I blew it today. No bones about it.

I ran well and played well (and developed a pretty solid strategy for the format in the meantime) in today’s early mini FTOPS event, a rush poker rebuy. I had some basic strategy for rush tournaments down– specifically, I planned to just fold marginal spots, to 3-bet liberally, and to avoid the hell out of anyone who had me covered until/unless i had the goods.

Then I blew it.

With 22 left and $2M in chips (good for 6th place at 12k/24k blinds), I opened 76s in the CO (when I should have “quick folded”), the button (who had a history of using his stack to 3-bet light) reraised, and I (instead of 4-betting to take it down or folding) called. I then check-called his bet on an A72 flop. I thought for a while after a 6 turn, and led 400k. He raised somewhat quickly to 880k, and I (instead of stopping to think about this piece of information) insta-jammed. He called and turned over A7. The river was an ace and i busted in 22nd. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I’ve put a lot of hours in this week, which has me thinking about poker, which has me thinking about writing something about poker. It’s late this hour, but all I really have to say is that it’s a constant effort to get better. Being a professional poker player means doing lots of things well.

And if you’re not getting ahead, you’re falling behind; it’s a constant struggle against the forces of entropy, of mediocrity, of negativity, that are always dragging on you. You must stay the right course.

I’ve got a long way to go but I’m working harder and harder.

P.S. I apologized if any of you have sent me messages or e-mail and I haven’t responded. I’ve been very disorganized in that regard.

I have played 2 sessions of poker in the last 2 weeks. I’ve been extremely busy with exams, which sucks since I was going on a bit of a tear before that. I had made a final table in like 4 consecutive sessions leading up to my forced break, though they were nothing major and I didn’t book a win in any of them.

I only squeezed in three tourneys on Sunday, and ended up making a pretty deep run in the sunday $11/250k, busting out in 130th (or something like that) after jamming 8bb’s from the button with KQs and somehow lost to 99 after he turned quads for a boring non-sweat.

I wrote an exam Tuesday morning after getting like 2 hours of sleep. I was hovering at about a 20% confidence level when I woke up on Monday, and ended up studying for 12 hours straight, going to bed for a few hours, and waking up at 6am to cram another 2 hours or so. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Haven’t really done much worth writing about in the last little while. I’ve had a ton of school work to do since I last wrote. Mostly papers and assignments. I still have a ton of stuff to do but it shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve hardly played any poker this past week, but what I have played has been mostly 90 man sng’s on ftp. Combine some success there with a couple of deep runs last Sunday and I’m like $150 above makeup.
I’m grinding tourneys tonight, since I’m not getting shitfaced on a Friday for a change. This is only because I got loldrunk last night instead. The bar in town had a late-90’s/early 2000’s style dance party which was a hit as always. When we got there, there was a pretty big line of drunk university kids there already, so there was a lot of pushing. Some girl eventually found a purse on the ground and asked who’s it was. Of course I say that it’s mine and take it, and proceed to throw it. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I went up to Austin last weekend for my first real vacation in nine months or so. It was a revelation; a great chance to decompress and a reminder of just how good that feels. It’s necessary; Houston can be a stressful place, and the vacation from routine is a great way to clear one’s head and focus on what’s important.

It can also be a good place to get in some work distraction-free. Some of you may know Apestyles as a very good and consistent tournament player (which is a big understatement, but I didn’t want to be like “brag I know Apestyles holla”); I visited him for a day and got on the tournament grind, and it was very satisfying to be able to talk about hands and thought processes and the like. It really helps my game, and it’s one thing I miss from my life in Houston, where I don’t have any of my friends in poker nearby (I think the closest person I know is about 45 minutes away). [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

February Week 3.

Wow!!!! I had one hell of a week. I fted a bunch of shit. I felt a bit snake bit at the $55 fo fts I made. I ended the week by winning a 33 and the ftp 26/28k. I managed to get in 130 mtts playing 5 days this week. My big scores for the week were:

4th in the stars 33/15k for 1.6k
5th in the stars 55/5k for $810
5th in the stars 55/5k for $790
1st in the stars 33/2k for 1.3k
1st in the ftp 26/28k for 5.5k

Exercise and diet didn’t go as well as I’d like, but I’m going to continue to work on it. I’m really too tired to add any more thoughts other then I feel like I finally got the monkey off my back winning my 1st $26. I decided that my updates aren’t going to include roi cuz it’s too damn hard to figure given I play a lot of kos and a few rebuys in a session.

Week:
MTTs played: 130
Cashes: 16
FTs: 7
Profit: $8,199.25

Month to date:
Profit: $7,637.13

Year to date:
Profit: $8,407.71

The last week has been a total waste. I was correct in my self diagnosis of strep throat, and it kept me coughing and exhausted for the majority of the week even after getting penicillin from the medical center. I got two small sessions of poker in on Thursday and Friday but both times I was by no means at full mental capacity, though I managed to pull off a deep run in the FTOPS 300r which ended generically somewhere in the 50 something places. Otherwise I have been mostly lying about my couch watching movies and longing for the gym, which I returned to this evening with about half the energy as usual. It felt good to be there either way.

Mid way through the FTOPS event I found myself on the same table as infamous online player Chad “Lil’holdem” Batista. Around four years ago I recall doing an interview with pocketfives and mentioning that I thought he was overrated. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I’m gradually learning to structure my life better. I’ve pared my life of most of the unimportant things, and now I’m trying to stop wasting time and money. My bankroll can’t grow if I’m spending on unnecessary things, and I can’t be as effective if I let unnecessary activities take up my time– I can’t play as often and I won’t be as focused when I do play.

I feel like it helps my game, too. My mind isn’t occupied wondering what else I could be done or what needs to get done, because now is poker time.

In that sense, I feel like I’ve made tremendous strides. I still have many leaks to fix, though; keeping my A-game at all times is probably the biggest one; developing the discipline to actually play a serious workload is another. I’ve made gradual progress in both of these areas, but I know I’m nowhere near fulfilling my potential.

I can elaborate on this if anyone would like. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

February Week 2

I didn’t get the volume I wanted. I played Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday which was good but I also wanted to get in a long session on Sunday. I woke up Sunday and felt terrible and decided playing would be a major waste of money. I still managed 90 mtts, 10 short of what I’d like to get. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get my volume in. I’m thinking of playing 5 days where 3 days I play 30 mtts and the other 2 I play 20 mtts, or playing 4 30 mtts sessions, or maybe playing 4 30 mtts sessions and 1 small 10 mtt session. What I do know is that I want a minimum of 400 mtts played in a month. Right now I’m 49 mtts behind where I need to be. I’m getting to the point where 8 tabling isn’t much of a problem and I might start 9 tabling by the end of the week. That should help with my volume.

I fell short of my cardio and weight lifting goals. I managed only 3 weight lifting sessions and 2 cardio sessions where I was shooting for 4 and 3. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Some girl just messaged me asking if I Went to “the review class on Wednesday?”

Crap.

Apparently I have a midterm tomorrow morning at 9:45. I have not gone to this class since the day of the last midterm that I wrote for it, so I know literally nothing that’s on this test at this point. Naturally I went and got a glass of water, helped my roommates create a facebook page for a party that we’re having at my house this weekend, and then came downstairs to update my blog, since I haven’t done that in a while.

On the poker front, I had a pretty frustrating Sunday, pretty much bricking everything. I haven’t really been playing a ton over the last 2 weeks or so. I get in these moods every now and then where I won’t play much for a little while, then I’ll brick a Sunday and get a “Oh HELL no” attitude and just grind my face off for 2 weeks straight, only stopping to sleep and get drunk.

Unrelated news- clogged the toilet this afternoon. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]