I played 5 tournaments tonight while grinding a session of 2/4 FR on Tilt.  I busted a table short of the money in two tournaments.  I ran KK into AA in the 20 Rebuys on Tilt and ran J2 in AJ from the big blind on a flop of AJ2 in the 77 6max on Stars.  I tried to bubble the 50 1+1 on Stars but I managed to make it into the money for a change.  The tournament only had 99 players, but it was nice to make a final table.  I lost w/ AK v. A8 for a decent pot to go out in 6th.  Villain managed to river an 8.  I got off to a great start in FR but bleeded for a couple hours and ended up being a small loser after 2,500 hands.

This is the second time I’ve done this in the last month.  I registered for a tournament that I didn’t intend to play.  Three weeks ago I played the Mulligan on Tilt and finished just inside of the money after I ran AKs into AA.  This time, I accidentally registered for the 109R on Stars.  I played the tournament for myself in this one and played very nitty in the first hour.  I had a modest stack after I purchased the add-on.  Although it was very early in the tournament, I decided this was a postworthy situation.  I figured if I happened to go deep in this tournament, it’d be a nice little story and I may as well post it early in the tournament.  I could have limped into the money, but I decided to raise ai a couple time in an effort to build up a playable stack.  I stole the blinds twice and locked up a min cash.  Considering that I was in for 2089, 900ish is pretty good.

I had a couple exciting hands.  I raised ai w/ AQ, moorman called w/ A9, he turned a 9 and I rivered a Q.  Oh!  That felt sooo good.  In the other hand, I 3bet shipped AQ w/ two tables remaining and caught an A on the river against moorman.  I stole the blinds a couple times although I’d rather have been called esp. w/ QQ.  I had 77 the other time, but I was at the bottom of the chip count and desperately needed a double-up.  I finished 14th after I lost w/ T8s v. 66.  I caught an 8 on the flop, but my opponent flopped a set.  I managed to turn trips, but I failed to complete the full house on the river.  That would have been quite an exciting way to win a coinflip.

I played a bunch of tournaments today, but I couldn’t manage anything deeper than the 109R.  I got 49th in the 109 100k.  Ironically, that’s the tournament that I thought I was registering for when I accidentally registered for the 109R.  I grinded a few DONs and may play a bit more before I go to sleep and of course a congratulations is in order to GBecks for winning the 150R on Tilt for 57k.  Holla GBecks!  And thanks for the sweat in the 109R everyone that was watching!

Phew!  I’ve recovered nicely in the last couple days.  I didn’t play Tuesday, but I was able to put in good volume on Wednesday and Thursday.  I also played a few dozen of the DONs (Double or Nothing’s) on Stars last night as well.  I played mostly 104 Turbos and a few 52.  I managed a 7% ROI for a 200ish winning session.  They are different and it’s always nice to book a win on Stars.  Many players lacked common sense when it came bubble time.  On a few occasions, a player would go broke w/ 7+ blinds when two players had between .5 and 2 bbs.  It was fairly comical.

The last set of players didn’t go to well.  Jack is haning in there and getting things back on track, but of the 4 players that began playing cash games in the last month only Jack is remaining in the stable.  I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t work out.  We were scammed by one player, another player just couldn’t get anything going and the last thought I was out to scam him.  He was doing well too, so it didn’t make any sense that he spazzed out.  Oh well…  We began with Brad today.  He’ll be playing 50 NL FR for a couple weeks and begin playing 100 NL after that.  We have another couple prospective players that we’ll likely begin with in the next couple week, but we’ll have to see how things go.

I managed a 77.5% on an exam last week that I was not prepared for and though there was a very good chance that I bombed it.  That wasn’t the sweat I was looking for.  It was like getting away with a big bluff for your tournament life when I was called up to get my exam.  Phew!  I’m taking the rest of the night off.  It was a very long day that began at 7:45 A.M. and was jam-packed with school and work up until 6:00.  I’m going to play tournaments at least 2 of the next 3 days with Sunday being a lock for a tournament day.   After 63k hands played, I’m running at 2.61/100 with a speed of 17.3/13.7.  So tight!  I have a 12 buyin downswing and haven’t lost mind!

Hailey and I had a great vacation, but all I can think about right now are the negative things.  I’m slightly bipolar and I tend to get really stressed out every once in a while and feel like I’m losing control and spinning out of control.  I lost (2) players this week one of which lost confidence in me and the other lost confidence in himself.  They are both quite a blow.  It’s never fun to lose a client that you would have surely profited nicely with for both self and client and with the other client we had to stomach decent sized loss.  I’m more disappointed with the former.  The things that I was told were very discouraging to my psyche.  I’m not posting this to make a statement or to call this player out.  Rather, I’m pointing out that this one of the parts of poker that I didn’t realize would have such a great affect on me emotionally and psychologically prior to playing poker professionally.

There are so many different variables that one cannot account for.  You lose a little bit of yourself as you go about your career in this industry and you become a different person.  I can feel my bloood temperature rise in my veins.  I begin to think of past experiences that were not favorable and those things that have happened, both in the past and recently, that have had a great impact on my current situation.  You can’t help but feel sorry for yourself for the times that you were taken advantage of.  Sometimes, though, you feel like it was yourself that lead to that problem and you have yourself to blame.

I recently made a deal with a person that ran up a credit in excess of 13k at one point.  It had a great affect on me.  He didn’t care about me at all.  He only cared about himself.  The thing that people don’t understand is that when they cheat, scam or steal from another it costs more than just the money that took.  My mental state has taken many blows in the last few years.  There are so many people that hurt me in a way that I was forever changed.  With the player that I previously mentioned, the situation is resolved but it didn’t come without any consequences or risks.  He got the best of me and I had to end the situation before my poker was affected any more.

I feel pretty miserable right now.  I shouldn’t because if I look at the larger picture I should be content, but it’s hard to forget those that hurt you financially and mentally along the way for their selfish endevours when you did it the right way from the beginning and didn’t cheat, scam or steal from others to get to the point where you are at today.  This happens in many professions I know, but this is something that is just so difficult for me to handle.

Tonight I’m going to make myself a drink, relax a bit and then go to sleep.  Tomorrow, I’m going to wakeup and feel confident and motivated to do the best I can for myself and my clients.  That’s all that I can do and I know that I can do that knowing that I did it well.

I did what I’m best at.  Every time that I go on vacation I seem to lose a small fortune right before leaving.  There isn’t much worse than having that sour taste in your mouth when you’re about to have a vacation.  I had this great idea tonight.  Instead of playing on Tilt, I decided to grind Poker.com while watching the Dodger game.  I’m not sure what was worse.  They were both pretty dismal.  I tilted quite a bit during the session and seemed to lose every time that I was ai w/ the best hand.  I haven’t seen many players lose lately on there.  It was only fitting that I play for the first time in a few weeks and lose 3k after losing 2k on Tilt yesterday.  Poker was going smoothly a few days ago.  It’s amazing how quickly things can change.  I’ll play a bit in Vegas, but I won’t be able to dedicate the amount of time that I would normally after such an experience.

With six weeks in the books, I’m currently 13-5 in NFL Pick’em.  Although it’s a very small sample, 72% at this juncture is still pretty amazing.  I have a two game lead over Reed and poised (lol) to take back the title.  I watched the Dodger game w/ Hailey and her dad tonight.  It was quite disappointing to say the least.  I used to be a big baseball fan up until college, but it just doesn’t seem to interest me any more.  Poker can definitely be attributed to my loss of interest in baseball.  Baseball is a huge time commitment and there just isn’t enough time to fit it into the schedule.  I watch the playoffs but that’s about it.

I’m not sure if I have school tomorrow.  The fires are pretty bad and they’re spreading rapidly.  I have an assignment due tomorrow morning, but I’m not going to do it unless I have to.  They’ll post by 5:00 A.M. if there will be classes.  That’s a procrastinator for yah.  I booked a short session Tilt and now just about ready to wrap up the day here.  Hailey and I are headed to Vegas on Thursday for a few night and will be staying at the Imperial Dump - I mean Palace.  It should be a good time.  If I don’t have class tomorrow, I’ll dedicate the day to poker and Wednesday will be quite busy as I’m running some errands w/ Hailey, need to get a much needed oil change, watch the Dodger game and play some poker obv.  After the exam on Thursday, we’ll be off to Vegas!

I built stacks in a number of tournaments this afternoon, but I just couldn’t scratch it.  Overall, it was a great day of poker.  I had two good sessions in cash games and was only a small loser on the day in tournaments.  Matt, on the other hand, had a very good Sunday.  He had a deep run in the 750K on Tilt.  To date, it’s his deepest run, finishing inside the top 100.  His shining moment on the evening, other than further damaging his door, was a first place finishing the 75 22.5K on Tilt for 11Kish.  After his main event satellite wins, this is his biggest cash to date.  Man had quite a heater today.  He also won both his football games for the first time this year heading into MNF.  I went 1-1 and hold my lead over Reed while Garrett picked up a game as well after going 2-0.  I’ll have a 2 game leading heading into the next week and can only increase and can only increase my lead over Matt w/ a win tomorrow night.

Hailey came over and watched the Dodger game w/ me in between sessions.  The game was pretty much over after the 1st innning but we sweat it until the end.  Other than the ruckus early in the game, it was a little on the boring side, but that’s alright if your team has the big lead.

After playing 2/4 for three weeks, my confidence is continuing to increase.  I’ve been able to bounce back nicely from (2) 3K losing days.  In fact, those are the only losing days I’ve had since I started playing 2/4 on Tilt this time around.  With 45K hands played, I have an earning rate of 3.31BB/100 before rakeback.  It’s good to have things going well on a major site again.  Everyone knows it’s been awhile.

Hailey and I went w/ her mom and boyfriend to the St. Bernadine’s fair last night.  I’ve played in their annual golf tournament each of the last years and although I didn’t particularly play very well I was quite consistent in the amount of alcohol that I drank.  Anyways, Tom decided to brink these packages that contained a frozen alcoholic beverage in them to sneak in the fair.  Of course, they sold alcohol anyways, but I ended up drinking one of those.  It wasn’t that good, but I guess it wasn’t terrible either.  Even though I ate shortly before we got there, I suddenly was hungry again.  It’s probably just part of going to a fair.  You just have to eat.  There was a variety of different types of food.  We opted for Filipino food, which I had never had before, and it was definitely a good pick.  We browsed the alumni section.  I didn’t go to SB’s, but Hailey and a bunch of my friends from high school attended.

It wouldn’t be a fair if it didn’t have any rides, so we went over to that section and went on a couple.  Tom and I went on two of the larger rides.  The first ride is difficult to describe, but it was a good experience.  The other ride, however, was not that enjoyable.  The ride went in a circle and took you in a variety of different directions.  Sometimes we would go up and then fall back from where we came from and others we went full circle or vice versa.  If the ride were about a minute, it would have been fun.  This ride seemed to go for several minutes and I began to feel it in my stomach and head a bit.  Thankfully, I only had a couple drinks otherwise they may have had to bring out the mop.

I ralled late in my session yesterday afternoon to book a small win and put in another solid session today.  I’m looking forward to another Sunday.  I’ll play a handful of tournaments including the FT 750K and Stars Million.  It’ll be a long day of poker regardless, but I hope, as I do every Sunday, that it completes w/ a deep finish in one of the majors.

I have a comfortable lead in NFL Pick’em and taking NYJ -6, Chicago -3 and Cleveland +8.  I have a 9-1 record in non-MNF games and am 2-3 on MNF.  Reed is 2 games behind, Garrett is 4 behind and Matt is 6 behind and bringing up the rear for it looks like just may be back to back years.

I pwned both of my exams last week.  I didn’t do well in an exam in my third class a couple weeks ago, but I got off to a great start in my other classes after I received A’s on both exams.  Bam!  I got a lot of work done prior to playing a rather lengthy session this evening.  I was motivated and was satisfied w/ how I played.  Unfortunately, today was a repeat of last Friday and I got beat up pretty badly for a 3.1K loss after I 9-tabled 2/4 6max for 3K hands.  I reviewed the biggest hands that I lost afterward and couldn’t find many mistakes in those hands.  I just couldn’t seem to get any action w/ my big hands today.  It’s alright.  I’m not sweating it.  The variance will be stiff at time, but I’m going to persevere.  Back to the tables tomorrow morning…

I’ve really gotten into a really a nice groove on Tilt.  I 9tabled 2/4 6max for about 4,300 hands today and played pretty well.  I finished up a small net winner which is really a shame.  I lost w/ 76cc on a 985K board w/ two clubs.  I rr pre, bet the flop and villain check raised me ai on the turn w/ an open ended straight draw.  That was an 1,100 pot and it went the wrong way when he caught a ‘7 from Heaven’ on the river.  I ran KK into AA on another hand.  We both slowplayed our hands.  He flatted my 3bet pre in position, I checked a 44T flop and he checked it back.  The turn was an insignificant card and we got it all in.  It’s just annoying that he min raised my near potsized bet on the turn and I had a good enough hand to hand him over the rest.  The last annoying hand of the day came on the last hand of my session.  I was only playing one table at the time while I was playing my last tournament.  I busted out of it and flopped a straight w/ 65 after I raised pre from under the gun.  The board, however, was all spades and villain check raised.  I decided to take a card off instead of put it in there.  I was looking for a non spade and non board pair on the turn.  That wish was granted and I called the $300 all in.  He tabled a set and paired the board on the river.

Even still, I was very happy w/ this session, as I was able to maintain very good play for a long period of time.  In the last two weeks, I have played 29K hands and have a 3.75BB/100 which I’m very happy with obv.  I don’t think this is sustainable for the amount of volume I plan on playing, but I’d be very happy w/ 2BB/100.  We’ll have to see.

It’s off to the school grind tomorrow morning…

I haven’t had a post in a couple days and it’s fitting to post after the Sunday tournaments.  Here it goes…

I’ve been crushing FT 2/4 6max the last couple days.  I lost 3K on Friday, but I came storming back w/ 3K wins on both Saturday and Sunday.  I ran really, really well, but I definitely played quite well.  I’ve been trying to avoid getting in autostack off mode and I’ve been able to stay in a groove longer than normal.  I’ve only had one losing day since my return back to Tilt and thankfully I’ve avoided going on Tilt as well.  Other than playing a little too fast on Friday, I’ve been playing pretty steady.

I fired up a handful of tournaments today and booked only a small loss on the day.  I finished 8th in a 26 KO on Tilt after losing w/ AKo v. KJs for a top three or four stack.  The other cash came in the Mulligan.  I didn’t even mean to play this tournament and must have thought it was the 750K when I was registering earlier today.  Right inside the money, I ran AKs into AA and QQ.  That was a doozy…

I’m very happy w/ how poker is going right now.  I’m going to keep working hard through the week here and probably going to Vegas this weeked to visit friends and meet my end of the bargain on a Stars for cash transfer that I made for the WCOOP.  That money obv didn’t go to much good!

I also pwnd NFL Pick’em again this week.  I went the standard 2-0 and have NO -3.5 tomorrow night.  That leaves me 11-3 for the year.  Yawn… If I win tomorrow I’ll have a 4 game lead of Reed,  6 over Garrett and 7 over Matt.  I suggest they start hedging their bets by taking taking my picks against the house.