of my stats and info, so if you're interested keep checking back here and I'll have the link up.

Hopefully I can sell this out.

WSOP Schedule released

So we're back from Colorado, and I feel like I'm back in the Peace Corps because I caught some GI bug that is keeping me attached to the pot at least 3 times an hour. The aromatic sulphur burps are also a plus. I am actually feeling a bit better this afternoon, but if it continues I will probably need to actually go see an M.D.

The weekend in CO was too fast but it was fun. It is always nice to see family who you haven't seen for a while.

In poker news the WSOP schedule was finally released today and I am in the process of figuring out how I am going to (try) and get staked. I am still unsure whether I am going to try and make a real run this year and play the whole series or whether I will go for like a 2 week chunk.

If it's for the whole series I will probably need somewhere between 40-50k, and I'm not sure whether I would get that much or not. I will probably put an ad up on parttimepoker and see how much interest is out there and then go from there.

Tomorrow we head up to Santa Barbara where internet access is not always available (depending on who we are staying with), so I will probably not be updating much this week.

Pobresita

My wife came home last night complaining that she didn't feel well. I couldn't tell if she was just rundown from work (who wouldn't be in her position?) or if she was coming down with something.

When she got up at midnight to pray to the porcelain gods it was obvious it was more than just being rundown. The crazy thing with her work is that she still almost dragged herself in even after getting up at 5:00 a.m. and puking again. I was amazed she actually did call in sick, but I'm glad she did.

Hopefully it's just a 24 hour bug because she has a test to take tomorrow and then we have a long drive to L.A. followed by a flight to Denver and then another drive to Fort Collins. And having to do all of that while you're sick would suck.

Good Inauguration Day

I got 3rd in the nightly 65k on Tilt for a little over $11k. I am a little disappointed by how I played short-handed, so I feel like I left another 4-14k on the table, but obviously I can't be too upset with a 5 figure score.

SF Weekend

My fam from L.A. and my sister and the younger part of her contingency from Dallas plus me and Charmian bombarded our cousin's house in S.F. for a little family reunion over the long weekend. It's always nice to see everyone and just relax. We also met up with some of our college friends who after some wordly voyages have ended back up in S.F. So it was nice to see everyone.

I will try and put in some tourneys this week, but it's always hard for me to play when I know that I am going to be taking an extended break soon. On Friday Charmian starts her vacation and we take off for a weeklong trek which will include stops in L.A., Fort Collins, Colorado, and Santa Barbara.

Good Friday

With that title I'll probably get a lot of people coming to this post around Easter.

Anyhoo, I got 2nd in the $163 50k on Tilt today so I am back in the black for the year.

It also looks like my wife got some co-workers to cover her on Sunday and Monday so we will be off to S.F. tomorrow.

I am clearly not going to get my volume in for this month, since we go on vacation next week, but I should be refreshed and raring to go in Feb.

Hopefully can get back to playing

So my desktop crashed again this afternoon so I was forced to play a small session on my laptop. I then got help from my computer savvy poker friends and figured out how to wipe out my computer and just start over. So hopefully this will hold me until my new computer comes in a couple of weeks.

Blechier Tuesday

I made one mistake today but other than that I just got reamed. I also got disconnected twice when I was playing on my desktop on Fulltilt and both times I had the nuts postflop with an opponent betting into me. Add to it that my wife is getting hosed at work - they are making her work this weekend when she had been scheduled to have the 3 day weekend off - and I went on a little life tilt.

I finally broke down and just bought another computer so hopefully this retarded disconnecting won't happen anymore.

Blech Monday

Another 0 fer day. Played well, ran bad. Nuttin' new.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Went average. I moneyed 2 of the Sunday majors (the brawl on FullTilt and the Million on Stars) but never got anywhere in either so I lost a little for the day. I am playing well so I'll just keep grinding away.

We are having a little family reunion in San Fran next weekend and then my wife (which means me too) is on vacation for a week the following week so I am planning on playing full days this M-F as well as the following M-F so that I can get my 200 tourneys in for the month.

Day Off

I took today off to watch some football. My wife was actually off this evening so I made us some burgers and we went to go see Milk, which was basically just a biography of Harvey Milk but was a story I really knew very little about so it was good to see. When we came back, Chula (our dog) seemed a little too happy to see us until we saw the empty Cheetos bag on the living room floor. Should be a fun pooper scooper pick up tomorrow.

I will be back at it playing again tomorrow.

Meh

2nd night in a row my AA got cracked by a smaller pair all-in late in a tourney. I continue to play well, so once those big hands start holding up I should start seeing some nice results again. Waiting for the results to happen is always a challenge though.

First positive day of the new year

So yesterday I ended the cashless streak, today I ended the losing money streak. I got 9th in the $50 rebuy on Stars. I played about as perfect as I could and just got extremely unlucky late where I took 2 bad beats and lost 2 races. I am definitely frustrated since 9th was like $1k and 1st was over $11k but at least I made a final table, and at least I am playing well. I am taking the rest of the night off since I am a little tilted (stupid bad beats) and will watch the football game and then I'm at it again tomorrow.

At least I finally got a cash

I ended the cashless streak, but had another losing day. I made maybe one or two overaggressive moves, but feel like my game is coming back into form. One good cash, and I am back in black.

0 for 2009

well I had another 0fer day. So far I have played 27 tourneys this year and haven't cashed yet. Today was more of just running bad than playing bad - I don't think I got it in bad in any spot today so at least I am cutting down on the mistakes. Tomorrow I will hopefully break out and at least cash in something.

Not playing my best

I got my first full day back in today and it went poorly. I didn't play horribly but I did make some mistakes and to keep my ROI at what I need it to be, I just can't make silly mistakes. I am always surprised at how hard it is to stay focused and patient especially after a long stretch of not playing. I find myself getting upset and taking it personally when players raise me. When I am playing well, I am playing just as if I am giving advice on a poker forum. I analyze the best play to make based on my cards, position, and opponent and just focus on making the best plays and letting everything else take care of itself. But no matter how many hands I play and how ingrained it is in my head, I still expect to win every hand that I play, and I still get upset when I don't win. So the plan for tomorrow, is simply to keep taking care of my life first and then getting my poker in with a good mindframe. Once I get back into playing consistent mistake free poker the results should start flowing again.

Back to Playing (Finally)

So it's been like a month since I played last. I dropped the S.B. clan off at the airport this morning, my wife is on call today, so I am back at it. I played well today in my morning/aft session but got no love. I will put in a night session as well, so we'll see. But I should be back to putting in at least some volume this week.

Back in Sac-town

The photo is me and Jack - my nephew from Dallas.

I'm back and continuing the laziness. I actually played 3 tourneys today, but for whatever reason I can't get the new update on Tilt to download on my desktop so I can't use my pokertracker and don't really like playing on this laptop. I think I will be getting a new computer next year because it is now like 7 years old and is just getting slower and slower.

Our Wisco friends' flights got canceled so my wife and I will just enjoy vegging out a bit this weekend. She needs and deserves it - she works way too much. I am hoping to get in a couple of movies since so many good ones are out now.

Christmas is pretty anticlimactic this year since my wife is working 30+ hours, but we will be celebrating with her family when they come up next week for new years.

In Dallas

So I am enjoying my time just chilling with my family here in Dallas. I have gotten a couple of messages from people wondering about the possibility of becoming my "protege" next year. I'll be honest and say that I really haven't given in that much thought, so I am not sure exactly what it will entail or how I will go about picking possible students. No matter what, it won't happen until February. Once I do figure it out, I'll make sure to let interested people know.

Depending on how well I travel, I should be home tomorrow - and then we have some friends coming (this time if they travel well) from Wisconsin on Friday. Then my wife's family comes up to visit us for New Years so I probably won't be playing or posting much until next year.

Getting bored?

So I have been doing nothing the last couple of days and thought I was getting bored enough to play today. Turns out I am bored but still not really into playing. I entered 2 tourneys at 5:00 with the plan of playing the quarter million on stars and the sniper on UB at 6:00 but after I made an iffy call in one and got coolered in the other I just decided to hang it up.

Tomorrow I have some errands to run before we head off to Dallas so I won't be playing then either.

Motivation seems to be my achilles heel - hopefully I can figure something out because the only way for me to make more money is by playing more volume.

Year in Review Time/Goals for Next Year

At this time of the year there are always programs recapping the last year on tv, so I figured it is time for me to do so as well.

My goals for this year were:
1) pass the bar exam
2) attain at least a 50% ROI playing poker
3) make $100 k playing poker, and
4) get back in shape.

I accomplished 1 and 2 and although I didn't make 100k I made enough so that with our combined income we lived perfectly comfortably. I am still woefully out of shape so of the four goals that is the one I failed most miserably.

I also became an instructor for pokerpwnage.com which was unexpected but has gone really well so far. So all in all, I feel like I had a really good year.

My goals for next year are going to be pretty similar to last years':

1) I want to maintain an ROI of at least 50%
2) I want to profit 100 k playing poker
3) I want to play at least 2500 tourneys (doubling my volume this year - and basically guaranteeing a 100k year if I can get close to a 50% ROI)
4) I want to continue garnering more exposure in the pokerworld which will hopefully lead to more moneymaking opportunities (sponsorships, writing deals, etc.), and
5) I want to get back in shape.

I am also seriously considering taking on a student or two as a sort of "protege" and will coach them in return for a percentage of their winnings. The only thing keeping me back from announcing this at this point is that I want to really concentrate on getting my volume in first - once I feel that I have that under control and have time for coaching I will do so.

The rest of this year will consist of playing when I can but there is going to be a lot of non-playing time too with all of the visits and visitors we have planned.

Getting Christmasy

So I haven't played since my final table on Tuesday (which really shouldn't be a surprise with me). When I actually put in volume I let the house go to crap a bit, so I've been catching up on raking the yard, cleaning the garage, just generally getting the house in order.

I also bought a christmas tree, only to realize when I got it home that it was too big for our tree stand. So a couple hours of using the crappy saw that I have and shaving parts of the trunk off and I try again... only to realize the tree is just too damn big for the plastic stand that we had. The f-bombs were definitely flying but today I walked the dog to the neighborhood hardware store and got a new stand. And finally we got the sucker up. Yay for small successes.

Pokerwise I am thinking seriously of what I want my goals for next year to be. I am debating about whether I want to take a student or two on or if I just want to focus on playing as much as I can. I do know that I want to try and double my volume - if I can keep around the same ROI as this year and double my volume I should have a super successful year.

Tomorrow my father-in-law comes in and my wife is off for the weekend, so I'll probably be back and playing next Monday.

Little hot streak going

I got 5th in the Nightly 100k on pokerstars. I feel I played really well overall so even though I am disappointed not to take down the 1st place (which was over $20k), I still can't be too upset.

The last three days I've played I've made a final table so that's pretty amazing especially considering the low volume I put in (I only played 4 tourneys tonight). My bankroll is comfy again too, which just takes a lot of stress off.

A big part of me is considering just coasting into next year with a nice profitable December and not really playing anymore this month, but we'll see how bored I get.

Errands

I haven't played much because I am just getting stuff done. Yardwork/x-mas shopping/cooking/etc. We are going to be doing quite a bit of family/friend visits as well these next 4 weeks so I definitely won't get a full schedule in this month.

This weekend my father-in-law comes. Next week I go to Dallas to visit my sister and fam. X-mas week we have some friends from Wisco coming in. And then New Years we have my sister's family coming in.

I will try and get a session in tonight and the rest of this week until my suegro comes in on Friday.

Big steps

I won the $55 Freeze out on Stars for over $15k today. It feels great to win again and plowing through a field that big (almost 2000 entries) is really tough. Basically I won back everything I lost playing cash, so I am just vowing to myself that I won't play cash anymore. I win money playing tourneys, I lose money playing cash - so it should be a no brainer.

Anyhoo - my wife is off tonight and tomorrow, so I'm taking a little time off and then I'll be back at it next week.

Small Steps

I got 3rd in the afternoon $55 tourney on Fulltilt. I still felt a little (ok a lot) deflated as I got reamed/coolered in 2 huge hands late. It's easy to say all you can do is get it in good and focus on your play not the results, it's a lot harder to swallow when 3rd place is 2700 and 1st is 6k.

The nice part is that I finally had a positive day after so many consecutive losing days. The bad part is that it really only covers about 3 days of losses.

I am playing really really well though, so I feel a big score coming...

Volume is tiring

I played really well this afternoon, but didn't get much of a break in during the afternoon like I usually do and played like poo tonight. It was my first time playing like poo for a while so I just need to make sure not to play when I'm tired.

Tomorrow is another day...

Poker time

Well, I finally have like a two week window where I can put in a lot of volume. November was really frustrating because I played so little in terms of tourneys and I never got a real good score, and I was playing quite a bit of cash which just went horribly so my bankroll has suffered.

The last two days I have (and will be) playing a lot of tourneys, and I am playing great, but just not getting rewarded. Yesterday was full of bad beats which just shows I am getting it in way ahead. Today was not bad beats as much as it was just never winning a race when I really needed to.

My bankroll is now the lowest it has been for months, and I am anxious to get it back up again, but I need to make sure to just keep playing well otherwise I have a tendency to get overaggressive trying to make things happen and I just blow up opportunities to make deep runs.

Turkey weekend

So the plan was to just make a baked chicken for me and the wife. Instead she invited 4 others so while I was shopping I figured I might as well just get the free turkey at the grocery store. Of course there were only like 10 turkeys left at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, so I got the smallest one, which was a svelte 19 pounds, and after a couple of hours of hot water down it's throat, tom turkey was finally thawed enough to go in the oven.

I was definitely concerned that it wouldn't get done, but in the end it was just fine. We actually had a really good time with a co-resident and her husband... maybe too good of a time, as my wife spent the next day recuperating.

Today was absolutely gorgeous out so we took the dog for a nice walk, and then went and got a little shopping done. We topped it off with a movie and saw Changeling, which we both thought was one of those movies you should probably watch at some point, but isn't really necessary to see at a theater.

Pokerwise, I am playing a full day tomorrow and as usual after a little time off I am excited to play. Hopefully I'll remember it's just one mile out of the marathon so although I hope to have a great day results wise tomorrow all I can do is control my play and let everything else work its own way out.

Grindin' Some Back

I got 4th in a small tourney for like $1.5k. I took a bad beat 4 handed but I can't bitch too much because I gave a lot of bad beats as well. At this point I am just pissed at myself for donking away all that money playing cash - but there really is nothing I can do but move on, play well, and win it back.

I will be playing a small aft session tomorrow and then will be off for a bit again as my wife actually has Thanksgiving off.

So happy turkey day to all!!

Bad Sunday

I cashed just one of the 13 tourneys I played today. But my losses were all due to bad beats or coolers so I am playing very very well. Just going through a bad spell.

Unfortunately I lost quite bit playing cash as well this weekend so my bankroll has taken quite a beating. Time to start grinding it back - I'm due for a good win.

Meh x2

The horridness continued tonight. I am still playing fine so blah blah blah the results will come, but still tilts me to lose. I did win back about half my buyins for the night in 10 minutes playing 15/30 heads up limit so that makes me feel a bit better.

The wife is off this weekend so I should be back playing on Monday.

Meh

Well I finally got an afternoon session in and meh. I can't remember so many bad beats in a while. Only tourney i got really close to doing anything in was the $20 rebuy on tilt where I lost a chiplead pot with AK<88. So I played fine and ran bad. Seems standard.

I should be playing again tonight.

Tourneys are frustrating because you can play technically perfect and you still won't cash like 80% of the time. bad beats/failing to win races/card dead/etc and poof you're out. Adding to the frustration is that you put in 3+ hours and end up walking away a loser.

Here's to running good/keeping a good mindframe/getting in some volume.

Wheeeeeeeeeee.

Still trying to get back in the swing of things

Well I continued my delve into the sickness that is heads-up Limit Poker. It is different than any other game because you basically end up seeing on a flop on almost every hand. Since it's limit the biggest bet you have to call preflop is just one BB and since you're just playing one opponent who has position that person is raising close to 100% of the time. So you end up defending your blind an incredibly high percentage of the time.

It is a fun game but it is incredibly swingy - moreso than headsup NL in my opinion, which leads me to just get into these huge sessions where I just sit down and play and play and play and play.

Monday night I began a session and I didn't stop until noon on Tuesday. So I am still exhausted and just trying to get motivated to play. As always with me, motivation is my biggest hurdle. When you get down to it, I think I am just naturally lazy. Getting motivated to work out, to play poker, to clean the house, to do errands... it's just always more of a challenge than I think it should be. It's so much easier to lie down in front of the tv, fart around on the internet, and do nothing. Then again doing nothing gets pretty boring after awhile and so the cycle begins again.

Anyhoo - I'm going to get a run in today by running to Trader Joe's (ha killing two birds with one stone) and then will play my nightly schedule. Hopefully after a good night sleep tonight things will be start clicking back to normal.

Decided I wanted to play but didnt want to think...

So I played Heads-up Limit poker. I am now pretty cautious playing this game because even though you don't have to think, there is something about it that just sucks you in. My eyes glaze over, but I keep on playing. It's because of this that I've lost a buttload playing this game before so I was careful this time and stuck to one table. But it did suck me in again.

I think i've played like 16 out of the last 24 hrs. And I am basically even. LOL.

At least I earned a ton of points and am now super close to getting a new computer screen which should be nice.

Back to it

So the dogsitting is over and I got to actually play on Sunday which is a good thing.

The bad thing is I made a pretty spewy move in the FTOPs Main Event when I had a stack where it was unnecessary to do so and then I bubbled the only tourney I came close to cashing in which was the Second Chance on Stars. So I wasn't real happy about my play, but the leaks are definitely patchable.

I should hopefully get some real volume in this week.

Grinding some cash

I actually played one tourney today - I bubbled the FTOPs omaha event. Other than that I've been playing some small sessions of Heads Up cash on Tilt. Yesterday was about even - today was super positive. I won like 2 1/2 buyins in a small period of time. I know that HU is vey swingy so I just need to make sure to watch my tilt monkey and make sure I don't go nutso. The nice thing is I'm only playing 1/2 so I can't donk off that much. From what I've seen so far the players stick to their "normal" style and aren't real good at adjusting and adjusting is what heads up play is all about, so I might have finally found a cash game that I could excel at if I took some time to pursue it.

In other news it looks like Bush is going to storm trooper his UIGEA bill in at the last minute which has the online poker world up in arms. As I've told other people, I think a lot of people tend to take an attitude that the sky is falling when we still don't know all the info or what exactly is going to happen. If the worst possibility happens and online poker goes busto, at least I have my bar privileges...

Back Home

Well we made it back safe and sound. I haven't got back into playing because we are now dogsitting an ancient little dog that belongs to one of my wife's co-interns. Figuring out this dog's sleep routine has taken a little longer than I thought. I'm not sure how well playing tourneys will work this week, since he needs to be taken out whenever he wakes up or else he goes to the bathroom inside the house so I might try and focus on some cash - otherwise I'll just wait until next week to play again.

Vacationing

Just a quick update to say we are doing fine. Relaxing, eating good meals, getting out in the sun, running/playing basketball, and just spending time with the fam is always nice. Watching Obabma win was a nice cherry on top as well.

The party ends on Saturday and I should be playing again on Sunday...

Off to SB

I am going to have to hide in the garage for a couple of hours tonight when the first horde of kiddlies comes through our neighborhood since we didn't buy any candy this year. And by hordes, I mean hordes. They literally bring the kids in by the busload to our neighborhood since it is safe, the houses are close together, and it is wealthy enough that everyone has good candy. But as soon as my wife is off work (hopefully by 7) we are hitting the road.

Word on the street is that we might be able to get internet access for the first time at her mom's house, but I'm not going to put total faith in that so it's very possible I won't be blogging again until we return.

Another what if night

I took a bad beat somewhat deep in the 250k on stars and am now going through the inescapable "what if I had won that hand" phase. I won't bore you with the details but I was a 75% favorite postflop for a stack that I could have crusied to the final two tables with. Knowing that it's getting a top 3 in these big payout tourneys which basically determines whether you make good money or spectacular money in a given year always makes losing in them even more bitter. The fact that I've now gotten close to big payouts (over 20k) three times in the last week is encouraging since it shows I've been playing well. The fact that I haven't got there in any of those three still blows goats tho.

Still grindin'

I played a small aft session today because I quickly got bad beat in my first two tourneys and then unregistered for the other 3 I was going to play because my mind was not in it. I think a lot of my lack of volume comes from that - I know I'm in a crappy mindset so I don't play. It's good that I'm not tilting, but I do need to figure out a way to play through it so I can get my volume. One other big reason for my lack of volume comes from the simple fact that I am actually running much better than I thought. As a tourney player I am going to have many more losing days than winning ones, so it feels like I am constantly losing. In fact, I have not had a losing month since May, and the last 4 months (June-Oct)have all been really profitable months so I just felt no need to play.

I am going to play a normal session tonight and tomorrow, and then we leave for a week vacation (another reason my volume is never huge).

Since I have open time this aft, I'm going to go for a run and try and clean up the house a bit.

Another close call

I actually played a really light schedule today because my wife was on call last night and when she got home she said that she wanted to be woken up at 4:30 ish. I haven't spent time with her in like a week so i figured I could play some of the tourneys that started at 11:00 and if I got deep that was great, and if not, I would be free by 4:30. Well I got deep in one of the two "Sunday Majors" (the buy-ins at 215+ across all the major sites on Sunday). I got 12th in the Sunday Brawl on Tilt. 1st was over $70k, even 5th place was $20k. Unfortunately for me, 12th was only $2800.

I was definitely disappointed since I was so close to a huge score, but I sucked out like 3 times (cracking AA three separate times) just to get there so I can't bemoan my luck too much. The what ifs always go through your mind after getting so deep and then not quite getting the results you were looking for, but I played great and am playing great overall and as long as I keep plugging away the results will come.

Almost reversed the curse

I got 6th in the $100k guarantee on Pokerstars last night. For whatever reason, when I make a FT on Stars (which is not very often) I just can't finish the job. Last night was more of the same. I got it in 3 times where I was either a slight favorite or a slight underdog and I lost all three times. Alas, that's poker so although I will be going to bed with the dreams of the $20k that I almost had for first place, the bankroll still did get juiced about $5k so I won't cry myself to sleep.

1000 tourneys

I finally passed the 1000 tourney mark for the year today. For those that don't understand playing tournament poker professionally, that's an awfull small number. Considering that I can put in 12 tourneys a day (which is also considered a small number), that means that I've really only played like a little over 80 days this year. And for a fulltime job, that's obviously not many days. We talked about it last night, and I really just need a way to light a fire under my ass so that I can get more volume in. I feel like I should be at double this amount (at least 2000 tourneys) and even if I made just 50% as much as I did over the first 1k, I'd be at $100k profit for the year now.

As far as the stats go - I'm super pleased with my ROI which is at 73%. My itm is at 14.4% which seems low, but a lot of that has to do with my double up or go home mentality - I am working on relaxing a bit more w/15-25 BBs, so hopefully that will increase. My FT percentage is 2.5% - I don't know what to make of that. It seems low, but it also seems to be working. I think when I do make a FT I get a top 3 score a huge percentage of the time, so I'd like to increase my FT percentage in case I start picking up some more 4-9ths rather than 1-3rds.

Sunday

Sundays are big days for online tourney players as it is the day most sites have their biggest weekly tourney(s). It is a good day to play because you actually have the opportunity to win a huge (i.e. 6 figure) payout, but it can also be a frustrating day to play because all of the buy-ins are generally high ($200 ish) and if you don't cash anything you can easily blow through thousands of dollars. I generally don't play on Sundays because that's usually the day my wife has off. But yesterday my wife had to study so I actually got to play a bit. I was planning on playing a pretty full schedule, but I just wasn't feeling the mojo so I ended up only playing 4 tourneys and then packing it in. I didn't play excellent but didn't play horribly either. Oh well, it looks like I'll get to play again next Sunday so not a huge deal.

Today I am taking off from poker. I'm going to clean up the house. Maybe cook some meals for the week ahead, and tonight I play volleyball. So I'll get back to the grind tomorrow.

A little more light

I got 3rd in the 90k 6 max tourney on Tilt for $10k.

wheeeeeee - back to positive for the month.

A little light at the end of the tunnel

I finally cashed more than one tourney tonight and I even got 3rd in the small sniper tourney on UB to actually have a positive day.

It was nothing huge, but feels good to stop the bleeding at least.

Barftastic night

After getting down to less than 1 BB I somehow managed to not only make the money but get a decent stack in the 65k guarantee on Tilt. And then my connection went out and players started stealing my blinds. By the time I made it back, I was down to less than 15 BBs and went out soon after in 19th when a good spot to reshove didn't get there.

I also bubbled the deepstack tourney on UB which is always tilting since it takes like 4 hours just to get to the bubble and then to not even make the money just blows.

Anyhoo - I'm still playing good. Just a matter of time before I break out.

Back to it.

So the downswing continues, but I am playing fine. It is this aspect of poker which is really hard for non-poker players to understand. Playing well and losing money plays a real havoc on your mind. Sometimes I start to press and force things other times I go into supernit mode because I don't want to spew. In the end it always comes down to playing well and then just letting things happen. But knowing this never ever makes it any easier for me when I am losing $1k/day.

Away from the tables, I went to S.F. to visit my family this last weekend and had a blast. It's nice to only have to drive 2 hours to S.F. rather than the 6+ to L.A. or Santa Barbara. My sister was in town for a conference so I got to see her as well. My next extended leave from the tables should be in a couple of weeks when my wife goes on vacation. Until then, I hope to actually get some decent volume in and hopefully pop out of this downswing.

Downswinging... Again

I've played close to 40 tourneys this week and have only cashed in one. I actually have made a couple of mistakes, but for the most part I am just running bad. I feel like this always seems to happen after I make a decent score. I'm not sure how much of it is a mental block and how much of it is just standard - you can't always run well.

I know that if I keep playing well it will turn around, but as always it is hard getting through the downswings.

Back at it.... again

So after a basic 2 week hiatus (I've played once since Sep. 20) I played again a bit. I have volleyball tonight so I actually only played 3 tourneys, but it's a start. I should be playing a full schedule during this week, but then I'm going up to S.F. to visit my family this weekend, so the volume is still not going to be huge this month.

We had a good time with my in-laws. The whole premise of the trip was actually a b-day gift to my sister-in-law who is a terrific dancer and really likes to watch the show "So You Think You Can Dance" on Fox. My wife and mother-in-law really like the show too, so we bought everyone tickets for a performance where they had their top ten dancers doing performances from last season. I was expecting it to be us and thousands of 12 yr old girls, but was surprised to see a wide spectrum of people. And the audience really gets into it, so it was more like a rock concert than a standard dance performance. We all had a blast.

Her family is also super active, so we went biking/rollerblading/running/hiking as well and had a nice steak dinner out one of the nights too.

Anyhoo, I should get back into playing/making some videos for pokerpwnage these next couple of weeks, and I feel excited to play again, so hopefully I can get another decent score.

September recap - who needs volume?

I put in basically no volume - just over 100 tourneys for the month. But the two final tables I got in those tourneys were a 1st and a 2nd so I didn't really need to play anymore.

I think I'm going to try and make some guaranteed money today and tomorrow by doing some videos. I also want to watch a lot of baseball this week (I get to root for both the cubs and brewers which should be fun although the cubs are the team I really care about) plus my inlaws are coming up for a long weekend starting Thursday, so I probably won't play at all this week.

I also finally got out and played some volleyball last night - I am sore today, but oit was fun and should be a weekly thing for me now.

Anyhoo - I made about 13k for the month, so all's good. I should get back to actually playing again next week.

Another daytrip another flat tire

Although walking on the bikepath along the American river here in Sacramento is beautiful and close we do like exploring other areas too, so this last weekend we drove about a half hour north (in a town called Weimar) and went on a hike that was supposed to end at a 50 ft waterfall. It was unseasonably hot (like 95 degrees), but I like the heat. My wife freaked out a bit because it was a steep, gravel road down to the start of the hike and we went in our old pickup which never feels too secure anyways. But we made it, and once we started hiking it was beautiful.

The hike goes along the northern portion of the American river, which is always beautiful.



For the last 1/4 mile or so it then veers off into the forest and you end at what is supposed to be a 50 ft waterfall. However, since it is the end of a hot summer, the "falls" had disappeared and we were left with this:



There was still a trickle of water though, which was enough for a memorable Chula vs. frog moment:




On the way back we made a little detour to the river and found a nice swimming spot for a refreshing dip.



Then on the drive home, the karmic gods decided that one blown tire in a week wasn't enough, so we shredded a tire on the pickup as well.



Luckily we were able to get off the freeway and onto a sidestreet safely and we paid $40 to have someone come and put the spare on and then we were back on our way safe and sound. Today I went and got 4 new tires since the ones on the pickup were pretty shot. All in all a fun weekend.

Slowly getting back into it

I played 4 afternoon tourneys today after a week break. Played fine, didn't luck out, that's poker.

The one thing I have realized this week, is that I need to get out of this fricking house more. I seriously know NO ONE in this city.

The after-win lull

I often take a break from playing after a big score. Usually it's because I'm amped from the win, don't sleep well that night and am just too tired to play well the next day. But lately it has also been because I am excited to increase my bankroll and don't want to lose any of it by playing and losing. I know that in order for me to win longterm I need to keep playing, but I also want to delay what I feel is an inevitable downswing from happening. I also realize that it's dumb/weird to think that way, but that's why I haven't played this week.

But after doing nothing the last two days, I am bored, so I'm getting back to it tonight. In the meantime, I fixed our stereo, got our flat tire taken care of, raked/mowed the yard, and made chicken chilequiles - so it's not all bad to take a break either.

Too quick of a visit

My family from L.A. came to visit for the weekend. I feel bad that they basically spent the whole weekend driving. They came up Friday night (about a 6 hr drive) and left this afternoon.

Yesterday we took them to the hike we really like where you end at a set of about 4 waterfalls which you can slide down. I was the only one with enough cojones to brave the cold, but it was still a nice hike and the dogs definitely enjoyed it.

The new car got its first flat yesterday as well so I'll take that in tomorrow to get fixed. My plan this week is to do some stuff around the house (big thing is I want to re-waterproof the patio), and finally go to the open gym and play volleyball.

Quick update part 2

I only played 3 tourneys today since my L.A. fam is coming and I wanted to clean the house. But I managed to luckbox my way to a 2nd place finish in the $40k on Tilt for just under $12k.

So wheeeeee. I'll be back at it on Monday.

Quick update

Poker has been bad results wise this week. I feel I am playing very well, so it's just a matter of time for another nice score. If/when I ever get on a hot streak I feel like my bankroll will finally take off to a point where I can finally feel comfortable that playing fulltime is going to work. My problem is I win and then lose it all back the next couple of weeks, win again, rinse, repeat. I know big picture I have actually increased my bankroll while making monthly withdrawals, but big pictures are hard to look at when you are grabbing your ankles.

Non-poker wise - my L.A. family is coming up for the weekend so I am excited about that. My wife has a "golden weekend" so it will be nice to just spend time away from the computer. I'll try and get a standard day in tomorrow and then take the weekend off.

Poker drama

Although I have no idea what the actual numbers are, it is pretty clear that the vast majority of online poker players are young, male, and computer savvy. The mixture of money to be made and the anonymity of making that money without anyone knowing your "true" identity sets up a situation which these young, money loving kids try to exploit anyway that they can.

In cash games, the easiest way to exploit the system is simply to get a group of players together and 'team up' against the unknowing opponents at the table. In tournaments this is more difficult to do since you are randomly put at tables. However, even in tourneys, players have tried and continue to try to exploit the system by playing for other players and by using multiple accounts so that they can enter the same tourney multiple times.

Recently, pokerstars, has banned the associates of one of the most famous of these young multiple-account players ("JJProdigy"). It is unclear whether they have been banned because JJ was funding them or simply because they were friends with him. What is clear is that the online community will have gossip material for quite some time.

Back at it

I won the $55 $15k guarantee on Tilt for a little over $5k today. Feels good to take one down again.

It looks like my in-laws are now coming up this weekend, so it will be another low volume week. But as long as I can continue to win like this, then I can really take as much time off as I want...

Close but no cigar

I took a shot at the $530 WCOOP event and got semi-deep. Finished 200 somethingth out of like over 7000 entries. The structure was fantanstic as the blinds increase every 1/2 hour rather than every 15 minutes. So you could just wait and let all the super aggressive players spew chips. I actually never really got anything going - I basically stayed at around a 20BB stack the entire tourney. Good to have a winning day again. I am playing so well, that I do feel a big score is right around the corner. Just need to keep getting it in well.

My folks are coming on Tuesday so I might not get in the volume I would like this week.

Birthdays and Anniversaries oh my!

We went out tonight to celebrate my wife's birthday (yesterday) and our 9th anniversary (today). It's hard to believe it's been 9 years. But when I think of everything we've done, it's also hard to believe it's only been 9 years: Peace Corps, law school, medical school, becoming a lawyer, becoming a doctor, becoming a poker player, moving to Guatemala, to Madison, WI, and to Sacramento, CA, buying our first house, first car... hopefully the next 9 will be as good as the last.

On the poker front, I am taking tomorrow off which is probably a good thing since I am getting increasingly frustrated at my latest downswing. I have been making a whole bunch of final 2 or 3 tables but haven't been able to finish anything off.

August in Review

After starting off with a bang I've hit a major wall these last two weeks. I still profited like $1k so although it's not what I'm expecting at least it's not losing.

But I feel good about my game so I feel a big score coming...

Downswinging

I am putting in lots of volume (at least for me) this week. I have probably played like 60 tourneys this week, and although I made one final table, I have only cashed 5 times and am down quite a bit. The frustrating part is that I feel I am playing really really well - I am just not getting rewarded. I know this is part of the game, but it still gets frustrating nonetheless.

Just grindin'

Not much going on here. I am just trying to get in some volume this week, so I've been playing over 10 tourneys a day. So far nothing huge this week, but I am playing well - I just need to run better.

I'm Famous

Haha, not really.

My first video for pokerpwnage is up though and so far the subscribers to the site are giving me positive feedback so that's good. I am actually really enjoying their site and am enjoying the good discussion that goes on on a daily basis in their forums.

In pokernews, I finaltabled a $26 FO on FullTilt and left disappointed in 7th place, but I felt I played well overall and just didn't get the cards to fall my way. It happens, oh well. I also recorded myself playing the last two tables, so hopefully that turned out decently and will be posted at some point on pokerpwnage as well.

Birthday Weekend

We went up to Tahoe for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. It's only a two hour drive and we've never been so we figured it was time to check it out. We had great weather, great hikes, and even though we only had one full day there, we had a great time.

We stayed in North Tahoe by Kings Beach and we spent Saturday at the beach.



That afternoon we went for a hike up the mountain for a better view of the lake.


Today we drove down to South Lake Tahoe along the Western shore of the lake and went for another hike by Emerald Bay.


And tomorrow we are back at it - the 16 hour days for her, and the 8 hour days of what I still consider fun for me.

Weekend Off

We are heading off to Tahoe tomorrow. Neither of us have ever been and we're only a two hour drive away so this is an early b-day gift to myself.

Pokerwise - I went on a bit of monkeytilt tonight so it's probably a good time for a break. I'll be back at it on Monday.

Eye Exam

I went and got my eyes checked today and now have the drugged/dazed look that you can't help having after your eyes get dilated. I am super lackadaisacal about doctor/dentist appointments in general, so it feels good to have gone. Next hurdle is getting off my ass and going to get glasses...

A poker anniversary

1 year ago today I won 6 figures in the FTOPs main event. It was obviously an incredibly exciting time for my wife and I and it allowed us to buy our first house. It was also a somewhat stressful and scary time for myself because we decided that I would keep around $30k as my poker bankroll and from that I could take a shot at playing professionally. If I could make enough to sustain our lifestyle, I could keep playing; if not, it was time for me to get a "real job" and practice law again.

With my propensity of having horrible bankroll management (I have previously donked off rolls of 15-20k), it was touch and go to start. But it is now one year later and somehow I am still playing. The journey so far has not been easy - the downswings have brought my roll down to around 20k and forced me to move down in levels at least 3 different times. But each time that has happened, I have been able to resist the urge to try and get that 10k back by playing higher buy-in tourneys or high limit cash games. Although I am not out of the woods yet, my roll has increased by 50% and I am making monthly withdrawals, so the outlook is brighter now than it was one year ago.

I hope this post is not coming off as being a bragfest because I realize I am neither the best player nor have I made the most money this last year. I simply wanted to let everyone know that I have survived one year and as that old Bartles and James guy used to say "I thank you for your support."

Back at it

I spent the day reviewing some hand histories, clearing up my computer a bit, and then playing tonight. Back to a normal 2 out of 8 cashes. Almost made the final table in one tourney. Thought I played really well. Mindset is much much better.

Time to review

I don't feel like I've been playing badly, but I have only cashed in 1 out of my last 40 tourneys, so tomorrow will be a review day before I start playing anything.

Day trip

We went on a daytrip about an hour and a half away from us in the sierras where there are natural waterfalls that you can slide down. It was the same place we went earlier this spring and were surprised to find snow. I had a blast.




In poker news, I played a full schedule today and didn't make the money in anything. It's always bitter to swallow - but I don't think I played poorly. I'll check the hand histories tomorrow just to make sure. When all is said and done, I am still progressing, so as long as I can end this downswing sooner, rather than later, everything should still be fine.

The Olympics

I am a sports nut so I love the Olympics. Everyone else is talking about Michael Phelps (and both his race tonight and the earlier relay race were some of the most exciting sporting events I have ever seen), but I am loving watching beach volleyball. I went to school with and have played against one half of the top seeded men's pair - Todd Rogers. It's hard for me to believe that I actually used to be able to compete with this guy who is now ranked #1 in the world. At one point in my life, my dream was to become a collegiate and then a professional volleyball player. Although I never fulfilled that dream, I did get pretty good. And watching these guys make what is a really difficult game look so simple, is really fun to watch.

Time to stop being retarded

Ok - for those of you that get offended by the word retarded, you can pretend I wrote mentally challenged instead.

Anyhoo, I have just been way way too results oriented this last week which has led to me being frustrated more than I would like. I always do my best when I just focus on making good decisions and letting the results happen. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know how good my decisions have been this last week because all I was doing was focusing on my bad results.

I am taking the rest of today and tomorrow off, and am already looking forward to getting back to it on Sunday.

I also e-mailed the volunteer coordinator at the Boys & Girls Club so hopefully I will start getting out of the house at least once a week and doing something useful in the near future.

Still grinding

Back to the grind. I finally played over 10 tourneys in a day again yesterday - played so/so.

Today I played perfect and just ran bad. I had one horrendous beat on the bubble of the 50 rebuy on stars that sent me in a tizzy. I am playing FTOPs tonight, but I think that will be it.

Here's to running better.

Trying to get my head back on straight

For the second night in a row I took some bad beats/coolers early on and just knew I wasn't in the right mindset so I just packed it in. I might take tomorrow off. The good thing is I am not tilting my roll off. The bad thing is I am not getting in any volume. But I'd rather not play at all then play bad.

Once a crybaby always a crybaby

I don't know what it is about me that I still take every bad beat personally. It's more than that though, I still get annoyed whenever I lose a race. I expect to win everytime, and when I don't, I turn into a 5 year old and want to throw a tantrum.

As you can guess, I did not have a good night tonight. It started off bad in the FTOPS event which was my biggest buyin for this series at $1k. I lost early on in a blind battle when my 7d9d ran into 4h6h on a 6d8d6s board which is basically a cointoss. After that I quickly lost in other tourneys in bad beat situations and then I just decided to pack it in for the night and not register anymore.

The crazy thing is that I know I am having a kickass year. After my score last week, I have over a 100% ROI, I have made over 50k this year (in less than 6 months), and I am doing it all in a very low number of overall tourneys which means I am taking tons of time off. Yet even knowing all of this, I still want to break my keyboard whenever my QQ loses to AK.

Sunday

Sundays are big days in online poker. Most of the sites havea big guaranteee tourney and since most people don't work on Sundays, a lot of players who have "real" jobs will take their shot in these tourneys. Since Sunday is usually my wife's day off, I normally don't get to partake in these pretty lucrative tourneys. I got to play today which is always fun, but didn't get any huge results. In fact, my net sum for the day was exactly $1. Better than losing I guess.

All I needed in 2 of the tourneys I played was to run a little better, but my play was fine - I know in the long run, I will get there again.

I also got a run in today for the first time in a long time, so I will try to continue with that. I was hoping to play volleyball tomorrow night, but I forgot I have agreed to play the $1k FTOPs event, so maybe next week.

Other than that, life is good. I am enjoying watching the Olympics, getting back in shape, and even though I am not playing the volume I would like, I am still enjoying playing.

Whoops

I was supposed to play the FTOPS $300 1 rebuy/1 add-on tourney today and thought that it started at 6:00 when it actually started at 11:00. Worst part is that I was awake and ready to play.

Back to some goals

Wife is back to working lots, no family reunions in the near future, no big item purchases coming up, lots of free time = time to get back to some goals. Working out, running, playing volleyball, basketball, and maybe some volunteering are all in the mix.

I got my first workout in today; tomorrow I am planning on running. We'll see how it goes...

Pokerwise, I should be back to a full schedule tonight. I'm just going to continue to concentrate on playing well, and let the results come from there. I'm also going to be finishing up my video for pokerpwnage this week. So far we haven't got my account set up there, but I actually always learn something from reviewing my own play, so it can't hurt.

wheeeee for 5 figure scores

well I didn't put in the volume I wanted, but I got the results I've been wanting. I got 3rd in the nightly 100k guarantee on Stars for $16k. I've been running so horribly on stars this year that it felt nice to finally turn it around.

The FTOPS (a series of higher buy-in tourneys on FullTilt) starts tomorrow, so I'll be back at it for that.

Mr. Fix-It

I am absolutely horrible at fixing things. That's why we bought a "turn-key" house - I might have the time to complete the projects necessary for a fixer-upper, but I have neither the know-how nor the patience to actually do them. Which is why today I feel super impressed with my fixer upper tasks. First I switched a sprinkler head from a full circle spray to semi-circle so that our deck would get a little less doused everytime the sprinklers go on; second and more impressively I fixed the kitchen faucet. The water pressure in that sink was just atrocious. I ended up breaking a filter off, but it worked and there is still another filter at the end of the faucet so I really don't see a problem.

On the poker front, my plan is to start playing tonight around 5, and to get a full session in tonight.

Weekend Off

My wife just got home from call, which for a resident means that she worked a 24 hour shift. But she is off the rest of the weekend and Monday as well, which means I am taking the rest of the weekend and Monday off too.

I continue to love the flexibility that poker gives me. In fact, it is that flexibility that finally turned my wife around and made her a proponent of me playing poker rather than practicing law. If I had a "real job," there would be times when she is off that I would have to work; we might not be able to get the exact same weeks off for vacation; I would want to spend some of my time off playing poker. Since I get to set my own schedule, none of that is true, and we are able to maximize what little time off she gets together.

On the other hand, I think I may have fallen a little too much in love with this whole idea of setting my own schedule. After reviewing my stats last night, I realized that I have only played 600 tourneys this year. For most pros, that equates to two months worth of tourneys or less. I don't play as many tables as others, but even I am surprised at how little I have actually played this year. I can easily play 12 tourneys in an 8 hour day. 12*15=180. So even if I just played every other day I should be playing at least 180 tourneys a month. In fact, I have averaged just 120 tourneys per month (I have only played 5 months this year because I didn't really play in January or February as I was studying for the bar exam). That means I have played only 10 full days of poker per month on average. Although I want to make sure that I don't play so much that I get burned out, I also realize that I am losing money by not playing - the more volume I can play (as long as it is around the same ROI), the more I make. So I need to play more. My goal is going to be 200 tourneys/month.

Small victory

I took down the Big Double "B" on Tilt for a little over $3k. Nothing huge, but it keeps my bankroll going in the right direction. The funny thing was, I actually got super frustrated tonight because I just have been taking some horrible beats. This tourney was the last one I was in for the night, and everything just worked out. I played mistake free, and got a big enough stack that even when I got sucked out on I could keep grinding my stack back up. The only thing I feel bad about is that I didn't record it as I was playing - it would have made a good video because it was one of those rare times where I was the chip leader with like 100 left and stayed at the top until the very end.