My computer wasn’t functioning to its fullest capabilities today.  This has been a frequent occurrence on Sunday in the past month.  I’d been better off taking it as an omen.  Today it really distracted me and I decided to not play the tournaments.  I played a couple and washed both.  Instead I played two separate cash game sessions and booked a nice win over 2,500 hands played at 2/4 on Tilt.  It was a rather pleasant week on FT and a pretty needed motivational boost after a tough start to the week and a long list of failures playing Tilt cash games in the last few years.

I also spoke w/ a couple players that will begin playing for RPT Staking this week.  Brad is going to play SNGs of some sort and Chris is going to play 6max.  We’re going to start w/ another player as well.  It should be a busy week, but Matt and I are very excited.  Speaking of excited.  I was very excited today as I watched the Chargers backdoor a cover against the Raiders when the game was tied w/ four minutes remaining.  Matt had his best week so far.  It’s not a surprise considering that he picked the same games as me somehow.  Hopefully, Pitt covers tomorrow.  He’d go 3-0 for the week and not pick up a single game on me.  I’m currently 9-2 in the pool which is pretty damn good.  I’m running really hot and have nothing to complain about.  We’re laying 6 tomorrow vs. Baltimore and we’re starting up w/another players as well.  Just another day in the life I guess…

It’s been a successful week at FT.  Hopefully, I don’t jinx myself.  If I’m able to maintain the discipline that I have shown thus far, I will surely continue to have success.  Yesterday I played three separate sessions.  I moved from the living room into my bedroom.  This is the first time since I began playing that I’ve played in the solitude of my bedroom.  The blinds are open and the door is left open so I can hear Matt bitch from the other room.  It’s a comfortable setting and the television is only a quarter turn away instead of a half.  After the last session, I went w/ Newman to B.J.s to shoot the shit, eat and I had a couple drinks.  He settled for water because he had work in the morning.  Lol!  We came back my apartment and watched television and lounged for a bit.

Hailey and I are going to the LA County Fair today.  I haven’t been in several years and really looking forward to going again.  We’re going to stop by a pub on the way back to see one of her friends that works there and then crash for the evening.  I haven’t played tournaments since Sunday and look forward to playing them tomorrow.  This will be the first Sunday that I’ll play in this new work environment.  My football picks have been submitted and plan to sweat those to victory while I go deep in a poker tournament or two.  Cheers!

I’ve played about 4,700 hands so far in 2/4 on Tilt and am thrilled with the results so far.  It isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s a sign of good things I hope.  I feel a lot more comfortable playing with the aid of PT3 and HUD.  As long as I can prevent myself from playing to fast, I should be alright.

Last night I watched the USC lose to Oregon St..  I can’t say I was too surprised since they shown a tendency to lose these types of games in the last few years.  I’m sure they’ll bounce back and destroy the opponent they plan in the Rose Bowl unless they happen to playing the NCAA Championship instead.

I’ve pretty much never had success playing 2/4 or above at Poker.com in two years.  The experience has been unbearable.  Yesterday was ridiculous.  The session was without a doubt the worst series of situations that I’ve experienced in a session since the reset.  I had KK v. AA, multiple set under set and ran into a seemingly infinite number of sets.  I got pounded into the ground and lost about $4,000.  I sat there in disbelief.  I’m still in shock.  This has become a regular occurrence and I’ve had enough of it.  I’m not going to play 2/4 and above on Poker.com.  This is a nearly impossible goal, but I’m going to try.  The experience has just been to painful.  In order to play in those stakes competently, I must have a number of games to choose from and be able to use PT3.  This simply isn’t available and possible on Poker.com.  Therefore, I’ll play 2/4+ on FT.  This is probably going to be a terrible decision, but I’m not going to stick with 1/2 forever.  It isn’t possible.  I can’t concede.  I must persevere.

I played a short session of 2/4 on Tilt prior to a lengthy sesson on Poker.com.  I booked a $346 win on Tilt and lost about $450 on Poker.com.  It was another frustrating day and I only have myself to blame.  I should have stuck with 1/2 instead of submitting to temptation, but I’m going to figure out a way to grind Poker.com and transition into becoming a consistent winner in 2/4 on FT.  At least I hope that I’m able to.

Fuck you!

Since I wasn’t in the mood yesterday, I want to recap Hailey and I’s weekend venture to Santa Barbara and Solvang.  I decided against playing a session before we left on Friday.  Instead, I lounged a bit and prepared for the trip.  I always forget something, so I spent a few hours packing w/ several long breaks spread about those three hours.  In the end, I forgot to bring my FT chair for lounging on the beach Friday evening for the sunset.  It obv could have been a lot worse.

We left at 1:30 and enjoyed the beautiful drive along the coast.  We stopped for gas and a 12 pack of Corona and two limes and had launch at Joe’s prior to checking in to our hotel.  From the outside, it didn’t look like it was going to be a very nice place, but the rooms were surprsingly very nice.  They had been recently renovated and had a very modern look to them.  A flat screen television was also at the front of the room which was a very nice feature.  We sipped on a couple Coronas and relaxed before we made the short walk to the beach for the sunset.  We sat on a wall that sat between the street and the bike path on the beach.  We watched an elderly couple pan the sand w/ their metal detecors and discussed the fascination behind such a hobby.

We got back and got ready to go out.  We went to a cafe that had a band.  It wasn’t anything special, but it was cozy and a fun place to hang out.  We had a couple appetizers and a drink while we wathced and listened to the band that consisted of a saxaphone, cello and guitar.  After a couple hours, we went to Joe’s for another drink before calling it quits for the night.  The next morning we were out right at check out time and took the 101N up to Buelton/Solvang.  We went to Anderson’s Pea Soup for breakfast/lunch.  I hadn’t been there in several years and was craving a bowl of split pea soup.  The food was a little bleh overall, but the soup was very good.  We tried to check in at Motel 6, but the room wasn’t ready.  Normally, I don’t like staying at the crappiest place in town, but most of the places were sold out for the weekend and the only places left were very expensive.  We drove toward Lompoc in search for the Sanford Winery.  I think it was once of the wineries in Sideways but I’m not sure.  It was our first wine tasting experience and we had a great time.  We discussed the importance of pretending what we knew we were doing.  Of course, the guy that ran the joint knew we were noobs but that didn’t mean would couldn’t come across as regs to the other persons wine tasting along with us.  We practiced swishing our wine in the glass while we tasted six different types of wine.

We had planned to go to three wineries but one was enough.  Instead, we bumbed it at the luxurious Motel 6 before going to an early dinner.  It was during this time that I made my picks for NFL Pick’em.  My time was well spent as I went 2 for 2 on Sunday.  At 5, we headed out for dinner.  We were planning on going into Solvang but decided to go the Hitching Post instead.  We split the duck, quail and a filet.  It was a very a good dinner and we went for a bottle of wine since were in the mood after tasting earlier in the day.  Then, it was off to the Chumash Casino.  This was considered my hometown casino several years ago.  It’s a beautiful casino, but casinos don’t really do it for me since I don’t like to gamble much there.  I went to the poker room to see a friend and we chatted for a bit.  We weren’t in the mood to do that much gambling so we went to the only bar in the casino first.  You have to order food to drink so we got the goat cheese appetizer and had two drinks.  We watched a hooker play her A game with a definite noob and a woman hit on a guy half her age only to storm out of the bar w/ her friend running after her.  It’s amazing how much entertainment is out there if you just look for it.

Hailey hit 3 7s on a quarter machine and booked a $70 win and I managed a $10 loss after I was dealt a full house on a 5-play machine.  We stopped by my friend Zac’s place for a bit and shot the shit w/ him and Nick for a bit before crashing for the night.  It was a nice, relaxaing trip absent of poker.  I really felt great going into the WCOOP yesterday.  I felt that I played pretty well.

Hailey is coming over tonight to watch MNF.  I’m trying to teach her the game a bit.  She said that many have tried and failed.  We’ll see if I can teach her a few things.  There’s no doubt I’ll teach her a bit about picking winners.  If only I wasn’t a compulsive gamber.  I’ll just have to settle for $2,500 for the NFL Pick’em bet instead!

Thankfully I didn’t play poorly like last year, but the result was still the same.  I finished a couple hundred spots out of the money in the WCOOP M.E. and lost w/ AA v. QQ ai pre a couple hours into Tilt’s Million Guarantee.  It’s back to the grind on Monday.

I won both games today in NFL Pick’em w/ GBecks, badbeatme and my brother.  I’m currently 6-2 (yawn) with a 2 game lead over GBecks and badbeatme and have San Diego -9 in MNF.  I’m the only believer in SD, so I have a chance to take a healthy lead.  Matt has lost 5 in a row, obv.

I didn’t grind that much this week.  I didn’t play any tournaments and didn’t play enough cash games.  I had an exam on Tuesday that didn’t go particularly well and spent long hours with clients.  Hailey and I are leaving for Santa Barbara in a couple hours.  We’re going to spend the afternoon and night there and head up to Buelton on Saturday for wine tasting, dining and a trip to the Chumash Casino.  We have to leave fairly early on Sunday so that I can prepare for the finale to the WCOOP on Stars.  I can’t wait.  I’ll be taking Friday and Saturday off and will be ready to go on Sunday.  It’ll be a memorable day regardless.

Have a great weekend!

I’m currently procrastinating at 3:00 A.M..  I have a test at 9:30 and I obv am not motivated to finish studying.  In other news, I’m reporting from my bedroom instead of the family room.  It only took 12 months, but it’s completed nevertheless.  I have a lamp and a desk absent of the clutter that filled it for the last year.  I grinded Poker.com today and lost a few hundred.  Then, I decided it was time that I tried Full Tilt again.  FT hasn’t been kind.  I haven’t had success in FT cash games in about three years.  Unfortunately, it’s probably been longer than that.  I’m not sure what it is.  Eventually, the lack of success became a complete lack of confidence.  Although I’m a winning poker player, I didn’t feel that I could win on Tilt.  However, I’ve been very successful staking players on FT and I’m inspired a couple times a year.  This time I think I have a chance at success.

Through the instruction of others, I often learn things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.  I’ve learned a few things in the last few years from a handful of clients.  That’s obv an understatement.  I’ve learned a lot.  This time around I have Jason to blame if things don’t go well.  I won’t mention the reason that I decided to play on FT again.  I don’t think Jason could figure it out either.  I played a few thousand hands across two session at 1/2 6-max.  I peeked at +500 and settled for a $160 loss.  FT plays a lot differently than Poker.com.  As a results, I have a lot of adjustments to make.  I’m going to 9-table 1/2 on Tilt after I grind a session on Poker.com every day that I play.  We’ll have to see how it goes…

Hailey and I are going to Santa Barbara and Solvang this weekend.  We’re leaving Friday after I finish working and we’re going to spend the first night in SB.  We’ll have dinner and browse the bars at State St..  On Saturday, we’re going to the wine country in the afternoon, dinner and shopping in Solvang and a trip to Chumash Casino to cap off the evening.  I want to play the $5,200 WCOOP on Sunday, but I’m having my doubts.  I’ve surpassed the goals that I set a few weeks ago, but something doesn’t seem right.  That money could be spent on something more important, but I really want to play.  We’ll see how the week goes, but I doubt I’ll pass.

Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann would agree.  “They can only hope to contain him!”  I’ve been on fire.  This week has been pretty amazing; the online felt has been easy pickings.  I’m going to grind again tomorrow and play a bunch of tournaments on Sunday.  It’s going to be a special week regardless.  Hopefully, it’s a week to remember for a while.

It’s finally happened.  Oh, how long has it been?  To be honest, I have no idea how long it has been.  In a few instances, I thought I was there.  However, in those instances, it didn’t feel quite the same.  If you want to discuss the concept of flow, please visit the ‘Flow’ thread in Mind Management.  Flow is an inner peace with oneself and the work they perform.  What sets the last couple days apart from the hundreds of sessions that I’ve played in the post-Party Poker era?  Although I the results have been phenomenal in the last couple session, it isn’t necessarily dependent upon earnings.  It began Sunday.  I arose from a deep slumber with a feeling of confidence that I don’t have often.  It was a great feeling.  After a terrible session on Sunday, I didn’t feel any different.  This was a great sign.  I wasn’t affected after a pretty brutal day.  The feeling was still ingrained inside of me.  I also didn’t feel any different after another brutal session on Monday.  Tuesday, however, was a different day.  It was perfect.  I played two sessions on Tuesday and I played another session today.  In each session, I never looked at the cashier.  I finally didn’t care.  I didn’t have the strong impulse to see how I was doing.  Simply, I only wanted to play.  Flow!

I played marvelously.  No, I didn’t play perfect.  Not a single player can play perfect, but I played very well.  I saw things I hadn’t seen.  It had been a long time, but you can’t forget those things.  They disappear for what seems like an eternity.  It’s only a matter of time before you see the light again.  The light has tried to breakthough, but I had to help.  It’s different now.  In ~3,000 hands played, I’ve earned about $2,600 in 1/2 in the last couple days.  It’s important that I don’t change anything in the near future.  I’m where I need to be.

Phew…

I chrushed 1/2 today across 2 sessions.  I played for a few hours and then took a break to watch the WSOP.  That fold by the player w/ JJ on a board of AKJTT was very impressive!  Chuck Liddell made me lol.  The 62o hand was played marvelously!  Did I mention CL made me lol?!?  GBecks was at Ivey’s table, but you couldn’t really see him.  He’ll make a few more appearances on television in the next few weeks.  It won’t be long till he’s at a televised final table.  He’s that good.  Maybe he’ll have a deep finish in Aruba at the end of the month.

I sipped on a few Corona’s and played another quick session after the poker.  Tomorrow I’m going to play in the morning and spend the rest of the day with Hailey.  We’re going to make kabobs for dinner.  I really want to stake more players.  If you’re interested, please begin posting in the forums.  Every player that I stake must be an active participant in the RPT Forums before they’re eligible to be staked.  Good luck!

I ran pretty terribly today in cash games.  Again!  I played a couple thousand hands.  I somehow managed to not check the cashier a single time.  That was a huge accomplishment considering I’m addicted to knowing where I’m at in the session.  There was much to look at besides the cashier dropping a couple hundred at a time.  I lost set v. pair and flush draw, set v. straight draw and full house v. straight flush.  That was a doozy!

Hand

I played 3 tournaments and am currently in the money in the 55 80K on Stars.  Matt is grinding a session on his new computer and I don’t see any reason not to eat lasagna and watch 2 MNF games tonight!

I was really excited to play today.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but I was ready pumped.  Certainly the NFL had a little to do w/ it.  Reed & I have continued our annual NFL Pick’em.  Last year Matt joined.  He’s playing again for $500 and Garrett has joined as well for $1,000.  The format is the same.  Each contestants picks 3 games per week.  Other than the mandatory pick of MNF, each player can pick any other 2 games.  I never have gotten off to a good start in this thing.  I wasn’t that thrilled w/ my picks this week.  I went w/ three favorites on the road.  It’s pretty risky, but I didn’t have any other choice.  I went w/ Cincy, NYJ and Denver.  Cincy was obv terrible and the NYJ squeeked by to cover.  Garrett, Matt and I each went 1-1 and Reed went 0-1.  He has Minnesota tomrrow and we all picked Denver for MNF.

While I was watching football, I began playing tournaments at 10:00, starting w/ the 109 on Stars.  I played 16 tournaments today and grinded a few thousand hands in cash games.  Again, I felt great, but I just couldn’t scratch it today.  I cashed in 3 tournaments  and ended about a $1,500 loser for the day in tournaments.  The cash games were very frustrating today.  I had very good equity today, but I just couldn’t scratch it.  I have a headache and I’m tired.  Can’t wait to play again tomorrow.

Good night!

I played a few tournaments yesterday.  I finished 22nd in the 109 50K, but I ended up a small loser on the day in tournaments after washing out of the 216 6max and 55R.  I booked a good session in at cash games and was satisfied w/ the day.  Brandon finished 1st in the 26 16K on Tilt for 5Kish and Matt finished 4th in the 75 35K on Tilt for 3Kish.  I’ve very happy for both.  Brandon had it coming and Matt seemed much more relaxed and confident after finally having a deep finish for the first time in several weeks.

Today Hailey and I went shopping.  It had been quite a while since I had gone shopping for myself.  I think it’d been a year and a half.  Anyways, we went to Chilis for lunch.  There was no reason not to get the ‘Old Reliable’.  This is quite a great order.  I recommend the readers to try it.  Steak fajita quesidillas w/ extra cheese and loaded mashed potatoes instead of beans and rice.  We also split a caeasar salad and boneless buffalo wings.  We lead off w/ Mervyn’s.  Everything is 25 to 50% off, because they’re going out of business along w/ a decent chunk of the population during the current recession.  I nipped shirts, pants, socks and a couple belts.  I also got a couple shirts at Kohl’s as well.  It was a hot one out there today and it was nice to get out of the apartment and get something done.

I came home and played a bit while I watched the Kansas v. Louisiana Tech football game.  We dominated and I won a bit on Poker.com.  Eric has been tearing it up on Poker.com and Tom is back in the stable again.  Erik Ryland had a losing session and ranted a bit on the forums.  I knew it was going to happen eventually, but he’ll be just fine.  I have a  4.68/100 over 39K hands at 1/2 since the reset.  The converter doesn’t work very well and it’s off ~2K of 1/2 profit.  I’m not sure how many played hands its missing, but I don’t thing it’s more than 10K.  I’m basically crushing the site into pieces and I’m very happy about that.  Brad also beat the 100NL game today for about 8 buyins.  I sense tomorrow is going to be a good day.  I fee good, I’m playing good and it’s about that time to have a decent showing in the WCOOP!

Thursday is essentially my Friday, so I have a few days off before the next day of school.  I was pretty motivated and played a lengthy session on Poker.com this afternoon while I watched the Giants v. Redskins.  Unfortunately, I didn’t play very well.  I got off to a great start, but I just couldn’t concentrate.  I spewed a bit and got in that “I’m not in the mood to fold” mindset.  I ended a $500 loser and left with a bad taste in my mouth.  I should have fired up a couple tournaments to pace me, but I decided to just grind cash.  Tomorrow, I’ll be playing the WCOOP and a couple other tournaments.  I’ll play the normal 4-6 tables of cash games simultaneously instead of the 8 tables I played today.  I can’t be too disappointed, as I really need to be able to discipline myself better to be able to grind solely cash effectively.  It’s something I’m going to have to work on.  I concentrated far too much on the cashier throughout the session and instead need to just play and not worry about it.

I’m starving and craving an alcoholic beverage or too.  I think Hailey and I are going to B.J.s in a little bit.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back into the groove tomorrow and shake off the disappointing day that I had today.

Phew!  I finally made it through to the final table!  I got lucky against dabest247 (Davin Anderson?)  after I rr pre out of the blinds w/ AQ.  He called w/ QT and called my shove on a JTx flop.  Other than that, I mostly chipped up until I danced a bit with two tables remaining.  I reshoved w/ 33 from the sb against the hijack w/ 12 players remaining and then I raised the next hand w/ TT.  Bdbeatslayer instashoved from the big blind and I snapped.  He showed ATss.  He flopped a gutter, turned a flush draw and missed.  Again, phew!  I lost a decent chunk of my stack w/ QQ after I tried to value the river.  I went to the final table fairly short, but I took my time and didn’t rush into things.  I held w/ 55 v. AJ w/ 5 players remaining which felt incredible, but it was over shortly after then.  I raised to 20K at 4/8K out of the sb, the big blind snapped shoved and I snap called.  We were 4th and 3rd in chips respectively and far behind the other two players.  He showed 82 and flopped a 2.  I was very happy with the tournament overall and it covered most of my losses in tournaments in the last month.  It’s back to the drawing boards.

For the moment, I like tournament poker

It was not my intention to not update from Lake Tahoe, but that’s how it went I guess.  Hailey and I arrived at LAX yesterday afternoon after a weekend in Tahoe.  She had only met the family on a single occasion and this was an opportunity for them to get to know her.  On Thursday, we went to a steakhouse halfway between the airport and the house.  Hailey and I split an enormous dinner that included salad, steak, lobster, crab legs, potato and mixed vegetables.  Yes, we were stuffed afterward.  Since I had school that morning, I was pretty tired and we relaxed the remainder of the evening.  On Friday, I played a little bit while we watched television for a couple hours.  This was the first time Hailey was around while I worked, so I was on my best behavior.  I also played a short session Saturday afternoon.  In both sessions, I booked a win.

We went to Camp Richardson for lunch on Friday and to The Improv at Harvey’s that night.  The host a bit corny and has a raspy voice.  I guess he wasn’t that bad, but the other two comedians were very good.  The showcase was an elderly black woman that was absolute hilarious.  She was a bit racy (obv) which didn’t accomodat to the older crowd, but those that still had a full tank of oxygen in there lungs were entertained throughout her bit.  On Saturday, we went to Virginia City.  VC used to be a large prodecer of gold and silver in the late 1800s into the early 1900s.  We used to go to VC when I was younger on family vacations.  We ate ate BBQ for lunch, had a beer at a saloon and took the tour of a mine.  I’d been on it before, but it had been a while.  The biggest difference was that I had to duck throughout the tour this time.  Lol!

I played the latter half of the tournaments when I got back yesterday.  I really like how I played, but I couldn’t seem to scratch it.  I got off to a very good start in the 30R on Tilt and it was my only cash on the day (22nd).  The most annoying tournament was losing a 25 outer w/ one card to come in a 50 on Stars a few tables shy of the money.  I can’t recall ever having that situation before.  I held AQ against 22.  I had the Qh and villain had 22.  We were ai pre and the flop came JhTh9h.  I turned the remaining outs after a T came off.  It was to no avail.  An offsuit 4 came on the river.  I booked a small loser in cash games and called it a night.  I didn’t see any reason to extend myself and try to book a winning session.  It’s always nice to have a winning streak, but they have to come to an end at some point.  I also booked a loser today for around 600.  I lost an annoying hand in which I donked w/ 66 on QQ6.  The pf raiser overshipped ai 8 to 260ish w/ AQ and caught running 8’s to counterfeit.

I bought lucky Stars money this afternoon from a friend that shipped a nice nip recently on Stars.  We’ll have to see how lucky it is in the next few weeks.  I have school tomorrow and plan to grind it pretty hard this week at the tables.